The kit that goes around the decoys rather than the decoys themselves - hide netting, pegs and stakes, decoy bags and motion systems. BushWear Stealth Net at 1.5 x 4m, Camo Systems netting at 3 x 1.8m, Jack Pyke pigeon netting sold by the metre off a bulk roll, the Jack Pyke Mega Mover pigeon decoy motion system, Bisley spare sprung stakes for shell decoys, Bisley drawstring and shoulder-strap decoy bags, and steel wire pegs from Mil-Com.
Building a hide that works
- Net breaks your outline; it does not hide you. Movement through the net is what flares birds. Build the hide deep enough that you can mount the gun without leaning into the front of it.
- Back the hide against something. A net with sky behind it is a silhouette. A hedge, a stack or standing crop behind you is worth more than any amount of camo pattern.
- Peg it properly. The wire pegs are there because a loose net in wind is the single most obvious thing in the field - and it will take the whole hide down at the worst moment.
- Motion is what sells the pattern. A static pattern gets read quickly on a busy field. A mover put in the landing area, not in the middle of the pattern, is what brings them the last twenty yards.
- Bag the decoys properly. Shell decoys crushed loose in a boot look wrong on the ground - a drawstring bag pays for itself in one season.
Note the page also carries a pair of Dog & Field Clone launcher dummies in snipe and partridge patterns, which are gundog training kit rather than decoying kit.
Decoys themselves are under Decoys; calls are in Calls & Lures. For corvid work see Vermin & Predator Control, and for cartridges Shotgun Cartridges.
