John aka JACDUCK began carving decoys in 1965 because he couldn’t afford the pressed paper Victors at 13.95 a dozen. 2” lumber cutout on a meat saw were his 1st and apparently they were okay because someone stole them after breaking into his locked coffinbox blind also self-made from plans in one of the outdoor magazines so popular at the time.
Skip a few years and I came in possession of much nicer carvings from a gentleman on Fish Point who was leaving duck hunting because of health reasons. Those decoys were an ongoing inspiration and 20 years or so ago John began carving hunting decoys as a serious hobby. The internet was new and small and John did well, now having decoys in 45 states and 3 countries
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JACDUCK has competed at many levels in contests across the country just to see where he stood with his product. Many ribbons hang around the paint shack to show him positive results. Not a decorative carver, although he has done some, most of his decoys are in rigs. A few miscreants have them on display, mainly because of wives demanding the decoy presence as house decorations. Ahrrgh! Such a miserable life for a hunting decoy!
I sure enjoy working with cork bodied decoys and love the way they look on the water be it large or small. The corkers are mainly painted in a special acrylic paint designed for decoys and are WYSIWG. I also fill orders for hollow cedar decoys which mostly are painted in artist oils. Artists oils grow a patina much like grand paintings and continue to change over many years.
I love them All and each decoy is special with head position and body shapes happening while in the hand and not by grand plan so each decoy is unique both in carving and painting.
A final say. If I have purchased a cork decoy from say LL Bean back when I started instead of the many dozen paper and plastics I would have spent the same amount of my hard earned cash and still have the decoys. Paper and plastics and long gone and forgotten…..
Don’t forget to email JACDUCKS today or