I have a strutter decoy that has no beard. I don't have a fake one and can't bring myself to use one of my real ones on a decoy where it could get ruined. Anyone have any suggestions of household items that would work in lieu of a real beard?
I have seen 1 or 2 of my friends make them for their strutters.
They went to an archery shop that had "cat whisker" string silencing material on a roll.
They bought several feet of material and cut it into pieces that were 10" long each. Then, the pieces were bound together at one end with some serving string and whip tied just like serving a peep into a bow string.
Then they had one end to hold while the material was stretched taught and cut so the whisker strands would seperate, they ended up with a "beard" about 8" long.
They then poked a small hole in the breast of the stutter in the appropriate spot and pushed the tied end of the beard thru and secured with a small dab of plumbers goop.
Worked like a charm, and it's life-like as all get out.
+1 to the above post. I bought a Jake decoy made by Hunters Specialties this year, and the beard resembles a shorter version of what is described in Bowbendr's post. Should work just fine!
A craft store that sells doll and toy animal parts should have packages of cat whiskers. Get a few packages and glue them on.
Garret
If you can't find anything to suit you, let me know and I'll send you a real one.
Ive used regular black trotline string.just put several pieces cut to desired length together with black tape or glue and slide it thru the beard hole on the decoy.Im not sure birds pay a lot of attention to the beard as much as they do the decoys body posture.just my .02.
I took some black braided rope and just unbraided it. Looks good for me but it's only a jake so it can kinda look kinky.
Kind of a redneck idea but it worked for me so thought I'd throw it out there.
Horse or cow tail hair if your anywhere near farm country.
Thanks for all the ideas. I'll give some of them a try. Like the tared line idea. Pretty sure I have some of that around. Used the decoy last year without the beard with no problems and I seriously doubt it makes a difference, but this year I figued why not.
Thanks