# ffd elites help



## huntnfishn1 (Feb 8, 2009)

i am looking at buying ffd elite canada goose decoys both honker and lesser and have heard both good and bad things. some say the paint and flocking is not very durable. but at the same time thay look real good. I always keep my decs in slotted bags. if anyone has experience with them please tell me something


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## hunt4P&amp;Y (Sep 23, 2004)

If you are going to keep them in Bags you should be happy. It is when you don't want to mess with bags, and so on that they will really show wear.

I personally said screw bags and sold all of my avery's. It gets old putting everything in bags.


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## Andrew Bremseth (Aug 1, 2007)

You definatly can't treat them like bigfoots but with any caution at all, you will be okay. You will definatly want to store them in 6 slot bags (which they all come with now) but if you are truly worried about it run out and buy old pillow cases and throw each decoy into a pillow case, then into the bag. It will obviously take more time and be more work but if you want to keep them nice you may want to consider it.


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## Blue Plate (Jul 31, 2006)

I hated bagging mine after every hunt. The whole bagging process adds so much more it each hunt it's not worth.


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## cgreeny (Apr 21, 2004)

If you wrap them in bags and cover them you will be fine, but it gets to be a long process when you have to bag up 6 dozen decoys after every hunt, so it makes a guy not want to bag it up.


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## Horker23 (Mar 2, 2006)

yea bagging is a pain in the butt. But if you want to save them its worth the time!


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## Green head down (Jan 6, 2005)

A friend of mine has some and double bags them and after one season they are showing some preaty good wear on the backs of the decoys and heads. I also had some of the FFd honker and sold them, don't do it.


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## Save Hens (Mar 15, 2008)

Bag em'. works great and you can stack them in your truck or trailer


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## sdgoosekiller (Mar 26, 2008)

we have about 8 doz FFD's all bagged and new this year, no signs of wear as long as you take them out of the back and set them on the steak and put them back in the bag right off the steak. dont pile them up. It really isnt that hard. It take just as long to set them up as it did to set up 15 doz silo's


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## Jungda99 (Nov 17, 2006)

I wouldn't buy anything but FFD's

They are the ultimate decoy. I am not a "cool aid" drinker!!

This early season we had a slight mist just before sun-up. The first few flocks were flaring. We finally got out of the blinds an realized all of the Bigfoots were shineing like mirrors. The ffd's look perfect!!

I only put mine in the bags they came with. They are holding up fine. A little bit of wear on the tails where they rub between the trailer floor and the bag but if you walk about 10' away you can't even tell. If the geese are close enough to see a few nicks in the flocking they are dead!!

It really doens't take that much longer to take care of them. I can set up and take down my 2.5 dozen FFD's in the same amount of time it takes my 2 buddies to set up our other 40 bigfoots.

If we have to walk into the feild the FFDs are actually faster to set up. I can carry a dozen or more FFDs in bags while you can only carry about 8 bigfoots at a time.


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## Buck25 (Mar 27, 2008)

> It really doens't take that much longer to take care of them. I can set up and take down my 2.5 dozen FFD's in the same amount of time it takes my 2 buddies to set up our other 40 bigfoots.


I would like to see that 
You must be a very very efficient decoy setter!


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## Jungda99 (Nov 17, 2006)

Buck25 said:


> > It really doens't take that much longer to take care of them. I can set up and take down my 2.5 dozen FFD's in the same amount of time it takes my 2 buddies to set up our other 40 bigfoots.
> 
> 
> I would like to see that
> You must be a very very efficient decoy setter!


Once you get in a routine with your same hunting crew it really goes quick. We all have the same jobs everytime we go. I am the only one that touches the FFDs I don't want them laying in the mud or put in the bags the wrong way ect. I bought them on my own so I take care of them. The bigfoots we all bought together so I don't care about those as much.

We always have the FFD's closest to the landing zone so I don't have to walk around as much as them which is prolly why I can do it in the same amount of time as them.

What is so hard about it? The heads are all attached. You stab the stake in the ground and put the decoy on it. The only extra step is putting the stake in the ground and I can do that in about 1 second.


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## Blue Plate (Jul 31, 2006)

The biggest pain I found were those stupid bags. They were 2X too big for the decoy. One FFD would slop around making it difficult to deal with. I could almost fit 2 dozen FFD's - mix of feeders and actives in on 6 slot bag.

Personally, I now hunt over Real Geese pro grade II's. They work just as well as full bodies and the other benefits are many.


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## USAlx50 (Nov 30, 2004)

Jungda99 said:


> It really doens't take that much longer to take care of them. I can set up and take down my 2.5 dozen FFD's in the same amount of time it takes my 2 buddies to set up our other 40 bigfoots.


What are you doing with the bigfoots? Taking heads and feet off? I know that I can set up BF's 2 to 1 for bagged and motion system GHG's. Even faster with Dakotas because you can carry more at a time.


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## Jungda99 (Nov 17, 2006)

USAlx50 said:


> Jungda99 said:
> 
> 
> > It really doens't take that much longer to take care of them. I can set up and take down my 2.5 dozen FFD's in the same amount of time it takes my 2 buddies to set up our other 40 bigfoots.
> ...


You can prolly piss twice as far as me too...you can build a lot more preassure when you only have a pin hole! :lol: :lol:

Do you set up all of your bigfoots up in a 5' circle? When loading your own arms with bigfoots you can only carry about 6. So by the time you carry 6 out to the edge of the spread and set them up in little family groups and walk back to grab 6 more I already have 12 carried out where I want them. I walk 1/2 as much as someone setting bigfoots so the extra time it takes putting in stakes ect is a wash because I have to make 1/2 as many trips.

When you have 5lbs of mud stuck to your boots 1/2 as many trips is a HUGE!!

I carry 12 out. set out one bag as a family group walk 5 yards and set out another family group. Walk back grab 12 more and repeat. Its not rocket science.

Now if you had all of your bigfoots in 6 slot bags that would be the cats pajamas because you could carry 12 at a time. But if you are going to buy bags for your bigfoots you might as well just buy FFD's becasue they come with bags and are better in all weather conditions..BAR NONE (well I have never hunted over DSDs so that may not be completly true)

Picking up it does take longer with the FFD's because I want them to last. We are never in a hurry anyway. Not much of a person to speed back to town to the local cafe to be the first one with a limit.

you can form your own opinion. I have never taken a stop watch out in the field to see who can set up their 1/3 of the spread faster because I really don't give a crap.

I give a guy my honest opinion and some yahoos come on here and throw the BS flag without thinking if it really matters or not if you think I can set up FFDs fast.


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## Traxion (Apr 16, 2004)

Bag them and baby them and they will be OK. I would never deal with the PITA that double bagging and babying them is but each to their own. They do look nice and the flocking can be good in certain situations but they don't do it for me.


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## Buck25 (Mar 27, 2008)

Haha yeah i'm sorry this is a stupid thing to argue about. Its just a matter of opinion i guess. I do realize that it doesn't take THAT long to set up FFD's in bags but the way my crue usually hunts we like the foots because we open the trailer and literally throw them out and they really do set up fast. 
I don't think ffd's are bad decoys i just like to not have to deal with bagging deks. But even if bags were not involved its still gonna take longer to set dekes with stakes then with fixed feet.


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## sdgoosekiller (Mar 26, 2008)

Blue Plate said:


> The biggest pain I found were those stupid bags. They were 2X too big for the decoy. One FFD would slop around making it difficult to deal with. I could almost fit 2 dozen FFD's - mix of feeders and actives in on 6 slot bag.
> 
> Personally, I now hunt over Real Geese pro grade II's. They work just as well as full bodies and the other benefits are many.


sounds like you need the right bags. there are 3 different sizes boss. we dont have a problem with any of our bags.


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## Jungda99 (Nov 17, 2006)

sdgoosekiller said:


> Blue Plate said:
> 
> 
> > The biggest pain I found were those stupid bags. They were 2X too big for the decoy. One FFD would slop around making it difficult to deal with. I could almost fit 2 dozen FFD's - mix of feeders and actives in on 6 slot bag.
> ...


same with ours. No way I could fit more than one per slot


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## USAlx50 (Nov 30, 2004)

Jungda99 said:


> USAlx50 said:
> 
> 
> > Jungda99 said:
> ...


Obviously it doesn't matter if I believe you can set them up fast or not. This yahoo usually drives into fields.. (and if their wet we sometimes drive with an atv and AL trailer) Not sure how wide your spreads are but usually we drive to where the spread is and put out decoys, thus eliminating the need to walk any considerable distances with decoys.

Forgive me If I'm skeptical about you: loosening the cord on a 6 slot bag, taking the decoy out, putting the stake in the ground, lining the motion cone on the stake, picking up the 6 slot bag and stakes and walking to next decoy spot all as fast as it takes a guy to drop a decoy on the ground.

I don't care about being the first in the local cafe, but I do care about making it back to town in time for class or work. In reality, the picking up decoys is the annoying part. All the fun is done there is nothing to look forward to but cleaning birds. On top of that, shortage of sleep is usually starting to hit a guy.

BTW, when I piss it doesn't go very far but that stream is WIDE!


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## Myles J Flaten (Jan 31, 2008)

Lets have a decoy setup challenge! Winner gets the braging rights!haha


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## shooteminthelips (Jun 13, 2007)

Or we could not. Isnt amazing how many diffrent opinions there are out there.. That is what makes this site fun!


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## cut'em (Oct 23, 2004)

I run the ffd's and one thing that is a must You've got to take them out of the bags a couple times a season and wash the bags out. get the mud and crap out from the bases. Is this a pain You bet but it's a good time to look over all the dekes and wipe them down if needed.


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## pahunter22 (Dec 5, 2008)

From my experience with them, if you take care of them you shouldn't have a problem.


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