# Hunter Series fullbodies



## jmillercustoms (Dec 11, 2007)

I bought some hunter series fulbodies this weekend and I am not impressed with them at all, i was suprised and the amount of paint & flocking that was already nicked up right out of the box, I bought the six slot bags for them too so they would stay in good shape but i could just as well have thrown them in a normal decoy bag for the way the look, i was wondering if this was just a bad couple boxes of decoys or is the the norm, I understand that the hunter series are the lower end of GHG's linup but c'mon they still should look new out of the box!


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## honkerhitmen (Jan 20, 2008)

Dont worry you are not the only one that is not happy with them. We about 5 dz of them and i bet 20 of them dont have feet or the bases are broke off. When it gets 30 degrees the legs and bases shatter. I do like how they look but the just dont handle a bit of abuse. The only way to go is with ffds on motion stakes.


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## WingedShooter7 (Oct 28, 2005)

honkerhitmen said:


> Dont worry you are not the only one that is not happy with them. We about 5 dz of them and i bet 20 of them dont have feet or the bases are broke off. When it gets 30 degrees the legs and bases shatter. I do like how they look but the just dont handle a bit of abuse. The only way to go is with ffds on motion stakes.


The foot bases shatter? Are you serious, obviously that is wrong because the same Foot Bases, and feet, are used on the FFD's as on the Pro Grades and on the Hunter Series. If you are missing feet, call customer service, they can get you new ones. Although I do agree motion system is the way to go, I personally don't like the footbases because they were hard to get on but once there on there, there on there.

1-800-333-5119


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

All of Avery flocking and paint chips very easily. I have some Avery shells and the flocking come off after two hunts and the paint was chipping bad. I went back to the store I bought them from and the guy said thats what Avery products do. I have since quit using Avery dekes.


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## sdgoosekiller (Mar 26, 2008)

If you call Avery and send them a picture of the decoy and send your receipt or a copy of that in they will replace the decoys.


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## Leo Porcello (Jul 10, 2003)

I quite worrying about paint chipping off decoys. There is nothing you can do about it. I can just go to the store and buy more paint and repaint them. oke:


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## NDTerminator (Aug 20, 2003)

Yes, the paint chips off easily from Avery decoys and yes, the foot bases on the Hunter Series are made of a brittle plastic that breaks easily in cold temps.

BTW, good luck getting any customer service from Avery. They are by far, hands down, the worst of any business I've dealt with in my entire life. I won't even go into the several attempts I've made to get help, each & every one a complete fiasco.

I will mention this one. Another poster wrote how they will replace chipped decoys if you send them pictures. Don't believe that at face value. I had a dozen that the paint was coming off in less than a month. A month after I contacted what sounded to be a very bored & unconcerned Avery Customer Service employee and five sets of pictures later, they still weren't satisfied and refused to replace them. I offered to just ship them down to eyeball first hand, and they refused that too. They even went so far as to suggest I try to get a refund or return them to the place I bought them!!! The message, loud & clear was "tough luck, you aren't getting any satisfaction from Avery, you're on your own"...

I finally just gave them to a buddy's 12 year old son, as clearly Avery wasn't going to lift a finger to make this right.

The only attempt that was even close to successful was when I tried to buy some replacement feeder heads for some shells. Yes, the heads were delivered. 8 months later ( Iwas told it would take "a couple weeks") and the wrong ones (and I spoke with a guy on the phone so there would be no mistake) for the shells, but they did arrive...

For this reason I'll never buy another Avery product and am gradually replacing my Avery FBs with Dakota Decoy Extreme Honkers. The Dakotas are not only twice the decoy, but after communicating with the owner I have no doubt that if I need it, their customer service will be top shelf......


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## IOWAFOWLER (Nov 30, 2006)

You know everyone complains about Avery and how crappy there service is and how crappy there paint and flocking is. Which I agree 100%, then why doesn't everyone stop using them. Go with foots or get less dekes and go custom. Avery is mass producing China company that is ruining this country, along with all the other china based companies, (Yes I know Bigfoot is going there as well. Some day we will all pay or maybe our kids will pay for savings of a few dollars over sea's


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## POWteam (Aug 26, 2008)

Yet avery is the number one brand in NA. just goes to show you, marketing is a powerful tool my friends.


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## WingedShooter7 (Oct 28, 2005)

Avery is ruining the country, huh? I really don't think a decoy company has anything to do with how the country is right now


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## jmillercustoms (Dec 11, 2007)

Leo Porcello said:


> I quite worrying about paint chipping off decoys. There is nothing you can do about it. I can just go to the store and buy more paint and repaint them.


I sure hope you dont have to touch up those DSD's oke:

I will agree with IOWAFOWLER on the china deal, Avery isnt the only company doing it , hell even the dakota decoys are made over seas..(but they do look good) I dont think i will buy anymore Avery/GHG dekes, not after this dozen, do the FFD's hold up decent without babyin them? granted they are more money but i'd rather spend a little more and be satsified with them rather than dissapointed, i dunno i might look into Hardcores dont know much about em though, anybody on here run them? how about FA brand, I saw some of their "Last Pass" decoys on sale at sportsmans this winter and they looked like crap...same paint problem.....maybe i'm bein to picky


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## WingedShooter7 (Oct 28, 2005)

Here is the dealio,

Hunter Series have there own paint scheme
Pro Grades and FFD's use the paint scheme only difference is that the FFD's are obviously fully flocked, I can say my pro grades seem to be holding up better than my hunters, since I do not own any FFD's I can not tell you whether or not they hold up better.

Just my 2 cents


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

Lets just all quit using Avery products and use FA or bigfoot or Realgeese or Dakota


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## FowlBoysInc (Sep 14, 2006)

I have Avery,Dakota,Hardcore,and Bigfoots.The Bigfoots are the only ones I do not have to baby.I put a sock over the flocked head and throw them in the trailer. They have never seen a bag!! Do not notice any paint problems.They are at least 4 years old.Dakotas are 1 year old,paint is all scuffed up.Avery's very in age but were not babied until recently and are all scuffed up.Just got the Hardcores so do not know.But having to bag and double bag decoys sucks the fun out of hunting.My 2 cents is for Bigfoots.


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## USAlx50 (Nov 30, 2004)

I think you gayvery fans are just way to picky about the paint. Seriously, a scratch here and there isn't going to hurt anything. I have been just tossing hunter series avery's in a trailer or truck bed unbagged for three years and they paint gets beat up just the same as every other decoy (minus foots). They still kill birds.

Now the head connection tearing, the footbases shattering, trying to even get the footbases on (who's the moron who needed to make A and B footbases?) are definately issues. I think about half of my averys with reelfeet are broken.

BTW, the new FA lessers are sweet.


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## jmillercustoms (Dec 11, 2007)

Hey thanks for the input guys, somewhat new to this decoy thing, use to just do the old "sneak 'em on the pond" but now am tryin to hunt them using decoys, I also think it is a more enjoyable way to but enough about that issue, paint scuffs i wouldnt mind but i can actually take my fingernail to these and pull the paint off....


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## George Zahradka (Aug 27, 2008)

I'm sorry to hear that some of you had proplems with Avery decoys.....I have all FFD's hey are bagged after each hunt and they're holdin up very well....I think as long as you ''take care ''of them they will last you a long long time, how ever if you're one of these guys that throw um around kick them across the feilds drive over top of them NO ffd's Pro grades or hunter grades are the decoy for you......I hunt some of the heavest pressure geese around, itS NOTHING TO SEE 6 TO 10 RIGS IN 3/4 OF A MILE, the ffd's do make the differences.But you do need to take care of them after all they are fully flocked.

good hunting
gz


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## jmillercustoms (Dec 11, 2007)

george,

my plan was to take care of them thats why i spent the extra $90 and got bags for them, they were so f'd up out of the box that there was no point to it


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## George Zahradka (Aug 27, 2008)

did you get them from a nearby store or mail order..... if from a store take them back they should make them good.....Mail order I would call custermer service....see what they say i've never had to deal with them so i don't have an anwser for you ...sorry bout that.....


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## jmillercustoms (Dec 11, 2007)

.....but in reality by the time the geese realize there is paint missin off the decoy they should be dead on the ground right? :beer:


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## George Zahradka (Aug 27, 2008)

Just deppends on how bad there chipping , if its bad I would send them back. if you can live with it then i'd leave it at that


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## jmillercustoms (Dec 11, 2007)

I threw the boxes away like a [email protected] :roll:

i was sittin here thinkin about this, what if a product was available ( either by doing it yourself or somebody else) that you could spray over your new decoys that would protect the coloring of the decoy....i.e. take a ultra flat clear coating (paint) that will give a finely textured look like flocking does but would be extremely dureable.....i work for a paint company we have all kinds of coatings...including ones that can be sprayed on to make a texture...fine or heavy depending on what you want....i was thinkin if i could get this to texture fine enough so that it would mimic the look of flock by creating a very small uneven surface on the paint......and if it scratched i wouldn't matter at all cause it would be the clear getting scratched not expensive decoys.....any thoughts?


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## WingedShooter7 (Oct 28, 2005)

That's a really good idea, you might have something there.

BTW, if you have your receipt and can take pictures of the decoys Avery will replace them

But honestly we argue about decoys more than anything else on this site. I'm done arguing about decoys,

thank you


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## George Zahradka (Aug 27, 2008)

I would try a little at a time to see how it works.....We used to use a lot of vee boards back here for geese a few times we mixed sawdust and epoxy together to make it textured it worked great...


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## Leo Porcello (Jul 10, 2003)

jmillercustoms said:


> I sure hope you dont have to touch up those DSD's oke:


Once again for the very very very slowwwwwwww out there. I don't use DSDs.


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## Leo Porcello (Jul 10, 2003)

And yes even DSDs need touch up. Even more than Avery's I bet! :beer:


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## NDTerminator (Aug 20, 2003)

WingedShooter7 said:


> BTW, if you have your receipt and can take pictures of the decoys Avery will replace them
> 
> I'm done arguing about decoys,
> 
> thank you


Yeah right, on both points. You should change your handle to Avery Cheerleader.... 

To save a bunch of times & posts, thats' a joke...


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## POWteam (Aug 26, 2008)

jmillercustoms said:


> Leo Porcello said:
> 
> 
> > do the FFD's hold up decent without babyin them?


 No!

Put it this way, It takes me 5mins to wrap and double bag the lone two bull FFD's in our spread (and they still show wear). " Avery - practical" are oxymoron's. I can pile 30 BF's in the trailer in the same amount of time. And they still look good!

Let me tell you, we pound geese with those bf's. The moment someone offers me what I paid for the two ffd bulls is the moment I never see them again. There's simply no advantage to using them in my neck of the woods.

I laugh every time I read of someone contacting customer service due to a decoy. Not having to deal with that BS in it self solidifies my procurement decision to go with BF's. Hell, I don't even know if BF has a posted phone number lol.

Again, marketing can really suck people in. That's avery's No.1 mandate.


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## Leo Porcello (Jul 10, 2003)

How did my name get on that quote? I never asked that question.


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## WingedShooter7 (Oct 28, 2005)

NDTerminator said:


> WingedShooter7 said:
> 
> 
> > BTW, if you have your receipt and can take pictures of the decoys Avery will replace them
> ...


What?


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## Leo Porcello (Jul 10, 2003)

WingedShooter7 said:


> NDTerminator said:
> 
> 
> > WingedShooter7 said:
> ...


he is saying he is just jokin with you.


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## WingedShooter7 (Oct 28, 2005)

Oh alright haha, I was reading that during conservation before we started and I read it really fast


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## jmillercustoms (Dec 11, 2007)

sorry leo i thought you used DSD's, my bad


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## honker85 (Mar 12, 2008)

dont spend money on the bags just for the hunter series......atleast get the progrades......


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## prins (Sep 11, 2008)

hey for the FA's i think that they are about as bad as the GHG the legs break off if it is under 30 degres and the motion system is a little worse than GHG to but had no problem with flocking or paint


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## Leo Porcello (Jul 10, 2003)

jmillercustoms said:


> sorry leo i thought you used DSD's, my bad


I did for some of last season. Bad judgement on my part. Beautiful decoy but not for me. But like I mentioned above they require touch up and for the $$$ I don't think that can be justified. Now they sit in my garage waiting to be sold.

Hunted over FFDs this weekend and you could be a lot rougher with them compared to a DSD.


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## cutter08 (Sep 11, 2008)

I don't no about anyone else but I didn't have any problems killing 25 geese over 5dz hunter series this last weekend. I haven had any major problems with the paint ether but " I TAKE CARE OF MY DECOYS" They coast to much to just kick around.


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## wtrfowlhunter (Nov 22, 2005)

Leo what are you going ot run this year?


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## WingedShooter7 (Oct 28, 2005)

cutter08 said:


> I don't no about anyone else but I didn't have any problems killing 25 geese over 5dz hunter series this last weekend. I haven had any major problems with the paint ether but " I TAKE CARE OF MY DECOYS" They coast to much to just kick around.


Same, minus the 25 we got 8   :eyeroll:

Just make sure there not banging up against anything in the trailer, or if your 6 slots are tied with rope and they fall, YEAH that will take some flocking off. Thank god for hooks


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## IOWAFOWLER (Nov 30, 2006)

Wingshooter, I believe that a decoy company is whats wrong with this country along with all the other companies that go over sea's for there production. In the long run it will destroy us.

Avery is the biggest hunting company that does this, they produce oversea's for everything, then they have 80,000 gaystaffers that think they are the know it all's of the industry. I make it a point not to support them for this reason. I believe in you get what you pay for, so spend some money buy american and support this country. In my eyes your supporting communist over freedom


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## northdakotakid (May 12, 2004)

Bigfoots have held up very well for me... I have tried Avery and they just are not the decoy for me. They have improved portions of their product but there is still some room for improvement. I guess if they stood up to the abuse that Bigfoots did and had the fully flocked detail... they would have the market cornered.


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## USAlx50 (Nov 30, 2004)

wtrfowlhunter said:


> Leo what are you going ot run this year?


 :lol:


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## Webfoot Posse (Aug 26, 2008)

WingedShooter7 said:


> honkerhitmen said:
> 
> 
> > Dont worry you are not the only one that is not happy with them. We about 5 dz of them and i bet 20 of them dont have feet or the bases are broke off. When it gets 30 degrees the legs and bases shatter. I do like how they look but the just dont handle a bit of abuse. The only way to go is with ffds on motion stakes.
> ...


wow you field staff for avery what are you gonna say the paint on averys is **** we need to face the facts on that part


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## nowski10 (Jan 27, 2006)

NDTerminator said:


> The Dakotas are not only twice the decoy, but after communicating with the owner I have no doubt that if I need it, their customer service will be top shelf......


 VERY TRUE!!! Great Guy


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## Myles J Flaten (Jan 31, 2008)

Decoy talk talk talk never ends. :eyeroll:


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## honkerslayr (Dec 14, 2006)

We used 2 dozen avery's this last weekend and already noticed signs of where even when they were out of the box. Not really bad but I could tell that they will even get worse quick. But we also had 2 doz. hardcores also, the paint and flocking on them was very good and will hold up great, but I still think it's going to be hard to ever beat a wuality bigfoot.


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