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Decoy Fitted With "Tail Flipper"
Bob Sampson, Petersburg, Ill., modified a plastic deer decoy so he can switch its tail by remote control from his deer hunting stand.
"Nothing attracts one deer to another deer like motion," says Sampson, who uses the decoy for bow hunting.
He replaced the decoy's original tail with a real one. Th
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Decoy Fitted With "Tail Flipper" MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT Miscellaneous 26-5-44 Bob Sampson, Petersburg, Ill., modified a plastic deer decoy so he can switch its tail by remote control from his deer hunting stand.
"Nothing attracts one deer to another deer like motion," says Sampson, who uses the decoy for bow hunting.
He replaced the decoy's original tail with a real one. The tail is glued to a 1/4-in. dia. steel shaft that's connected to a solenoid valve. A push button airplane controller is used to activate the solenoid. The tail rotates clockwise and will swing from 9 to 3 o' clock. Works from up to 200 ft. away. Four 6-volt batteries are in a battery pack inside the deer.
"It works good and didn't cost a lot to put together. My brother-in-law, who is a retired engineer, built it," says Sampson. "I paid $90 for the deer and less than $200 for the electronic components.
"It works a lot better than just using a stationary decoy, because if a deer stares at another deer long enough and doesn't see any movement he gets very suspicious. There are commercial tail waggers that are designed to attach to a deer decoy and operate on a timer. However, a tail that wags at regular intervals isn't natural. Another problem is that the tail wags exactly the same every time, which also isn't natural. I've had deer come right up to my decoy and smell it.
"The wagging tail works well when combined with rattling antlers. Deer often get suspicious when they hear antlers being rattled together, but if they can see a life-like deer they will normally come in."
For transport, the deer's head and legs come off and fit into the hollow body, along with the battery pack and push button remote.
Sampson made a couple of other modifications to the deer that make it look more realistic. He hung a piece of white cloth from each ear so that when the wind blows it looks like the deer is flipping its ears. He also made life-like new eyes for the deer out of pieces of plastic Coke bottles.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Bob Sampson, Rt. 3, Box 115, Petersburg, Ill. 62675 (ph 217 632-2016; E-mail: rrsampson@mail.com).
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