WINDUK The best Wind Driven Decoy Available
By Tom Walker
Webmaster- TXDoveHunt
It has been over a year since I opened the box on my very first WINDUK decoy. While pursuing my favorite hunting gear catalog, I saw a picture of a very unique looking decoy that seemed too simple looking to be affective. After years of using battery driven motion decoys with great success, I found this decoy design intriguing for a number of reasons.
Both WINDUK decoy models will exceed your expectations on numerous occasions. As a fellow hunter, I’m sure you know how rugged hunting gear must be to actually last through one year of abuse. Our approach was to go even further and use these products with our hunting clients while in the field.
Currently there are two different WINDUK decoys available. The Original Model as photographed in the first three pictures, and the newer “Guides Choice” model pictured below. As a North Texas hunting guide, any decoy that helps maximize your client’s experience, is very valuable. With so many different nature related factors controlling a hunting experience, it can be frustrating to spend an afternoon with no action. And Duck hunting is well known for everything from numerous laws and regulations, to special skills required to call, identify, and harvest these majestic game resources.
WINDUK is manufactured in Godfrey Illinois by fellow hunters that still value the old “Made in America” credo. The entire decoy is manufactured in the United States. Winduk’s strong belief and commitment to made in America products is more than a marketing slogan. It is a foundation of their success and innovative decoys.
To be perfectly honest, I knew the WINDUK, wind driven motion decoy would most likely work from years of experience with Battery drive mechanical decoys.
However, my greatest frustration with those types of decoy was that they just seemed to always come a part in the field or require too much set-up effort. A key advantage this product design theory is called the KISS design. It stands for keep it simple stupid. These simple looking silhouette motion decoys are very effective on ducks when you have at least a five mile per hour natural wind.
The WINDUK was created to be an addition to your existing traditional floating decoy spread. While in use, it gives your whole decoy spread more movement. Meaning, when ducks see the spinning wing action, they often come closer and more interested in your entire decoy set. We found the most effective set-up to be at least two WINDUKS in combination with traditional floater decoys. Last year I hunted a few stock tanks with only six to ten floater decoys and one WD. When fewer decoys are needed, the WD really comes through as an easy “set and forget” motion decoy. It is very lightweight and portable in even the worst Duck Hunting conditions. No batteries to charge or tote with all your hunting gear is another benefit. We were very impressed with last years WINDUK decoy, that we also enjoyed promoting it through the entire off season. It was neat to see hunters as well as non hunters react to the decoy. Many positive comments we offered by people that liked decorator type weather veins. And why not, it sure looks better than most...
The 25 mile per hour wind rule is a good guideline, but I did test it. While mounted on top of our Duck buggy, I did notice the wings stopped spinning after any speed over 40 miles per hour. This spectacle sure made for some interesting looks by local ranch hands, while I was testing. The major confusion occurred when I told a ranch hand, that this is how we hunted ducks all last year.
When the folks at WINDUK told me they were working on a new improved design, I thought to myself, what for? A side from increasing the angle of elevation on the decoy silhouette, what could make it better? How about a photo finish, smaller wings and a more lively motion affect? Just the improvements needed to take this decoy design to another level of excellence. And they work great in the field. The new silhouette design appears to react to wind direction changes a bit quicker. When is the last time you had a weather vain type decoy in your spread that displayed wind direction changes?
Overall, we enjoyed seeing our hunting clients take an interest in all of our product vendors gear. If this gear is chosen carefully, and it helps add a comfort, safety or fun factor to hunting, we like to review it. My personal favorite was when a client would say after hunting, “I did not think that thing could work, but wow, where can you buy those again?” That simple question along, with a genuine enthusiasm and post hunt glow, made all the extra work, stress, and planning it takes to service hunters disappear. Have a safe and memorable Duck
Season this year and please continue supporting our Precious American Hunting Heritage. web page
