Mallard Decoys
Mallard decoys are the spread. Everything else you put on the water is a supporting argument. The choice that actually matters is not the brand on the keel, it is whether you need floaters or field bodies, how big those bodies have to be for the water you hunt, and what the birds are doing in the month you are hunting them. This collection sorts by exactly that.
Build the rest of the spread
- All duck decoys for teal, divers, gadwall, pintail and wood ducks
- Motion and spinning wing decoys
- Silhouette decoys when weight and pack size decide the hunt
- Decoy weights and rigging for line, anchors, crimps and stakes
- Goose decoys
- Duck calls and waterfowl blinds
- Missouri duck season dates by zone
Size is the first decision, not the last
Higdon builds mallards in three sizes and the gap between them changes how you hunt.
The Standard runs around 13.9 inches. It is the size most spreads are actually built from, because you can carry three dozen of them without resenting the walk and the paint punches well above what you pay. Twelve in a box is the honest way to buy them, and on most public water numbers beat size.
The Magnum is 19 inches, foam-filled with a weighted keel. It is the size most hunters end up settling on. Big enough to carry across a flooded field, small enough that two dozen still fit a bag you can lift.
The Battleship is nearly 21 inches beak to tail, foam-filled with a forward-weighted keel, and it rides high enough to read from the far end of a flooded field. When you are hunting big water or trying to be seen from a long way off with a small spread, this is what does it.
The Legacy Magnum is the version with the family name on it. Mark Higdon hand-carved the first Higdon magnum mallard in 1994, and thirty years of revisions later this is the one the company signed. Foam-filled body, forward-weighted keel that rigs without a fight.
Posture packs, and why they beat a box of clones
Avian-X sells mallards by what the birds are doing rather than by size alone, which is a more useful way to shop once your spread is big enough to have gaps in it.
The Fusion Pack gives you six birds in six different poses, mixing feeders, swimmers and high-head birds so the water reads as a relaxed flock instead of a row of identical decoys.
The Open Water Pack is built for water that rolls decoys and leaves them sideways. High-head and low-head mallards on a weight-forward swim keel that rights them and swims them in current.
The Backwater Pack leans entirely on feeding postures, the dabbling and tipping that says the food is here and nobody is worried. In flooded timber and shallow backwater the birds land close and inspect everything, and that is the only argument that holds up at fifteen yards.
The Rester/Preener Pack is six mallards doing nothing at all: sleepers, preeners and turn-head resters, carved slightly oversized so the calm reads from the air. A sleeping duck is the strongest confidence signal in the marsh, because nothing dozes next to danger.
The Early Season Pack solves a problem most spreads ignore. In October a drake mallard is still in eclipse, patchy and drab, and a spread full of glossy green heads reads as wrong to birds that have not seen a full plumage drake yet. This pack captures early plumage.
Field mallards
When the birds are feeding in stubble, floaters do nothing for you.
The Magnum Full-Body six pack is a variety pack with flocked heads across multiple postures, so the group reads as feeding rather than staged, and the flocking kills the glare that gives plastic away in low sun.
The Avian-X AXP Full Body pack was designed by Rick Johannsen on wind-activated motion stakes, painted for contrast so the birds carry across a stubble field, and it ships with a six-slot bag.
The Magnum Full-Form Shell gives you most of the visual presence of a full body at a fraction of the packed volume. On a walk-in field hunt, where every trip back to the truck costs legal light, that trade is usually worth making.
Butts, feeders and finishing touches
A spread of heads all facing the same way looks like what it is. Feeder butts fix that by telling a circling bird the ducks below are eating and unbothered. The Magnum Duck Butt comes two to a pack, sized to the magnum line. The Ringer is a drake butt that rings and kicks on AA batteries, which is a small and cheap way to add feeding motion without another 12-volt system to charge and haul.
Flapping decoys for pressured water
The Clone flaps rather than spins, with a wing motion developed to mimic a bird landing instead of a bird advertising. On water where spinners have stopped working, a flapper is often what still does. Running the drake and the hen together gives the spread two different profiles working at once instead of a mirrored pair. For spinners, pulsators and swimmers, see the motion decoy collection.
Frequently asked questions
How many mallard decoys do you actually need?
Small water and flooded timber can be hunted with six to a dozen, and often should be, because birds landing at fifteen yards inspect every decoy. Open water and big fields want two to six dozen so the spread is visible at distance. More decoys stop helping the moment you cannot keep them all looking right.
What is the difference between standard and magnum decoys?
Roughly five inches of body length and a lot of bag space. Standards run around 13.9 inches, magnums 19, and the Battleship nearly 21. Bigger decoys are seen from further away, smaller decoys let you put more bodies on the water for the same money and the same walk.
Do you need both drakes and hens?
Yes. A spread of all drakes reads wrong, and hens are what makes the group look like a flock rather than a display. Most six packs here arrive already mixed.
Weighted keel or water keel?
A weighted keel self-rights and holds position in current and wind, which is what you want on open water and moving water. A water keel packs flatter and is fine on protected sloughs and timber holes. The Higdon magnums and Battleships here use a forward-weighted keel.
Do flocked heads matter?
They matter most in bright sun and on late-season birds. Flocking absorbs light instead of reflecting it, so a flocked head does not flash when the sun comes over the trees. On overcast days the difference is small.
How do you rig a mallard spread in current?
Heavier weights, shorter line than you think, and decoys set so the current holds them where you want them rather than fighting it. The rigging collection carries the weights, anchor line, crimps and Texas rig hardware for it.
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