When it comes to duck hunting gear there are many different options to choose from. How do you know where to begin? For this review, let’s take a look at motion in the spread. 

If you are more of a river hunter, you will let the current of the water move your decoys around. But what if you are hunting a refuge lake on a cool morning, and you have no wind to help move your decoys? You can always go to the old trusty mojo decoy that every duck migrating south for a second season has seen and knows to stay away from, or you can think outside of the box.

Recently, I had the pleasure of testing out what I think is a huge game-changer in the duck hunting world. It’s a couple of products from The Real DeCoy company. 

First off I want to say that working with them on a customer service level is superior to most. Any questions I had was quickly answered, and I walked away from the conversation satisfied that all my questions and concerns were answered.

Let’s get to the product, shall we?

I was able to hunt over the X-Pack Lite. With this pack, you get the natural swimmer, the natural flutter, and a six (6) pack of light and lethal decoys.

Let’s break it down to each part of this pack.

The Natural Swimmer is what I consider a very unconventional decoy. The detail is on par with all the major decoy brands, but where this stands out from the crowd is the motion it adds to your spread.

I will admit I was a little skeptical about it when I first took a look at it. My first time out with this was a pretty good test run. The water was like a sheet of glass, and with standard decoys, there is no way I could expect a duck to come near me. We were in business after putting in the two (2) D cell batteries. I turned it on a few minutes before shooting hours and let it do its thing.

For the first four hours, it was running strong, but after that, it started to slow down a little bit. For the entire hunt, it was doing its thing, swimming around in a large circle just like you would see real ducks doing in a group. After the first hunt with this, I quickly realized that I need a swivel system for the anchor line. This decoy swims in a circle motion and after 4 hours of swimming in a circle, my 10-foot long anchor line was twisted into a 3-foot line.

The Natural Flutter definitely didn’t disappoint either. This one runs on a single D cell battery, and I have yet to find the end of the life of this one. So far it has been running for about 10 hours. The ripple effect from this decoy is AMAZING compared to similar ones on the market. I put a few standard decoys around this and the water ripples were enough to create movement in the stationary decoys as well.

The six (6) pack of light and lethal decoys are the icings on the cake. They are just like the name says, extremely lightweight and so life-like that you don’t have to do much work to get the birds in.

You get four (4) drakes and two (2) hens. The drakes come in two (2) different poses, and even the hens are different as well. All the drakes have flocked heads, adding to the great look and effectiveness of these decoys. Each decoy is extremely lightweight, and it’s appreciated by those of us that have a long pack into the blind. Every little bit of weight you can shed off will help you at the end of the day when you have to carry everything back out, especially when you have a limit of birds in tow as well.

I really wanted to put these things to the test, so I changed up what I personally do for a hunt. I left everything else at home, except a few wigeon decoys to line the edges. I also stayed away from running the calls as much. I wanted to see just what these decoys could do in a real hunt.

I was not only surprised, but I was also thoroughly impressed. Once the ducks saw the spread the motion did all the work, and I could just sit back and wait to pull the trigger. The natural swimmer is what appeared to get the most attention, as the ducks would circle to land on that side of the spread. The birds had no problem landing with the natural flutter either, in fact, I had a few mallards swim into the spread and hang out with the natural flutter.

Our main goal is to make our decoy spread look as much like a raft of real ducks as possible. With that being said these decoys will be a great addition to any spread out there.

Make sure to check with your states fish and game department to ensure you can legally use these while hunting. I highly recommend these products to anyone that loves hunting ducks. Retail price on the X-pack lite is under $200, and worth every penny. The Hunt Bums crew uses The Real DeCOY products, and so should you!

For more information or to order your own set, go to therealdecoy.com 

About The Author

Jason isn’t just a writer for Hunt Bums. He is also a safety trainer for the largest roofing distributor in the country, as well as owner/operator of Ackley Outdoors. Born and raised in the great state of Idaho he has plenty of opportunities to get out in the wild to enjoy hunting and fishing. His passion is hunting waterfowl, but he is no stranger to chasing deer, elk, turkey, or the occasional predator.

Jason resides in Nampa, ID with his wife, two children, and his Labrador Retriever Ackley.