Fishing – trapping – and vermin destroying – Decoys
Reexamination Certificate
2001-01-09
2002-11-19
Jordan, Charles T. (Department: 3644)
Fishing, trapping, and vermin destroying
Decoys
Reexamination Certificate
active
06481147
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention concerns improved bird hunting decoys and supports for deployed decoys. A hunting decoy according to the invention, for example shaped and colored to represent a wild turkey, has a length-adjustable coupling between a decoy body and a ground support, for selecting a height of the body of the decoy clear of adjacent brush. The coupling is structured to permit free rotation over only a limited angular span around a vertical axis. This causes the body to face in different directions in changing wind without causing it to spin unnaturally. The decoy body can be hollow and flexibly collapsible, and the support can have a mechanical expander that holds the body in an inflated or expanded shape. The support for the body can have a flexible portion or link that allows a nodding movement in a fore and aft direction. The support also can be rigid but fixed flexibly at a point along the dorsal or back portion of the decoy body, and having a shaft that extends though a longitudinally elongated slot in the ventral or belly surface of the body, providing fore and aft clearance for the coupling member and/or ground stake. These arrangements permit the body to nod or bob forward and aft on the support.
The decoy as thereby structured can be deployed in a manner chosen to for the situation. The decoy has motion driven by external forces, specifically wind. The limited motion provides for a lifelike presentation that is more effective in attracting game than decoys having less natural motions such as motions without limitation on their span of displacement.
In one facing arrangement, a lateral pin interacts with a cam or stop surface to limit rotational freedom within a span not greater than 360 degrees. According to an alternative, the pin can interact with a cam defining a preferred facing direction. The structure facilitating nodding of the decoy body can comprise a directionally limited flexing structure, such as a flat spring strip, and this strip can be fixed in a receptacle to limit rotation, thus determining the direction of flexing or nodding. The flat strip can be oriented with its wider sides facing fore and aft and its narrower edges facing laterally of the body, which provides for a bobbing motion in the direction in which the strip is prone to flex. Using a rigid support stake or stand, the nodding is achieved by providing a degree of freedom between the body and the support.
BACKGROUND
Decoys are known in various shapes and colors to resemble specific animals, a familiar example being game birds. The decoys may be attractive to the corresponding species of game animal or to a different species, as a result of various instincts. These include (for example) social herding or similar safety-in-numbers instincts, predation or other expectation of finding food, opportunities for procreation, the urge to maintain territorial exclusivity, establishment of a place in a hierarchical pecking order, etc.
A decoy advantageously resembles a particular species accurately, at least as to attributes that a target species is inclined to notice. The decoy may be quite realistic, or may simply have critical attributes in common with the particular species it emulates, such as a comparable silhouette, color, movement, sound, odor, etc.
Decoys that appear realistic to humans are more popular among hunters than those that are obviously artificial. The target species may be prone to respond, positively or negatively, to the same aspects as humans, or possibly other aspects. Visually, many animals are highly sensitive to motion.
Visual mimicry is an important consideration, but not the only one. Decoys should be inexpensive to manufacture. The decoy should be compact or subject to packing in a manner that permits a hunter to carry a number of decoys into the field. The decoys should individually be very easy to deploy, quickly and silently, in any terrain that may be encountered, such as open grassland, woods or scrub vegetation.
It is an aspect of the present invention to make a decoy appear life-like because it exhibits a natural motion. The particular motion of the decoy can be as important to appearance as the shape and marking of the decoy body. This is particularly true of game animals such as turkeys, which are very sensitive to motion in their surroundings. The specifics of the motion matter. Unnatural motion can be at least as suspicious and/or unconvincing as a lack of any motion.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,531 describes a bird decoy with motion associated with the head and neck. The decoy body is stationary. A one-piece head-and-neck portion is mounted to the body so that the head and neck may tilt when sufficient wind prevails. The decoy is helpful in that it moves, but it is not representative of a live animal, whose motion is unlikely to involve displacement of an integrally rigid head and neck relative to a rigid stationary body, even when the animal is standing in place.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,515,637 discloses a decoy in which the decoy body is mounted on a vertical journal axis by bearings. The idea is for ambient breeze to rotate the body on the vertical journal axis without substantial frictional resistance. The journal axis advantageously is set precisely vertical. The weight of the decoy is advantageously balanced evenly on opposite sides of the axis. The mounting comprises a helical spring which enables the breeze to wobble the decoy in the incident direction of the breeze.
In a frictionless rotational mounting of such a type, it is possible that the decoy body may turn one way or the other on the vertical axis, due to wind or another impetus. Turning on a vertical axis may appear natural in some conditions and therefore could be interesting to a game animal. However the wind speed and direction must catch the decoy body just right. If the wind is not at the particular speed and oriented in the specific direction that produces the a convincing motion, the motion may be such that the decoy is caused to appear as an obvious fake. This problem is acute if there are several decoys deployed in a group. It might appear natural and interesting, for example, for decoys in a group occasionally to face in a new direction, for example as live animals in a group might face in unison toward the source of a sound. If decoys in a group rotate freely, a gust of wind could cause them to rotate in different directions and to continue beyond a full revolution. Such motion is mechanical and unrealistic.
If the rotation axis of a journal mounting is not at the center of mass, and the rotation axis is tilted relative to vertical, the decoy body will rotate preferentially to a stable rotational position at which the heaviest part of the decoy is at the lowest elevation. A gust of wind may act to rotate the body due to differences in surface area, for example exerting greater pressure on the thicker tail section than the thinner head section, causing a rotational force. This may rotationally displace the heaviest part of the decoy body from the angular position at which the heaviest part is at the lowest possible elevation. When the wind force subsides, the body tends to rotate back to the preferred orientation, because the heaviest part of the decoy body settles back at the preferred lowermost elevation. Typically, there is an associated rotational oscillation of a decreasing amplitude around the preferred rotational orientation, as the body settles back to the preferred orientation.
When deploying several decoys, particularly in a situation in which the decoys must be placed quickly and quietly before the hunter is spotted by the game, the hunter cannot take time to test and adjust the verticality of the rotation axes and the balance of the decoy bodies so as to face all the decoys in parallel or nearly parallel directions. Some of the ground stakes are likely to be set more near to vertical than others, which causes certain decoys in a group to be prone to rotate in the wind, while others do not. Even if care has been taken and the decoy bodies are all faced in parallel, balanc
Duane Morris LLP
Hayes Bret
Jordan Charles T.
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