Gosh bubba! Just tell everyone about our new secret weapon for divers. Ya the spinning wing was working good on the divers on the Bay. Everything from hen goldeneyes to a drake canvasback was shot over, around, and though it. You just have to remember one thing, the placement of a roto-wing decoy in your spread is very crucial. Make sure that where ever you put the spinner, it is IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to SHOOT it! Right bubba?
I've got a Tru-Motion Super Lucky Duck which has a few modifications. I've found it to be a good, dependable spinner. And its pretty easy to fix after someone blasts it. As long as they don't hit the vitals. It has metal plates on either side of the motor which help deflect errant shot, which is a nice feature. I think they are actually part of the motor mount, but they serve double duty. So if the spinner only takes a near miss, a little epoxy over the holes, some paint, and she is as good as new. Hopefully I won't find out what a direct hit does.
I have to agree with some here, a roto-wing decoy is great sometimes, but when its not you better get it back in the boat/blind quick. I have yet to figure out the conditions when and where it does or doesn't work though. Mine seems to work just as good on sunny days as on cloudy ones. I guess it has a lot to do with the ducks in the area at the time too.
I have made some modifications to mine which I think have made it a little more effective. Now its my turn to give up some 'secrets'. First I installed a Decoy Brain from DSR Productions in Texas. You can find them online. It costs about $36 after shipping. The unit is easy to install and can be put in a unit that all ready has a remote switch in it. It allows you to pre-set the on/off intervals of the spinning. I have mine set for 6sec on and 6sec off. This makes the battery last much longer too. I've gone 3 days of hunting without a recharge. Before it would die sometime during the last half of the second day. As they suggest on the DSR website I weighted the bottom side of the wings on mine to help make them stop in the correct position. Works at least 95% of the time. I might not have enough weight on mine to make it work ever single time. I went on the light side because I didn't want to take the chance of messing up the motor bearings due to the offset weights.
I also painted the front side of the wings on mine. I painted the top half a brown/gray color from a mallard decoy paint set and left the bottom half white. This looks better then the plain white. It makes the white show up better when the wings are spinning. The white shows up as a well defined flash now instead of just a blur. It is more pronounced. If you want to test this on yours, just cover the top half of one wing with some black electrical tape. Turn it on and step back. Then compare how the wing with the tape looks to the regular wing. If you like the half white one better, then break out some paint. I went with the brownish color because I thought it would look more natural when the wing stopped in the wrong position.
When I put it out around a spread I try to place it at least 20+ yards away from the boat/blind, off to one side of the intend line of approach. Then it draws the duck's attention to it and not us. Of course now I make sure it is no where close to any possible lines of fire. I try to put it upwind of the main decoy spread, and off to one side. This way even if it flares ducks when they get close to the spinner, they may fly close enough to us to get a shot. I also try to place 1 or 2 decoys around it. With the intermittent timer going I try to place it as close to the water as possible so it looks like a duck on the water, flapping its wings. Although that weekend on the Bay I only had the long pole with me and it ended up 3' above the water. Right in the line of fire for low flying divers.
I try to use my spinner more as an attention getting device rather then an attractant. Once it gets a duck's attention I rely on the decoy spread to bring them in close. Sometimes the spinner does both though. So even though I try to put it somewhere it can't get shot, I still want to be able to shoot birds that fly toward it.
Another thing that I've heard works good on the spinners is a remote on/off switch. Something about them spinning continuously that the birds don't like as much. The remote switch works fine if you see some birds way out and turn it on and off to get their attention. The problem is, what about the birds you didn't see. With the intermittent timer you don't have to worry about the ones you don't see. Every few seconds it will come on for a predetermined amount of time. If I had unlimited resources I would have bought, both the remote switch and the Decoy Brain. I don't, so I picked the decoy brain. Plus, at about $36 after shipping, I saved $20 from what the remote switch cost at Fleet Farm. That's one whole tank of gas for the boat, enough for at least two hunting trips.
Good Luck!