Actually it all depends on what you prefer. I carve cork decoys for a living and I will be the first one to tell you that they are ok, but they are not the best for every situation. In fact to me cork is inferior to styrofoam and plastic. I would rather have custom styros than I would corks and I would rather have plastics as to custom styros.
There are two kind of cork..... Tan and Black.
Black cork is natural cork binded with natural binders, as well as rocks, sticks, and other trash. It is the first type of cork that was used for decoys. It can be made strong, but by nature most crumbles easy. Depending on the supplier most black cork has large voids in it.
Tan cork is cork that is grinded up and binded with synthetic materials. It tends to be heavier than the black cork and cleaner. It is stronger than the black and easier and cleaner to work with.
Cork has to be sealed or else it will soak up water, get heavy, and more than likely crack. Shot holes have to be repaired. You need to check for damage daily. Also you have to be careful with them..... these aren't plastics that you can just throw around, step on, abuse and expect them to last. They are fragile by nature.
Cork rides the water naturally. Of course so does pumice from a volcano, as does anything else that is natural. A rock can sink naturally, because it's from nature. The old saying, "Cork rides natural" was just a ploy when styros came along and folks were buying them instead of corks. It was a sales pitch, which is still very much alive today. You can throw a block of cork on the water and it is going to ride naturally. What happens though when you shape that block? You change it. What happens when you add a piece of wood to the top of it? You change it. What happens when you add weight to the bottom? You still change it. What about width of the decoy, chine of the decoy, and countless of other factors? All of this matters. A round bottom decoy will roll and skate much more than a decoy with a hard chine. Alot of factors go into making a decoy float properly. You don't just make a decoy and expect it to ride perfect.... you have to work on it to do this. Without alot of work styros ride great. Some plastics ride great as well straight out of the box. I can get any plastic to ride right just by adding weight to the keel.
Last year we hunted Lake Barkley in three foot swells. We had several corks, wooden, styros, and plastics from several different makers. Every single decoy by a different maker rode differently. It all has to do with construction of the decoy, and weight. I saw corks that rolled and skate and I saw some the held true..... but the same went for plastics.
There are very few cork makers that will just paint the natural cork for it to retain it's properties. Most makers now days slap the paint on really thick, use texturing paste and gesso, or texture the bird by other means. This takes away the dullness and feather-like properties from the cork. I use a non-skid type coating on my decoys, but then I add a thick layer of plastic type paint over the top of it. So with the thick layer of plastic paint, I now have plastic, instead of natural cork showing through. There are very few folks that make natural looking cork decoys now days. Taylor, Herter's, and L.L. Bean happen to be a few. Of course each makes them different with different materials for heads. Taylor uses styrofoam, Herter's uses hollow plastic, and L.L. Bean uses wood.
Any time you add something or take something away from something, you are changing the properties of it. What it be a bit of material, wooden head, styro head, weight, paint, gesso, texture, or anything else.
Depnding on the material used, decoys can be too heavy to carry, or too heavy to use even from a boat. Yep, even too heavy for a boat. Sometimes we have to run 15 miles up river with 4 dozen or more decoys, and three people all being pushed by a 25 HP motor. You can sure run alot faster with 48 plastics than you can 48 corks. Yep, I guess I could get a bigger motor, but for most situations, the motor I have is perfect. I can also hual 200 plastics in a boat to where you wouldn't want to do that with corks..... safety would be a huge concern. Alot of times we walk into areas so corks are automatically out. Plastics are just better for the most part in my situation.
I went from 5 styros to 2 dozen plastics to well over 1000 plastics/milk jugs down to 500 styros down to 48 corks/custom styros/ 50 Y-boards up to 500 plastics...... soon to be 1000. I don't use 1000 decoys all of the time, but there are times that we need them....... easier to store them than need them and not have them.
Arkansas just ain't about timber and rice fields. We hunt all different kinds of water here... from big water, rivers, swamps, flood waters, and everything else. The only time the birds don't get a good look at our decoys for long periods of time is in the timber.
It all depends on what you want in a decoy. For me plastics is better. I use the most realistic plastics I can find. Corks are not the magic, solve all decoy..... in fact they are more of a pain to me.
Like anything else, try some corks and see if you like them. That's the ONLY WAY you will ever find out. :thumbsup:
