MOJO vs Lucky Duck: Which Motion Decoy to Buy

The short version

MOJO and Lucky Duck are the two brands most hunters are actually choosing between, and on the spec sheets the split is simple: Lucky Duck sells a power system, MOJO sells a mechanism. Lucky Duck publishes a battery, a charger, a runtime figure and a warranty term on its products. MOJO publishes how the decoy is built — a solid component housing tying motor, wings and pole together, a flexible skin, a removable housing — and leaves the batteries to you.

One disclosure before the detail: MOJO sells a much wider spinning-wing line than we stock, and this site only ranks products it can verify as currently sold with specs published by the maker. The MOJO decoy in our registry is the Elite Series Mini Mallard Drake, which is the compact model, and it is compared here against the two Lucky Duck motion decoys we carry. If you are shopping the full-size MOJO models, the spec logic below still applies — check the battery format, the runtime figure, the stake and the warranty page before you buy.

Batteries and runtime

This is the spec that decides whether a motion decoy is a tool or a chore, and the two brands answer it differently.

Lucky Duck puts the power system in the box. The Lucky HD ships with a 6V rechargeable pack (6V4aH) and a smart charger, has an external charging port so you do not open the body to charge it, and Lucky Duck publishes 18-plus hours of runtime. For a hunter who runs a spinner every morning of a long season, that is the difference between charging on Sunday night and buying AAs at a gas station in the dark.

MOJO's Elite Series Mini Mallard runs on four AA batteries in a drop-in holder, not included. The upside is real: AAs are available anywhere, the decoy is lighter without a lead-acid or lithium pack, and a dead decoy is fixed in thirty seconds by swapping cells rather than ending the hunt. The downside is recurring cost and a runtime figure MOJO does not publish, which means you are guessing at how long the decoy will spin in the cold — and alkaline cells lose capacity as temperature drops.

If you hunt a handful of mornings a season, AAs are fine and probably cheaper overall. If you hunt sixty mornings, a rechargeable pack with a published runtime pays for itself in batteries alone.

Remotes, and why they matter now

Both of the spinners here are remote-capable and neither includes the remote. Lucky Duck describes the Lucky HD as remote-kit ready; MOJO describes the Elite Series Mini Mallard as remote compatible, remote sold separately. Budget for it as part of the purchase rather than as an accessory, because a remote is the single feature that changes how a spinner hunts.

The reason is pressure. Birds that have been shot at over spinning wings for two months will often slide off a spread with a spinner running and commit to the same spread with it off, and the only way to use that is to kill the motor while they are working. A remote also lets you run the wings to pull birds from a distance and shut them down inside sixty yards, which is the standard late-season routine. Without a remote you are choosing once, at setup, for the whole flight.

Spinning-wing decoys are also the most heavily regulated decoy category in waterfowl hunting: a number of states and provinces restrict or prohibit them outright, and some restrict them by date or by species season. Those rules change, they are set by your state agency rather than federally, and we do not reprint them from memory. Check your own state's current regulations before you hunt one, the same way you would for electronic calls — see are electronic duck and goose calls legal for how the federal and state layers fit together.

The other kind of motion

The third decoy here is not a spinner and is worth understanding before you spend money on one more set of wings. The Lucky Duck Lucky HDi Agitator 2.0 is a duck-butt decoy that throws water the way an aggressive feeding mallard does, and flipping the exhaust tube turns the spray into a wobble instead. It publishes a 12V lithium-ion pack (11.1V/4000mAh) with charger included, 6 to 8 hours of runtime, a sealed waterproof battery module with an internal charging port, and no remote capability.

Ripple is the motion birds never get educated to, because it is what live ducks actually do all day. Spinning wings are visible from a long way off and pull birds in; water motion is what keeps them coming the last forty yards, and on days when the spinner is the problem it is the motion you want running. The shorter runtime is the trade, and 6 to 8 hours is still a full morning.

The cheapest version of the same effect is a jerk rig, which needs no batteries and is legal everywhere a decoy is — see best jerk rigs. The full motion field, spinners and water movers together, is ranked in best motion decoys.

Which to buy

Buy the Lucky Duck Lucky HD as a first spinner, or as the spinner you want to stop thinking about: rechargeable pack and charger included, a published runtime long enough for a weekend, a 42-inch three-piece stake that gets the wings above cattails, and a 1-year warranty. Add the remote kit at the same time.

Buy the MOJO Elite Series Mini Mallard if weight and simplicity win: no pack to charge, no proprietary battery to replace in three years, a housing that lifts off the body for transport, and AAs you can buy anywhere. It is the better decoy to walk a long way with and the better decoy to own if you hunt a dozen mornings a year.

Buy the HDi Agitator instead of either one if your birds are already educated to spinning wings, or in addition to one if you hunt late season on small water, because ripple and spray are the motion that still works in January. Then put the whole thing together with how to build a duck decoy spread, and check your state's rules on motorized decoys first.