Anyone use a bird thrower with dead birds or bumpers and feathers for off season training?

I don't have the ability to use live birds in the off season so I'm limited in off-season training/reenforcement. One thing I've considered recently is buying a bird thrower and using a couple of the frozen whole quail I have been saving, or some wings taped to a bumper. Placing the thrower somewhere as hidden as I can, letting my dog point it, trigger the thrower, play a shotgun sound through a bluetooth speaker, let the dog retrieve, and repeat.

I've never used a thrower, though, so I'm not sure how much of an actual throw I can expect or if this is remotely feasible in general.

Anyone done anything like this successfully, or have other ideas for simulating live bird training as much as possible?