I've had them work and I've seen birds run the other way like they saw Bigfoot. More often than not decoys have a negative effect for me

Not sure why I done it but last year I set up a Jake decoy in the bushes like he was hiding. It worked and I killed my first Turkey with my 410 that day. And I was hunting a field, problem was he was in a field I couldn't hunt so I had to get him across it