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Decoys

scn said:
Little bit of a difference in the traditions of hunting waterfowl over decoys versus the turkey crap.
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Which means duck hunters have just been doing it longer? I am pretty sure you can find some evidence somewhere that Indians or settlers used turkey decoys at some point.
 
REN said:
That's been brought up before (just like the always posted loin cloth and sling shot comment) but waterfowl and turkey decoy topic isn't really apples to apples
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Of course. But you can't fit every turkey hunt in a box either. Seems the most adamant against them hunt a certain which they believe is the only way...
 
So I guess I better stop using my decoy? :D

Dance Animation GIF by Jake
 
Bgoodman30 said:
Of course. But you can't fit every turkey hunt in a box either. Seems the most adamant against them hunt a certain which they believe is the only way...
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I don't. I use to not care 10 to 15 years ago. I was it's legal so who cares. Now I care a lot. It's about the turkeys not peoples feelings. I have seen it with my own eyes turkeys being there one year and completely gone another. So if taking decoys out helps that problem ban them. Alabama obviously feels the same way or they wouldn't have banned them for the first part of the season. Just because it's legal doesn't make it ok. And just because I disagree with those that use them doesn't mean we aren't on the same team. If hunters are to disagree anywhere it should be on this site with other hunters. And stand united against true issues in the real world not on some site literally made for hunters by hunters. Same ones calling me and others elitist and self-righteous are the same ones that bashed Seekones post back in the fall. And what he did was legal as well (supposedly)
 
Bgoodman30 said:
Of course. But you can't fit every turkey hunt in a box either. Seems the most adamant against them hunt a certain which they believe is the only way...
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Sure you can. Hunts should not be measured in success or failure. And the 2nd comment I also don't find true. Yes they are adamant and they believe there is a true way to hunt them to fully experience what it is but that doesn't assume it's the ONLY way. That claims that if you don't do it exactly how they do then you are doing it wrong which imo is not their point. Their point is more for the sport, tradition, experience, knowledge, and future of the species all wrapped into a method that takes all those into account.

Turkey hunting hits most that have done it for years and years much different than todays hunters. It wasn't as popular a thing to do and required a much different perspective vs the common deer hunting. Required you to really learn and study the species and majority of hunts never ended with success but that didn't really matter at the end of the day.

Just my 2cents based on a perspective a lot like guys such as setterman and others. I grew up hunting bama and decoys were always illegal so I had no choice but to learn how to hunt them without. That taught me so many valuable lessons
 
REN said:
Sure you can. Hunts should not be measured in success or failure. And the 2nd comment I also don't find true. Yes they are adamant and they believe there is a true way to hunt them to fully experience what it is but that doesn't assume it's the ONLY way. That claims that if you don't do it exactly how they do then you are doing it wrong which imo is not their point. Their point is more for the sport, tradition, experience, knowledge, and future of the species all wrapped into a method that takes all those into account.

Turkey hunting hits most that have done it for years and years much different than todays hunters. It wasn't as popular a thing to do and required a much different perspective vs the common deer hunting. Required you to really learn and study the species and majority of hunts never ended with success but that didn't really matter at the end of the day.

Just my 2cents based on a perspective a lot like guys such as setterman and others. I grew up hunting bama and decoys were always illegal so I had no choice but to learn how to hunt them without. That taught me so many valuable lessons
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They run and gun on big blocks of timber which is why the have they feel so strongly decoys are stupid because in that situation they are. Same for Dave Owens types because they hunt from South FL to Washington, Why would they sit and wait behind some decoys? Some guys have the only 100 acre family cattle farm with 13 trees to hunt and running and gunning with no decoys is not really the best option. Sure you can do it but you bump the birds to the next county.. If they want to blind hunt with decoys I got no hard feelings toward them.

I will be in AL the 31st with no decoys in hand. ;)
 
I think it's hypocritical for guys that have access to hundreds and hundreds of acres of private farms absolutely loaded with turkeys to tell someone else decoys make it too easy. I've been to places like that and I've killed turkeys pretty easily without decoys, but most of my hunting is done on timber company land with a small turkey population. You could back an 18 wheeler load of decoys in there and it's still going to be harder to kill a turkey there than a loaded private farm. Honestly a decoy wouldn't do you any good because it's too damn thick for him to see it anyway. Lee Lakosky can't tell me not to shoot 130" bucks when he hunts the land of giants. A guy that goes to Mexico and catches 8+ pound bass on every cast can't tell me not to be proud of a 6 pounder from Glenn Springs. Everybody is in a different situation.
 
Bgoodman30 said:
They run and gun on big blocks of timber which is why the have they feel so strongly decoys are stupid because in that situation they are. Same for Dave Owens types because they hunt from South FL to Washington, Why would they sit and wait behind some decoys? Some guys have the only 100 acre family cattle farm with 13 trees to hunt and running and gunning with no decoys is not really the best option. Sure you can do it but you bump the birds to the next county.. If they want to blind hunt with decoys I got no hard feelings toward them.

I will be in AL the 31st with no decoys in hand. ;)
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Not true. I hunt small fields, but fields, big timber and small tracks. I hunt all types, so again you're assuming they are all hunting the same type of stuff thus are all the same. I imagine folks on here have hunted every type of terrain you can. Heck I know very few that hunt huge block of timber.

The amount of land doesn't force you to hunt any specific way, that's the choice of the hunter
 
Bgoodman30 said:
Of course. But you can't fit every turkey hunt in a box either. Seems the most adamant against them hunt a certain which they believe is the only way...
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It's certainly not the only way
Bgoodman30 said:
They run and gun on big blocks of timber which is why the have they feel so strongly decoys are stupid because in that situation they are. Same for Dave Owens types because they hunt from South FL to Washington, Why would they sit and wait behind some decoys? Some guys have the only 100 acre family cattle farm with 13 trees to hunt and running and gunning with no decoys is not really the best option. Sure you can do it but you bump the birds to the next county.. If they want to blind hunt with decoys I got no hard feelings toward them.

I will be in AL the 31st with no decoys in hand. ;)
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I hunt massive tracts of land. All public. Heck I think one of my places is over 60,000 acres. This is active coal/timber land, and killing birds over decoys would be laughably easy. Our birds routinely congregate in log landings or reclaimed strip mines. It would cheapen what makes our mountain hunting so special and difficult by riding a 4 wheeler to one of these places and staking out a decoy.

I cut my teeth hunting huge ag fields in Alabama. Some as big as 500 acres. Decoys were illegal then, and we learned to hunt field turkeys. Sure we got our asses beat most days, but we also got decent at killing those field birds with just a call.

When I moved back home after college, all I had to hunt was small farms and never messed with decoys because they were taboo to the turkey hunters I crossed paths with in Alabama.

I firmly believe that's the difference, people who have hunted turkeys for a long time are far less likely to use decoys than the new hunters. Old school versus new school. Traditionalists versus Kill at all costs no matter the tactic.

I also as stated earlier. Firmly believe decoys are one of the main reasons for our dwindling populations. It makes it too easy, too many dominant birds are killed, and it is effecting nest initiation
 
Let me ask this question to those that are very pro decoy

Why do you use them honestly? Is it because you have a higher success rate with them or because it makes it easy to just put them out and wait? I would love a 100% honest answer

Note, I'm not talking to the folks that due to age or health don't have a lot of other options.
 
Setterman said:
It's certainly not the only way

I hunt massive tracts of land. All public. Heck I think one of my places is over 60,000 acres. This is active coal/timber land, and killing birds over decoys would be laughably easy. Our birds routinely congregate in log landings or reclaimed strip mines. It would cheapen what makes our mountain hunting so special and difficult by riding a 4 wheeler to one of these places and staking out a decoy.

I cut my teeth hunting huge ag fields in Alabama. Some as big as 500 acres. Decoys were illegal then, and we learned to hunt field turkeys. Sure we got our asses beat most days, but we also got decent at killing those field birds with just a call.

When I moved back home after college, all I had to hunt was small farms and never messed with decoys because they were taboo to the turkey hunters I crossed paths with in Alabama.

I firmly believe that's the difference, people who have hunted turkeys for a long time are far less likely to use decoys than the new hunters. Old school versus new school. Traditionalists versus Kill at all costs no matter the tactic.

I also as stated earlier. Firmly believe decoys are one of the main reasons for our dwindling populations. It makes it too easy, too many dominant birds are killed, and it is effecting nest initiation
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To each his own. I don't think you can find any studies to correlate decoy use to population decline. Where populations are the greatest usually have the highest harvest and continue to reload year after year. Turkeys are declining without our help...
 
Except they aren't reloading year after year. I hunt a county that was near the top for several seasons and has seen a tremendous drop in both the kill and actual population.

And, yes, excess harvest by hunters is part of the reason for the decline. And, decoys used by those that couldn't come close to killing a bird without that crutch are in that equation.
 
Bgoodman30 said:
To each his own. I don't think you can find any studies to correlate decoy use to population decline. Where populations are the greatest usually have the highest harvest and continue to reload year after year. Turkeys are declining without our help...
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Well if that's the case please explain alabama's population decline. If you look at when decoys were legalized the Population decline started right after they legalized decoys. Current regs outlaw decoys again but only for the first two weeks.

If decoys weren't an issue than why would they feel the need to do take this measure?
 
REN said:
Let me ask this question to those that are very pro decoy

Why do you use them honestly? Is it because you have a higher success rate with them or because it makes it easy to just put them out and wait? I would love a 100% honest answer

Note, I'm not talking to the folks that due to age or health don't have a lot of other options.
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It's the way I hunted up in Illinois.
Really don't know the run and gun technique.
Be willin to give it a try though.
Tips?
 
Chiflyguy said:
Really don't know the run and gun technique.
Be willin to give it a try though.
Tips?
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Spot them, use the terrain to get in front of them and figure out where they are headed.
Set up, call and wait.
Or get in front of them and then sneaky sneak into range and kill them.

Had people say that isn't sporting either sooooo dunno.
 

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