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What about decoys?

timberjack86

timberjack86

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Do you use them? I always carry one but hardly ever use it. But thats because almost every one of my setups is in the woods in thicker cover.I have used them in fields with good results.Do you have alot of sucess with them?
 
Here is the after-scene:

0423110602.jpg


Downed gobbler is on the far left where he got done flopping after he caught the #6 Hevi train.... The decoys are about 20 yards out... 3 hens and a Woody jake decoy.... (I had to defend him). Prior to the shot, there were 6 deer, ~25 hens, and ~12+ jakes.... I thought the deer were going to bust up the party, they crossed between me and the decoys (I am still sitting from where I made the shot when I took this pic)..... lucky for me the wind was blowing slightly in my face...
 
Don't carry one and don't use one. I don't hunt fields, and don't need one to kill a bird in a field even if I did.

I grew up hunting turkeys in AL and they were illegal. I learned to kill birds without the aid of one, and just never crossed over.

Even tough field birds can be killed with good woodsmanship and a decent background hunting turkeys.

I am sure they work great, but I will never find out, just not something I would enjoy. I enjoy the way I turkey hunt, and it certainly has worked well for me for a very long time.

Others are free to do the same, it's their hunt.
 
actually i am in the same point as Setterman, i grew up hunting them in bama where we could not use them so i just learned to not really rely on them. However i did cross over somewhat, i will use them every so often given the circumstance. I have one piece of property that the birds pitch out of the top of a ridge to land in this big field. I put out a few in the dark just to give them a landing area more then anything else...pretty much the same idea as a Herring decoy while duck hunting.

with that said i think more hunts are lost then won using decoys, while there will be times it helped to seal the deal you will lose plenty spending the extra time trying to get them out. Even using them in fields can kill a hunt. if you use the land correctly and really pay attention to your set up you dont really ever need them but sometimes its fun to just see what happens!
 
REN said:
. . . . . i think more hunts are lost then won using decoys . . . . .
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I tend to agree with that.
Do think that about 50% of the time decoys COULD be beneficial, but about 50% of the time they ARE the deal-breaker.

Where they "unknowingly to the hunter" mess him up, imo, is when the hunter is either setting them out or picking them up. Distant turkeys can see you and it's game over, although you may never realize you've been seen.

Having experimented with and without decoys for years, most of my turkey hunting is done without them, although there are times I use them, mainly very early in the turkey season and when hunting large fields, but only if I plan to stay put for half a day without leaving that spot. Then all too often, a bird will be coming in gobbling, see the decoy and hang-up.

I have had a gobbler decoy draw in an old gobbler, but I've also had them scare off both hens and long-bearded gobblers. And using a gobbler decoy on public land may increase your odds of being shot by about 1,000 percent. It can also be dangerous on private land as there tends to be a lot more trespassing poachers during turkey season vs. deer season.
 
One other thing I will add not that this matters to most, but what the heck.

I run with some of the best turkey hunters in the southeastern US, and none of them use decoys unless they have a real problem field bird which is shutting up an entire property or portion of property and needs to die. These guys are local legends either, they are well known folks.

Each person has to make their own choices, and hunt however they like, but for me I am far more effective without then with a decoy. As some on here know, I kill a couple longbeards from time to time, for what it's worth :)
 
I have been turkey hunting for 13 seasons. What I have learned over this time frame is the same as several on here have said. There are times they work, there are times they don't. If I do use one, the majority of the time I use a lone hen. I did buy a B-Mobile about three years ago, saw several birds die in front of him that year, but I also saw several birds run from him. One bird was an old bird that had some 1 1/4 hooks on him (killed him a few days later right when his feet hit the ground coming off of the roost...no decoy). Now B-mobile usually stays at home because I get tired of lugging him around and my lone hen will come out occassionally. I believe its much more fun having them hunt for you!
 
I used to be one of them die hards who wouldn't use one but when you have a bird come in sideways or run in at the dekes and then try and whip that thing it is exciting.
 
Matt.Wilson said:
Gotta have them for fields, but have used them in woods and never had a gobbler notice them
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This is a very common myth, that you have to have them for fields. I have watched a flatbed full of birds die in giant ag fields (100+ acres) in the state of Alabama long before decoys were legal. You just have to know how to hunt field turkeys, and how to play their game.

Very rarely will turkeys spend all day in fields, and usually they frequent the same areas, or have the same patterns while moving through a field.

I could write a book on field turkeys without a decoy, but will save the page space. Try it without, and really learn to study the birds, the terrain, how they use the land, and what their habits are. Not only will you kill them, but you will also learn a ton about turkeys in general, which will greatly help in killing more turkeys in the future.
 
I haven't killed a lot of turkeys, but I prefer to be mobile at use terrain/cover to kill them as to sitting behind a decoy.

Last year the two birds I killed, one was opening morning 50 yards from a decoy worked him in for 2 hours after fly down.

The second was 5 min after flydown 17 yeards that I snuck in on and purred in...

Second one was a lot more fun and felt like more of a hunt to me. I don't even carry one usually.
 
same here i might put them on atv but sometimes they never leave the rack....one morning seen a gobbler run from a jake / hen set up ....he saw them just never came interested and kept on crossing field out of range to shoot , this bird might havae been wouped earlier in season and didnt want to fight.......dont know .........
 

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