Question about decoy poses!!!

[dane1122]

Hi all, So I'm new here and just hunted turkey for my first year. Me and my buddy bought 2 tags each in Ontario, Canada (the max you can buy) and we ended up with an amazing successful season with 4/4 birds between us. Took us only 2.5 outings. You're not allowed to take your 2 birds in the same day. We both got 1 on day 1 and both got 1 on day 3!

Enough of my success story, lol, basically, I used a lonely, breeder pose hen from Avian-X Lifelike collapsable decoy. I also have the quarter strut jake but every time I had it out the birds didn't come in. When I removed it and left the lonely hen they seemed to come in. I wanted to add some more hens to our collection and was thinking about getting the Lookout Hen and the Feeder Hen. Like I said I already have the Breeder hen. We were thinking about adding 2 feeders and 1 lookout, and plus my 1 Breeder, we'd have 4 hens. Can anyone give me advice on what hen is the best pose, or if 4 hens is too many? Or if it is very good to have a bunch of hens? Our spring hunt we're only allowed males, jake or tom as long as it has a beard.

So basically, What is the best pose, Breeder, Feeder or Lookout?
Is 4 hens too many? Is there such a thing as too many turkey decoys? I'm used to waterfowl where many is a good thing.

All advice will be EXTREMELY APPRECIATED! THANKS ALL!

[dutch@fx4]

why do you want to carry more stuff to the woods ,sounds like you found something that works stick with it ,,got any pics of the birds ,,,Dutch

[Dtrkyman]

I do not care for an upright type hen, seems approaching birds typically trying to figure out what the attentive hen is looking at, I have a submissive/breeder type hen that is a mounted bird and it always got the birds to some directly to her, hens included, I sold the stuffer upright and occasionally use a jake with the hen but prefer the hen only!   

[Greg Massey]

For my setup its a Jake, breeder, feeder and also a breeder in front of the Jake... don't care for a look out..unless that's the only decoy I'm going to put out...  I use a look out by itself in late season...3 year birds later in season like finding just that single hen...

[dane1122]

why do you want to carry more stuff to the woods ,sounds like you found something that works stick with it ,,got any pics of the birds ,,,Dutch

Well the decoys are the inflatable ones the hens are little so they only take a second to blow up. I was thinking that also, may not want to mess up what is good but I somehow feel like adding more hens won't hurt but what do I know, Im new to Turkey Hunting. No pictures haha sounds like a fairy tale eh? I recorded both hunts with my Canon Hf G30 with 20x optical zoom, set on a tripod inside our blind. Im going to edit videos next week and also going to screen shot us in the end with our birds on the ground, and that will have to suffice as a good enough picture. I'll post the videos if anyones interested. Also I'll come back to post pictures once I transfer videos onto my computer and screen shot them out of the video!

[Cut N Run]

I've used one feeder hen paired with an upright jake or a feeder hen along with a strutter with a short beard and a fan made to look like a jake.  I only use decoys about 25% of the time, but that jake/hen combination has been very effective.

It seems to me that using a lot of hen decoys may work well in early season, but once the flocks break up, it could seem unnatural having that many hens together.

Congratulations on a great season.

Jim

[mtns2hunt]

I agree with cut n Run a large number of decoys work well in the early season (10-20). It is almost a give me. But hauling all that gear can be a burden. Fortunately my honey hole is on private land and I can stash my decoys in my blind and be reasonably certain they will be there when I return.

However, I have found the birds in my area to be a bit decoy shy. They will hang up at 60 yards, strut and preen their feathers but move no closer. If you know the direction the birds will be coming from you can set the decoys so the bird will have to pass in front of you before he gets close to the flock.

I hunt Eastern's in Virginia may be a bit different with other Turkey's.

[dane1122]

why do you want to carry more stuff to the woods ,sounds like you found something that works stick with it ,,got any pics of the birds ,,,Dutch

Hey Dutch, been a while but I finally got the hunt edited into a video. Here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFs_Yre6xMQ

Also here is our 2nd and final hunt of the spring if you're interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LclQZlNCO_I