Another thread got me thinking...What bad experiences have you had while using decoys. I was using a stuffer close to a road one time in KS and a truck stopped. You couldn't see me very well from the direction the truck came but it stopped,and the window came down as it was backing up. I yelled don't shoot. I could hear the guys talking and the response I got was, " We just wanted to look at your decoy". My buddy also had a guy jump out of his truck and run into the field and shoot his decoy on public land.
The only really bad experience I have had with decoys is one occasion when I was hunting a mid afternoon in a pasture. I got a gobbler fired up and after about 1 1/2" hours of gobbling he finally tops the hill to where I can finally see him. At this point I have my gun ready and he is a little ways out of gun range at about 65-70 yards, but he is still coming. I have my decoys set up at about 25 yards out in front of me (also had a small rock stuffed in the decoy to weigh it down) and all of a sudden out of no where, a huge gust of wind blows and knocks my hen decoy over. Needless to say, the tom putted 4-5 times and hauled tail to the neighbor's property.
I've had two times where a turkey has seen my stutter decoy and come out of strut and walked away. I'm not sold on the strutter thing yet. In fact, it's never worked for me. The jake has been fine but the strutter has caused me trouble the couple times I've used it.
In 2009 on public land in Florida second day out I was sitting in a open home made blind in the rain when a guy shot my Jake decoy. His fault for shooting my decoy, my fault for haveing a Jake decoy on public land. Never again have I use a male turkey decoy on public land. I walked about two miles in but only to find it came to about a half mile from another way. Decoys are just one thing to help at times but not always necessary, so be careful.
Last year on opening day in KY, I was set up on a gobbler that flew down with several hens. They all eventually fed off after they gathered up without giving me a shot. I decided to sit tight and about an hour later I got another gobbler going from the opposite direction. He came like he was on a rope. I had a jake and two hen dekes set out in the corner of a pasture. When that gobbler topped a rise and saw that jake from about 30 yds he bolted like lightning had struck him. He cast around in a wide arc giving the deke about 40 yds of personal space. I killed him when he came into the woods with me to get away from him.
2015 Old Gobbler contest Champions
I normally don't use decoys here because it's so dang thick. I tried a strutter once and the gobbler wouldn't get 200 yds from it. We have a few open fields where a hen decoy might be the way to go, but I never carry one.
I carry a hen and jake deke with me a lot but don't use them all the time. When b-mobile first came out I used it and have killed many of turkeys using it. Just depends on the situation if I use a deke or not.
Talkem into given up!!!
Not really a bad experience, just a curious one. One morning in the first week of the season in 2001, a few hens came to my jake and feeding hen decoy that were set in a grassy roadbed in the woods, which was the only open area for several hundred acres. They fed around and scratched like you'd expect any turkey to do. The bigger hen eased up to the jake decoy and started chest bumping up against him. The jake decoy spun about a quarter turn on the stake and the hen jumped back, then went around to the other side and bumped him back the way he was originally positioned. She was acting like she wanted some attention from that jake, but when he didn't respond, the two hens kept on scrathing as they went along the roadbed. I kept expecting for a gobbler to show, but none did. I heard a few gobbles from the roost on the next property over, though if he was following hens around, it wasn't this pair.
Jim
hard call. I've had birds come in and see the decoy come on in like on a string, other times come in see the decoy turn around and haul #$%
I have killed several birds with a semi strutting jake decoy over the years
Quote from: fallhnt on March 16, 2016, 04:02:39 PM
Another thread got me thinking...What bad experiences have you had while using decoys. I was using a stuffer close to a road one time in KS and a truck stopped. You couldn't see me very well from the direction the truck came but it stopped,and the window came down as it was backing up. I yelled don't shoot. I could hear the guys talking and the response I got was, " We just wanted to look at your decoy". My buddy also had a guy jump out of his truck and run into the field and shoot his decoy on public land.
In reading through these it sounds a lot more like bad experiences with bad/poor "Hunters" even if you could call them that...
MK M GOBL
Never had a Tom spook from the sight of a jake decoy. On the other hand, I have had jakes split when seeing that fake jake?
About as bad as when I didn't use decoys...lol
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I had a house cat sneak into my hen decoy and attack it. At one time I use to see a lot of house cats in the woods but lately that hasn't been the case.
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I had the same thing happen in KS...truck stopped on the road, guy got out and was getting a rifle out of the back seat...never seen 2 guys get out of a Double Bull so fast - flipped it over and ran about 50 yards from the decoys, guy got in his rig and hauled butt. I now use extreme care to not be in view of a road whenever possible and I run a couple ribbons of survey tape on the top of the blind if visible from a road.
Buddy of mine was hunting the back corner of a property and had his decoys on an old dike road. Farmhand came around the corner, saw the dekes, gunned it and ran the decoys over...his response was that when he did the same thing a couple days earlier the turkeys ran away...
Quote from: mlisandro on March 17, 2016, 05:20:21 AM
I had a house cat sneak into my hen decoy and attack it. At one time I use to see a lot of house cats in the woods but lately that hasn't been the case.
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Has the coyote/fox population increased? Those coyotes will make short work of getting rid of the cats.
Quote from: WisTurk on March 17, 2016, 11:06:55 AM
Quote from: mlisandro on March 17, 2016, 05:20:21 AM
I had a house cat sneak into my hen decoy and attack it. At one time I use to see a lot of house cats in the woods but lately that hasn't been the case.
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Has the coyote/fox population increased? Those coyotes will make short work of getting rid of the cats.
So will a turkey hunter with a 12 ga. :z-guntootsmiley:
Most of the land I hunt is private... The few public spots would be difficult for someone to sneak up on me as it is so steep (I generally do not use decoys on public land though).
I have certainly had birds see my jake decoy and run... I have had birds hang up and strut just out of range when using only hens... I have been busted trying to set up my decoys...
Most of the time, I end up leaving my decoys in the car... I like decoys for open areas, or for areas I really want to position the bird for the shot, or if I am taking someone new to turkey hunting, and I want to divert the birds attention and set up the shot.
Couple years ago, I was walking back, and had a bird gobble right above me on a steep cut in the road. I was carrying a decoy in a mesh bag, and dropped the bag on the road, and took cover behind a stump...
Bird flew down behind me (gobbling), saw the decoy in the bag and took wing. Now I use solid decoy bags instead of mesh.
Bad experience no. Funny experience? Yes.
A few years ago I had a hen lay down in front of my jake deke. It was very hard not to laugh when she looked back at him like Well? Are you going to do something? :TooFunny: :TooFunny:
Quote from: West Augusta on March 17, 2016, 08:03:28 PM
Bad experience no. Funny experience? Yes.
A few years ago I had a hen lay down in front of my jake deke. It was very hard not to laugh when she looked back at him like Well? Are you going to do something? :TooFunny: :TooFunny:
What a hoot. If only you had been using guesswho's badonkadeke ...
Up until I started using a DSD, I really didn't have any "bad" experiences. First season with the DSD, I had all kinds of reactions that I never got with the typical rubber chicken decoys. One day I had a gobbler enter the field with a couple hens. One nasty ol'girl saw the DSD and bee-lined right for it. Before the Tom could get into gun range she proceeded to make noises I never heard a hen make while circling around my decoy. She was all puffed up and strutting around the decoy with her fan spread. Then she decided to jump in the air and kick the crap out of my decoy, till it eventually fell over. Ever time she hit it with her feet it would make the noise of plastic being smacked with somethig. That ol'tom knew something wasn't exactly right, turned around and strutted back into the woods, gobbling as he left, never to return that morning. The hen decided she was done and slowly walked away the opposite direction of the tom. She was definitely the boss hen in those woods.
Sent from my 1970s rotary phone
Quote from: West Augusta on March 17, 2016, 08:03:28 PM
Bad experience no. Funny experience? Yes.
A few years ago I had a hen lay down in front of my jake deke. It was very hard not to laugh when she looked back at him like Well? Are you going to do something? :TooFunny: :TooFunny:
That's why you never drink or smoke funky stuff while your hunting! lol
I have used hen decoys off & on but I never really could say that they hurt or helped.
i dont have any confidence in decoys i have had to many birds turn tail at the site of a decoy.
My worst decoy experience is a little different. It goes back to the days of beepers, before we all had cell phones (I had a bag phone in my truck). Tom comes out in the field and gobbles his head off, but my hen would just not come across the field to him. He gobbled and strutted and would only close to about 75 yards. Strutted for an hour and would never get closer. My beeper goes off and it is the guy on who's property I am hunting. He had horses and cattle and I can't very well ignore his call. I backed out of the woods and had to walk an extra mile back to the truck to call him - had a horse with colic so I am glad I did not wait out the gobbler. Both horse and Tom survived that day. If it was not him I killed later in the season, it was his twin brother.
+1
Quote from: Big perm2 on March 16, 2016, 10:47:18 PM
I carry a hen and jake deke with me a lot but don't use them all the time. When b-mobile first came out I used it and have killed many of turkeys using it. Just depends on the situation if I use a deke or not.
Talkem into given up!!!
Had to hide my Funky Chicken to get a 2 year old to come in today. Pulled the deke and he came in an hour later.
I rarely use them but I have had success with decoys. My two bad experiences with them was 1) one time I decided to try something different. I was hunting a lake levee (wide open) and set the decoys on it behind me thinking that the birds would strut down the levee to them and if they hung up I'd be in range. Never got to test the theory because the 3 gobblers came out at about 200 yards and was coming on a line, but a coyote slipped in from behind me and before I could figure out the commotion it attacked my decoys, I spun around to see the racket, and the gobblers were long gone seeing a coyote attack decoys and me moving around. 2) last year I set up a pair and left them to chase some birds. When I got back a strutter was attacking my decoys. I watched him from 100 yards off and when he left I slipped in and went to work. I eventual killed him 40 yards down the ridge and 1 hour later. Guess it wasn't too bad but had I stayed is killed him sooner and not missed a good show maybe.