Turkey hunting, with or without decoys, in term of efficiency

[ALSpurhunter]

Everyone you put out you have to go back and pick up. I may just be lazy but to me it's more to carry and you will become a better turkey hunter without them.

[GobbleNut]

Obviously, whether or not someone wants to use decoys (where legal) is a personal choice. As others have already pointed out, I think there are situations where they are a key ingredient to success. Specifically, those situations are when hunting wide-open spaces where the turkeys one might be calling to expect to be able to see something resembling a turkey that is calling to them.

I also belief that, in a lot of cases, folks use them when they are completely unnecessary. Again, specifically, those instances are when hunting places where there is adequate cover/vegetation and topography such that a turkey will not become suspicious by not being able to see the source of the calling they hear until it is too late.

Simply put, in those situations, where you set up to call a turkey to you is much more important than having any sort of visual aid. That's not to say that setting out a decoy in that sort of situation is necessarily a detriment (although it could be due to the added movement required in doing so), it is just that in a lot of those close encounters, decoy use is just not necessary.  I think newer hunters, in particular, have been instilled with the mindset...mostly, I suspect, by the prominence of companies trying to sell them...that decoys are somehow an essential element to successful turkey hunting.  Uhhh, that's just not so...

Personally, I tend to avoid hunting those wide-open spaces and prefer to hunt in more cover. I recognize, however, that that might not be feasible in certain areas of the country. If I was regularly hunting those wide-open spaces, I would most likely have a different attitude about decoy use. As it is, they are generally an afterthought for me. 

[YoungGobbler]

A few people have updated the thread and I haven't came back with my results from hunting with decoys...

I got to say, this last spring I used decoys and I got to say they were really efficient and in two specific scenarios, they really brought in the turkeys and it's 100% the decoys who called
them in...

(I hunt agricultural land by the way. So i hunt in fields)

First scenario, I'll make a long story short... Instead of setting up close to their roost as I usually do, i set up easily 500 yards from their roost, with decoys in plain sight where when they land on the field, they could directly see them. I set up a tom decoy with a real fan and real wings i glued to the decoy and a hen.

As I said, long story short, but the tom came right to the decoy and I could shoot him there.

It was my first bird in that spot and I have been hunting it for 2 springs, with last year being decoy-less and this spring, first time I set-up the tom decoy I got the tom I was chasing for two years...

Second scenario, i set up in a field where I know very well the movements of the birds in this field, so I set up on a point where they usually always end up roaming there at one point during the day. Last year I almost got one from this spot without decoys, just by waiting them... but I shoot from too far and i missed... Anyways...

I set up at this place, and i didn't know where they had roosted, so I just sat at my point with my tom and hen decoy in the field... It was a rainy morning so birds stayed roosted longer than usual, and finaly they appeared in the field... They could see my decoys, but they didn't seem to have that much interest into it... And at one point, I saw a hen crossing the field followed by a bigger bird... And this bigger bird seemed much more interested in my decoy, but still he followed the hen... I had lost sight of them for a lot of time when suddenly... Boom, I saw him appear in my field of sights, 15 yards from me at best... Took the time to raise the gun and boom...

So... Yeah, they are efficient. I will hunt without them if needed but I will keep in mind that they can efficient when used correctly...