A False Stump

[shaman]

My favorite spot for turkey hunting is a place I call The Honey Hole.  If you dig through the weblog you'll find plenty of mentions.   It was a big ol' dead tree in a fenceline. For over a decade, I sat with my back to it and had some stupendous luck.  In 2016, the tree fell over in a storm and kind of half-wrecked the spot. For a few years, I moved to another tree 10 yards further down the fenceline.  It worked, but it had problems. 

There were a couple of logs that I'd been using over the years as alternate set-ups for when I was calling for somebody else.  I tried those and they worked; I filled tags from them, but that site has warts as well.  The main deficiency is that they have me sitting in a position where half the action is going on behind my back.  The old site pointed roughly east. The log has me sitting facing either south or north.   I've had a number of gobblers now come up on my back side.  This past spring I had one sneak up behind me and try to make love to my umbrella mike while I was recording a podcast.

It got me thinking: there are two smaller live trees right next to the old stump. I could put something between the two trees and I'd have roughly the same outlook as I had before.  I was in the process of taking a half-sheet of plywood and painting it with brown and gray paint when I got word that out-of-state hunters were not welcome due to COVID.  I left the project unfinished.  My goal is to get deployed in the first couple weeks of March and let it sit until the Opener in mid April.

So here is my question:  Do you see any problems with the plan? Do you think the turkeys are going to see 4'X4' camo'd-up plywood as a strange foreign object or will they accept it? 

Edit:  I managed to find a picture of the Honey Hole taken after the tree fell over, and you can see the two trees next to it.  Go here:

I Shot Pepe LePew

The top image is a scrollable panorama.  Scroll all the way to the right.  Above the watermark-- right above "Genesis"  you'll see the two trees.  I plan on taking out the farm fence and wiring the board between the trees.

[guesswho]

You wouldn't even have to paint the plywood, but without paint you would have to be even more aware of movement.   Unpainted plywood won't be the problem.   The problem will be your silhouette in front of unpainted plywood.   I'd slap on some paint and add a couple tree limbs etc.    Then it should be like the good ole days.  I'd hunt it and never give it a second thought.   

[shaman]

It's already got a base coat of light brown on it.  I've got a pint of charcoal gray that I'm going to use to add blotches. My idea is that the finished paint job will look like the fallen leaves on the ground around the  tree trunks. I figure that if my head is below the top of the plywood, the gobs will never have a clue.   I frequently hit the Ooops Bin at Lowes and Home Depot and grab other people's mistakes.  For painting blinds and such it's perfect.    What I'm using on this job is semi-transparent outdoor stain. 

[guesswho]

I think you will be fine, and will kill as many gobblers there as you have in the past.  Good luck.

[fmf]

You wouldn't even have to paint the plywood, but without paint you would have to be even more aware of movement.   Unpainted plywood won't be the problem.   The problem will be your silhouette in front of unpainted plywood.   I'd slap on some paint and add a couple tree limbs etc.    Then it should be like the good ole days.  I'd hunt it and never give it a second thought.

this

[Muzzy61]

I think that you will be good, and this gave me an idea abut a old favorite spot of mine...

[shaman]

It's done!

I finished the Fake Stump out at the Honey Hole.




More pics and the full story here:
The Fake Stump

[guesswho]

I'd turkey hunt there but not deer hunt.   Looks like a big antler coming out of the left side of your head.