Late season field birds?

[wisconsinteacher]

What is your stratige with late season field birds?  I fear they will spook from seeing a jake or tom decoy and the hens with them may not want to mess with the hen decoy so do you hope to catch them on a trail coming out and then return later in the day to hunt them in the woods?  The farmer called yesterday and said 2 were gobbling near the field at sun up.  I plan on going this afternoon and sitting next to the roost.  Maybe I will get luck and catch him coming back to bed.

[stinkpickle]

I avoid using male decoys during the last half of the season.  Hen decoys are fine, though.  In fact, I like to put out two or three for field birds.  Last week, I had a hen come in and hang around the hen decoys for over an hour.  The key to late season field birds for me is to find the field (more specifically, which part of that field) that they're using and focus my setups there.  Sometimes, I'm lucky enough to find some decent cover to set up in the field edge, but I'm not above setting up a blind out in the middle if that's where they want to hang out.  A lot of the birds I hunt roost at the field edges and pitch out 100+ yards into fields every morning, so there's no defined trail to set up on between the roost and strutting areas.

[2eagles]

Got my last bird in an old bean field.  I was sitting in the timber and saw 4 birds go into the field.  Knowing deer like to return on the the same trail they went into the field, I waited near where I saw them. I thought turkeys might do the same.   After a while, 8 toms came back about the same way and boom.

[Marc]

I avoid using male decoys during the last half of the season. 

Not arguing with you at all.

In fact a jake decoy put a tom off me the last weekend of the season (although I was told it was because the neck was blue instead of red)....

But why would a jake decoy not work towards the end of the season?  Toms and jakes are seen traveling together in groups (at least where I am hunting)...  Most of the hens are on the nest...

Is it simply experience that tells you not to use a jake decoy, or is there a scientific or behavioral reason behind this logic?

[stinkpickle]

I avoid using male decoys during the last half of the season. 

Not arguing with you at all.

In fact a jake decoy put a tom off me the last weekend of the season (although I was told it was because the neck was blue instead of red)....

But why would a jake decoy not work towards the end of the season?  Toms and jakes are seen traveling together in groups (at least where I am hunting)...  Most of the hens are on the nest...

Is it simply experience that tells you not to use a jake decoy, or is there a scientific or behavioral reason behind this logic?

Just past experience.  Toms seem to be more aggressive early in the season, but that usually settles down as time wears on.  Maybe the pecking order is still being established, or something?  Some toms will still come in to investigate later in the season, but they rarely attack the decoy.  Some skirt it altogether, so I don't bother anymore.