To use decoys or not to use decoys?

[Strick9]

I love filming a Tom beating up my DSD jake. I have never had any problems with the DSD set up scaring birds more often than not they come in wanting a fight. I have had a sub bird circle the jake until he was certain he was the bigger then come charging in.

I have however been busted putting them out which is not the dekes fault but my own. They can be a pita to carry long distances and sometimes I wish I had left them but I always opt for them and the camera as well. Its just to cool a memory not to have on film..

[Cut N Run]

We get two turkey tags here in North Carolina.  I use decoys to fill one tag and hunt without any dekes for the second tag.  I used a Delta jake I bought in 1996 with a feeding hen most often.  I can't say that I've ever seen a turkey react negatively to either one.  Most of the time, the adult gobbler wants to kick the fake jake's rubber @$$...several have too, but none lived to tell it.

My brother bought me one of those motion stakes from the Bass Pro last year and I am very impressed with the pulling power my King Strut decoy has combined with the stake.

Before the season I'll go practice calling at a nearby state park.  Essentially, it is hunting without a gun or bow, kind of catch & release type deal to help satisfy my turkey hunting jones before the season opens.  I took along the motion stake strutter last year just to see how it might do.  Now, I had the strutter set up with a stubby beard and a jake fan, so as not to intimidate any subordinate gobblers.  The state park gobblers didn't like OR fear him in any way.  Nor did the gobbler I killed using it last spring either.

Jim

Jim

[hotspur]

I rarely use decoys, except when hunting in a  blind.otherwise I just don't like having to put it out or pick it up, I'd rather just sit down and get up without anymore movement

[mudhen]

I can't say a decoy has hurt me yet...

I can say that 100's of decoying birds have killed in my presence....

But, I could live without them if I had to...


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[10gaugemag]

I rarely use decoys, except when hunting in a  blind.otherwise I just don't like having to put it out or pick it up, I'd rather just sit down and get up without anymore movement

I don't use one at all, used to have one that got put out on maybe 2 hunts a year and in probably 5-6 years of carrying it I can think of only 1 tom we killed with it.
If I am going to crawl 20 yards towards a bird to set it up I am going to stay out there and not turn around and crawl 20 yards farther back from that gobbling bird. Many times that 20 yards will put him in range, had I crawled backwards then he would be at 60 yards instead of 40 if he hangs up.

[buck_hunter21]

When I first started hunting them I used decoys exclusively. I also almost 100% of the time hunted large fields. I have had birds charge the set up once it seen them and I have also had a couple birds hang up out of gun range. In the last few years I have left the decoys at the house. That choice was made once I started hunting birds in the hardwoods. I like the idea of him having to come find me.

[dutch@fx4]

Knowing when to us a decoy is key ,,you have to know the birds you are hunting ,if you have a flock of birds with say 4 or 5 toms and a big bunch of hens then a strutting tom decoy is the way to go as a group of toms will come to fight a decoy .if you have one tom or one jake then this is not the time to us a full strutter decoy ,To me a tom turkey coming on the run to my strutting tom decoy and having him jump right on the back of the decoy and kicking the tar out of my decoy is the very best of turkey hunting and for me that is what it is all about ,yes I have has lesser toms and jakes run away from my strutter decoy but it is all worth it when it works ,,Dutch

[daveco]

For me, public ground means woods, and I don't use a blind or decoys in the woods; I use the terrain so by the time a bird gets to where he should see the hen that I am imitating, he is within range.  In fields, I use both decoys and a ground blind; I generally am targeting a henned up tom, and I use a full strut stuffed jake, with hen dekes.  Even multiple mature birds can shy from a jake decoy, but more often, birds will come in, in my experience.  BTW, I realize flatlanders might have difficulty with woods hunting and finding terrain (a rise, or slope) to prevent the bird from seeing beyond 40 yds.