Number of decoys in your usual setup and what kind?

[Greg Massey]

Now we shall pray...

[Blackduck]

 I don't post much. This thread went the wrong way. 

I consider myself moderately skilled at turkey hunting at this point. I have hunted them almost 20 years, much more in the last 10. In recent years I hunt 25 or so days a year, usually two or three states. I take plenty of people. In the last three years I've called 17, 18, and 13 turkeys to their deaths.

I do it with no decoys. I do it with 1 decoy. I do it with 2,3,4,5, and even 7 decoys. I do it with pop up blinds. I do it with ground blinds. I build impromptu blinds with cut branches. I sit behind a fallen log as a blind. I sit against a tree with no blind. I lay prone in tall grass with no blind.

I've carried a pop up blind and 3 decoys a mile in the dark just to throw them behind a tree and not use any of it.

It all depends on the situation. If you have a new hunter, a kid, or a handicapped hunter, blinds and decoys usually help. Moving on a bird, or even just sitting still, can be tough with people who don't get it, or aren't able.

Study your birds. If you want to use decoys, make it look like something he is likely to see where you are hunting. The most common winners are a jake and a hen, or a strutter and two hens. I like the hens to be uprights. Feeders get lost in grass and brush. Feeders are fine in open areas though.

Nothing makes you feel more accomplished than calling a bird into open woods sitting against a tree smaller than you with zero cover, no decoys, and him scanning the whole time. Except maybe watching a longbeard whip a decoys butt at 10 yards right before a kid in a wheelchair sticks his gun out of the blind and smokes his first turkey.

That is all. 

[catman529]

Now we shall pray...

hey don't be feeding the trolls...obviously someone has some issues they need to keep off this site before they get banned or this thread is shut down. Keep on using your decoys and don't worry about someone who has to beat their chest about how they turkey hunt.


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[Greg Massey]

Now we shall pray...

hey don't be feeding the trolls...obviously someone has some issues they need to keep off this site before they get banned or this thread is shut down. Keep on using your decoys and don't worry about someone who has to beat their chest about how they turkey hunt.


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Thanks Catman...

[owlhoot]

Ooh I bet he's fun at parties!lol

[mtns2hunt]

I don't post much. This thread went the wrong way. 

I consider myself moderately skilled at turkey hunting at this point. I have hunted them almost 20 years, much more in the last 10. In recent years I hunt 25 or so days a year, usually two or three states. I take plenty of people. In the last three years I've called 17, 18, and 13 turkeys to their deaths.

I do it with no decoys. I do it with 1 decoy. I do it with 2,3,4,5, and even 7 decoys. I do it with pop up blinds. I do it with ground blinds. I build impromptu blinds with cut branches. I sit behind a fallen log as a blind. I sit against a tree with no blind. I lay prone in tall grass with no blind.

I've carried a pop up blind and 3 decoys a mile in the dark just to throw them behind a tree and not use any of it.

It all depends on the situation. If you have a new hunter, a kid, or a handicapped hunter, blinds and decoys usually help. Moving on a bird, or even just sitting still, can be tough with people who don't get it, or aren't able.

Study your birds. If you want to use decoys, make it look like something he is likely to see where you are hunting. The most common winners are a jake and a hen, or a strutter and two hens. I like the hens to be uprights. Feeders get lost in grass and brush. Feeders are fine in open areas though.

Nothing makes you feel more accomplished than calling a bird into open woods sitting against a tree smaller than you with zero cover, no decoys, and him scanning the whole time. Except maybe watching a longbeard whip a decoys butt at 10 yards right before a kid in a wheelchair sticks his gun out of the blind and smokes his first turkey.

That is all. 

Agreed, nice positive post.

[Marc]

This site is one of the more friendly sites around, and admittedly, this thread is a bit disappointing.
The OP was looking for advice on using decoys...  Granted there are times when zero decoys is probably the best choice, but I think we all know that that was not the intent of the question.

I myself, often hunt without decoys, but that is more due to the terrain I hunt, and some degree of laziness in not wanting to tote around decoys.

There is a certain degree of self-satisfaction to calling a bird in with no decoy, but there is also an interesting dynamic and interaction that comes with using decoys.

Tomorrow, I am hunting a large open meadow, and will put out a DSD leading hen with an Avian X jake decoy.
Today I hunted a steep, heavily wooded area in the afternoon (missed the morning hunt of opening morning due to family obligations).  Never considered hunting with decoys...  If I could see the bird, it is likely I would have been able to shoot him.

Not everyone, but it seems some posters used this thread to either instill their own ethics or thump their own chests...  Saying no decoys with an explanation of the "tactical" reasons is one thing...  Implying you are too good to use decoys is another...  If you do not use decoys due to personal ethics, post on a different thread or create your own.

Final answer for me, 0-2...  If/when I do use decoys it is generally 2 decoys.  Preferably a jake and a hen, but if the jake puts them off, I would consider two hens...

My thinking is that a tom might be more inclined to strut and try to draw in a single, while he might have a bit more incentive to approach two hens.

[upnorth]

Thanks and lot of good advice. I believe when using decoys placement and kind can make a big difference according too many comments.

[mtns2hunt]

I don't believe in or  need  luck. Hope you don't have a stroke hauling your 15 decoys and ground blind to your corn feeder lol

Well, I don't have a corn feeder but I do have close to 15 decoys. I had to laugh when I was loading them this evening as I was thinking about this post. Early in the season I set up every decoy I can lay my hands on to create a big flock. I then do  a lot of calling using different calls. It hardly ever fails to bring in the boss gobbler, jakes and more hens and I usually get the shot at that gobbler.

After the break up I turn to more woods hunting where I don't use decoys as much. Then I start alternating between field and woods hunting. I also hunt the edges of fields when I hear a turkey on the roost. A little tree talk and 9 out of 10 times he will land in the field. Easy pickings for my #4 LB out to a mite over 40 yards and closer.

Turkey hunting is plain fun any way you cut it provided its legal. To the Gent that started this post : get as many decoys as you can and it does not really matter if its hens, jakes or strutters because when they all get together its a mixture of everything. Make as much noise as you can with as many different calls and you Will get results. Works best the first week of the season when they are still ganged up or just breaking up. I first read about this in one of the Outdoor magazines. Outdoor life I think it was. It works and is great fun - that is why we hunt: right? To have fun? I am really fired up as our season starts this Saturday. As for detractor's. I have only heard them online never in person. Good luck this season.

[mtsrunner]

I have tried many combinations over the years. I have pretty much settled on one DSD Jake. For me, it's a compromise of ease of setup and past results. The DSD jake has only cost me one or two birds (that I know of) in the past 7 seasons. One time, I had a gobbler coming in and saw the decoy and turned tail. Another time, a hen came in ahead of the gobbler and turned him back in the woods. I'll take those occasional setbacks because I know that the jake has brought me a few birds that probably wouldn't have come in otherwise and (biggest benefit) is that once a gobbler locks in on the decoy, I can get away with raising my gun or shifting a little bit for the shot.

[fallhnt]

Deception and dsd

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[griffman]

First I bow hunt for turkeys because the area I hunt does not allow firearms.  So yes I use two decoys to get them as close to the blind as possible.  Second I use a DSD jake and upright hen.  I always have the jake facing the blind and the feeder about 5 yards facing away from the direction I think the boys are going to come from.

Lastly, a good friend of mine once wrote an interesting piece about the reason Internet bulletin boards fail. What do you think?

Observations about Internet Bulletin Boards:

Pick a topic, any topic where people go to learn more about their passion, whatever it may be. It always starts out as people trying to help people, then the self-proclaimed experts show up and for a while, the information gets really good. The people are happy, the experts are happy and before long, some of the people become experts too and the population of experts increases as the population of the wide-eyed, decreases. Bitterness ensues as the original experts become mean-spirited and territorial and eventually drive off the new experts. Then they turn on each other, fighting over the few wide-eyed and innocent that are left. The numbers of the knowledge seekers get smaller and smaller as the information (and misinformation) age progresses. Eventually, it's down to two experts that absolutely hate each others guts. There are no more seekers of knowledge but a few people still read to be amused. The only posts that occur now are by the experts themselves. They ask questions so that they can answer them. Expert no. 1, answers his own question to display his great knowledge and wisdom. Expert no. 2, invariably disagrees and insults and name calling ensues. The crowd roars with excitement. Makes for entertaining reading but nobody likes either expert any more. The experts have long since, typed themselves out of a job but the addiction won't let them walk away peacefully. The two experts make a spectacle of themselves before all, again and again. The two proud experts have become nothing more than a washed up comedy team that can barely raise a smile.
They don't know what they are fighting about any more. They just hate each other and people still read out of morbid curiosity. Boredom eventually drives off the last of the fans.
The end.

[Cutt]

12 to 14 Sexxy Legs, all that scratching drives them crazy. I also have a camo shopping cart for hauling all them to my setup.

https://youtu.be/Tfgi6-asl44