Using a turkey fan

[GobbleNut]

Pretty slippery slope if  you ask me....

Your probably just dizzy from tying your shoes or missing your morning meds.

Oh no he DIN'T just go there!!!

  Totally expected.  After years of going after each other, neither of us misses an opportunity to get a shot in when the opportunity presents itself.  ...I should have been more careful...

[GobbleNut]

The fan itself is not illegal in Michigan...un natural movement is..so even attaching a string to a hen decoy to move it is illegal.

Does anybody know the exact wording of the regulation?  I can't seem to find it,...probably due to my uncanny skills at using the internet...

[Natty Bumpo]

Now ILLEGAL in Michigan.   

I looked but couldn't find any info on this.  What exactly does the new law state?  I am interested in knowing how they define the use of a turkey fan.  Does the law differentiate between the use of a fan as compared to the use of a gobbler or jake decoy that incorporates the use of a fan?  ...Pretty slippery slope if  you ask me....

It is not a new law.

As I said above, that is how the current law involving decoys, mechanical devices, etc is being interpreted by COs and other LEOs in Michigan.  We had a CO explain this at a local gun club meeting recently. He also cited the many hunting accidents occurring around the country re reaping.

[GobbleNut]

It is not a new law.
As I said above, that is how the current law involving decoys, mechanical devices, etc is being interpreted by COs and other LEOs in Michigan.  We had a CO explain this at a local gun club meeting recently. He also cited the many hunting accidents occurring around the country re reaping.

I am not a proponent or defender of the practice of reaping, but unless I have been completely out of the loop on things, I have seen little factual evidence to support the statement that there have been "many hunting accidents occurring around the country" because of reaping. 

I suppose my real problem with hunters condemning others "reaping" or using fans is that many of those same hunters are perfectly fine with someone using a "strutter" or jake decoy in hunting.  Both practices prey upon a gobbler's instinct to challenge other gobblers.  The only real difference is that, in the case of reaping or fanning, the hunter is holding the fan or decoy, and sometimes moving toward the turkey rather the turkey moving toward them.

Frankly, I find it laughable when someone sets out a strutter/jake decoy, sits there in a tent blind calling while doing so, and then thinks their calling had anything to do with the gobbler showing up.  In 99% of cases, that gobbler is coming only because of the visual stimulus of seeing the decoy.  Yet many of those individuals take exception to someone reaping or using a fan. 

Don't get me wrong,...if that is how someone wants to hunt, go for it.  But let's not be hypocritical about it. 

Which brings me  back to the point I am trying to make about the Michigan (or any other state's) laws prohibiting the use of fans.  Has Michigan outlawed the use of any kind of decoy that incorporates the use of a turkey fan?  ....Or have they just arbitrarily decided that a guy holding a fan is illegal while the guy that sets out a strutter deke or a fan next to a hen decoy (the question in the original post) is not?

If there was an abundance of real, hard, factual evidence to suggest that someone actually holding a strutter decoy or fan is putting themselves in a more dangerous situation than the guy sitting ten yards from a strutter deke,...or even the guy sitting in the bushes using a turkey call,...then I could support the idea of outlawing reaping and/or fanning. 

The fact is that more people get shot while turkey calling every year than those that are reaping or fanning, yet there is no outcry for turkey calling to be outlawed.  Why is that?  Again, let's not be hypocritical about it.  You don't like reapers/fanners?  Fine,...but don't use bogus arguments against it,...nor let your DNR use those arguments.  The next law you see might be against using a turkey call in the woods because people get shot doing that. 

....Again, a pretty slippery slope to start down...

[TauntoHawk]

Reaping is illegal in PA givin you can't stalk turkey but I don't see it stopping people who want to do it. It's a tough law to enforce

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[Forked lighting]

RE the fan, be safe and wear Kevlar

Re funky chicken   Had 10 jakes and 3 hens in the field at 30 yards the other day. Lookout jake periscoped just like the funky chicken decoy. It's all I could think of at the time. He'd yelp, let the others pick dandelions, check their plumage, run to catch up and periscope again.

I used the funky chicken decoy for a couple years doesn't spook gobblers as bad as full stutt decoy as far as i have seen

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[High plains drifter]

I would never use a fan, to sneak up on a bird.That sort of goes against the grain for me.However, I may stick one in a bush sometime when I start calling. It might work well.

[tha bugman]

wow that michigan law is interesting....especially the part about tying a string to the decoy...unnatural movement?  Isn't movement natural based on the definition??  What exactly defines unnatural from natural...movement would be movement....and I am thinking a little more than pulling a string versus wind.

[Natty Bumpo]

Now ILLEGAL in Michigan.   

It is not a new law.

As I said above, that is how the current law involving decoys, mechanical devices, etc is being interpreted by COs and other LEOs in Michigan.  We had a CO explain this at a local gun club meeting recently. He also cited the many hunting accidents occurring around the country re reaping.

OK, a little more information for the skeptics on here.......

The MI DNR meeting I referenced above was held at the Cedar Rod and Gun Club on May 4, 2017. It was held to bring all Hunter Safety Instructors up to speed on new teaching equipment available, new HS classes around Michigan, MI Hunting Laws updates, Accident  Reports, etc etc. (I have taught HS for 40 years in 3 states).The HS Instructor speaker was a DNR Officer from the UP who is a long time turkey hunter, and who has hunted all over the USA for many years.  The speaker cited several turkey hunting accidents caused by using fans from around the USA this season.

REAPING ( or whatever you call crawling around waving a turkey fan) IS NOW ILLEGAL IN MICHIGAN

Further Information can be obtained from the MIDNR, Law Enforcement Division.

Natty Bumpo, OUT   

[GobbleNut]

OK, a little more information for the skeptics on here.......

The MI DNR meeting I referenced above was held at the Cedar Rod and Gun Club on May 4, 2017. It was held to bring all Hunter Safety Instructors up to speed on new teaching equipment available, new HS classes around Michigan, MI Hunting Laws updates, Accident  Reports, etc etc. (I have taught HS for 40 years in 3 states).The HS Instructor  was a DNR Officer from the UP who is a long time turkey hunter, and who has hunted all over the USA for many years.  The speaker cited several turkey hunting accidents caused by using fans from around the USA this season.

REAPING ( or whatever you call crawling around waving a turkey fan) IS NOW ILLEGAL IN MICHIGAN

Further Information can be obtained from the MIDNR, Law Enforcement Division.

Natty Bumpo, OUT   

Honestly, I don't really care one way or the other about the law, other than I believe it opens the proverbial "can of worms" for turkey hunters,...and in particular, those that use decoys.  Here's my problem with laws like that:  it is ambiguous and subjective. 

For example, if holding a fan or decoy is illegal, does that mean the guy who is carrying a strutting decoy or fan out into a field to set it up as a deke is illegal?  And if not, then what is to prevent a guy that is reaping from just saying he was carrying a decoy out to set it up if he is confronted?  Again, my point is that there is a lot of gray area and subjectivity in enforcing a regulation like that one. 

To me, the only real way to prevent hunters from reaping or using fans in their hunting is to completely outlaw someone having a fan or strutter deke in their possession while they are "in the field" hunting.  Short of that, I believe any such law is unenforceable to a large degree. 

[donjuan]

Just my 2 cents, but I am amazed hunters are shot carrying a fan.  The shooters should lose their license forever. How can you shoot at a person with a fan and think it's a turkey?  Then again, we have to label coffee cups as hot and there are people who believe the Earth is flat

[spaightlabs]

I wish I woulda had a fan with me yesterday.  couldn't/wouldn' have reaped, but I think I mighta been able to pull the moose I was chasing yesterday AM away from his comfortable river bottom, across Hwy 144, across the alfalfa and thru the 4 stand fence to where I was waiting,

[GobbleNut]

I wish I woulda had a fan with me yesterday.  couldn't/wouldn' have reaped, but I think I mighta been able to pull the moose I was chasing yesterday AM away from his comfortable river bottom, across Hwy 144, across the alfalfa and thru the 4 stand fence to where I was waiting,

It may well have worked.  The question is how you would have felt about it if you had done so?  Would you have thought that it was unfair and "unsporting"? ...Or would you have considered that you had just used another tool in your box of turkey hunting tricks to fool this gobbler? 
...I'm not making a judgement one way or the other.  Just curious as to your perspective on it based on the particular scenario you have described. 

[spaightlabs]

In that scenario I wouldn't think of it as an awful lot different than using a decoy - just using little different strategy from the palette of tricks.  I think I would have enjoyed the excitement of pulling him out of his home turf and across the road and thru the fence, but after the shot it would have probably felt a bit 'off' and like maybe he deserved better.  This guy is living on about a 4 mile stretch of river that doesn't get hunted at all and he was a great bird- in some ways I feel like he deserves to retire there and live out his life in peace, in some ways I feel like it is my job to help manage the resource.

My wife's friend says all hunting is a bit unfair.  What we call woodsmanship and tactics some call trickery that any male even human males would be susceptible to at certain times.  We use sweet talk and decoys and wait in places where we know the toms are gonna hang out looking for love - it's a bit like having a life sized picture of a great looking woman with a sexy voice hanging out outside of a bar at 2:00 am.

That is the conundrum of hunting.

[GobbleNut]

In that scenario I wouldn't think of it as an awful lot different than using a decoy - just using little different strategy from the palette of tricks.  I think I would have enjoyed the excitement of pulling him out of his home turf and across the road and thru the fence, but after the shot it would have probably felt a bit 'off' and like maybe he deserved better.  This guy is living on about a 4 mile stretch of river that doesn't get hunted at all and he was a great bird- in some ways I feel like he deserves to retire there and live out his life in peace, in some ways I feel like it is my job to help manage the resource.

My wife's friend says all hunting is a bit unfair.  What we call woodsmanship and tactics some call trickery that any male even human males would be susceptible to at certain times.  We use sweet talk and decoys and wait in places where we know the toms are gonna hang out looking for love - it's a bit like having a life sized picture of a great looking woman with a sexy voice hanging out outside of a bar at 2:00 am.

That is the conundrum of hunting.

It appears our attitudes are similar.  While some condemn the use of a fan in all its forms as "cheating", I happen to be one who thinks it depends totally on the circumstances.  Yes, it can be a crutch for poor hunting skills if depended upon as a sole method of turkey hunting, but there are times when the circumstances at hand make the use of a fan nothing more than a tool in a hunter's arsenal,...no more or less significant than our turkey calls.