decoys or no

[eshoremd]

rick and i talked about this yesterday a little and i was wondering what everyones opinion was. do you use them or not? are there different circumstances you would and wouldnt?

[freedomrules3]

like i told ya yesterday , i have decoys but have never shot a bird off of them. seems if tommy sees it he just wants the old girl to come to him. if i dont use decoys and they dont see any hens they seem to get curious enough to come looking for them. that has been my experience with decoys. maybe my setups just arent right. I have tried several different brands with no luck using them. my dekes wont come out until i cant score a bird and its getting late.
Rick

[TobyRoub]

I use(d) them back before my grandfather "borrowed" them. I haven't seen them since...
Thats fine though, I haven't been turkey hunting since.

I had a set of 3 from Outlaw: jake, feeding hen, and upright hen. FWIW They did work GREAT. They are the flat silhouette type that are from "photographs"

[ncboman]

I make no claims to be an expert but I've seen enough using my lone hen decoy that I will be using it on every hunt probably.

I bowhunt and want the birds to be focused on my decoy, not searching for the source of the calling.

[hatracked]

I had a tom come in this morning to the edge of a food plot. He scanned for a hen knew he should have seen one and spooked . Shoulda had something for him to see when he got there. Two and a half hours later the same tom came back to the same plot and spooked when he saw my dekes. Shoulda left them at the truck.

Point is you never know. Ive got experience after experience to share of successful hunts with dekes . I also have a boatload of wish I wouldnts. You have to measure each situation and play the odds.

If Im hunting a swamp tom for instance I know its likely vegatation is going to be thick. I play hid the hen in this case and make him come searching. Trouble with this is sometimes his search leads him 60 yards from you. A deke somewhat hidden but exposed enough to be seen by a seeking tom can turn sixty into 20 if not 5 yards.

If Im setting up on a roosted tom close and personal , I like him to see the hen. He expects it , he wants the hen under his tree , and Ive witnessed toms land right on a dekes back straight from the tree. But sometimes putting a deke is too risky , so I opt for none and hope my calls and foliage will make him come look.

I dont know this is like one of those how much and when do you call questions. In every hunt you face different set of factors that will lead you to the right answer. Despite excellent homework and hard thinking some days you choose wrong. I did twice today , but that doesnt mean the dekes are going in the closet. To many days Ive seen a dead bird walk cause he came like I asked , and when he arrived he couldnt find the hen and left.

Toss the coin and go hunt.

[SCtrkyhntr]

I've had toms spook at the sight of a decoy in years past but so far this season I have been on a few hunts where decoys made the hunt happen. One in particular this year all the hens in the area wanted to hang out with the carry-lite.

[WVHunter129]

This will be my first year using a decoy. I hope it works out okay. I have the jake and hen decoy set. I guess we will find out next week.

[falconissore]

I was out last Sunday. I hunt public land and when sun came up found myself bout 200 yds between two bilinds. To late to get up and move,they both had decoys and I was tucked into a ceder tree.The turkeys came out of the trees and were headed for the deeks, I clucked a few times they came right to me , though I had an itchy trigger finger.Shot one tom he stumbled around and took off into the tall grass and never saw him again.

Doug