Do you use decoys when turkey hunting?

Do you use decoys when Turkey hunting?

  • YES, I use decoys

    Votes: 59 80.8%

  • NO, I do not use decoys

    Votes: 14 19.2%
  • Total voters
    73
cdncowboy

cdncowboy

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For all the Turkey hunters, I am curious to see how many use decoys and how many do not.

For the purpose of this poll... if you use decoys most of the time then submit a "yes". If you don't use decoys most of the time then submit "NO".

For me, I use decoys... 2 hens with a jake behind...
 
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We use dekes about two thirds of the time... sometimes we just "run-n-gun," and we don't stop in any one place long to set-up... and in some brush spots, dekes are pontless because the birds are on top of us before they would ever see the dekes anyway... but I do like watching a gobbler called off the roost work in to the decoys... we have had some terrific "classic" hunts using dekes.
 
I was out the other day and sat in an area I have patterned Turkeys walking through like clockwork daily. I set my decoys up in the usual formation and I had a Tom come out, as usual, and got held up about 125 yds away and just wouldn't come any further... sat there and gobbled at my decoys for about an hour. In this particular instance I know for a fact my decoys were the reason I didn't go home with that bird strapped to my atv. If I didn't have my decoys out the Tom would have walked his normal route and came right up to me.

I wonder how many times decoys actually wreck a successful hunt. In this instance the decoys weren't needed and I should have left them at home.
 
cdncowboy said:
I was out the other day and sat in an area I have patterned Turkeys walking through like clockwork daily. I set my decoys up in the usual formation and I had a Tom come out, as usual, and got held up about 125 yds away and just wouldn't come any further... sat there and gobbled at my decoys for about an hour. In this particular instance I know for a fact my decoys were the reason I didn't go home with that bird strapped to my atv. If I didn't have my decoys out the Tom would have walked his normal route and came right up to me.

I wonder how many times decoys actually wreck a successful hunt. In this instance the decoys weren't needed and I should have left them at home.
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How would you know in advance whether the dekes would help OR hurt??? We have probably both experienced many more times where a gobbler spotted the dekes and came strutting right in... also, I have had many gobbler's come in to the decoys completely silently... I never even knew they were around... the calling attracted them and the decoys finished the deal... the dekes might hurt occasionally, but I am confident that they help MUCH more...

For example... how many times have you hunted WITHOUT dekes and had gobbler's hang-up because they could hear you calling but could not see any birds around... I have had that happen a number of times... If I have the time to set-up and the terrain and cover allow it, I will always use decoys.
 
I use dekes for my main morning setup.... If I get no love I throw the dekes in the vest quick and start run and gun hunting.... that is how i git my first bird this year....

That being said, I don't hunt fields and corn like most as my land is mostly hardwoods and swamp.... so a different tactic is required.... that being said, that is really what turkey hunting is about... adapting to circumstances, patterning the birds and doing what you need to do....
 
Had a tom ran through the woods last sat to the call, the second he saw the pretty boy he stopped strutting and slowly just walked away. I think I'm gonna stop using them from now on.
 
sherlockbonez said:
Had a tom ran through the woods last sat to the call, the second he saw the pretty boy he stopped strutting and slowly just walked away. I think I'm gonna stop using them from now on.
Click to expand...

It was probably a jake... sometimes that happens if you use a gobbler decoy like the "Pretty Boy." Younger birds have usually had their butts kicked a few times by gobblers... which probably gets old fast for them. We don't use gobbler decoys... just hens and jakes... it really pisses off gobblers to see jakes with hens... especially if they are in the "mount" position.
 
With so many coyotes in my area, the toms seem to only gobble and chatter when the sun rises, then go silent.

The only bird I ever got came in silently with no calling to my hen decoy. I'm doubting the calls more than the decoys now.
 
Once upon a time I did use them until a huge Tom got spooked from my decoy( not the prettiest decoy around) probably seen it and was thinking this lady is pretty homely looking and took off and since then I don't use them really. Sometimes setting up the stage for romance works and sometimes it don't.
 
missed a tom this year because it saw my deke ( a hen) and didn't like something about it , he started alarm putting and that was that. That being said the one field that i hunt i use a deke in because there is enough wind to make it natural looking. In the bush they look like plastic turkeys IMO
 
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