tons of snapper

This will be my second year turkey hunting and I was wanting to my some decoys. What are some good ones to get? (gobbler,jake,hen-upright or eating)

Grassflatsfisher

If your going to hunt pasture birds sometimes a multiple bird setup is best. A couple of hens and a jake. Otherwise 1 jake or 1 jake and 1 hen is all you need. If I can only pick one decoy to take with me it will be a jake all day. The big hype now are these strutting decoys. I'll admit I have one. I personally think they work better in open fields/pastures where the birds can see long distances. I think they do help because the gobbs can really see a fan and the hens will naturally go to him...sometimes dragging a tom with them. I also think a good basic jake decoy with a good white/red/blue head paint job that is very distinguishable is just as effective. If they can see that white and red they will come runnin in to commence a whoopin.



I've had just as much luck with a single jake setup as I have with 3 or 4 birds set out. If a gobb thinks some young punk is movin in on his squeeze he's gonna come check it out.



Hope this helps.

byrddog

Remember to always set your decoy up facing you and i set mine up pretty close if i can. Every bird ive had come in to a decoy, gobbler, hen, jake, always comes from behind it. That way they are facing you when you want to shoot. I have a mounted full strut gobbler that ive had some unbielevable hunts with but hes a pain in the ass to carry around but there is something about real feathers that those pressured old gobblers love. I always have a hen decoy in my vest. It never hurts to have a decoy out sometimes it seems to calm them down a little.

There is no decoy or turkey call made that will take the place of woodsmanship, setup is everything, if he cant get to you you cant shoot him. Good Luck!

Offshore-911

Ive only called up 1 or 2 but the best decoys Ive found is NO DECOYS AT ALL! If you talk sweet enuff hes gonna come either way!

Blazerboy

I have used decoys for years. I have a B-Mobile by Primos with the She Mobile hen decoy. I have a real Jake fan on the B Mobile and have had many great hunts with them. I agree with the other post in that they are best used in a pasture or field. If you are set up on the edge of a field that gobbler knows where you should be. If he looks over to where the calling is coming from and sees nothing, chances are he will hold up out of range. Decoys are great for field birds. I only use the two I mentioned above. When I hunt the woods I typically don't use a decoy unless the woods are really open. I have had woods turkeys spook at decoys before.

I was skeptical about the strutting decoys until my first mine and now I am a believer. Each gobbler that has come to the stuttung decoy has come in with attitude. I have almost laughed out loud at times at how aggressive they become. The most important thing even more than calling is to know where the gobble is, where he wants to go, and get there before he does.

jspooney

blazerboy, you know your best bet to kill a bird is to have me with you. Don't hijack my birds dude. You ready to go?

Hunt4Jesus

If u need decoys and looking for the easiest and best go with the blow up kind. Wal-Mart started carrying them last season. They look real and very easy without taking up to much room. I got the strutting and 2 hens and killed a bird that came up to gobbler decoy bumping him. All for about $40.00, by far best decoys...

R. Long

Get yourself a LAMONT aka full strut mount he is the best decoy you will ever have, they will run you over trying to get to him, seen it happen.



Byrd Dog can confirm they don't like OL' LAMONT.

itsme

You can damn sure say that again!!!

Had this happen to me last year. Had a damn fine gobbler cut me off after some mid-morning yelps and cuts. I set-up real quick with a single jake decoy and a single hen decoy, then got into position. Yelp real soft again....he cuts me off again...so I shut-up and stayed put.

After 10mins, there he was about 80yds out headed straight in...UNTIL he saw those decoys! He hung up about 60-70yds out just staring at those decoys. He turned to leave 3different times and I softly yelped and turned him back 3 different times. BUT, he would not come any closer to those decoys than 60-70yds.

He saw something he didn't like, and this was a woods bird like mentioned above. I put the decoys up for the year and had more success without them.

Any thoughts on my scenario?

Grassflatsfisher

Itsme - I don't that use them in the woods for that very reason. Most of my hunting is in the woods since we don't have any big pastures anymore and I've had that happen to me twice. Your reversing nature when you call a gobb in. And I think when they see them in the woods he is wondering why they didn't come or why their not moving. He may have just been an inferior bird and had his butt whipped a few times or been shot at over decoys before. Who knows. I've heard people having success both ways. Just got to catch them in the right mood decoys or not. Like I said above...I use them mostly when hunting big green fields or pastures. Them old pasture birds that use to give us fits started meeting their demise when they made decoys legal in AL. First 5 or 10 was like shooting fish in a barrel. I think a lot of them have gotten wiser to the fact now though.