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What decoys to use 2nd season?

Phantom

Phantom

PMA Member
What is everyone using this weekend? Had 2 toms skirt the PB and hen decoys during youth season, unfortunately just out of range. I honestly think they would have continued on down the field edge and been within 10 yards of the blind if the dekes weren't out. :mad: I realize they could have worked just the same depending on what mood they were in.

Most likely headed to some public ground Saturday morning so might just take the hen dekes. Any words of decoy wisdom for this novice turkey archer? It's limb chickens old PB so that brings at least some luck right? :D
 
I had 7 toms and 8 jakes look at my pretty boy and DSD hens today. 1 tom came in which my buddy shot but the other 6 wouldn't budge. 6 of the jakes and 2 of the hens came right in.

I then tried just two dsd hens. Had 2 toms come in to 43 yards and put on a heck of a show but would not come closer.

On Monday I tried a DSD jake and 2 DSD Hens. Had 4 toms and 5 jakes look at the set up and not one would commit.

I honestly don't know what works anymore.
 
I've tried the DSD flock a couple times and just 2 DSD hens once. Everytime I've had longbeards see the dekes. Today was the first time we had one commit. It took a little time but he did commit to the jake. We were setup right in their landing pad though. Everyother time the gobblers will sit and gobble their heads off and all the hens will go to them. It's early and the weather is weird so hopefully they will get fired up soon. Just about every hen we've seen has come into our setup. They will mill around for awhile then head back to the strutters.

So the answer is your guess is as good as mine.:D Really right now I think the key is being extremely close to the roost. They get pretty fired up in the morning and if you can get the hens to come in off the roost you'll be in good shape.
 
I have been having good results with aggressive calling. Cutting and fighting purrs have brought some birds in for me. In years past it has been the opposite.

As far as decoys I've had birds act scared of my male dekes but had jakes come close enough to shoot when I started calling.
 
I'm going with the DSD jake and standing hen combo. Might throw a lying hen in there now and again to mix it up. If they get real skittish, I'll switch to the DSD hen only.

Last year nothing would work and I was this close to setting up the dekes 100+ yds downstream so when the birds started the guaranteed arc around my setup, they'd still be in front of the blind. :D
 
With all the DSD talk this off season, I thought you could put one anywhere, even a busy intersection in the city and gobblers would run in. huh:confused:
 
The tom my son shot on Sat. would not come out of the timber to the dekes, he was probably 25-30 yards from the "flock" but only 12 yards from the blind. I still say you can call a turkey anywhere HE wants to go....
 
I had my PB and laying hen out for youth season. We had 1 gobbler out of the 6 we saw come in. Unfortunately my 10 year old daughter missed. It was pretty exciting for both of us. I was sorry she missed her first chance, but I was kind of glad too. She got to experience a great weekend and learned that sometimes it is harder than it looks.

Anyway, I think I will use my PB with a jake fan this weekend and see what that does. The ones we saw that wouldn't come in seemed like they were a little intimidated. So we will see if a jake makes the difference.


Dan
 
breiner11 said:
With all the DSD talk this off season, I thought you could put one anywhere, even a busy intersection in the city and gobblers would run in. huh:confused:
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Don't think that was said anywhere.

Not to start a bashing contest but I take it you have never used a DSD?

Like all hunting what works one day will not work the next.
I do firmly believe that for bowhunting that the most realistic decoy with
movement will bring a larger percentage of birds in.

Patience is the key here and given time the most realistic decoys will prevail. I will use the Jake, upright and a feeder all season. If you can make sure they have some movement.

Good luck to all.
 
Cooter said:
I have been having good results with aggressive calling. Cutting and fighting purrs have brought some birds in for me. In years past it has been the opposite.

As far as decoys I've had birds act scared of my male dekes but had jakes come close enough to shoot when I started calling.
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Same here Cooter.

I have stayed on the birds and even brought the hens in with the Toms following.

If a Tom is hung up I have stayed on him and sometimes he gives in sometimes he don't. The small talk has not been very effective so far.
 
Ive only shot two turks over a decoy and that was the PB.. In my experience, probably 90% of the time I have a decoy out, especially a hen, the birds hang up. Without a decoy, I can call everyonce in a while to keep them guessing and they will eventually come in out of curiosity. Without a decoy, I can "try" to fool them with a little directional calling to make it sound like im leaving the scene... With a decoy, they "know" that it's sitting right there infront of them, and more often than not, nature will take its course and ol Boss Gobb will hang up and let the hen come to him because that's the way it's suppose to happen. Yea, you'll get lucky once in a while and catch a bird in the right mood and he'll come right in. If you're set on using decoys, I would never just have a hen/s out... always have a jake or tom out too.
 
risto2351 said:
Don't think that was said anywhere.

Not to start a bashing contest but I take it you have never used a DSD?

Like all hunting what works one day will not work the next.
I do firmly believe that for bowhunting that the most realistic decoy with
movement will bring a larger percentage of birds in.

Patience is the key here and given time the most realistic decoys will prevail. I will use the Jake, upright and a feeder all season. If you can make sure they have some movement.

Good luck to all.
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I stand corrected sir, nobody here specifically said gobblers would run into a busy intersection in the city after a DSD. Thanks for straightening me out:way:
 
You need to have a flock out, 1 strutter and 3 or 4 hens. The hens will put the birds at ease and the tom will piss them off. In my experience around this time in the year is when the birds start to get really aggressive so I'd definitely be packing the strutter. 1st season the birds came in fine to the strutter for me with 3 hens out, just no physical attacks. I haven't had anything but bad luck with jake decoys in the past, just a FYI...however I've never tried the DSD jake.
 
I have always used decoys and have never had a problem decoying birds that said I believe that there are days when the same bird will shy from them or even totally ignore them and the next hour or next day will run right over them.

There is no magic formula for decoy combinations and yes I do own DSD but that doesnt mean every bird will come running.

Good luck
 
breiner11 said:
I stand corrected sir, nobody here specifically said gobblers would run into a busy intersection in the city after a DSD. Thanks for straightening me out:way:
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breiner, you should have known better than to joke about the seemingly mythical effectiveness of the DSD. Even though it was a funny joke you should have realized that it wouldn't go over well in a forum full of Dave Smith cu* drinkers. On this site DSD's are to be worshipped not mocked!
 
Soooooooo......what your saying is..... backing into the pasture with a DSD on my tailgate isn't gonna pan out? I've been practicing slamming the topper door shut for the last 3 weeks! Shhhhht
 
timekiller said:
breiner, you should have known better than to joke about the seemingly mythical effectiveness of the DSD. Even though it was a funny joke you should have realized that it wouldn't go over well in a forum full of Dave Smith cu* drinkers. On this site DSD's are to be worshipped not mocked!
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:D:way::way::way::way::way:
 
timekiller said:
breiner, you should have known better than to joke about the seemingly mythical effectiveness of the DSD. Even though it was a funny joke you should have realized that it wouldn't go over well in a forum full of Dave Smith cu* drinkers. On this site DSD's are to be worshipped not mocked!
Click to expand...


I'll bet your a real classy guy!! Can we call you....."HERO" ??????
 
To each his own. If you don't like DSD don't use them. Pretty simple if you ask me.

I would bet the majority of the people (not all) making negative comments about them probley own $1000.00 bows or maybe a $40,000 truck.

In other words BITE ME!
 
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