Bowhuntingboy
New Member
I use both but I am using the full bodied less and less. It seems like the full bodied decoys cause more trouble than good... my full bodied decoy is hard plasitc which makes so much noise 'tinking' on branches and stuff when you're trying to sneak through the woods, and if you carry it in the carry bag and assemble it in the field you might as well bring and air horn too... they 'clank' and 'clunk' and are so loud and inconvenient. So I think the solution to decoy use is to use the full bodied dedoy only when hunting a field or area where you can have it pre-assembled and have easy access to get to your stand (put orange on the decoy!).
With the silouette decoys I have had the same problem with circling deer getting spooked by the 'disapeering deer' effect. The solution to this is to stick to using full bodied decoys in high visibility areas like fields or open woods and using silouettes in dense, thick areas where you could put the decoy on an edge of thick cover and any passing deer would only be able to see it from one direction so place it strategically.
The silouettes are so convenient. They fold up so small and are light and quiet to set up etc.
I have come up with a solution to the 'disapeering' effect of the silouette decoy. It is sort of visual but I will try and explain it here: You would need two silouette decoys to do this but it may be worth it. Pretent the letter 'L' is an aerial view looking down on your two decoys. The corner of the 'L' is where the two hind-ends of the decoys meet. The top of the 'L' is one decoy's head and the right foot of the 'L' is the other decoy's head. The approaching deer could circle and always have a full view of a decoy. The head of the viewable decoy (where the approaching deer would focus their attention) would distract attention from the 'disapeering' decoy near the viewable decoy's hind-end.
I don't know if I made any sense at all but this method works well. Good luck.
With the silouette decoys I have had the same problem with circling deer getting spooked by the 'disapeering deer' effect. The solution to this is to stick to using full bodied decoys in high visibility areas like fields or open woods and using silouettes in dense, thick areas where you could put the decoy on an edge of thick cover and any passing deer would only be able to see it from one direction so place it strategically.
The silouettes are so convenient. They fold up so small and are light and quiet to set up etc.
I have come up with a solution to the 'disapeering' effect of the silouette decoy. It is sort of visual but I will try and explain it here: You would need two silouette decoys to do this but it may be worth it. Pretent the letter 'L' is an aerial view looking down on your two decoys. The corner of the 'L' is where the two hind-ends of the decoys meet. The top of the 'L' is one decoy's head and the right foot of the 'L' is the other decoy's head. The approaching deer could circle and always have a full view of a decoy. The head of the viewable decoy (where the approaching deer would focus their attention) would distract attention from the 'disapeering' decoy near the viewable decoy's hind-end.
I don't know if I made any sense at all but this method works well. Good luck.
Dewy
Active Member
I have had great luck so far this season with my "cardboard" cutout buck. On a tip from "limb chicken", I place the decoy in the shadows where a buck has to look to find it. To prevent the disappearing deer phenomena in an open field scenario, I place the decoy in a fence line or in the brush along the field edge to prevent circling. Another thought is to play the wind so that when circling begins the circler gets an arrow before he spooks.
