Tell my about deer decoys????

[Bullfrog]

Have you guys used the bedded doe decoys with success? I am hunting a small area. Can they be used year round? Any cons? Thanks.   BILL

[muley40]

I tried one couple years ago during the rut had doe with dandy buck trailing her, she spotted the decoy started stomping and blew out of there taking the buck with her,I traded it to a friend he never had any luck with it,

[mickeys4]

There's a good article in the current issue of TBM  with a guy who hunts from the ground and uses a decoy.He positions the decoy to draw the deer's attention away so he can draw undetected.

[TooManyHobbies]

I've used a Carry-Lite full body deke for a couple years. It's not really that Lite, and kinda noisy too, but once set up it's fine. I've had does stomp and snort and stare at it for 20 mins. I've had bucks do a doubletake, first curious, then real quick not interested. The same day as the buck, I had a young doe sniff the deke, then feed within feet of it. Every deer seems to have a different response. Which makes the day quite interesting. The shots present themselves though, some for just a second, others you can take all the time you need. Fun stuff.

[Chris Shelton]

I dont know what type of land you are hunting(public or private) but if I would definatly NOT use a decoy on any inch of Maryland public land!

[bowmaster12]

i have had very good luck with doe decoys on bucks does on the other hand absoulutly hate them as soon as they spot the decoy the are on high alert and stomping.  First time i ever used a decoy had a 150" ten point come right in so im kind of found of them myself

[trashwood]

I have not used a deer decoy but every year Wingnut of Dryad bows gets one of his 3D targets beat up during the night.  ya can see the tine marks on it.  I would like to see the fight   .  he has set up a trail cam.  the boyz that are coming by at night would be worth the effort.  pretty good looking deer.  

rusty

[Caleb the bow breaker]

havent used one much,  I always set mine upwind.  It seems like if a deer is interested they tend to swing downwind, duh. LOL

They do seem to be more effective on smaller bucks but hope to increase my experience beginning in September. LOL

Caleb

[boznarras]

The game warden sets one up here and there near the road and catches people shooting it. (It is illegal here to shoot from the road...) So they work well for him.

[brushcreek]

I have had bucks attack my 3-d targets every year,broke one's leg one year.This year my wife called me to the back window ,there was a spike trying to mount one of the targets,tried over a dozen times,we laughed.Afew days later when I went out to shoot,I discovered blood on both sides of the targets tail.poor spike

[hunterace]

it depends on your doe to buck ratio, hunting pressure, time of year, many things. they can be beneficial when used correctly, but for the average joe there are many ways to bag deer other than using a decoy. my 2 cents  

[hayslope]

One year a buddy who hunted behind our house, sprayed the south end of my 3-D target with doe-in-heat scent.

The next morning the target was laying on its side on the ground, with an ear broken off.

Me thinks that young buck will never loose that memory!

[Brian Krebs]

Shortly after the foam 3d targets became popular; there was a rash of destruction by the anti-hunters; who would find the targets and come in at night and rip them all apart.
 There were articles in the newspaper and in hunting magazines.

 Then came the day the REAL culprits were discovered  LOL !

 Agh the old days !

[Dave Bulla]

Well, you're asking specifically about bedded doe decoys and I've not used them at all but I have used the Montana 2d decoys and I've been impressed with the results.

A couple comments.  From what I've heard, doe decoys in general do not work as well as buck decoys.  If you are hunting real big bucks, a good decoy with a good size rack works well.  If you hunt where bucks run mostly small to average and are just after any old buck, a smaller racked decoy is better.  The rack on my Montana is pretty good sized and I've had it spook 1 1/2 year old bucks.  Several guys on here have said that they stick wooden clothespins on the Montana doe decoy to turn it into a spike buck and had real good luck.

My best experience with my decoy was this year when I was hunting a very tiny tree in an edge area with the decoy about 9 yards away.  About sunset a medium sized 7 or 8 point buck showed up about 70 yards to my right.  He was working my way but looked like he would pass behind my tree instead of in front of it.  At about 40 yards he spotted the buck decoy and perked up a bit.  Stared for a second and changed course towards the path I needed him on.  At about 30 yards I turned slightly in my stand and got picked off.  Arrgh!!  Then the decoy came back into play...  This bucked looked up at me, stared, head bobbed etc.  I leaned towards the tiny 6" trunk and squinted my eyes.  He stared, I stayed still.  He stared some more but then, he looked back towards the decoy just a few yards from my tree and I could just see the tension go out of him.  It was pretty amazing and totally obvious that he sort of shrugged and thought "hmmm, must be okay" then continued walking.  At about 20 yards he did almost the same thing and again he looked back at the decoy and relaxed.  He came in to the decoy and gave me a perfect shot opportunity which I promptly screwed up.

This was on public land too.

[lpcjon2]

Never did a bedded doe But did a standing doe once.once and never again

[Dave Bulla]

Oh yea, the Montana's look pretty darned real too.

 

I've thought about setting mine up without using the does legs so she would appear to be bedded and then have the buck standing "guard" nearby.  I've not done it yet though.

[Cool Arrow]

A picture is worth a thousand words.
       Larry

[jcar315]

I have a bedded doe decoy and I would not use it again for trying to "attract" deer. Deer see it, from near and far away, and in my experience anyway they don't like it one bit.

I will say I have used both the bedded doe and the 2D flat decoys as a "scarecrow" type of thing to push deer away from one area and towards me. I put them out in a pasture and if the deer come out there (away from me in the timber)they see it and head back into the timber. They work great for that! Killed several deer this way and is a go-to tactic for me later in the season.

[mountainman]

Used one this year to draw att away from my son and I we were hunting a ground blind it worked very well we had 5 does come in about 10yards I had the decoy out about 20yrds in front the deer came to our right they were a little jumpy until they saw the decoy it is one of the 2d 8point decoy I will use it next yr

[mountainman]

Used one this year to draw att away from my son and I we were hunting a ground blind it worked very well we had 5 does come in about 10yards I had the decoy out about 20yrds in front the deer came to our right they were a little jumpy until they saw the decoy it is one of the 2d 8point decoy I will use it next yr