Strutting Decoy...Good or Bad????

[KentuckyTJ]

Hunted all around hard Whip.

Joe, the wind was blowing very hard this weekend maybe something to the whipping leaves on the blind. Of course all the foliage is whipping around pretty good this weekend. I'll investigate this though Thanks.

[Fritz]

Thanks for the info Joebuck. I have had issues over the last 2 yrs with gobblers hanging up 50-60 yrds out from my full strut decoy. I'm gonna quit calling to them once they see the deke and see if that helps.

[kbetts]

I've got mixed emotions on decoys in general, but I haven't used a strutter in three years.  If I use a deke, its just one.  I can't sound like two turkeys as I have a hard enough time sounding like one.

Yesterday rejuvinated my thoughts on not using any at all.  Before lunch I threw on the bug jacket and grabbed my bow "just in case" as I went to check a camera.  Ten minutes in I located one and within another two, he was crossing a ditch looking for me.  I could visibly see him panning back and forth looking for the hen.  As he worked away, I purred him right back around.  With a decoy, I'm sure he would have hung up.  

I wish I could say I killed him, but I sent a fir arrow under him.  He wasn't huge, but with no blind and work khakis on, I was shootin.  It takes skill to shoot "under" a turkey you know.  Lol

[Whip]

That wind might just be your problem Tom.  Those leafy blinds will sure get to fluttering in a good wind.  Even though the bushes and leaves are moving too, the movement is a little different, and the birds might very well recognize that and shy away.  Even though he didn't totally spook, he may have known that something just didn't look quite right.  

I know that joebuck gave up on ghillie suits for that exact reason.  They work great when it's calm, but add some wind and they have an unnatural flutter to them.

[AkDan]

I tossed a cabelas blind also for that reason.   Had birds close got just enuf wind it shook the blind, bye bye Tom.  Has happened a few times now.   Time for something new.

[Yohon]

Hey TJ.....after two seasons with a full strutter the 1st bird that seen the new AvianX jake hen combo comes in on a string and gives me a 12 yards shot and all I have is black feathers...    
 
The new dekes look good and mind you the jake is only 9 steps away!!
 
Camera pix off my video right before the unmentionable happend.....  

[Fritz]

Those dekes look real! No wonder they are so expensive.

[raghorns]

I listened to the wisdom and experience of you guys on this thread and left my strutting toms at home. I also read on another thread that it is a big mistake to over call. I stuck my 1 lone hen 12 yards out and just yelped enough to let them know where I was and for 20 minutes the 2 big toms just tried to impress each other. Then like an alarm went off and they wanted to come check out the new girl. They came in strutting and gobbling the whole way.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge,
Lyle
 

[Yohon]

THATS how it supposed to work.....BIG time congrats!!!!!  

[kykiller]

TJ I always start with my strutter during the youth season and see how the bird react.  Last year it worked great on the youth opener as well as the regular season opener.  By the first week last year birds were alittle shy of it.

This year the youth opener was a little different 2 longbeards came in from behind us and were headed strait for my hens when they came around the blind and saw my strutter they hung up and stopped, still strutting and gobbling but not advancing any.  They were behind us and the kid was unable to get a shot.  After 30 minutes of gobbling, strutting, drumming, basicilly torcher they moved away behind us.  30 minutes later a long bird came in from in front of us silent and causously went strait to the strutter never gobbling once or strutting.  When he got to the decoy he was starting to ruffle his feathers up when the yound man with me smoked him.  So for the regular season opener I left it in the truck.  Results were good with just hens.  I think they work best early in season and sometimes late. JMO.  This weekend I'm going to setup in a strut zone area that is narrow and not use a decoy at all and see what happens on my first setup. If nothing goes I will move to another area and try the hen by itself.

Wish I had one of the avian decoys I have heard nothing but good things.

[Steve O]

I thought strutters were to challenge DOMINANT birds?  Lots more jakes and two year olds running around than big old dominant birds.

[KentuckyTJ]

Yohon, yeah those are nice, I'd love to get a couple of those but I'd have to sell a bow or something. Dang they are pricey.

I think SteveO's onto it. If that young bird would have come in I wouldn't have shot him anyway. I had my camera in my hand and wanted some good photos.

[wapiti792]

I drank the kool-aid and bought a couple of them Avian X dekes. Perhaps that will be the KY jinx-breaker I need TJ  

[Whip]

Originally posted by Steve O:
I thought strutters were to challenge DOMINANT birds?  Lots more jakes and two year olds running around than big old dominant birds.

I think it depends a lot on their mood.  It seems like most guys are using a jake strutter, so that shouldn't intimidate too many.  

In watching live birds they often will go to a struting tom even when they are subordinate birds.  Kind of like a little whitetail buck can't resist chasing after a doe even when a bigger buck is on her tail.

I often times see jakes tagging along behind a strutting tom and harrasing his girlfreind.  Sure, they get chased away, but they just can't seem to help themselves.

[RC]

I killed my first"about to beat up my jake" bird yesterday. But I`ve killed more beside a lone hen.
  I use a pop`up most of the time and hunt field edges or clearcuts a lot. More so in the afternoon hunts. I can tell you from experience that when I started setting my blind inside the edge instead of out in the field I had More Turkeys closer. If I can set it under a big tree with limbs to hang over even better.Good luck.RC

[Yohon]

Went out behind the house this AM for a bit and had a hen come right up to the Avian hen puff all up and pecked right in the head!!! Never had a hen check a deke out like that before.......

[Dirtybird]

Those decoys are very nice looking.

[Looper]

Here's a couple of my setups.

   The first picture was the scene of quite a ruckus. That morning, I had 17 birds within 30 yards of me. There were so many birds around me, I couldn't draw without being seen. When I did decide to take a shot, on a particularly ornery jake, I got busted by a big gobbler that was only 10 feet behind me. I didn't know he was there, until he started making his alarm putt. It was pretty funny. There were 6 or 7 jakes and toms around me at that moment. I think the big tom caught me drawing. They all eventually moved off and out of range. I did call 4 jakes back to the decoy, but didn't take a shot. I had to end my day's hunt at noon, so I didn't get another shot.

The next day, I moved to this setup:    
I ended up calling a huge gobbler in, and he put on quite the show. As soon as he saw that jake, his head turned from bright blue to almost black. He strutted and drummed and did everything he could to frighten the jake decoy off. When it didn't run, he pecked the crap out of it several times. His final move was to spur it. I shot him as he was gloating over the knocked over decoy.

I made the shot I wanted and thought he was down for good, but he made a last short, desperate flight into the nearby thicket, and I couldn't find him. That's the first big game animal I've ever lost. I'm still sick to my stomach about it. At any rate, my buddy shot two huge gobblers out of that same setup later that afternoon with his shotgun.

In both setups, I had the decoys set about 13-15 steps from me. I had the facing me and made sure not to put them too close together. Every male bird, both jakes and toms, that saw them zeroed in on that jake. These decoys were expensive, but they should last me the rest of my life. I've spent a lot more on all of the cheap ones I've used over the years.

[Gary Logsdon]

I may be the odd man out here since I have had a lot of success arrowing gobblers off of fanning type decoys, taking probably at 15 or so using that type of decoy . . . and not early season either.  LATE season and LATER in the day.  Here's how it's worked for me. Unlike the turkeys I don't get really excited about the breeding period until after the hens have put down all of their eggs and more or less settled on the nest. Where I hunt (Eastern longbeards in west KY)this may be the last week of the season. Believe it or not, I am as serious about taking mature longbeards as the Wensels are about tagging big whitetails (OK, so you don't believe that:^)). While gobblers can, and do, shy away from aggressive looking decoys I have found a method for firing them up and coaching them in. . . I'm talking "kick his butt" close. I don't set a hen, only the male, and stake him pretty tight to the ground.  I rig a pull string so I can periodically lower his fan to the ground.  Once a bird shows any interest at all, and this could be at 50 or more yards, I lower the tail, wrap the string around my foot to keep it down, and shake my foot (sitting in a blind of course)so that the decoy QUIVERS on the ground as if he has a hen penned underneath him. This little maneuver has tripped more switches on lonely, mid-day, post peak breeding longbeards than I can remember. Works for me.

[Yohon]

Wow thats a great tip Gary!!! Sounds like Wensel kinda thinking too.......