I haven't hunted in recent years until last year.
Children, job, etc... got in the way. Now my kids are old enough to start going so I can now hunt with them. Best hunting buddies I could have.
Anyway... what decoys are you all using now?
I have some old feather flex decoys that are not puffing back out since I left them folded a few years ago and a jake and hen set of carry-lite in the same condition.
I see all of the new decoys, but I hate to pay $60.00 plus for decoys. Are there any good reasonable priced decoys available now?
just sayn...buy the best DSD all the way....
my wife and i have investd in 2 feeder hens and 1 alert (which i only use in a submissive position) and have more birds come into our setup in the last two years, then in the four years before...
she shot her first turkey this year, right off the back of the submissive hens back at 10 yds...
and our hens decoys get beat up more by real hens then i can count,some kind of domainance thing with hens, i guess, going to start videoing next season,for us and proof...
whatever you decide...good luck to you, russ
I was just like ya man I couldn't make myself pay the money for a nice decoy, but let me tell ya they are worth it in my opinion. The way the birds react to them is crazy. I would save my money and buy some good ones.
Sometimes, you can find a Carry Lite Pretty Boy Jr. jake decoy on sale. The head needs more red, but a little craft paint fixes that.
Stink is right on...the Carry Lite Pretty Boy Jr. jake decoy looks like a $ 100 decoy...I bought mine online from Wing Supply for $ 19.99 and repainted the head.
DSD is the way to go. They are pricey, but the way the look in the field is second to none in my opinion. I have the Alert Hen and the Jake and love them both!
What about collapsible decoys?
I know that the DSDs are primo, but what about collapsible?
Avian makes a hen that I use. It collapses.
Some days I love decoys, others I hate them. I had a gobbler come straight in to a strutting jake and get shot, then I had one turn tail and run not a week later.
I hunt over a couple of Avian Xs this year and had an entire flock of Rios turn and run from them.
I killed two Kansas birds this year without a single decoy. Who know!
I've got the one from primos. They are older ones, swinging head hen, she mobile, jake mobile with a real tail fan and I just ordered a upright jake. I think I'm set. Ill use the hens an depending on where the season is at either the jake mobile or the upright jake. Btw I got the upright jake on eBay for 25.00 with free shipping. I seen cabelas had a bobbin lite for 19.99
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I'm not a huge fan of decoys. I've had great results and spooked birds with a feeder hen. Go figure. If you can afford a DSD I would get one. Avian X would be my next choice. My best friend swears by the Avian X jake and hen set up.
Forget collapsible.
Dsd's are the way to go if you're going to run decoys.
(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a327/eddie234/IMG_20130522_160532_zps3130ccd6.jpg)
Here's my flock.
I watched seven birds walk into the avian x jake and two hen decoys this year. Two jakes, 2- two year olds and 3- three year olds. I bring this up because I don't think the old birds can resist and at the same time jakes are not so intimidated.
My goodness do they look good in the field. A taxidermist buddy is switching from the DSD to avian x next year.
Quote from: Super X3 on May 22, 2013, 09:22:53 PM
I watched seven birds walk into the avian x jake and two hen decoys this year. Two jakes, 2- two year olds and 3- three year olds. I bring this up because I don't think the old birds can resist and at the same time jakes are not so intimidated.
My goodness do they look good in the field. A taxidermist buddy is switching from the DSD to avian x next year.
Dsd's are lighter and more realistic. I'm not sure why anyone would ever make that switch.... BUT
If he is really doing that, I have a buddy selling his avians to upgrade to dsd's. If you want we can put our friends in contact for a straight up swap.
I agree with the majority. DSDs are they way to go. I've had all kinds of decoys over the years but you cant beat the DSDs. 2 years ago I bought the flock and this year I bought the strutter. By far the best on the market. They are priced high but they could be priced higher for what realism you get. They are well worth the money.
Well, I bought a DSD hen this year because I had Cabelas points that I had no other use for. Previously I used Featherflex...To be honest, DSD looks incredible and the birds seemed to be less confused and more relaxed or aggressive according to the situation, BUT I don't know that any bird did anything with the DSD that they didn't with the Featherflex regarding giving me a shot or not...Gobblers came in and were completely fooled but I've seen that with my foam decoys. Hens seemed more convinced and aggressive with the DSD...
I guess what I'm saying is, for the money, if that's a consideration, I don't know that the extra $ produce any benefit above the foamies...
That said, I like the DSD (more for the hen reaction than anything) and will continue to use it...I get some amount of satisfaction from using high quality equipment...
I think the purpose of a decoy is to get the gobbler that is hung up at 50 or 60 yards to come in to the desired 40 yards. IMO I don't think he can tell the difference between the expensive ones or the cheap ones out at that distance. I think the colors matter more.
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Quote from: eddie234 on May 27, 2013, 01:10:34 PM
I think the purpose of a decoy is to get the gobbler that is hung up at 50 or 60 yards to come in to the desired 40 yards. IMO I don't think he can tell the difference between the expensive ones or the cheap ones out at that distance. I think the colors matter more.
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I've thought that same thing in regard to what they see from a distance. I've been 80 or 90 yds. from the "foamies" and I don't know that I could tell much as far as detail is concerned...My thought is when they hang up it's because there's no movement...
Hunted over foam all my years. This years birds strutted circles around hen n jake decoy. As far as why I use decoys: gives bird something to focus on so I can get shot off.
when i use them,i like the b-mobile with a real tail fan...seems to have worked fine for me over the years...
I'd recommend asking this question on another forum as the moderators here will delete your post if you mention a product that isn't from one of their sponsors!
Quote from: matchbook454 on January 25, 2014, 11:32:27 AM
I'd recommend asking this question on another forum as the moderators here will delete your post if you mention a product that isn't from one of their sponsors!
LOL you do realize the op is almost a year old right?
Ok, I can tell already my answer is going to be a minority answer - but, I'd say - hunt w/the Feather Flex dekes you already have. Stuff some towels or something up in them right now, and leave them out for several days to "puff" them back out & reduce the creases in them. What I do with mine is wad up a bunch of paper towel, and shove it up into the neck area of both decoys, hen & jake, to make their heads "stand up"; I do the same on their tail areas, to make their tails "stick out". When I set mine out on the stakes, they "pop" right into position & stay there.
I recently re-painted my jake to get the colors to really pop out - you can check my video out here: http://youtu.be/8NZd0KdCjxQ
For 15 years now, gobblers have torn this jake decoy a new one, year over year over year. Are the more realistic-looking decoys "better" - probably so, but ... You can make that purchasing decision later on; what you have right now will work.
BGD
I know this thread is old but thought I'd add for anyone still thinking about decoys...A friend has some old "foamies" that never did have "correct" color. He's a pretty utilitarian type of guy and he stores his old "foamies" in the bottom of his hamper by the look of them. They're flat and bent in a curve when he stakes them. I always worried that, since they were right next to my "foamies" that I was so anal about, that by comparison, the birds would figure out that something wasn't quite "kosher." Didn't make a wit of difference...Birds came into them, flat and curved and wrong color and all...I've had gobblers strut, one wing down, falling all over themselves, for an old "foamie" laying on the ground...I don't think it's that critical. I do think that the high end decoys will hold a birds' interest longer but getting them in range? I don't see a huge difference...
Sixbird: To your point, check this out: http://youtu.be/G2ycn5spTR4
These are my 15 year old "foamies"; got 'em all in range & didn't bother them one bit... :) Over the years, I've had hens, gobblers, coyotes - you name it - circle around my foamies and not spook one bit...
Toms really seem to like my old Feather Flex...the one with the big blue head. She and one of those cheap Walmart rubber feeding hens were realistic enough to keep live hens around for 30 minutes, or so, on several occasions this year.
Quote from: stinkpickle on May 15, 2014, 03:20:40 PM
Toms really seem to like my old Feather Flex...the one with the big blue head. She and one of those cheap Walmart rubber feeding hens were realistic enough to keep live hens around for 30 minutes, or so, on several occasions this year.
I've seen the same thing.
Did you try a hair drier on high heat with your decoys, a little heat may put them in shape.
And you do not have to spend over 20 dollars on a decoy ,I have and will keep running sceery outdoor decoys .there like 17.00 dollars best decoys ever, I have shot big monster toms every year over them for the past 10 years . No one or nothing ,will change that unless I cant find them anymore ..
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I purchased a DSD hen decoy this year (for about $120), along with a non-DSD jake decoy on sale at Cabela's for $20.
The hen decoy is realistic, easy to carry and set up... And quiet to carry... And appears to be extremely durable... And expensive.
The sale decoy is reasonably realistic, (but scared the crap out of a tom the only time I used it), but is not quiet to carry, nor easy to set up. (Hunter's Specialties Woody Jake Turkey Decoy). The stake that the decoy came with broke the first time I tried to use it in the field, and barely supported the bird when I tested it at home.
This is the same decoy, but the body is more brown in color, the red does not go all the way up the head, and the white forehead is really white. I guess for $20, I do not mind a bit of paint on the head, but there is nothing I can do to make it more quiet to carry or more easy to set up... And of course the paint will chip off:
(http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p51/msorsky/turkey-jake_zps47d95649.png) (http://s125.photobucket.com/user/msorsky/media/turkey-jake_zps47d95649.png.html)
There is another company called Deception decoys that looks like it is going to be a competitor to DSD's...
http://www.deceptionoutdoors.com/decoys/
If they can produce an equal or better quality decoy at the same or lower price, a bit of competition and some choices are great for us hunters.
Do you need and ultra-realistic looking decoy? Can't say, but if you are hunting pressured birds, I would rather hunt with no decoy than a non-realistic looking one.
I killed two nice toms this season, both without a decoy... Never killed a bird over a decoy this season, and I probably hunted more frequently with a decoy than without.
Obviously, we cannot look into the minds of a turkey, like a psychologist, and analyze what will work 100% of the time -- BUT through observation, what works with the FeatherFlex "foamies" jake (I'm GUESSING) is that it looks like a jake that's kinda acting STUPID (not bowed up & puffed up or anything like that) so all the toms & jakes I've hunted that have come into it APPEAR to already know they can whip it's *ss!! I mean, the position of it is such that it's ... I don't know, looking around for Mama?!?
Watch that video; you'll see what I'm talking about... I know folks love these big, bad-to-the-bone blown up strutter dekes - and there's tons of videos out there to prove me wrong - but, I don't hunt w/those AT ALL; I'd rather have a "whip-able" decoy b/c it'll bring most every tom & jake in the woods to it...
Just speaking from my own personal experiences here... Your mileage may obviously vary... And I 100% advocate using what you're comfortable using & what works for you; every bird is different, so... It's a game of "trial and error" sometimes... My "trials" with the foamies have convinced me to keep on using 'em until they break, which - they're getting close to that point!! :)
I have been running DSD turkey decoys before they even came out on the market. The originals were a hard urethane plastic that took paint extremely well, but could crack or be damaged if not handled with care. Since the arrival of ACE plastic several years ago, that durability issue was taken care of .It has been my personal experience that I have had more turkey interaction with the decoys,than with any previous decoy I have ever used. Dave Smith help change the decoy market for the better, with some other companies stepping up and also building a good quality product .In the process we have a lot more options as far as decoys today. Do you need DSD's to kill turkeys? No, there are plenty of decoys out there that will put a turkey in the decoys for you. I do think on pressured birds they can and do make a big difference .
I just prefer to take the decoy out of the equation,and use a very realistic decoy. Again. this is just my opinion based on what I personally have experienced in actual hunts .Decoy selection is a personal preference,and is based on what works for you and the area you hunt.
I switched to the DSD flock last year and was VERY impressed with the results. 8 toms saw my decoys last spring and ALL of them came in (although I got an "assist" from a live jake on one occasion). Even during the "late season." A bunch of jakes came in as well. It was ridiculous. My DSD hens were attacked by live hens, and my DSD jake was attacked by jakes. (The toms would have done so as well, but I didn't give them the opportunity!) :z-guntootsmiley: I don't expect to have the same results every year, but I am still amazed.
For those of you who hunt near me, I recommend the cheap foam decoys. For everyone else, I recommend DSD's. If you don't want to spend so much on the flock, I would get the jake and feeding hen.
I've got 3 Delta decoys (H.S. Strut) that I've had for 15 years or so. The Jake and two hens have been touched up with paint to make them look more life-like. I blow up toy balloons inside them to help hold their shape after they've been flattened for a while. They're not as realistic as DSD decoys are, but not many gobblers have lived to walk away or been scared off by them either.
I also have a Flambeau strutter decoy that I rarely used before last spring. My youngest brother bought me one of those remote control motorized stakes last year from the Bass Pro. I thought it was kind of silly at first, but the movement really helps give the decoys a more realistic appearance. I added a Edge Outdoors collapsible fan kit that I made to be a jake fan. I adjust the beard to be short and with that jake fan, it really makes gobblers come closer to investigate. I'm sure they were thinking they were going to whip that strutting jake's butt and steal the hen(s).
The strutter decoy, fan, and motorized stake is extra stuff to carry, though the places I used this set up were on smaller properties where you can't move around much or cross property boundaries. That active decoy definitely pulled birds away off other properties from a long way. Between myself and two buddies, we used that strutter & hen combo to draw three mature gobblers into easy range.
Jim
I use Avian for what it's worth.
I bought 4 DSD decoys this spring. My 2nd hunt with them I was able to put a bird on the ground. The Tom that came in to my setup came alone and proceeded to beat the crap out of my Jake for about 5 minutes before I made the shot. I thoroughly enjoyed the show and was trying not to laugh while I watched this bird try to beat down my decoy. He came right in to my calls from a glass woodhaven pot call and after seeing the decoys, he was totally committed. It was a good hunt and I definitely suggest DSD decoys.
Love my DSD upright hen!!!!
DSD are the best IMO. They seem to bring in the birds and hold them. Got some great video of multiple birds on different occasions giving these dekes the business. Had a tom knock down the feeding hen and try to mate it for 30 min while a group of jakes and hens stood and watched. Expensive but I think we'll worth the money.
Quote from: gwa on November 30, 2014, 06:23:06 AM
I being somewhat of a novice with decoys can say they all work in the right situation. I have taken birds over Avian X, Cherokee Sports, Dakota and DSD. I really like the looks of my DSD, and with the cost of them will probably use them from here on out, but in my opinion the outcome would have been the same in any of the set ups with whatever decoys I had out. Lucky setups? Stupid birds? I don't know.....
Bingo. All decoys work. I bet more turkeys are killed over walmart decoys than any others. But I will stick with the DSDs because they are the most realistic out there other than stuffed decoys.
If you've noticed all the votes for DSD, I'll offer mine as well. The Avian also do look ok. Bear in mind as more guys use decoys, the need for realism becomes greater. Can't get more realistic than DSD
I'll add another vote for DSD. Like others mentioned, all decoys will kill turkeys, and it's impossible to know if the realistic decoys worked any better that particular day than a set of cheap ones would've worked...
BUT the reason I use them is because if I don't kill a bird, I don't want to wonder if it was because of my decoys. If I go on an out of state trip, spend all that time and money, I don't want to leave my hunt up to a set of $20 beat-up foam decoys and think to myself "I maybe could've killed more birds if I had better decoys".
For me, the realistic decoys take one less thing out of the equation, and leave one less thing up to chance.
I am starting to get the feeling that as long as the decoy(s) look close to realistic, but MOVE, they will work. I can imagine if a bird saw a decoy from a distance and it never moved, he would be suspicious and head the other way, I know I would.
For what my very little experience is worth, I have seen two turkeys while turkey hunting (One I missed, the other I shot.) and neither of them involved a decoy. Granted, the one I missed hung up at about 50 or 60 yards, but it still came from a long way away to check out the calls. The one I shot came in to about 20, but he had to go down a woodline where he couldn't see where the sound was coming from.
I am going to venture out to say that in the early season, decoys will work regardless of how much you spend on them, and by late season, decoys may not work very well, regardless of how much you spend on them. I think turkey are like deer, as the season goes along they get used to people frequenting the woods and calling. As the season progresses, and deer/birds get shot, they start to notice that kind of stuff. They are more skittish and aware that something isn't right.
I just ordered the Deception boss hen.....i have a DSD jake that will be paired with it....should make for a few interesting mornings this spring...
(http://i1099.photobucket.com/albums/g382/jlhoverkill/Boss-Hen-780x520.jpg) (http://s1099.photobucket.com/user/jlhoverkill/media/Boss-Hen-780x520.jpg.html)
Quote from: deerbasshunter3 on February 18, 2015, 09:10:44 PM
I am going to venture out to say that in the early season, decoys will work regardless of how much you spend on them, and by late season, decoys may not work very well, regardless of how much you spend on them. I think turkey are like deer, as the season goes along they get used to people frequenting the woods and calling. As the season progresses, and deer/birds get shot, they start to notice that kind of stuff. They are more skittish and aware that something isn't right.
Turkeys definitely get more wary when the pressure is on. How they react to decoys depends on the situation more than anything. If the turkeys you're hunting have had close calls with hunters around decoys or witnessed other turkeys dying, they can turn decoy shy. If you're able get set up in range of a strut zone that a dominant gobbler regularly uses where he doesn't get disturbed, he will flat out stomp an intruding jake decoy's @$$, no matter if it is a foamie or a DSD, on the first day of the season all the way through the last day of the season. Far as that goes, you can kill him without any decoys.
In my experience, if you have a decoy that is positioned where it can be seen from a very long distance away, turkeys have a longer time react negatively to it because of lack of movement. If you set that same decoy in an area with more limited visibility, where incoming gobblers need to get closer to it and where they can't study it from a distance, it will more likely draw those gobblers closer, especially if you're set up someplace that gobbler is comfortable being or already wants to go.
Jim