'Just Curious'

[tha bugman]

No comment , regardless how you hunt it's doesn't make you less of a hunter... just be glad the Good Lord gave you the opportunity to hunt turkeys ...

Amen Brother Greg!

[tha bugman]

Just like in statistics..."It all depends" but I have found that I am using both less and less.

[hambone50]

I've never used a blind. I like to have the ability to make small adjustments on a bird if needed. Beyond that I just enjoy walking and prospecting for birds.

It's totally situational on the decoys for me. I dont box myself in one way or another. That being said 60-70% or so have been without solely based on terrain. Im usually in thick woods where decoys really dont help too much.


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[THattaway]

No blind. No deke 99% of the time. No problem using a deke in certain circumstances, will help with kids and old men who can't move much to swing a gun. Have used a blind with very small kids a few times. Cushion just allows me to sit a while longer.

[turkeyfoot]

It varies for me I don't hunt one way all time sometimes I've got the vest packed up sometimes I enjoy nothing but a small pack with couple calls shells and bottle water and just have at it. Blinds are one thing I'm not fan of just because its to boring to me and I enjoy sitting against a tree with full view of nature. I might use one if calling for heavy non stop rain I do hate to miss a day of season

[KentuckyLB]

I don't mind throwing a set of decoys in a cut cornfield and kicking back watching the morning unfold here in Kentucky. Where I hunt in Missouri it is strictly boot leather run and gun until quit time.

[Haypatch]

No decoys or blinds for me either... I have killed one gobbler over a decoy in my hunting career though yrs ago.

[MK M GOBL]

It goes by the hunt, just tools in the shed for me. I do see myself using them for some of my "Learn to Hunts" & youth hunts and first time hunters, have used for bow hunts and filming. So Blinds & Decoys are a sometimes yes and sometime no...

I will say there is a skill set and learning curve to using both.

MK M GOBL

[falltoms]

No decoys or blinds. To me it's more satisfying

[davisd9]

No blind and 98% of the time no decoys.  I will use decoys if I feel the situation calls for them or I have a bird that just needs to die and I think that is how it will happen.  I really hate carrying them so if I do use them it is usually the first set up and then I throw them in a bag and pick them up later.

[FLGobstopper]

I will and have done it all. I just like hunting turkeys regardless of what tactic or tool I happen to use in that situation. I will say though I cut my teeth pretty old school with only a single box call and a gun and a pocket full of shells. All though I typically carry a vest and much more gear than I used to, I find myself more than not reverting back to my roots and sitting down to a bird with just a call in my hand and maybe one tucked in my cheek and my gun on my knee.

But I will do whatever it takes legally to pull the wool over ones eyes if the right situation dictates and have no shame in doing it.

[ddturkeyhunter]

Got a blind for my wife because she had cancer and needed to lie down, couldn't sit long. She shot her first and only turkey from a blind, now that I have it will use on rainy days. As far as decoys I use them 90 percent of the time, just because of all the fun and excitement things I have seen useing good decoys. I have had jakes on top of them breeding them, hens pecking them and knocking them over. Hawks hitting them and something in the dark moving it a few feet. So will use one hen when have to sit for extended time, because not enough land to run and gun.

[Marc]

Occasionally I will use decoys (hen and jake)...  I have used a small ground blind when taking my daughter...

I love to hunt property that lets me move around and hunt birds...  I am too lazy or unmotivated to carry around a blind or set up decoys...
I have enjoyed calling in birds with no decoys, and I have also enjoyed the interaction of birds with decoys...  I  have killed far more without, and probably had more birds hang up on decoys than I killed because of them...

If I felt there was an advantage to using decoys, I would use them more often...  I grew up hunting ducks, in which the thinking on the ethics is virtually the opposite of turkey hunting...  Using decoys to fool ducks is the ethical thinking, and shooting birds on the water or ground is far more frowned upon than shooting them in flight.

[quavers59]

I have used featherflex decoys in past years and a 5 stake ground blind. In the past 4 Springs though--- less and much less. I don't use a best-- my camo Daypack serves as my seat. Toss in front of the tree quick. I am coming full circle as I travel light . The only thing I carry in that Daypack is 1 Box caller in a side pocket and the most important item of all-- bottle of Spring Water.

[Bowguy]

That's the way I always hunted til recently. I've lost all hearing in one ear from being sick and trying to triangulate direction is impossible. Decoys force me to look a certain way and help birds wind up where I'm looking. That being said after a roost hunt I'd still not use them. You gotta do what you gotta do though. Prob spent more than the first 25 years without even using pots or boxes either. Just a mouth call or two and some shells.