Preferred decoy setup?

[SD Mike]

I was curious if anyone had a preferred decoy setup they like to use for turkey in the spring? Does it depends on the situation for you? Do you have something that consistently works for you personally? I'm not asking for any family secrets here...
From my brief experience in the game, I've learned it's mostly what you're doing WRONG than what you're doing RIGHT (crowded setup, strutting tom decoy scaring off intimidated birds later in the season, setup not offset from your location to where the birds may come from, setup too far away, etc, etc, etc). Currently I have a 3 cheap foam decoys: a jake, feeding hen, and breeding hen. I'll set up about 20 yards from the decoys. I don't have a consistent way I like to lay out the decoys yet...
What's your preffered M.O. in the turkey woods?

 

[Fowl Play]

I have two different setups I run depending on the situation I think I’m going to be in. My main setup is two hens and a jake. This is a pretty standard setup. Typically like the decoys about 20 yards from me. I like to place the jake slightly facing towards me and the hens facing away from me. I don’t think this is a huge deal, but from my experience a mature tom will approach a jake from the front and hens from behind. So I try to place my decoys in such a way that if I do get one of those nice tail fan displays right in the decoys, I can move my gun into position while his head is behind his tail fan. This strategy has only really made a difference on one bird so far – so take it for what it is.

My other setup is just the two hens minus the jake. I use this in situations where I know the birds are henned up big time -- so my only chance is going to be getting the lead hen to come to me. In this situation I will call aggressively and try to piss the hen off enough to come looking for a fight. I don’t want a jake decoy in this situation because it might make the lead hen not want to come in. I also use this setup if I see that birds are hesitant to come into the decoys, sometimes, even though it’s only a jake… I’ll have birds hang up or act cautiously towards my jake decoy. Sometimes gobblers are wusses (or must have gotten the living crap beaten out of them earlier in the season).

So either way, my main strategy is to bring my jake decoy with me and let the situation dictate on whether I set it out or not. Cautious bird seemed to not like the jake decoy? Time to pull it! Didn’t get that henned up bird in the morning? Well, time to set out the jake decoy and hope to get him jealous when the girls leave him. I also will say I have gotten birds much much closer since I made the switch from cheaper foam decoys to more realistic Avian-X’s. If you go through the effort to wear a ghillie suit, face mask, etc etc because you know turkeys have amazing eyesight, you’re doing yourself a disservice using an unrealistic decoy. I used foam decoys for years and killed birds over them, but I will say I noticed a huge difference when I made the switch. Now if I could only afford some DSD’s haha.

It's a good question and I'm curious to see what others have to say as well.

 

[SD Mike]

I have two different setups I run depending on the situation I think I’m going to be in. My main setup is two hens and a jake. This is a pretty standard setup. Typically like the decoys about 20 yards from me. I like to place the jake slightly facing towards me and the hens facing away from me. I don’t think this is a huge deal, but from my experience a mature tom will approach a jake from the front and hens from behind. So I try to place my decoys in such a way that if I do get one of those nice tail fan displays right in the decoys, I can move my gun into position while his head is behind his tail fan. This strategy has only really made a difference on one bird so far – so take it for what it is.

My other setup is just the two hens minus the jake. I use this in situations where I know the birds are henned up big time -- so my only chance is going to be getting the lead hen to come to me. In this situation I will call aggressively and try to piss the hen off enough to come looking for a fight. I don’t want a jake decoy in this situation because it might make the lead hen not want to come in. I also use this setup if I see that birds are hesitant to come into the decoys, sometimes, even though it’s only a jake… I’ll have birds hang up or act cautiously towards my jake decoy. Sometimes gobblers are wusses (or must have gotten the living crap beaten out of them earlier in the season).

So either way, my main strategy is to bring my jake decoy with me and let the situation dictate on whether I set it out or not. Cautious bird seemed to not like the jake decoy? Time to pull it! Didn’t get that henned up bird in the morning? Well, time to set out the jake decoy and hope to get him jealous when the girls leave him. I also will say I have gotten birds much much closer since I made the switch from cheaper foam decoys to more realistic Avian-X’s. If you go through the effort to wear a ghillie suit, face mask, etc etc because you know turkeys have amazing eyesight, you’re doing yourself a disservice using an unrealistic decoy. I used foam decoys for years and killed birds over them, but I will say I noticed a huge difference when I made the switch. Now if I could only afford some DSD’s haha.

It's a good question and I'm curious to see what others have to say as well.

That's a pretty clever strategy regarding the direction of your hen and Jake. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Bonejour]

Great description. Thanks for sharing FP

 

[ilovesprig]

Mike,

Lots of variables, but I prefer to have my decoys at 25 about yds in front and always downhill , if I'm pulling birds from any distance.....Almost always use DSD jake, upright hen, and feeder hen.....Rarely use a strutter.....Just to big a chance they won't want to fight.....They almost always will challenge a sneaking jake....Another tip is don't have your jake decoy too high....Lower to the ground is more passive posture.....Sometimes I like to take an upright hen and place it just if front of the jake on the ground in a breeding position.....Boss gobblers don't like young guys in their zone.....If in doubt, use only a feeding hen or no decoy at all, if you're calling them into thicker or canopy type woods....Make the edge of the sun light in your range....2 cents

.

 

[steveo007]

i usually post up some feeder hens with a submissive Jake, sometimes the wary ole tom doesnt want to commit,when all else fails you have to think
"out of the box" as silly as it seems this setup seems to work when others fail

 

[SD Mike]

i usually post up some feeder hens with a submissive Jake, sometimes the wary ole tom doesnt want to commit,when all else fails you have to think
"out of the box" as silly as it seems this setup seems to work when others fail

You crack me up, Steve.

 

[Fowl Play]

Haha... like that setup!. Actually, they should make a decoy that imitates the death flop a turkey makes when you shoot it. On multiple hunts I've been on we actually wound up taking a double because another bird ran from the other side of the field to come attack the bird flopping around on the ground.

 

[SurfNHuntSD]

Haha. A tom might attack that jake on the basis of being funny lookin

 

[steveo007]

Haha... like that setup!. Actually, they should make a decoy that imitates the death flop a turkey makes when you shoot it. On multiple hunts I've been on we actually wound up taking a double because another bird ran from the other side of the field to come attack the bird flopping around on the ground.

they do i believe primos has a wounded bird decoy

 

[wiley]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRYWgBOeSTY