How many decoys for turkey

To celebrate this wonderful time of year, we want to explore some turkey hunting decoy strategies that are proven to work time and time again. While calling and camouflage are very important pieces of the puzzle too, effectively using decoys can make or break your day in the woods. By utilizing this turkey hunting guide, you too can experience the flop. While folks down in Georgia are placing their best turkey decoys and sitting in a ground blind, hunters up in the northern Midwest states could still be out ice fishing.

But you can still implement the turkey decoy techniques outlined here whenever your particular turkey season arrives. The other thing to note is that turkey populations have exploded in recent years. Northern states that historically had very few, if any, turkeys have now seen dramatic increases in numbers. This opens up a new and exciting type of hunting for more hunters across our nation, who might not be familiar with turkey tactics.

Use online resources to key in on your local sub-species of turkeys. Each region is a little different, so knowing the key differences could make a big impact on your success as a hunter. Many of us probably grew up with minimal use of decoys. Fortunately, that is strictly a thing of the past. There are full-body foam turkey decoys that are budget-oriented and would only fool a tom from far across a field.

There are also collapsible plastic or rubber ones that are so lifelike with feathers and eyes that you might have to watch out for other hunters! Even if you opt for the cheap side, you can spruce up some budget decoys by adding actual turkey feathers, beards, or fans, or by using fishing line as a pull cord to give you decoys more lifelike action. No turkey decoy collection would be complete without at least one tom turkey. All of them have their place.

If you want to get a wary bird in close though, buy the most realistic turkey decoys you can find, which will help close the gap between you and him. Reserve full strutting tom decoys for when you know there is a mature and dominant tom hanging around your area; otherwise, you may frighten passive toms from coming into range.

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How they work: During midseason, toms are strutting alone and looking for hens. Meanwhile, hens will feed in the morning before heading to the nest in the afternoon, leaving the gobblers lonely until he sees your decoy. How they work: For toms looking for love, the sight of several hens means better odds one is receptive to breeding.

And if you are trying to attract a boss hen with a gobbler on her tail, more hens will challenge her dominance. Purchase these decoys, and others at: www. The key here is location. Make sure your scouting is accurate and that his flock of girlfriends is going to wander by. The Shortbeard The single best decoy anyone can own is a submissive, half- or quarter-strut jake. These dekes are effective all spring, so long as you pair them with the right birds.

A laydown hen is great to go alongside a jake deke, especially for the first couple weeks of the season. Just make sure the laydown hen is visible to approaching birds and not obscured by grass or brush. This two-bird setup is good, but can be even better if you mix in a couple of feeding or upright hens especially in the first half of the season. Position them facing your setup all in the same direction, with the jake in last place. The ruse should look like a small flock walking away, with the only male in the group about to get lucky.

As the season progresses, pay attention to the reactions you get. What I learned in those formative years was that any combination of decoys might work, but the best bet was to use one or two hens.