Turkey hunting - do I need decoys?

Exfireguy

Exfireguy

Member
Looking for some advice from more experienced hunters...
I haven’t hunted turkeys before. Are decoys necessary? Is it possible to call in a Tom using just calls but no decoys? Or, should I be looking for a couple decoys?
 
Porkpie said:
I’ve shot 50/50 with and without decoys. You don’t need to have them in the woods at all. In a field they certainly help.
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Totally agree. If you're out in a field it really gives them something to focus in on. I've had toms literally run towards my decoys. I usually hunt with a jake decoy and a hen decoy. Sometime a tom and two hens. Good luck @Exfireguy !
 
If you’re new to turkey hunting, my advice would be to practice, practice, practice and practice some more calling before you go sit out there and call.
If you aren’t calling right you will have them all running in the opposite direction!
Also if you have a ton of hens and only a few jakes and toms around they don’t really come into calling as much, you’re better off sitting on their paths of travel. Or get in close to where they are roosted.
 
As mentioned it's 50/50 for decoys, even in fields. I've had them come running in and I've had them run away. I've also had hens spot the decoys and lead the gobbler away from me. So to answer your questions, are they necessary? No. Can you call in a gobbler without them? Absolutely. As for calls all you "need" are a box call and a "push-button" call. Mind you I usually carry 2 pot calls, 2 box calls and a couple of diaphragm calls but I still bring in the birds with the push button (Easy Yelper). TC
 
All of the above ! At least for your original question but as for calling... ? Practice ... absolutely ! Get your basic clucks, purrs and yelps down pat. Every hunt is different and the bird will dictate how you talk to him. Some will come down off their roost after a few yelps and make a Bee line to you, others will play with you for what seems like hours. Most times over calling is the big No No . If you do get feedback from a bird don't over do it... tease him out to your kill zone. If using a decoy I like the 20-25 yard area as I know my pattern is good for just beyond that. Patience is one of the most important tools to carry with you. I've had birds banter with me for over an hour just to dummy up, so I wait a half hour... nope ... nothing , no response to my call. I scan my field but see nothing and figure I'm busted so I sneak down the edge of the field to where I last heard him and that's where we met eye to eye and he flew away. Had I waited a little more... who knows ?
Another time I knew which tree he was roosted in and called him down thinking he would go out into the field and stroll over to my set up but he takes a walk through the woods behind me and ends popping up approx. 15 feet to my right and gobbling ! Damn near crapped myself ! I'm already set up in shooting position for the field and can clearly see him out of the corner of my eye, by the time I started swinging my gun around he was long gone. So the moral to that story is "expect the unexpected".
 
I recall my first turkey hunting season I was trying to change the world with my calling
Pretty sure I scared every Tom off the property everyday I hunted..
I would hear them gobble in the trees
Could hear them responding to my calls getting closer and closer then nothing..
pretty sure at that point is when they sprinted to the next concession

last year there was a guy hunting on the other side of the gully..

Well let me tell you he would call for like 3 hours straight every day I was hunting I would hear him from just before sunrise until about 9-10am

not once did I hear a gun shot..

It was pretty annoying to be honest
As I don’t doubt that spooked the same turkeys I been hunting.
maybe scare them out direction I don’t know
But toooo much is what it was!!
Brutal too same mono tone call clearly not a turkey
 
I have been hunting this crazy birds since the very first season in Ontario. I keep a shooting log so I know about half my birds were shot with decoys out. However, a percentage of these I don't think the decoy was a factor. Like birds that came behind me and could not have seen the decoy. On the other hand I have had birds walk right up to my decoy while I was sleeping so obviously they do work somedays even without calling. If you are serious about getting involved I would get a couple.

A lot has to do with where and how you hunt. Decoys can be great but they also anchor you to a spot. If you don't have many options and plan to sit at one location for hours I would put them out. If you have a big property to hunt and the option to listen for gobbles and then move closer maybe leave them at home.
 
singlemalt said:
I have been hunting this crazy birds since the very first season in Ontario. I keep a shooting log so I know about half my birds were shot with decoys out. However, a percentage of these I don't think the decoy was a factor. Like birds that came behind me and could not have seen the decoy. On the other hand I have had birds walk right up to my decoy while I was sleeping so obviously they do work somedays even without calling. If you are serious about getting involved I would get a couple.

A lot has to do with where and how you hunt. Decoys can be great but they also anchor you to a spot. If you don't have many options and plan to sit at one location for hours I would put them out. If you have a big property to hunt and the option to listen for gobbles and then move closer maybe leave them at home.
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Unless you’re hunting public land in the states and have thousand hectares to work with, I wouldn’t walk around too much trying to find them
Spook them off your property those toms may not be back until turkey seasons over!
 
I don't know Derek I agree if you only have a very small piece to hunt you are better to sit still. But I have permission on a couple of properties which are over 100 acres and I am often successful with a "run and gun" approach. I listen for gobbles at dawn, move as quietly as I can, as close as I can and then sit down and start calling. Works for me.
 
Decoys are great to distract the bird from your position as others have noted. I like watching a tom beat on my jake decoy. Sometimes the decoy seems to be the reason they get scared off.

In terms of calling - try not to over think it. My first ever turkey hunt was with Dave Reid. Some here will know him as very influential in the turkey world and a big part of how turkeys wound up back in Ontario. He told me "the worst sounding call you'll ever hear will come out of a real hen". That has held true so many times with weird sounding hens that make you want to crack up laughing in the turkey woods.
 
singlemalt said:
I don't know Derek I agree if you only have a very small piece to hunt you are better to sit still. But I have permission on a couple of properties which are over 100 acres and I am often successful with a "run and gun" approach. I listen for gobbles at dawn, move as quietly as I can, as close as I can and then sit down and start calling. Works for me.
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I suppose if you have more than one property to hunt than who cares if you spook the toms off the property
You can just go to the next one the next day.
but I certainly wouldn’t wanna risk scaring the crap out of the birds off the one property that I can hunt. Bugger up the hunt for next week or two..
there’s always cruising toms throughout the day looking for hens.
But if you spook them out of or near their roost they not going to come back that day for sure. Likely roost somewhere else for a week or two is what I believe.
I’m not arguing the style of hunting
In fact I much prefer to be mobile then stuck in one spot. I get antsy and curious..
but the property I hunt is 100acres
Approx 70 workable and 30 gully..
not much room to hunt in the gully and you’ll likely scare the birds on your way in or around.
their eye sight is sharp and they will pick you up moving threw the bush like 200 yards away. And fly down the opposite direction and move on out of there.
 
Derkd9 said:
I suppose if you have more than one property to hunt than who cares if you spook the toms off the property
You can just go to the next one the next day.
but I certainly wouldn’t wanna risk scaring the crap out of the birds off the one property that I can hunt. Bugger up the hunt for next week or two..
there’s always cruising toms throughout the day looking for hens.
But if you spook them out of or near their roost they not going to come back that day for sure. Likely roost somewhere else for a week or two is what I believe.
I’m not arguing the style of hunting
In fact I much prefer to be mobile then stuck in one spot. I get antsy and curious..
but the property I hunt is 100acres
Approx 70 workable and 30 gully..
not much room to hunt in the gully and you’ll likely scare the birds on your way in or around.
their eye sight is sharp and they will pick you up moving threw the bush like 200 yards away. And fly down the opposite direction and move on out of there.
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Certainly being cautious is always a good thing. But I believe after 20+ years successfully hunting them I think they are a lot more tolerant of human activity than you obviously do. They are obviously extremely aware and alert to what is going on around them. I think for every turkey I see in the woods probably 10 see me. This means in agricultural SW Ontario turkeys see a lot of people, hikers, farm labourers, bird watchers, dog walkers etc. etc. . It is probably a daily occurrence for them. They will move away but often move back within an hour. I know the birds in the woods behind my house pretty well. I bet they see me every day of the season but 7 out of every 10 days they still roost in the same trees. I do avoid busting them off the roost, I think that can drive them away but if they encounter a person or two during their daily walk about that is just a normal day at the office for them.

In fact I walk my dogs twice a day, every day, within 200-300 yards of where I have shot most of my birds on this property.
 
Hahaha I love having discussions with people that drop their years of experience in their argument like that’s suppose to mean I have no argument.
anyways to each their own you wanna risk busting them because you believe they don’t learn from it short term that’s your business..
how do you think big old toms get big and old they learn to avoid humans threw experience and surviving these instances when they encounter humans in woods.
When they horny they make stupid mistakes yes that’s how they get killed.
I like to stack the odds on my side as much as possible
So when I only have 100 acres to work with I don’t go walking around the woods. Chasing them
Yah you chasing a gobbler so you know where he is but there are other silent ones you could walk up on or hens that will alert others as they chirp and fly away..
on small parcels of land it’s better to scout and know where they are going to be and place yourself there as much as possible
Paths they travel on to get from one struttin area to the next. Areas they eat. Etc..

Run and gun is exciting, and I it’s the way I’d hunt if I had a big property with lots of bush and multiple fields. not many people have access to this

but just because I don’t have 20 years turkey hunting experience doesn’t mean I don’t know how to hunt. Thanks
 
I know the property that I hunt all the neighbours also turkey hunt so once he’s over there that has just as much if not better habitat why would he come back in an hour after you just spooked him off?
cant shoot him over there.
If we’re talking like 400-500 acre farm where he just runs off to the other side of the property. You have a chance to get him that evening or the next morning.
 
OK Derk, you hunt your way I will hunt mine. I meant no hostility, just offering an alternate POV. As an old guy all I have to offer is experience, sorry if that offended. Some value experience obviously some do not. My birds also get hunted a lot. I only live one concession from the reserve in south Brant. I saw my first Native guy walk out of the bush behind my house with one two weeks ago. I will wait my turn and am pretty confident I will get my two. They are wary but not magical in their ability to elude us.
 
It’s not the experience that offended me it was the way you delivered it
You know nothing about the farm that I hunt. And I never said I don’t agree with your style only said that you need lots of land to hunt that way with
or like in your situation you have multiple farms to hunt.
 
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