Buck Decoys-The Truth About Them. I would have to venture a guess and say 90%(if not more) of the every day Whitetail deer hunter do not own and have not thought about using a buck decoy. I am not sure why this is but I can not recall it ever coming up in conversation with another hunter. I'm not sure they are even readily available at say Gander Mountain or Dicks.
This being said lets consider something else. How many times have you seen a trophy buck, out of shooting range or could not slow the deer down long enough to get an ethical shot or for whatever reason could not close the deal? I know more than half of the time I saw a true trophy class deer and did not close the deal. Hell,maybe 90% of the time. We have all heard it and it stands true, Trophy bucks did not get to be trophies because they are stupid. They are intelligent and as bone collectors and hunters of trophy animals we need every tool in our arsenal to harvest these once in a life time whitetails.
Okay,here is the scoop on the buck decoy. If you did not know, bucks run in bachelor groups through the summer. By the time these bucks are working on shedding there velvet the pecking order has been established. The bucks that use your area as there home range are familiar with the other bucks in the area. They know which one is the dominant Buck and who is who, so to speak,and basically have established the pecking order. When you put a decoy out it you are introducing a new buck that they are not familiar with. Using a little buck scent in combination(Put directly on decoy)can be very effective. Don't misunderstand me, There is certain times and conditions that a decoy will work best. Often times when I'm hunting like a soybean field or an open area I love to use them. The big, smart bucks will hang up in the woods until dark, then come to feed in the bean field. You might never know they are there. By putting a decoy out it can draw that buck to investigate. In general I would have to say open areas is when decoys are going to be most effective. I think you get my point.
Two of my best bucks taken, a decoy made the difference and help me close the deal. Hunting a open field during bow season, It gets difficult to get the bucks to come in bow range. The decoy will peak his curiosity and he will have to come check it out.
Maybe I'm just lazy, but I can get deer without decoys, so I can't see going through the bother. Turkeys might be another story.
ReplyDeleteNo, not just crazy, It's a good point. The thing that decoys have helped me with is fooling smart, mature dominate bucks. I have used the scents,the sounds(grunts,snort wheez,rattling) and like turkey seen big mature bucks hold up out of range and not come in. The fact that they had all that thrown at them and then they look my way and see my decoy, 9 out 10 times it helped me close the deal. It's not the average bucks I'm targeting, it's smart, old,mature ones. Good luck this season and thank you for your comment.
ReplyDelete