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Im considering a deer decoy this season. Does anyone on the site have any experience or strong opinions on them? They seem to be used more out west than around here. Ive never talked to anyone in ct who has had success with them. They are also expensive and cumbersome to move.
Are they worth the effort and expense?
I welcome your opinion. Thanks
I used on two years ago. Didn't have any success with it. A couple of deer walked by looked at it and kept going.
Thanks Guys, My areas are both in mixed hardwoods. Its a funnel situation where sometimes they are crossing 75 yds out, sometimes 10 yds.. before the leaves drop visibility is maybe 50 yds at best.
I use them in certain situations during archery only and have had success with them and also had deer run. In general, my experience is that the does usually are not comfortable with them and I have had the most success decoying younger bucks. I have had larger bucks show interest, but they typically stay away and circle downwind. I usually use them during the seeking phase of the rut with scent.
I use Montana doe and/or a small buck (will interchange one or the other based on the situation), very light weight and easily packable. I think they are shipped out of Plymouth, CT.
I've had good luck and bad. Does that walked up and sniffed nose to nose, does that snorted forever and walked away. A big six pt that gave me a perfect 10 yard broadside that I should've taken, stiff legged to almost charging, then changed his mind and went behind me for 20 minutes staring at it. Shot or not, it's a thrill to watch the reactions. Open fields work best, deer don't like to all of a sudden be startled by a deke in close quarters, like thick woods. I use it as a doe in early season and buck during the rut.
Aim 4 inches below chest when you shoot. They drop a 15 inches when they hear the shot
Had a big 8 and a 6 pointer come up to my doe decoy . The 8 kept walking back and forth looking at it just out of range then walked off . If if was gun season he would be dead .
I've used the Montana decoys (dreamy doe and the feeding ones) very sparingly. I can't say good or bad as I never saw a deer while using them. However, I do know the first time I used one it fooled a fellow hunter. I would use them again but need to get a better idea of how the deer are moving so I can get the decoys in the right spot. I used markers to color paper towel pieces to make tails and ears. A binder clip works great to hold them on but still allow movement when the wind blows.
I will give you a warning about using decoys once gun season starts. Even if you are bow hunting you should be very careful because a gun hunter might see your decoy and shoot from 100-150 yards and they might not see you. Specially if you are huting from the ground.
Leave your decoy home during gun season.
I've had mixed results when using a decoy. The two things that immediately come to mind about decoying are; I have had better results in the open, like a field, as mentioned above and second, if I added some sort of movement it helps tremendously...I usually replace the decoy tail with a home made tail made of white and brown cloth and tie a string to it to twitch the tail when a deer is looking at the decoy. This not only helps with the realism of the moment but you can also change that tail out and add one soaked in scent when the time is right
Deer decoys may only be used during the early and late archery seasons in CT. Even then they must be covered with at least 400 sq. in. of fluorescent orange material during transport in the field. See, e.g, Regs and CT Gen. Stat.
I have had great success with deer decoys in field-type settings.
Crow you can't use a decoy in the gun season read the regs ! There on the left page .LOL
Decoys: Decoys may be used during the early and late archery deer seasons, but must be covered with 400 sq. in. of fluorescent orange during transport. Decoys can not be used during the Nov. 19 – Dec. 31 time period.
It makes sense that they aren't legal. I would never used one during gun season even without knowing it was illegal. Humn, I don't even use it when it is leagal.
Thanks for the heads up!
There's too many deer in CT, they won't work. When the deer see the decoy, to them it's just one more of the 68 deer per square mile, ( with correction factor) that they're used to seeing.
I tried one last year and didn't care for the deer getting all tense and spooky. The buck never presented a shot, and was so wired, he bolted back a couple of times for no apparent reason.
Only 68/sq mi? I'm sure its higher than that based on the number of ticks in CT.
Best decoy I've ever used is a live deer. I've had several instances over the years where I let the does feed or bed down near my stand and watched a few bucks, mostly small ones, come in looking for some fun.
When I was younger and shot everything that came my way I never knew that letting the does or young bucks stay in the area would work so well. Patience is a great teacher in the woods.
But don't yell at me if the doe walks right past you on opening morning and you never see another deer for the rest of the season!!
Thank you everyone for your advise and comments. I think I might get a Montana decoy and wait until the leaves are down so it can be seen from a distance in the woods I hunt, hopefully eliminating the spook factor. It seems like its up in the air how effective they are. Its fun to add another dimension to the experience of bow hunting.
Treesitter, Your original post disappeared and now is back. What did you do?
I remember my friend did grunted in 2 seven pointers within 30 minutes and shot both last year.
I like to go into the woods in the dark, long before legal, sit quietly making no calls during legal hours, no decoys, and then leave quietly. This is true if I still hunt or stand hunt.
I guess I'm trying to slip into the deer's world and see them act naturally and try to figure out how to get close enough to a big ol buck to take him.
Maybe I'm too lazy to carry all of the new toys into the woods like trail cameras, blinds, decoys, mock scrape drippers, ozone machines, etc. or just too old to change my ways, I'm not sure.
Keep it simple and don't attract attention to yourself with sight, sound, smell or movement.
I'm still trying to figure out this whole correction factor thing.
If there are 2 deer for every one I see, how many deer are there when I don't see any?
And a follow-up question if I may.
If I manage to shoot a deer, since there are 2 present for every one I see, do I have to use 2 tags for that deer?
Math is hard! Mike, can you please explain this?
Ace
if you see one deer and there are 2 you don't see, that's 3 deer. The correction factor means that you only say 33% of all deer present, therefore there were 66% deer that you didn't see, so you multiply the 3 deer by 1.66 and that means there were really 4.9 deer, so one deer is obviously missing a leg.
You don't want to shoot a 3 legged deer, it's bad luck.
The link is to a story in Bowhunting World on Decoying Deer.
