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Tom decoy at Cabellas $199

Has the world gone insane - who would pay that ?

Which one are u looking at?

Couldn't you buy about 50 real turkeys for that much money?

U da man!!!

Lots of folks use Taxidermy mounts for their decoys. Usually run around $400 or so, so depending on the decoy someone may pay more. Shawn

I think the cheapest decoy will do the trick, gotten several birds without any decoy, but definitely easier with a decoy. I think sometimes we get caught up in the "gadget" dept too much. I know I'm guilty of the same thing at times. Now that I'm older, not so much, keep it simple is better for me.

Ditto Bob. Most of my birds have been deke free, maybe 60-40 ratio. My awesome dekes are a 25 dollar hen, and a 10 dollar hen that I "transitioned" into a jake with some paint and a bit of black rope for a "beard".

Then again, if someone wants to spend the $$$, more power to em - whatever floats your boat I guess.

This is an on going topic of discussion on the main forum every year when turkey season rolls around. I will always contend that anything that looks like a turkey will do the job in most cases. Yet every year most guys will argue that it needs to be the best and most realistic decoy to kill another bird. I call BS and have for a long time. There are always exceptions but many time the "art" of decoying isn't so reliant on how the decoy looks as much as it is on decoy and set up position. I've killed so many birds over the years with nothing more than a black plastic bag, a hard plastic decoy with a painted head or even way back when we were using just a tail fan on a stick. The latter still works like a charm, as I have been using it a lot lately to "fan in" a few gobblers the last couple of years. In a nut shell, no need to spend big $$ on a decoy

longbeard

it's our fascination with gadgets and the latest, greatest for everything from bows to arrows to decoys, calls, scents, clothing, etc. Some of the experimentation is good, some of it's just good marketing.

I think Will hit it on the head - if you got the money and you just gotta have it, go for it. Confidence in the field is good thing to have, so if this gives you that then you're one step ahead of the game.

I understand completely bbb. I just wanted to let people know "the rest of the story" if you will. I had a big gobbler come in yesterday to my store bought Chicken on a Stick. Worked like a charm, but I got a little antsy and missed him at about 22 yards. Arrow just clipped his wing tips as he was in full strut. You might say I shot a little low. He undoubtedly would have come right into my lap had I not got so anxious. Some might say I had a case of "buck" fever. A tremendous amount of fun no matter. Its even more exciting in a wide open field, to watch their demeanor change as they figure out , or think they have figured out what is happening. I've experienced them come on a dead run from 100+ yards away!!

longbeard

love the idea of simple, especially since it works so well. Don't under estimate your good calling technique either, you must know what you're doing to get birds to come in running! Saw a big tom along I-84 this morning strutting right next to the woods before Queen St exit.

bbb I called in 3 toms yesterday for a friend by using nothing more than a couple yelps to get them interested and then a simple jake fan on a stick. I raised that fan a couple of times and when they saw it they came running from about 70 yds through the hardwoods, heads were bright red, meaning they were looking for a physical confrontation. The deep purring noises they made were unbelievable. My buddy literally had to stop them from running him over at 12 yds. He picked out the one he wanted and dropped the hammer. I've been guiding turkey hunts for a long time but this type of hunt never gets old!! This was later in the morning after some pretty good gobbling on the roost and then a couple hours of nothing but quiet.

longbeard

the late morning hunts are the hardest to get a bird to answer a call, so to hear your story is really cool! I've never heard of your "fan on a stick" technique so thank for sharing that tip. I have a whole bucket full of tail feathers so guess what I'm trying next year??

BBB I'll try to find a picture in the next few days so you can see how simple it really is. It doesn't always work to that extreme, but it sure can buy you some time or draw them in a bit closer once they see it. You can't believe the amount of movement you can get away with while using this technique. I guess it is because they become so focused on that "other bird" that they forget about danger. Many times when we are scouting in the evening by sight, we can pick out a specific bird to try to "fan" just by his bullying attitude. It's a tremendous tool to have in your bag that's for sure

Pat thanks for the comments. I guess the key is to have something that you're confident will work in t he field. Confidence is a huge factor in hunting. If you're confident that you will see deer, then you will hunt harder, have more patience, hunt better, stay longer, etc. If you lack that confidence you'll most likely move around more, not care so much about scent control, leave sooner, etc.

So if it's a certain decoy that gives you that confidence or your new bow for deer, I say it's all good.

Here is a picture of a bird I called in for my parent's neighbor on the last day of the NY season last year. You can get a pretty good look at the simple fan used for this hunt. This bird would barely respond to our calls for the first hour and half that morning. He was out in a huge plowed field over 150 yards away strutting for 4 hens. We had closed the distance twice and 120 yards was as close as we could get. We decided to try OZ (the jake fan tail on a stick that you see in the picture). I named it OZ because just like in the movie I always tell the turkeys to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...lol. Anyway, the two of us started crawling toward that bird with just the fan in front of us. I soon saw him stick his head straight up so I knew he saw us. He then came out of strut and started to pick around as he began heading our way. I suppose at this point he was sizing us up. As we crawled closer (100 yds away) he suddenly gobbled and went into strut again. So I then began to crawled a bit closer and it was then that he came unglued. He took off on a dead run, straight at us making a loud growling noise. After about a 75 yard sprint he hit the brakes and went bake into strut. Now he was less than 20 yards from us, so I stepped aside and the hunter was able to make a chip shot. The fan in that pic is made from nothing more than a section of broom handle with a clamp taped on and the clamp holds the fan in place. Attached at the bottom of the broom handle is a metal tent stake so you have the option of sticking it in the ground. Total cost around $12

Wow don't know where that pic came from...it certainly is not mine. Let me try again

Ok there it is...

longbeard

nice bird, but don't point your gun at yourself, you're not a turkey :)

Can't get any simpler than feathers on a stick! Gotta try it.

Thanks for the tip Bob but that's not me...its the neighbor

I never like him anyway :) Kidding of course.

Here is a picture of the simplest and very effective form of a decoy. I call it Oz!!

Another death due to a cheap decoy!! This bird closed out our 2016 season. He was the latest who fell for the old jake fan. I believe he was number 6 this year to get suckered in. That's a whole lot of fun!!

Nice going LB! Great season. I'll be making my fan this weekend.

Bob if you have a jake fan laying around you are golden. I found that the wire backing from a sign attached to a paint stick works like a charm. You can then attach an old decoy head to it to add realism. Good luck

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