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Anyone ever use a decoy arrow to attract/stop a deer?

HuumanCreed

HuumanCreed

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Aug 21, 2020
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Westminster Maryland
Was watching a random hunting video. A guy said one of his favorite tactic is placing/firing a decoy arrow at the exact spot he wants the deer to stop as soon as day break, and for him it seem to work. Reason are that grunting to stop put the deer in an alert state and increase the chance of them jumping the string.

I thought that was pretty smart initially, but then a lot of different variables come into play that might make that tactic not usable.

Depending on time of year, are deer more curious or cautioned?

Wind come into play?

He make sure to place the arrow away from his access route. As in if he accessed the tree from the west, he place the arrow east.

But I was always told one of the reason you want to grunt is so the head is straight up, which in part move the front legs more forward, giving better kill zone.

What say you?
 
I've never heard of doing it deliberately to bring in deer or make them curious. I have seen deer turn inside out and run for the hills when they came upon an arrow that had recently passed through one of their own maybe a half hour earlier. My take was that it was #1 a foreign object they did not like and #2 it had human scent from my hands on it and that was the main thing the disagreed with. Do you have a link to the video?
 
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Wanting the deer's head up is due to the fact that they will drop less and maybe a touch slower than if the head is down. Having an arrow stuck in the ground defeats that because the deer's head would be in a lower position to smell the arrow. Like others have mentioned I have seen them react harshly to walking up on an arrow and like @Gator I have seen them sniff the arrow and move on but they were anything but relaxed as they moved up to the arrow once it was spotted. I cant see any benefit at all to having anything on the ground around the kill area and would encourage paying more attention to the deer's body language as it relates to when or if to take a shot. Sometimes the deer are going to win. More times than not actually and that's the way it should be imo. Forcing shots, esp on alert or alarmed deer is going to lead to bad outcomes at some point.
 
I think it might make sense if your setup was so confined that you knew within a few feet where the deer will likely come from. I would try to keep the arrow scent free and maybe have feather fletching on it that I put some curiosity scent on that wasn't too stinky (maybe vanilla extract).

I think in most of my set up though that it would have no use. I don't hunt well trodden trails on highly patterned deer. I usually just know a buck might travel within 40 yards of this tree (diffuse trail network, funnel, etc). The chances he would come up to my arrow is pretty low, unless he was somehow drawn to it via a scent cone from it.
 
Isn't that the idea of those tinks incense sticks ?

So I was under the assumption the general consensus was; wear rubber boots to keep scent down, don't walk the same trail as the deer so u don't leave scent behind, don't touch anything u don't want scent left on, etc and now we shoot an arrow (loud sound) that we just touched, right into the somehow anticipated path of the deer?

I don't know...Im not gonna try it out. Seems silly

I'm assuming the dummy arrow gonna have a field point?....hopefully u don't overlook that in the heat of the moment
 
Seems like a good way to destroy an arrow or hit a rock and send it into oblivion. I’ve had pretty good success with spraying a little raccoon urine on a small cloth and hanging it on a branch or laying it on the ground. I tried the same thing with Tinks 69 and every doe that got a whiff snorted and had a fit.
 
When I shot aluminum arrows I always took a practice shot with a judo point just before I climbed down from the tree. Not sue if shooting a arrow into the ground is a good idea with carbon arrows.
 
HuumanCreed said:
Was watching a random hunting video. A guy said one of his favorite tactic is placing/firing a decoy arrow at the exact spot he wants the deer to stop as soon as day break, and for him it seem to work. Reason are that grunting to stop put the deer in an alert state and increase the chance of them jumping the string.

I thought that was pretty smart initially, but then a lot of different variables come into play that might make that tactic not usable.

Depending on time of year, are deer more curious or cautioned?

Wind come into play?

He make sure to place the arrow away from his access route. As in if he accessed the tree from the west, he place the arrow east.

But I was always told one of the reason you want to grunt is so the head is straight up, which in part move the front legs more forward, giving better kill zone.

What say you?
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My buddy has killed 2 bucks this way lol Yes it works, especially with young bucks. Young bucks are stupid curious. Theyll be licking and sniffing the arrow as you send one through their lungs.

My first year of hunting and the first buck I had a shot opportunity on I hit my tree climber with the bow and shot low, the deer backed up and started licking the arrow as was shaking trying to nock another arrow.

I think having an arrow placed in the ground before the deer got there could potential scare them or make them tense but could also intrigue them enough to give you that shot. I have them look directly at my ground mounted cameras all the time and they haven’t been touched in close to 6 months. I had thought about shooting one over a camera or arrow to take their focus away from me but have never done it. I’m not sure how I feel about it. Arrow baiting lol
 
Ckwilli said:
Seems like a good way to destroy an arrow or hit a rock and send it into oblivion. I’ve had pretty good success with spraying a little raccoon urine on a small cloth and hanging it on a branch or laying it on the ground. I tried the same thing with Tinks 69 and every doe that got a whiff snorted and had a fit.
Click to expand...
Got the same reaction with tinks, lol.
 
If I am in close quarters I will use doe urine or in heat bomb type of spray. I spray it from the base of the tree to avoid leaving scent directly where they travel. I just give blasts of the spray instead of locking the nozzel down and emptying the whole can like a bomb or fogger. I find the short blasts do not mist as much and will travel further. I do not use a lot to pull them in, just enough to get them to stop when they walk by. Since the spray is on the ground I have to wait until they lift their heads to shoot which is easier said than done.
 
gcr0003 said:
My buddy has killed 2 bucks this way lol Yes it works, especially with young bucks. Young bucks are stupid curious. Theyll be licking and sniffing the arrow as you send one through their lungs.

My first year of hunting and the first buck I had a shot opportunity on I hit my tree climber with the bow and shot low, the deer backed up and started licking the arrow as was shaking trying to nock another arrow.

I think having an arrow placed in the ground before the deer got there could potential scare them or make them tense but could also intrigue them enough to give you that shot. I have them look directly at my ground mounted cameras all the time and they haven’t been touched in close to 6 months. I had thought about shooting one over a camera or arrow to take their focus away from me but have never done it. I’m not sure how I feel about it. Arrow baiting lol
Click to expand...
You bama boys are baby buck specialists seems like
 
I used to regularly shoot a leaf on the ground once set up to feel more confident that me and my bow were dialed in before rangefinders. I still did it after my first rangefinder, before angle compensation. Since angle compensation came out, I haven't bothered.

If you were lucky enough to predict exactly where a deer was going to be moving through, and get it to stop and look at or smell your arrow for a second, that seems like a huge risk. I'd worry mostly about your scent on the arrow, why risk a deer smelling it and bugging out of there when you take so much effort to position yourself downwind of that spot? I'm calling this one a very creative gimmick.
 
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