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Decoy use during the rut

Autumnrider

Autumnrider

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 22, 2015
Messages
1,328
Location
Northeast Mississippi
How many of you have done this while gun hunting and did you use a buck or doe decoy? Any tips?
Thinking about trying it over the CHRISTmas holidays. The rut is on in Northeast Mississippi !!!!!
 
Be careful using a decoy during rifle season. You don't want somebody to shoot your decoy and inadvertently hit you....

I've tried decoys a few times and actually only had it work once. But.... when it did work, it was fun to watch.

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I have had a Montana decoy work on a buck last year and so did a friend this year. Both bucks came looking for love and received arrows. One was a mature buck the other was a 2.5 year old. That is with my limited experience. I expect they spook deer too and think I have experienced that or maybe it was scent or movement or sticks not camouflaged. I do know I had a buck spook when a decoy was out this year. The reason is speculation.
 
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Erniepower said:
Be careful using a decoy during rifle season. You don't want somebody to shoot your decoy and inadvertently hit you....

I've tried decoys a few times and actually only had it work once. But.... when it did work, it was fun to watch.

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Click to expand...

I agree with this warning. If you hunt over 20 feet the risk is greatly reduced.
 
I've killed my biggest deer in early season over a deke. For the rut, have him (buck deke) ass first to the wind. That way the deer has to come around to attempt to scent check. Ideally you want him to walk between the deke and you, and you get that shot off before the deer realizes there's no scent - which typically then they will either lose interest or spook. Here's my setup for my booner this year:
ed9f7928f6b29f8a29de559f33979ea1.jpg

You can see the deke just left of the tree with leaves. He was at 16 yards. Wind was directly in my face. The deer came from the right between my stand and the field - if you zoom in on the pic you can see the tag on the seat of my set.
0e8bcf19951111a796bfe75931e8d912.jpg

And he allowed me to shoot this!
f5fc4370e8403734183d9301864c8470.jpg



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I've used decoys in the past but never in firearms season for safety reasons.
I like using a buck decoy, reason being does won't stick around as long as they do a doe decoy. When I use a doe decoy, does just won't leave it be. They don't like the fact that it doesn't move and they won't leave it alone. They stomp at it, blow at it, circle around it leave then come right back to it and start all over again.
A buck decoy won't usually get that type of attention from a doe. Does have been harassed by bucks for weeks and they don't seem to interested in hanging around for more harassment and they'll leave. Bucks don't really care that the decoy doesn't move, they're all hopped up on testosterone and are just looking for a date or fight.
 
I expect if a lot of hunters in an area use decoys, scents, calls, bait or whatever.... the deer become educated and cautious. I would be cautious if I thought someone was gonna kill me. If not I expect all these things will all work sometimes.

Both bucks that responded to the decoys in my earlier post were killed pre rut.. October 22 to 31 using a doe decoy.
 
Our club has a a board that has the members names down one side and numbers that represents the number of our food plots. We are required to place pin on the food plots number that you are hunting or hunting the area of that plot. After the plot has been pinned, no one is allowed in that area.
Because of this rule and the fact that I climb super high, I feel really safe about trying a decoy.

Do you rattle or grunt or do you just kick back and wait for something to happen?
Do you use scents?

I'm going to try this over the holidays cause the rut is beginning in the area of the state our club is located.
 
One more question..... I'm carrying a rifle this week, what distance from me should I place the decoy. Most of our plots are less than 150 yards.
 
Autumnrider said:
Our club has a a board that has the members names down one side and numbers that represents the number of our food plots. We are required to place pin on the food plots number that you are hunting or hunting the area of that plot. After the plot has been pinned, no one is allowed in that area.
Because of this rule and the fact that I climb super high, I feel really safe about trying a decoy.

Do you rattle or grunt or do you just kick back and wait for something to happen?
Do you use scents?

I'm going to try this over the holidays cause the rut is beginning in the area of the state our club is located.
Click to expand...

Almost the only time I ever rattle or grunt is to get the attention of a deer I see. VERY rarely (November 11 here in Indiana) if I'm seeing nothing I'll do a blind rattle.

So if you are gun hunting, position that deke so ur shooter will be seen and expose himself going downwind to scent check the deke. That's the key. I grunted twice at my buck seen above. He showed up 180 yards away. He walked almost straight towards me and then began to veer off to my right; he scanned the field and saw no does. I grunted once and got his attention. He did not see the decoy. I let them walk another 20 yards and hit that grunt call again. At that point he turned and stared.

Once he saw that decoy I could've danced in the Treestand and he would not have seen me. Use those grunts extremely sparingly, Bc the deer can pinpoint you to the very tree you are in from a long way off. Good luck and post pics!!! By the way - I don't use drag scents but I do use ever calm on a stalk behind the deke. Haven't used estrous urine or anything like that. I did use a tarsal from another buck once with mixed results.

One last thing. Notice how I have the ears on my deke. Folded down aggressively. This will trigger a deer who wants to fight.


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Autumnrider said:
Our club has a a board that has the members names down one side and numbers that represents the number of our food plots. We are required to place pin on the food plots number that you are hunting or hunting the area of that plot. After the plot has been pinned, no one is allowed in that area.
Because of this rule and the fact that I climb super high, I feel really safe about trying a decoy.

Do you rattle or grunt or do you just kick back and wait for something to happen?
Do you use scents?

I'm going to try this over the holidays cause the rut is beginning in the area of the state our club is located.
Click to expand...
We have only used a doe decoy. We have used artificial scent because that is all that is legal. I have also used no scent. Use caution not to get human scent on a decoy - but I guess that does not really need to be said. We used a doe bleat infrequently

Distance. We were bow hunting. The decoys were only 25 yards away up wind
We had one buck come to a decoy at shotgun time. Put it at 35 yards and missed the shot. So we have had it work 3 times in two years. I find typing on a phone difficult. So I hope this makes sense

Be very careful in gun season with decoys. We have only used them on our 25 acres of woods and have only hunted from a height during our shotgun week. People do trespass... oh that is a new revelation
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