Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, presented by first Light,
Speaker 1: creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind.
Speaker 1: First Light, Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson.
Speaker 2: Hey, everyone, welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundation's podcast,
Speaker 2: which is brought to you by first Light. This week,
Speaker 2: in honor of our Turkey Week campaign here at meat Eater,
Speaker 2: I'm going to drop a few extra episodes for all
Speaker 2: of you. They'll be based on bag and your bird
Speaker 2: this spring. This episode is all about turkey deacers how
Speaker 2: to use them throughout the season. It's not quite Turkey
Speaker 2: time for most of us right now, but we're getting close.
Speaker 2: You probably heard me say it already or have seen
Speaker 2: I don't know one hundred and seventy six Instagram posts
Speaker 2: about it, but Meat Eater is having a celebration around
Speaker 2: turkeys this week. That means we're dropping a pile of
Speaker 2: turkey hunting content and having a sale around all kinds
Speaker 2: of our best turkey hunting products. So if you're thinking, eh,
Speaker 2: Turkey season's coming up and I might need a new
Speaker 2: call or something like that and you would like to
Speaker 2: get that call on a sweet discount, head on over
Speaker 2: to thum meat eater dot com to check it out.
Speaker 2: And now that that's out of the way, I want
Speaker 2: to say I'm probably more excited for this podcast than
Speaker 2: a lot of the other ones, mostly because I don't
Speaker 2: get to talk about turkeys a lot, and I love
Speaker 2: talking about turkeys. I love just about everything about turkeys, actually,
Speaker 2: but I'm really obsessed with decoying them. It doesn't matter
Speaker 2: if I'm bow hunting or if I'm gun hunting or
Speaker 2: guiding one of my daughters to a bird. Decoys and
Speaker 2: decoy setups are just so important. In fact, they're so important,
Speaker 2: at least in my mind, that this whole damn episode
Speaker 2: is going to dive into the what, how, and why
Speaker 2: of decoying turkeys all season long. Picture this if you will.
Speaker 2: My buddy Hawk and I were camping on a chunk
Speaker 2: of public land in Nebraska in twenty twelve, well before
Speaker 2: first light. We lugged packs, blinds, chairs, decoys, bows, everything
Speaker 2: everything you could imagine up a bluff to set up
Speaker 2: on a grassy ridge top that was not only dotted
Speaker 2: by cedars but also offered us a good view of
Speaker 2: a private cornfield. Since it was early April, we knew
Speaker 2: the birds would be flocked up, but we also knew
Speaker 2: that our decoys would be highly visible in that spot
Speaker 2: and that they'd be able to hear us call. It
Speaker 2: was also supposed to be sunny and warm, which is
Speaker 2: the best forecast you can have for early season birds.
Speaker 2: And it really didn't take very long before I called
Speaker 2: in my first Tom. Although he came in behind me
Speaker 2: and gobbled close enough to get me to jump, he
Speaker 2: didn't step into my spread. I didn't think that mattered, though.
Speaker 2: It was just one of those mornings where they were
Speaker 2: just blowing up. This was also back when Nebraska was
Speaker 2: filthy with birds, so much so that you knew that
Speaker 2: even if you were hunting public land with a bow,
Speaker 2: you're going to have a good hunt. Well I had
Speaker 2: a good hunt, sort of. I can't remember how many
Speaker 2: birds I called in that day, but I think it
Speaker 2: was eleven between jakes and Tom's. Do you know how
Speaker 2: many walked into my decoys and strutted though zero. I
Speaker 2: eventually got an arrow into a jake that skirted my
Speaker 2: spread and I never found him, so that sucked. And
Speaker 2: after that hunt, where I didn't kill a turkey, by
Speaker 2: the way. I did what any desperate hunter would do.
Speaker 2: I drove to Cabella's and bought the cheapest of the
Speaker 2: best looking decoys I could get. I mean, they looked
Speaker 2: good enough, but those inflatable decoys just wouldn't hold air
Speaker 2: for very long. It was frustrating, mostly because I was
Speaker 2: trying to arrow birds and I could not, for the
Speaker 2: life of me, get it done. It was like I
Speaker 2: had a force field around my setup that they would
Speaker 2: just say, Nope, I'm not coming any closer. Before the
Speaker 2: twenty fourteen season, I went big and I bought the
Speaker 2: Dave Smith flock. Now I know we owned Dave Smith
Speaker 2: decoys now, so you can be as skeptical as you want,
Speaker 2: and I don't blame you. But in twenty fourteen, I
Speaker 2: doubt I even knew who Stephen Ranella was, and I
Speaker 2: sure as hell didn't think i'd end up working for
Speaker 2: him or working for a company that would buy Dave
Speaker 2: Smith nearly a decade later. I just wanted a better
Speaker 2: advantage with the spring birds. Like quite a few years,
Speaker 2: Hawk and I started in Nebraska that year, even though
Speaker 2: we'd mostly swung and missed every other time we'd gone
Speaker 2: down there this time. However, we set up and I
Speaker 2: immediately called a jake into my spread and shot him
Speaker 2: at seven yards. He died right there, and it honestly
Speaker 2: felt like a fluke until I went home and called
Speaker 2: in a jake from way across a pitcornfield and I
Speaker 2: rowed him too. I added another jake that year, and
Speaker 2: I realized something. My decoy choice seem to be helping
Speaker 2: me as a turkey bow hunter quite a bit. Since then,
Speaker 2: I've used a pile of different decoys and configurations, and
Speaker 2: I feel like I've learned an awful lot about what
Speaker 2: makes decoys effective and when to use what. For starters,
Speaker 2: I'll get this out of the way. Quality is expensive,
Speaker 2: but it is worth it. The look of your decoys
Speaker 2: not just paint jobs and finishes, but body language is
Speaker 2: so important. You want a decoy that looks good up close,
Speaker 2: because even silhouettes perform just fine when birds are two
Speaker 2: hundred yards out. It's when they get right into the
Speaker 2: mix and the light is low or the sun is
Speaker 2: straight overhead and it's crazy bright out that you find
Speaker 2: out whether your decoy looks real to the birds. Just
Speaker 2: like with deer hunting, a great litmus test for your
Speaker 2: decoys is how often the ladies accept them. Until I
Speaker 2: started using really realistic decoys, I never knew how many
Speaker 2: hens you could not only call in but keep around.
Speaker 2: It's not uncommon for me to have hens come in
Speaker 2: and lay down with my decoys or sit and call
Speaker 2: to them for an hour or two. If you think
Speaker 2: that isn't something you want as a turkey hunter, then
Speaker 2: you need to get your head checked. My friends, having
Speaker 2: a real lady or two right there, mixing in and
Speaker 2: acting natural while they're making noise, that's a huge benefit.
Speaker 2: Now here's the downside to really good looking full body decoys.
Speaker 2: They are super cumbersome and can be noisy to carry.
Speaker 2: The turkey decoy world hasn't solved the problem of crazy
Speaker 2: realistic and ultra portable yet, kind of like the hub
Speaker 2: blind world hasn't figured out the problem of being big
Speaker 2: enough to house a couple of people comfortably, but not
Speaker 2: way a lot. Now you might think you don't need
Speaker 2: expensive decoys because you only run and gun for birds
Speaker 2: and shoot them at forty five yards with a shotgun.
Speaker 2: That's great. I didn't really need good decoys until I
Speaker 2: started bow hunting birds, but It's also a game changer
Speaker 2: with kids, and when I take out new hunters, your
Speaker 2: mileage may vary. But my experience with new hunters and
Speaker 2: scouting spots is that the final straw is always a
Speaker 2: good decoy setup. And on that note, you're probably thinking
Speaker 2: about the different kinds of Tom, Jake and Hen decoys.
Speaker 2: The primary Tom decoy you're gonna find is a full strutter,
Speaker 2: And this is a decoy I'll admit I don't really
Speaker 2: like very much. I'm an opportunistic turkey hunter, so I
Speaker 2: don't want a bunch of Jakes and two year old
Speaker 2: skirting me because they don't want to mess with the
Speaker 2: boss man. Now, if you can hunt early, say anywhere
Speaker 2: in March or the first half of April, maybe the
Speaker 2: first couple weeks of April anyway, as a rough guide,
Speaker 2: and you can scout out a flock that is sticking together,
Speaker 2: a full strutter can almost be unfair. I don't find
Speaker 2: this situation very often, but when I do, the biggest
Speaker 2: Tom in the flock almost always can't handle it. He
Speaker 2: sees a full strutter with a few Hens in a
Speaker 2: spot he planned to take his girlfriends through. He's not
Speaker 2: going to put up with it. This is so fun
Speaker 2: in the right situation, but you also need to be
Speaker 2: prepared for a lot of drive buys from birds that
Speaker 2: don't want to tussle with the king. This is not
Speaker 2: to say you can't put a full strutter out at
Speaker 2: any time in the season and have birds come in.
Speaker 2: They are dumb birds, so sometimes anything goes. I'm just
Speaker 2: giving you my thoughts from my experience. Now, while I
Speaker 2: might not use a full strutter too often, I use
Speaker 2: a jake almost every single time I hunt. In fact,
Speaker 2: the only time I might not use a jake is
Speaker 2: either in real late May maybe or when I'm running
Speaker 2: and gunning public land and I don't want to get
Speaker 2: shot in the face because I don't know exactly where
Speaker 2: I'll have to set up at any given moment. Jake
Speaker 2: decoys are your friends. My favorite is a quarter strut
Speaker 2: submissive looking jake. That kind of a decoy with a
Speaker 2: lay down hen is often all you will ever need.
Speaker 2: This is the decoy that seems to give the most
Speaker 2: real birds the most confidence. If you only have a
Speaker 2: little budget for decoys, get yourself a quarter strutter first. Now,
Speaker 2: there are several other jake options out there, and I
Speaker 2: think I've used them all. I do like a breeding jake,
Speaker 2: especially in April, and especially if it has a white head.
Speaker 2: I had a really good turkey hunter from Mississippi tell
Speaker 2: me a long time ago that he paints the heads
Speaker 2: on all of his decoys white because that's the color
Speaker 2: of Tom's head turns when he's right about to breed.
Speaker 2: I'm not a turkey biologist, but I guess maybe that
Speaker 2: has something to do with the blood supply. A head
Speaker 2: and south for a bit. Anyway, your jake decoy is
Speaker 2: the anchor to the whole set. It's where most of
Speaker 2: the approaching birds are going to focus. If you're bow hunting,
Speaker 2: that means he should be positioned close. For me, that's
Speaker 2: no more than ten yards. For gun hunting, I love
Speaker 2: the twenty to twenty five yard mark if they come
Speaker 2: right in their toast. If they get cagy and hold
Speaker 2: up twenty yards back from the jake still pretty much toast.
Speaker 2: The point I want to make is that jake matters
Speaker 2: the most, so position him for your shot. Now. I
Speaker 2: almost never ever put a jake out without a lay
Speaker 2: down hen as well, just make sure you put her
Speaker 2: right beneath him and push him down right over her
Speaker 2: if you have to use a gopher mound or pile
Speaker 2: up some grass or whatever to make her a little
Speaker 2: bit more visible. If you think that Tom's holding up
Speaker 2: at seventy five one hundred yards might not be able
Speaker 2: to see her. And as far as adding extra hens
Speaker 2: to the whole thing, think about it this way. From
Speaker 2: winter until late spring, the birds will go from big
Speaker 2: flocks to solo. As a hunter, you want to factor
Speaker 2: that into your spreads. For me, this means my early
Speaker 2: season decoy spreads might have up to five or six
Speaker 2: decoys in them, while my late season spreads might be
Speaker 2: a party of one or two at the most. Now,
Speaker 2: if you go the more is better route, let's say
Speaker 2: in early April, you'll want to consider something that people
Speaker 2: often get wrong about decoys, which is which direction they
Speaker 2: are facing. Go watch a wild flock of turkey's feed,
Speaker 2: and even though at any given moment the birds might
Speaker 2: individually go one way or another, as a whole, they
Speaker 2: tend to move all in the same direction. I often
Speaker 2: see people put out two hens facing totally opposite directions,
Speaker 2: and then they put a jake between them. Listen, you
Speaker 2: can kill turkeys this way. They are dumb ish. But
Speaker 2: if you hunt pressured birds or you don't want to
Speaker 2: give them a reason to question your setup, think about
Speaker 2: how actual turkeys feed and move across the landscape together.
Speaker 2: And on that note, for a setup and a fee,
Speaker 2: i might spread them out a little bit, but they'll
Speaker 2: all be facing the same way. If I'm on a
Speaker 2: logging road or in a spot where they would naturally
Speaker 2: revert to single file travel, the hens go first and
Speaker 2: the last bird is the jake. Think about this. If
Speaker 2: you're hunting close to a roost in the evening, the
Speaker 2: birds will feed and mill around and then all of
Speaker 2: a sudden decide to all walk in single file to
Speaker 2: get to the roost. They do this in the mornings
Speaker 2: and just sometimes when they are on the move. The
Speaker 2: more natural you're spread is, the higher odds you have
Speaker 2: of calling in birds. It's really that simpole. It's also
Speaker 2: worth considering what your decoys represent. Are you in a
Speaker 2: well scouted spot where they're staging up before they go
Speaker 2: to roost, so they expect to see a bird here
Speaker 2: and one there, Or are you on the edge of
Speaker 2: a field at first light where the birds should fly
Speaker 2: down and walk out to the groceries In that case,
Speaker 2: the decoys should all look like they are walking out
Speaker 2: into the field reverse that in the evening. I know
Speaker 2: this might seem like I'm overthinking things, but I believe
Speaker 2: something about turkeys. It's that if you give them a
Speaker 2: reason to trust their judgment when it comes to survival,
Speaker 2: they will. I also believe that this stuff happens in
Speaker 2: small increments, and it's up to the birds to decide
Speaker 2: when he or she has had enough. So look at
Speaker 2: it this way, Maybe some approaching toms would forgive the
Speaker 2: fact that all of the early morning birds look like
Speaker 2: they are coming from the field and heading to the woods,
Speaker 2: which wouldn't make much sense, but it might cause them
Speaker 2: to question things just a little bit, you know, and
Speaker 2: slow down their approach. Then maybe they catch a sunlight
Speaker 2: flare off the top of e or blind which is
Speaker 2: in a huge deal. But now that's two things that
Speaker 2: have tripped their brain a little bit. Or maybe they
Speaker 2: hear your bottom limb tink against your chair while they
Speaker 2: are sixty yards out. The birds that aren't dead set
Speaker 2: on committing, you know, come hell or high water might decide,
Speaker 2: you know, what, enough is enough? And I always think,
Speaker 2: why risk it if you don't have to now. Movement
Speaker 2: is another thing to consider with decoys, but I'll be honest,
Speaker 2: I don't really want my decoys to move. I've used
Speaker 2: a bunch of them over the years that were fitted
Speaker 2: on steaks that allowed me to pull a string and
Speaker 2: move them, and have never really had a positive response,
Speaker 2: you know, at least enough to get me to care
Speaker 2: or think that this was the reason that they were
Speaker 2: coming in. I've also had decoys go spinning or flying
Speaker 2: in the wind, which really doesn't help your chances of
Speaker 2: killing one if it's gonna be windy. I put two
Speaker 2: sticks in the ground right by the tails of my
Speaker 2: decoys that are on steaks. I might leave, you know,
Speaker 2: enough play for them to swivel an inch or two,
Speaker 2: but nothing more than that. There's nothing more unnatural looking
Speaker 2: than when you set up a flock and one of
Speaker 2: the hens decides to do the old decoy twirl and
Speaker 2: she ends up a little cock eyed and looking directly
Speaker 2: away from the spread. Again. On some birds, that might
Speaker 2: not even register. But I say, why risk it now?
Speaker 2: I've talked quite a bit about using multiple decos on
Speaker 2: a setup, but what if you want to be mobile
Speaker 2: and running gun For me? I tend to almost always
Speaker 2: carry a jake with that lay down hen, or sometimes
Speaker 2: it's just a feeding or upright hen. I prefer the
Speaker 2: jake with a lay down hen because I know I'm
Speaker 2: going to be calling, so I figure I represent an
Speaker 2: unseen hen in that scenario. But the truth is you
Speaker 2: probably wouldn't ever need anything more than a good looking jake,
Speaker 2: decoy or solo hen to seal the deal. That is,
Speaker 2: you know, until the season draws down and the pressure
Speaker 2: gets to the birds and the peak breeding is in
Speaker 2: the rear view mirror and the bugs are everywhere and
Speaker 2: the turkeys are totally scattered across the landscape. In this situation,
Speaker 2: I often pare down to a single hen, even if
Speaker 2: I'm still bow hunting from a blind. When the bugs
Speaker 2: are out and the weather is super nice, the birds
Speaker 2: have so many options for food. The hens also are
Speaker 2: most likely nesting pretty hard, which means you tend to
Speaker 2: see birds together early in the morning in small groups,
Speaker 2: but often solo by mid morning. That's my time to shine,
Speaker 2: and it often requires just a single hen as long
Speaker 2: as you put her somewhere visible and you make the
Speaker 2: sounds that hens make when they are interested in company.
Speaker 2: It's really all you need. I've shot plenty of late
Speaker 2: May birds with Jake decoys too, but it just seems
Speaker 2: like it's a neutral to negative addition in my experience.
Speaker 2: I've covered quite a bit of decoy talk so far,
Speaker 2: so let me wrap this up with one more thought.
Speaker 2: If you use good decoys and think through your spreads,
Speaker 2: give them the time to work. Even the best decoys
Speaker 2: and the best calling won't get birds into your spread
Speaker 2: every time, you know, like when it's sunrise in early
Speaker 2: April and still super cold, and the birds first need
Speaker 2: to get some calories in their crops before they try
Speaker 2: to make little turkeys. But here's the thing. If those
Speaker 2: seemingly uninterested birds see the decoys and don't come in right,
Speaker 2: then there's a really good chance they'll swing through later.
Speaker 2: I don't know how many times I've had birds see
Speaker 2: my decoys and act like they didn't care at all
Speaker 2: as they walked over the ridge and out of my life,
Speaker 2: only to have them filter back through an hour or
Speaker 2: two or even four hours later. I think deer and
Speaker 2: turkeys both do this. I think they have a good
Speaker 2: enough memory to remember that they saw something interesting, even
Speaker 2: if they didn't immediately engage in it. Think about how
Speaker 2: often your dog will remember where an interesting gopher hole
Speaker 2: is or where they found a half eaten twinkie and
Speaker 2: a bush seven years ago. Patience is the final key
Speaker 2: to decoying turkeys right into your spread. I mean this
Speaker 2: even though it might suck to think about, and even
Speaker 2: though it's easy to get up and go try to
Speaker 2: chase gobbles if you hadn't had a bird commit in
Speaker 2: the last few minutes. But if you hunt pressured birds
Speaker 2: or don't have tons of acres to roam, waiting them
Speaker 2: out and letting realistic looking decoys do much of the
Speaker 2: heavy lifting for you, it's often the best strategy. And remember,
Speaker 2: pay attention to all the birds that interact with your decoys.
Speaker 2: The hens that swing through might not make a sound,
Speaker 2: or they might purr and cluck a little, or they
Speaker 2: might flat out start cutting and try to knock out
Speaker 2: one of your hen decoys. All of those types of
Speaker 2: interactions should inform your calling strategy, which is what I'm
Speaker 2: going to talk about later this week when I drop
Speaker 2: another turkey centric episode. That's it for this show, but
Speaker 2: not this week. Pay attention cause you're gonna be getting
Speaker 2: a lot of Foundations episodes this week, and as always,
Speaker 2: I want to thank you so much for your support
Speaker 2: everyone here at Meat Eater. We love you guys. We
Speaker 2: really appreciate you showing up for us. It means the
Speaker 2: world to us. Like I said in the intro, here,
Speaker 2: we got a big Turkey Week campaign going on. If
Speaker 2: you're looking for some deals on some stuff, or you
Speaker 2: just want more Turkey content, head on over to the
Speaker 2: mediater dot com. You're gonna find all kinds of stuff
Speaker 2: you like.