4 OUTSIDE THE BOX TURKEY DECOY SETUPS

Hopefully you’ve had a chance to scout for turkeys. Or perhaps the season is underway and you’ve already noticed skittish birds due to hunting pressure. While just about any two-year-old gobbler is coming in to the slightest semblance of a hen call, the older birds will become even more leery as the season progresses. This is where an outside-the-box decoy setup might be your best bet for punching a tag. Here are our four favorite.

1. Cover All the Angles

When a gobbler flies off the roost, there is a narrow window of time to ensure he sees your decoys. During the mating season, he’s going to fly down to join the hens he sees before he goes looking for one he hears. That’s why Tennessee hunter Drew Gilkerson makes sure that if a tom even glances his way, it is going to see a hen.

“I position them where a tom can easily see any of the MISS PURR-FECT hen decoys no matter the direction he approaches from,” said Gilkerson. “I space the decoys in a triangular manner with enough room between them to give a tom the chance to strut around them. Last season, this setup worked exactly as planned and a tom committed to the trio of decoys shortly after fly down.”
According to Gilkerson, the longbeard closed the distance from 100 yards to 10 in just a few minutes before offering an easy shot. “It turned out to be one of the quickest, best turkey hunts ever,” he said.
His setup worked so well because the divergent angles allowed for maximum visibility.

2.The Motion Stake

Years ago, before we created the Motion Stake, we’d simply attach a string and zip tie to the decoy and let it dangle from a tree branch. This was effective at times, but only when a hunter had a clear shot to a low-hanging limb from a girthy tree trunk. Unfortunately a breaking branch most often causes a tom to take flight, and that is heartbreaking.
The Motion Stake is much like a modern-day cane fishing pole. It extends like a telescope from a few inches to several feet. Using the attached metal stirrup, easily drive it into the ground using your foot. A clip attached to the end of some heavy duty fishing line is where you’ll attach the decoy to let it hang and move freely.

3. A Lone Hen for the Late Season

As the season wears on, turkeys will further separate themselves from the rest of the flock. Gobblers are worn down by the breeding season and feeling the hunting pressure, so they’re not as responsive to calls. Nor do they intend on fighting a group of jakes for one more romance with a hen. They’re relying on their eye site and that weird turkey intuition to decide on any more “moves” they may make.
As for hens, the majority have (hopefully) been bred. And for those that haven’t, they may still be cruising around looking for a gobbler. The optimal time to see this lone hen is during the late-morning hours when the sun is shining bright. If she’s just puttering about with no clear direction, there’s a good chance a gobbler is strutting or lurking nearby. This teaches us two things: 1) Deep into the season, hunt late mornings, especially the sunny ones; and 2) reduce your setup to one decoy.
Place your decoy in a looking or feeding pose. Never use the breeding position this late in a season because a gobbler will either think she’s nesting or that another tom is nearby. Treat your calling much like your decoy setup by keeping it simple. Gobblers will slip in silently so maintain a watchful eye on your surroundings.

4. Get Out in the Open (BUT ONLY ON PRIVATE LAND)

Another observation many of us have made during latter-season turkey hunts is that the birds tend to congregate in large fields where they are extremely hard to reach. Though it may seem like they just appear there, rising from some unseen hole in the ground, they will actually fly directly from the roost to such a spot, leaving you with little chance of cutting one off.
Use this to your advantage in the last 10-12 days of the season. Once the ground has soaked up enough moisture and sunshine, the grass will begin growing at a rapid rate. Outfit yourself with a ghillie suit, set out two to three hen decoys, and make the middle of that field your last-resort ambush spot.

NOTE: Only do this on private land and make sure that everyone is absolutely aware of your location and intentions. Lay in the prone position so you don’t get overly excited and accidentally shoot your foot off. You may think, “Oh, but it’s so hard to shoot a shotgun prone.” True. So rise up on your knees and be prepared to quickly fire. You’ll have a few seconds as turkeys are slow to take flight.