Learning how to make use of hunting decoys can be a very important part of your hunting experience. Regardless if you are new to hunting, or if you are a seasoned veteran of the fields and forests, learning how to use decoys as part of your hunting can advance things to a whole new level, and give you that extra advantage that improves your results. Using decoys is moderately easy. Along with your usual tools for hunting, you will need: decoys, scent-eliminating spray and soap, a Buck archery target, and a windsock.
For deer hunting:
- You will need to keep your decoy as scent free as you possibly can. Wash it in the scent and odor eliminating soap, followed by a liberal spraying down with scent removing spray before the hunt. Deer are incredibly sensitive to smells, and so your hunting efforts will be for naught if you cannot get a dear anywhere near you due to scent alerting them to your presence.
- Scout out the place you wish to deploy your decoy to that is 15 to 25 yards away from the blind or stand if bow hunting. If you are using a rifle, you can place the decoy even further away. An ideal place is going to be somewhere close to an edge of a field where the forest begins and the trees and the shrubs begin to thicken.
- Make sure your decoy is placed where other deer are known to congregate, and so will expect to see another deer there. A deer in a strange place will seem odd, and may only serve to scare potential targets away.
- Make sure to pose your decoy in a feeding position. This is the most likely, most reliable, and most effective stance you could pose your decoy in.
- During the rutting season, use a doe decoy if you want the best results. Take a small colored rag in a neutral shade and spray it with what is known as “doe in estrus”, which is a scent that resembles the scent of a doe in heat. Attach it to the decoys tail.
- You can also use a Buck archery target as a decoy. Try to make sounds like a challenging buck might in order to attract other challenging bucks and does looking for a potential mate alike.
For waterfowl hunting:
- It needs to be remembered that waterfowl both take off and land facing into the wind. Now keep this information in mind while setting up your decoys, and be sure to set them in front of you while you have your back to the wind.
- Be sure to leave lots of room for potential targets among your decoys. Too many decoys in the water will actually harm more than it helps.
- Use feeding or sleeping duck decoys, herons, or even swans in order to create confidence in the target.
- Be sure to use a unique spread of decoys when setting up. Give the target something different that will attract them.
Photo credits: *Micky
Originally posted 2009-10-15 03:29:46. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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