Decoy or no decoy

[The Kid]

hey i was wondering what you guys thought about decoy, early, or late in the season, buck or doe, see i live on an 80 acre field and can hunt 200 acres on my neighbors so i have some land to hunt, but its all fields so its hard to get them close. any ideas would help..

[Dogg6]

I have used decoys quite often in the past. I have used them throughout the season and some luck. Normally I use a doe decoy. With the doe I can get other does and yearling to come in and check it out. As the season wears on the bucks will start taking more interest in the decoy as well. The only thing you can do is try it for a night or two and see how the deer react to it. If they are spooking off the field take it down for a week or 2 and then try it again. I have had some deer run off the field after seeing it and others walk right in. I normally set my decoy pointing out into the field as if it just came out of the woods. I also angle it slightly, so where the deer are likely to come out they see more of the decoy. Hope this helps and good luck.

[wildthing]

you hunting out of a treestand or ground blind? Early season, deer are still relatively in their summer travel patterns...a decoy may be less effective.

During the pre-rut and rut...you may have more success pulling a shooter into range.

There is no exact science...the only thing you can do is try.