Decoys???

MarkNTennessee

New member
I was wondering what would be a good decoy to use. I have been using a inflatable Turkey decoy and it worked last year, But I think there ahs to be something better. Do any of you guys have any suggestions??
 
MarkNTennessee
I made a decoy out of a wesseltail I drilled a hole in the center of the top where the thing goes side to side instead of up and down the batties last longer. I haven't got to use it that must yet,but its a cheap decoy.
 
I can truely recommend the Predator Inticer. It is advertised on the PM main page. When the company was working with the original designs I was in the group that tested them. The end product the is sold to the public came from our recomendations, actually Randy Buker had the best ideas. This lightweight little gizmo works to hold their attention off of you well. Rob in Scottsdale told of a story where he had a coyote within 4 steps and stay there even while he was drawing his bow. I am not being paid for this indorsment but I do suggest it. Christopher.
 
I was also a field tester of the Enticer decoy. It works pretty fair. I think it might work best where the cover isn't so thick as in my situation. A couple of times when I used it it did the job very well. Another time when I used it a coyote trotted right past it without a glance. That particular day was very windy and the wind was whipping the leaves around a lot. Basically, everything in the woods was moving and as small as the Enticer's feathered lure is, I don't think the coyote saw it. I felt like it might do better in a more open setting and passed mine on to Jimmie in KY to use down there in some of those farm fields he hunts. I'm not real sure if he got much of a chance to put it to use after I sent it down to him or not. Maybe he'll chip in here with a thought. At the least in the situation above, the Enticer didn't hurt my set-up at all.

I currently use the Predator Supreme. It's a bit bigger and has more of a 3-D critter shape. It also has quite a bit of movement. I like it just fine, it works very well for me in my thick cover situation.

I do think these small light decoys can be very helpful and are worth packing. I don't use them on every set-up, but do on at least 50%. I know that I've killed coyotes that stayed eyeballing the decoy that I wouldn't have killed otherwise.

An example was a big old one canine toothed male that ran into the set and put the skids on as soon as he saw the Predator Supreme. I had the decoy set up on a rotten stump that had a blown down tree against it. It was probably three feet off the ground and really looked as if it were on the log flopping around. Nice and visable from a distance, the timber here was pretty open and I didn't want anything locking on me from a distance. This coyote was on the wrong side for me to get turned on him and all I could do was watch as he began to stalk the decoy from about 100 yards. At about 75 yards I scrooched just a bit to bring the rifle around. The coyote spotted that movement and stared a hole through me for about five seconds. Then he turned and looked back at the decoy, looked back at me. When he looked at me the second time I put a bullet in the corner of his eye. I probably wouldn't have gotten that coyote in that open timber on the wrong side like that without my decoy. There have been several others similar to this. Lot's of guys don't fool with them, that's their decision. I take one along every trip I go.
 
GC, where can I find the Predator Supreme decoy? I'm looking to buy one that is good for timber hunting since that is all I have to hunt.
Also, what do you all think about the Rigor Rabbit? It looks good to me but that thing costs $50.
 
I really like this discussion over decoys. I am relativly new to predator hunting but I am doing well so far. I am really on fire about hunting predators and think alot about how to fool these creatures with out spending alot of money on high tech gadgets. Here is my solution for decoys, I went to Kb toy store and bought a little round plastic ball that has a small battery operated motor in it ( 1 aa battery). This ball when turned on makes very eratic movements. On the outside of the ball is a furry squirrel looking tail. When I set up to hunt I place 4 sticks in a small square and put the ball inside. I place my ecaller speaker right next to the square and turn both on. So far I have made four hunts with it. This little thing has been grabbed by a giant owl in which I had to jump up and yell at to get him to let go, and I have killed a bobcat within 5 yards of ( this cat was super focused on my little flipping ball) and one very close and determined coyote. This little flipping ball will cost you all of $6.00. This is my first piece of advice to post here I really hope someone can use it. I sure have used alot od advice that I have found here.
 
Tally Ho,
Take a look at the Enticer along with the Predator Supreme. Both are good, the Enticer worked pretty well for me, I just feel that for my situation the Predator Supreme works best. I think you can buy direct from www.decoyheart.com, or Cabela's, Bass Pro, and Night Light usually carry the Predator Supreme. You won't like the price of this one either as it's also a $50.00 decoy. Additionally, I modified the stake to better suit my needs. Because most often I backpack the MTNF, I use a two piece turkey stake for my decoy instead of the one piece wooden dowel rod the decoy comes with. By using the two piece stake the outfit breaks down to fit in my pack, and I can vary the how high I set the decoy.

Regarding the Rigor Rabbit, I've never seen one in person so my comments are strictly based on seeing the thing in a video. I didn't like it in the video. Rigor Rabbit's motion doesn't seem too vigorious, sort of a short, rapid, up/down motion. The Predator Supreme does sort of a "rock and roll" thing moving from side to side and front to back. The way my decoy stake fits together, this motion also causes the top stake to very, very, slowly turn just a bit occasionally. That offers a different view of the decoy critter.

Gary,
Welcome to the board. What you have is a Weasel Ball. My weasel ball is orange and blue colored, did you repaint yours or was it a different color? I think the weasel ball's motor is a bit louder than the Decoy Heart used in the Predator Supreme. Or maybe the fur jacket of the decoy critter used on the Supreme muffles the sound of the motor some. My biggest complaint of the weasel ball is that there isn't an ON/OFF switch. With mine you have to unscrew the ball halves, put the battery in which immediately starts the motor going, then screw the halves back. That's kind of a pain in the butt for me to fiddle with.

My first decoy used a Decoy Heart in a small stuffed spotted puppy toy. It worked pretty well. I next came up with FrankenRabbit. FrankenRabbit used a Decoy Heart and a tanned rabbit hide on a string originally. Later I changed Frank over to a stake mounted unit. The real rabbit fur wasn't very durable and when it got wet was a real mess. The Predator Supreme was a better alternative for me personally.
 
Well guys, thanks for the info regarding decoys. I'll be getting one as soon as I make up my mind about which one to get, and I will let you know how it does for me.
 
Hey GC,
That link to Predator Supreme did not work for me. Can you check it to see if it is correct?? Need to see one of these.
 
The simplest decoys are wing feathers on a string.Cheap and the wind provides the movement.Lite, no batteries and take up no space to amount to anything. Some of you may have a turkey wing or two laying around.Crows shooters just need to collect a couple or take a little target practice on what ever bird your state deems to be a pest.Small birds use the whole wing.

All reports from users of the predator supreme from Decoy heart are positive. Light wieght and quick and easy setup.Dogs seem to love them to death /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif Largest number of dogs I've heard of working one was four. They even looked at the hunter then returned their attention to the decoy, fatal mistake for a pair.

The predator enticer, Ilove it. Haven't had the oportunity to use mine in daylight until recently but haven't called in a dog yet to see reaction myself. Used it at night with no noticable affect on the dogs that came in.For some reason the female focussed on my face in the dark and homed in on me.I know they never saw it. Others report very good affect on all predators.I like the weight and ease of set up. I can have it ready for position when I get to it and just stick it in the ground.Hawks like it very well, they stick around longer than normal so I expect the same from daylight dogs.

Remeber that decoys are not a magic wand. They do not take the place of a good set up.They are good at getting the dogs attention and curiosity peaked for the few extra seconds we sometimes need.Jimmie
 


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