Jake decoys

[Ducktail]

Have any of y'all found the jake or even the struttin tom decoy to be of any advantage to using with a hen decoy(s)? I have always wondered if this is a maketing scheme cooked up by the decoy makers with left over decoy materials. It is also something else to carry around.

I was in Nab's place of business last year with my kids. My oldest spotted one of these decoys and I got it for him for his birthday for fun. He wants to use it this year. Should I send my son turkey hunting with Nab?

[KRT]

Send him hunting with anyone that will have him.

[Sasha and Abby]

That jake decoy is deadly. I wish I had a dollar for every time I have had one or more birds come in and bow up in front of it.

They will sit and pirouette in front of it until the decoy winks at them... and then the fight is on. A one sided fight, but amusing non the less.

[Ducktail]

I can't send him with anyone else. He is my good luck. It seems the more noise he makes, the more deer we see.

[GRW]

With the Hen decoy alone I have had birds get within seeing distance of the decoy and strut and never come into gun range.

If the Hen is with a Jake decoy, it pisses them off and the gobbler's come all the way in to the decoys. I have had birds charge the jake but never fight with it, I usually dont let them stand around too long however.

I have had 2 yeard old birds scared by a half strut jake decoy so I use just the plain old no-strut, no-bredding jake decoy.

[Greenwing]

I put out a hen by herself and a hen and a jake close together about 10-15 yards away. Seems to work pretty good!

[BugBuster]

The gobbler will allways walk past the hen decoys and come directly to the jake first.

[Ducktail]

Given the choice, do you think a strutting jake decoy would be better than a regular jake decoy?

[quack_kills]

i use a half strut jake decoy and also a hen too, since i never killed a long beard before i am not sure what they do, but i killed alot of jakes that came charging in to the decoys. so hopefully in a week , i can kill my first long beard and also my first with a bow too..

[Mergie Master]

The half strut jake could scare of a non-dominant bird, especially if he's just recently had his ass kicked by the boss.

I've wathced shows on TV where they called in a bird and it came in quietly. The narrators usually say he is an old "smart" gobbler, and often times he is an old bird. But he ain't coming in quiet because he's smart or scared of hunters, he's coming quiet because he isn't the dominant bird. He's been getting his ass kicked by a badder bird, he may be an old bird but he's past his prime or he doesn't have the balls of the boss.

I also have some issues with what are they say are call shy birds. I'm not convinced you can make a bird call shy or if so not easily. They don't have the long term memory neccassary to become call shy day after day. You may spook one and not be able to get him back to that spot or that particular sounding call in the same day, but by the next day he's forgotten it all. If they remembered everytime they got spooked and avoided that area they'd never come out of the tree, they'd starve to death on the limb.

I know I'm gonna catch some flack for saying that but that's how I see it, and I have sent a lot of time watching, calling and studying these ground buzzards! Pre-season and during the season.

[Longbeards]

Jake Decoy - I never leave home without it. It tears big toms up something fierce. It will tick them off more than anything.