September 15, 2025 • 28 mins
Decoys have long been a staple in whitetail and turkey hunting, but their potential for blacktail hunting remains largely untapped. Why leave such an effective tool out of your hunting arsenal? Aaron and Dave break down everything you need to know to successfully deploy decoys for blacktail deer this season.
The positioning of your decoy isn't just important—it's absolutely critical. Dave shares his hard-earned knowledge on strategic placement, explaining how bucks and does approach decoys differently. "If I'm using a buck decoy, that buck should circle around to the front," Dave explains, "If it's a doe decoy, most of the time those bucks will approach that doe decoy from the rear." This simple insight could completely transform your hunting success.
The conversation goes deep into practical considerations: Should you use a buck or doe decoy? Standing or bedded? How should you apply scents to enhance realism? When should you add calling to the mix? The hosts cover it all while debunking myths and providing real-world applications specific to blacktail deer behavior.
Perhaps most valuable is their discussion of what not to do—common mistakes that can ruin an otherwise perfect setup. "Don't put the decoy where you want the buck to stand," Dave advises. "Put the decoy so that you're thinking the buck is going to circle toward you, focusing away from you."
Whether you're a seasoned hunter looking to add another dimension to your strategy or a beginner trying to increase your odds of success, this episode delivers actionable insights you can implement immediately. Listen now and discover why a simple plastic deer might be the missing piece in your blacktail hunting puzzle.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome back to the Blacktail Coach Podcast.
I'm Aaron and I'm Dave.
This week we're talking aboutdecoys.
You've used decoys before.
Have you used them much withblacktail or ever?
A little bit.
Okay, it's very big forwhitetail, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
It is one of the ways it's very big for whitetail.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
yes, what other species are they?
I mean, I know it's turkey,it's a big deal.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
but Turkey you do a lot elk.
They got the montana decoys andthat's what I would say, for
montana decoy has one for elk,for blacktail, for whitetail,
for mule deer okay.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Do you know people who use them for mule deer?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
yeah, I've seen stuff on tv where they're doing it
and stuff, but I personally donot know anyone okay that has
used it, but I've watched it ontv, read it in magazines and
that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
So to me, thinking about black tail or using decoys
for black tail, it's kind of anew concept.
So I wanted to sort of fleshthis out for everybody.
As we get away from baiting,with it being illegal in
Washington state, our friendsdown in Oregon are still able to
do baiting Not that theywouldn't be able to do decoys as
(01:07):
well.
But yeah, I want to helpeverybody, help the listener,
figure out if decoys couldpotentially work for them.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Okay, so I would correct something that you said
already, that it's a new concept.
It's actually been around for along time and again, popularity
when McKinsey, when the 3Dtargets started coming out, guys
were using their 3D targets asdecoys On the West side.
Much like sense.
It's a strategy that's barelybeen touched.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
That's what I meant is more black tail.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Right, it's a lot of guys around here because they've
never considered that to be anoption.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Yeah, same thing with scents.
Same thing with bait.
Exactly, not really thinkingthat that's a tool you can have
in your toolbox, right?
So why don't you start Tell usyour backstory with using decoys
and times that you've used them?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
So using decoys a lot of people know that.
I tree stand hunt.
First got into this my buddySteve in Kansas, who's also a
pro staffer for Buck Venturesgreat guy.
The first time I went downthere filled my tag within the
first few days of the hunt andgot to spend the rest of the
week with him.
We went over strategies, how todo it and where to place your
decoy and you know, through himhave gotten a little bit of a.
(02:29):
I won't say that I'm.
I'm a how can you say aexperienced decoy or a weathered
decoy, but just enough to knowthat it does work.
And just a few basic thingsthat you need to remember.
Like that fishing lure example,I use all the time.
If you go into it withrealistic expectations and you
(02:51):
give it an opportunity, a timeto, you're already using them or
you're looking to experimentwith something different.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Since I've known you, you haven't necessarily had one
.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Use one for blacktail but and I think yeah, the
reason for that is because of mysense and everything.
I've never Needed to.
I'm not saying that I need tonow.
We can still use synthetics andI get just as much result from
synthetics as I do pure urinesand sense and pheromones and all
that stuff.
I just was hoping to get somefootage this year of some
(03:40):
decoying deer and stuff, justlike you were saying, to add
another tool to that toolbox,something else in our arsenal to
help guys be successful.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
But I think part of it is experimenting this year.
So experimenting with someattractants some of the rat
getter attractants or the tinksmake some nose candy, I believe
that's the name of it.
But there's some attractantsthat we're going to be trying
out this year differentsynthetics with different brands
(04:10):
, because there's a fewdifferent brands of pheromones
that you can use, and so I thinkthere's a little bit more this
year, experimentation with someof these items.
And so we'll talk about decoys.
But at the end of the season Iwant to do another episode,
talking about where we landedwith our experimenting.
(04:32):
You know, always tryingsomething new, and I know Chris,
one of our pro staff.
He's always trying out newproducts and different things.
He's doing a lot with foodplots this year.
That's another thing.
We want to find out how theyresponded to food plots because,
blacktail, the way they eat isdifferent.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
The browsers, not grazers.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
So a lot of this is just okay, let's figure out how
do you use them and then, at theend of the season, coming back
and saying, okay, this is whatwe saw, this is what we have
video or pictures of theirresponse to you know, this
particular thing for decoys youjust recently bought, found on
facebook marketplace, was it?
Yeah, you got a decoy yeah ablack tail d.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
I got a screaming deal on a brand new decoy.
Yeah, yeah, and so it can be abuck or a doe you just could be
standing, it could be bedded, itcould be calm, it can be angry
as far as tipping the ears backaggressiveness.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
You can change its appearance.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
The ears are separate .
They attach separately from thehead right and the antlers.
The legs are separate too.
Everything fits inside the bodycavity.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, it's pretty realistic looking as far as
decoys go.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
So I know there was a particular company.
I can't remember the name ofthe company.
He was at the Sportsman Show acouple of years ago and we
talked to him.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Probably the most lifelike decoys I've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
He had some really great looking decoys.
Let's say that someone comesacross some white tail decoys.
Would those work?
Can you use, like other speciesof decoys, or the deer, or
would they pick up on that?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
No, you can use those .
Decoying actually startedgetting big, I would say back
when Delta and McKinsey starteddoing foam targets.
Guys were taking their targetsand using them as decoys and so,
yeah, there was no black-taileddeer target out there, it was
all white-tail.
And you know, the deer justsees a deer.
(06:35):
It doesn't differentiatebetween a white-tailed or a mule
deer or anything like thatthat's not a correct rack on
that thing.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
They're not racist at all, yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
So they're fine with that, you know.
And the same with urines withscents.
Black tail, white tail, whitetail we use that all the time,
Black tail hunting and stuff.
It doesn't make a difference.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
I think there's only one company I've come across
with what they call black tailsynthetics, and that being well,
moccasin Joe, moccasin Joe.
But Hot Scents was another onethat I came across.
That's right, moccasin Joe.
I couldn't find that they hadsynthetics now, so I don't know
if they discontinued, that theydiscontinued.
(07:13):
But everything else is going tobe whitetail.
I'm to talk about theexperimenting, conquest and
Tinks.
I'm going with the Tinksproducts this year, but those
are the two companies I wouldprobably go with just because,
having read, they post a lot oftheir science behind it and I
(07:34):
think they just have the moneyto really flesh those out.
As far as quality.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah, they're two well-established companies that
have been around for decades andproduce high-quality products
that we've been reallysuccessful with in the past.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I know we've sworn by the EverCalm for years, so yeah
, that stuff works.
I'm switching over.
I'll probably use the—it'scalled Dopey, but it's the
bedding pheromone from Tinks.
I'll probably switch over tothat one.
See how it works compared tothe EverCalm.
We haven't tried the EverCalmsynthetic, so that'll be a new
(08:10):
one this year From thosecompanies.
I really have no doubts thatthey're going to work just as
well.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yeah, I'm kind of in the same boat with that.
I don't have any worries aboutit working and not working.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
I'm sure that it'll produce what we need it to.
Okay, so how are you staging adecoy out?
And let's talk about this inthe context of set hunting,
because that's what we do Now.
You could probably use thesefor glassing clear cuts as well.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Yeah, but I would think a Montana decoy would be
better for that situation.
There's a company that makes adecoy doe that fits on the face
of your bow oh yeah.
So that's a lot more mobilethan the decoy I purchased.
The decoy is like a 3D animal.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
It's life-size.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
So that's not going to be super mobile as far as
something that you want to carryaround all day under your arm.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
So that's geared more towards set hunting.
When you're doing a decoy,setup is important because it's
just like duck hunting you don'tjust throw the decoys out there
.
You've got to set them up acertain way, to cause them to
fly in a certain way whichcauses them to land in a certain
spot.
There's a lot more to it thanjust putting it out there With a
deer decoy.
(09:28):
If I'm in a tree stand, I don'twant that decoy underneath my
tree stand or at the base of thetree I'm in.
I want that decoy out therefacing me or broadside to me,
facing the direction that Ithink the deer is going to come.
If it's broadside, If it'sfacing me, I want it to be off
(09:51):
to one side, away from where Ithink that buck is going to come
from.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Because the deer will approach a.
If it's a buck decoy, I shouldstipulate that If I'm using a
buck decoy that's how I want itthe buck that I'm trying to
target should circle around tothe front of that deer.
Okay, and so if that buck is atthe base of my tree, then what
I'm doing is allowing that buckto focus on the area where I'm
(10:17):
at.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
If I have that decoy out there, if I can get it 20
yards, great.
If I can't, I'm going to get itas far away from me as I can
and have it facing me.
It's going to cause that buckto circle that decoy and watch
that decoy the whole time, soit'll be looking the opposite
direction.
So I'll have all theopportunity in the world to draw
(10:39):
, get on this buck.
Whatever movement I need to do,I'll be able to do that because
he's focused on the buck that'sout there away from me.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Yeah, so I'm trying to think of it in the context of
my particular set.
If I were to put him out there,my set, starting at maybe nine
yards and they can enter fromthe left and the right, there's
a half moon shape of viney,maple and fir trees that they
could come through.
(11:09):
Thinking about the other sideof that, it's so thick in there
For them to work their wayaround.
I mean, there's not a lot.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
We must stipulate there too that you're out of a
ground blind.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
You're not out of a tree stand.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Ground blind's a little bit more difficult
because it is thicker.
So what I want to do is put itmore toward the thicker stuff
and force that buck to circlearound more into the open.
His attention needs to be drawnto the decoy and it will be.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
They're going to recognize there's another buck
and start sniffing it out.
I've done my sense over thereand he's never smelled that buck
, so he's going to be focused onthat buck.
It becomes a dominance issuewhere he's going to bristle up
and start getting all ruddy andwalking around that buck.
He'll approach it from thefront, he won't approach it from
the rear.
Now if I'm using a doe decoy,most of the time those bucks
(12:03):
will approach that doe decoyfrom the rear.
So it's going to be theopposite of what I would do with
a buck.
I wouldn't face the decoytoward me.
I'd put it either broadside orfacing away a little bit.
So, he circles around.
He's wanting to find out ifshe's in standing.
So he's going to circle aroundto the backside and I need him
focusing again.
I need that doe out there, sohis attention is on the doe and
(12:25):
not anywhere where I'm at.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Yeah, I'm thinking as you're talking about setting
this up.
I'm just thinking in myparticular set and, with the way
everything's laid out, one ofthe things right before you
actually went out there, itdawned on me because we are
establishing a set field day onthat particular set.
I don't know why.
It all of a sudden dawned on meright before you went out there
(12:52):
, but I finally realized thatthe two dominant bucks I had
High and Tight and Sneaky Pete,two very nice big bucks, came in
from like 10 o'clock, outstraight out of the thick stuff,
all the non-dominant bucks.
So I had a Spike, I had Kenobi,I had Brick, younger bucks or
(13:15):
they just weren't the dominantbuck, they always came in from
three o'clock.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Because it's a much more open trail.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
The two dominant bucks were always on the tail of
a doe, coming in as well.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
And their dominant bucks are always going to stick
to the thicker cover.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
They just are.
And if it's tight like that,where you don't have a lot of
room, I don't want to introduceanother buck.
I want to use that decoy as adoe because I want that buck to
come over to that decoy.
Okay, that's a good point.
I don't need him circlingaround.
If I don't have the space forhim to circle around, then it's
kind of counterintuitive to putit out there.
But if I do, yeah, put it outthere, use it.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Is there more to explain about when you would use
a buck versus a doe?
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Well, it goes back to a confidence thing.
What do you think you've hadmore luck with?
Some guys prefer if the rut isheavy.
Both will work.
If it's pre-rut, I wouldprobably go with a buck myself.
I wouldn't go to the doe untilwe hit the heavy part of the rut
, because they're just going tobe going all the time, you know.
(14:17):
And then that second rut, itjust depends.
You know, yeah, If you got a,if you, you know what's your
buck to doe ratio.
And then another thing that I,you know, I'm always considering
is if there is a high buck todoe ratio.
I have a lot of bucks in thearea.
If I'm going to use that buckdecoy, I typically want to do
(14:40):
some rattling when I'm usingthat too, to kind of add to that
illusion.
If I'm doing the doe, then notvery much, but every now and
then just do a doe bleat.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
To help that illusion .
We've got scents out there.
We've got the decoy out there.
Now let's put some audio outthere yeah if they see it, which
they should, it's going to sealthe deal.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
They're going to come in focused on it now I saw
somebody stop by the booth up inpuyallup last year.
He was talking about he useddecoys quite a bit and he
actually sprayed the doe andestrus on the back of the decoy
and so it actually got mountedby the buck and he tore himself
up by doing that because he wastrying to impregnate a big chunk
(15:26):
of plastic.
But if it were a buck would yoube spraying like buck urine on
it, down the legs or somethinglike the inside, where the hawks
are and everything and a lot ofit is predicated.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
The doe and estrus absolutely because I'll probably
do a doe decoy more than I willa buck, and it's not that that
I mean white tail are much moreaggressive species of deer, even
than than mule deer, you knowyeah they.
They tend to take over.
But that's not saying that thatblack tails aren't aggressive
either, because they are.
I've seen them fight andwatched them do that.
(15:58):
I had that one buck that Ipassed up four times that season
.
Every time he came in he wouldsnort, wheeze and he would just
start horning all the other deerin the area.
Just a very aggressive buck bytemperament.
But that time of year if I'mgoing to use that thing as a
decoy, probably more as a doe,then I'm probably going to, you
(16:19):
know, probably not do the buckurine as much.
If I would do the buck urine itwould probably be on the ground
by the decoy behind it.
You know what I mean.
Just because getting that scentoff and doe urine on you know
back and forth.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
So, thinking about that plastic now, are they going
to have a smell, and I imaginethat they do as much as they can
for a decoy to not have anyscent to it.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Well, you want to spray it down with scent killer.
Okay that's what I thought.
I spray it down with dead downwind after I get done setting it
up the field spray.
Yeah, pretty much all over thebody except for the rear end.
Now I got the synthetic or thelatex gloves on and everything
and then on the rear and I trynot to touch the rear end of the
deer.
And then when I apply the scentthe doe and estrus it's on the
(17:09):
backside.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Okay If you were running it as a buck for a while
.
And side Okay If you wererunning it as a buck for a while
.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
And then a doe you would do the buck urine on the
ground behind it, but you wouldput the doe and estrus on the
buck itself On the butt end ofthe doe.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Now you talked about laying down versus standing up,
so what would determine that asfar as when you're going to have
it, laying down or standing?
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Okay, I always want to do my buck standing up.
I want to tip the ears back tomake them look irritated and put
them in a posture that's veryaggressive and that sort of
thing.
But if I'm doing a doe, Itypically want the doe to be
bedded down because I mean I'm Ijust have a better.
He'll circle around to get tothe back end of that doe and
(18:00):
he's really focused on her andhis attention is really down low
.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
And because I tree stand hunt, that's what I want.
And then see Right, right.
And what I like to do is I'lltake even with both buck and doe
.
I'll butt that up against somereal thick stuff that's going to
cause that buck that comes into have to work at getting
around to that.
You know that doe and stuff,and if it's a buck I'll put his
(18:25):
back up against it because Idon't want that target buck to
come out behind it.
I want him to circle around andapproach from the front on that
buck.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
So put his back against the thick stuff and have
it facing me broadside.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
So put its back against the thick stuff and have
it facing me broadside, andsince the legs are removed, are
they made so that you can havethem laying down with the legs
on, or is it just as it's bedded?
It just has no legs, it justhas no legs.
Okay, they're just not pickingup on it, because at that point,
they don't realize it's aquadriplegic that they're after.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
They're so focused on the head.
Don't realize it's aquadriplegic that they're after.
You know.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
They're so focused on the head, yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
You know, whether it's a buck or a doe, that's
what they're focused on and it'skind of funny.
I mean they're just and it'snot.
I mean they don't come in andyou know, accept it right away.
They're a little tentative.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
They're always tentative.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
They can deer, but something's up here.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
It smells like a deer , but it's not moving like a
deer, you know, yeah, it's notmoving at all.
No reaction to their actionyeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
So they're a little timid, but they do come in how
are you getting it propped up ifit's standing to say you're
doing a buck?
Do they have it where you canstake it into the ground so it
can't move?
Speaker 2 (19:37):
some decoys do, yes, some are just heavy enough that
they're just going to stay there.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
I'm thinking about the one you have in the garage.
It's not heavy enough unlessyou were to fill the body.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
No, but I mean when you put the four legs out.
I mean it's like it's, you know, you put a tripod out, three
legs and it's going to stay upand so it doesn't blow over,
because we'll get windstorms andstuff, and sometimes it does
blow over.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Climb out of your blind or out of your tree.
Stand and go, stand it back up.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Or if I was thinking, if a buck comes, say you have
it as a buck and a buck comes in, if it's maybe setting up that
pecking order and it startsattacking it because I have seen
videos of that where they dothey will start go down To shoot
the deer before it attacks yourdecoy They'll throw hands in
the middle of the night.
I don't leave it out overnight.
(20:29):
Oh, you don't leave it outovernight.
No, no, no.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Carry in, carry out, but, like I said earlier, it's
not something that you want tocarry throughout the day going
from spot to spot to spot, youknow, and what makes it great.
So it adds to the illusion thatwe've created the whole time.
It just is another piece ofthat puzzle that Buck is looking
for that you've just placed outthere.
You're adding to this scenethat you've created, you've put
(20:54):
in the smell, you've beenworking the smells, whether it's
dominant Buck urine.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Don't ask for it.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
So now he's thinking, okay, there's deer activity
here.
And now you've given him thevisual oh, there is deer here to
coincide with this deeractivity.
And so, yeah, it brings them in.
And, like I said, the greatthing about using a decoy is
they're focused on the decoy.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Laser focused, you have plenty of time to draw or
get your rifle or gun yourpistol up and seal the deal.
And if it's not the buck youwant, you're going to get a good
show, good footage, if you'refilming that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
So I was thinking about guys who are glassing
clear cuts who maybe want to useit and I know you said that
they had an attachment that wenton the front of your bow or
something.
But what if they were taking afull-size decoy?
So thinking about you know,it's maybe a level clear cut.
I'm just thinking about wherewe took the guys up on the
locating field day and there wasthat big clear cut right off
(21:53):
the road.
So would it make sense if a guywanted to use a full-size decoy
to maybe walk it down?
If they've scouted that areabeforehand, walk it down, found
a game trail coming out of thethicker, bigger timber into the
clear cut and maybe setting upthat decoy just outside to draw?
(22:17):
Would that draw deer out?
Setting up the decoy justoutside of that thick stuff?
Speaker 2 (22:22):
I don't see why it wouldn't.
Okay, I'm just saying forpracticality purposes.
Is packing that thing aroundall day, going from cut to cut?
If you're just going to huntone cut?
I guess that's what I'm tryingto say.
Let's get in there, let's getit set up and that's where we're
going to spend our hunt.
It's the full hunt.
Right.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
It's to spend our hunt, it's the full hunt, right?
It's not a leapfrog if you'rerunning a gun, yeah, yeah.
So whereas, like I just thinkof the predator hunting that dj
did with dan where you know yougo out, you, you put out the
call.
You know, 15 minutes later, ifyou don't get any coyotes coming
in, you go to the next spotright, it's not a run that would
be unpractical to do it thatway.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Could you do it that way?
Yes, are you going to get tireddoing it that way?
Definitely.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
And I'm just thinking trying to walk through 200
yards of a clear cut would justbe a pain in the butt anyway
with all the down limbs andwhatnot.
But it seems like if you werewatching a clear cut and you
knew there's a big game trailright there that comes out of
there, is that worthwhile tomaybe set up a decoy 10 yards
out of?
That might lure them out,because if deer saw that decoy
(23:31):
would they feel more confidentin coming out into the open.
Potentially it might be justsmall bucks, smaller bucks.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
yes, I would say bigger bucks are a lot more
cautious.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
And they're not necessarily using that trail.
Right, as you've said, they usedifferent trails in the small
bucks and the four-horned ones,those bucks but if your goal is
meat hunting and you just want abuck to step out, that might be
the way to go there.
Absolutely.
To wrap this up, are there anythings of just do not do this
with a decoy?
Are there any things of just donot do this with a decoy?
(23:59):
Anything that falls under thatcategory of just don't do this
with a decoy.
You'll be shooting yourself inthe foot, or maybe some gimmicky
stuff that people have done andpassed off as science, and it's
just not.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
All I can say is don't put the decoy where you
want the buck to stand.
Put the decoy so that you'rethinking the buck is going to
because he's going to circle,whether it's a buck or a doe,
he's going to circle a littlebit, with a doe even, but put it
where he's going to circletoward you, focusing away from
(24:35):
you.
That's the idea of using thatdecoy and stuff.
Now, that's a full-sized decoy.
If you've got the one thatmounts, it's like a Montana
decoy on the front of your bow.
You don't have a choice.
But the thing with that decoyis when he's focused on that
decoy and he's coming into it,you could already be at full
(24:56):
draw.
You know what I mean.
It's just designed that way andit's.
They only make those in a doethat I'm aware of okay they
might make it in a buck, but Idon't know that that would be
practical.
But I think it's only a.
I've only seen it as a doe.
Let me just say that, okay,when the buck sees that he comes
right in, they don't just comerunning at it, but they start
moving towards you and you canget away with movement behind
(25:18):
that decoy.
It gives the illusion that thedeer's body is moving a little
bit.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
I'm just thinking like having a decoy on your bow.
I know that they get focused,but it just doesn't seem to be
something I'd want to do,Because you're encouraging the
buck to look right at you.
But tunnel vision is tunnelvision.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Yeah, and when we get hooked on a girl?
Speaker 1 (25:43):
you don't see any.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
There's a lot of times you don't see the ones
throwing themselves at you.
You only see the one that isn't.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
The little kid.
You're pointing at what youwant them to pick up and they're
picking up everything else.
Yeah, so I guess tunnel visionis.
It is not hindsight everythingelse, yeah, so I guess tunnel
vision is.
It is not hindsight, it's not2020.
There you go, much more defined, okay.
So, like I said, we will reportback at the end of season how
the decoy worked.
I don't know.
I'm I don't know if I want totry it on my set because I'm in
(26:15):
the heart of the rut with rifle,versus when you'll be out there
during the second rut.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
I'm telling you to do the doe.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
And that's honestly thinking about how my set is
laid out.
I don't think I could put abuck in there.
There's just not enough roomfor it to move around
comfortably.
It's either going to just takeoff or come charging in and rip
it to shreds before I have achance to do anything.
So, anyway, we'll report backto you at the end of season and,
(26:44):
as always, thanks for joiningus this week.
Welcome back to the Blacktail Coach Podcast.
I'm Aaron and I'm Dave.
This week we're talking aboutdecoys.
You've used decoys before.
Have you used them much withblacktail or ever?
A little bit.
Okay, it's very big forwhitetail, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
It is one of the ways it's very big for whitetail.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
yes, what other species are they?
I mean, I know it's turkey,it's a big deal.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
but Turkey you do a lot elk.
They got the montana decoys andthat's what I would say, for
montana decoy has one for elk,for blacktail, for whitetail,
for mule deer okay.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Do you know people who use them for mule deer?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
yeah, I've seen stuff on tv where they're doing it
and stuff, but I personally donot know anyone okay that has
used it, but I've watched it ontv, read it in magazines and
that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
So to me, thinking about black tail or using decoys
for black tail, it's kind of anew concept.
So I wanted to sort of fleshthis out for everybody.
As we get away from baiting,with it being illegal in
Washington state, our friendsdown in Oregon are still able to
do baiting Not that theywouldn't be able to do decoys as
(01:07):
well.
But yeah, I want to helpeverybody, help the listener,
figure out if decoys couldpotentially work for them.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Okay, so I would correct something that you said
already, that it's a new concept.
It's actually been around for along time and again, popularity
when McKinsey, when the 3Dtargets started coming out, guys
were using their 3D targets asdecoys On the West side.
Much like sense.
It's a strategy that's barelybeen touched.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
That's what I meant is more black tail.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Right, it's a lot of guys around here because they've
never considered that to be anoption.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Yeah, same thing with scents.
Same thing with bait.
Exactly, not really thinkingthat that's a tool you can have
in your toolbox, right?
So why don't you start Tell usyour backstory with using decoys
and times that you've used them?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
So using decoys a lot of people know that.
I tree stand hunt.
First got into this my buddySteve in Kansas, who's also a
pro staffer for Buck Venturesgreat guy.
The first time I went downthere filled my tag within the
first few days of the hunt andgot to spend the rest of the
week with him.
We went over strategies, how todo it and where to place your
decoy and you know, through himhave gotten a little bit of a.
(02:29):
I won't say that I'm.
I'm a how can you say aexperienced decoy or a weathered
decoy, but just enough to knowthat it does work.
And just a few basic thingsthat you need to remember.
Like that fishing lure example,I use all the time.
If you go into it withrealistic expectations and you
(02:51):
give it an opportunity, a timeto, you're already using them or
you're looking to experimentwith something different.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Since I've known you, you haven't necessarily had one
.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Use one for blacktail but and I think yeah, the
reason for that is because of mysense and everything.
I've never Needed to.
I'm not saying that I need tonow.
We can still use synthetics andI get just as much result from
synthetics as I do pure urinesand sense and pheromones and all
that stuff.
I just was hoping to get somefootage this year of some
(03:40):
decoying deer and stuff, justlike you were saying, to add
another tool to that toolbox,something else in our arsenal to
help guys be successful.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
But I think part of it is experimenting this year.
So experimenting with someattractants some of the rat
getter attractants or the tinksmake some nose candy, I believe
that's the name of it.
But there's some attractantsthat we're going to be trying
out this year differentsynthetics with different brands
(04:10):
, because there's a fewdifferent brands of pheromones
that you can use, and so I thinkthere's a little bit more this
year, experimentation with someof these items.
And so we'll talk about decoys.
But at the end of the season Iwant to do another episode,
talking about where we landedwith our experimenting.
(04:32):
You know, always tryingsomething new, and I know Chris,
one of our pro staff.
He's always trying out newproducts and different things.
He's doing a lot with foodplots this year.
That's another thing.
We want to find out how theyresponded to food plots because,
blacktail, the way they eat isdifferent.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
The browsers, not grazers.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
So a lot of this is just okay, let's figure out how
do you use them and then, at theend of the season, coming back
and saying, okay, this is whatwe saw, this is what we have
video or pictures of theirresponse to you know, this
particular thing for decoys youjust recently bought, found on
facebook marketplace, was it?
Yeah, you got a decoy yeah ablack tail d.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
I got a screaming deal on a brand new decoy.
Yeah, yeah, and so it can be abuck or a doe you just could be
standing, it could be bedded, itcould be calm, it can be angry
as far as tipping the ears backaggressiveness.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
You can change its appearance.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
The ears are separate .
They attach separately from thehead right and the antlers.
The legs are separate too.
Everything fits inside the bodycavity.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, it's pretty realistic looking as far as
decoys go.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
So I know there was a particular company.
I can't remember the name ofthe company.
He was at the Sportsman Show acouple of years ago and we
talked to him.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Probably the most lifelike decoys I've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
He had some really great looking decoys.
Let's say that someone comesacross some white tail decoys.
Would those work?
Can you use, like other speciesof decoys, or the deer, or
would they pick up on that?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
No, you can use those .
Decoying actually startedgetting big, I would say back
when Delta and McKinsey starteddoing foam targets.
Guys were taking their targetsand using them as decoys and so,
yeah, there was no black-taileddeer target out there, it was
all white-tail.
And you know, the deer justsees a deer.
(06:35):
It doesn't differentiatebetween a white-tailed or a mule
deer or anything like thatthat's not a correct rack on
that thing.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
They're not racist at all, yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
So they're fine with that, you know.
And the same with urines withscents.
Black tail, white tail, whitetail we use that all the time,
Black tail hunting and stuff.
It doesn't make a difference.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
I think there's only one company I've come across
with what they call black tailsynthetics, and that being well,
moccasin Joe, moccasin Joe.
But Hot Scents was another onethat I came across.
That's right, moccasin Joe.
I couldn't find that they hadsynthetics now, so I don't know
if they discontinued, that theydiscontinued.
(07:13):
But everything else is going tobe whitetail.
I'm to talk about theexperimenting, conquest and
Tinks.
I'm going with the Tinksproducts this year, but those
are the two companies I wouldprobably go with just because,
having read, they post a lot oftheir science behind it and I
(07:34):
think they just have the moneyto really flesh those out.
As far as quality.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah, they're two well-established companies that
have been around for decades andproduce high-quality products
that we've been reallysuccessful with in the past.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I know we've sworn by the EverCalm for years, so yeah
, that stuff works.
I'm switching over.
I'll probably use the—it'scalled Dopey, but it's the
bedding pheromone from Tinks.
I'll probably switch over tothat one.
See how it works compared tothe EverCalm.
We haven't tried the EverCalmsynthetic, so that'll be a new
(08:10):
one this year From thosecompanies.
I really have no doubts thatthey're going to work just as
well.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yeah, I'm kind of in the same boat with that.
I don't have any worries aboutit working and not working.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
I'm sure that it'll produce what we need it to.
Okay, so how are you staging adecoy out?
And let's talk about this inthe context of set hunting,
because that's what we do Now.
You could probably use thesefor glassing clear cuts as well.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Yeah, but I would think a Montana decoy would be
better for that situation.
There's a company that makes adecoy doe that fits on the face
of your bow oh yeah.
So that's a lot more mobilethan the decoy I purchased.
The decoy is like a 3D animal.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
It's life-size.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
So that's not going to be super mobile as far as
something that you want to carryaround all day under your arm.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
So that's geared more towards set hunting.
When you're doing a decoy,setup is important because it's
just like duck hunting you don'tjust throw the decoys out there
.
You've got to set them up acertain way, to cause them to
fly in a certain way whichcauses them to land in a certain
spot.
There's a lot more to it thanjust putting it out there With a
deer decoy.
(09:28):
If I'm in a tree stand, I don'twant that decoy underneath my
tree stand or at the base of thetree I'm in.
I want that decoy out therefacing me or broadside to me,
facing the direction that Ithink the deer is going to come.
If it's broadside, If it'sfacing me, I want it to be off
(09:51):
to one side, away from where Ithink that buck is going to come
from.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Because the deer will approach a.
If it's a buck decoy, I shouldstipulate that If I'm using a
buck decoy that's how I want itthe buck that I'm trying to
target should circle around tothe front of that deer.
Okay, and so if that buck is atthe base of my tree, then what
I'm doing is allowing that buckto focus on the area where I'm
(10:17):
at.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
If I have that decoy out there, if I can get it 20
yards, great.
If I can't, I'm going to get itas far away from me as I can
and have it facing me.
It's going to cause that buckto circle that decoy and watch
that decoy the whole time, soit'll be looking the opposite
direction.
So I'll have all theopportunity in the world to draw
(10:39):
, get on this buck.
Whatever movement I need to do,I'll be able to do that because
he's focused on the buck that'sout there away from me.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Yeah, so I'm trying to think of it in the context of
my particular set.
If I were to put him out there,my set, starting at maybe nine
yards and they can enter fromthe left and the right, there's
a half moon shape of viney,maple and fir trees that they
could come through.
(11:09):
Thinking about the other sideof that, it's so thick in there
For them to work their wayaround.
I mean, there's not a lot.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
We must stipulate there too that you're out of a
ground blind.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
You're not out of a tree stand.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Ground blind's a little bit more difficult
because it is thicker.
So what I want to do is put itmore toward the thicker stuff
and force that buck to circlearound more into the open.
His attention needs to be drawnto the decoy and it will be.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
They're going to recognize there's another buck
and start sniffing it out.
I've done my sense over thereand he's never smelled that buck
, so he's going to be focused onthat buck.
It becomes a dominance issuewhere he's going to bristle up
and start getting all ruddy andwalking around that buck.
He'll approach it from thefront, he won't approach it from
the rear.
Now if I'm using a doe decoy,most of the time those bucks
(12:03):
will approach that doe decoyfrom the rear.
So it's going to be theopposite of what I would do with
a buck.
I wouldn't face the decoytoward me.
I'd put it either broadside orfacing away a little bit.
So, he circles around.
He's wanting to find out ifshe's in standing.
So he's going to circle aroundto the backside and I need him
focusing again.
I need that doe out there, sohis attention is on the doe and
(12:25):
not anywhere where I'm at.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Yeah, I'm thinking as you're talking about setting
this up.
I'm just thinking in myparticular set and, with the way
everything's laid out, one ofthe things right before you
actually went out there, itdawned on me because we are
establishing a set field day onthat particular set.
I don't know why.
It all of a sudden dawned on meright before you went out there
(12:52):
, but I finally realized thatthe two dominant bucks I had
High and Tight and Sneaky Pete,two very nice big bucks, came in
from like 10 o'clock, outstraight out of the thick stuff,
all the non-dominant bucks.
So I had a Spike, I had Kenobi,I had Brick, younger bucks or
(13:15):
they just weren't the dominantbuck, they always came in from
three o'clock.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Because it's a much more open trail.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
The two dominant bucks were always on the tail of
a doe, coming in as well.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
And their dominant bucks are always going to stick
to the thicker cover.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
They just are.
And if it's tight like that,where you don't have a lot of
room, I don't want to introduceanother buck.
I want to use that decoy as adoe because I want that buck to
come over to that decoy.
Okay, that's a good point.
I don't need him circlingaround.
If I don't have the space forhim to circle around, then it's
kind of counterintuitive to putit out there.
But if I do, yeah, put it outthere, use it.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Is there more to explain about when you would use
a buck versus a doe?
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Well, it goes back to a confidence thing.
What do you think you've hadmore luck with?
Some guys prefer if the rut isheavy.
Both will work.
If it's pre-rut, I wouldprobably go with a buck myself.
I wouldn't go to the doe untilwe hit the heavy part of the rut
, because they're just going tobe going all the time, you know.
(14:17):
And then that second rut, itjust depends.
You know, yeah, If you got a,if you, you know what's your
buck to doe ratio.
And then another thing that I,you know, I'm always considering
is if there is a high buck todoe ratio.
I have a lot of bucks in thearea.
If I'm going to use that buckdecoy, I typically want to do
(14:40):
some rattling when I'm usingthat too, to kind of add to that
illusion.
If I'm doing the doe, then notvery much, but every now and
then just do a doe bleat.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
To help that illusion .
We've got scents out there.
We've got the decoy out there.
Now let's put some audio outthere yeah if they see it, which
they should, it's going to sealthe deal.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
They're going to come in focused on it now I saw
somebody stop by the booth up inpuyallup last year.
He was talking about he useddecoys quite a bit and he
actually sprayed the doe andestrus on the back of the decoy
and so it actually got mountedby the buck and he tore himself
up by doing that because he wastrying to impregnate a big chunk
(15:26):
of plastic.
But if it were a buck would yoube spraying like buck urine on
it, down the legs or somethinglike the inside, where the hawks
are and everything and a lot ofit is predicated.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
The doe and estrus absolutely because I'll probably
do a doe decoy more than I willa buck, and it's not that that
I mean white tail are much moreaggressive species of deer, even
than than mule deer, you knowyeah they.
They tend to take over.
But that's not saying that thatblack tails aren't aggressive
either, because they are.
I've seen them fight andwatched them do that.
(15:58):
I had that one buck that Ipassed up four times that season
.
Every time he came in he wouldsnort, wheeze and he would just
start horning all the other deerin the area.
Just a very aggressive buck bytemperament.
But that time of year if I'mgoing to use that thing as a
decoy, probably more as a doe,then I'm probably going to, you
(16:19):
know, probably not do the buckurine as much.
If I would do the buck urine itwould probably be on the ground
by the decoy behind it.
You know what I mean.
Just because getting that scentoff and doe urine on you know
back and forth.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
So, thinking about that plastic now, are they going
to have a smell, and I imaginethat they do as much as they can
for a decoy to not have anyscent to it.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Well, you want to spray it down with scent killer.
Okay that's what I thought.
I spray it down with dead downwind after I get done setting it
up the field spray.
Yeah, pretty much all over thebody except for the rear end.
Now I got the synthetic or thelatex gloves on and everything
and then on the rear and I trynot to touch the rear end of the
deer.
And then when I apply the scentthe doe and estrus it's on the
(17:09):
backside.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Okay If you were running it as a buck for a while
.
And side Okay If you wererunning it as a buck for a while
.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
And then a doe you would do the buck urine on the
ground behind it, but you wouldput the doe and estrus on the
buck itself On the butt end ofthe doe.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Now you talked about laying down versus standing up,
so what would determine that asfar as when you're going to have
it, laying down or standing?
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Okay, I always want to do my buck standing up.
I want to tip the ears back tomake them look irritated and put
them in a posture that's veryaggressive and that sort of
thing.
But if I'm doing a doe, Itypically want the doe to be
bedded down because I mean I'm Ijust have a better.
He'll circle around to get tothe back end of that doe and
(18:00):
he's really focused on her andhis attention is really down low
.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
And because I tree stand hunt, that's what I want.
And then see Right, right.
And what I like to do is I'lltake even with both buck and doe
.
I'll butt that up against somereal thick stuff that's going to
cause that buck that comes into have to work at getting
around to that.
You know that doe and stuff,and if it's a buck I'll put his
(18:25):
back up against it because Idon't want that target buck to
come out behind it.
I want him to circle around andapproach from the front on that
buck.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
So put his back against the thick stuff and have
it facing me broadside.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
So put its back against the thick stuff and have
it facing me broadside, andsince the legs are removed, are
they made so that you can havethem laying down with the legs
on, or is it just as it's bedded?
It just has no legs, it justhas no legs.
Okay, they're just not pickingup on it, because at that point,
they don't realize it's aquadriplegic that they're after.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
They're so focused on the head.
Don't realize it's aquadriplegic that they're after.
You know.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
They're so focused on the head, yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
You know, whether it's a buck or a doe, that's
what they're focused on and it'skind of funny.
I mean they're just and it'snot.
I mean they don't come in andyou know, accept it right away.
They're a little tentative.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
They're always tentative.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
They can deer, but something's up here.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
It smells like a deer , but it's not moving like a
deer, you know, yeah, it's notmoving at all.
No reaction to their actionyeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
So they're a little timid, but they do come in how
are you getting it propped up ifit's standing to say you're
doing a buck?
Do they have it where you canstake it into the ground so it
can't move?
Speaker 2 (19:37):
some decoys do, yes, some are just heavy enough that
they're just going to stay there.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
I'm thinking about the one you have in the garage.
It's not heavy enough unlessyou were to fill the body.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
No, but I mean when you put the four legs out.
I mean it's like it's, you know, you put a tripod out, three
legs and it's going to stay upand so it doesn't blow over,
because we'll get windstorms andstuff, and sometimes it does
blow over.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Climb out of your blind or out of your tree.
Stand and go, stand it back up.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Or if I was thinking, if a buck comes, say you have
it as a buck and a buck comes in, if it's maybe setting up that
pecking order and it startsattacking it because I have seen
videos of that where they dothey will start go down To shoot
the deer before it attacks yourdecoy They'll throw hands in
the middle of the night.
I don't leave it out overnight.
(20:29):
Oh, you don't leave it outovernight.
No, no, no.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Carry in, carry out, but, like I said earlier, it's
not something that you want tocarry throughout the day going
from spot to spot to spot, youknow, and what makes it great.
So it adds to the illusion thatwe've created the whole time.
It just is another piece ofthat puzzle that Buck is looking
for that you've just placed outthere.
You're adding to this scenethat you've created, you've put
(20:54):
in the smell, you've beenworking the smells, whether it's
dominant Buck urine.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Don't ask for it.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
So now he's thinking, okay, there's deer activity
here.
And now you've given him thevisual oh, there is deer here to
coincide with this deeractivity.
And so, yeah, it brings them in.
And, like I said, the greatthing about using a decoy is
they're focused on the decoy.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Laser focused, you have plenty of time to draw or
get your rifle or gun yourpistol up and seal the deal.
And if it's not the buck youwant, you're going to get a good
show, good footage, if you'refilming that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
So I was thinking about guys who are glassing
clear cuts who maybe want to useit and I know you said that
they had an attachment that wenton the front of your bow or
something.
But what if they were taking afull-size decoy?
So thinking about you know,it's maybe a level clear cut.
I'm just thinking about wherewe took the guys up on the
locating field day and there wasthat big clear cut right off
(21:53):
the road.
So would it make sense if a guywanted to use a full-size decoy
to maybe walk it down?
If they've scouted that areabeforehand, walk it down, found
a game trail coming out of thethicker, bigger timber into the
clear cut and maybe setting upthat decoy just outside to draw?
(22:17):
Would that draw deer out?
Setting up the decoy justoutside of that thick stuff?
Speaker 2 (22:22):
I don't see why it wouldn't.
Okay, I'm just saying forpracticality purposes.
Is packing that thing aroundall day, going from cut to cut?
If you're just going to huntone cut?
I guess that's what I'm tryingto say.
Let's get in there, let's getit set up and that's where we're
going to spend our hunt.
It's the full hunt.
Right.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
It's to spend our hunt, it's the full hunt, right?
It's not a leapfrog if you'rerunning a gun, yeah, yeah.
So whereas, like I just thinkof the predator hunting that dj
did with dan where you know yougo out, you, you put out the
call.
You know, 15 minutes later, ifyou don't get any coyotes coming
in, you go to the next spotright, it's not a run that would
be unpractical to do it thatway.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Could you do it that way?
Yes, are you going to get tireddoing it that way?
Definitely.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
And I'm just thinking trying to walk through 200
yards of a clear cut would justbe a pain in the butt anyway
with all the down limbs andwhatnot.
But it seems like if you werewatching a clear cut and you
knew there's a big game trailright there that comes out of
there, is that worthwhile tomaybe set up a decoy 10 yards
out of?
That might lure them out,because if deer saw that decoy
(23:31):
would they feel more confidentin coming out into the open.
Potentially it might be justsmall bucks, smaller bucks.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
yes, I would say bigger bucks are a lot more
cautious.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
And they're not necessarily using that trail.
Right, as you've said, they usedifferent trails in the small
bucks and the four-horned ones,those bucks but if your goal is
meat hunting and you just want abuck to step out, that might be
the way to go there.
Absolutely.
To wrap this up, are there anythings of just do not do this
with a decoy?
Are there any things of just donot do this with a decoy?
(23:59):
Anything that falls under thatcategory of just don't do this
with a decoy.
You'll be shooting yourself inthe foot, or maybe some gimmicky
stuff that people have done andpassed off as science, and it's
just not.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
All I can say is don't put the decoy where you
want the buck to stand.
Put the decoy so that you'rethinking the buck is going to
because he's going to circle,whether it's a buck or a doe,
he's going to circle a littlebit, with a doe even, but put it
where he's going to circletoward you, focusing away from
(24:35):
you.
That's the idea of using thatdecoy and stuff.
Now, that's a full-sized decoy.
If you've got the one thatmounts, it's like a Montana
decoy on the front of your bow.
You don't have a choice.
But the thing with that decoyis when he's focused on that
decoy and he's coming into it,you could already be at full
(24:56):
draw.
You know what I mean.
It's just designed that way andit's.
They only make those in a doethat I'm aware of okay they
might make it in a buck, but Idon't know that that would be
practical.
But I think it's only a.
I've only seen it as a doe.
Let me just say that, okay,when the buck sees that he comes
right in, they don't just comerunning at it, but they start
moving towards you and you canget away with movement behind
(25:18):
that decoy.
It gives the illusion that thedeer's body is moving a little
bit.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
I'm just thinking like having a decoy on your bow.
I know that they get focused,but it just doesn't seem to be
something I'd want to do,Because you're encouraging the
buck to look right at you.
But tunnel vision is tunnelvision.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Yeah, and when we get hooked on a girl?
Speaker 1 (25:43):
you don't see any.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
There's a lot of times you don't see the ones
throwing themselves at you.
You only see the one that isn't.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
The little kid.
You're pointing at what youwant them to pick up and they're
picking up everything else.
Yeah, so I guess tunnel visionis.
It is not hindsight everythingelse, yeah, so I guess tunnel
vision is.
It is not hindsight, it's not2020.
There you go, much more defined, okay.
So, like I said, we will reportback at the end of season how
the decoy worked.
I don't know.
I'm I don't know if I want totry it on my set because I'm in
(26:15):
the heart of the rut with rifle,versus when you'll be out there
during the second rut.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
I'm telling you to do the doe.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
And that's honestly thinking about how my set is
laid out.
I don't think I could put abuck in there.
There's just not enough roomfor it to move around
comfortably.
It's either going to just takeoff or come charging in and rip
it to shreds before I have achance to do anything.
So, anyway, we'll report backto you at the end of season and,
(26:44):
as always, thanks for joiningus this week.
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