Decoying in a funnel..... How would you play it?

[GF.]

Found a pretty good deal on one o' the Montana Decoys bucks. They're apparently last year's colors ( :confused: ) No doubt the new shades are scientifically proven to be more visible to deer....:rolleyes:

Whatever... I'm just glad to save a few bucks....Here's the link....

http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/cb/buck-decoy-by-montana-decoy.aspx?a=294764

Anyway, since we were talking about the fact that these things are all but invisible from head- or tail-on, and the way that you can really surprise a deer with 'em that way.....

The decoy will become pretty visible at what, a quartering angle?

I'm planning to set this up in the Uber-funnel, which is narrow enough to all but guarantee a shot at anything coming through in either direction... Provided it'll stop in a shooting lane.

So if I want to use the 2-D factor to my advantage, should I point the decoy (head-to-tail) directly in the direction that I expect deer to be coming from? That way, they won't have much chance of seeing it until they've got an almost-broadside view of it, which will put them well within range, I'd think, and hopefully it will stop them in a good spot for my purposes.

You'll notice this decoy has a beefy silhouette with pretty decent rack on it (non-removable!) so I wouldn't want to really scare off every buck in the woods with it; I'm just hoping that a relatively dominant buck would stop to size up this big intruder, and I don't want him stopping 25 or 30 yards out at a quartering-to angle and then deciding he doesn't like his chances, so he'll go the long way around today...

So what I'm thinking is this; what about setting the decoy up so that it'll be pretty near invisible when the in-bound buck is at a quartering-to presentation? Then he won't have much chance of seeing it until he's at least real close to broadside, and he shouldn't be able to miss it as he gets to quartering away. Unless, of course, he just doesn't even look....:rolleyes:

I figure I can use a tree or something to hide him from the in-bound traffic until they're in range.

Then the trick is that so far I'm setting up for northbound deer, and some are going to be headed south, so ideally, they won't see the decoy until they're quartering away and on the right side of the tree to have a shot at 'em....

Anyway, I'm just thinking that the flat-panel decoys may provide a tactical advantage if you use them right....

What's your strategy for one of these? How close to my stand tree? How close to the deer trails? What angle to the deer's line of travel?

And would you add scents or calls to the set-up, or just let the visual do the work???

[dave-t.]

Never used one. If I was getting one it would be a doe.

I'd set it up 30yds away from the stand, behind a tree from incomming deer. but so that they can see it from 40yds or so. You want to set it so that the deer have to go away from you to get closer to the decoy. You don't want them facing you in any way with their interest peaked. Scents are the same. Put them on the opposite side of the trail from your stand. You want them to walk into bow range, and turn quartering away. With the deke at 30yds, you know the deer is inside that range, and most likely at 15-20yds if you place your stands like I do.

Did you buy the decoy?

[GF.]

Yeah, I did... My brother has an Elk-butt version and says it works pretty well. I suppose I could have held off and picked up the pair at some later date or just gotten the doe and called it good, but my inner cheapskate won the argument.

Besides, I needed a couple other things that these guys sell and on which they have the best prices I've found, so adding this softened the shipping penalty on the had-to-haves....

The kicker on my set-up is that there are two trails - the buck trail, which is closer and in pretty thick cover, and then there's the spike&doe trail a little farther out. Basically 15 yards and 25 yards away, and because of the way the owner installed his deer fence, I can't really put the decoy out past the spike&doe trail unless I put it where it would probably either pull a buck off of the buck trail much too early or not get seen at all. Not that I want an animal 25 yards away from me going any farther without leaving a blood trail.....:rolleyes:

So I was thinking I'd probably have to set the thing up in between the two trails to my left, in which case they'd be seeing this thing pretty much for the first time at real close range, or I could set it off to my right, at which point I could find that I need to move my stand to the other side of the tree, which might not be too bad an idea, actually. As it is, the traffic is all to my bow-side, but if the deke were to actually draw them across in front of me.....


Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..................


:confused:

[dave-t.]

Change of plan then. Put it way out infront of the deer, further down the trail in a visible location. As they pass you, they see the deke, and then the attention is over there. The down side to that is the deer has already gotten itself b-side or quartering away by the time the deke comes into play.

I would not set it up so that the first time a deer sees it, the distance is less than 15-20yrds.

I really don't have any experience with deer dekes (have a lot with turkeys), but I have messed with scents almost endlessly. Don't be surprised if a deer doesn't notice it or doesn't react. Some deer just don't notice squat, even when others turn inside out at the exact same thing.

With it far enough up the trail and in the trail, they may stop to size up the buck deke. You don't want it so close that it startles them, but you want it far enough away and obvious enough, that if the live deer gets spooked by the deke, he can just turn around to mosey off, while still within your archery range. That deke may intimidate a few deer. If you set it past you you can still have your fair shot at the deer, and if you pass on the shot, see the reaction.

If you intend to call with the deke, it's got to be closer to the stand, 20 yrds max, imo. Biggest thing to remember is the approach to confrontation with the deke has to lead to the live deer being quartering away or b-side to you.

[GF.]

You're makin' sense, buuuuuuttt......

The trouble with 'way out in front' is that for a deer coming from the opposite direction, they'll likely see it long before they get anywhere near me....

Hmmmmm...... Maybe a picture would help ;)

'Tain't real big, but basically....

You can see the driveway up to the house; the thicker, pale yellow line is an old carriage road; and the red, dotted line is a powerline cut. The blue line on the left is the western edge of the funnel, where the ridge drops off at close to 35-40 degrees. It's steepest south of the powerline , gets pretty manageable about where the driveway goes through, and isn't much to talk about north of that, though it's fairly wet off that way.

The purple line on the right is the fence that the landowner put in to keep the deer out of the pasture there, and the fence takes a sharp right-hand turn just past the stone wall at the north end of the mowed pasture. The green line is the spike&doe highway, and the purple is how the bucks travel through there, higher on the ridge. The little yellow circle is about where the stand is, and winds normally blow left to right, so with the stand at 20', I guess my scent floats mostly right over their heads.

There is always a boatload of scrapes through there, and because there's a gate real close to the powerline cut, I have had no trouble using it and taking the shortest possible route over to the tree.

And as you may have noticed, from the fence to where the ridge rolls off is just about 50 yards across.....:rolleyes:

My stand currently faces S or S/SE....

So based what you're saying, I might want to put that Boss Hoss-lookin' decoy over there by the old carriage road.... maybe right on the powerline cut... I'm mainly looking at the bucks now, of course, but any deer that saw it would either stay on the regular path so that it could pass downwind of the stranger or, if it were a good buck that was in the mood to open up a can o' whoop-ass on him, it'd likely divert from the heavy cover, pass in front of me, and offer a good range of shot options as it did. So long as it didn't charge right over. :eek:

And I'm hoping that the deer would be so intent on the decoy that it'd never look up....

So maybe that's the plan, but how many different ways do you think this could go horribly, horribly wrong???


Seems to me that the major fly in the ointment is that the deer travel this route both North and South....

[Bushman]

GF, I hope it works for you, but a buck that size would intimidate most of the deer in my woods. If it isn't peak breading season a doe wants nothing to do with a buck. I remember three does that were heading my way nicely but angling away more than I wanted. I'll try a buck grunt I thought. Those deer couldn't have moved out of there any faster if I'd have hit them in the butt with a canoe paddle! I did take in a deer decoy seminar at one of the Deer Classics that Greg Miller was giving and he said that his best success came with small buck antlers. Now "small" is relative to the area so his had a basket rack 6 or 8 point set. Big enough to see, but small enough to whop. The body on your decoy looks like a bull. It might be the reason that it was on the sale rack. I'll be interested in what you see for deer reactions.

[ncboman]

Decoying in a funnel..... How would you play it?


sure wouldn't put a deke out in a funnel unless just playin. It's a funnel. You doan need to try and draw em to it.

I think a deke can be used to better advantage in a different type setup, like in the corner of a field or pasture, where the visual draw covers more area and the game has no feeling of being forced anyplace.

I have one complete with a tailwagger but I hardly ever use it. Just too much bulk to lug around. I should sell it. :rolleyes:

[GF.]

Maybe I'll position him so the other deer only see his body or so his antlers are hidden by the brush.... :o


I'm not so interested in drawing them into the funnel as getting them to pause for a minute on the way through and hopefully look the other way long enough for me to draw on 'em. It's such a tight spot that I think they tend not to lollygag just because they know it makes them vulnerable.

So probably I'll try and hunt that stand a few times without it and then if I'm having trouble getting the shot(s) I want (or if the freezer seems 'full enough' :D ), I can try it and see how it plays out to surprise them with a bigger buck that magically appears at short range....

It really is a pretty schweet funnel, if I do say so myself....:cool:

And now that I have the different age/sex groups pretty well patterned for that ridge top, it gives me some additional options with the climber so that I don't have to rely overmuch on that one tree....