Here we'll break down some of the gear we use and go into some of the advantages and disadvantages of certain things.
CALLS
We’ll cover the calls first. Find a good grunt tube and pack it with you on every hunt. We use the Woodhaven Intimidator deer grunter. On occasion we’ll pack a rattle bag or rattling antlers with us during the pre-rut and rut - especially when using a decoy in an open area.
DECOYS
There are many decoys on the market today that are effective. As a group we’ve used a half dozen of them and have mixed reviews. The challenge with a deer decoy is getting it to and from your hunting location. To keep this simple, we’ll break decoys into three types - portable, silhouette, and full body.
1) Full Body Decoys
These are often the most realistic deer decoys. We’ve used the Flambeau Boss Buck, Carry Lite EZ buck decoy, and Dave Smith Posturing Buck. They all work but the challenge is getting them to your spot. Greg’s used the EZ buck from Carry Lite for several years. He screwed the legs into the body and has better luck packing the decoy upside down. Most of the full body deer decoys are also loud. It can be tricky packing one through the woods on the way in for a morning sit. Some of them will break down where all parts can be stored inside the body cavity while packing. All that being said, we’ve had multiple bucks commit to these decoys on public and private land. They do work in the correct scenario.
2) Sihouette
Heads Up, Montana, and Ultimate Predator all make some sort of silhouette deer decoy. They are easy to pack and lightweight and are made for stalking deer. Their disadvantage is realism. They are not 3 dimensional. Obviously if a buck gets off to one side or the other you’re in trouble. Hence the reason why they are better made for spot and stalk. The hunter can keep the decoy perpendicular to the oncoming deer at all times which is its most realistic position. We have not had much experience setting up with these.
3) Portable
This is a newer style of deer decoy that more companies are trying to manufacture. We have the Rinehardt Doloma Buck. However, they do not make it anymore. It’s a full body decoy with flatter profile and all the parts breakdown into a bag you can carry. We’ve also used a frame pack and stored the decoy in it while transporting. It’s not as realistic as the full body decoys mentioned above but still effective.
