Tried deer decoys with mixed results

[deadeye]

Being it was the last afternoon of the early antlerless season I thought I would give decoys a try.  Mixed results for sure.  A big doe with twins came on the field about 125 yards away.  She saw the decoys and at first I thought she was going to approach so I decided to watch and not shoot her.  After a while she turned and ran to about 200 yards and stayed there for a while before going into the woods.  Later several deer were on the field about 150 yards away. They ignored the decoys and just fed on the grass. I wasn't 100% sure they were not just big fawns or smaller does so I didn't shoot.  At last light I saw a deer approaching the decoys about 40 yards away. A quick check with binos and I saw it was a nice buck at least and 8 pointer but light was fading fast and only minutes of legal shooting time (I had my bow just in case) remained.  As shooting light faded and legal shooting time expired the buck had only moved to within 35 yards. I put my bow down and just had to chuckle a bit and tip my hat to a game well played by the buck.  He eventually turned and walked away which meant it was time for me to pack up and head out. 

I used two decoys

[Steve-o]

Thanks for sharing the info.  I've tried dekes a couple of times, but never where there was any action to learn anything.  I'm sure you've all seen the YouTube videos of rutting bucks that come in hot on doe decoys.  But what you don't see is the 9 other times they put their set up and nothing happened.

And as you saw, deer are always unpredictable.  Some are curious, some ignore it, and some might get scared away before you see them.  I'm sure under the right circumstances, a deke might give you a shot that you might not otherwise have gotten.  Same with calls, rattling or scents.  Then again, any of these things might tip off a wary buck and you'll get nothing.

I don't know if it makes a difference for deer, but with turks, I like my dekes just inside of the woods so turks can still see them but approach in cover if they choose.  Turks are funny.  Where I hunt, they will strut in the open, but when they are done, they stick to the cover.  Unless they don't.   

It might be worth setting those dekes in the trees to see if that buck will feel more comfortable approaching them 15 minutes earlier.  I hate it when you see that buck in the last fading light and always wonder... where was that deer 30 minutes ago and how come I don't have a stand set up there?