That's funny you ask this question! I too have loved watching YouTube hunting videos over the years and even have some on DVD, but it is very difficult to find one where they actually hunt turkeys. I know this is a very sensitive topic too. Decoys are legal, so use them if you want to, and I won't bash you for using them. It literally takes almost no actual hunting skill to kill turkeys with decoys though. It really surprised me to see all my buddies from Primos and Knight and Hale using decoys for practically every hunt they post now! These guys taught me a lot in my early days of turkey hunting on how to call and set up and hunt in general.
I do wonder though. Has the hunter success rate gone up dramatically since the advent of decoys..especially the full strutters. It would seem to me that the success rate would double or triple using the strutters, but do the statistics show that to be true? I have tried to get the data, and just haven't found it yet anywhere. If the rates have held steady over the years, does that mean that decoys haven't had an impact on the actual number of turkeys killed? If they are the same, would those who killed turkeys still have killed them without decoys? In my very limited experience of actually talking with hunters and knowing them and listening to them talk about hunting, those who I myself know that use decoys, couldn't have killed their birds without a decoy. Each and every time I hear their story it's the same...went out to the pasture put out the decoys before light sat down and waited till one came in and killed it. This IN MY OWN OPINION is not hunting, just killing. I'm not bashing. This is me trying to get folks to learn more and try harder to get to know how to hunt and develop skills that will last a lifetime. Take the time to learn about turkey habits and woodsmanship. I have never, and pray I never will, belittle anybody for using decoys. I will, however, encourage as best I can to learn some skills, in one area of life that will produce benefits in other areas of life.
