YJRR

Ok I'm gonna use a decoy for the first time this year, I have a pretty prime place to set it up (my stand is on the edge of about 12 acres of woods with corn in front of me and tall grass on the right I'm 400 yards from the nearest road also) but the Rut in my area wont get moving till about Nov 5-15 (roughly) would it be beneficial to set it up with some dominant buck urine and grunt/rattle a little now or should I wait??

dandbuck

I am a newbie with regards to decoys also, but I tried Thursday PM with "limited" success. I am using a thin plastic printed decoy called "bedded jealousy". It is a buck and doe bedded down together. I put it about 15 yards in front of me in a small field about 25 yards wide. First two deer to show up was a doe and fawn. Doe got to 40 yards when she saw it and stopped, stomped, head bobs,etc. Took her 20 minutes to do a semi-circle around it and went back where she came from. Would have had many opportunities for shots at her and the fawn. Whe she went back abround the corner to a perpendicular field (another 25-30 yards wide, 75 yards long, grass), there were two deer in that field, don't know how long they were there. Another doe and a basket 6. Doe started to come my way, saw the decoy and turned around, never got closer that 50 yards. The buck just stayed with her and left also. 20 Minutes later and close to sunset, another deer starts to come in from the same direction. Decent looking 8 point, but only about 13" wide, real symetrical, should be nice in a couple years. He spots the decoy and froze for a couple minutes, then snorts and runs off. He comes strutting back to the same spot about 40 yards from the decoy, snorts and takes off again. This time he is headed where the other deer went. I thought I would play with him a bit and grunt back. he turns and comes to the same spot a third time and runs off. By now it's dark and I have to get down and home. I could hear him running all around behind me but can see nothing. i snuck out and figured to use this decoy again, i would place it 40 yards from my tree where i could be seen from a shooting lane or two only.
Good luck, i know it made for an interesting evening, but would not have wanted to see a nice shooter take off like that from 40 yards in cover.

YJRR

thank you for the input dandbuck!

with your setup, maybe it was lack of movement that spooked them??

I'm gonna try and fab up a string to add some tail movement to mine and try and Grunt and possibly snort/wheeze a buck in... just want some imput on what you guys do and would do in my place?