A Deer Decoy of a Different Variety
I wrote a post yesterday, about the outdoor show we attended last weekend, and in my haste I forgot to mention one product that I thought was very intriguing.
As we were cruising through the vendors and outfitters, checking out what they had to offer, I came across what looked to be a vendor for a treestand. There was a stand attached to a similated tree, and up in that tree was what appeared to be a stuffed hunting doll; it sort of looked like the kind of dolls that a person would make to sit on their porch for Halloween. As I got closer, though, I realized that this was no treestand vendor at all. This was much different.
The name of the vendor escapes me, and in doing some searching on the internet I came up empty-handed, but the premise of the product is to be a decoy of sorts. And when I say decoy, I don’t mean hunting decoy in the traditional sense, I mean it is suppose to be a human decoy – one that “sits” on stand while you’re not.
This stuffed “doll” sits in your treestand while you’re away, and supposedly allows for deer and other animals to get “used” to the human figure sitting in the tree. That way, when you are on stand, the deer will not spook at the presence of the “blob” now in the tree, because they are already used to it from the human decoy.
I was very intrigued by this product, and at first found it almost laughable. After talking with Jeff, though, I started to wonder a bit more. He was telling me that he has a friend – who shoots some incredible bucks – that swears by this method.
My question for all of you is this: Would you use one of these things? Do you think they might actually give you a tactical advantage? I have had many deer pick me off in a stand where I thought I was concealed, and the concept of having a human “decoy” there for them to get used to might be starting to have some merit for me.
I really don’t know, though, because to be honest, having a stuffed doll sitting in my treestand while I’m gone still makes me smile.
What do all of you think?
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Seems like it might work. The problem would be what to do with the “decoy” when you actually wanted to hunt the stand. You’d almost have to have somebody with you who could take the stuffed hunter back out.
I suppose you could also douse the decoy in doe pee, toss it down and hope for the best.
Wonder if I could have one made to look like me to put in Marks stand?
It is funny but sounds like it might work.
I have actually used a similar tactic on bear baits here in Idaho. I go to the barber shop and get a bag of hair and hang it from my stand.
In theory it does two things:
1: the bears get used to human smell being there all the time.
2: they get used to movement coming from the stand because the bag blows in the wind.
Not sure if it works or not, but I always have bears come into the bait.
For most hunters, I think it would be better to use the decoy at home… then their significant others would think they were home doing the chores instead of goofing off in the woods!
Other than that, I think that someone once said that “there is a sucker born every minute”.
Don’t get me wrong, Cory’s hair trick is a good idea for the smell. But as for a decoy, I say that a hunter would be better served to learn some woodsmanship and skip the gimmicks – all of them!
My dad in the past used to take a clothes hanger and put an old shirt on it and hang it in the stand. He said the same thing about deer getting used to seeing something up there.
Was this thing filled with air? even if it was it would be a noisy critter with the air gone. I’m a gimmick freak but thats a little much.
I saw the stuffed decoy @ the show & I laughed. Jeff is correct& suckers are born every day and buy dumb gimmicks like this. Did anyone catch the $? I feel if you sit still & play the wind along with a few other factors you will do great. Plus it looked like a squaty little kid. I have to stand up to shoot my bow I am 6ft 1 it aint mimicking me. If you know what I mean.
I thought the point of a tree stand was to be higher so the deer don’t see you? If this doll is really effective then why are we up in tree stands, let’s just put dolls out in a camping chair on the ground where it’s comfortable and I don’t have to worry about falling out if I fall asleep!!