Hey there fellow hunters! Are you looking to up your turkey hunting game? Well look no further than this comprehensive guide on how to make a turkey decoy that will have those gobblers strutting right into your lap.
We’ll use easily accessible materials and a dash of creativity to simplify the process into manageable steps. So, grab your tools, channel your inner MacGyver, and let’s get crafting!.
Materials You’ll Need:
- Cardboard
- Aluminum foil
- Duct tape
- Paint (brown, tan, black, red)
- Paintbrushes
- Scissors or utility knife
- Dowel rod
- PVC pipe (optional)
- Twine or wire
- Dried leaves or twigs (optional)
Step-by-Step Instructions:
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Cut Out the Turkey Body: Start by drawing the outline of a turkey body onto a large piece of cardboard. You can find templates online or freehand it, depending on your artistic skills. Cut out the body with scissors or a utility knife
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Form the Neck and Head: To form the head, take another piece of cardboard and shape it into a cone. Attach it to the body using duct tape. Using duct tape, attach the rolled-up cardboard neck to the head and body.
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Add the Tail Feathers: Cut out several tail feather shapes from cardboard and attach them to the rear of the body using duct tape You can also use real turkey tail feathers if you have some handy
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Cover with Aluminum Foil: Crumple up aluminum foil and use it to cover the entire turkey decoy, including the head, neck, and tail feathers. This will give the decoy a realistic, feathered texture.
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Paint the Details: Now comes the fun part! Use brown paint for the body, tan for the head and neck, black for the eyes and beak, and red for the wattle (the fleshy flap under the turkey’s chin). You can also add other details like wing markings or leg feathers.
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Build the Stand: To make a basic stand, place a dowel rod through the decoy’s bottom and fasten it with duct tape. An elevated platform can be achieved by using a concrete-filled PVC pipe.
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Add Finishing Touches: To make your decoy even more realistic, you can add dried leaves or twigs around the base to create a natural camouflage effect. You can also use twine or wire to attach the decoy to a tree or bush.
Tips and Tricks:
- Use reference photos: Look at pictures of real turkeys to get an idea of their proportions and colors.
- Don’t be afraid to get creative: There’s no right or wrong way to make a turkey decoy. Use your imagination and have fun with it!
- Test your decoy in the field: Once you’ve finished your decoy, take it out to the field and see how the turkeys react. You may need to make adjustments to its position or appearance.
- Practice makes perfect: The more decoys you make, the better you’ll become at it. So don’t give up if your first attempt doesn’t turn out perfectly.
That’s all, people! You now know how to create a turkey decoy to help you catch those elusive gobblers. You can make a realistic and useful decoy that will give you an advantage in the field with a little work and imagination. So, get out there and start decoying!.
Step up your turkey decoy game this season
When it comes to turkey decoys, I’m a minimalist. I understand that a small amount of movement in the spread can create interest and that a small amount of spin can draw birds, but I’m not the kind of guy who enjoys having a fishing line spool between a decoy and my setup. Honestly, unless I’m bowhunting turkeys, which I hardly ever do during the season, I don’t carry decoys until the early going When that time does come, however, I employ several strategies to stack the odds in my favor.
First and foremost, my hunting philosophy has always been very simple: I rely on my calling to do most of the work and the objective is to get them to hunt me. Over the years, I’ve found that older toms who have already played the game are harder to convince, but 2-year-old longbeards respond quickly to decoys and loud calling. The issue is that every gobbler has slightly different tastes, so you never know what will appear. Every tom will occasionally gobble or show other signs of excitement, but sometimes it seems too good to be true to have a decoy in the middle of an opening or field.
Here are a few turkey decoy hacks and strategies to try on your next setup.
Placing them in the middle of a plowed field may seem excessive, but this has worked well in the past, especially for early-season birds. At the beginning of turkey breeding season, the male and, perhaps more importantly, the female pecking orders may still be settling in. A lone hidden hen will often follow me along a fence line, through a patch of taller grass, or a little way back into the woods behind me. I will also frequently pair a tom decoy with a hidden hen. The idea is to make it visible, but only occasionally so to an approaching group of birds. I’ve killed more toms over decoys than toms that approach and interact with the male decoy because of agitated hens that are actively looking for that high-pitched little homewrecker jenny. This is an early-season technique that I find is effective for guiding big flocks of lead hens and the resulting toms toward me.