After this morning I'm sold on them.
My brother-in-law called last night to see if he could go with me in the morning since he was off work. I told him sure, that way I can at least watch someone else kill a good deer. He's never shot MZ, only rifle hunter, 22 years old.
So he shows up this morning with a little cardboard box with a blowup doe decoy in it. Said he got it for Christmas and wanted someone with a little more knowledge to show him how to use it. We pull it out and blow it up and I can't stop laughing. This thing looks like the lovechild of a chocolate lab and a miniature donkey. We load it up and head out.
After some deliberation about proper positioning and where to put it in reference to where we were going to sit, we stake it down, hit it with scent killer, and then douse the tail in Golden Estrus. All of my knowledge coming from the hunting channel and the instruction sheet out of the box.
Had a group of 3 does come in a little after daylight about 200 yards down wind of the decoy. they are cutting across the field and headed over the hill, not even slowing down to browse the turnips. They get almost out of sight behind us when they see the decoy. they make a 90deg turn and head right for it, heads up, ears forward and curious. They slowly work their way in to about 40 yards, and one of them starts getting nervous and stomping her hoof. She gives a dismissive snort and they all turn and slowly wander off the field.
After that things were pretty uneventful, hitting the can now and then, hitting the grunt now and then. About 9:30 this decent 8 pointer came in on the north end of the field, about 150 yards upwind of us and the decoy. He has eyes locked on the decoy the whole time and is circling to the east and headed down wind.
I slide the gun to my BIL who's antsy as a school girl. He keeps saying "now?" "how bout now?" I keep telling him to "wait, wait, let him get a little closer." He gets to the half way point between us and the decoy, and he's going to start getting farther away from us at this point. I say "get ready, I'll stop him." I bleated and he looked away from the decoy for the first time since he entered the field. He came to a dead stop at about 40 yards perfectly broadside, and BOOM, nothing but smoke. Since we were shooting into the wind it took awhile for it to clear.
He was down where he stood, a high shoulder shot took out the running gears. We waited for him to expire while I harassed my brother in law about what a terrible shot he made, and wasn't he glad I didn't let him shoot at 120 yards. He was embarrassed and red faced, still shaking from the adrenaline. I harassed him some more, asked him what his deal was, acting like he never shot a deer before. He says "Yeah I have, but never been involved in it like that. I've always just hunted the right place at the right time, never tried to get one to come in closer."
He's hooked on the MZ, says he's going to buy one for next year. I'm hooked on the decoy, I'll be buying one this week. I'm fairly certain that deer wouldn't have come in if it hadn't been for the decoy. It may be only useful for the "seek" phase, and not so much for the "chase" phase, but I intend to find out. Anyone else have any experience with these?
BIL didn't want me to post his picture online, but here's the deer. Stinky and wet down both legs, notice the tarsals. Not too shabby for the first time behind a MZ.
My brother-in-law called last night to see if he could go with me in the morning since he was off work. I told him sure, that way I can at least watch someone else kill a good deer. He's never shot MZ, only rifle hunter, 22 years old.
So he shows up this morning with a little cardboard box with a blowup doe decoy in it. Said he got it for Christmas and wanted someone with a little more knowledge to show him how to use it. We pull it out and blow it up and I can't stop laughing. This thing looks like the lovechild of a chocolate lab and a miniature donkey. We load it up and head out.
After some deliberation about proper positioning and where to put it in reference to where we were going to sit, we stake it down, hit it with scent killer, and then douse the tail in Golden Estrus. All of my knowledge coming from the hunting channel and the instruction sheet out of the box.
Had a group of 3 does come in a little after daylight about 200 yards down wind of the decoy. they are cutting across the field and headed over the hill, not even slowing down to browse the turnips. They get almost out of sight behind us when they see the decoy. they make a 90deg turn and head right for it, heads up, ears forward and curious. They slowly work their way in to about 40 yards, and one of them starts getting nervous and stomping her hoof. She gives a dismissive snort and they all turn and slowly wander off the field.
After that things were pretty uneventful, hitting the can now and then, hitting the grunt now and then. About 9:30 this decent 8 pointer came in on the north end of the field, about 150 yards upwind of us and the decoy. He has eyes locked on the decoy the whole time and is circling to the east and headed down wind.
I slide the gun to my BIL who's antsy as a school girl. He keeps saying "now?" "how bout now?" I keep telling him to "wait, wait, let him get a little closer." He gets to the half way point between us and the decoy, and he's going to start getting farther away from us at this point. I say "get ready, I'll stop him." I bleated and he looked away from the decoy for the first time since he entered the field. He came to a dead stop at about 40 yards perfectly broadside, and BOOM, nothing but smoke. Since we were shooting into the wind it took awhile for it to clear.
He was down where he stood, a high shoulder shot took out the running gears. We waited for him to expire while I harassed my brother in law about what a terrible shot he made, and wasn't he glad I didn't let him shoot at 120 yards. He was embarrassed and red faced, still shaking from the adrenaline. I harassed him some more, asked him what his deal was, acting like he never shot a deer before. He says "Yeah I have, but never been involved in it like that. I've always just hunted the right place at the right time, never tried to get one to come in closer."
He's hooked on the MZ, says he's going to buy one for next year. I'm hooked on the decoy, I'll be buying one this week. I'm fairly certain that deer wouldn't have come in if it hadn't been for the decoy. It may be only useful for the "seek" phase, and not so much for the "chase" phase, but I intend to find out. Anyone else have any experience with these?
BIL didn't want me to post his picture online, but here's the deer. Stinky and wet down both legs, notice the tarsals. Not too shabby for the first time behind a MZ.
