Turkey season coming soon. I'm trying to dial in. What distance do you place your decoys in front of your blind.
Do you use a blind? If so they can be close. I'd say no matter what no farther than 15 and 10 is maybe ideal. If you use a jake the bird may approach it from the front. Do not use a male type decoy facing away from you. It'll put the bird farther. Either head facing you or I prefer sideways
I hunt in a ghillie and sometimes a piece of burlap. I use two decoys at 6 and 8 yds., occasionally out to 10 yds but never further.
Ten paces to my hen decoy and fifteen to my Jake,
8ish yards mostly.
Roughly 10 yards for me. That way, if they're anywhere close to the decoy, I know I'm good to go for a shot. But a lot depends on the terrain & how much time I have to plan things. On public land, I have to react to the situation at-hand. So I'll setup whatever situation I can wherever makes the most sense at the time.
I'm working out of a brush blind and wearing a ghillie suit. My decoys are at about 12 yards. Don't know how effective this is, because, so far, nothing has come to me.
Jake set facing the blind at nine yards...one hen approximately 2 steps in front of the Jake angling towards the blind....a 2nd hen may be set to the opposite side of the first hen decoy but positioned 4 to 5 yards to the side of the Jake and 3 to four yards back.
No farther than 10 yards. Most of my shots are less than that. I place a hen decoy lying on the ground and a jake about to mount her and a few yards to the side an upright hen facing them. Last year I had a gobbler scrape his wings against my blind heading to my decoys.
After talking to some really good turkey hunters this past weekend about setups I got to thinking about my past successful hunts and what I remember about those setups. I don't think a specific distance between dekes really matters or their orientation towards each other. What helped me was having the male face me, I usually just hunt with an ASAT leafy suit, so I need to create an opportunity to draw. If I can get the bird to face the decoy and strut, at some point his head is hidden by his fan. Additionally, I think having the male decoy between the real bird and the hen decoys really helps to bring that bird in. Just my $.02.
Close. Usually about 5-10 yards.