Once spring I had five deer come out into the field where I had a decoy set. About the same time, two hens came out into the field, and I could hear the tom gobbling in the woods near where the hens had entered the field. One of the deer and the hens started heading towards the decoy, and I held my breath for about fifteen minutes, fearing the deer would catch my scent, spook and spook the turkeys. The deer was comical, as, when it got closer to the decoy, she would stop and stare, sniff and stomp her foot, on "max alert". But she kept coming until she was about a foot from the decoy. A puff of wind gave the decoy a bit of motion and she jumped almost straight into the air. She did not turn to flight, however, but eventually decided she did not like being in a field with a decoy and headed away, in the direction of the rest of the herd.

Meanwhile, the hens moved off along the woods line, feeding nonchalantly. The tom that had been gobbling shut up and never did stick his head out into the field. I don't know what became of him, but later that week I whacked a tom on another set about 300 yards away, so that season was a success.

This spring I had a Pretty Boy (full strut tom) and Pretty Girl (hen ready to breed) decoy set 22 yards out in a field as my wife and I sat along the treeline, and my friend, who was late arriving, said he met another hunter who had said he was about to try to stalk the decoys until my friend told him he was looking at my decoy set. And then this same friend told me he put a partial sneak on another hunter's decoy set. That hunter had put out six decoys, and my friend thought he was sneaking a flock, until he got close. The hunter who had made the set was nowhere to be seen, and my friend figured he'd gone to lunch, as it was near noon.