Yep, was sitting in my Ameristep doghouse, on a little finger jutting out into a cornfield, about 100 yards South of the "main" woods, and about 70 yards North of another patch of woods. I was contemplating going home, either for the day, or to grab a rifle and go hunt some private land I recently obtained. You, see, Alabama gun season opened today (Nov. 23), and I had eagerly awaited its arrival. Not because of the gun hunting, but because I knew that the bow-only wildlife refuge I hunt would be nearly deserted. Couple that with the Alabama-Auburn Iron Bowl game, and I figured that would cut the numbers down even more. I was finally able to move into a spot that I knew had more deer than my bow-season spot, but stayed covered up with hunters.

I had my Carry-Lite decoy with an electronic Tail-Wagger kit installed, sitting about 15 yards Norh of my blind. About 11:30, I heard it. FFFPPTTTT!!! WAP! "What the HECK was that?!?" (expletives deleted for "family friendly reading). I looked around, and didn't see anybody at first. Then I spotted blaze orange, sneaking in on my left.

"It's a decoy, man" I hollered. "Huh? Oh! Uh, You know those are illegal here don't 'ya?" he replied.

So I had to go into the whole spiel about how it's not illegal, I've checked with game wardens, most people read "no turkey decoys" in the rule book and confuse the two, yadda, yadda,yadda.

I'll not lie. I was mad at first. I got over it quickly, because I thought, well, that's just a chance you take using a decoy.

I can't figure out why he shot it though. After I got thinking about it later, what he did and said just told me how he was a Whitetail wounder, not a bowhunter.
Here why:

"I've been watching it for 20 minutes" (and you didn't never wonder why it didn't MOVE? I don't believe he could see the tail from where he was at (he said he could though), but even so, 20 minutes, and only the tail moves? C'mon.)

"I missed a deer here yesterday, with just a flip-it 45 yeard shot, that's why I got so excited when I saw this one" (one more educated deer out there now. If it was a "flip-it" shot, why take it?)

Plus, he took a deer-facing him shot at about 30 yards! No wonder the arrow just glanced off of the decoy and landed in the dirt! He just barely hit it in the chest. <img src=icon_smile_angry.gif border=0 align=middle> shots like that are what give hunters a bad name. If it had been a real deer, it would have been wounded. <img src=icon_smile_angry.gif border=0 align=middle>


Well, at least I know my decoy works now <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle> as well as my ground blind (I will be putting my blaze-orange cap on it next time, even though it's not required. Maybe then at least somebody will see the blind and put two and two together)
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