I hunted with a guy several yrs back that had one of those decoys. It really looked lifelike. We took it out hunting with us one morning, I was going to do the calling for him. He started out carrying it. It was one that rolled up, but had no sticks or anything, very lightweight. It looked to me like it had promise. Anyway about an hour into the morning we had a bull going, so he sets the thing up, it must have taken him 10 minutes, I swear I could have sculpted it out of wood by the time he was done fussing with it. The bull lost interest because we wasted so much time, well we picked it up and moved in the bulls direction, got him going again and set it up. Same thing. We did this 3 or 4 times you know having to resetup and all. Well between setups instead of rolling it up he' d just drag it along, well it got caught up on everything, I was quickly losing faith in both the deek and him. To make a long story longer, I had him put that thing away for good.

We went along, called a different bull with cow in heat calls, got him going good, the deek stayed in his pack this time. We rushed the bull (he was 300yds away) crashing banging stomping and calling all the way, we setup quickly at 75yds and gave the most mournful long gated mews you ever heard, he came a running to see this swimsuit model, we took that bull, a real heavy 5 point.

Now don' t get me wrong, I believe those decoys have their place. The example above just wasn' t one of them. I would be more inclined to use one around a freshly used wallow where I' d set it up and then myself, I' d give some raggy to spike squeals along with a couple excited cow calls, I' d do it for a couple of minutes if need be, you know drumming up some buisness. 90% of the time the bull will bugle this type of setup instead of sneaking in. But always stay on your toes.and be ready for the other 10%. Or do this same setup between bedding and feeding grounds, in early morning or in the evenings. Be very persistent in calling if nothing is happening, you know mix it up. Especially if you know elk are nearby. (within 1/2 mile). Hope I didn' t get to windy. elknut1