I do use a decoy. I've bowhunted for four years, and have gotten a bull and a cow in the last two years. The bull would make P&Y, and the decoy played a key role. I set up right behind the decoy, and called him in. The bull came right up into 25 feet and tore up a tree, but no shot because he was head on to me. When he finished with the tree he started toward the decoy, and saw me peaking over the top at about 20 feet. He spun away, but stopped in confusion to look back one more time, and I nailed him.

To date, I've gotten only one other elk to see the decoy. Oddly, that happened earlier on the same day I got the bull. I had taken to carrying the decoy tucked into my shirt, with a little pet plan that worked like a charm in this case. I walked into a herd unexpectedly in heavy timber. They were nervous about me but hadn't gotten a definitive look, so I whipped out the decoy and held it out in front of me and cowcalled, just a desperation tactic to keep from blowing a herd up. It worked so well that a young bull cruised down for a look at the "new girl". I didn't get him, but that's another story, and since I got the bull previously spoken of 3 hours later, it all worked out for the best.

A decoy is not lightning-in-a-bottle, but I won't leave home without it. I do almost all my elk hunting 5-15 miles in country by backpack, so I carry the lightest decoy I can get. I use the simple Montana decoy of the elk butt; I don't use the stakes. I've got a simple setup of two clothes pins connected by fishing line to hang it off a tree limb. Previously I had owned a foam decoy, forgot the brand, but left it lying out in the Selway all winter. After the snow melted the next spring I hiked back up in to get it, but found a family of voles had settled in and chewed the bejebers out of it.

The trick is how to deploy the thing and get elk to see it regularly. I'm still working on it. If your elk hunting style is at all mobile, you'll want one that is really simple to put up and take down. Otherwise, on half your setups you'll get in hot and heavy with a bull and not have time to bother with the decoy. The other dilemma is whether to set up right behind it or off to one side or the other. I try a lot of different stuff with it.

I have named my decoy Wapitilda.