Amusing History of Turkey Decoys

[rFisherk]

I believe the first turkey decoys, at least in MO, were made by Swartz Studios. I sold them back in the '70s when I was managing the hunting and fishing departments of Outdoors Inc., an exclusive shop in the St. Louis Area that stocked high ticket items and specialized in fly fishing.

These decoys were made by hand out of paper Mache and were quite expensive; $60 each, if I remember correctly. Turkey hunting was new, and decoys were a novel idea. I ordered two of them, not really knowing if they would work, but figuring the novelty of having them sitting on the glass counter would be worth it.

About a week before the season, a man bought one, and the afternoon of opening day, he came back in the store, toting a gunny sack. When he pulled the decoy from the sack, the head was missing and I figured I was in for a customer complaint.

It was a long time ago, but I remember his words (don't ask me where I placed my car keys this morning).

"I set this decoy out on the edge of a field just before daybreak," he said. "Shortly after first light, I saw a turkey at the other end of the field and called.

"The turkey started trotting my way, and when I called again, he started running toward me. He ran directly up to the decoy, beak to beak, and I blew both their heads off."

He bought the other decoy.

[jdmidwest]

The first decoy I used was with my Dad in HS. We had a tame turkey hen that was caught by a coon and killed one night on the nest. We skinned her and salted the hide. Made a styrofoam body and crudely mounted her to make a decoy. We used that thing for a few years, worked pretty well. Feathers came out and got pretty shabby after a while.

I have a whole flock of the inflatables, some foam ones, and a plastic one. I hardly ever use them unless I sit them out in the field to lure them out into the open. I don't think they make much difference one way or the other.