Years ago, with my buddy Marc as a witness, I belly-crawled through tall grass with a hen decoy in my hand, slowly lifting that foam fake now and again to imitate a bugging bird as I slithered in the pasture field, trying to unleash a pressured spring gobbler some distance away that made like a fencepost with a red smudge on it in a clump of brush. It worked. Safety concerns aside--it was late in the Maine turkey season, and I'm afraid the responsibility for such a gamble was solely on my shoulders--the tom broke out of cover, and soon met its demise at the end of a sure shot coming from the near woods and my buddy's shotgun.
I'm pretty sure this sort of a move lacks the certain safety sense one should consider on most public lands (or private unposted ones). It surely isn't what the folks at TransFan have in mind. What is?
Their new decoy replicates a full-strut gobbler. Its use? To bring in silent toms, says Jamie Bulger, TransFan President, and open field birds, and gobblers that hang-up out of range. It's lightweight, compact, and might work in those situations when you need to try something new. You stake it in front of your set-up like a traditional deke.
I caught up with Bulger at the recent SHOT Show, talked to him some at their booth, and you can learn more about this new product at www.Hunters-Edge.com.
--S.H.
