Decoys and blinds for a first-season setup

What to buy first

One hen decoy. That's the whole first purchase for most first-season hunters, and it's the one this section keeps coming back to. A hen is what a gobbler is looking for most of the spring, she works on her own from the first week to the last, and she is the lowest-risk decoy to carry through woods other hunters share. Our rubric scores a hen 9 of 10 for public-land safety, a jake 6 and a strutter 3.

Buy one that packs small, has a stake in the box, and rides in a bag that hides it. The Avian-X LCD Lookout Hen is the clearest example we score: it collapses and ships with a carbon stake, a carry bag and a compression strap. If you want to spend less, the Montana Decoy Dinner Belle is a folding hen that Montana lists at 8 oz with its stake. Both are ranked with the rest of the field in our best turkey decoys, and jake vs hen decoy explains why the hen comes first.

A blind comes later, if at all. You don't need one your first season; a good tree, a low seat and sitting still do most of the work. We lay out when a blind actually earns its weight in do you need a blind for turkey hunting.

How the category divides

Hens are the foundation. They come in feeding, upright, lookout and laydown postures, and a few, like the MOJO Feeder/Breeder Hen, switch between postures on one stake.

Jakes and hen-and-jake pairs add a young rival to the scene, which can pull in a gobbler that wants to run him off, mostly early in the season while birds are still flocked. If you know you want both birds, compare the ready-made sets in our jake and hen decoy combo picks, and see how brands differ in Avian-X vs Dave Smith Decoys.

Strutters and motion decoys are the advanced end. A full-strut gobbler decoy, especially one wearing a real fan, is the decoy most likely to be mistaken for a live bird, and two makers we score, Montana Decoy and MOJO, say their gobbler and reaping decoys don't belong on public land. Motion decoys add a pull cord, a pull line or a battery box, and motion rules vary by state. Both groups have their own pages, with the safety box up front: strutter decoys and motion decoys. Bowhunters need the aggressive decoy for a different reason — a tom squared up on a jake is a tom looking somewhere other than at you — which is why our bowhunting decoy picks rank jakes and strutters and set them at 8 to 10 yards.

Ground blinds split three ways. Panel blinds like the Ameristep Throwdown are a low wall you stake out in front of you, about 2 lb, which Ameristep says stows in a turkey vest; they hide your legs and lap but not movement above or behind you. Spring-steel pop-ups like the Ameristep Doghouse Run & Gun (8.6 lb, 55 x 55 in floor) are the light, budget-friendly way into an enclosed blind. Hub blinds are roomier and heavier, 13.9 to 15.4 lb for the ones we score, and the big choice among them is see-through mesh walls or solid walls with windows, which we break down in see-through vs traditional ground blinds. All of them are ranked in our best turkey hunting blinds. If you will be drawing a bow inside the blind, peak height and shooting width decide everything, and those are the numbers we rank on in best ground blinds for bowhunting turkeys.

What decides price and quality

For decoys, the body decides most of it. At the budget end is a folding hen printed with a photo, like the Dinner Belle. Collapsible molded bodies like Avian-X's LCD line give you a full 3D shape that still packs down. At the premium end, rigid bodies from makers like Dave Smith Decoys hold their shape and publish real weights (3 lb for DSD's Upright Hen with its bag and stake). Extra postures, real-feather or real-fan options and motion are the other things you pay for. Pay for what you'll use: if you walk a long way in, packability matters more than a hard body.

For blinds, you're paying for room, windows and weight. Published interior size and standing height tell you whether two people and a gun fit. Window systems range from zippered openings to silent hook-and-elastic connectors and one-way see-through mesh. If you bowhunt, height matters: Barronett says the Prowler 300's 80 in peak lets most archers draw and shoot while standing. One detail catches beginners: Ameristep says its mesh is shoot-through only with a fixed-blade broadhead, so with a shotgun you open the window. Read warranties closely too. Ameristep covers its blinds for one year and excludes animal and weather damage.

The mistake beginners make

Buying a spread before learning the setup. A first-season hunter with a strutter, two hens and a motion decoy, set where a gobbler can't see them or beyond the range their gun patterns, has spent a lot to learn very little. One hen staked about 20 yards out on an open sight line, with you sitting still against a wide tree, is the setup to learn first. How to set up turkey decoys walks through it step by step, and turkey decoy setups by season shows how to change it as spring goes on.

The second mistake is carrying decoys in the open. The NWTF's public-land guidance is to carry decoys in a bag and not in your hand or vest, because exposed parts can look like the real thing, and to keep them completely hidden or wear hunter orange on the walk out. Never walk toward a gobble or a strutting bird, on any ground you share.

How decoys and blinds fit your first season

Decoys and blinds come after two things: a call you can run and a place to sit. A decoy finishes what your calling starts, so if you haven't picked a first call yet, start in our turkey calls section. Where you sit matters as much as what you set out; a low seat against a wide tree is the core of a first-season turkey setup, and if you do buy a blind, a chair made for sitting inside one is covered in our turkey hunting chair picks.

From there the order is simple: one hen, a bag to carry her, then a jake if you hunt private ground early, then a blind if your ground, your patience or a young hunter beside you calls for one. The whole start-to-finish path, from buying a license to the shot, is in our first-season section. Whatever you buy, decoy and blind rules are set by each state, so read your state wildlife agency's turkey regulations before the season opens.