How to set up turkey decoys: a beginner's placement guide

This guide is part of our decoys and blinds section, and it assumes you're putting out a decoy for the first time. We haven't set these decoys in the woods ourselves. The distances and placements below are the ones published by the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) and its writers, each named and linked, plus the makers' own instructions. Decoy placement is one part of a bigger setup: the tree you pick, the sun, where you call from and how you hold the gun are all in our turkey hunting setup guide.

How to set up turkey decoys, step by step

1. Pick a spot a gobbler can see into. A decoy only works if a gobbler spots it. The NWTF's decoy safety page says to “establish a clear line of vision for at least 100 yards.” In fields, Darron McDougal sets up on “the highest and most visible elevation” he can find.
2. Choose your tree before you stake anything. The NWTF says to set up just inside the woods where you can stay concealed, against a tree “taller than your head and wider than your shoulders.”
3. Stake the hen about 20 yards out. The NWTF's guidance is decoys “20 yards from your position” on that sight line. Never farther than the distance your gun patterns well.
4. Face her so the gobbler sees what you want. Ryan Fair faces a lone hen toward himself; Scott Haugen sets a single hen broadside to where he sits, facing away from where he expects the tom to come from.
5. Add a jake only if the birds are fighting. Keep him close to the hen. Fair puts a jake “right behind” a laydown hen, both facing away from him.
6. Keep the sun behind you. McDougal places morning decoys north, south or west of his position “so the sun won't shine into my blind.”
7. Before you leave, look around, then bag the decoys. The NWTF: “Always check carefully that no one is stalking your decoys before leaving your position.” Carry them out hidden.

Placement by setup: distances as published

Think of the setup as a line running out from your tree: you at one end, the decoy on the line, and open ground beyond it where a gobbler can see her. The table gives the distance and facing each NWTF writer publishes for the common setups. They are a starting point. Your own gun sets the real limit.

If you're deciding between a single hen and a hen-and-jake setup, jake vs hen decoy walks through when each one makes sense.

How far away to set up turkey decoys

About 20 yards is the number the NWTF publishes, and it makes a sensible default for a beginner. A gobbler that walks to the decoy stops at a distance you can pattern your gun at and practice judging. It leaves some room between you and the bird for raising the gun. And it keeps the decoy close enough to see clearly in low light, so you always know where your marker is.

Closer is fine, and sometimes better. Haugen sets his hen “no more than 10 yards” from a pop-up blind when bowhunting, and he writes that with a .410 he wants the bird inside 20 yards. What you shouldn't do is set a decoy farther out than your gun reliably reaches. Haugen patterns every load at 10, 20 and 30 yards, and at 40 with a 12 gauge; a decoy works best as a range marker when you know what your pattern does at that distance. Before the season, pattern your turkey gun and set the decoy inside the range your own pattern proves, not a number from a chart, ours included.

Which way decoys should face

The published advice isn't one rule, and that's worth knowing so you don't over-think it. What the NWTF writers agree on is the reason: a decoy's facing decides where an incoming gobbler looks and where he walks.

• A hen facing you is Fair's mid-season choice, for a lone hen or a small flock of hens, about 25 yards out.
• A hen broadside to you, facing away from where a tom will approach (Haugen) makes her look like she's moving off, away from the incoming bird.
• A jake or strutter facing away from you (Fair) keeps the gobbler's attention on the decoys when he arrives. Haugen notes that an approaching tom “usually tries getting in front of the strutter,” so the gobbler decoy's facing decides where the live bird ends up standing.

How to set up three turkey decoys

Three decoys is an early-season spread, when birds are still in flocks. Brian Lovett's early-spring advice for the NWTF is “two or three hens and a strutter or jake decoy,” with the hens looking “natural and relaxed”: “one or two feeding hens with an upright hen.” Keep them loosely grouped around the same 20-yard mark rather than in a straight row; when Haugen pairs a gobbler decoy with a hen, he leaves “a 3-yard gap between the decoys.” As the flocks break up, Lovett pares the spread down, and late in the season many hunters use a single hen. How the spread changes through the spring is laid out in turkey decoy setups by season.

Getting decoys in and out safely

A decoy is built to look like a turkey. That is the point, and it is also the danger when you're carrying one through woods other hunters are sitting in.

What to look for in a first decoy setup

You need less than the catalogs suggest. For a first season, look for four things:

• One hen that packs small. You'll carry it every morning whether you use it or not. A folding or collapsible hen with a published weight lets you plan the walk.
• A stake in the box. Setup should be push-in-and-done in the dark. Both decoys below ship with their own stake or leg pole.
• A bag that hides the decoy completely, ideally with hunter orange on it, for the walk in and out.
• A jake only if you'll hunt private ground early in the season. A hen alone covers most of the spring.

Picks for a first decoy setup

One honest note on the Purrfect Pair: Montana sells the XD3 decoys to ride in a vest or pack with “no need to drag along an extra bag.” The NWTF's public-land advice is the opposite, a bag and not your vest, so we pair it with a bag here. If you want a molded, full-body hen instead of the Dinner Belle's printed photo, the collapsible Avian-X LCD Lookout Hen is the top-scoring hen in our best turkey decoys roundup, and ready-made pairs are ranked in our jake and hen combo picks.

Common decoy setup mistakes

• Setting the decoy where a gobbler can't see it. Thick cover hides it. That's why the NWTF starts with a 100-yard sight line.
• Setting it past your range. A gobbler that stops at the decoy should be standing inside your proven pattern.
• Letting the decoy do all the work. Haugen writes that he has gone in with decoys, “called too aggressively,” and spooked toms without getting a shot. Easy calling and a still hunter matter more than the spread.
• Using a decoy when you don't need one. Haugen: “If spring foliage is flourishing, a decoy isn't necessary when targeting cautious toms.” He has also had success in a ground blind near a trail with no decoy at all.
• Carrying it in the open. The NWTF and Vermont Fish & Wildlife agree: keep it hidden, and wear orange while you move.