Using hunting decoys can make or break your hunt. The trick is the use the right ones at the right time. Here are some very basic hunting decoy tips to help you out. I know that most of us have our own ideas of what works but I have never been skunked yet and I have been hunting for over 30 years.
Duck Decoys: When duck hunting some basic skils are needed but a very large part of your success will depend on your duck decoys. Birds of a feather flock together and in the water fowl world this is very true. Most ducks will be attracted to their own species, so you want to use Mallard decoys for Mallard ducks and wood duck decoys for wood ducks although I have had great success mixing species in my decoy spread.
Decoy placement becomes very important because ducks will feel better about landing into your decoys if you leave them a landing zone. Really the main reason for your duck decoy spread is to attract the ducks to land until they are in your shooting range. A help ful tip is to make sure you have lots of decoys as this will help create security for ducks that are passing by plus increase the visibility of your decoy spread. See duck identification chart to mark your species. Also see how to use duck decoys.
Turkey Decoys: Any turkey hunter will tell you that if you want to successful every trip you will have to learn some basic turkey hunting skills. First off giving some strong turkey calls before you walk into the woods to see if you get any response back should be your first priority. If you hear a call back you can begin to place your turkey decoys. Always start out before the sun rises and make sure you have a good shooting lane.
My dad once told me that turkeys can see you breathing so keep in mind that they can detect movement, so once you get your decoys placed get comfortable and try not to move once you see the turkey. Once the turkey is in sight start to calling and try to get the turkey to gobble back, this will bring him into shooting range and once the turkey spots the decoys it will slowing make its way strutting into the turkey decoys.
You should always try to make the decoys look as realistic as possible. I use Turkey Skinz on my decoys because you can’t get anymore realistic then that.
Deer Decoys: Most deer have great survival skills but when they see a deer decoy they won’t be able to resist even though they have great eye site and a great sense of smell. You need very realistic deer decoys and I have even see a buck try to mate with mine. The most common deer decoy to use is a doe decoys but also you need a good scent. During the rut I use scent on the doe decoy itself and this has proven to be very successful. I also use grunt calls, doe belch and rattling to bing in the big bucks. It dose not matter if you are in a tree stand or a ground blind, if you use the right deer decoy you will be successful.
Goose Decoys: Geese are very sociable by nature, and with proper goose decoy placement you will do great. Mind you I have seen geese fly into my wooden plywood decoys but I had them placed properly. When in flight geese can see other geese weather they are on the ground or on a pond or on a lake, they have a strong tendency to join that flock. If you have lots of goose decoys then you’ll be set. By building your own display of geese decoys with a proper landing zone will have the geese fly right into you.
As geese fly overhead looking down at your goose decoys they will want to land right into them. Use good strong calls but mix up the calls a bit to get the flocks attention. It is known that you can hunt geese in the rain, snow and over cast days, because geese love this kind of weather. Be sure to make your spread as realistic as possible, which in turn will make the flock turn and land. If you setup you decoys using proper decoy placement and calls you will be successful.
The best decoys spreads always have a properly placed landing zone and what most hunters don’t real realized is that a properly placed decoy spread requires less decoys. I’ve seen decoy spreads that have had over 600 decoys, and I know I shouldn’t laugh but… on that particular day they never got a thing. Their intention was to increase the size of the spread for realism BUT what they forgot was the landing zone, there was nowhere for the geese (in this case) to land. Mind you while duck hunting I have pulled ducks in with just 1 
