How To Be Successful Decoying Whitetails From The Ground

The author took this 170-plus-inch public-land buck after watching him pin a doe in a weed patch. When a buck is given both audible and visual confirmation that a buck is trying to steal his doe, amazing things can happen. Photo courtesy of Danny Farris

Decoying whitetails from the ground creates brand-new bowhunting opportunities.

By Danny Farris / North American Whitetail

I’ve always been a decoy geek. I can’t recall the video I was watching the first time I saw a rut crazed buck eat an arrow over a decoy, but it hooked me. Not only is decoying one of the most effective ways to hunt whitetails, to me it’s the most exciting. There’s just something about letting the air out of a big buck when his ears are pinned and he’s rolling in like a bulldozer!

The thought of decoying whitetails from the ground, however, didn’t become a serious consideration until 2015. That was the year I lost the biggest whitetail of my life. I was hunting Western Kansas, where the open terrain leant itself to spot-and-stalk tactics. I had found an absolute giant and managed to slip within range. But when the bow went off, he jumped the string — and I hit him high. It was the most painful loss of my bowhunting career.

I cut my teeth bowhunting whitetails in open terrain, and while I loved hunting from a tree, it wasn’t always an option. Over the years I experienced some success spotting and stalking them, but I also experienced some painful failures. That’s when I stumbled across the bow-mounted Stalker Decoy from UltimatePredatorGear.com. Like I said, I’m a decoy geek, and I’ve used just about every style of decoy currently available. All had worked to some degree at one time or another, but this new Stalker Decoy seemed better suited for decoying from the ground, and it inspired a flood of new ideas. FULL STORY