Grouse Decoys

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splainin2do
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Re: Grouse Decoys

Post by splainin2do »

Alphamale1956 wrote:I have not yet been detected by grouse and/or fox while in the tripod UNTIL I fire the crossbow pistol. And even then, they have to be really close to react to the sound of pistol firing.
Are you sure it's the crossbow pistol, or a grouse not dying at 100%? It may not be the weapon, but the flapping of the death throes...?
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Alphamale1956
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Re: Grouse Decoys

Post by Alphamale1956 »

splainin2do wrote:
Alphamale1956 wrote:I have not yet been detected by grouse and/or fox while in the tripod UNTIL I fire the crossbow pistol. And even then, they have to be really close to react to the sound of pistol firing.
Are you sure it's the crossbow pistol, or a grouse not dying at 100%? It may not be the weapon, but the flapping of the death throes...?
Yes, good point. It's hard to tell if a nearby grouse "flees" due to an "alarmed" state of the one you just hit or because they saw you move. With foxes, I need to have full camo in effect, Scent Remover on and try to stay motionless in a tower 20m away in order to get a "fully" unalarmed target shot off. And even then, they will often look up at me and I will need to fire at that instant or they bolt. But you will know when you've got him calm as they almost always bark after arrival. With Grouse, if I hit them, they go down. Maybe not 100% harvest, I never looked. I've never had to track any. But foxes are the tricky ones. I need to practice at the range and find out how much drop, at range, the bolts have so I can almost ensure an immediate kill shot at the heart. The red dot scope leaves a lot to be desired. I would rather have a crosshair reticle (thin lines).
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Dr_ViEr
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Re: Grouse Decoys

Post by Dr_ViEr »

It's the dieing that will spook the others (at least with regard to Grouse). You can miss them several times with the x-bow pistol without any reaction. But if you hit one, the others will be gone.
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Alphamale1956
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Re: Grouse Decoys

Post by Alphamale1956 »

Dr_ViEr wrote:It's the dieing that will spook the others (at least with regard to Grouse). You can miss them several times with the x-bow pistol without any reaction. But if you hit one, the others will be gone.
The same is true for almost all other animals. If you drop them instantly from, say, 25m or greater and they are in a herd, flock, or whatever, you seldom spook the others. But, alas, there is no weapon that is 100% quiet so if the group is close, it won't matter if you drop your target instantly, the others will spook. Occasionally, I will have to put down a female of another species that wandered into my kill box just because they could spook other targets nearby.
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jack30286
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Re: Grouse Decoys

Post by jack30286 »

Even with 100% hv of a grouse 10 meters away will some times spook other grouse at 30+ meters away this never happens with Turkeys.
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Alphamale1956
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Re: Grouse Decoys

Post by Alphamale1956 »

I'm not so sure it's the dying process as it is just the subtle sound of your bow or crossbow. The specs on the kill will only reveal the "State" of the animal when dies whether it's walking/fleeing/idle but do not say "dying". The males will occasionally flap their wings and it does not set off the others nearby. There is a "Wound time". If that's "zero" then there is no death throes I would think. If the others spook/startle, I think it's because 1) they heard the sound of your weapon or 2) they saw you move. I will even get the Notice that I had "spooked" an animal. I've had fowl (turkey, ducks, geese ) that take pretty big flaps and fall dead and not a single bird will startle. Now they may have changed (*tweaked*) a while back. I can remember plinking geese/ducks from towers far off and the flocks don't even budge from the, pretty quiet, .22 rifle. Still pretty interesting tho.
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FOCRJ
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Re: Grouse Decoys

Post by FOCRJ »

excellent working material, hunting easily without being scared, the lure works perfectly!!

THBR
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Alphamale1956
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Re: Grouse Decoys

Post by Alphamale1956 »

FOCRJ wrote:excellent working material, hunting easily without being scared, the lure works perfectly!!

THBR
You are referring to the box lure, correct? Let me ask, when would you use the Locator caller if you have that also?
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jack30286
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Re: Grouse Decoys

Post by jack30286 »

I use the locator when walking around or when I had no active calls from grouse in a long time while on stand.
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Alphamale1956
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Re: Grouse Decoys

Post by Alphamale1956 »

Oh, okay. So you use the locator as a probe and, with a response, go to the box caller to coax movement. I don't know why, but I thought I read that the locator attracted females. I guess because they supposedly attract lower-scoring grouse (store description) which sorta implies females. Whereas the box caller is a reproduction of the male call but will attract either gender. Now, do they mean "equal" attraction? If it is equal, then why even use a locator? Also, does anyone get the feeling that the grouse callers seem to attract red deer as well?
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