By John Hackett:
As true with any decoy, realism is the key to fooling the wiliest of critters. The new line of HD Series Carry-Lite decoys comes as close as anything on the market in doing this.
Last season I used one of the Carry-Lite Bob’n Tail HD Gobbler Turkey Decoys. The decoy gets its extremely realistic look using a “skin” that is stretched over the molded plastic body. The skin is produced using high definition printing technology. The skin shows the finest details of turkey’s feathers.
The removable silk tail is printed using the same technology and gives a natural motion to the decoy. The tail sways gently in the breeze, mimicking the motion of a real turkey. The tail folds up and is stored inside the body of the decoy for easy transport.
During the season I found the decoy was fast and easy to set up on its two piece metal stake, even in the dark. The entire decoy is very lightweight and is easy to carry in the ditty bag that it comes with.
The skin held up very well. It proved to be a very durable fabric and maintained its color even after hours of sitting in full sun. When used in a plowed field the dust would build up on it a bit, but it was easily brushed off to bring back the brilliant colors. The best feature of the skin is that it eliminated any glare that traditional hard plastic decoys get when the sun hits them wrong. The brighter the sun the more brilliant the colors on the Bob’n Tail seemed. The color of the decoy even looked good during the rain.
The tail motion worked great in a gentle to moderate breeze. It looked to me like a real Tom fanning his own tail. Under high winds the tail did wave around quite violently, but so does a real turkey tail. High gusting winds would however make the tail pop off of its hanger inside the decoy.
As far as performance on attracting wily Toms, I think the Bob’n Tail worked far better than the traditional all hard plastic decoys I have used before. The head on the Carry-Lite decoy is also more vividly painted than other decoys. The Bob’n Tail is more expensive, at around $60, but I feel is well worth the money. In my mind there is no comparison.
