It’s been five years since I wrote the article “A Simple, Affordable and Effective Deer Decoying System”; click here to check it out. In this how-to story, I go into great detail about my keys to decoying success.
The lead image for that article (shown below) should look similar to the one above. These two bowhunts serve as bookends for many other mornings spent decoying in the same South Dakota river-bottom, and the one thing in common is my decoy choice, a Flambeau Boss Babe.
If you look carefully at my Flambeau decoy, you’ll notice it has a replacement leg (front right). I lost its original leg forever ago somewhere in the woods. To allow it to stand, a buddy quickly fashioned a peg leg from some brown PVC. It works great!
You might also notice that compared to the new Flambeau Boss Babe decoy shown below, my Little Miss Peg Leg has a different exterior, namely it’s flocked. Decades ago Flambeau offered this decoy in a flocked version as well as a painted version, but today it’s available only painted.
Does it really matter? I don’t think so. You see, I own four other Boss Babes, all of those are painted, and I’ve had good results with them all. Some are newer than others; some are missing a bit of paint; and two I bought on Facebook Marketplace for half the price as new. Rutting bucks don’t seem to care about perfect paint jobs.
FYI: MSRP for the Boss Babe is $165.99, but you can buy it in many places, including the Flambeau Store on Amazon, for $139.99 with free shipping.
Consider this: Bowhunters will spend $2,000 on a flagship bow (bare), and $750 (or much more) on the accessories (rest, sight, stabilizer and quiver). And some of them will do this every few years. Yet they don’t own a $140 decoy that will last a couple decades and contribute more to their ultimate success than any other gear item they own. (FYI: I hide Peg Leg near a couple of blowdowns during the November rut, then store it inside the rest of the time. I store my four painted Boss Babes outside but out of the weather.)
As you can see from the Boss Babe photo above, the decoy has a posture of a deer that is sort of squatting, almost like she’s ready to urinate. This is only my observation, but rutting bucks seem to think she is ready and willing to breed. When cruising rutting bucks spot her, they walk closer to check her out a high percentage of the time.
One final comment: All the info I find online says that a Boss Babe weighs 14 pounds. I think this is wrong; or maybe that’s the weight of the decoy plus the shipping box? Know this: I’ve carried my Boss Babe decoys up to a half-mile many times, and they aren’t heavy. Just to check, I weighed the only one that I store at home, and ol’ Peg Leg tips the scales 10.3 pounds. And that’s flocked with a PVC leg. If anything, I’d guess a new painted one weighs closer to 10 pounds even.
As you wrap up your current deer season and begin planning for fall 2026, consider adding a Flambeau Boss Babe to your game plan. In my opinion, it’s the smartest $140 you can spend on bowhunting whitetails.
