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Hened up!

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4onaside

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Joined
Feb 7, 2006
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5,120
Location
Jackson,Tn
A term that we turkey hunters seem to wear out when things don't come off as planned. The bird that I killed this morning was "hened up" if you count being in the traveling company of two hens as hened up. He came within 40 yards of my dekes but then decided to join up with his ladies, who were moving away. Too late! 19 lbs, 3 oz. 13& 1/2 inch beard, and a short inch spurs(2 year old bird). In my experience, most of my mature gobblers have been "hened up". If you can call his ladies within range(most of the time you can), then its a better than even chance that he's gonna come with them. Bring em on. The more the merrier. lol
 
Have called in three birds since saturday for friends which were extremely henned up. Each had 15-20 hens and the whole wad couldn't resist coming to join me, they left one shy of how they arrived.

It is just a fact of turkey hunt for most of the season, either learn to kill them when they have hens, or get very frustrated. The longer I do this, which is almost 20 years now, the more I really love tough henned up birds, they really challenge every aspect of turkey hunting.
 
the only problem i've had this year is that the hens got too close to me before the tom got close enough for a shot and she started alarm clucking and flew off which ruined my chances of getting that bird
 
I agree, and with our population exploding as it is here in East TN, the Gobblers stay henned up through most of the season. Its just part of the game. We have a ridiculous amount of hens all over this part of the state.
 
mathews338 said:
the only problem i've had this year is that the hens got too close to me before the tom got close enough for a shot and she started alarm clucking and flew off which ruined my chances of getting that bird
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Well we all hunt differently, and I, due to being long in the tooth,not to mention the fact that it is very effective, hunt exlusively from pop-ups with dekes. And any hen that wants to visit me is very welcome. I try to not spook her(them) and keep her milling around my deal for as long as possible. I can't think of a better deal than to have live decoys for a tom that might be laying back to see. Plus, most of the hens are usually talking to my decoys, and they sound a whole lot more like the real thing! lol
 

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