turkey hunting question series - question 3

[birddogdad]

How do you deal with a Hen'd up Tom?

[brokentrail]

I try to make the boss hen mad and copy every antagonistic thing she does and hope she will come to try and teach me a lesson and drag the tom with her.  My other option, if the hens just keep dragging him away, is to get in front of them if I can find a pinch point and not call to them.

[Dan-o]

The only thing that has ever worked for me is getting in front of where they want to go.

I've tried and tried and tried to call henned up Toms with  no success.

[birddogdad]

Im with you Dan-o     listen, try to determine direction, end around and wait....

other for me is the mid morning departure of the ladies.... they will at some point leave the toms, the toms are really easy to work in at that point... maybe the 10am to 2 pm window.....

[Pathfinder101]

The only luck we've ever had in this situation is getting the lead hen to come over and investigate your decoys.  We've killed a couple of toms this way (including Little Pathfinder's biggest bird), but I wouldn't say our batting average is very good...
Getting in front of them isn't usually an option for us due to private land constraints.

[birddogdad]

reading back, i didn't mention that you call the hen, not the tom here... make her mad, match her energy, tone, cadence, volume.... work her not him....

[erronulvin]

One thing ive done the past few years is run a jake strutter with 4 to 6 hen decoys, ive noticed toms don't like Jake's having that many hens haha. But I hunt open country where they can see for a ways. I also add a jerk string to move my strutter back and forth. Ive also pulled that lead hen over to investigate what's going on

[mboyle0828]

One thing ive done the past few years is run a jake strutter with 4 to 6 hen decoys, ive noticed toms don't like Jake's having that many hens haha. But I hunt open country where they can see for a ways. I also add a jerk string to move my strutter back and forth. Ive also pulled that lead hen over to investigate what's going on

Love this idea. You must be a duck hunter running that many decoys and a jerk string!

I only use 1 Jake decoy along with 2 hens, depending on the situation.