I’ve had a good season so far and managed to punch a few tags. Most of you on here have heard a lot of my stories so I don’t even post all of them anymore. For the most part I post my stories if there’s something unique that brought it about, so I’ve got one for you that fits the bill. I’ve never had a hunt quite like this one, so I hope you enjoy the story.

I got to camp in Barbour Co at 4 pm Friday afternoon. I had planned on throwing some clothes on and hunting the afternoon, and maybe even roost one. Mother Nature had other plans though and when I was unloading my stuff and getting ready the lightning and thunder show started so we concentrated on the steak dinner I had planned up. The next morning we awoke to hot and humid weather and a thick blanket of fog. I wanted to go hunt another property but I had been getting some cell cam pics of a gobbler on a hardwood ridge that was using that as a strut zone, and occasionally a roost. Bowhunter84 told me I should go hunt him but I really didn’t want to and had a pretty good idea that he wouldn’t gobble. He finally talked me into it and I made the drive over to the area where the bird hung out. The leaves were still wet from the previous evening so I was able to sneak in silently and set up on the hillside right above the ridge he likes to strut on, and everything was perfect.

I sat there in the pitch black dark and noticed that the fog was not nearly as thick as I thought and it might not be such a bad morning. My plan was to sit there until he gobbled and if he wasn’t close I would get up and go to him. The song birds started singing, and then finally the crows started getting fired up…. any minute now. Silence. 45 minutes after daylight I still had not heard a gobble, nor had I heard a turkey fly down. BH84 is texting me asking me what was going on and I wasn’t shy about voicing my displeasure at him talking me into hunting this bird. He hadn’t heard a thing in three spots that we know hold birds, so it was apparent that leaving and going prospecting was going to be a fruitless endeavor and I just decided to sit tight and do some calling and see what happened. I sat there calling every little while until nearly 10 o clock, and this is where the story gets fun.

I see a bearded hen walking up the ridge all by herself. After scratching along for a while, she winds up right below me and I’m trying to be still so as not to spook her. She finally meanders off towards a greenfield about 80 yards to my right and goes out of sight. I’m guessing 20-30 minutes go by and I throw a few clucks and cuts down the ridge. All of a sudden I hear super aggressive yelping and cutting to my right and apparently the hen from earlier has taken exception to my calling and was now cursing me out. A minute or two goes by and then I see her headed my way on a string. She comes in cautiously walking and looking hard, and much to my surprise she keeps walking towards me until she’s literally 10 yards from me. Knowing there was no way I was not going to get busted I just started talking to her in my normal voice, and she just stands there and looks at me. Then all of a sudden she takes about 3 steps closer and lays down in the shade right beside me like 5 yards away. So I continue to talk to her and snapped a few pics so my buddies would believe me. The whole time she just sits there while I’m moving around and fishing my phone out of my vest. I had a pack of cheese crackers I had brought to snack on and I took one of them and started chipping off parts of the cracker and tossing them to her and it if landed close enough she would eat it. This might be the craziest thing I’ve ever seen in the turkey woods. I sat there and interacted with this hen for about an hour and a half and I decided it had gotten too hot and I was tired of sitting there. When I stood up, she stood up and I walked up the hill and hit the fire lane that would take me to the truck and she just walked off the hill and watched me leave.

Here is a pic and video of this crazy hen.






I go back to camp to cool off and change into some lightweight stuff and decided to go hit another property that I have access to that nobody has hunted yet. I get in the truck and drive the 8 miles over to the tract and the gate is open and there is fresh tracks going in there so I know either the forester is in there or the Game Warden was making his rounds. Either way I knew that wasn’t going to up my chances to kill a turkey so I backed out and went back over and hunted the same bird I had sat that morning hoping I’d get lucky. I entered the ridge from a different area a couple hundred yards away from where I had that morning just to see if I could catch him entering or exiting from a different way. I mean I knew he wasn’t on the low side because I had already put about 5 hours into that with no results. I guess I sit there about 45 minutes and lo and behold I hear my first gobble of the day at 3:15 in the afternoon. I yelped back at him and all of a sudden I hear yelping and cutting and I look and my little bearded hen pal is bee lining to me. She walks right up to me and just stands there yelping and cutting and this gobbler is losing his mind. He probably gobbles 15-20 times and has cut the distance from 150 yards to 80 – 100 yards, and she just starts walking right to him yelping and cutting.

Here’s a video of her leaving and going to him. You can hear him gobble a couple times as she walks off out of sight.




As soon as she gets out of my sight all goes silent. I sat there for another hour or so calling sporadically and all of a sudden I hear her yelping coming straight to me. She get in sight and guess who’s behind her! She brought him right up the ridge and 25 yards from where I was sitting.


The moral of this story….. it’s good to have friends to help you out when you need it.

Cool story. Mother nature is full of suprises.
Is the hen avaliable to rent this weekend?

That’s right up there with the old tv series “Kung Fu”, where Caine becomes the Crow Whisperer.

Pretty cool story BC. Congrats on a hard earned one.

You wearing your camp slippers to the turkey woods?

Yep...... Bottomland sketchers.

Too dang hot for Muck’s lol.

That’s wild!

Awesome! Should’ve loaded her up and taken her home with you

Very cool hunt BC, if I were you I’d hope she hangs around for a while! Lol

Very unique story - congrats

Thanks for sharing, congrats!!

I tell you what........ she was very tolerant of me being around. When that shotgun went off she got to getting gone.

Thanks for sharing, never heard of anything like that.

Great story. Must have been her ex to do that to him.

That's crazy, awesome story

that is wild!! almost as wild as your "turkey boots" lol
very cool story, bud

That is an amazing encounter! Very cool!

Dr. B

Very cool. Congrats!

Wow!
I wonder if she was raised tame and got out somehow. Great hunt and another example of surprises in every hunt.

I was wondering the same thing...


Buddy of mine has been raising a jake since an egg. He said he heard him gobble and a shot last week behind his place and his jake came flying over the tree line landed in the yard and ran into the chicken coop and hasn’t come out much since.

He had his beard shot off and a good bit of breast feathers on his right breast gone, he is still in good shape and will heal. He was lucky, I suggested he might want to keep him on a short leash for the next month. Lol

😎

What did the hen do when you shot bc?

She got gone in a hurry.

Very cool and amazing story. Thanks for sharing

Whoa, very cool! Never know what you'll run into in the spring woods...

Great story BC congrats on your bird!

Thanks for the good read.

Awesome! I think I would’ve sat there all day with her

That’s cool

Be neat to see if she remembers you next time or remmebers her lovers face being destiyed

That’s crazy. Never heard about anything like that

Very cool experience Brian and congratulations on your bird!

I bet a lot are asking...can they borrow your hen?

Very cool. I had one do something similair last year. I was climbing up a couple of benches to try and circle a gobbler. I bumped a hen, which I assumed had a nest, she ran about 20 yards and stopped. She stood there for several minutes, and I finally decided that I needed to get moving. As I started walking, she started following me. I would stop and she would get about 8’ from me. It was neat, but the gobbler was on my mind so I took off. I went about 150 yards and stopped to call and listen, and about 45 seconds later I hear something behind me and here she comes again. Walks to within 12-15’ just looking at me, and she did it 2 more times. She probably followed me for 400 yards or more. I took a video, but it is too long to upload but here is a screen grab from it.

Great story! Congrats!

Good thing you didn't pull a moonpie out to snack on. She/he/it might have mowed you down. LOL Thanks for sharing.

Awesome story!