Post by Greg Krause on Apr 20, 2013 22:55:34 GMT -5
Last spring I offered to guide my good buddy Randy. He only had a morning or 2 to get out, so I said I'll help. We headed to a little piece of public land right down the road. It's an archery only area but since we hadn't scouted, it was going to be a "run and gun" scenario. At daybreak we heard a bird fly down, but it sounded like a hen. I hit the call and she was coming in! We quickly found a spot along an overgrown field, a stone wall to our back, bushes in front of us and overhanging limbs above. I quickly set out a decoy about 15 yards in front of us. I hit the call again and heard a "gobble". It was a strange gobble though. A minute later a hen appeared to our right, hopped the wall and headed for the decoy. I whispered to Randy, "a hen", as I stayed low behind the bushes. He whispered back "I think it's a Jake". I told him it wasn't. He replied "well it's got a beard". I told him to double check as it got to the decoy(my face was still pushed into the dirt, trying to stay low). He confirmed it did have at least a 6" beard. It was a bearded hen! He asked me to make sure it was legal to shoot and I assured him it was. He went from kneeling to a crouching position as the bird turned away, drew and made a perfect shot! The bird was down! It was the first Turkey taken on this fairly well hunted public land in the 3 years since it opened. It was a bearded hen and done without a blind to boot! It was quite a trophy and neither of us could stop smiling for hours.
