Henned up birds...advice

[BRONZ]

How do you all call to birds on the roost and after fly down when they have hens?  I've just not had a lot of success getting them in lately if they're henned up.  Looking for opinions.

[smokin joe]

You are in a tough situation and you will need to be extra stealthy.

If you can roost the gobbler the night before so you know exactly where he is, and get out really early, your set up could be the closest "hen" and get the gobbler interested. Try to get there way before fly down and make a fly down wing flap noise and a few soft calls just before you think the gobbler will do his fly down. He might just fly down to meet your hen decoy.

Good luck.

[wollelybugger]

Its almost impossible to call a bird off hens. If the hens are nesting they will leave him and go sit on their nest. I have better luck later in the morning after the hens leave, he will come in when he's alone. I have called a lot of longbeards in from 10 to 12 or midmorning.

[Rob W.]

A few years ago my turkey hunting and scouting wasen't very involved. I would listen for a few different birds couple days before season and cover as much ground as possible when season came in. Even with pressured or henned up birds one would respond to a call and get within range eventually.

Now with a longbow in hand the game has changed considerably. I listen and watch birds way before season and look for fresh sign constantly. When they seem henned up or shut up I key in on pinch points they like to travel just like deer. A narrow ridge between roost and strut zone has been my best bet. Sometimes I use a decoy sometimes I don't. Last year I called up more curious hens than longbeards. This year is going to different with the weird weather I'm sure.


Rob

[Pettit877]

Sleep in.......wait till 9am or a little later and then run and gun, after about 9 the hens will leave the gobblers and they will be lonely and looking for some company. if you have any known strutting zones wait for them there and make some calls every 15-20 min or so. Running and gunning is probably my favorite way to  kill turkeys.


Eric

[Widow's Son]

All you can do is wait for the hens to leave. Sometimes I've had luck calling the hens to me and then getting a shot at the gobbler as he follows, although it can be tough not to get busted out by the hens.

[maineac]

Only time I've called toms off a hen was using really aggressive purrs, and slapping my leg with my hat. Imitated a fight over a hen.  The two toms walked right in.   could see them when I started calling so I know they were with a couple of hens.  They were not responding to anything else, so I figured what the heck.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

I once heard at a seminar....

Give a few soft "tree yelps" right away when you are near a bird on the roost, then shut up.  If he responded to you with a gobble, he knows you are there.  If you keep calling to him, he thinks you are easy and will go to other birds first.  If that is the case, he will be back but you could find yourself waiting him out until after noon, which ends the turkey hunting day here in NY.

[stevewills]

like already said wait till later,ive killed more turkeys after 10 am then any other times...

[beetlebailey1977]

I dont roost the gobblers.....be where he wants to be and wait him out.  Also hunt later in the morning or the afternoon when the hens leave him.  He will still be looking for love.  It is all about the time you put in and being where he wants to be.

[BRONZ]

Great stuff!  Thanks all.  When I leave this weekend, that will be my game plan.

[threeunder]

Lots of good advice.

Henned up birds are tough.  I'd handle it through a combination of some of the above posts.

Get in as close as possible on roost.  Just a couple of tree yelps to let him know where you are, then throw your call 3 feet away...LOL.

This does a couple of things.  Obviously it lets him know where a receptive "hen" is, but it also keeps all the other hens from racing to him before you can get to him.  Once he responds, he knows where you are.  Keep him quiet on the roost if possible.  The more he gobbles, at this point, the more fired up the hens will be to get to him.  This is one of the few times in turkey hunting that you want to curtail his urge to find a hen just a bit.  It can be a dicey play, but odds are much better doing it this way than an all out yelp fest on the roost with a gobblin' chorus.

If that doesn't work, you can try a bit more aggressive hunting up through about 9:30 or so.  Satellite birds that have been beat down by a dominant gobbler will be around not far from him and his harem.  These birds rarely come in gobbling.  They will often slip in silently to sneak off with the "hen" that is obviously in need of love.  Lot of guys think that those satellite birds are always jakes.  That's not necessarily true.  They can be jakes, but also are sometimes 2 year olds that just don't have the "mojo" the dominant bird has.  They can also be a very old bird that has lost his "mojo" and just looking for 1 last fling with a hen.

Finally, into the late morning hours, get in front of the birds and wait on them.  Don't call, don't do anything but wait.  Calling at this point, frequently ends in the hens pulling the gobbler away from the caller.

If you can hunt through until sunset, most of the time a gobbler will roost in the same area (if not the same tree).  At this point, you should know where that is.  Find the area where you see leaves scattered and a few feathers.  Almost always on the same level as the base of the tree or on higher ground.  This is his "take off" area to head to roost every evening.  That's an awesome place to kill a gobbler.

Henned up birds are tough, not impossible, just tough.

Ken

[Bobby Castello]

Have had really good luck with a full strut decoy and gobbler call. If you can get the decoy set up where he will see it from the roost and use a gobbler call he will leave the hens to come fight the gobbler. I've killed my last 4 gobblers this way. Must be hunting a mature gobbler because some young gobblers are intimidated by the gobbler decoy and will hang up
just out of range. Last year I had a gobbler run
 a 1/4 of a mile down a road to fight with my decoy.I've been using the B-Mobil full strut decoy by Primos for the last 4 years with great results.
                 Bobby Castello

[Jake Fr]

Their is a lot of great info here and I would try it all out slowly on your birds becarefull they are easly educated to our tricks we try on them

[Dirtybird]

Try to get to where the birds have been feeding or hang around a strutting area.  Dusting spots are good locations to try an ambush the birds as well.  If you know where the birds want to be that will be a big plus for you.

[awbowman]

Two ways:

1)  You have to know where he is going and try to intercept him.  This is iffy since there will be multiple eyes on you.  Now, by calling near the roost you may get you a shot at a less dominant bird trying to sneak in and steal the seconds.  He'll come in silent though since he's scared to get his you know what kicked. I saw a lot of less dominant birds that way before I learned that I wasn't good enough to call the BOSS away.

2)  Best to do like they suggest and wait until he is alone again.

[snakebit40]

Good advice here!    

[overbo]

The more you mess w/ him the less chances of killing him.
I would go fishing for a couple days.Then check in on him every other day till he isn't henned up.

[Sean B]

Just about everyones advise so far is right on. there's no one single way to tackle this situation.If there are several gobblers, many times you may be able to have a subordenate (sp) break away.  

I once set up in a small field where the birds were flying down to.  I had about 10 longbeards and jakes with about 6 or 7 hens fly down on the oposite side of the field.  they all walked the lenght of the field passing me & my decoy at about 50 yrds.  They all walked out of site.  about 20 mins later, I had a few of the lesser longbeards and the jakes come in to the decoy at about 10 yrds.  I still missed!

IMO, its best to either figure where you can cut them off, or wait it out a few hours.  I bet that ive taken over half my turkeys after 9 am.

[Friend]

Generally harvesting critters has increased odds when setting up where they want to be in the 1st place. Homework is involved and the normal time frame for the encounter may be hours or even more beyond fly down.

Haven't utlized set-ups which target roosted birds in at least 17 years. Harvest rate has significantly improved.
I normally hunt public land.