I will argue until the day I die that the smartest animal in the woods is the wild turkey. They are weary, extremely cautious and sometimes just plain evil. A good friend recently told me that some people do not agree with that mentality but he responded saying “I have seen them have human thoughts, I swear.” I could not agree more. It seems like every year there is always something that goes wrong with a turkey or two that someone is hunting and the excuses immediately roll out. I am guilty of blaming everything under the sun myself, but maybe we are not looking or learning in times when we should. Instead we just get mad and pick up our things to leave and blame first thing that comes to mind all too often, hens!
I absolutely love and respect the wild turkey and nothing brings me a greater feeling of fulfillment than watching a big gobbler strut his way into gun range. It is one of the greatest victories we can achieve as hunters whether we kill him or not, we simply won the battle just by getting him so close. I am here to say that there is not something to learn from every gobbler we encounter, but I am certainly here to say that if we do not take the time to learn from actual live hens, especially the bossy ones who seem to make all the rules, then we simply are not giving enough respect to the entirety of the wild turkey population. A gobbler has one thing on his mind most days during spring and it goes without saying that the very thing on his mind has caused a lot of turkeys to take a truck ride. But look at the other side of the equation for a moment. How many times has a turkey you killed left a hen or had hens with him when you shot him? Remember now, you shot HIM, not the handful of hens around him.
This mentality is often overlooked and chalked up to a loss because we feel we cannot compete with a real hen. And while that is certainly true, why is it that there always seems to be that one hen who makes all the rules? It seems as if no matter which way she goes, he goes. And even if there are a dozen other hens around him, she is the one who he listens to. I have many theories on it and we will have a very lengthy discussion in the next On The X podcast. But until then, sit back and think about where you were the last time a hen messed you up or took your gobbler another direction. Maybe she is his main woman, or maybe she is even his mom. Whoa, there’s some food for thought! Just don’t miss the next podcast, I will lay it all out I promise. Until then just keep in mind that there are hens that need just as much attention as a dominant gobbler does, it just takes learning what to say from being in a situation where she rules the roost instead of him.
