To hen or not to hen?
Posted: May 25th, 2017, 8:14 am
I'm headed to NY this weekend, to carry my flintlock and a couple turkey tags around the woods. Reports are the hens have started setting and the toms may be somewhat cooperative.
Now, I've been to NY 4x and have passed on jakes but never had a chance on a mature tom. Due to my 4 previous failures, I know I'm overthinking things and picked up a hen decoy (Avian X - I know, taking my chances but they look better than anything else I can impulse buy locally. lol). I've had great luck at home with my Dakota half-strut jake but was wondering how the pressured NY toms might react to an aggressive jake in late season. What do y'all think - jake, hen.. both... neither? Keep in mind, my max range is 20 yards and I prefer 10-15 yards so having a tom drift close to me is not good enough, I need to be well inside their bubble. There's never a right or wrong answer, but I felt like discussing it to see what comes out.
Now, I've been to NY 4x and have passed on jakes but never had a chance on a mature tom. Due to my 4 previous failures, I know I'm overthinking things and picked up a hen decoy (Avian X - I know, taking my chances but they look better than anything else I can impulse buy locally. lol). I've had great luck at home with my Dakota half-strut jake but was wondering how the pressured NY toms might react to an aggressive jake in late season. What do y'all think - jake, hen.. both... neither? Keep in mind, my max range is 20 yards and I prefer 10-15 yards so having a tom drift close to me is not good enough, I need to be well inside their bubble. There's never a right or wrong answer, but I felt like discussing it to see what comes out.