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Hens Near and Far
On April 21, 2011 in
Hunting
,
Turkey Hunting
by
Clint Patterson
A blurry pic of the hen way out there
Last Saturday morning I went turkey hunting with Mr. Dale Knight. If you remember, the weather this past weekend in our area was pretty bad. We had really strong winds, rains all around us, tornados around, and hail in some places. Initially we weren?t sure if we would even be able to go hunting as the weather forecasted rain. We decided to make a game-time decision and wake up early to check the weather.
We anticipated rain, but to our surprise the next morning?s news said the rain and bad weather had just missed our area. The wind was still blowing, but that wasn?t going to keep us from going out chasing a long-beard. Dale called me and we met up shortly thereafter and headed out.
If you?ve heard of Pageland before then you?ve probably heard of football, watermelons, or the drag strip, but some still don?t know where we?re located. Pageland is right on the NC/SC state line in Chesterfield County. A lot of people in our area cross the state line to work every day and spend about as much time in NC as we do SC. As you would imagine, every now and then we hunt up in NC too. Dale and I went just across the line to NC on this turkey hunt. We were so far out in the country that I don?t think this place even had a name, but I do know that it has turkeys!
After a short ride we ended up walking by moonlight down a dirt road that lead to a field?and the field was situated kind of in a bottom. It was in a low spot and didn?t get as much wind as some of the higher ground. We were hopeful to get some turkey action and we got setup underneath some trees just on the edge of the field. I cleared some small brush in front of us to give the camera a clear view. I was able to locate some nice briars just in front of us as a bonus and those briars were thick! It was still a little dark and the wind was blowing, but it felt pretty good to me. The wind would blow hard for a bit, then die down some, then blow again, then die down some. I initially didn?t turn on the
Thermacells
because the wind was keeping everything away, but when it died down the mosquitoes were on us so I quickly turned on the Thermacells and put an end to the buzz in my ear. Talk about a life-saver!
As the sun rose we listened for gobblers, but didn?t hear anything. Dale felt confident that turkeys were in the area because he?d scouted there previously and killed plenty of turkeys there as well, so the lack of hearing anything wasn?t a negative sign. Dale didn?t do a lot of calling, but nothing responded to the calling that he did do. It became lighter and it was about the time you would expect to hear or see something happen. The field was pretty big too? I would say around 300 yards long or so. We were sitting near a corner of the field looking long ways at the field as if you were standing underneath a field goal post on a football field looking down the field. When it was completely light out Dale whispered ?There?s a turkey? and I immediately perked up and scanned the field, but I didn?t see anything. The turkey had its head down when I first looked, but soon enough it popped it back up. It was in a low spot of the field and was walking toward us, but it was way on the other side of the field. Shortly it came to a high place in the field which exposed itself even more and we could tell that it was a hen. It was just feeding out in the middle of the field. I turned the camera on and zoomed in as far as I could go with the camera and still couldn?t see it really clearly, but the camera provided a better view than my eyes did.
We watched this hen for a while and it was heading our way slowly. Dale whispered to me ?Any respectable hen ought to have a Tom close by? and I chuckled at his statement and responded ?You?re right!? Shortly after that the hen got startled by something and headed back towards the woods it came from. It didn?t run directly back there, but it was heading in that direction. Dale called a little bit, but with the wind blowing so strong combined with the distance at which the bird was from us, the hen couldn?t hear our calling. After a while the hen disappeared back into the woods.
We sat there for a while just waiting to hear anything or see anything, but nothing came out. It was getting close to 9 and it looked like it was about to start raining so Dale and I started talking a little bit. We were whispering earlier in the hunt, but now we were talking a little louder because the hunt was coming to an end. We were making small talk when all of a sudden a commotion about 10 yards to our left was upon us. I heard something get spooked and turned my head to the left quickly only to see the flapping wings of a hen flying away with the direction of the strong winds! The hen came in silent on us and didn?t hear us because of the loudness of the wind. Then when it got just to the edge of the field it heard us talking and got spooked. I was glad that it was a hen because if it had been a Tom I would have been mad at myself. We were both surprised at this and Dale said that the turkey had heard the calling and started coming our way without making any noise. I think we both learned a lesson on this hunt! It was an exciting and startline end to the hunt for sure.
We?ll be back out after?em again hoping for better weather. Thanks to Dale for taking me!
Regards,
Clint
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