It wasn't with a handgun,,, but it was a rare one!

[contender]

Yesterday,,, rain rolled in a bit in the afternoon. I knew it was coming,,, so I planned a short work day. I went out on my property,,, as turkey season is open. I had a Tom a few days ago that teased me a bit for a while,,, as I'd set up quick, w/o decoys, and he stayed just out of range. I wanted to get him, so I went back yesterday. I slipped into an evening feeding area,,, stuck out a few decoys,,, and settled in. After a bit,,, I started soft talking,,, hoping for that Tom to figure out the girls were back.
A bit of movement,, surprised me as I hadn't heard anything,, and here come some hens. Then I saw it,,, the beard was unmistakable. The birds moved in a bit,,, and when it got into range,, the shotgun barked,,, and I had my bird.
It was a bearded hen I've seen several times here. Not often do you get a chance at a hen with an 8" long beard!

I shot the bearded lady! The circus will have to find another!

[squigz]

Apr 27, 2018 7:57:20 GMT -5 contender said:

Yesterday,,, rain rolled in a bit in the afternoon. I knew it was coming,,, so I planned a short work day. I went out on my property,,, as turkey season is open. I had a Tom a few days ago that teased me a bit for a while,,, as I'd set up quick, w/o decoys, and he stayed just out of range. I wanted to get him, so I went back yesterday. I slipped into an evening feeding area,,, stuck out a few decoys,,, and settled in. After a bit,,, I started soft talking,,, hoping for that Tom to figure out the girls were back.
A bit of movement,, surprised me as I hadn't heard anything,, and here come some hens. Then I saw it,,, the beard was unmistakable. The birds moved in a bit,,, and when it got into range,, the shotgun barked,,, and I had my bird.
It was a bearded hen I've seen several times here. Not often do you get a chance at a hen with an 8" long beard!

I shot the bearded lady! The circus will have to find another!

I've shot one of these before just because I couldn't believe my eyes. I'll never shoot another one, just had to do it once just to confirm what I was seeing was true. Congrats on the kill!

[contender]

Actually,,, the local game wardens say it's a good thing to kill the bearded hens. I had seen this one several times while deer hunting & all. I figured it was meant to be for me to get one.

[squigz]

It's a good thing? I wonder why they say that. I assumed that normally if they're old enough to grow a beard then they're probably the brude hen protecting the rest of the younger turkeys.

[contender]

I'll ask him when I see him next time.

[bigbrowndog]

It confuses the other turkeys, and causes gender fluidity, as well as issues with lavatory use.

Couldn’t resist!!!...........it was too easy.

Trapr

[contender]

Ok, so I took out a gender confused turkey.