Flushing hens away

[boggszilla]

What do you guy's think about flushing hens away,when they beat a gobbler to the call...i did this a couple years ago in MO,and it actually hurt me i think..i was on a rise and the gobblers were a couple hundred yards behind here.she came up yelping in my face,being my last day i gave her a good scare.she flushed like a quail, and the hunt was over..i think the gobblers may have seen her take flight.

[Mag10]

Why would anyone flush the worlds best decoy away?

[Cove]

Because the worlds best decoy may not hang around, if I can get her out of the picture I will. . . .

[KYFrid]

Because the worlds best decoy may not hang around, if I can get her out of the picture I will. . . .

Yep! If she's not stayin around and looks like she's headin towards the gobbler. Run that hussy outta there. 

[Number17]

Hens tend to be very curious and easy to keep around for a free decoy.
If I have hens headed toward a gobbler however, I'll try to spook them to go another way.

[hobbes]

Because the worlds best decoy may not hang around, if I can get her out of the picture I will. . . .

Exactly!  If there is a tom gobbling nearby she'll more often than not go straight to him.  She may hang around a little while, but that is a big maybe. 

[bowhunter84]

Hens tend to be very curious and easy to keep around for a free decoy.
If I have hens headed toward a gobbler however, I'll try to spook them to go another way.

[unclerick]

Because the worlds best decoy may not hang around, if I can get her out of the picture I will. . . .

This is true, last yeat I killed gobblers by calling in the hens, this year how ever the hens are comeing in by thier selves and the ones with gobblers are takeing them as far away as they can in the oppisite dirrection.

[Basser69]

Because the worlds best decoy may not hang around, if I can get her out of the picture I will. . . .

This is true, last yeat I killed gobblers by calling in the hens, this year how ever the hens are comeing in by thier selves and the ones with gobblers are takeing them as far away as they can in the oppisite dirrection.

This is the same problem I have had this year a couple of times.

[busta biggun]

This is all very situational. Depending on what the gobblers can see or hear, I will decide accordingly. If I am in a big field I have no choice but to let her hangout because a flushed hen is disastrous when it is in the wide open. If a bird comes over a crest, I always wait to see what may be trailing behind her. But if she is hanging out for a while and no gobblers are visible, I will try to get her to leave as discretely as possible. A hen by my decoy may leave and head towards a gobbling bird and ruin a hunt. Conversely if I stand up and wave and the hen flushes in an area that is visible or audble over a large area, there is little chance of getting a gobbler to come to an area with a turkey flying out of it!

[paboxcall]

Came across a bird down in a hollow gobbling on his own like crazy, just ripping it.  I called a few times, which he answered with gusto, and the gobbler broke up over the bench, 50 yards away and stopped just out of range.  It was snowing like crazy, and I had my dark camo, so I picked a cherry blow down to help me hide, which was too far back from the edge of the bench.

Gobbler showed, gobbled and strutted, and then a hen came up over cutting and yelping like mad.  She walked within ten feet from me heading up the mountain, and of all things, that long beard turned around and walked back down over the bench instead of following her.  

I flushed her thinking she was going to turn around and head back down with him, and when I flushed her she putted a few times.  Though that gobbler was at least 100 yards away, but he shut and never gobbled again.

I waited almost an hour, and belly crawled to the edge of the bench, and there he was, sitting in a tree about a hundred yards down the hollow.  He flushed when I poked my head over...

He must have heard the hen putt and flew up to the first tree he could find and waited.  

Careful when you flush those hens...