How aggressive do you call to hens?

[Delmar ODonnell]

This morning I had a bird gobbling hard but knew he had hens. He was gobbling well enough for me to get a good idea where he was and set up in what I thought was a good location, on one side of small saddle with the bird gobbling just below the crest at 60-70 yards. As soon as I started calling both he and a hen lit up. She and I cut back and forth for 2 minutes or so with the bird gobbling at every call. I was hoping either he would take the short walk to investigate, or the hen would come with him in tow.

As it turns out, she started walking away across the opposite bottom, yelping the entire time, and he immediately shut up and followed.

Getting to the point, how aggressive do you call to hens in hopes she'll drag in a gobbler? Can you be too aggressive? Generally I try to mimic what they do, progressively trying to get her more excited

[LaLongbeard]

Like everything else with calling turkeys what works today may not tomorrow. Getting the hen fired up and cutting back at her, like you did, is sometimes all it takes. But the hen answering you may not have been the dominant hen and while y'all were talking she was walking away and then everyone else followed. I think you can get to loud or aggressive and the hens will leave, I try to keep the hen answering without over doing it. 

[MK M GOBL]

I mimic what she does and a little more, I want her mad at me. At times she is going to leave with "her" tom, she will take him away from the competition. I will sometimes leave the area unless I have heard another bird gobbling, It can payoff to play the patience game, that tom knows where that hen (you) was and after breeding the other he may come back looking.


MK M GOBL

[Happy]

I start easy and see if she is agreeable to play nice. I only get aggressive as a last resort. My observation is that hens tend to respond to calling better early in the season. Once peak breeding hits they tend to drag the gobbler the other way.

[G squared 23]

I've never been successful calling in hens unless I'm in a pinch or travel corridor that she was wanting to travel through anyway.   And at that point I have had the best luck clucking or staying silent.

[Greg Massey]

From experience i could of told you the odds of you killing him with hens is very slim.. Most always the hens will take the gobbler away from you ...  I would of gobbled at him and done a lot of scratching in the leaves ... I would of tried working him , not the hens .... in my opinion ....

[Crghss]

I played that game last weekend. I was setup on the edge of a field. Had a hen clucking/cutting in cypress head behind me. Wanted her too come out into the field. No dice, she would wonder off, I kept calling her back behind me. She would not leave the cypress.

Did she have a gobbler with her or was she alone? I'll never know.

[bbcoach]

If she is talking to me, I give her what she gives and a little more.  If she's aggressive, I ramp it up.  If she takes the gobbler and leaves, you haven't lost a thing but if she comes to fight you'll have a gobbler in your lap.  I do my best to mimic her calls and give her a little more.

[fallhnt]

I call aggressive

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[1iagobblergetter]

I call over top of her calling if calling after doesn't work.

[Gobble!]

I give her everything she gave me and more.

[Rzrbac]

Like most, I'm very aggressive and try to assert dominance over her. I have had it work out both ways. Sometimes she leaves and pulls the gobbler away. Other times, I'm giving her boyfriend a ride in the truck. I have also had the hen or hens come in and the gobbler stays back out of range. I have also just got up and flushed them to get them scattered. I've been successful doing that but I've failed a bunch too. It doesn't bother me  to not kill, if I'm getting to fire up some vocal birds I'm happy.

[compton30]

I always start with non aggressive calling when I first make contact with a hen then proceed to ramp up in aggression as the situation dictates. I just don't see the downside in this approach. Some hens are "softer" than other and will just lead him off if I start to aggressively with them. If they're passive, I'm passive. If they're aggressive, I'm aggressive.

[TRG3]

In the scenario that's been described when a real hen is verbally accosting me with my increasing confrontational calling and with the gobbler responding to everything with neither coming in, that's an ideal time to introduce an equally aggressive gobble response. This new gobbler would indicate that everything that's going on has caught the attention of a nearby tom and he has joined the fracas. This now incorporates the peck order which further involves the real gobbler. As the caller, you hope that either the real hen will come in to chastise my aggressive responses to her, dragging in the gobbler with her, or the gobbler will make the first move since now his peck order status may be challenged and it needs to be checked out. That would indeed be a very exciting position to be in as the hunter! Things often happen fast when they unfold, so be ready for the shot.

[Greg Massey]

In the scenario that's been described when a real hen is verbally accosting me with my increasing confrontational calling and with the gobbler responding to everything with neither coming in, that's an ideal time to introduce an equally aggressive gobble response. This new gobbler would indicate that everything that's going on has caught the attention of a nearby tom and he has joined the fracas. This now incorporates the peck order which further involves the real gobbler. As the caller, you hope that either the real hen will come in to chastise my aggressive responses to her, dragging in the gobbler with her, or the gobbler will make the first move since now his peck order status may be challenged and it needs to be checked out. That would indeed be a very exciting position to be in as the hunter! Things often happen fast when they unfold, so be ready for the shot.
Great post and i agree 100 percent ....