Well I've been hunting for many years, but today marked a first for me. I scored on my first ever bearded hen
We all know about the Porterisms on the board, so I might as well spill the beans and tell the whole story. Where to start.... well I guess I should start at opening day. It started out with a slam... a slam as in me closing the passenger door on my right hand. Needless to say, it's infected and looks pretty gross right now. It definitely hurts!!!
Today was a rather cold day. It started out in the mid 40's with wind gusts in the 30mph range. Made me think it was Kansas.
I started out hunting today utilizing some tips ole Morgan told me to try. I've always done things my way and I hunt different than most people in the fall. I never try to bust up the flock. Never had any luck and when successful, why change. Well while fighting the wind today, I was calling and thought I heard some clucks. I thought... wow they sound a long ways off. So I go to move in closer and see what I can do with them. I had the field to my back and decided to come out of the timber and check the fields. I slowly moved up to the pond and that's when it hit me. My bladder was about to explode. Well there I am getting ready to relieve the bladder when I look through the briar patch and realize two mature hens are staring right at me. I dropped immediately. I was thinking, great way to mess up. I crawled up a bit on the briars thinking what was I going to do the rest of the day. I'd already put a lot of ground behind me. I peaked through the briars and to my astonishment, there were still birds in the field. The first thing that came to my mind was CALL. I grabbed my KP trumpet and clucked back and then cut extremely hard. I had Chaos in my hand (the name of my Morgan box) and sent out some yelps and cutts on it. All of a sudden, the birds started kee keeing. That's when I switched to the long box. I'd do a kee kee and kee kee run and slowly here came 8 birds toward me. The triple bearded hen was there too. I kept my eyes glued on her. I really wanted her.
As the poults get about 20 yards in front of me, I lose track which bearded hen is the triple bearded one. This one stuck her head up and I knew she was in range. I clicked off the safety and let her have it. One shot and down she was. Shot was at 39 yards. Kind of funny I passed up the closer shot, but I was after a bearded hen. My first one ever.
This hunt accomplished a lot for me. I'd promised Charlie I'd harvest a bird with his long box. This farm has always produced birds and I just knew I'd get one with my bow. That didn't materialize
This was the first fall bird I've ever used a turpin on too. They responded quite well to it. This fall I've been using a trumpet more and more. I'm really starting to gain trust in them and like the way the birds are responding.
All in all it was a great morning. I'm beat and really banged up, but that's what hunting is all about. It's going to be 38 in the morning and the boy is wanting to go. I hope I can muster up the energy to wake up!
Here's the bird. Beard measured at 7" and the darn thing was wearing some ugly
yellow socks again !
