I have heard alot of yall talk of hunting with rifles and shooting hens. Until I got on this site I had never heard of this, in Ga it is only legal to hunt with a shotgun, and there is stiff fines for shooting hens. Is there alot of states out there like that?

Usually hen are hunted in the fall and some states allow rifles.

And a lot of state regualtions say harvest is a bearded turkey - so hens with beards are legal.

JW

Thats how it is in VA. Most of the hens taken in the fall are actually guilty of being in the wrong place at the wrong time... like in front of a deer hunter when no deer are around.

In the spring there are places you can shoot rifles in VA (I think...maybe) but it must be a bearded turkey... so in effect if a hen was bearded for example, you could infact take it in the spring time.

Yeah I thought about that, but they mention that in the GA regs. It is still illegal to shoot a hen with a beard, and we dont have a fall season. Who knows ?

No Fall season in Louisiana and no shooting hens, beard or no beard.

In NY there is a fall season where you can shoot either sex. In the spring you have to shoot a bearded bird, so a bearded hen is fair game. We aren't allowed to hunt with rifles though, and even if we were I don't think I would...rifles would take the thrill out of it I think.

Fall only in kansas, Shooting a hen in spring sounds like an excuse to shoot something, beard or no beard, its not right unless you have a serious management problem

You can take a hen in Fall only in MA...

Spring season in MO you can harvest 2 turkeys with a visible beard (tom, jake, bearded hen) and in the fall you can harvest 2 either sex with a shotgun and 2 either sex with a bow.

Alot of people have a hard time shooting hens but since we have a fall season with lots of birds it doesn't bother me to shoot them in the fall. I will pass on them in the spring. I however don't like to shoot gobblers in the fall. I would prefer to see them strutting and gobbling in. Just my preference.