Just punched my 3rd and final tag in VA. I wish I could say that there was more to this story, but it may have been the most uneventful hunt ever, although I can't say I'm not thrilled. I've never been able to fill my 3rd tag in VA.
My daughter shot a bird Monday afternoon in this exact spot, the story is posted - 5 gobblers came in and she shot one, and we really hoped that the other 4 didn't relocate to another county. I figured that if they stuck around, it would be a few days before we saw them again, but the landowner is there daily tending to his cows, and said he saw 4 gobblers the very next day. He also runs a couple cameras, and I have one there as well. Not only did he continue to see them this week, he had tons of pictures of them every day, starting around 10am. Yesterday he called me and said he had seen the 4 again, but also heard another 2 birds gobbling back and forth at each other across this field, and said he was certain there was 6 gobblers around (I wasn't so sure).
Trying my best to figure out when I could go again was driving me nuts. I had to work yesterday, today the weather was calling for a TON of rain all day, he had to work on some equipment tomorrow morning, and Sunday looked like a ton of rain again. I woke up this morning and checked the weather, and to my surprise it looked like the rain was going to move out around lunchtime. I have some work to do, but call the landowner and tell him I might come this afternoon, he says go for it. I'm still piddling around with work when I get a trail cam picture of a lone gobbler in front of my camera around 10:30. Ok, I can't take it anymore, I gotta go. It's an hour and a half away, and by the time I get there, the rain has stopped and it's around 1 o'clock. I get settled in, do a little soft calling, do a little work on my phone, little more soft calling, little more work, see a glimpse of a hen across the field, then she disappears, and continue to call and work on my phone for about another hour when out of the corner of my eye I see a lone gobbler come running by me and straight to the decoys. He runs right up to the jake, and freezes like a statue. I have my mask down, phone in my hand, red dot off, and he really caught me by surprise. Somehow I get situated and he just stands there, no strut, never gobbled, just frozen like a decoy, and I sealed the deal.
It's been my most memorable season ever, with my daughter getting 2 birds, me 3, and my buddy A_jabbo getting 2 with me. On Wednesday I'm off to PA to see if I can get on some more birds with my buddies, and I can't wait. Oh and he's a TINY upgrade
(https://i.ibb.co/kMtdpZp/3rd-bird-me-picture1.png) (https://ibb.co/SJzL2S2)
(https://i.ibb.co/NSCxMXQ/3rd-bird-me-picture2.png) (https://ibb.co/GTp7qXB)
Way to go my brother! Nice job, congrats!
Congrats! Trying to finish my tags in MS myself. That last one is always the hardest
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Congrats on a great season.
Nicely done! Do you just sit in the passenger seat of that old truck? I think that would be my play! Hahaha.
I missed a Merriam last year on a high bluff mid morning I believe. He flapped a few times and I watched him sail out of site and around into a different canyon. I kind of just watched in disbelief about how far he sailed. That evening I roosted turkeys on the same bluff I missed from. I'm almost certain it was the same gobbler. The next morning I killed him on the same bluff I missed him from, within a couple yards. It's made me rethink what spooking them will do. They get spooked multiple times per day, hear gun shots, trees falling etc. and once they find a home, I think it takes them a lot of pestering to leave it.
Heck yeah!!! What a great season! Congrats my friend.