This story is a quick one. Knew about where a gobbler was roosted. Got in there well before daylight. I ended up right in amongst the turkeys as daylight started to break a hen started yelping to my left, and a gobbler cut loose maybe 30 yards behind me. Directly he flew down and landed on the flat above me but still behind be. I was between two benches so once he landed i knew he couldnt see me. It gave me a chance to spin around. No sooner than i did a hen crossed infront of me and started clucking to the hen that started the whole thing. She walked within 30 yards of me going away from the gobbler and he started hammering trying to call her back. I just kept my mouth shut and waited for him to follow her. About 2 minutes go by and i hear him drumming. He breaks off the bench above me and as soon as he hit the lower bench popped into strut. He was maybe 30 steps. I mouth yelped for him to pick the his head up and let the #6 lead fly. All of this happend by 7am.(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230417/4a0c635d59e2fb08c7758c7cb5fd7ec9.jpg)
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Awesome job!! great job on the pictures also. If you can repost a better shoot of score calculator, blurry. This team is on a roll, great job!!Will update score sheet tonight. :turkey2:
Congrats! Good bird, got to love it when a plan comes together.
That was a good read, congratulations :icon_thumright:
Congratulations and thanks for providing the story. Always fun to read about other turkey hunters experiences.
Congrats man! Way to get it done quick!
Congrats brother!
Great looking bird! Home in time for breakfast.
nice!
Tagged out in West Virginia this morning. I don't think its an upgrade, but it was a hell of a hunt and got it done with an old springfield fixed full to boot. Will post more about it later.(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230427/faa8fb5825719607cbbf36a71f897d0b.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230427/4a33e4693ca2b40b1e778715a7ade2eb.jpg)
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Heck Yeah, congrats brother!
Congrats !
Awesome job HC WV! Congrats on tagging out with some history. Did you use 1 of your calls?
Congratulations! One day I need to get back to my home state of WV for Spring turkey season.
Nice, cool gun
Congratulations again :icon_thumright:
Quote from: JeffC on April 27, 2023, 07:58:11 PM
Awesome job HC WV! Congrats on tagging out with some history. Did you use 1 of your calls?
I tried every call I had in my vest and the only thing he would respond to was a ceramic pot from Nick Gatlin and a locust striker that I had made. So no luck on the box calls but my striker worked perfectly.
The private that I killed this bird has a large field on top of a ridge that drops off both sides into hardwoods. There's a crest in the middle of the field that prevents you from seeing the wood line from opposing sides. Birds will roost on either side of it so Wednesday afternoon I went out to try and pinpoint which side they roosted on. I never heard a peep so it was essentially a guess for Thursday morning. I got in plenty early and chose the right side of the field. I hung back a little bit to allow the woods to wake up and see if I could hear a gobble before I committed to a setup. It got to be well into daylight and still hadn't heard a gobble so I started soft calling and easing my way along the Woodline about 30 yards back from the field edge to see if I could get one fired up. I tried a slate, wingbone, 2 box calls all to no response. I was supposed to be at work by 10:30 and by this point it was 7:45 and I had not heard a gobble, so I was debating packing up and just going to work. Before I did that though I decided to try a locust kee kee striker on a ceramic pot. I have had good luck with it in the past to get hens fired up so I thought it was worth a shot.
Finally after the first kee kee he fires off. I can tell that I picked the wrong side of the field so rather then try to call him across the field I loop around the field and get to high ground where I can see his line of the woods. Low and behold there's a strutter with another gobbler and about 6 other turkeys working through the woods on that edge of the field. So I back out father and run down to a point that they are heading towards where I think I can cut them off. Its about a 1/2 mile trek to get into position and I do it as fast as I can. I get into where I need to check and see if they have beat me to spot and make a few calls and the bird hammers about 60-80 yards from the spot I wanted to be. Its around 8:45 at this point.
I'm forced to just make the best of the spot I was in because they were too close for me to push more. I end up under a small rock ledge on the end of point looking straight down the hill. The birds are off to my left and there's a large deadfall between me and the flock that causes a natural pinch point. If the turkeys continue on their path they should walk between the fence and the end of the dead fall. The fence is 35 yards and the end of the deadfall is about 20 from me. The old single shot throws a good pattern of lead #5s to about 35 yards so I'm super comfortable with where I think I will get my shot. The bird starts gobbling hard, he was even responding to cows bellowing. I can start to hear them coming through the leaves but I cant see any turkeys yet. Directly a jake pops out and goes right through the gap I was hoping. I hear the gobbler drum and i can see him strutting towards the same spot. All of the sudden the jake sees something he doesn't like or the lack of a hen made him put and take off flying. At this point i think i am done but no other bird paid that jake any mind. The gobbler kept strutting and i could start to see more hens around him. I make some soft calls when i think i can get away with it and the gobbler changes directions. Instead of following where the jake went he looped back around me and is now behind me. As soon as he gets on top of the little knob and doesn't see a hen he starts gobbling his full head off. I can feel him drumming he was so close. I couldn't spin around because there was a hen that could still see me. So i had to wait for what seemed like ages for her to move behind a tree so i could make my move. I hunkerd down under the rock ledge and spun and slowly popped my head and gun up over the edge to have the gobbler staring at me at 15 paces. All i could see was his white head sticking up over the knob and i let him have a beak full.
I got up and checked the time and it was 9:45. I had just spent an hour within 60 yards of this bird and had to hear him gobble at least 50 times. It was almost the exact opposite of my oppening morning hunt and honestly it was more fun.
That's the way I like to hunt and that was a good read, thanks for posting it.
Great story HC WV, are you still able to hunt or are you done?
Quote from: JeffC on April 28, 2023, 12:24:08 PM
Great story HC WV, are you still able to hunt or are you done?
I bought a couple PA tags this morning. Unfortunately I'm going to miss the opener tomorrow so I won't be able to get back at it until next weekend.
One more pic from Thursday.
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230429/9f243d8024986ef9665c3c2c46b1a968.jpg)
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