couple good WV birds

[wvmntnhick]

Turkey 1: 12" beard, 1.5" spurs


Turkey 2: 10" beard, 1-1/8 spurs

Don't want to toot my own horn but not bad for an hour and half of hunting. Sure makes the time back home seem overrated. Hunted 4 days there and struck out. First day of hunting this new location yielded the first bird. Got set up at 5:30 after hearing a bird gobble. It sounded close but couldn't really tell. Tried to get it to shock gobble but it wouldn't. Walked in under it apparently and set up 10 yards in front of him. Got several birds gobbling across the field real well then he finally gobbled a second time. Just about crapped myself he was so close. Right behind me though. Heard him fly down to my right and he walked out in front of me 5 minutes later. I love unpressured turkeys.

The second was on our local election day. Was working a couple birds then had a strutter in the field working towards me. Hen came in behind me and alerted everyone shutting down the action. Crossed the property and got a couple more birds fired up. Wasn't but a few minutes later and three gobblers popped out. One strutter and two others. Shot the strutter at 40-45 yards with the 22 mag. Heard the impact but he shrugged it off I guess in hopes of finding true love. Acted like he wanted to strut as he walked off but his wing was broke. Made it about 10 yards then started staggering. Really waiting for him to fall over but his brethren kept pushing him along. They kept so tight to him it made it hard to get another shot. Finally cracked him again at about 120 yards before they got into the woods. They worked him over pretty good after the fact. All this happened in about an hour and the great part was that I slept through my alarm, got there late (6 am) and was headed back to the truck by 7. Guy offered to let me hunt there next year too. Think I'm in heaven right now. Only wish I had more tags to fill. Nevertheless, it's been a great season. I've called in more birds this year than ever before and its truly been a blast getting to watch these things work their magic up close and personal.

I'm sure there will be some flack for using the rifle on the one but I'd bet of all the turkeys I've killed, only 5 have been with a shotgun. Most (all but 4) have been shot at 45 yards or less. Didn't own a shotgun for years and have always preferred the weight of a rifle to a shotgun. Kind of feels weird carrying a shotgun these days but I'm working back into it.

[Gooserbat]

Well Done.

[captin_hook]

  those are a couple of great birds for sure!

[beagler]

 

[Twowithone]

Congrats on your gobblers for sure.

[wvmntnhick]

Thanks to all for the congrats. I had a lot of fun this spring and could have shot many more if the bag limit allowed. I'm a teacher and was of four spring break two weeks before season opened up. Me and a buddy spent a weekend at stonewall jackson lake and the birds responded well down there before season opened. In fact, I called in at least a dozen birds there just playing around with some new calls checking to see if I liked them. I know many of you are using custom calls and I'm sure they're great but for the past several years I've been relying on an H.S. strut split v iii diaphragm call for most of my needs. This year I tried out their ma deuce call and I think I've found a winner for myself in that line. The new calls with the infinity latex and the yellow frame just don't have the same sound quality as the old white framed calls did. The ma deuce I tried this year had a real raspy sound to it and the birds seemed to respond well to that. I have a terrible time getting many calls to produce a sound that I like so when I find one I buy several. That's probably why I don't buy any of the high end mouth calls.

Probably should have mentioned that the first one I shot was with a Winchester sxii with a pure gold choke tube and hevi shot #6's at about 40 yards. Plan to try the new Winchester stuff next year in a different gun. Just can't justify blowing the money on the hevi's with the patterns that the Winchester are throwing. Rally hope the #4's pattern well next spring.

[DirtNap647]

congrats

[tomstopper]

Awesome. Congrats on a pair of fine gobblers.....

[surehuntsalot]

congrats on a couple of good looking birds 

[trackerbucky]

Congrats!  Nice looking birds.