Hunting Updates!

[GobbleNut]

Good luck, Jeff (and to the rest of your team as well)    

[HillclimberWV]

Congrats Austin...
I spent opening weekend at the family farm in the WV and wasn't successful. The property is famously feast or famine for finding gobblers. Especially early before everything greens up. I was out saturday and sunday morning and never heard a peep. I did hear one gobble monday morning but he was 1/4 mile away on the neighbors property. I covered some ground and was able to call in 3 hens but no gobblers to go with it. They kids had fun with their grandparents on easter though so it was worth the trip. Will be back out this weekend on a couple of local properties that hold good bird populations.

[Tom007]

Good luck, Jeff (and to the rest of your team as well)    

Ditto Jeff, good luck buddy!

[JeffC]

Congrats 10th Legionaire looks like a great Tom!! Please check Muzzy or licaire's pictures to make sure you get all the necessary photos. Is that your 1st double bearded Tom?? Please post up a story. Post up a new thread or post here. I am hunting in morning, will be checking in afternoon. CONGRATS again!!!      

[JeffC]

will post the sad details tonight, but we broke 500 guys!! Awesome job from the whole team!!   
10th Legion please help me out and get your pictures posted as soon as possible, we are now in the position to take down lowest scoring birds and only post the best 9 TOMS!!

             522.21  4-25-25

[JeffC]

CHASING a GOBBLE
Get to parking early, load up head to field I have to cross, farmer tilled field...1/4 mile of soft dirt later, I have to take a rest at woods. Make it thru woods, across 1st swamp and into woods to tree i was at Monday morning, good listening spot. 4:38am hear a Tom gobble, way to early and way off property. 5:13 have a Tom double gobble across lake from me, on public but maybe in safety zone. Decide to wait, somebody has to be closer. Then a Tom starts hammering on other side of swamp I just crossed. There is a 40yd wide strip between lake and private, have fought birds here before. Decide to head his direction, he's gobbling a lot. Get back across swamp, he's still gobbling but going away, got to private line and call, nothing, he keeps going away from me.
Back across swamp, will head towards 1st Tom, have a good walk to get there, cross 2nd swamp, make it up the hill where I had encounter Monday morning, hear hens to the South, towards power lines, standing trying to hear whats going on I hear multiple Toms gobble out on power line cut. Turn around and cross swamp again, head South, there is a block of woods that is private, but you can go around West or East sides. I am on West side, so I march on, they are gobbling a lot.  Get within 100yds, call they respond back, keep gobbling, but are drifting East towards fields. I dont like where I am, they keep answering but sound further away, have to head back the way I came in to get to East side where it sounds like they are headed. Get to Northeast side of block and call, they have moved closer to where I was.. head back to west side, they are in the woods on West side, I get to where they have a road cut into private, perfect spot for them walk into range. I go deeper into woods to get some cover around me, get set, call they are closer, only single Tom answering and gobbling on his own, go quiet, scratch leaves, he gobbles, but not getting closer.
Start playing silent game, so do they. Hear Donkeys start braying, he gobbles, but now he is straight out in front of me, lot of vegetation. Wait a little, call hes moved to my left, Eastside, but closer. Really have no shot to my left, too much vegetation/ junk. Finally see bird moving 25yds coming towards me, he cuts around some trees, Jake with another Jake following, they are coming to me but walking parallel to me headed behind me on my left, guns till pointed forward, Tom gobbles behind them, he walks same trail, see beard swinging, got thru 1st opening before I could move gun, I try slowly swinging to my left, someone sees me, hear treaded PUTT. They all pop up their heads, and start walking off, Tom walks behind a tree, as soon as he pops out of other side, I see big head and beard, cant see body, I squeeze off trigger. Bird flopping, get over to him, it was 1 of the Jakes, I thought they were behind me.
It was a good hunt, heard a lot of gobbling this morning, did hear the super Jake I fought with on Monday as I was loading up bird and calls.
Headed back over in a few hours, rain in forecast, have a favorite spot for rain days. Will redeem myself. Ate 1 tag so far, start new tag tomorrow and Monday.

[Kaleb978]

Today was first day I had an opportunity to hunt. I was unable to do much scouting so I went in blind today. I sat up a bit to far from the roost today and was playing catch-up the rest of the day. They all flew down to far away and I could not peel the toms away from the hens. Heard/saw lots of toms so I created a new plan for tomorrow and bugged out before I spooked them. Lots of hunting left and I am on good birds. Will hopefully have more updates soon. Congratulations to all who have tagged out already. Team is looking in good shape this year!

[ScottTaulbee]

I'm heading to Indiana this Wednesday for my first out of state hunt. Looking forward to it!


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[lacire]

Good luck in Indiana. 

[JeffC]

Good luck Scott, safe travels. Sorry you had to sell your OG Push-pin, that will be hard to replace. Glad you were able to sell the Misfire, I was going to get myself in trouble with the boss and buy it.

[ScottTaulbee]

Good luck Scott, safe travels. Sorry you had to sell your OG Push-pin, that will be hard to replace. Glad you were able to sell the Misfire, I was going to get myself in trouble with the boss and buy it.

Thanks Jeff, it wasn't an easy decision but I figured I'd rather sale it and make some more memories hunting. It definitely won't be easy to replace


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[austinc]

I finally got to.go again today after killing that bird last week. Had to go to a different piece of public since we can only kill 1 per wma each season. I picked one on the map and picked a few spots to check out and took off. Got parked about 4 am. Little after 5 another truck drove past and went to the end... right at gobble time, I listened to one bird hammer 75+ times, where the other truck went... but I heard another bird gobble 3 times on the limb and decided to try him. I got eased in there and setup, got him to answer me twice,  but he'd done got above me on a bench on side of the ridge, and I knew the likely hood of him coming down to me was near zero. So I gave him an hour, he never gobbled anymore, then I made a big loop around and came up the end of the bench, I made sure to sit just hair below the top, so he had to come up on it for me to have a shot, I expected him to be on the other end roughly 100 yards, so I setup facing that way and called. About 5 minutes after calling, directly to my right I heard the sound we all hate, a putt! I turned my eyes and there he was at 20 yards to my right, at then end of the bench. No idea how he snuck in without Me seeing or hearing him, but anyways, he putted and immediately went behind a tree walking off, I used that opportunity to turn with hopes to shoot when he came out the other side, but obviously he's played this game before, because he kept that tree between us as he left putting. I started calling back to him and he'd cluck back at me, that lasted for 2 minutes or so before he hushed and disappeared.  I gave him 30 minutes then made another loop and tried again with no luck. Ending up covering 5.7 miles on the day without anymore action. Wednesday evening I'm headed out of state, if I manage to get one there quick, I'm gonna come home and try this bird again.

[lacire]

That's the game we signed up for...    good luck out of state.

[JeffC]

Good luck austin, safe travels. Your ahead of the game knowing you still have a Tom that's still alive.

[JeffC]

I wussed out on Saturday hunt, alarm went off and woke to pouring rain. I should've gone, rain stopped at day light, would've helped with yesterday's hunt. Got to new zone for yesterday's hunt, my "honey hole", someone has found MY TREE, saw trucks there 1st week, area has had lot of pressure. Got to hear lots of Whippoorwill's, even heard a Pheasant cackle. 1st Gobble sounded like a Jake, hen answered, way off public. Toms started around 5:20, of course they were 400+ yds off public, gobbled great till fly down, then walked further away. Did have a hen fly off roost I was hunting. Nothing else. Thankfully pressure seems to be getting lighter, only a few trucks went by. Will be going back to different zone on Saturday, but it looks like they are calling for more rain.
Good luck to guys still hunting.