Opening morning found me on familiar ground in WV this past Monday. I don't get but a few steps out of my vehicle and a bird gobbles straight up the mountain, still pitch black. I ease up through the woods a couple hundred yards and pause to try and hear him again. When my eyes adjust I look up into the trees and see puffed up turkeys everywhere I look. It had rained the night before so what i thought were strutting birds was just hens trying to dry themselves. I ease my way down beside a tree and he gobbles again, luckily, maybe, on up the mtn a bit. I finally see him strutting and gobbling on the limb about 80 yards away. He's only roosted about 20 yards off the ground unlike the hens who are in the tree tops. I gave some calls and he gobbled at all of them. Eventually 6 hens fly down and he follows but they land off to my right about 70 yards and uphill. He struts but won't gobble at my attempts to bring him back. They filter off the property and over a hill. I just sit and listen for about an hour with nothing else gobbling. I decided to go pretty close to the property line and cast a loud call in his direction. When i do he gobbles back, first i'd heard him in an hour. About 150 away. Figure he's still henned so i make my way up the mtn to gain elevation in hopes he gets lonely later in the morning. Once settled in i call again and he gobbles, wait a couple minutes and call again and he's now closer. Game on. I first struck him at 150 at 7:48. Not long and here he comes bebopping my way. I'm setup about 50 yards from the rock wall that is the property line. Small powerline with briars in and around it also between me and him. He jumps up on the rock wall and proceeds to strut and gobble for 20 minutes. Up on that perch he had a great view of my setup which had no decoys. Afraid to call i just had to hope he'd jump down off the wall and come my way a bit more. Eventually he jumped down off the 3 foot rock wall and started back the way he came so i lit him up with some excited calling and he'd gobble non stop. He jumps back up on the wall, this time a little closer to me. I still need him to step onto my side to get him in good range. He tries to leave a third time and i called excited again, again he comes back, a little closer. Finally he steps onto my side but that puts his body out of site unless he strutted. He finally worked into an opening and i dropped him at 8:30. Very intense hunt having to hold my gun up for close to 40 minutes, hand was asleep and left bicep was barking in pain. Was sore the next day. 21 lb, 10 inch beard, spurs just a tad over an inch. Had another property line bird that wouldn't budge this morning, had a shot but wasn't exactly sure of the boundary in that location so he lives for now.
