Has been quite the weekend for my dad and I and don't know if we will ever top this for a long time. Opening day began a little rough for us. We went to public land that we have always started at on opening day and got to the spot we wanted to hunt only to be greeted by another hunter walking in so we quickly went to our back up plan. Never heard a bird gobble at all on the public land so we decided to cut our losses and head to another piece of property. Got to the field only to be greeted by a truck fertilizing the field which helped us because we were able to set up. Around 8, the truck left and we started calling. About 20 minutes later a bird answered us at the end of the field, another 15 mins goes by and he answers us and he is 125 yards away. He pops up over the hill and he has a buddy with him. Both birds saw the Avian X jake decoy and made a bee line for him and 2 mins later there was a 3, 2, 1, boom and both birds hit the dirt. This was my dad and I's first true double in Virginia. This morning, we went to another piece of private land and were greeted to gobbling on the roost which was much different than yesterday. About 6:50, one of the birds gobbles 100 yards away. 20 minutes later he walked in the field and went after the jake decoy and was allowed to flog him only one time before he started flopping. After retrieving the bird we heard some other birds continue gobbling so we went after them to no avail so we came back to grab the decoys and had a bird sound off about 175 yards away and tried to work him but he had hens and ended up going off. Came back to another piece of land to see if my dad could get a bird and there were two long beards, a jake, and two hens already in the field. We were able to sneak up to within 15 yards of the field and started calling. One of the hens came by us at 10 yards and about 25 minutes, the rest of the gang followed suit and my dad was able to lay the hammer down on the big bird. Sorry for the long post but this is one the most memorable weekends we have had together. I'm grateful to just be able to come and hunt as I am finishing up college and don't have a lot of time to come in so for us to kill four birds in two days amazes me. It was an incredible weekend that I will never forget.
Birds on left (L to R): 18# 1" spurs 11" beard; 20.5#, 1" spurs, 6" beard (had been cut clean off) Birds on right: 16.13 #, 1 3/16 " spurs, 10" beard; 17.6#, 1 1/8", 10" beard
