View unanswered posts | View active topics It is currently Fri Mar 29, 2024 5:25 am



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 9 posts ] 
 Tagged out in Central VA 
Author Message
Longbeard

Joined: Fri May 06, 2011 7:04 pm
Posts: 141
Post Tagged out in Central VA
I used my last tag yesterday but I only had two because I killed a gobbler that my puppy pointed while quail hunting last winter. I have no idea why the gobbler held for the pup but it got up at 20 yards and I had not seen anything all day and I dropped him. After I killed him I started kicking my self for wasting a tag on a winter bird.

The farm that I describe below is special to me. I rented it for about 15 years and grew dove fields on it. One of my very best friends owned it and when he passed 12 years ago I had a falling out with his son and have not been on the property since. One of the Mennonite neighbors called me about a month ago, said that he had leased the farm and invited me to join the lease. The last time I was in the field where I hunted was the morning that my friend died. His wife called me from the hospital at 4 am and asked if I could come get her and take her home which I did. After I got her settled I drove to the top of the field and watched the sunrise in tribute to my old friend.

First day I hunted the field where I had seen a mixed flock the Wednesday before the season came in. Gobblers, jakes and hens started calling on the roost and 4 hens flew into my decoys. The gobblers and jakes stayed in the woods and drifted off to the west. It was so windy that I decided to just set it out and at 9:30 a bird gobbled in the woods right behind me. He answered my call and came out into the field about 200 yards to my east. It was blowing so hard that I could "see" him gobble but could not hear him. He strutted and gobbled for about 30 minutes watching the decoys. He acted really apprehensive about the decoys. I started jake yelping to him and aggressively purring and he finally broke and came in to the jake decoy. Two year old bird with 3/4 inch spurs, 22.0 pounds, and double beards 11 1/4 and 7 inches. When I cleaned him it was pretty obvious why he was apprehensive, he had spur wounds on both legs and his back.

Hunted Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday other places and did not hear a gobble.

Went back to the same field yesterday and set up where the opening day turkey came into the field. Turkey gobbled in the woods on the roost within 70 yards of me. He gobbled at least 75 times on the roost and several hens were calling all around him. About 6:40 he shut up for about ten minutes. I could not believe that I did not hear him fly down but assumed that he had. I made a soft series of clucks and he covered me up still on the limb. Shortly afterwards I hear 5 different turkeys fly down slightly to my left. I see a hen running away from me about 60 yards in the field on my left and assumed she saw me and the jig was up. The next thing that I see is the gobbler running from my left straight to the decoys. I let him flog the jake for a couple of minutes before dropping the hammer at 7:00. 20.5 pounds, 1 5/16 inch spurs, and three beards; 11 3/4, 9 1/4, and 6 1/2 inches, at least a three year old. I have only killed three multiple bearded turkeys in my life and killed 2 in the last 5 days.

A short but very special season for me. Sorry for the lack of photos but I am a dinosaur.


Last edited by WAGinVA on Fri Apr 20, 2018 7:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.



Fri Apr 20, 2018 4:03 pm
Profile
King of Spring
User avatar

Joined: Mon Feb 28, 2005 7:28 am
Posts: 1181
Location: Hamilton, va
Post Re: Tagged out in Central VA
Sounds like a really special hunt. I spend most of my wonder years around Dayton and Broadway Va and Mennonites were just about everywhere. Good folks who treated everyone with kindness and respect. They sure prepared some good eats as well. BTW, those are monster birds. Farm birds are big.

_________________
"Turkey's have no curiosity"


Fri Apr 20, 2018 4:44 pm
Profile
King of Spring

Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2004 4:50 pm
Posts: 2647
Location: central Va
Post Re: Tagged out in Central VA
2 very special Gobblers. Congrats!


Fri Apr 20, 2018 6:24 pm
Profile
Longbeard

Joined: Thu Mar 24, 2011 9:47 pm
Posts: 283
Location: Halifax County
Post Re: Tagged out in Central VA
Wonderful turkey hunts but I am most envious of your fall hunt. I'm guessing you had to make a head shot on that flying gobbler with quail loads, and just finding quail to hunt these days is an accomplishment. Wild quail?


Fri Apr 20, 2018 7:23 pm
Profile
Longbeard

Joined: Fri May 06, 2011 7:04 pm
Posts: 141
Post Re: Tagged out in Central VA
PH,
Yes wild quail. I am at least as passionate about upland bird hunting in the fall as I am about gobbler hunting in the spring. I have kept bird dogs since 1978 (after most of the old time bird hunters had quit due to the lack of quail) and stubbornly keep at it year after year. I run the dogs a lot on woodcock when the season is in and take a grouse trip to the Midwest every fall. Yes it was a head shot on the fall gobbler, the pup pointed next to a large oak log in open hardwoods and the gobbler apparently had squatted on the other side of the log. When he flushed he was easily identified as a gobbler and crossed to my left. The look on the pups face when it flushed and hit the ground was worth the price of admission. Pup was 14 months old at the time.


Sat Apr 21, 2018 7:21 am
Profile
King of Spring
User avatar

Joined: Tue Nov 10, 2009 5:12 am
Posts: 2451
Location: Midland, VA
Post Re: Tagged out in Central VA
Love those fall winter hunts. Great hunts this spring also. Congratulations.

Earl

_________________
God, Family, Country, Corps and then the Wild Turkey.


Sun Apr 22, 2018 1:06 pm
Profile
King of Spring
User avatar

Joined: Fri Dec 03, 2004 1:33 pm
Posts: 3008
Location: Powhatan, VA
Post Re: Tagged out in Central VA
Congrats..

Central VA birds have whipped me this week..

_________________
RB

Take me Home Country Roads.


Mon Apr 23, 2018 9:05 am
Profile
King of Spring

Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 7:40 am
Posts: 2696
Location: Baltimore, MD
Post Re: Tagged out in Central VA
Good job.

_________________
Vic

Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you!
-Pericles (430 B.C.)


Mon Apr 23, 2018 1:15 pm
Profile
King of Spring
User avatar

Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2005 11:01 am
Posts: 600
Location: Bluemont, VA
Post Re: Tagged out in Central VA
Congrats. Taggin’ Out any way you can is a great accomplishment.

Spent 5 yrs in that area in Harrisonburg (JMU). Wish I was back there now, some great looking turkey land!

_________________
"If turkeys could smell, you'd never kill one" - Bud Trenis my turkey hunting mentor & dear friend


Mon Apr 23, 2018 6:04 pm
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 9 posts ] 


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group.
Designed by Vjacheslav Trushkin for Free Forums/DivisionCore.
Translated by Maël Soucaze © 2009 phpBB.fr