I finally tagged out yesterday but what a weird year. The three gobblers I killed gobbled a total of 11 times. First bird gobbled 5 times on 4/14, with the first gobble at 8:00. Second bird on 4/17 was one of 4 gobblers together in a field and in total the four only gobbled 4 times, I made them gobble the four times with loud aggressive calling but each time it was more of a shock gobble. I fooled with the bird I killed yesterday two days in a row. On Wednesday he did not gobble at all and I was close to him and in sight for more than 2 hours. When I killed him yesterday he gobbled twice on the roost. Of the 17 days that I hunted I only had three days that I classed as "gobbling good" on the VDGIF gobbler survey. 15 days I classed as "no gobbling", "gobbling on roost only", "roost, few times on the ground", or "gobbling poor". In reality all 15 days were gobbling poor, even when I heard birds gobbling on the roost they would only gobble a very few times. After killing two birds the first week I did not really have a good hunt (or even interact with turkeys) until yesterday.

Temperature: I normally were a light t-shirt under a thin camo shirt and 6 pocket pants. I wore a light t-shirt one day this year. Yesterday I wore wool long johns top and bottom and it was not the only day I dressed warm.

Wind: HORRIBLE! 15 of the 17 days I hunted the wind was breezy or strong. There were several days I was in sight of turkeys but could not have heard them if they were gobbling.

Sightings: On 14 of the 17 days I hunted I saw turkeys.

I am not sure what all this means but I consider myself highly blessed to have tagged out, I did not think it was going to happen as of the middle of this week. Good luck to all who are still hunting.

Congratulations on your birds and season.

Agree on the weirdness and it is everywhere. Heard an interview with Ronnie Stickland (Cuz) and he commented that for the most part no area of turkeydom is hearing much if any gobbling. Strangest year he can remember etc. If you watch many of the Utube cowboys if they are not on the very front end of a particular states opening of the season it is a complete struggle it seems. That is exactly the pattern I have seen where I have hunted this year . Crickets on the ground by the third day of season everywhere.

By the time I had my fourth bird in Tenn a few weeks ago I was darned glad it was over.

Mark of a good hunter.. tagging out in a year like this man.. I was lucky to kill the one in VA I did.. missed one on Wednesday.. should have two in VA.. WV treated me much better.. most of the birds around my parts that were killed were 3 or older.. bad hatch in 2018 has made for some tough hunting and not much gobbling..

Congratulations on a great year. I agree, wearing wool on May 7th is weird.


Earl

I moved out to a small farm late last summer with mostly pasture land, but was able to obtain permission to hunt several hundred acres of private land-a lot of it butts up to National Forest. Sounds like a dream come true. Riding back and forth to work and into town and afternoons just riding around these country roads with my wife, I couldn’t believe how many turkeys I was seeing. 3 1/2 weeks before the season came in, I started hearing gobbling from my porch. Mostly in the evenings, but not uncommon in the morning. Couldn’t wait for the season to come in.

About a week before the season came in, no more gobbling. Weather was cold and windy, but where I live (elevation is 2,400) it is always colder and windy than the Roanoke valley where I lived for so many years. I tried to rationalize why they quit gobbling. I first thought it was the cold and wind. I know many of the gobblers were henned up. I have heard coyotes regularly and thought perhaps the gobblers learned that the coyotes think gobbling is like a dinner bell.

After reading the posts recently on here, I feel a little better about future prospects for hunting this area as this phenomenon is not something this area may be prone to. I have hunted a total of 7 mornings this season. I have heard phenomenal gobbling on the roost on five mornings. Little gobbling on the ground-maybe 10-12 total. I have called in probably 18 hens, 5 jakes and three longbeards. Haven’t been able to shoot any longbeards yet due to bad luck sneaking up behind me. With the wind blowing 20-30 mph and the temperature going down to 30, I doubt I will hunt tomorrow, perhaps Sunday morning offers something better, but it will be cold.

Thanks for the compliments.
Randy, Interesting observation regarding three year old and older turkeys. I am also from Powhatan and have been here since 1977. All three of my birds were killed in this area (Amelia and Cumberland) and based on spur length, shape, and sharpness none of them scream 3 year old but all are between 7/8 and 1 inch, staring to get sharp, and the last birds are starting to develop the characteristic curve. While I can not clearly state they are at least three they are at least "mature" two year olds. You have got another week, I certainly do not count you out yet.

I would agree with all of the comments. I made the decision this winter to try to kill a bird on public land in Eastern VA. Boy, I had no idea what I was signing up for. The 1st few hunts birds were vocal, but the hunting pressure was something I was not anticipating. I have to travel over an hour to get to the closest public land. So, having made the commitment, I would get to areas I wanted to hunt at 4am. I would come back to my truck between 10-12 and many days the parking spots would be overflowing. I do not like to 'deer hunt' for turkeys, but I can say I did very little moving around the first week. After the 1st week, I ended up finding some places that were less popular. But the turkeys had almost completely shut gobbling down. The only bird I struck after the first week gobbled once - and I had him at 20 yds and couldn't kill him. I eventually did end up accomplishing my goal of killing a bird over here, but that bird NEVER gobbled. I cannot remember a time I killed a bird that I never heard. Long story short, I called and got an answer from his hen. She came looking for me and he was right behind her silent as a ghost. I know this particular scenario isn't that unusual, but it seems this year that gobbling was non existent. Hopefully it has more to do with hunting pressure and not turkey poplulations.

Kinda average year for me. Yes..... less gobbling overall .. but the ones that wanted to die , did so in quick fashion. Hunted the least this year than any in the past 15. Went 12 mornings and called up 8 to die peacefully. 3 for me , 2 for cousin and 3 for 2 of my hunting buddies . Definitely a lot of hens still w gobblers at this late date. Only had one morning w a gobbler we didn’t kill , gobble at least 200 times. Other mornings was only handfuls of gobbles.. the only thing weird I saw was the abundance of hunters! State harvest #s are going to be historical. Not too many I know around the state that haven’t killed a bird. Congrats on everyone’s good season!

Here it is late July, I’m out splitting wood after dinner and a thunderstorm creeps in on me. After lightning cracks too close, I head to the house. About the time I get to the porch, several gobblers started gobbling, just like they did in the spring when it thundered.

Well, that sounds kind of cool to me.
V