Well, guys, what kind of season are we going to have?

At this point l will be glad to just get back in the woods. Fully vaccinated. I hope there are a few LB left alive in the states I hunt. Seems like last season in 2020 records for kill total were aet throughout the southern states I hunt. That also meant the highest Jake kills so I have no idea what to expect in bird numbers for adult gobblers .

I expect as usual the good hunters will get their share. I expect the public land hunters are going to find less birds than usual due to the past season high numbers of hunters and kills. I hope the trend of non resident ban on spring turkey licence sales will end. I expect media wanna-be u tube hunters will be an all time high, and hopeing to build on their careers as turkey-film stars.

I m pretty sure Freddy and Abby will have a great season. Roy S will get his share. Doug will take everybody in his family and work force to get some birds. Greyghost, WagInVa, Bird Dog , Vic , vaturkeyhunter and many voters will be generous to take others to kill o birds or experience those beautiful spring memories. Tut will finally get to Tennessee to hunt his sisters place. Barry will prove once again that determination and perseverance will pay off with some trophy birds. WVaboy and his sons will make some great videos. Squoose will make some trips and give some great reposts. Bird Dog will post that haystack picture again

And then there are the now -silent non posters like Limbhanger, CottonPicker , Earl, Hody , Spur, CousinJon and may others will pile up some birds and we will never hear about them on the Board. Sadly. I wish they would share with us again.

I’m looking forward to all of it on here

Really have no clue what the season will bring. The farm I've been hunting in the upper Shenandoah Valley is still on the market and hasn't sold (knock on wood) so I'll get another season out of it. It doesn't have much food IMO, but it has big open fields and about 4 places with big roost tree's that seem to always hold a gobbler and it has fantastic nesting cover. Birds always show up late. No reason to even scout until about 2 weeks before the season because they seem to move in late.

PS. The good news is last year I had quite a few Jakes around and I sure didn't shoot any so there should be some 2 year olds around.

Covid will dictate whether I go to Tenn to chase my sisters birds. The wife and I are on the list with about 40,000 other folks in the County where I live. Va has not done a good job in that area at all. Would also like a trip out to the mid-west. We shall see.

In the meantime, I bought a new Turkey choke for the 20 gauge 870 so I'll be doing a bit of patterning next month to see if the choke likes the loads and vice versa. Haven't jumped on the TSS train yet. Have a bunch of the old Federal Heavyweight in size 6 and its been really good to me in the past several years.

Double PS. Late in the season I always like to hit the public land in Va. You get into the May time frame and you have the entire National Forest to yourself. As a retired fellow, I can pick out a nice day mid-week and go into and area and just walk and hammer the box call. Seems like I always get to work a bird late, but normally that bird doesn't get a ride in the truck. Later season public land gobblers are tough suckers.

Gobblenow, thanks for including me in that rarified group. Now I am a legend in my own mind!

I should never have put up a list as there are so many good posters here I knew I would leave some out. And I sure did. Strustopper, big Meat , brwndog, TBurt, etc etc. don’t be offended if you are not listed. Old brains make mistakes .

Prime example is I left of Tscott who is essential to this board and of the guys who keeps the spam beat down in here , along with Hody and Freddy’. And I left out Amy. Pretty dumb on my part. And then there is Young Bill who may turn out to be the best turkey hunter in the crowd.

Yeah, Limbhanger. The NF legend

Well Roy, this spring should pose some interesting challenges for all. As all have stated the COVID will guide me as far as my travels are. Yes VA is pathetic on the roll out of the shots, 2 failed software programs are one, the other is the 7 P's were not applied. Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. I hope that all are Vaccinated by the end of MAY.

After the wife missed another LB this past fall, I done something I should have done a couple years back for her. She has a bad left arm and at time has a hard time holding up a cup of coffee let alone a 12 gauge. So after seeing my other buddies switch to the Savage/Stevens 410 I bought her one. In fact one of my side by side buddies got one along with his 2 main hunting buddies. All got 2 birds each this past fall with that 410 set up on the NF. Thier dogs were into turkeys almost every day.

So far as the season. Here at Quantico right now is not looking to good. Turkeys it seems have vacated the premisses. But will not know for sure till we do the spring gobbler survey.

If we all remain healthy, we all will have a wonderful and blessed season. Just getting out and enjoying the woods with family and friends, sharing the hunts weather a bird rides in your vehicle or not we will all be successful.

But like a fine wine as I age with time memories are my medicine for any situations I find myself in.


PS, My old bones are ready for an early warm up. That dang PA squirrel said, more winter.


Earl

I’ll just be glad to get out into the woods again. The ice this week has really put the Cabin Fever into overload.
One thing I would like this season is not to be wearing wool in May!

You forgot me GN hahaha. Im headed to Florida for the first time this year, then gona try Georgia on the way home. Going up to PA late season to try my luck there. Hopefully here at home it will be another solid year. Saw lots of gobblers during deer season so I have high hopes. Good luck to everyone and I pray we all have a safe and successful season!

I knew l screwed up one minute after I made the first post....too many good old posters are gone to the dreaded FB and my not resurface here . And trying to list the good ones sticking around was way beyond my current pay grade for memory.

My apologies to Reed, and the rest of your who are sure to remind me (and rightfully so) how rude it was to not mention all of you once I started down the rabbit hole.

Hopefully this rain lets up

I’ve seen two flocks of 20+ birds this past two days. Driving by so didn’t get to stop and ID, but sure it was hens

It will be spring and all will be new again. I'm sure there will be some birds around. Like others, I'll enjoy God's bounty and hopefully he'll throw a bird or two in.
V

GN..

I still want Peacemaker to come back and bless us with his prose... I bet not very many on here even remember his posts.. That dude had a gift for writing.. just wish I would have saved some of his old post that were on here prior to Freddy changing the board and they got lost.

Randy--Squoose is pretty good at the prose too, but he only show once a year or so. I really mss seeing the reports form so many great turkey hunters who were on this board twenty years ago.I learned a lot from them , and form many who are still here. Heck I can't even harasss Cosuin Jon to post anything.

ROYS ORIGINAL QUESTIION: I have scouted more than I ever have locally. While I saw two groups of LB early in February I have now got to the place I am only seeing in any hen group (up to 15-18 hens) one mature gobbler in any spot I check (or have a camera on). Yes--- ONE!. It really worries me about where we are on breeding gobblers.Tenn went a week longer to open this year, and the youth season was the last two days and was the worst storms and weather imaginable, so maybe the mature birds have survived long enough to have got the job done already. Im expecting a low kill for the state this year because many people are reporting not seeing adult male birds, and really not many turkeys period. .

Way way way too many killed last year in the Covid massacre. Hope I am wrong and hope it is a great season....the area right around Nashvile is the epi=center of the large turkey population IN Tn and maybe it will produce high numbers this year and make the state look OK, but it is not OK IMO in much of the state.Here is the 2020 Tennessee TWRA report on the turkey population...maybe more like an obituary in truth. While the most Tennessee turkeys ever were killed , the reproduction this last summer and fall appears to be the lowest recruitment ever. Pretty scary stuff.
https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/twra/ ... report.pdf