Today was the fifth and final morning of my VA hunting vacation. Anyway it had been a fairly quiet week spotted some strutters in the middle of a field a couple of times late morning but not much gobbling. I've got less than 100 acres to work with so I can't cover much ground. I did get on some birds Wed. morning but they flew down to a hen and I never heard or saw anything else from them. They had been gobbling off the roost to her cutts but would not respond to by calling.
This morning I set up on the edge of a field corner and when the rain let at first light a group of gobblers started thundering off the roost on a ridge top across a creek bottom a few hundred yards away. They were very responsive to my calls. Hens were calling from a couple of other directions so I was not sure I would see them. They flew down to an opening in the hardwoods on the opposing ridge and gobbled their heads off for 5-10 minutes. Then they shut up. I thought they were henned up. I did a few series of calls and waited. I thought I heard some faint noises in the wet leaves. I was looking back over my shoulder to my left, thinking they might slip up from that direction. I caught movement in my eye and face forward and there were 3 long beards in from of me. I took the lead gobbler and am very happy. Beard 9 inches and change, spurs 1 1/8, 1 1/16 weight 16 # (seems kind of small).
Something special about the hunt: a couple of days ago I came across field bag of turkey gear that my late father had used when he turkey hunted many years ago. I didn't take up turkey hunting until after he passed a few years ago...so I never got to hunt with him accept when he took me a couple times when I was very small. There was miscelleaneous stuff including a couple of calls in the bag. I guess I knew it was around somewhere but it was a pleasant surprise to come across and look through it. I've always just used diaphrams. I tried his box call and liked the sound. Anyway that's what I used this morning calling those turkeys.
