When the alarm went off this morning, the weight holding me in bed seemed to be a little heavier than normal. As I am lying there going over the pro/con routine of getting up, my wife says, "it's going to be a beautiful morning, you should go." So off I went. The leaves were wet from last night's storm so my walk in was quiet, so I thought. About 5:45 I am trucking along the logging road, when a gobbler sounds off 80 yards to my left. I find a suitable tree and sit down. As the woods wake up, the gobbler is joined by two more birds in the same general area. I send a few soft yelps - nothing. Fly down - nothing. I wait about ten minutes then cluck one time - and the boss answers me. So does a hen. I talk to the hen for a bit before she takes all three birds the other way. I decide to make a huge circle and try and get in front of them. After getting back to about where I thought the birds were going, I yelp and get an answer. The wind had picked up so I couldn't tell if the bird was to the right or left of me so I put out a hen deke and sit down quickly. It's about 9:10 at this point. I yelp loud on my power crystal - nothing. The wind blows over my decoy. I decide to stay put. I yelp one more time - nothing. I am watching the woods to my right since that's where I thought the bird was. I was wrong, again. I catch movement out of the corner of my eye 30 yards to my left. A lone longbeard is walking left to right and looking hard right at me. Luckily he hadn't spotted me. When he steps into my shooting lane, he stops, maybe to look at the hen lying on her side, I pull the trigger and my season comes to a satisfying end. My wife was right, it was a beautiful morning and the mile walk back to the car was very sweet. 18 lbs, 10 in beard, left 1 1/8, right 1 in.
A couple notes on my other two birds - I got lucky and killed a fat longbeard in the fall(pic) and was able to get another the first week of the season. That bird gobbled at 11:45, I moved on him at 11:47 and pulled the trigger on him at 11:56. It was hot, I was camera-less and I had to get to work so I did not get a pic. He was a two year old - 3/4 in spurs, 9 in beard and guessed weight at 18 lbs or so.
I also got to take my 6 yr old daughter with me for a morning hunt(pic). This was a highlight. We did not get to work a bird, but that really was a minor point. We heard turkeys gobble, we heard barred owls, we had two mice play right at our feet for about 10 minutes. We found an old horseshoe on the logging road. That's a trophy!
My Texas hunt got derailed this year due to work conflicts. First year in 5 that I've missed it. My Texas hunting partner, Maverick, is coming up to hunt this weekend so that's a pretty good consolation! I still have a few weeks left in WV, so hopefully I will get lucky. Either way, it has been a great season. I have enjoyed reading about everyone's ups and downs. Congrats to all who have scored. Good luck with the rest of the season.
BB
This morning's bird and spurs:
Fall bird:
My little buddy:
