Yesterday morning I went out late and was planning on getting back to the house early and plant some garden.Walked over to the gas line and one blasted out real close and I got my decoys out and set up in a hurry.The bird came in like he was on a string only problem he came in behind me and had hens with him.I had to freeze and hope he would walk around in front of me.He stood up on the hill and gobbled until he got another bird going on down the gas line.I finally tried to ease around and you guessed it he ended up in the next county.Well I started working the other bird and he came out on top of the hill with one hen.Wouldn't move an inch just strutting and gobbling.Finally the hen saw my decoys and she came running like her tail was on fire and ol' Cottontop was in tow.He weighed 22 lbs 13 ozs (big two year old)9 3/4"beard and 3/4"spurs.Heading to Carolina next week and hoping to hunt WV their last week.Good Luck and "Keep Looking Up"

Congrats on another fine bird! I was down at Magna Vista this am for work and saw several lone hens by themselves along the road. I was hoping somebody was out there taking their place!! Good luck in NC and in WV. I am hoping to hunt up around Richwood in the next three weeks. If I get up there before you, I'll let you know what's going on.

What's with this luck stuff Cottontop. You're earning every bird you're getting. Congrats on another fine hunt.

Bird my wife and I was up at Richwood to do some scouting about three weeks ago and believe it or not the motel was full up and we had to go over to Summersville.I wasn't really happy with the signs I saw . I am in on an lease up at Nettie and we have had good luck up there in the past.My son is living up there now doing something for the coal company and is 'suppose' to be hooking me up with some good places.Maybe we can hook up sometimes and clobber one.Hey I only live about three miles from Magna Vista. Later !!!!

Great job man. You are having a great season.

Man nice bird, bet he was fun to carry out of the woods.

Nice job on a heavy bird! When you are hunting WV, do you prefer to hunt high in Beech tree country in May, or do you target Oaks down lower elevation?? Your lease may be mainly oaks anyhow I suppose. Good luck hunting NC!

Good job again CottonTop. You are knocking out keep the stories coming!

Doug

tbert I hunt a lot on the Gauley river.It is a lot of water noise but there are a lot of birds.The lease that I am in on is real rough for most part (bear hunters delight) but they have a few hay on it and I hunt around those.There are lots of people out of work up there and the woods are full of people looking for a meal.But I love WV and want very badly to build a cabin up around Richwood,there are thousands of acres of national forest over there.Where do you hunt/live?

I hear ya. I live in Virginia, but I annually drive a short distance over to hunt around West Virginia some. I like the scenic highway area. Lots of land, not a whole bundle of birds, but it makes for some fun challenging hunts. I like finding those old railroad beds way back in the mountain where you can dig down through the leaves and moss and still find the timbers from a day long past. I once found an old logging camp, still had some iron bed frames, pieces of a pot belly stove and some two-man saw blades all bent up and hangin from some low tree limbs. I felt almost that if I misplaced anything in that old camp, the universe would be knocked off kilter, and some burly old logger ghost would avenge my actions, and I would never harvest a deer or turkey again!

Good luck the rest of the season