Killer B’s Story Thread

[Mossyguy]

Still over 3 weeks to wait, here.   But, hey.......... I just inherited some scouting and prep time.   Tested positive for the Rona yesterday, so..........   I've got some free time on my hands.   

Got the Rona and still have to wait 3 weeks? Talk about a double whammy..

In all seriousness though...take care of yourself Yoder. Hopefully you're one of the ones that it doesn't affect very much.

[Yoder409]

So far it's not been horrible.   I've had the flu WAY worse.   Just don't have much steam right now.  The couch has been my friend.

Oh, yeah.......... And about 90% of my taste is gone.   That's the WORST part, so far.

[zsully]

Ahhhhh. Yoder that's a bummer. Hope you're feeling better.

In other news, our newest teammate now leads the team with the biggest bird! Congrats, David!!!!! Now you owe us a story!

[Mossyguy]

Ahhhhh. Yoder that's a bummer. Hope you're feeling better.

In other news, our newest teammate now leads the team with the biggest bird! Congrats, David!!!!! Now you owe us a story!

I saw that...it's story time!

[Meleagris gallopavo]

My story is like this.  Saturday started out not great as someone was already where I had planned on going in Virginia, but fortunately I had a few spots close by so I went to one of those.  Got set up and before long the gobbling started with some on the property I hunt.  They were about 500 yards away or more and since I experience so many gobblers come in silent that I never hear I stayed out.  Ended up calling a lone hen right to me but with no gobbler in tow.  I sat and called a while longer and left at 8:15 AM.  I rode to my other spots close by and saw a gobbler with a couple of hens that looked like an easy set up for another day.  I went home to get my son so we could go to a place in NC (only 25 minutes away) where I had seen at least 2 gobblers 2 days before.  I wanted to kill a double with him.  Upon arriving home I was disappointed to find out that he had made other plans so I went to the spot in NC solo.  I saw a strutter with several hens in the back of the field which made setting up without spooking them tricky.  But there were some tall weeds on a ditch bank between us and I felt if I walked at an angle away from them I could make it to the woods about 200 yards from where they were and set up.  So that's what I did.  By the time I got to where I wanted to set up they were gone.  I felt like if I did spook them enough to leave the field it probably wasn't enough to really freak them out and leave the area, so I set my Jake and hen decoy in the field edge about 10 yards and I positioned myself about 10 yards in the woods and facing the direction I felt they'd be coming from.  While I'm setting up I heard a gobble pretty close by but behind me which put me between that gobbler and the one I was setting up for.  I felt pretty good about that.  I sat down and waited a bit and used my diaphragm call a little with no results.  Pulled out my Sweetbriar glass over slate and the first sound out of it resulted in a gobble in front of me and to the left which told me that was where the birds in the field went.  So I just keep clucking and yelping some with the gobbler answering and cutting me off.  I see a turkey approach in the woods and it's a hen, followed by another and another and so on.  I catch movement out of my left peripheral vision and it's the gobbler heading straight to the Jake decoy.  I wait for him to strut with his backside to me so I can swing the gun from the hens to the gobbler.  While I'm doing this I expect to hear putting from the hens but evidently I was able to pull the maneuver off slowly enough without alarming them.  I watched the gobbler punish the decoy a bit and I was checking out his beard and spurs as he's only 20 yards away.  Once I get the sense that he's becoming disinterested with the decoy beat down I decide to pull the trigger and loose TSS 8.5s at him from my Mossberg 835.  At 20 yards you better be dead on, and I hit him a little low on the neck but still through the neck.  He had done flopping by the time I walked up and I stuck my finger right in a hole beneath his wattle.  That's all I have to say about that.


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[zsully]

What a day!!!! Came down to the wonderful state of Virginia to open their season with Twyatt. The turkeys whooped us the first two days. The first was the toughest. We heard a grand total of 0 gobbles covered a ton of miles and only called in a lone hen. To add insult to injury we were walking out, fully dejected from the day just to find a big old gobbler track on top of my boot track from the morning. Day 2 dawned on a new location with a couple gobbles off the roost, then a ton of silence, followed by a pack of dogs chasing deer about 100 yards from us with an hour left. After day two I seriously started to wonder if Virginia actually had a hunt able population of turkeys. Day 3 came and Twyatt wants to go back to the day one spot. I reminded him that we heard 0 gobbles there. He had confidence, I thought I was getting gar-holed. I thought, "screw it, don't guide the guide." So off we went. The morning broke crisp and clear without a single cloud and this time we heard a gobble on the other ridge. Long story short we went, down the ridge, up the ridge, down the ridge, out the valley, up the ridge, back down the ridge and up the ridge which brought us to a giant oak tree. At the oak tree I set up on the side of the tree facing a bird that was probably 300 yards away. He was gobbling at everything I threw at him and then things went to hell. A second bird fires up directly behind me (on Twyatt's side) and this bird is CLOSE! Being the super gracious host he is told me, "switch me spots". To which I responded, "no". He begged and pleaded as I kept ripping on this slate call and driving both birds insane!  Twyatt gave me one more opportunity, "last chance, if you don't switch me now I'm gonna kill this bird."To which I responded, "you better kill that bird. Don't you go f@/$;ng celebrating though, we're gonna kill this one next!"..... two minutes later......BOOOM!!!! And Twyatt smacked the first of the two birds at 25 yards up the hill. I did some fighting purrs because I blacked out and apparently that's what turkey hunting videos have taught me and the other gobbler hammers. I kept laying it on pretty thick and he kept coming. This time the bird swung low and and to my right. Being right handed i made the decision (with some encouragement) to bounce to the other side of the road as the bird was coming up the hill. I got set hit the slate one more time and he gobbled for the last 5 times in his life. He continued his death march up the hill, in full strut and with the sun shining through the trees and making him glow. It may have been the prettiest spectacle of a gobbler in the hard woods I've ever seen. Exactly 10 minutes from when Twyatt killed the first gobbler the second gobbler folded at my shot. 25 yards down hill on the same logging road from the big oak and the celebration started. It's amazing how fast you can go from zero to hero in the turkey woods of Va. right Twyatt?

[Mossyguy]

That's awesome everyone! Our team is on fire!

[Meleagris gallopavo]

I like zsullys story better than mine.  Maybe I can create a good story tomorrow morning.  The hound folks have gotten so they like to work they're dogs on the weekends during the spring.  That's a problem for turkey hunters.  Fortunately for me some of them know I turkey hunt and they'll text me in the morning to find out where I'm at as to avoid me or they'll wait until I tell them I'm done.  The vast majority of the land I hunt is just across the line in NC.  It's easy, typically, for me to get my 2 birds early there.  I actually could hunt some very secluded public land that has a lot of birds but since I have so much private land to hunt I leave the public land to those that don't have access like I have. 


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[Delmar ODonnell]

Way to go, gentlemen! Great stories. So happy for y'all! I've been getting my tail handed to me by Alabama's birds and it's terrain the last 4 days. Just gonna keep grinding it out!


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[a_jabbo]

Yoder, hope tired and taste is the only Rona Wrath you end up having to deal with. Get better soon.

Congrats again, David! Sounds like a fun hunt.

Big congrats to Zsully and Twyatt on those two solid birds! What an epic hunt.

WV opens next week and soon after PA. Bring on the gobblers.

[Yoder409]

Way to go, fellers !!!!    Great stories !!!!

This Rona stuff is the weirdest...........   I don't really feel BAD.  But I'm not worth kicking outta the way.  Just no energy at ALL.   I did do a little scouting this morning, though.   I opened the sliding door in the sunroom at gobble time and listened to a bunch of birds whilst slurping my coffee.   

Keep them longbeards comin, boys !!!!!

[Meleagris gallopavo]

Been hunting on the same property for 2 days now and I think I'm zeroing inon them.  Never turkey hunted here before.  Yesterday the gobbling was absolutely insane until 8:00 AM.  Hens yelping and gobblers gobbling.  This morning was good but not as epic as yesterday.  My plan was to get on a group of gobblers (hope they're not jakes), that got close yesterday and were responding well to my calling. I was watching a henned-up, dominant tom that was between me and them and they would not pass him.  He never gobbled, just strutted and looked intimidating.  I positioned myself directly between them and where the dominant tom was yesterday but they never came.  They did gobble a lot.  I think I called up the only lone hen that yelped this morning, she came right to me.  Saw a nice longbeard on my way out on the way to work.  I want to go ahead and tag out in NC before I start hunting in VA some more. 

[POk3s]

Awesome job everybody! You guys are just flat putting the hurtin on em!!! Yoder, I hope you get well soon! At least good enough to scout VERY soon!

[Yoder409]

I got out and walked a little this afternoon.  Got some scouting done................

The family property, where 99.9% of my spring hunting gets done is 285 acres.  It's just 4-5 minutes' drive from my house.  Here at the house we have about 12 1/4 acres.  It's all field and most of it is so steep a cat's gotta put his claws out to get traction.   I told my wife a while back how cool it'd be if I could pull off killing a spring bird on our little postage stamp, here at the house.  So we put a trail camera up behind the house last weekend. 





This is literally a 3 minute walk if I walk slow out my back door.  I started mowing that strip 2 years ago for just that reason........to attract turkeys in the spring.  The tree the camera is (was) on is in a small notch I cleared in the fencerow with my Kubota bucket back in the winter just in case I wanted to toss a blind in for the kids.  The blind is in. 

Guess I need to do some yard work with my boy..........trigger control.......see if I can get him ready for youth day.   

[Delmar ODonnell]

That's awesome Yoder. You could literally smell the bacon cooking from your setup!

I got served another piece of humble pie this morning. Missed. Not as angry about missing the shot as I am about my setup. Had the perfect setup in a saddle, decided to move up 25 yards in case he went high on me. Little did I know the crest was only 10 yards away, not 30. When I got there he gobbled so close I was stuck. Sure enough came beep bopping along and wasn't a step over 10 yards when I shot and got to watch him fly away. Gonna go back after him in the morning!


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