I was lucky enough to kill a West Virginia bird yesterday morning. We started off in the area where we heard a longbeard and some jakes last weekend but were met with only silence. We covered a lot of ground in that area but after fly down time we hadn’t heard a gobble. We decided to head across the road to the other side of the property and make the long climb up the mountain hoping to put our ears on more ground. Again, silence. Feeling a little discouraged we took off down a long ridge covering ground and calling and planning to eventually end up above some fields that were below the property we have permission on. Once we got to the area we wanted, the woods had opened up and looked really good and we were seeing lots of scratching. I called a few times and ramped it up each sequence with no luck. After about 10 minutes my buddy let out an owl hoot and 2 birds gobbled about 150 or so yards away. I was encouraged to finally hear a bird but wasn’t feeling great about being able to kill then as I had called pretty aggressively with no response. I knew they probably had hens and we didn’t have much room to be able to make a move. We gave it 15 to 20 minutes without a response and then let out another owl hoot. They gobbled again but further away. When they gobbled a bird way down the mountain, probably in one of those fields also gobbled. We couldn’t get down there but the property we could hunt was on the top and a lot of the woods on the hillside leading to the field. We made a move back closer to the new bird and got above him but still pretty far away. Because of the pretty woods and lots of sign we decided to set up on top and see if we could get him to come up to us. We took our time finding a good set up and when I called from there he instantly gobbled back and sounded like he may be a little closer. The next time I called he gobbled twice and was clearly quite a bit closer, probably only 100-150 yards away but had moved to our left quite a bit. We quickly repositioned and when I called he didn’t answer. I knew this meant he was probably on his way and got ready. After 10 minutes of silence i called softly but got no reply. I didn’t want to call a lot because I knew he was most likely coming and didn’t want him to be able to pin point my position. Another 5 minutes go by and I hear a stick break just over the hill. I’m scanning the hill top waiting to see him any second but nothing. Another couple minutes go by and I catch movement at the edge of the hill to the right of where my barrel was pointing and quickly realize it’s a gobblers head. He looks for a few seconds then takes a few steps and looks again. He finally gets up high enough that I can see a beard but I’m in a real pickle cause he’s just standing there looking hard and is pretty far to the right of my barrel. I wait about a minute hoping he will give me a chance to move my gun but finally realize I’m going to have to swing and shoot him. I start yelping a split second before I start my swing hoping he will think the movement might be a hen and buy me a little extra time. Luckily it worked like a charm and he by the time he realized he was in trouble my sight was already settled on his neck at 25 yards. I squeezed the trigger and had my bird. I didn’t end up scoring this bird but he was definitely not an upgrade. I’d guess about 19 pounds 1 inch spurs and 9.5 inch beard or so. A great late season hunt for sure.
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