Well I'm a little late posting this, but I have been going non stop hunting and scouting since season opened in VA and I'm loving every minute of it!!! I was once again able to start my season a little earlier with my good buddy Derek Smith in the big mountains of Virginia, this has become a tradition for us and we definitely look forward to it each and every year!
Last year we had snow and high wind, this year weather was looking absolutely perfect! We had high hopes but I don't think either of us were prepared for what opening day had in store!
As we stood there at our listening point high on the ridge the birds began to wake up and the turkeys began to gobble.....EVERYWHERE! We heard well over 30 different gobblers gobbling hard, seemed like on every point. Well pick one and let's go!! So we picked the one we wanted and took off. Down a steep hollow and up the other side to get on the same spine as he was roosted on. And these mountains are strait up and down steep! Oh what we will do for a gobbling bird!!
So we get there and get the decoys out and birds are absolutely going nuts, it was just unreal!!! But the bird we were setup on shut up totally, not a peep! We were sitting there saying we knew he was right there, and contemplating our next move. We both agreed to give it 5 more minutes. Two cuts and a series of yelps and he bout blew our hats off at 45 yards just over the lip of the point!!! U could hear him spitting and drumming like he was in a microphone, amazing!! He finally comes up there in front of us 40 yards and just struts and gobbled and is coming no closer! The woods are thick down there, lots of laurel and pine, so I was having a really hard time filming through all of that stuff, we just never could get on the same page to kill him. So after an hour, and every trick in the book we had to watch him walk away, he was a stud of a gobbler!
Oh well, birds gobbling everywhere, regroup and go get on another one. So we made the hike back out of there and struck two hot birds in the field in killed my double beard in a few years ago. Move around there and get setup in the field with Jake and hen decoy and tuck into some autumn olive bushes. Call and these boys are just puking it, great bling like crazy!!!! Here they come, get great footage of them coming in, this is bout to be a double slam dunk! They come in and go behind and bush then pop out 25 yards skirting us to our right! What the heck! They just would not commit to those decoys. They walk 10 steps behind me and stand there gobbling like fools! But they would not come around for a shot, and then again we watch them go back to our right and the way they came from, no shot! U have got to be kidding me!!!!
Well by this time it's 10 o'clock, birds are still gobbling all over. We go and try and find another one to work with no luck. So we get in truck and drive back up to where we can sit high and glass the field the 2 birds were in. Get out of truck with just camera, binos and one mouth call and walk out there. Sit there glassing, make one call and they answer out in the middle. Then we catch them coming out from behind the autumn olivesheading our way, bout 300 yards out. So Derek goes back to truck and grand guns and we take off running right at them. We cut distance significantly and sit down in autumn olives, and it is super thick in there, going to be very tough and happen fast!!!
So we call a little with no response at all, then I hear one strutting and catch movement right in front of me. 4 gobblers just materialize in front of us at 25 yards and we can't move. They were all bunched up and was very thick in there! After a little bit of back and forth trying to get things lined up to double they were about to leave and stepped in a window for Derek and I gave him the go ahead to drop the hammer! Flattened him there and the other birds just walked off and kept gobbling. Bird down at 11:30!!! Called in 7 birds to within 40 yards in one day and finally got one on the ground, WOW what a day!!!
Derek is one of my very best true friends, and I really cherish his friendship! His dad passed away last spring 3rd day of turkey season and it rocked his world, as it would any of us. So one of my top goals this year was to get him a bird and back in the saddle! We worked for it, but God smiled on us and I'm so glad I was able to be there with him for it!!! Sorry for being so long winded, but it was a story worth telling, hope u all enjoyed. Be safe and may Gods blessings pour out on all of u this turkey season!
