Georgia
3\28\2019
After finding some success in Alabama I took off to NW Georgia and was ready to hunt a WMA for the Georgia opener. I was standing on the side of a mountain at daylight overlooking a couple miles off river bottom and the face of another mountain. I could clearly hear a dog barking at a house 2miles away. But that's all I heard opening morning. I didn't hear a bird nor see a bird through midday so I headed East to hopefully find a gobbling bird.
Sunday morning I heard a bird in the distance so I took off in search of him. I ended up getting in-between two gobbling birds and was in a pretty good position. One bird ended up going onto the private land that bordered the public land but the main gobbling bird kept gobbling. He was in a bowl roughly 100yds from me, just over a small ridge. I got as close as I could get without topping the ridge to give away my position and I sat down. I called a few times and he would cut me off but wouldn't move. I figured he had hens with him so I pulled out my gobble tube. I'm just over 1.5miles deep in the woods and I was the only truck anywhere on that road. So I gobbled and he went nuts. We gobbled back and forth and he started closing the distance. Once he got just under the edge of the ridge, maybe 50yds, he gets quit and flies across the swampy area and takes off onto the private land. I couldn't believe what happened he was committed and so close. I got up to see what I could have done better or see what had happened and as I walked the bowl where he was I see a decoy on the far edge and a guy sitting there. He had come in on top of us and spooked the gobbler and set up. I just waived and turned around and started the walk out. He had come in on a small access road that went next to a house that I didn't know about. He had about a 400yd walk.
Sunday night after I got done hunting I stopped to talk to a guy walking down the road and offered him a ride when he said he lived a few miles from there and his phone was dead so he couldn't tell his wife to come pick him up. When he got in the truck he told me to turn around and he showed me some places to hunt. He told me where he had just roosted 2 gobblers and to hunt them the next morning since he had to work. I thanked him and told him he didn't have to tell me where they were. He said he really appreciated the ride.
So Monday morning sure enough they start gobbling where he said they would. I get set up down the ridge from them and as they start working to me BOOOOOMMMM someone had slipped in-between us from somewhere and shot at the birds. I see birds flying off and the guy starts calling. Well about an hour later another bird cranks up and I get him to about 60yds through some real thick woods and the guy comes in on top of me again and starts cranking on his call spooking the bird. I've about had my fill by this point.
Tuesday I couldn't find a place to park because of all the people in the woods.
Wednesday I'm sitting next to the tree I want to be at 2.5hrs before it is even thinking of breaking day. It's still dark and I can hear 4 different people owl hooting and I hear a bird way off gobble then I hear the same guy start cranking on his call, its dark dark and he's just a calling. I sit tight and bam I hear a gobble close to where I'm at so I make a quick move to better my position and get ready, they are roosted over a big cypress slough and I'm sitting 100yds from the edge of the water. 5 birds pitch out and land 80yds from me, 2 strutting gobblers and 3 hens. They slowly work their way up towards me and I'm soft calling. The two gobblers gobble 2 times on the ground but it was just enough for me to hear 2 different guys closing the distance on me. Like an idiot I get impatient and rush my shot, the big gobbler flips gets his wings under him and takes flight, he hits a tree then sails over the big slough then the worst thing happens I see him fall dead deep in the swampy area. I looked for 3hrs but never found him I was sick and aggravated with myself.
Bradley had text me telling me he had killed a bird in NW Georgia and he had found a couple more and there wasn't near the people where he was. So I loaded up and took off west.
Thursday morning were 2 miles off the road and were on 3 hot birds when what do we hear 2 different calls closing in on us. I just shook my head. One guy came in on top of us and I whistled at him and he apologized and backed out but it was too late the gobblers had left the county. Bradley need to make a run to South Carolina to pick up his turkey tags for this week so he left me to do some hunting on my own in the mountains. On his way out he struck a bird and he sent me a text and a pin on OnX maps. With no service I didn't get it until I to had heard a bird and it ended up being the same one he had heard. While I was moving on that bird I got his text and pin. It was a chess match I had to keep moving and calling and moving until I got them close but it was so thick I couldn't see them. I let them work on down the pine ridge and I looked at my map and I decided to make a big loop and try to get in front of the flock. I did just that I caught a deer trail at the bottom of the ridge and took off running to get to the hard wood bottom a 1/4mile away. As I was looking at a tree to sit against I hear a put and we ended up meeting at the same time. Turkey flew and some ran left, I see a strutting bird with a jake and a hen to my right. I get my gun ready and the strutting bird walks into an opening and cranes his head up to look at me and I let my little 20 eat. He is a gorgeous Georgia mountain gobbler and I couldn't have been happier.
Thursday afternoon I roost a bird and Bradley gets back from South Carolina. I tell him we need to split up and get on both sides of him in the morning so one of us should get a shot.
Friday morning worked out perfect. We set up on both sides of the bird, I use a ditch wash to get within 80yds of the roost tree and Bradley sets up above him in some pines about 60yds away. Its not 100yds between me and Bradley. I'm in the creek bottom and 2 hens pitch out and land 40yds from me. The gobbler pitched out in a thicket and walks to check on the one hen he heard in the pines. That's when Bradley lays the hammer down on him, another fine Georgia gobbler. The cool thing is I got the whole 11 minute and 30 second hunt on recorded audio.
So Georgia is ranked #1 in the best and worst category so far.
We were blessed with a great week of hunting.
