Hunted Saturday. No dice. Went back out today. First time in my life I've ever hunted on a Sunday.
Virginia started this 2-week winter season I think in 2022 in select counties. The one I hunt is one of them. Either sex is allowed. And it's a chance to get out and hunt turkeys after deer season closes without having to wear blaze orange.
So I got in the woods just as the horizon was starting to show a bit of light. Sky was clear, stars out, and the moon was shining. Very little wind. But pretty cold - in the 20s. I was able to do the mile+ hike back to the bottom area I like to hunt by moonlight. I go there and took my spot from yesterday hoping the birds had returned to the pine ticket at the top of the other side's hill. They had been flying down into this bottom area to eat beech nuts. As it got lighter, no sounds at all. I did some soft tree calls as it got lighter, and about 7:45 I did some fly down cackling on my box call. Nothing. By now, the wind had picked back up again and was blowing pretty hard. But the sky was cloudless. It was very cold.
I decided to go back the way I came and call into the pine thicket that borders the trail. Nothing. I knew birds were there - they're there every year. But that's a damned big thicket and I had no idea where in there they'd be. I went in about 60 yards of so. The ground slopes down that back up and down again. As thick as it is in there with young pines, you can see pretty far and walk nearly silently. I could see a slope down to a ravine and decided to set up so that I could shoot if the birds came the way I thought they would, from my 11 o'clock. That was the direction of the ravine. I started with some soft clucks. Laid my call down and watched. Nothing. Picked up my phone and shot a short video of where I was sitting. This is just a couple of minutes before the hen appeared and I've been looking to see if maybe I caught her somewhere in the video. I don't think so. You can see a long lane through the trees at the :21 second mark. That's where I got her.
https://youtu.be/uNzZhIKlzX0?featurePut my phone away, and made a few more soft clucks. Was watching my 11 o'clock. Then I slowly turned my head right and looked at my 2:30 postion and saw a hen about 30 yards out with her neck straight up looking in my direction. She never made a sound and came in completely silently. My gun was pointed at 11 o'coclk so I just watched her. She must have gotten nervous because she started putting and walked away. Didn't run, just kind of meandered off. When she went behind some brush, I turned and got my call and scootched around so I could shoot in her direction. I gave a couple more clucks and set the call down and shouldered my gun in her direction. She came back and stepped out into a straight lane about 40 yards away. Neck straight up looking in my direction again. I had my bead on her but was a little worried since she seemed pretty far and I had my 20 gauge. I had patterned the gun with TSS #7 and it patterned well and I decided to trust it. I touched her off. The shot hit her head and neck and I saw feathers poof off her. She tipped forward head first and except for some nervous spastic flapping and flopping, that's all she wrote. She ended up about 2 feet from where she tipped.
I walked over to her. I found my shell's flight control wad about half way between my spot and her.
A little shameless plug for Hank's Game Calls
Freezing. It was supposed to be in the 40s and that's what I dressed for. Never got above freezing. I always carry 10 shells with me. Given the cost of TSS, I had 2 #7 TSS shells, both in the gun. I had 8 #4 lead back up rounds.
After-kill video.
https://youtu.be/x22NsP-nst4The poor girl would have had a hard winter. Her crop was completely empty. I opened her gizzard and just about the only thing in there was gravel and a couple small green buds.
Anyways, that's 2 of 3 I am allowed in a single year. So my 2022-2023 season is 2/3rds over. I'll have to wait for spring to hunt again and, God willing, take a bearded bird.
