It was another wild one in the turkey hills of Virginia. Ill fill y'all in after we get some down time. But I have to confess, I didn't shoot him with my 20ga sorry. Got him with my 410
Virginia
5/6/2021
The afternoon of 5/5 I was helping Tony spread rocks for his fire pit area. While spreading those rocks we hear a bird gobble in the distance. Then we hear him again and then again. He looks at me and says well that's enough for me lets go see if we can get close to that bird. My gosh I about died on the small 3 mile loop that we took. And as most devil birds do this none gobbles and gobbles on the far hill side. We make our way to him and he gobbles at our calls once we've gotten half way to him, when we finally get to the ridge he's on I tell Tony, you know he's going to be standing where we just called from. We make a call and nothing, we start moving around the ridge and he's nowhere to be found. As we ease out on the point of the ridge the highest spot around, we hear him gobble down below us, yep right where we had been earlier. So, we literally hit our rear-ends and slide 400' straight down (well I made it about 250' before I got wedged under a downed tree log. Lol I saw it coming but couldn't slow down, until it hit it that is) That was one fun\crazy ride. We get on the same ridge as the bird and he's gobbling his head off but there is a power line that is grown up in briars between us and he won't cross it and we can't get to him. He's gobbling his head off; he finally works his way off and I jump some rocks and crawl the briar patch to get to his side. Well after a couple hours he flies up to roost and he's 75yds from me and I can't move. I know the exact tree and limb he's on.
The next morning Bradley, Tony and I slip into position and begin the long wait for daylight. The bird starts gobbling and gobbling and gobbling, starting around first light and he finally flies down at 7:30 I was just about to have to just spook him because I was in such a bind, as soon as he flies down I can hear Bradley and Tony both shift and give a big sigh of relief. Lol all three of us were hurting so bad. The bird flies down and goes straight to the top of the ridge to a field edge. As were trying to make a plan a car alarm goes off in the distance and spooks the bird. Man, that was a cool hunt but not the outcome we had hoped for.
We start walking the ridges looking and calling hoping to strike something but to no avail. We had actually called in this one spot were the trial meets another trail on the edge of a small field and we didn't hear anything so we kept prospecting. On our way back out Tony hit his glass call and a bird gobbles not 80yds away in a mad dash we all get set up, I'm up front and Tony and Bradley get on a tree behind me. Tony makes a soft call and he gobbles again but now he's cut the distance in half, I steady my 410 where I think he'll top the hill and dang if he doesn't walk up exactly where I was aiming. I didn't even move my gun just squeezed the trigger. He flips backwards and I just wilt by the base of tree. It was an amazing ending to an awesome morning, and he is a fine bird too. Was so glad that Tony and Bradley got to be there for it.
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