Flood Gates are Opening!!

[HillclimberWV]

Im on the board. Scored around 53. Will get pictures up later. I have to go to work.

[Muzzy61]

Great, Congrats !

[notsure]

Nice bird Hillclimber. Congratulations!

[JeffC]

Yes Sir, way to get it done Hillclimber!! 

[lacire]

Nice bird congratulations, when you get time maybe you can let us here your story.

[JeffC]

Great Job with pictures Hillclimber, Congrats again, I will get it posted up tonight. Looking forward to the story!!

[HillclimberWV]

Nice bird congratulations, when you get time maybe you can let us here your story.

It was on a piece of private that I just got access to about a month ago. I stepped foot on the property for the first time Saturday morning. The property is about 260 acres with 2 main ridges running the length of the property. The ridges run out into an open field which borders up to the main road. When I was in their Saturday I saw a couple of hens milling around in the field on my way out. There was plenty of feeding sign across the property so I knew it had to hold several birds but didn't hear a single gobble. I was going to wait to hunt this property until later in the season but it is very close to my house and since I didn't have the whole day off from work I figured id give it a shot.

The forecast today was supposed to be windy with rain starting around 8am and lasting throughout the day. I decided to make my way to the back of the property as far from the fields as possible and set up on the densest portion of Turkey sign I found. My thought was if nothing is working good off the roost I could always work my way back to the fields closer to my truck. I got into the spot I wanted around 5:30 and camped out waiting on daylight. Right before daylight I heard a gobble behind me back towards field edge.  That was the only gobble I heard today. It was far enough away that I decided to stay put and call softly to see if I could get another bird to fire up. It started to rain just as it was getting daylight enough to see. Right around 6:45 I had a hen fly down to within 20 yards of me and start feeding. I watched her feed past me and I stayed put until about 7:30. It was raining so hard at that point that I couldn't hear anything and I was tired of getting wet.

I started working my way back towards the field staying just off the top of the ridge as I went. As I got within Eyesite of the field I stopped and called on my wingbone for a couple minutes. I was still just under the top of the ridge and decided to ease over the top of it to check the field on the other side. As I poked my head over I could see a white head bobbing towards me. I hit the dirt and positioned myself with a big white oak between me and the gobbler. At the time he was the only bird I saw for sure. I kept inching my way to the base of the tree and when I got in position to lift my head up high enough to see over the edge a hen pops her head up not 10 feet from the end of my gun barrel. I thought for sure my goose was cooked. I was still laying flat on my belly in shooting position in a staring contest with this hen. Directly another head pops up into view then another and another. Another hen puts from behind the tree and the 4 hens move out of my eyesight behind the tree. They are still within 5 yards of me as I hear them start moving to my left. I knew i saw a gobbler in the bunch but he had not come into view yet. I swing the gun slowly to the left side of the tree and wait. Soon 4 hens and 3 gobblers come into view working to my left maybe 10 yards away. I picked out the largest of the three. They were all pretty close to the same size I'd say they were all 2 year old's. I let them drift off to about 20 yards so my pattern wasn't so tight and clucked one time. The one I picked out stop long enough for me to cut loose with the longbeard xr's. There was a few seconds where I thought about letting him walk since it was opening day and he wasn't huge but I quickly shook that off.  I was back to the truck by 8:30.

I really like it better when they are gobbling their head off but that just doesn't always happen.

[Muzzy61]

Cool hunt. congrats!

[JeffC]

Great hunt, take those "gifts" when they show up. Congrats again, and thanks for adding date, we forgot when making score card. Now you can spur hunt, ice is broken!!

[lacire]

Boom, boom, boom, at ten feet I think those hen's would have heard my heart pounding and skedaddle off. Congratulations, great story.

[Spellnj3]

Great story!! Congrats!!   

[Tom007]

Nice job, congrats.....

[JeffC]

Come on AUSTINC, you get that bird posted up, and we are getting closer to the lead...

[HillclimberWV]

Boom, boom, boom, at ten feet I think those hen's would have heard my heart pounding and skedaddle off. Congratulations, great story.

My heart was definitely racing. It was well worth the price of admission.

[JeffC]

austinc we need to hear your story on the 2 birds you have taken!!