Things have finally slowed down enough after a bachelor party and marrying off my lil brother this past weekend to add a season ending post.
This year was the first in many that I haven't traveled out west for Rios or Merriams, for that matter. . . Easterns were the only subspecies I chased this year which in itself made it frustrating.
But none the less I had tons of fun, hunted in 6 states and added 4 new states onto the final quest.
I didn't start my season until Ga opened in later March, opening weekend we had the Slaton's in town and despite the absolute terrible weather we managed to scratch 3 longbeards in 2 days. Joe's bird had 3 beards and one of Joey's sported 1 5/16" spurs and weighed in at 23lbs!! We encountered lightening storms and torrential rains but most importantly we encountered shotgun blasts. One of these birds made in on camera.
After that we had a little time to spread some Georgia public land love before heading off to Louisiana for a spell.
In Louisiana, I found 5.5 days of aggravation. I should have returned with a bird but for some unknown reason I made a rookie mistake and it'll haunt me until I tag that LA bird. It was a long ride back to GA but I left everything on the field so to speak so Louisiana birds better look out in 2014.
Back home we spread more Ga love. . . these 2 made it to the camera.
This one didnt.
I flew out April 26th for another run at NY and NJ with my good buddy Marc. We hunted hard for a couple days in NJ and the gobbling was practically non existent. We hooked up with another good friend up the road a piece and the birds were much more cooperative! Had a fat 2 year old act a fool and upside down within a half hour
We tried til noon the next day for Marc a NJ bird but it just didn't come together. The next day would be New York's opener and that's where we'd be. NY started with a bang, the bang just wasn't followed by flopping wings. . . . neither was the next bang a couple hours later, or the next the following morning. Marc had a curse he couldn't shake. The birds were talkative and right at closing time on the 2nd day it was my turn to try and pass Marc some of the good mojo. When this longbeard danced into 35 yards we finally had one that would let us take pictures.
The next morning we slipped in tight between 3 gobbling birds and Marc finally shook the bad fortune, bringing down his own bird for pictures. This loud mouth made it to the camera also.
We chased birds around for another day and I was able to video Marc taking another gobbler. Also helped his friend put the end to a bird that he'd been wrestling for 3 days. (I'll have to find that picture)
So on that note, it was back to Georgia where we added another movie star to the lineup and then off to West Virginia. Like the beginning of all of my 2013 trips this one started quiet. I was hunting with good friends and in an area that I knew turkeys existed but it was not evident during the 3 days I was there, not a single gobble. Luckily, I have another buddy about 2.5 hours north in WV- goes by the name of sugarray.
Raymond is the man. He extended the invite and I joined him the next morning and finally heard some birds gobbling. Unfortunately the rain moved in just after daybreak and hung around until quitting time. He had to work the following day and I still hate that. . . at 11ish that day I connected with a fine WV gobbler sporting 1 7/16" spurs!
From there I was off to my last stop for 2013 and only had 2 days to get it done, being as it had taken until Friday to chase down a WV gobbler- Saturday and Sunday were all that was left in the Ohio season. Saturday was spent on a WMA in southern WV on a recommendation from a local. I walked over 8 miles that day and only had a hen encounter to show, no gobbles. That evening I was able to get access on a place in OH through my NJ buddy who deer hunts the area. It rained heavy that entire evening so I had nothing to go off of other than the farmers word. That was enough, my biggest spurred gobbler to date was dead 10 minutes after fly down on the last day of Ohio's season. Beard was 10 7/8", spurs at 1 1/2" and had some funny little secondaries sprouting below them. He weighed in at 21lbs two days later when I got him to the taxidermist.
