I showed up at the farm, got into my spot at 3:37, was all settled in with decoys out & our blind set at 4:15 or so. First gobbler gave a rumble at 5:02. By 5:45 I could see 8 other hunters on the property, where only 4 had permission to be hunting, and that included myself and my son. At first light, I was on the hot spot, 30 turkeys inside 75 yards. Only bad thing was, I had 6 hunters on all sides of us, 4 guys inside 75 yards. Was very unnerving.
2 additional hunters came straight into the roosting area at day break & chased the turkeys all to the north west, directly away from us. Was one of the most depressing days in the woods ever. I managed to call in one turkey, a hen. I was hoping she was dragging one of the gobblers with her, but it was not to be. Not one turkey was shot at opening morning. I elected to pack up my gear and take my son out of the zone, as we ended up with 13 hunters in view of us by 9am. Sardines! Like a gun season opener on public land OR worse! And, this is just hunters I could see on the edges in clear view. This farm is thousands of acres. Could have been a load more I wasn't seeing I'm sure. One of the illegal hunters actually packed up just before we left, as he was only 50 yards off of our set up & he had hunters on his other side as well. He likely lucked out & didn't have to deal with the law a couple hours latter!
I told the land owner what was going on before I left. He's a great guy & he knows I come there with my kids. I wasn't even telling him how to run his business, but wanted him to know why I was leaving so early. Thanked him for letting us hunt after giving him a little run down on the mornings hunt. Apparently he wasn't to happy with the trespassers, as The cop car was just pulling onto the property when I left. Not sure how it all played out. I know someone, besides my son and I, was likely unhappy with the outcome of their opening day antics. 6 of the guys were going to have a hard time making a get away because they parked on the main road & their 4 cars were pretty much locked up with no place to escape. Several of the other hunters appeared to come from surrounding homes off the edge of the farm I think. I could see their lights walking from over a mile away to the roosting area on this part of the farm. As they got closer I told my son to check it out, and at first he wasn't seeing the lights moving towards us, but in the end, he agreed they were getting closer. Was alarming to him as well. Not one of the other hunters had permission. Was funny, as I was walking in after deciding it was to dangerous to stay, we passed directly by 2 hunters & neither would even acknowledge us as we walked past them.
The only really cool thing was that there was a huge gobble storm as the sun was about to come up. The hens were going crazy calling back, and that was fun for my son, as he had never gone turkey hunting yet with any action. When I managed to get one of the hens to peal off from the main group leaving the area, that got our hopes up too for a bit. The hen stayed in our decoyes for about an hour. When I stopped calling to her, she finally kinda drifted off. She gave us a show at 5-10 feet for a good long time.
I'll likely drive north again this week & make a few more hunts. I'm hoping all got straightened out. Kind of a bummer you can't even hunt on private property without trouble like this. Crazy!
