Today I began the sad chore of washing my turkey camo and cleaning my shotgun. Thursday was my last day of hunting for this season. My friend (the father of the little boy I took youth season ) and I went for one last go at some birds he had heard the day before. We got in @ 530 and the birds started gobbling almost immediately. There were a total of 6 gobbling birds. The biggest bird has been shot at twice this season, once because he was standing right beside the bird that died on youth day and a second time when my friend missed him a couple weeks ago. There was also a 2 year old and 4 jakes ( which were also present at the time of the kill on youth day ) in the mix. The 5-some would gobble their heads off and begin to move our way but every time they got to within 60 yards the big bird would gobble just once, usually from another 40-50 yards back, and they would turn and head his direction. This scenario played out for 3.5 hours until we had to leave for my friend to go to work. That was it for this year....but those 6 birds better be ready for VA youth season 2020.
All told, including youth season, I had 12 mature toms and 4 jakes within gun range of me this season. I got 3 birds myself, one for my father-in-law, and one for my little buddy. I missed one myself and called in birds for 2 friends, one a clean miss and the other could not get a shot because of some perfectly placed underbrush. For a WV season that started out with 4" of snow, it turned out to be phenomenal.
