The rooster crows at the break of dawn tomorrow, opening day here in VA. The blind is set up, the box call tuned in, Lord I hope it don't rain. I'm gettin' up early let the gobblin' begin, Gonna be a long night just the same.
On to plan B. I spooked 2 birds off their roost (50' from my blind set up had no idea they roosted there) at 6:20 am. Sat and stewed in the blind anyway, called some yelps now and then no gobblin'. All was quiet, at around 8:30 am still in blind, just finished a few yelps, call still in my hand, into the left front window steps a hen at about 17 yards. Popped right out in view from behind some mountain laurel, the ugly grey like face had the hairy eyeball on me as it walked from left to right to the center of window. Then... I notice shiny bronze on the rump, call still in my hand, she ( IT ) passed the center window strap (call is on the ground now and left hand has picked up the bow) hanging down the front is a beard about 6 to 7" long! May have been an ugly faced bird but was no hen for sure. By now I'm anchored but HE has moved to far right corner of the window, had to lean ahead just a touch to get the pin on him, very bad idea. Hit too high at about 25 yards, not a feather, he flinched a bit when the arrow hit the ground then walked on. Stuck it out till noon, can only hunt till noon in Apr. can go all day in May. Was a good day, nice weather, called in a bird, he got away clean, saw some turkeys. Gonna let that area cool for few days and check out some new property tomorrow.
Thanks guys, I used to have access to 2200 acres but money has been too tight for the lease dues the past 2 years so I only have around 50 acres in small parcels this year. That makes things a quite a bit tougher, have to be selective when and where to go so as not to wear out these areas. All in all I was lucky to see birds much less get a shot, so I'm pretty happy about that. Got time yet, my season runs from April 11th to May 3rd 1/2 hr before sunrise till noon. then May 4th till May 16th all day. 3 birds a year, toms only in spring season, hens or toms in the fall. They called for rain yesterday so I planned on setting up in a grass field next door, waited till early morning to catch the latest weather report. At 6:30am they were calling for over 2 to 3" so I went out on the deck with my coffee, it was misting at the time. Sure enough heard the first gobble of the year somewhere off past the direction of the grass field. Got the blind and decoys set up and yelped a bit and listened, waited. All remained quite. Even the rain held off like it wasn't raining at all, right up till around 11:00am then it let loose, hard down pour. On to plan C.
Keep at it man!! Good luck! My season here in ohio doesn't start until the 20th but I have a farm in KY I can hunt and it comes in the 18th so if all goes well we'll have one down Saturday!! fingers crossed!
Best of luck Nathan, I've see a lot of nice birds come out of Ohio, what's the population like in Kentucky ?
I'm not sure the exact number, but I read an article a while back that said Kentucky has one of the highest wild turkey populations in America.
Not to say it is though.. When you look up the best states, most reviews don't list Kentucky and you see a lot of people asking why.
Had three different toms fire up yesterday around the house and starting to see a good amount out strutting. Hoping to get out to the lease this weekend to do some food plot work and see what birds are around there. I am hoping one is still around from last year that had a limp. Almost had this guy a few times last year and last I seen him was back in late November when I was out there
Setup a ground blind on 1 farm today, and quickly scouted another farm before work. The 2nd farm we drove right up on a Tom(accidentally), and he just strutted around the middle of a field while we backed out. Cant wait to get out there next week! I will be behind the camera first to try and get my buddy a nice Tom.
Same here. Have 4 guys with the early tag so I will be with them calling/ filming until my hunt comes in then another 3 plus myself for the late hunt
Me and a buddy of mine (bry2211) hunt and film together a lot and just picked up another farm yesterday and im going to get permission for another one tonight so were gonna do a little more scouting this wknd and get some blinds set up! We have a youth season coming in Saturday here in ohio so he's gonna take his boy and our regular season comes in Monday so we'll be in the blind early with our bows hopefully to pull of a double!!! But in the meantime we have a 300acre KY farm we can hunt and their regular season comes in Saturday as well so were hoping his boy gets one down Saturday in ohio, if so were heading to KY sunday!! Were beyond excited for this season to start! Good luck boys! Lets get some Thunder Chickens on the ground!!
Heck yeah hopefully you guys can knock down a few birds these next few days. Are these just random people where you are getting new permission or do you have some sort of lead to them? Between what you are saying and my buddy down there it seems like it is a lot easier to gain access to property down there then up here.
We went out this morning and had 4 jakes come into our decoy set, but no Gobblers today! Were gonna hit it again in the morning and hopefully we can make something happen! The farms we got the other day are people that are friends with family members. However, like you said it really doesn't seem to bad to get permission on land down here at least when it comes to turkey hunting. Now permission for deer hunting, that's a different story! lol
