Now you have to get the feel for this one.
It is May 6th 2009. In the mountains of WV, it has been raining for what seems like weeks. I am down here in NC, getting ready to head home for a few days for some turkey hunting. From every report that I get, the season is bad, birds are shut up, nothing is happening. So what do I do? I make the 5 hour trip to WV.
Waking up on the 7th at 4 am, I am greeted with thunderstorms and rain, I get ready and head on out. During the 30 minute drive to the 25 acres we own, I am wondering what I am doing, it is raining hard, storming, but I keep on going. I get to the spot, I forgot my flashlight /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif Well its 300 miles away, so I am sure I know my way around. I can hear the creek roaring, so I have to go the long way around.
I skip hunting on our steep 25 acres, there is nothing on it anyway /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif and go onto another farm. I am hunting this blind, no scouting, last time I saw turkeys here was about 13 yrs ago. I am just listening for gobbling or anything.
I keep moving around, trying to get a bird to sound off, when about 0630, the bottom drops out! The rain is coming down, thundering and lighting, only thing I can do is get under a tree and wait it out. After being soaked to the bone, I move back toward the vehicle.
I am jsut topping the last hill before it drops off into our 25 acre property. All of a sudden, I hear something, is that a gobbler? Yep it sure is. In our 25 acres that doesn't hold any game /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif So I move on down to a old grade, and see if he will talk to me. I yelp a few times, nothing, then I give him some excited cutts, and he lets loose. I know he is not going to come up this steep hill, so I move down to a 4 wheeler path, that cuts down into the holler.
Getting to the path, I set up and yelp a little. He gobbles, back where I just was at! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif I scoot across the ridge about 30 yards, moving toward him. He gobbles again, he is coming! I just sit down, he is just thundering coming my way. I give him a few purrs on the slate, and here he comes. At about 25 yards, he raises up, looking at that blob, wondering what it is, and that blob puts a good shot on him.
He ends up being a double bearded beard, around 3/4" spurs, don't know how much he weighed. I was always told if I could find a bird by himself, gobbling, it would be easy. I wouldn't say it was easy, but it was the fastest I have every got one in. He was the first WV bird I had every killed. I got into turkey hunting while stationed in MO, I had just got a jake the week before in NC.
I hunted the next two days, never heard or saw another one. The only bird I heard, was the only one I killed.