Wow! What a tough season!

[hookinembig]

First of all I want to thank the Lord for keeping my family and I safe during the season. What a tough season. I only heard roost gobbles and can count the number of gobbles on two hands I heard throughout the season. I was only semi able to work one bird and that was on opening day. He gobbled to my neighbors yelp who was sitting on the property line, then I yelped he gobbled I gave him a bit yelped again he gobble then went quiet when he hit the ground until he showed up and worked over the decoy until I shot him. Other than the first day this season was way to close to deer hunting for me. Making sets and cold calling every 15 to 30 minutes staring off into the distance is rough. Called in 7 or 8 hens this season and some with in 5 or 6 feet but no gobblers or even jakes after the first day. Not quite sure what happened to the gobblers once they hit the ground this year. I know there where gobblers around because I heard a least two gobble on Thursday morning. Over all I hunted 11 or 12 days and heard probably 8 or 9 gobbles the whole time. My dad hunted 15 to 16 days and only heard 4 gobbles and that was not until last Thursday and no bird on the ground but also called in multiple hens.

I assume the kill numbers will be down this year and a ton of gobblers got to sit and watch us walk around like fools and learn all of our tricks. So next year could be interesting to say the least. Some records should fall next year with the amount of birds that got the pass this year. Good luck to any of you guys still hunting. Now on to look for some land or a hunt club to join because we are not renewing our current leases due to price increases($1350 a year to $2500 a year) and they are clear cutting the other tract we leased. Let me know if you know of any good hunt clubs in the Central VA(Powhatan/Cumberland) area or land that you guys know of for lease.

[cut_un]

Have to agree that it was a very unusual spring season! A warm March and damp rainey days really hurt the hunting! I for one had to change up and scout more and sit up in ambush points! Only"went too" a Roosted bird twice! Both times, they would fly down to hens and payed zero attention to the unseen hen! Did kill two of the three by finding strut marks in the club road , patterning them and laying in wait , the ole boy would follow his hen just like past days, last bird I killed was 11:00 the next to last week! Agree, for me, was more like deer hunting and that is not what draws me to the sport! I love to get into their head! Definitely was a challenge to figure the best way to pull the trigger! Our group of club thugs only killed 4 this spring, compared to 7 last year! Agree, the kill will /should be down this year! The good news, should be more mean turkeys to play with next spring! Not sure how you and your dad feel about dog clubs? Have a good club located in southern Chesterfield, has a good pop of all game! Always willing to talk to good folk! Cut

[Fisherhunter460]

How was your hatch 2 years ago? I read an article a couple years ago that the hatch 2 years prior to the season has a lot to do with the quality of hunting. It read on that most of the birds killed are 2-3 years old. So if you had a bad hatch then that might be part of the problem. Not to mention the weather this year has been less than optimal for hunting.

[cut_un]

Remember we killed done big birds last spring, plus a good hatch! I think the warm March and foul weather had a lot to do with this years harvest!! Or lack of. lol

[don novicki]

What gets me is that I have seen or heard very few guys out hunting this spring. All the usual hot spots (that I avoid) have been empty even on opening day. The weather hasn't been really decent yet as it was snowing yesterday ( Girard Pa.) and was only 38 this morning. It just seems like there aren't too many guys out hunting. Not good, not good at all.......

[cut_un]

Wow.... Understand the weather issues but, over this way... We have too many folks hunting spring turkeys! A lot less competition would not hurt my feelings!!

[Fisherhunter460]

You just need more space. I'm fortunate to be young and spry to hunt the places other people won't Not many people will walk 2 miles in the dark to get to the places no one else will go. I've only run into three people on the public land I hunt in WV. I've been hunting the same place for the last 4 years. I do skip Saturdays though.

I recall one morning where I sat with an older gentleman. He and I exchanged calls for an hour or so. We eventually walked into each other. I asked how he came to be where I was hunting and he told me of a road that paralleled a creek. At the time I carried a topo map as not to get lost. He showed me on the map. That was my second year in the area. It was a day of fortune for me, but a sad day for him as he told me it was going to be his last hunt. He swapped several stories with me and told me about the last turkey he killed earlier that week on the road. I've walked that several many times every spring since.

The other gentleman was a teacher at the local high school. He caught up to me on the road last spring on a Saturday. We talked awhile before he took his stride and left me in the dust.

And then there is the guy that rides his 4 wheeler and scopes people with his rifle on the gas. He and I exchanged words, but they weren't pleasant.

Not that any of that is important, but here's something interesting from the WV DNR.
Hunting prospects for the 2016 West Virginia spring turkey season

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Hunting prospects look promising for the 2016 spring turkey season in West Virginia, which runs April 18 through May 14, with a special one-day youth season April 16.

Since the typical gobbler harvested is usually a 2-year-old bird, the Division of Natural Resources routinely uses the brood reports from the previous two years to estimate harvest trends. On a statewide level, the brood reports from 2014 were 30 percent higher than 2013 and mimicked the 5-year average, indicating that relative number of birds should be higher than last year.

Additionally, the brood reports from 2015 were 22 percent above the year before and 14 percent above the 5-year average on a statewide basis, indicating that more turkeys should be available this spring gobbler season than last. Despite this improved abundance, surviving hens at this time of year are absolutely critical for future population growth. Hunters are strongly urged to protect their hens. Killing a hen in the spring ensures fewer birds both in the fall and following year.

As spring progresses, many hunters quit hunting for a variety of reasons, including a perception that the birds have finished gobbling. Highly vocal turkeys that are more prone to calling are taken during the first week of the season, generating 58 percent of the season's harvest.

Good-to-excellent hunting, however, can still be had through the end of the season. According to a number of hunters, some of the best hunts take place in the last week and the last days of the season as gobblers that are interested in breeding easily come to calls. Also, the earlier start of the season means there will be less vegetation to block a hunter's vision during the last week of the season.