Turkey Hunting in Quantico

Last night I got off the plane from Cleveland and drove right to Quantico and camped out in the Hunter Parking until 4:15 this morning.

At 4:45 the window rolled up and I had the choice between 14A and 17B as I was the second person in line for the morning. Not sure where the other guy came from but he was headed to 14A and I did not want to have to think about it. I was talking with someone there and he gave me a suggestion to hunt a certain section of 17B that was inside of a large fence around it.

I headed right there, pulled inside the fence and pulled over. I sat in the truck for about 10 minutes and let the light rain shower pass over. I got out of my truck and pulled on my camo and walked 50 feet when I heard the very first gobble. For the next two hours we traded conversation. I would yelp and he would gobble! There were times he was 70 yards away just hammer gobbling and others he would be farther. It was cat and mouse and he won. At 8am he shut completely and I waited him out for an hour and with not a peep I headed out to check out the power lines running across the back of the area.

I did not hear a peep in the 30 minutes I was walking around and decided that I would head back, drive by a couple of other areas that I thought were worth looking at for deer season in the fall and head out.

As I came back the old boy was just inside the fence and I pulled in again and tried to circle wide around him and get in about 100 yards and then lightly yelped and chirped for the next 2 hours until noon. Nothing! All in all the greatest day of hunting I have had in Quantico. This bird is only going to be killed by someone who can remain dead quiet and ambush him and maybe someone pushing him by aggressively calling from the other side so he runs into a trap. This bird is one of the biggest turkeys that I have ever seen in the wild and ambushing him is still going to be a tremendous accomplishment. Hopefully he will be there on wednesday, and if I am really lucky I will get another shot at him!

Brandon and I are headed out to hunt with Dennis Campbell in Charlottesville at a little honey hole he has picked out. Hopefully Brandon will be able to score on his very first turkey! I will be filming the hunt to place up on the blog!

Saturday Turkey Hunting

Saturday morning found me up at 4:30 am headed to Quantico to get an archery pass for Camp Upshur in unit 17. I got the pass and headed out and was told I could only park in one of 3 parking areas. The first area was right along the river and I wanted to set the blind up along a field so I passed on that. The other two area according to the map were in areas where there were tons of Marines running around in field training. I decided that the Turkeys were not going to be very cooperative to all of these training marines so I drove back, handed in my pass and called it a day. I had a little girls soccer game to attend at noon and some things are more important then turkey hunting, although not very many!

Will be back at it again next Friday and will see how it goes!

Saturdays Turkey Hunt

Saturdays hunt was a good one although I heard not a single gobble! I heard a couple of gun shots in areas around me but I have no idea where the turkeys where. The weather was excellent and slightly overcast. I saw four or five deer over the course of 5 hours. I had the opportunity to explore the area very well and I found some great areas for deer season and I am looking forward to the fall and getting my stands set.

While exploring I found that in less then two weeks the life of spring is sprung up all around. There were turtles, frogs, squirrels, birds, deer and not a darn turkey anywhere I looked!

Frogs eggs
Different frogs eggs

One of a couple of different turtles I found.
A slightly smaller turtle!
More frogs eggs
Frogs eggs. It would be interesting to know which frogs were laying which eggs. None the less it was a wonderful day!

Quick pictures from todays spring turkey hunt

This morning I hunted with the shotgun because I wanted to get into an area that I had not hunted and hear some birds. I did hear one gobbler 3 times at 6:30 am and then nothing! I moved closer called lightly till 8am and then moved to explore the area. I was hunting in unit 16A and it has some really nice little areas. I look forward to coming back in deer season and I am hoping to get back tomorrow morning bright and early to get a little closer to where I think that gobbler was roosted.

I love Quantico, amazing area, filled with wildlife but I really really wish we could go in the evening and roost birds and not be hunting so blindly. I guess in time I will learn the areas much better! Today I was the only person in this entire area of at least 500 acres or more...Back at it tomorrow at 4:45am!

Virginia Dogwoods!


Unknown tree but I like them! I was told once by Richard Rose the name of this tree and how they are very prized in Japan for the wood and flowers. I understand they used to fly over areas and look for them in ultralights and then sweep in and if they were honest, buy them from the landowner and if they were dishonest steal them.

Cruel Spring?

Terrier Man wrote a really great post called "Cruel Spring" on his blog. It made me think about a day of hunting I will regret for the rest of my life. His post is about seeing a vixen hit by a car on the side of the road and thinking for the rest of the weekend the poor pups that most definitely starved in their den without the mom to feed them. This story reminds me of a this day many years back in which I was turkey hunting out in Orange County. The farmer who had given me permission to hunt on his land asked me to take any groundhogs and any foxes that I came upon. I had never taken a fox before and to be honest did not even think about it as I was blood thirsty for a turkey. Hunting this farm I saw turkeys every day and in four years I never killed a turkey on this farm. Anyways about year two, I am set up on this power line and I start to call real light and out pops this fox at 40 yards and walks right at me. I pulled up the shotgun when the fox got to 20 yards and dropped it dead in its tracks. I was excited for about two seconds. On the third second a thought popped into my head "are these things even in season?" and on the fourth second I realized I had no idea what the regulations were and I realized that I was not going to eat this fox so why again did I shoot it. I walked up to it and rolled it over and it was a female with milk. I got very queasy with the feeling that I knew I had done something very wrong! I looked for the den but to no avail. To this day I regret that kill and I think about it every spring while out turkey hunting! I now enough to know what I did was wrong and unethical and I made a mistake. The farmer was very happy with the kill but I will remember it with that queasy feeling for the rest of my life. Thank you Terrier Man for a great post!

Where are the gobblers?

Well the beard on my face is getting thicker and the lack of gobbles in the woods has me perplexed. I walked all over 6C in Quantico and I never heard a bird gobble. For turkey season, getting an archery pass to hunt is very very easy! Those who were looking for shotgun areas were running out of good places to go!

This was my first attempts at hunting out of a blind and I am already learning a couple of lessons. First of all this blind is about 15 lbs and with my tripod, my video camera some turkey calls, my Mathews Switchback and a cold soda I hit the woods before dark and set about a third of a mile from the truck. Not a single gobble. I hung out and called sparingly and then aggressively and nothing! I headed out of the woods to hit the other side of 6C and found the edge of a trout stream and some steeper hills. I climbed up one and set up on the top of a hill and did some more calling until 11:15 and backed off the mountain. I stopped by to drop off my pass and got back on the road home. I did not ask how many turkeys were taken this fine Saturday but I am sure some folks got lucky.

This week my goal is to get in two good mornings of hunting and I am going to be bringing my shotgun to get in some run and gun time in so I can explore some new areas. I need to find a loud aggressive gobbler with a bit of luck on my side before 9am so I can get on the road to the office. If it takes longer, it takes longer so be it. I have never been a big run and gun hunter for spring gobblers but I am going to try and make it happen. Wish me luck and I am more then willing to take advise in the comments section!

Turkey Beard

I am growing a turkey beard. Some people grow a playoff beard, I am growing a turkey beard. As soon as you see a picture of me with a nice gobbler, the beard will be shaved off no matter what! If I skunk out this spring, it is going to be a really long summer though.

Opening Day of Turkey Season

Last turkey season I spent two days in the woods. One with my good friend Brian Parks and one day with my mom. My heart and soul were not into hunting. The days I spent there I needed the love and support of my family and friends more then I need the meat or the trophy.

This year is different! I am out there to hunt and to kill! That may not sound very politically correct. The correct term in todays world is harvest! I don't hate the word harvest, it just doesn't fit how I feel when I am going out there. I am not farming animals, I am pursuing them, chasing them and choosing to kill them as a part of the hunt! It is not the most important part of the hunt to me, but it is a part of the hunt that I have missed over the past couple of years.

Personally, I am out there to hunt and kill! It is a drive and a passion to get myself into position and to have the opportunity to take the animals that are in on my list. This year my goals are to take a turkey(or two), a bear, an antelope, 4 deer, geese, ducks and at least one coyote! I have not eaten good clean game meat in over 2 years and I want to fill the freezer. I am hunting for memories, trophies and meat! I am not however going to miss the small things on my trips and I will be striving to continue to bring you the stories of my days in the field.

My morning started off with pulling into the parking area and rolling down the windows while I finished off my soda and I just listened to the day coming alive. I looked out the window and a buck was walking right towards me in the truck. He took 10 good minutes and walked right in front of the truck and crossed the road. He was definitely a young buck because he just seemed to strut by the front of the truck oblivious to anything else going on in the world.

It is amazing to me how quickly I can get turned around in the woods. I have never hunted this particular area in Quantico and in fact I have not hunted in Quantico since 2004. I walk into the woods in the dark and bam, I get turned around. I did not know I was walking in a giant circle but I was. Luckily, I finally heard a cackle and started to call. This was my first time hunting spring gobblers with a bow and my set up was all to hell and the turkey came in directly behind me and then ran off like a shot when I tried to turn. I never heard a gobble, just some hens cackling and the sound of the gobbler behind me and the sound of him running away!

My next find was this old Esso Oil can as I realized I was 100 yards from the truck. I dug out the map and decided to explore the area. I hunted in 6C and I found a ton of treasures. The area looks to be a deer heaven with a ton of great areas to explore for archery season. There are a lot of great stand areas and it looks promising for deer season! I took some pictures of some of the treasures I found!

The Dragon Tree!

Some things just crawl out of nature! This dragon needed to come out of the tree and show himself to the world.
It is the small things that are sometimes the most interesting!

The little designs of nature can be just as interesting as a painting in an art gallery!

The Rabbit knot!

Knots
The Bass Knot!
A matching pair!


Spring is coming!!!! Though not this weekend. The rain was not far behind the end of my hunt! The last 20 minutes of my walk out of the woods was drizzling and the rest of the weekend got worse and worse! We need the rain but WOW!

The Trophies that I took home for my garden! It seems that no matter where I go in Virginia I find these blue metal buckets! They must of been very popular at one time because they are spread all over the area in the woods near old dump sites!