“Beep,” “Beep,” “Beep.” 

As I go to shut off my nagging 4 am alarm, half-tired and very confused, I am suddenly hit with an adrenaline rush most people don’t feel at 4 in-the-morning. This is the sudden realization it is time to throw on the camo, get together my hunting gear, load my gun, and go hunt turkeys. As an inexperienced turkey hunter that has had a lot of beginner’s luck, I was cautiously optimistic, but still understood my limitations as a hunter. 

After I gathered everything that was needed, I made my way upstairs from my buddy Jack’s basement to meet him in his kitchen. We filled up our water bottles, put our boots on, and got in his ATV to start making our way to where we will setup for the morning.

Before this experience, I had already gone out turkey hunting on 4 occasions this season. Since West Virginia is a state that only allows you to hunt turkeys until 1pm—no evening hunting—turkey hunting always seems like a grind, especially for the non-early birds (pun intended) like me out there. The first three times I went out, there wasn’t much to show for it. There were some light gobbles, but not a lot going on. The previous day, Jack, our buddy Gene, and I sat in a “pop-up” blind near where a turkey was roosted. Turkeys are intelligent creatures and are hard to kill. Unlike deer, you’re not hunting turkey for meat (that’s the cherry on top), you’re hunting a turkey to say you outsmarted a turkey. And this gobbler that was roosted near us, was smart.

First off, he roosted until 9/9:30 am—which is nuts! Turkeys are usually off the roost around sunrise. Second, there was a hen that was interested in mating. Instead of the gobbler coming off the roost and making his way toward the hen, the hen came to him. On the hen’s way to the gobbler, she got in a “fight” with Jack’s mouth calling. While I was disappointed the hen was making its way up to the gobbler, and not the reverse, watching Jack and a hen get into a 5-minute verbal argument, was pretty fulfilling. Then, of course, gobblers do what gobblers do best, and as it came off the roost to join the hen, it headed the opposite way of our location.

On our way out of Jack’s house the following morning, we packed in his ATV and headed towards his neighbor’s property. We felt like we had a better shot (no pun intended) on his neighbor’s land, and we also had permission to hunt there. We setup up early with our backs facing the edge of the forest and our fronts toward an open cattle field. 

We heard the gobblers right off the roost and right at sunrise—it was perfect. In a matter of no-time, a turkey walked across the cattle field in shooting range. While we were pretty sure it was a gobbler, we could not confirm it. There were hilly parts of the field, and between the neck and chest, where a gobbler’s beard would be, was hidden. The first rule of hunting, or shooting in general, is you don’t shoot at an unconfirmed target. And that is what we did, we let the turkey walk right by. Before we knew it, a hen came from out of nowhere and alerted the whole forest that we were there. It was time for a new plan.

Jack and I went to the end of his neighbor’s property and sat on a log pile. It was time to regroup and maybe take a quick “hunter’s nap.” As I woke up from my nap, I hear Jack say, “let’s go, the turkey from yesterday is on the property.” Jack and I quickly made our way back to the ATV.

As we arrive on Jack’s property, we park the ATV at the end of one his trails and start making our way on foot. We set up high and hoped the gobbler would make his way up to us. As we were waiting, 5 does (3 of them were pregnant) walk by. It was a beautiful sight to see animals in their natural habitat, undisturbed, and doing their own thing. After the deer pass us and were out of sight, we realized we were up too high and need to go down a little bit. We headed to where we parked the ATV, drove to the trail below, parked the ATV again, and walked to the end of that trail.

As we make our way to the end of the lower trail, Jack’s wife texts us to say the gobbler is on its way up (she could see us from the house). Jack then brings out his slate and mouth call. He pretends to be 2 different hens getting in a fight; it was brilliant, and it worked. Jack then sat behind me. We saw the turkey poke it’s head through some brush. I didn’t like the shot, so I waited a little longer. The gobbler then went behind some brush, and I heard Jack say, “shoot,” so I shot.

“BANG!”

Looking back on that beautiful West Virginia spring day, I think of the hen fights Jack got in, I think of the 5 does that were gracefully playing, I think beautiful cardinals and blue jays, I think of the hen that called us out, I think of the amazing quality time I spent with one of my best friends, and I also think of it as the day I became a much better hunter. While it was the first miss of my hunting career, and probably won’t be my last, I have much better things to show than a gobbler’s carcass. I got to experience “almost heaven, West Virginia.” And for that, I have everything to show.