The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post

bamaranger · April 27, 2024, 04:49 PM

-hunt #21. 27 April
Encouraged with my success from the day previous I hunt again this morning. I decide that since I keep hearing birds n the distance way to the east of Big Hollow, I will come in on the east side of the lease on another access road and try and get some sense as to where exactly that bunch is holding. I ride the Polaris down Ogeltree Rd, thru the big pine stands, and walk out onto a hardwood point about 1/2 mi east of my kill yesterday. I'd heard birds here scouting preseason from the county road below, and suspect the gobbling I've been hearing in the distance from Big Hollow may be from this area.

It's a flat light morning with a light breeze and I hear not a peep. That's gobbler hunting....day before (late in the season no less) I heard more birds than I have all month. This morning, same general locale.......zilch. The wind builds and by 8:00AM I decide I need to get lower to be able to hear much at all. I drop off the top 50 yds or so on the north side, and am surprised to see an absolutely gorgeous hardwood bench/shelf on the hillside just below.

I've been in this lease close to 20 years (more?) and was not aware that this little spot existed. It absolutely screams "strut zone". If I was a gobbler, I'd hang out here! It's open enough that a decoy could probably be seen by any tom's drifting in, and I plunk the lone hen I always carry in a patch of sunlight and retreat 30 yds. I fashion a simple blind from some branches lopped nearby, and settle in. Over the next 3 hours I run the big Lohman box in the wind and it sounds pretty good, to me anyhow. But I hear no answers, nor any gobbling in the distance. By 11:00 it seems every bone below my shoulder blades is screaming and I call it quits.

Highlight of the day, aside from finding the bench, is the discovery of the biggest whitetail buck rub I have ever seen. Chest high, on a sapling the diameter of a small fence post. It has been rubbed multiple seasons, a true sign post. I need to remember this bench on a good mast year. Should a fellow kill a deer here, the woods are open enough you could likely get an ATV down here to aid recovery and simplify a steep uphill drag.

But there's more gobbler hunting to be done before that!!!!!!!

April 27, 2024, 04:49 PM	#35
bamaranger Senior Member Join Date: October 9, 2009 Location: North Alabama Posts: 8,359	a new plan, hunt #21 -hunt #21. 27 April Encouraged with my success from the day previous I hunt again this morning. I decide that since I keep hearing birds n the distance way to the east of Big Hollow, I will come in on the east side of the lease on another access road and try and get some sense as to where exactly that bunch is holding. I ride the Polaris down Ogeltree Rd, thru the big pine stands, and walk out onto a hardwood point about 1/2 mi east of my kill yesterday. I'd heard birds here scouting preseason from the county road below, and suspect the gobbling I've been hearing in the distance from Big Hollow may be from this area. It's a flat light morning with a light breeze and I hear not a peep. That's gobbler hunting....day before (late in the season no less) I heard more birds than I have all month. This morning, same general locale.......zilch. The wind builds and by 8:00AM I decide I need to get lower to be able to hear much at all. I drop off the top 50 yds or so on the north side, and am surprised to see an absolutely gorgeous hardwood bench/shelf on the hillside just below. I've been in this lease close to 20 years (more?) and was not aware that this little spot existed. It absolutely screams "strut zone". If I was a gobbler, I'd hang out here! It's open enough that a decoy could probably be seen by any tom's drifting in, and I plunk the lone hen I always carry in a patch of sunlight and retreat 30 yds. I fashion a simple blind from some branches lopped nearby, and settle in. Over the next 3 hours I run the big Lohman box in the wind and it sounds pretty good, to me anyhow. But I hear no answers, nor any gobbling in the distance. By 11:00 it seems every bone below my shoulder blades is screaming and I call it quits. Highlight of the day, aside from finding the bench, is the discovery of the biggest whitetail buck rub I have ever seen. Chest high, on a sapling the diameter of a small fence post. It has been rubbed multiple seasons, a true sign post. I need to remember this bench on a good mast year. Should a fellow kill a deer here, the woods are open enough you could likely get an ATV down here to aid recovery and simplify a steep uphill drag. But there's more gobbler hunting to be done before that!!!!!!!