Have I told you this before? Here we are in the beginnings of spring, maybe the most glorious time of year. The leaves are busting out (bursting), the birds are doing there best with singing the Hallelujah chorus on bright mornings, and everything is fresh and new. We cast off the doldrums of winter and welcome this shining time of year. On top of all this (you knew I was getting to this didn’t you?) the spring turkey season is either in full swing or about to start wherever you are in the southeast. Virginia started about a week ago, West Virginia starts on April 17.
I think many times I have revealed to you that while I have lived the lifestyle of a turkey hunter for over 40 years now (could it be 50?) I cannot fib to myself and say that sometimes I do dread it. Dread spring turkey season? How can that be? Larry say that it isn’t so! Well, the plain truth is, and dedicated turkey hunters may admit it to you, if you hunt a lot it can be just plain hard. Hard as in morning after morning of getting up before any self-respecting chicken would get out of bed and make coffee. Spring hunters want to be in their listening place when the gobblers wake up, blink a couple times and begin the business of telling the world they are here.
Now let’s be clear. I love turkey hunting. Plain and simple. What I don’t like lately is the getting up out of a perfectly good bed and going in search of an egotistical bird that sometimes acts like he owes you money. Got it? OK, we continue.
I also think I have told you in the past that I often can be found in a wonderful, Shangri la like place in Craig County Virginia about a good stone’s throw from the West Virginia line. Paint Bank Virginia is a tiny hamlet nestled between Peter’s Mountainand Potts Mountain on the Virginia and West by God Virginia border. Potts Creek flows down the middle of a beautiful valley that lies between these two rugged mountain ranges. It is a wild and beautiful place that I am forever conflicted about. You want to tell people about it so they may enjoy it, but you don’t want too many pilgrims coming here. I haven’t figured this out yet and may never.
Enter Potts Creek Outfitters. Among all the attractions at Paint Bank, which includes world class lodging, The Depot Lodge, The Lemon House, several nice cabins, Glamping (you know about Glamping, camping out but in a luxurious tent with all the amenities) and many more I have neglected to mention here. There is nice restaurant with a swinging bridge (it takes too long to explain, you’ll just have to go see it) and a country store. (www.depotlodge.com)
All of this and more in a gorgeous setting that includes buffalo, American Bison watching you lazily as you drive up the valley and gawk at them. (That’s right, kids buffalo right here in Virginia and West Virginia) This whole operation is centered on several hundred acers, much of it surrounded by National Forest. As you might suspect there is plethora (that means a lot) of critters here which includes whitetail deer and a bunch of wild turkeys. Ok, so if I mention the turkey thing you know why I am here. Potts Creek Outfitters runs a hunting and fishing outfitting business here. They offer bow hunting for the deer in the fall, (with all this land, yes, they grow some big bucks) and they do spring gobbler hunts. The cool thing here is situated as Potts Creek Outfitters is on the border area, they offer hunts in both Virginia and West Virginia. This amounts to a long season span for both deer and turkeys. (www.pottscreekoutfitters.com)
So your humble outdoor scribe is here to help out with guiding during the spring turkey season and this led me to meeting a young man named Caleb Kushner. Caleb came to Potts Creek Outfitters to sample the turkey hunting and fly fishing in Potts Creek (really big trout by the way). Caleb is from Maryland, now living in Washington DC., and is in the real estate business.
Caleb drew me as his guide and we took off in the pre-dawn darkness. I had a spot picked out but you really just never knowwith turkeys. John Hudson, one of the guides at Potts Creek was in this spot the day before and heard nothing, zip. Remember how I told you turkeys will sometimes treat you like they owe you money?
Caleb and I exit the truck to start our walk to the blind we will use, and I am lugging way too much gear (as usual). We are hearing resounding gobbles around us and I know this is a good sign. We get situated in the blind and I do my best to give Caleb a crash course of mounting and aiming the shotgun on a turkey. For a second I am hit with the enormity of it all. There is only about a zillion things that can go wrong when you are zeroing in on a gobbler. (turkey hunters know what I am talking about) But Caleb seems to take it all in and seems confident. If anything he shows more confidence than me.
I pull a brand new call from my vest and don’t like the sound of it from the beginning, but the important thing is three (three!)big gobblers located to our front, do. We see them coming from afar and as usual it takes (it seems) forever for them to get to us. Then just when the get into range, the turkeys bunch up too close and I caution Caleb to wait for the shot. At the last minute a hen turkey comes out of nowhere very close to us and I am afraid she is going to sound the alarm and ruin it all. A few seconds later the Beretta shotgun speaks and Caleb’s first turkey is down for the count. Whew!
After the shot and the celebrating and the adrenaline starts to subside a little I have a little revelation that I should have already noticed. I saw some of this grand spring morning and all of the dozens of things that make turkey hunting what it is through the eyes of a brand new turkey hunter. Caleb got to see a big part of this wonderful game in a short time. The anticipation of walking to our spot in the dark, the world waking up all around us, song birds, crows, and then turkeys bring in the new day. Big puffed up gobblers coming toward us with that pompous walk. Will they come in range? How do they not hear my heart pounding? I saw it all again through the eyes of a new hunter.
It was wonderful. I’m really looking forward to this turkey season.
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