My aggravation scale is red lining

[Gopherlongbeards]

Keep at it Jim, I've been having a rough spring as well. Still haven't taken the safety off. Just have to keep at it, things can turn around real quick.

[onpoint]

That is why they call it hunting and not Killing.

Keep pluggin' good buddy. We're all rootin' fer ya'

[Cut N Run]

I hunted the archery only gamelands near Butner today. I got a later than usual start and there was already a vehicle where I like to park (bad sign). I drove over to the next road and eased through the cutover to one of the creek bottoms with mature hardwoods along it. I hunted a pretty spot with leaves kicked up and some old turkey droppings where the creek bottom widened out. I scouted it last winter and there was more sign there then. No turkeys were using that area today. I called it a day at 3 PM, when I had to check back with the office to at least make it look like I cared about work.

Tomorrow is the last day. I'm not going to say that I'm pulling out all the stops, because I do that every time I get to hunt turkeys. It annoys me that I have the same number of tags I started the season with. I would have bet against that. Looking forward to notching one tomorrow.

Jim

[Steve_In]

Good luck tomorrow Jim, you sure have had a tough season.

[1Morgan]

Most people in the world will never get to experience a single spring morning in the turkey woods. It my be by choice or simply they don't even know the opportunity exists. Sadly most don't know it exists. There is little in my life (other than family) that is as fantastic as that one morning that everything does what it supposed to to on a spring morning. If I fill a tag it is almost anticlimactic...tags soup is tough to swallow, but we have experienced and learned things that most people in the WORLD will never, ever know.

[Maverick6714]

Good Luck tomorrow Jim!!

[turkey junky]

good luck jim if i had not traveled to hunt out of state this season i would be in the same boat as you jim the turkeys in my home state of minnesota have kicked my A**
the last 3 seasons i have had a few chances but if that was the only state i had to hunt i would be one un-happy camper i only hope you already have a gobbler over your shoulder man once again good luck I FEEL YOU MAN!!!

[Cut N Run]

Sad to say that my turkey season ended the same way it started...with me having unused tags in my wallet. I hunted behind a friend's horse pasture where he saw 4 longbeards a couple of weeks ago and killed one himself ten days ago to tag out. His gobbler came in alone, so he didn't spook anything else. The other birds just had somewhere else to be today that didn't involve catching a load of Hevi #6s from my turkey gun. There was a hen roosted up the draw from me who stayed on the limb calling for 45 minutes before she flew down. I was thinking how nice it was going to be to have a live decoy traveling near me along the draw, but she went across the ridge towards the next drainage instead. No near or distant gobbles could be heard today.

Even though I had a memorable season, where almost anything that could go wrong, did, I guess I learned where I won't be hunting next year if nothing else. I was caught unprepared when the guy who owns the land where I had been hunting for the past 15 years decided not to let me hunt there this year at the last minute. I missed working out there this past winter because I had hernia surgery that couldn't be avoided. As a matter of fact, I made that hernia worse by all the hard work I put in out on his property. Talk about the ultimate catch 22. It's not like I wasn't willing to put in my time after the season. Whatever. I wish I had kept track of how many hours I worked there compared to my hunting hours, because I guarantee I put in more working hours. I found where his allegiances lie and apparently, they're not with friends. It's not like I haven't known him for 27 years or anything.

I am forced to explore new options for next turkey season. I will not be caught without a great place to hunt again. I will take on a side job If I have to lease land. This last minute scramble to find over-crowded, properties being hunted by knuckleheads and poachers is nothing I ever want to be forced to deal with again. Turkeys and turkey hunting matter too much to me.

Jim

[dewey]

I was caught unprepared when the guy who owns the land where I had been hunting for the past 15 years decided not to let me hunt there this year at the last minute. I missed working out there this past winter because I had hernia surgery that couldn't be avoided. As a matter of fact, I made that hernia worse by all the hard work I put in out on his property. Talk about the ultimate catch 22. It's not like I wasn't willing to put in my time after the season. Whatever. I wish I had kept track of how many hours I worked there compared to my hunting hours, because I guarantee I put in more working hours. I found where his allegiances lie and apparently, they're not with friends. It's not like I haven't known him for 27 years or anything.

I am forced to explore new options for next turkey season. I will not be caught without a great place to hunt again. I will take on a side job If I have to lease land. This last minute scramble to find over-crowded, properties being hunted by knuckleheads and poachers is nothing I ever want to be forced to deal with again. Turkeys and turkey hunting matter too much to me.

Jim

That is pretty crappy that the landowner didn't give you access after knowing him for that long and after all you have done for him. Was it just the reason of you not helping him because of your hernia surgery that he didn't give you the OK. The question for you know I wonder is do you help him this summer and fall or just call the relationship quits?

Good luck with trying to line up hunting land.

Dewey

[Cut N Run]

Yeah, that Landowner is very much a "what have you done for me lately?" kind of guy and I didn't meet this years expectations in a timely manner in his opinion, so no hunting on that property for me...hernia or not. Real nice how he waited until right before the season to let me know I was out, huh? I think he's also trying to teach me a lesson because I also spend some of my free time working at two horse farms, when I could be working at his farm instead. That landowner has started demanding that I work according to his schedule, regardless of what I've got going on in my life. (control freak much?). I wish I were kidding. What really stinks is his land is loaded with turkeys and there is always the possibility to take some stud gobblers there every year.

Both of the horse farms I work at are owned by single women who already have a lot on their plates. I help them out with anything if they just ask me...everything from replacing fences, carpentry, building jumps, fixing stuff,to helping feed or turn out horses if it needs done. I have exclusive hunting rights to one of those farms and share hunting rights with a guy and his son who bowhunt deer only at the other. I saw turkeys when I hunted on each of those farms, trouble is, there's a ton of hunting pressure on the land around them. Plus, I found evidence of baiting on a property a mile or so from one farm. The NC Wildlife folks will know where those locations are before next turkey season starts and the game wardens will get to do some hunting around there for poachers.

I'll get everything worked out and possibly even lease some land for next year's turkey season. I've already added another local horse farm to hunt next year too. My worst case scenario happened this year. It will only get better next year. It just sucks that next turkey season is now 11 whole months away and I spent so much of this turkey season finding out where not to hunt.

Jim