Accomodation: I saw several nice areas to camp, and there were a number of small lodges and motels in the back country.
License Fees:
$86.00 Small Game
$86.00 Bear, Turkey, Deer
I decided to drive down on the Sunday after the show and stay until the following Saturday; which would allow me to hunt for squirrel and turkey (which we needed for a DVD in production) and let me hunt opening morning for deer before heading home. So as the departure date rolled up, I loaded the car and hit the road. The drive to Virginia took me through Indiana to Ohio, down to Kentucky, through West Virgina and into Virginia for a 9.5 hour drive. The trip down was great, beautiful fall colors lighting up the hillsides, not much traffic, and the promise of hunting with a new group of enthusiastic airgun hunters.
I met Eric at Chips house, where we talked and sighted in our guns for a couple hours. Chip had arranged for us to stay at a Turkey hunting lodge which is owned by his friend John, and hunt with local turkey hunting guide / legend Danny Ayers. The lodge was great, they don’t usually do the fall turkey season so Eric and I had the place to ourselves, and it was really nice with private rooms, a common meeting room with large flat screen for reviewing our daily video taping, a kitchen, and an invitation to the main house for fantastic dinners every night.
We hunted hard for three days putting in the miles up and down hill punctuated by sets in which Danny worked his repetoir of calls, but only managed to bust one gang of turkeys which we couldn’t call back in. We were warned up front that fall conditions are tough and success low, but we worked for it. You couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting a squirrel, but we didn’t want to interfere with the gobbler hunting so held our shots.
On that last day as we walked out I decided to call for coyote before leaving the field. We sat along a fence row looking down a clearing, with me up front calling, Danny sitting to my right, and Eric behind me on videocam. As I blasted the call a few times I was watching along the fence row where I expected the coyote to approach, I heard Eric in a stage whisper saying “Jim, left! Left! LEFT!”. Looking to my left I say a beautiful gray fox staring at us 25 yards away. I had to twist in an odd position to shot off hand before he bolted. The fox stayed put but I rushed my shot and hit high, and we lost him in a very thick briar patch that couldn’t be entered. This was the most beautiful canine predator I’ve ever seen, and I’ll be sick about this shot for a while …… but Eric got some absolutely fantastic video of the whole thing.
The next morning we got up early and traveled about an hour south to another one of Chips friends by the name of Charles Peebles. Charles had a few hundred acres of prime hunting territory, and came out to hunt with us. We headed down where he’d seen turkeys roosting and tried calling them as the came off roost.. As we sat waiting there were literally dozens of gray squirrels running around, but we didn’t shoot as we were waiting on the turkey to come down. None did. We headed back for an early lunch, then headed back in the field to shoot in the afternoon. We split up, with Eric and I heading out on our own to film, Charles and Chip going their separate way to hunt. This time I was using the Marauder .25, Chip was using an AA s 410 FAC, and Charles a Marauder .25
Charles on the other hand had set up in his blind, and after a while heard turkey scratching though the woods. He started calling and they started responding while moving in. At 55 yards a jake came into view and stretched his neck out while looking around. Charles lined up and smacked him with a 27 grain Crosman Dome pellet, which flopped the bird on his head. A great shot and a great trophy under the conditions we encountered. I shot more squirrels but never did get a chance at a gobbler…. I’ll have to wait until spring.
Virginia is a great place for air gunners to plan a hunt, airguns are allowed for small game, turkey, predators, and big game. The out of state license fees are reasonable, the people friendly, and the country beautiful…… I am looking forward to my next trip back!
