My First Day

My 49th Spring opener in Maryland was pure excitement to say the least. The experience would have provided some incredible video...my only regret. The darkness turned into first light with very little gobbling; not usual for this farm. I elected to go to a bird which had the most mature gobble. Unfortunately that gobble was drowned out by way too many hens after hitting the ground. I marked the spot for a later visit and moved towards the area where the other gobbles occurred. It proved to be a good move.

I floated a few notes out on the trumpet and it elicited responses from toms in two different spots; a grassy road through mature hardwoods and an adjacent three year clearcut. I quickly set up at the end of the road giving me a 150 yard view. My 10x42s showed two blood red heads at the far end of the road. Switching to my favorite slate over glass pot, I sent out some clucks and some yelping. A hen materialized from the clearcut to my left and walked to within 6 yards; searching for me. Not finding the hen she walked past me clucking. Another hen followed her to me yelping like crazy which elicited gobbles; the two at the end were closing the distance. She walked behind me yelping loudly. Now gobblers, five longbeards, from the cut walked up onto the road between me and the closing two gobblers ... wait now four. Wow - the binocs showed 9 longbeards, some in strut, closing on yet another noisy hen not 25 yards from me. Nine longbeards gobbling in concert is music I can stand listening to anytime.

My quest now was trying to pick out the dominant gobbler and making sure that his head was the only one collecting the Hevi 13 payload when they got to me. Gun was up: the strutters were closing ... 40 yards, my heart pounding, 30 yards, his head cleared the others and at about 20 yards I pulled the trigger. In a split second the unbelievable scene turned into deafening silence and calm except for the death wing beats of the boss strutter. Once again the weight over my shoulder felt good as I walked towards the truck ... another incredible morning in the turkey woods. I've cherished every one of them.

Classic Roost Hunt

It was a pleasure taking Scott this morning. It was rainy and windy (would keep most in bed) but the birds still do what they do: eat and breed. Our hunt was a "classic off the roost hunt". We got in close to a gobbling bird. I let him know a hen was there and fired him up once he hit the ground. After sitting in the rain all night, this gobbler was more than ready to cuddle up to a hot hen. In he came... full strut. Bad news for him ... Scotts payload cuddled up to the strutters noggin. Lights out 6:28 am. We ate a nice breakfast and Scott headed home with his first longbeard and a great Spring morning memory.... Priceless This client had hunted but not killed a longbeard.

Big thanks to Doug Wigfield for making it look easy. It's been a long 5 years since I started turkey hunting and I finally scored. We got in early on some gobbling birds still in the roost. Doug clucked, purred and scratched leaves sparingly until the birds hit the ground. When they did he fired one up and he never stopped gobbling and strutted into range where i dropped him. I'm still stoked!!!!

Scott 

The Hardest of Turkey Hunting

Took Joe the other day and the weather couldn't have been worse...20-25 mph sustained winds with gusts up to 35 mph. We hunted hard until high noon. We saw birds but they did not want to play the game. The account below is what he posted after the hunt.

Well went on my first turkey hunt ....ever...with Mr. Doug Wigfield yesterday and it was just great. That man works hard for you and does not hold back at all on how much effort he puts forth to trying to find you a bird.

Wind was blowing very hard and we still go to see some birds but nothing came in close enough for a shot.

Learned a lot from Doug and would go again in an absolute minute.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to go hunting with you Doug.

Latest Gobbler Getter Experience

The account below was written by a hunting client who I took on Wednesday, May 2, 2012. It was a truly exciting hunt especially with the lightening cracking around us. I have to admit I was a little scared but figured if the good Lord put a gobbling tom in our path then He meant for us to take him to the truck with us.

I had the great pleasure today to hunt with Doug Wigfield and to say the very least it was an incredible experience and a very memorable hunt. We meet up just outside Salisbury MD and after getting my gun and gear in his vehicle off we go to one of his great turkey spots. On the drive to our hunting area of course we are talking about turkeys and memorable hunts we both have been on. You can't help but to like a fellow hunting addict like Doug and just talking to him and picking up some knowledge on turkey hunting, sika deer, whitetails and yes even bears for me was well worth any money I spent to have Doug take me on a guided hunt. Doug just knows wildlife and hunting enough said. We arrive at our hunting destination a good hour before sunrise, gear up and head out into the property to listen for any toms on the roost. WOW!! is all I can say about the property and it is extremely well managed for not only turkeys but deer also. I felt good about our chances on getting a shot at a tom and farther into the property we heard some distant gobbles and we both decided to move back into the property to get close to these birds before fly down. Off we go Doug leading the way and me following as quiet as I can be and soon we are set in the woods near a pretty good sized food plot and we have three toms gobbling within close range of us. One is really close to us and just to the left of our set and the other two are a bit farther back near a connecting road to another smaller food plot. Well we sit there until the sunrises and Doug is calling softly with some purrs, clucks and yelps but we get absolutely no response from the closer tom and some soft gobbles from the farther off toms. Doug recommends we change our spot to move closer to one of the farther off toms as he is gobbling good and steady. So we are on the move again and after taking it slow to glass some smaller food plots/connecting roads we find ourselves walking along a small connecting road between two food plots and we have that gobbler in front of sounding off with some loud gobbles. We close the distance to within 75 yards and then I get in front of Doug and move up slowly to with 20 yards of the field and get set up for Doug to do some soft calling at this tom. Let me tell you Doug can call to turkeys and within a couple of minutes the tom gobbles hard and is walking from my right to left, clears some thick brush in front of me and then heads away from us into the open field directly in front of me but just a bit to far to my left and my vision/shot is obscured by a couple of small tree's and thick brush. We wait a couple of minutes and Doug gives him a couple of soft purrs and now that tom moves just enough out to the right of those trees that I can see him clearly in the field but to be honest I am unsure of the distance from me to him and if my gun can reach out far enough to take this tom. I have my gun up and ready to shoot for a good 5 minutes but this tom isn't moving and even with Doug softly calling he just won't close the distance to us and give me a closer shot. He wasn't on alert and no way he saw us but he doesn't like something and I can see he is turning to walk away from us. I hate to admit this and it happens to everyone (if you turkey hunt and love it then you know how I feel) but I didn't listen to my own gut feeling and decide to shoot at this tom and yep a clear miss, not even really a miss I don't believe I even put a pellet in a tail feather on this bird and what I thought was a 40 yard shot was way off and was more like a 60 to 70 yard shot and way out of range for my gun and pattern. Well it happens and no one is more hard on myself then me when it comes to a miss and I turn to Doug, apologize for the miss (just educated one of Doug's tom so I am kicking myself in A$$ for doing that) and really feel bad as Doug got me that chance and I should have passed on that shot. Well let me tell you Doug is a professional and not a bad word or rebuke for my fool hardy display of marksmanship, nope he shrugs it off and we come up with another game plan and off we go after some more toms. We decide to work our way slowly back towards the front of the property and while we are walking slowly and listening for any gobbles the weather starts to turn on us and very quickly. It's starts to thunder of in the distance and a slight rain starts to fall but soon enough we have a gobbler sounding off to the lighting and off we go towards that tom. We slowly work our way towards the tom and now that weather front is moving in quickly, the rain is picking up but what really has us worried is that the lightning is getting loud and closer to us bye the minute. We close the distance to within 200 yards of this tom (he is gobbling loud now and is hot) and he is directly in line from where Doug parked his vehicle that morning. Only problem now is that it is pouring buckets of rain down on us and now the lightning is well within a mile of us and closing on us fast. Well to be 100% honest me and Doug look at each other and say this is crazy let's head back towards the truck and wait out this storm. We start moving quickly through the woods and when we get close to where we heard
that tom last gobble, he sounds off again and we are literally 35 yards from this tom, who is strutting down a road right in front of us. I look at Doug and he motions for me to snug up to a tree and get ready. I get down next to a tree, got a perfect shooting lane in front of me to the road and Doug pulls out a call I have never seen or used before ( a turkey trumpet call, his other calls are soaking wet and useless) and he starts giving some soft clucks to this tom and he sounds off close with a thunder gobble. Oh thunder gobble because by this time we get hit with a lighting strike I would say within a 150 yards of us, it shook the ground, puckered my you know what and I look back at Doug and he just shrugs his shoulders and continues calling to this hot tom. Well that pretty much told me I was there for the party so Doug is calling, lighting is striking, raining is pounding us and all the time I'm doing my best to watch for this tom to come out to give me a shot. Only problem now is the temperature has dropped, humidity is off the hook and my glasses are fogged (can't see a damn thing) and to add insult to injury so is my red dot scope on my gun. Well I'm sure Doug is still amused at my many attempts to clear both my glasses and scope but I do manage to quickly get them cleared enough with my shooting hand glove to barely see enough for a shot. Good thing because after some more sweet calling form Doug with that turkey trumpet call, that tom was insane with love and couldn't stand it anymore. Out he struts right in front of me at 35 yards in the open road , I take my time for the shot (no way I'm missing twice after all that hard work from Doug and the insanity of us being out in that weather) I see enough of my red dot at the base of his neck and squeeze the trigger and BAM!! down goes that tom. Me and Doug just stand up, look at each other and say together can you just believe that happened and let's get that tom and get the hell out of here back to the truck. I run out grab my Tom and we high tail it back to Doug's truck. We get back to the truck, put the gun, our gear and my tom in the back of his truck and jump in to let the storm pass through. Well 15 minutes later we have clearer skies, no thunder and we get out of Doug's' truck to check out my tom, take some pictures and celebrate one amazing turkey kill. What a great tom he is, 20 pounds, 10 1/2 inch beard and both spurs 1 1/4 inch. Just a great mature tom and just an insane hunt with not a guide anymore but a good friend. After some pictures and congratulations again between us off we are to get some breakfast and make a few phone calls to friends. For me this was just an insane and awesome hunt with Doug and certainly for me a great time spent in the woods. Doug can't thank you enough buddy and I gained some turkey knowledge from you, got one hell of a nice tom, and started out with a guide but parted ways with a friend. Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Maryland Junior Hunt Day

April 14 was deemed Marylands's Junior Hunt day and the weather was good except for a little wind at times. I met Jon and his 14 year old son John at the motel and proceeded to the hunting property. We started listening at 5:30 and heard a few within ten minutes. We made a play on the closest gobbling birds gettin within 75 yards of them and their girl friends. Seductive calling didn't keep them from pulling the gobblers away with them. We did see one of the hens at 50 yards. We tried to get in front of them but to no avail. By 9 am I decided to shift into a full blown run and gun operation. At about 10 am, while walking a road, I stopped 30 yards short of a road leading through a cleart cut to a wheat field. I mentioned to Jon and John that if one answers we do have trees to sit against so just get down near the ditch. Well, I called and a deep throated gooble hit us from about 50 yards away. Jon layed prone on the ground behind his son who was sitting in front leaning back on me. With gun across his knees trained 25 yards in front I whispered that the gobbler hopefully will cross the ditch and walk up on the road we were sitting along. We listened to the gobbler drum to the purrs I was emitting for 12 minutes, out of our sight, 25 yards from us. I've got to give it to John as he kept his cool and did all I asked...have patience. Finally, I caught some motion and whispered here comes your gobbler get ready. The bird crossed the ditch and walked up broadside to us looking our way. I whispered "kill him" and his father raised his head up just in time to see his son's load of Hev 13s knock the gobbler off his feet. Another gobbler that we didn't know was with the first exploded into the air at the shotgun,s report and flew away. As we high fived the smiles on both dad and sons faces were priceless. The weighed in at about 19 labs, sported about a 9" beard and had 1" spurs ... a fine gobbler for John's first turkey.

Thanks John and Jon for making my day so much fun. What a way to start off season #49 for me but so much more important for John and fine young man and, now, hopelessly hooked on gobblers. I wish you many more longbeards in the future.

Stay tuned for more adventures as we progrees through this Spring season

Guiding Turkey Hunts

Greetings:

 

   Those who know me well are aware of the love affair I've had with the wild turkey; as a former wildlife biologist pioneering the turkey restoration on the Eastern shore and as a long time hunter. This spring will be season #49 for me. I've managed to take gobblers across the country using just about all the legal weapons and have called many in for friends, acquaintences and kids alike.

 

   This year, for the first time, I have decided to take some hunters onto some of my favorite turkey honey holes in Maryland to hopefully kill some big hard-gobbling birds. I have scouted my properties on the lower shore this year and have seen excellent numbers of birds.

 

   If you are just starting and want to learn, don't have time for scouting and locating birds or just plain-ole want a change of scenery this year, I will provide guided, “one-on-one” per day hunts. Next year I may have lodging available to add as a package hunt ... no tiring, “middle of the night” drives. The fee for this spring is $125 per day; you choose your favorite weapon. I have taken quite a few birds with archery equipment so I understand the techniques and methods needed. If you want to run and gun or experience the thrill of

burying a broad-head in a long-spurred tom up close and personal out of a blind I can accommodate.

 

   I can't guarantee you a kill but I can guarantee a 110% effort from a veteran turkey hunter to put you on a gobbler in great turkey hunting territory. If you or someone you know desires to book a hunt, give me a call at 443-880-7847 to discuss the particulars (dates available, deposit, bag limit per day, area hotels, etc)

 

 

A First With My Sika Hunting

Stags are on the move now and I had one exciting morning. First light had a small 6 pt stag come through at 25 yards. With the knowledge that there are better animals in the area and a good look through my 10 x 42s, I decided to give him a pass. At 8:22 a m I heard a bugle about 100 yards out, I responded with some vocalizations and got ready. At 8:30 splish splish at 30 yards... another smaller 6 pointer (10" beams with small tops and 2" hooks). The dude on my shoulder said "shoot, shoot, kill him"; but my mind thought of bigger stags. Resisting the urge I passed this stag as well. This is a first for me ... two passes on 6 pointers in one morning ... call me crazy or post a "KICK ME" sign on my back. They should both be great stags next year.