My first trip to LBL

[Andy S.]

Congrats on your success! I hope the vocal hunters who wanted to hunt "unpressured" turkeys got their fill yesterday.

For the rest of you guys who hunted this weekend, did you see anything favorable? Hens, jakes, deer, etc? Seems like the feedback for LBL over last decade has been less than ideal from a hunter's perspective.

 

[th88]

Well I had an experience this morning that left an impression. Roosted a bird last night. Slept there In my vehicle like all the other folks camped at gates. Bout killed him after fly down and miraculously had heard no other hunters. As I'm repositioning the dreaded dying crow caller starts and shuts up the vocal hen with the gobbler (which never gobbled on ground). I hang around and crow caller alternates between cawing and real aggressive purring. No yelping .I keep thinking he will leave but as I'm circling the direction I think the birds went, he is still doing his caw/purr combo for nearly an hour!!!

OK, I get screwed up by hunters every year. No biggie. I continue forth easing up a point I suspect the flock went. Scratching as I creep along. I scratch right into a freaking flock of decoys 25 yards away. I immediately holler "OH SH** , DONT SHOOT!". The hunter tells me he didnt think i was a person. Cant help but think he had his gun aimed my way. Even with lead shot, at the distance I would have came into view, I would have been in serious trouble.

The guy is nice as can be and we laugh about the crow caller. He knew folks were on the bird but he didnt intrude, he was just sitting there with his decoys.

So 3 folks on this bird. I get back to road and notice another truck pulled off 80 yards behind the guys truck I'd just talked to! Make that 4 folks. As I round the curve, theres a 3rd truck within a 150 yard stretch. Wtf.

So there were at least 4, maybe 5 folks on the bird. That being said, he was roosted in a bad spot that I knew would lead to interference. But a bird in hand...I had to try him.

I've had pellets rained down on me from roost shooters..I've had birds blasted in front of me..
I've been in a myriad of other crazy situations over the years. But this morning is the closest I believe I've ever came to catching a load.


I wanted to see what a circus it would be. Well I got my dose! Absolutely horrible decision to do away with quota and seriously put lives at risk.

 

[drake799]

I talked to a person who went yesterday. He said he was on a bird gobbling and had a guy come between him and the bird and set up lol. Said it was a overall mad house. Man I'd never go there

 

[deerfever]

You could see this happening when they changed it! I told the gentleman at LBL these guys that wanted the unpressured birds were in for a rude awakening and would truly get an experience they would never forget. I hope there experience was so much better than opening on a Monday with probably a tenth of the people like in the past! The whole decision still blows my mind and the reasoning that I and others who called were given didn't make sense at all. Furthermore if you are going to do this why not open on a Monday so some of the guys would be killed out before everyone in TN shows up on the weekend? I just hope no one got hurt this weekend . Congrats to the ones who were lucky enough to actually work a bird without 5 other people helping them out!

 

[TN Whitetail Freak]

I juat finished the opening weekend at LBL and it was a goat roping. 2-4 trucks in every pull in, death race to every gobbler on the roost. We got one killed opening morning with 3 other hunters closing in on us before the shot. Never heard an evening gobble. Sunday morning i got on a pocket of toms and again watched 2 other hunters move in on me. I had a good bird drumming at 65 yds when a hen was kicked up by one of the hunters attempting to back door my setup. She flew right over the gobbling toms and the hunt ended at 8. Then rain moved in and i went home. First impressions of LBL

1. The prettiest set of hardwoods ive walked and drastically different than the river bottom timber im used to.

2. Insane pressure with not an abundance in deer or Turkey.

3. Only reason i went is because i got invited to a hunting camp and would be the only reason id go back. It is not a destination hunting location and believe there are better options

 

[JCDEERMAN]

3. Only reason i went is because i got invited to a hunting camp and would be the only reason id go back. It is not a destination hunting location and believe there are better options

It sure used to be. I wish you could have experienced it 15 or more years ago. That's when it started going down the toilet. You couldn't pay me to go now for deer or turkey.

 

[Coker]

You could see this happening when they changed it! I told the gentleman at LBL these guys that wanted the unpressured birds were in for a rude awakening and would truly get an experience they would never forget. I hope there experience was so much better than opening on a Monday with probably a tenth of the people like in the past! The whole decision still blows my mind and the reasoning that I and others who called were given didn't make sense at all. Furthermore if you are going to do this why not open on a Monday so some of the guys would be killed out before everyone in TN shows up on the weekend? I just hope no one got hurt this weekend . Congrats to the ones who were lucky enough to actually work a bird without 5 other people helping them out!

This
I hope everyone hear takes the time to call the LBL main office and give them an ear full. LBL made a HUGE mistake and luckily no one got hurt.....that we know of. This is one of the reasons LBL went to a quota hunt. For LBL to disregard the safety of many to please a few is absolutely mind boggling. This place has been so mismanaged and someone needs to be held accountable.
I love LBL and have hunted there multiple times but decided to pass on this open hunt because of the crowd and multiple other reasons. This place used to be a trophy deer and turkey gobbling place to hunt. It is a shame what it has become. I will still hunt LBL but will give my $.10 cents worth to the manager on staff.

 

[letmland]

Last year I was drawn for the first quota hunt. I had never been before and like the above poster I'm usually in the big river bottoms dealing with water, mosquitoes, and cottonmouths, so it was a nice change of scenery. I had read all the warnings about crowds. I got there very early, pulled into my planned drop off and there was a camper there. They weren't awake yet and the trail went 3 ways. So I took the one that had the longest walk, trying to be polite.

I walked almost 2 miles in and waited on a ridge top....nothing. I raised on in deeper and still nothing. At 7:30 I texted my buddy, that was on another road, that it was a rat hole, just a pretty rat hole. But about 15 minutes later I heard a gobble. As I went to him, he moved away. I don't think he was moving because of me, just going. It was a good thing cause as I followed behind him he dropped into a hollow full of gobblers. I could differentiate 5 different ones all in same Big hollow.

I had been following him for 2 hours since the first gobble. I found a shelf near the top of the ridge where they couldn't see me, and I couldn't see them either. It was pretty nerve racking listening to them and worrying someone else would here, but I called sparingly and an hour and a half later, at 11am a lonely 2 year old climbed up and peaked over my shelf.

They said I think there had only been 12 killed. I knew 3 guys hunting there that morning, not one heard a gobble and I had heard hundreds. I gave my buddy the pins and how to get there for the next day. He got in the dry creek bed in bottom of the hollow in the dark and haD 2 coming for him perfect At about 7, when old mister hoot owler came on the scene. He said it sounded terrible, Then he heard a putt and looked up and the guy was silhouetted on the ridge line where I had been. Just walking and hooting, he said he flushed every turkey in the hollow to the opposite ridge and never even knew it, just kept strolling and mouth hooting. My buddy was so irate he left and headed home, didn't even try anymore.

I was glad I got lucky and would probably put in for the quota again, try the same place, but I wouldn't head into that free for all for sure.