Sounds like you had fun, and congratulations on your birds!
I went up there on the 1st day of the non-quota --- didn't know what was getting into!
Walked back to what I thought was a good area before daylight, only to find out it and the surrounding thousands of acres had just been through a forest fire. Was practically still smoldering, but had burned about a week earlier. Think I heard where just one of the several "controlled burns" was over 3,000 acres! That's like 5 square miles in a single burn --- very impressive work for a "controlled" forest fire.
To my suprise, the turkeys didn't seem to mind, but there was almost no way to hide in this barren, yet wooded, landscape. No ground cover at all, and every step was noisy, like walking on crushed ice --- very dry and "crispy" forest floor. Still should have killed a turkey, but just couldn't get him to come in a few more yards. Got to watch him for several minutes at about 55 yards.
First time I'd ever turkey hunted in freshly Burnt Woods!
Am actually glad to see the Forest Service doing all those "controlled burns" up at LBL. That should really help improve the habitat, although might be wise to wait for the smoldering to stop before you go hunting in it!
