Posted: 4/13/2008 8:43:52 PM EDT
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Several other guys and myself make an anual trip to Megargle, TX (North of Olney) to turkey hunt each year for opening weekend of the spring season. 4 of the guys went 2 weeks ago for opening weekend, but since I couldn't go until this weekend, we made another trip. Unfortunately, I made the wrong decision to leave my camera at home. FYI: We did see a lot of Turkey but they were skittish. It was fairly windy all weekend so they were staying in wooded areas mostly. We saw very few in the new wheat fields like we normally do. They had a huge storm several days ago so that my have had something to do with it as well. We saw them while driving the roads but they were always back in the trees. We talked to several other groups of hunters in town that said they were not having as good of luck as usual either. Two weeks ago, my buddies said they saw tons of Turkey but they weren't coming to the calls so it's not just that shooting has made them skittish. We heard no Quail. Normally we hear some. It's a little North for Quail but we do normally hear some. Seems the Quail hunting is moving further and further South West every year. We used to have some at our deer lease in Star but haven't in a couple of years. The only Quail we are finding now are out around the Abilene/Ballenger areas. I hear there are some down towards Brekenridge as well. I haven't been on a productive Quail hunt in years. I guess due to the ants and more and more pasture and crop land. Point to the story is that we still saw a lot of turkey as we normally do, but we saw them while driving so it didn't do any good. They were not coming to the calls while we were hunting. We did have 4 kills between 6 guys, but normally we all go home with at least 2 (land owner charges an extra $50 for each bird over our second kill). Even the deer we saw were all acting very nervous. The one thing we did hear a lot more of than usual was coyotes. They were howling even in the middle of the day. We wondered if maybe the apparent coyote increase and the fact that they must be hungry due to howling all day may have played a part in the skittishness of the animals. We did have one confirmed coyote kill and I tried to get a shot at the hog I saw but he didn't cooperate. We had a great time though and the American Legion in Olney is still a happening place! Sorry I didn't take pics. 
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