So, I just got the spring turkey figures from the DGIF.

I pulled up my blog entry announcing the Guess the Spring Gobbler Kill contest and expected to have to carefully pore over the guesses to find the closest entry. I didn’t have to work hard.

I am still actually kind of freaked out by this.

The total from DGIF was 15,326. The first entry in the contest, from Joey Hambrick, was 15,325.

Joey missed it by ONE BIRD!

ONE BIRD, PEOPLE!

I’d say he must have an inside source but I don’t think the DGIF folks had that number when Joey submitted his entry. Luck? Or psychic ability?

Whatever. I’m impressed.

Joey, email your snail mail address to me and I’ll drop a prize package to you that will consist mostly of Pure Fishing lures. I also have an extra copy of Freddy McGuire’s Pure Turkey video that I’ll throw in there, as well as a copy of the Walking With Whitetails DVD by Richard P. Smith.

It looks like Eric Newtson (15,100), who had the second guess, also was second closest. (My 14,750 was sixth or seventh, from what I can tell. I’ll take it!)

Don Manspile (11,980) gets the David Downer Pessimist Award for the lowest guess, a guess that was significantly lower than the entry submitted from one of my favorite correspondents and the inspiration for my ultra cynical character for which the David Downer Pessimist award is named.

Larry Sullivan (15,752) gets the nod for having the most optimistic prediction. Only six participants had the nerve to submit guesses of at least 15,000, which says something about how most of us personally must have fared out there.

A quick look at the numbers show the kill was down just 2 percent from last year. Surely not as much as many of us thought it would be considering how quickly things seemed to taper off. To be fair, we had it a little tougher in the western part of the state than our counterparts had it in Eastern Virginia.

‘ll break down the numbers in more detail in another blog entry as soon as possible.

In the meantime, thanks to everyone for participating.