western NY bowhunter

I'm in Steuben County. If I remember correctly, you're in Allegany, right?

One of my uncles tagged out this morning too...nice triple bearded bird. It's been a heck of a week for turkey hunting with 6 longbeards down for myself/family members since last saturday!!!

It was a pretty good week...three toms down in 7 mornings. I filled both tags and called a buddy in his first longbeard too. Doesn't get much better!!!

Thanks guys!!!

I was finally able to put a tag on an old warrior of a bird on saturday: 22 lb, 6 oz 9" beard (3/4 of it was "froze off") 1 1/4" spur (other was broken off @ 3/4") He's the second banded bird of my hunting career. Unbelievably, I killed a gobbler with band #N2280 back in 2008 less than 100 yds. away on the same farm. These turkeys were banded on a neighboring farm during february of 2007 as part of a 4 year study conducted by Penn State University in NY, PA and OH. They captured/banded nearly 4,000 tom and jakes from 2006-2009 in these three states. When I called the band in on monday the lady in charge at Penn State told me that my bird had 1 3/16" spurs when banded in 2007, making him most likely a 3 year old at the time. Now, five years later he was likely 8 years old. This makes him the oldest tom recorded in the study!!! Both were $100 reward bands. I collected the money on the '08 bird, but am out of luck with #2 as it expired in July 2009. It doesn't really matter to me anyways... My banded bird from 2008. These two were probably brothers or close cousins... Back in 2007 his beard was 10.5" long. Here's what it looked like 5 years later... I feel truely fortunate to have tagged such an old veteran gobbler...a true legend of the turkey woods. He survived for nearly a decade in an area that doesn't exactly lack for hunting pressure. He'll probably be the oldest bird that I ever kill. I look forward to hunting all of his decendants for years to come!!!

I've got a new one on order. The new mission line is pretty nice. Bowtech/Diamond also have a very impressive lineup for 2011 with prices $200 less than Hoyt or Mathews.

This buck was killed by Dave Edwards in Cortland County, NY on the final weekend of the regular firearms season. The deer reportedly scores 205 gross / 185 net. Looks like it'll be this year's biggest typical in NY. Congrats to Dave on tagging one heck of a NY buck!!!

Last year (on the shed) the tip of his mainbeam was dark colored and also kind of porous in texture. The beam was broken off just past where the darker coloration started. This year the entire right antler was this way. I don't know if it was some kind of velvet injury or what? What ever was going on here is the reason that the tines were weakened and broken off. There was no smooth/polished outer surface to the bone like on a normal antler. It almost seemed as if the whole thing had been burned/charred. I've never seen an antler that looked like this one's did.

Actually, his gross score of 181 3/8" is as a typical. He only has two abnormal points on his left side...a 4 4/8" fork on his G2 and a 1 5/8" sticker coming out of the burr.

CONTINUED... Now, throw in this shed that my uncle's bro-in-law found while spreading manure on a cut cornfield back in March of 2010. This antler still has the wax ring and is last year's shed without question. I searched for the other side but had no luck in finding it. I scored it @ 58 5/8 with 2" or so broken off of the mainbeam. Based on this shed, I'm estimating that he went from a mid-130's to 140 class last year as a 3 year old to a 195+ typical (if unbroken) @ 4.5!!! This jump in growth amazes me, especially since we're talking about a NY deer here, not one from IA. Although this buck wasn't a result of any direct QDM efforts by the hunter or local landowners, it just goes to show what can happen when a deer with good nutrition and good genetics meets up with the age factor of the big buck equation. Little bucks will one day turn into big bucks if given the chance to grow up, even here in NY state...

First of all, I just want to say congrats to the lucky hunter on taking a true buck of a lifetime! This buck was killed on 11/26 by a guy from my hometown here in Steuben County, NY. Unfortunately, his right side appeared to have been injured in velvet and his G3 tine was broken off, as well as half of the G4. Even though he was busted up badly, he still officially green scored @ 181 3/8 gross...150 1/8 net. His right side scores 93 3/8 (with an additional inch or so broken off of his G3): 13 4/8 G2, G3 & G4 over 10 inches, 22 3/8" outside spread.

I can't argue with the fact that the season wasn't a successful one. But, I assure you that none of these birds came easily. For the amount of gobblers that were around this spring compared to the amount that were workable, it was my toughest season ever. It didn't help matters that I've lost a very large portion of my hunting ground over the past couple of seasons so I was pretty much restricted to hunting only a couple of local farms. I've only had 4 longbeards within shooting range this season...3 of them went home in the back of the truck...the other would have too if someone would have been hunting with me. Guess I need to get out and find some new ground before next season.

Haha, funny that you mentioned that. That's his "victory cigar".

It was a frustrating and grueling season for sure. All of the gobblers have been henned up big time (still are). Add a good dose of hunting pressure in and it makes for some pretty tough hunting. My goal going into the season was the same as it always is...to fill my tags and my father's tags with 4 longbeards. Despite the less than ideal conditions, we finally accomplished my preseason goal this morning. I may go out a few more times with other people but for the most part, my season ended this morning in a fine fashion. It's time to put the turkey gun away and break out the trailcams. The bucks are progressing nicely... Good luck to everyone out there still chasing those gobblers around! Bird#1...20 lbs, 9 1/4" beard, 3/4" spurs. Bird #2...20 lb, 10 1/4" beard, 1 1/4" spurs. Dad's state-land gobbler...19 1/2 lb, 8 1/2" beard and 3/4" spurs. Big ole boss gobbler from this morning...21 lb, 10" paintbrush, 1 5/16 & 1 1/4 spurs. Had to throw in the pics of my uncle's bird from last weeked too...1 9/16 & 1 1/2" hooks!

Stick with him, he'll slip up sooner or later...you've just got to be there to capitalize when it happens. I tagged out with a beautiful longbeard yesterday morning that acted much the same as the bird you're after. Actually, it was a pair of longbeads that were always accompanied by 5 or 6 hens. They'd gobble on the roost, hit the ground and shut up. Henned up, pressured birds are pretty tough to kill. Finally, after 6 straight mornings of playing cat and mouse with these boys I was able to close the deal on one of them when the duo followed their hens by my set-up twenty minutes after they hit the field yesterday morning.

Me too. I've been up at the crack of dawn every morning for two weeks straight and have heard plenty of gobbling each time out. They can't stand my trusty Primos old crow call and just have to answer it. For some reason they do seem to be less visible this year though, which is fine by me. The less people that sees them the better. All that matters is that I know that they're there. This morning there were two just gobblers hammering back and forth to each other across the road. Think I'll try for one of them in the morning. It'll be a long, sleepless night tonight. Man, I can't wait for that 4:00 wake up call!!! Good luck tomorrow NY....

Sounds awesome. I've got a Vanquish on order myself (8 weeks now). I can't wait to get it! Kevin Strother sure designs some sweet arse bows...

Her skull turned out pretty good...

I'm staring to get the spring fever bad! All last week there was a flock of around 50 birds hanging out on a farm that I hunt just up the road. It was a beautiful sight seeing 21 longbeards picking out in the field together. The birds on this place whipped my butt last spring...hoping to get some payback on a couple of them in '10. Looks like there will be a ton of hens to content with again this spring.

I picked the skull up from the taxidermist yesterday. He was supposed to save the jaws for me but he forgot. I looked at her jaws before I took the head over and the teeth didn't appear to be as worn as I was expected them to be. I do know she was at least 2.5 when I first started noticing her in '07...meaning that she was a minimum of 4.5 in '09 (likely older).

I first discovered the deer which came to be known as "The Freak" out in a small alfalfa field one night a week prior to the bow season opener. Initially, I thought it was odd that a buck would still have velvet that late into the fall. After gun season closed in mid-December I spotted this deer out in my aunt's field once again...still in full velvet. This really got me wondering what the heck was going on here? Fast forward to the summer of '08. I saw/videoed this deer several times throughout the summer and fall. With every Freak sighting I was becoming more and more convinced that "it" was in fact an antlered doe. No one in my family wanted to believe me. Gun season came and went and I wondered if this oddball had been killed by the orange army. Then, right before x-mas one night I spotted her out in the same alfalfa yet again. She had made it through another choatic NY gun season. Her antlers were fully velvet clad with tines that appeared to still be growing and were curling over at the tips. In '09 I only manged to lay an eye on The Freak one time back in July and then she went MIA. Until today... Unbelievably, I was taking laundry off of the line right before dark when I happened to glance down into the creek below me and noticed a dead deer hung up on a big rock. Apparently, it had been laying frozen in the creek upstream and came floating down with the rain we got last night / this morning. I had been out here a couple hours before and it wasn't there. There appeared to be antlers on its head so I went down to check it out. I noticed velvet on the rack and quickly pulled its head out of the water. It was the Freak!!! She was laying dead 30 yds from my bedroom window! Upon pulling her out of the creek I saw that her left hind leg and been nearly shot off and was only hanging on by skin/tissue. The bullet grazed the hock on the right leg too. I'd guess she's been dead for a couple of weeks now. It wasn't a good way for this deer to go, but at least I got some closure to the mystery of its sex...a once in a lifetime discovery for sure. Now, I need to figure out what to do with it. I'm thinking of cleaning the skull up but am not sure how to preserve the remaiining velvet. Confirmation photo showing that it is a doe... 12 scorable points with quadruple mainbeams!!!

This one's been popping up everywhere. It is NOT a NY deer and was taken in Kansas last year.

They sure do. I know for a fact that they lay eggs because I shot one this morning that had 3 eggs inside of her. Normally, I wouldn't have even concidered shooting her, but it was the final morning of season, I still had a tag to fill and there's WAY too many hens around here as it is. They sure threw a monkeywrench into my season. So, I decided to do some hen management and get a little revenge at the same time cause this little bearded lady screwed me up on a monster longbeard during opening weekend... Here's another bearded hen from a different farm that I hunt. She been hanging around for several years now. This gobbler desn't seem to mind the fact that she has "whiskers"... Sadly, their love affair was short lived....

Congrats on #2 Maytom! A couple more NY boss gobblers hit the ground this morning. Here's a monster that a buddy of mine from work killed...23#, double beards @ 10.5" and 9.5", 1 1/2" and 1 9/16" spurs!!! My dad also scored on a nice 2-yr old. I've never seen such a run down bird in my life...all of his breast feather were missing from breeding hens and his breast sponge was completely used up. Only 16.5#, 7/8" spurs, but he had a sweet 11" rope. I plan on hitting hard for the next 4 days trying to score on #2.

They're not through yet!!! I probably heard more gobbling this morning than I have on any single hunt in my turkey hunting career. I was surrounded by gobblers...probably 10-12 different birds (at least two were longbeards for sure and a bunch of jakes). Could have shot a jake but the big boys went out in the field. They gobbled nonstop for two hours without me even touching a call. Man, were they hot!!! Believe it or not, I didn't even mess with them either so that me and my dad can go back up in the morning and he can hopefully get a crack at one of the longbeards. We've been after these birds all season but they've been henned up bad. With all the jakes around, it should be an awesome season next year! Got lucky and killed this guy (aka "Ole short-feathers") Weds morning... Got some sweet trailcam photos of him over the past few months. Here's a few of my favorites...