western NY bowhunter

Congrats on the new bow. I've had my GT since last June. You'll love yours even more after you've been shooting it for a while. Its truely a sweet shooter for a speed bow. I'd like to test drive the Z28 to see how it compares. Well, maybe not, cause I'd probably leave the store with it....

This will be my second season using a IC BDS choke. They're a little on the pricey side, but well worth the investment IMHO. I had pretty good luck with it last season and hope to introduce a couple more longbeards to it during next weeks opener.... What kind of gun / brand of shell are you using?

It'd definately be worth your while to get up and check things out. They were gobbling off the hook this morning! Turkeys really aren't hampered too much by the rain, as long as its not a total washout. The only conditions that I won't go out to scout in is when its really windy. Other than that, there's only 9 more days to decide where that magical first hunt of the year is gonna take place.... PS...Make sure you take a crow call with you when you go to get those birds fired up on the roost.

You'll have far more luck locating turkeys in the morning while they're still on the roost (prior to flydown) than in the evenings. Right now, once the gobblers hit the ground they're getting covered up with hens and are doing alot more stutting then gobbling. Also, try a crow call instead of the owl hooter...I've had birds hammerring to mine every morning I've been out for over the two weeks now.

Went out listening this morning... Heard at least 10 gobblers at the first stop. Man oh man, sounded like Texas on a TV hunt! They were "chain gobbling" to the ol crow call...one would go then they all would !!! Ended up hearing 6-7 more at a couple other spots too. So, yeah...get out there...they're gobbling pretty darn good!

God dang it, man, those dudes have some killer beards on 'em. Where in NY are you from?

Its actually a Moultrie I-40...

Checked the cam again this morning. Had a bunch more turkey pics, nothing too interesting though...mostly hens and jakes. Lots of squirrels/doves too. Same ole boss gobbler... Same ole bearded hen...

Yep...she's actually in the one after that too. I've got a bunch of her. I won't shoot her if given the opportunity this spring (she is legal)...but will try to smack he down this fall. Bearded hens are quite common around here. I actually killed one on this farm a few falls ago.

Thought that I'd share a few of my better trailcam pics from the past three mornings. Still got 29 days and a wake up to go.... This morning's action... Yesterday... Monday...

http://oldgobbler.com/TheForum/index.php/topic,13891.0.html

Nope. She's legal to take...but, they're pretty common around here. My spring tags are for longbeards only...lol.

Checked my trailcam again yesterday morning. Not a whole lot going on. Had a bunch of hen/jake pics. but nothing too overly special except for this old girl that passed by about an hour before I showed up. I've been watching one on the farm here for the past several years...don't know if this is the same one or not. Bearded hens are pretty common around here. I typically see 3-4 every spring. Still cool to get a photo of one though. Got a kick outta this pic too. The one hen appears to prefer to dine while laying down. That's my boy "Mr. Hooks" in the middle. He's got lots of lady friends already...

Here's a couple that I'll be looking for come May... http://oldgobbler.com/TheForum/index.php/topic,12734.0.html

western NY bowhunter adult easterns

Man, am I getting antsy!!! Got some pretty good stand sets hung, the new Elite GT500 is shooting great and my slicktricks are dialed in...! Looks like it should be a great season. Lots of nice bucks around the house/hunting area this year. Here's a few cam pics of several of the bucks that are on the hitlist. Honestly, I've been watching these guys grow since June and would love to see them all get another year or two on 'em... Nice 8, decent 10... Decent 8... The "big 6"... Here's "the freak"... the deer thats at the top of my list this season. I've been watching "it" for two years now and am 99% sure that its an antlered doe. Saw it the other night still fully in velvet. Last year it was in velvet at least until the middle of October (last time I saw it). Hopefully, I'll be able to find out for sure... My goals for the season, obviously are to tag a respectible buck, put a couple of fat does in the freezer and arrow a fall turkey...

They had Wildview "el cheapo" digital cameras on sale at Wally world yest. for $35...so I picked one up hoping that it'll hold me over til my new Moultrie I40 gets here this week. Anyways, I decided to place the cam along the edge of an alfalfa field where the deer like to cross the road. Low and behold these two bucks were nice enough to come by to pose for me last night. I'm a newbie to the whole trailcam thing and these are my first ever pics so I was pretty pleased. Had several more pics but they were all distant. For my area of NY with the intensive hunting pressure our deer get, I concider these to be pretty decent bucks (both shooters). It appears that they still has a fair amount of growing left to do. In all reality, I'd like to see both of these guys get a couple more years on 'em...but they had better not pass by my stand come come October. There's been as many as 16 bucks out in the field this past week in the evenings, with several more nice bucks of this caliber in the bunch. Hopefully, I'll get some of the other ones to wonder by tonight.....

We grow some big deer out here in the farm country of WNY too. These deer see a TON of hunting pressure...but remain pretty visible throughout the summer. There were 11 bucks out in the alfalfa last Sunday. The field was just mowed so it'll probably be a couple ofweeks before I see them out again. They'll look WAY different by then. I can't wait to see what they've blossomed into! A couple of 'em should be dandies....

Just wondering if there are any deer left in the empire state? I haven't see one in several weeks now... Just kinding. There were 10 bucks out in the alfalfa field across from my house last night. First time that I've checked it out this year so I was a little surprised by the number of bucks. It looks like 2 or 3 of them are prob. 3 yr olds, 5 or 6 are 2 yr. olds and a couple of yearlings. It was getting kinda dark but it appeared that most of them are currently 6 points...3 or 4 look like they'll be pretty nice bucks in a couple of weeks. I love watching the antlers grow this time of year. I guess that a few of the little guys that I passed up last fall made it through season after all....

They're not done yet. Heard 5 birds on the roost this morning. Went after the two "mouthiest" ones...they hit the ground and went silent. We set-up in several locations and did some light calling but got no responses. On the way home we checked out the farm where we were gonna hunt this morning and wouldn't ya know it...the 2 big ole longbeards that we've been after for the past week straight were strutting out in the field with a couple of hens. We slipped around and got in front of them. They were working their way towards us...then the hens veered off and started going back the other way. I did some light yelping and they gobbled 5 or 6 times but eventually just followed the hens. We'll be back after those dudes in the morning. I've never had to deal with so many hens in my life. All of the longbeards that we've seen in the past week...no matter if its been in the morning or in the evening...have all had 2-5 hens with them still. Hopefully, there'll be a good hatch this year and a ton of poults for the fall....

Took my little brother out this morning... We roosted three big 'ole longbeards with 4 hens last night. All 3 of them hammered in the tree from 5:20-5:50 when they flew down. To make a long story short, one of them came sneaking in on us and the other two hung up and were taken away by hens. He strutted/gobbled out in the field for 20 minutes @40 yds or so. Problem was, we were set up anticipating the birds to come down a logging road in the opposite direction. After 15 minutes or so...he finally started acting spooky and began walking away. I told my brother to hurry and get swung around on him if he was gonna get a shot. He did manage to get a shot off but it was a rushed one. Fortunately, it was a "good" clean miss and the bird took off flying like a "streak of you know what". Dang, that was one monster longbeard...! Moral is...get out there. The birds are still willing and looking for women. Good luck.

My dad put his tag on bird #2 this morning. As the title indicates...the whole hunt unfolded rather quickly. He first gobbled on the roost at 5:25. There are two logging roads heading up to where he was at. We figured that he'd most likely take one of these roadways if he decided to come in to check out my calling. Dad's gotta leave the woods to get ready for work at 6:00 which doesn't leave a whole lotta time, so he took the lower trail in case he had to sneak out and leave. My little brother had the upper one and I was stationed in the middle to do the calling. The plan was to get my little bro the shot. No sooner did I sit down when a hen started tree talking about 30 yds. from me...right between me and my bro. She pitched down and ended up flying only a few feet over my head and landed about 10 yds behind me. I could hear her wings whistling as she glided overhead! She started to make her way up towards where the gobbler was roosted so dad ran her off. I had just popped my mouthcall in and was getting ready to give a few soft yelps when I heard something coming down through the woods. All of a sudden I spot that lovely white softball head heading down the logging road right to dad. I knew that old boy was about to be in a world of hurt. At 20 yds. the 11-87 supermag put him down hard. It was only 5:45. This dude was a little on the light side at 19 lbs. but had a nice thick 9.25" beard and 1" spurs. I killed my banded gobbler last week probably 150 yds. or so from where this one was taken. Hopefully, our luck will hold up and we can manage to get a bird for my little bro.

What a hunt!!! Took my cousin for a drive around last night in attempt to roost some birds and spotted this guy strutting out in a field with 4 hens just before dark. We had hunted him saturday morning too but he roosted right off of the field and we ended up getting way too close to him on the roost and he pitching in the wrong direction. This morning would be different...the plan of attack was to set out b-mobile and some hen decoys and actually lay out in the field and catch them coming back across. He first gobbled right across from us at 5:35 and I could see/hear him strutting on the limb. This went on for almost half an hour before one of the hens finally flew down. He quickly followed suit. A few moments later another hen glided out into the field behind us. The game was on...!!! He followed the one hen and ended up entering the field about 100 yds. behind us. I started working him with some soft calling on my mouth call. He gobbled at nearly every call but kept strutting back and forth waiting for the hens to come to him. I shut up and hoped he'd get antsy and come in to do some investigating. It took a while but he started to break and come down to us strutting/drumming the whole way. I had been looking over my shoulder watching him outta the corner of my eye the whole time. He finally disappeared out of my field of view but I could track his movement by his spitting/drumming which was getting louder and louder. He ended up circling us and stood there at 25 yds. with his old periscope stretched up just burning a hole in the decoys. Problem was the gun barrel was pointed at the decoys and he was 90 degrees to the right. We were totally pinned down out in the wide open and couldn't get repositioned to shoot. As much as it hurt to do...we had to watch him strut back up the hill and outta sight. His fan disappeared over the horizon and I decided that our only chance was to take the game to him. We left our gear and the decoys and belly-crawled up to where he had last seen him about 80-100 yds above us. As we crested the knoll my cousin spotted him only 30 yds. away still strutting! He carefully manuevered ahead a few more yards and managed to get into position to drop the hammer down. My ole winchester 1300 and comp-n-choke combo put him down in a heap! It was one of the most exciting and suspensful hunts that I've ever been on. Nice 2-yr old...21lbs with a 9.5" beard. Last tuesday I called him up 5 jakes and he threw up an airball. I'd sat he redeemed himself big time!

I traded in my 870 supermag this spring for a 3.5" browning BPS with an Indian Creek choke. So far, I'm liking it...

I shot this guy (turkey N2280) yesterday morning at 5:50. This particular bird was known through pre-season scouting as "short beard." There we several other big toms on this particular farm and short beard seemed to disappear a few days before season started. Honestly, I never really paid much attention to him because some of the other birds were big ole long-bearded suckers. The last time shortie was spotted he was strutting out in a hayfield at 2:00 in the afternoon during the opening day of the youth season. Sunday evening I took a drive around before dark and spotted him strutting with 5 hens. Tried him monday morning but he had roosted farther up in the woods than I'd anticipated. He hit the ground and shut up. Tuesday morning I snuck up closer to where he'd been and he, of course, was roosted down at the other end of the woods. After waiting a few minutes to make sure no gobblers were roosting closer, I got up and made my way closer to him. I managed to get within 70-80 yds. and set up. It was nearing 5:45 and I figured that he'd be pitching out any minute. I gave a few really soft yelps and clucks followed by a flydown with my wing and he shut-up. The crows and several distant gobblers got him fired up again. I did a little soft calling followed by another flydown and he double-gobbled in response. A minute later he sounded off again and he was on the ground. I gave a few little re-assurance clucks and got into position. A few seconds later I could hear him drumming and walking my way. His big ole white softball head came bobbing into view and I hammered him with some hevi-13 #6's at 25 yds. As I picked him up the first thing I felt were some really sharp spurs so I dropped him and let him flop around a little more before trying again...! That's when I noticed that it was short beard and he had some hardware on his leg! He ended up weighing 22 #'s with a 7 3/4" beard that curled up at the tip. One spur is 1 1/4" and the other is scuffed at the tip and measures a little less. To top it all off...the band is a $100 reward band!!! When I got home I called the phone number on the band and reached the inbox of some researchers at Penn State Univ. I left a message and they called me back yesterday afternoon. Turns out he was banded (on both legs) along with 17 other gobblers (8 longbeards/ 9 jakes) in Feb. '07 on another property that I hunt about a mile and a half down the road as part of their 4-yr. turkey study thats currently taking place in cooperaton with the state DNR's in NY, PA and OH. I knew about them trapping/banding birds here but I never thought that I'd tag one of them. So far, 9 of the 18 birds have been harvested and reported back. Maybe I can beat the odds and get a crack at another one this fall! Last night my dad roosted another big longbeard in the same corner of the woods where I killed this one. He and my little brother went up after him this morning. Unfortunately, the bird was coming in on a string and my brother (who is sick with a cold) had to cough really bad and ended up shooting too far and missed him. Looks like I'll have to hang my gun up for the year...but I've got several family members that I'll be trying to call birds in for. Hopefully, we can get a hunt or two on video.