NY Youth Turkey Hunt Story

[Squirrelhunter91]

Well folks for the second straight year, I was out for the Spring NY Youth Turkey Hunt. Here is how the story goes:

Friday, April 22nd

My dad and I had to go watch my 8 yr old brothers Little League Game before we could leave to go turkey hunting. So roosting the turkeys was out of the equation. My brother's team won and my brother started a triple play. The other team had bases loaded, 0 outs and my brother was at 3rd base. He had a line drive hit to him, he caught it, stepped on third and threw the ball across the diamond to first. BING-BANG-BOOM! Triple Play! LOL So once his game was over at about 8:00 PM, we left for the cabin. We arrived at about 9:30 PM and got all of our stuff ready for Saturday. Decided to wake up for 4:30 AM.

Saturday, April 23rd

We woke up at 4:30 AM and there was a light drizzle going on. We vouched to go anyway only because we knew the birds were going to have to come down sometime... The weather report had predicted the weekend to be a washout but it was on and off all day. So we got on the quad and rode up to our property line. We hid the quad in some brush and started walking. We set the decoys up in the middle of a field at about 5:45 AM. We sat there getting soaked in the rain and calling. Our slate calls got wet really fast and the box call was just about done. The only call we really had left was my diaphragm. At about 6:30 AM, we decided to pack up and go back to camp. It was really coming down around that time. We got back to camp, got undressed and went for breakfast at the diner in town. Then after the diner, we went to the Trading Post to get some supplies for the house. My dad and I have to work on the plumbing and stuff on the house because our pipes froze on us in the winter and most of the pipes bulged. Our solution to the water problem was to cut out the bulged pieces of pipe and connect the two ends with a cut out of a garden hose with two hose clamps around both sides. It worked for the most part. My dad then had to go back to the store to get more clamps. During that time when he went to the store, I fell asleep for another 2 hours and he woke me up at 10:00 AM. He told me that the rain stopped and we should go out hunting again. I agreed and off we went. Through the same routine, park the quad, hide it and then off. But, then we started seeing turkey sign. This was good. There was hen and gobbler scat all over the place along with scratchings and stuff that weren't there before. This meant that the birds were off the roost and moving around looking for food. We followed the scat around, found feathers and stuff etc... Then as we were heading back to the quad because time was almost up to hunt. (In NY in the spring, we can only hunt turkey's until 12:00 PM) Then my dad takes out his phone to check the time to see if we had to unload the gun. It was 11:59 AM. So we kept on walking and look up and sure enough there is a turkey walking away from us on the trail. We couldn't tell if it was a hen or a gobbler because it spun around too quick. I could have shot it, but what if it was a hen?

Sunday, April 24th

My dad woke me up at 4:30 AM because I slept through the alarm clock...lol... He told me that it was pouring and it was a thunderstorm. So I said that we will stay in and wait until it breaks.. So we went back to sleep. I then woke up at 7:30 AM and awoke my dad. The storm broke and it was an overcast. I said that we should go onto our buddy's land. He owns a 100 acre farm and he gave us permission to hunt it. We drove to his place on the quad and drove the perimeter of his property on the quad, we didn't see anything. So we decided to go back to our spot on top of the mountain. And again, the same routine, except this time, we parked the quad down below and not up top. We walked around the mountain until 9:00 AM coming up with nothing. Now here is where it gets interesting. I walk up the the edge and start talking to the woods.. lol.. it sounds wierd but I swear that it works.. I said, " Come here turkey, turkey, turkey!Come here turkey, turkey, turkey!" Then my dad comes to the edge of the ridge with me and pulls out the box call. He lets out a series of yelps and guess what!? Two different gobblers answer us back! We start walking the ridge and calling every 50 yards or so. They kept answering us back, but they weren't budging. The problem with these birds is that there is no hunting pressure on them that the hens always come to the gobblers. So we go down the mountain and set up where we think he is. He was on the property line of our property and the hunting camp's property. But, we have permission for the hunting camp so we had nothing to worry about. The gobbler hung up on us for about 10 minutes, then he answered my diaphragm. He was walking away from us. We set up the decoys and started aggressively calling. He kept answering us back, but walking away from us. So we packed up the decoys and got on the quad and went up to the farm again. He was on the farm's property line and another guy's property line. This gobbler was so close, but yet so far. We had to stop pursuing this bird because he crossed over onto another person's property and we didn't know the landowner. At one point when I started cutting on my diaphragm, he gobbled 5 times in the same minute! But then he stopped gobbling and we figured that a real hen got between us and him.

*BUT AROUND THE AREA WHERE WE SET UP THE DECOYS, WE FOUND A TURKEY NEST WITH EGGS IN IT!*

Here are some pics:

[Squirrelhunter91]

Re: NY Youth Turkey Hunt Story

ttt

[maytom]

Re: NY Youth Turkey Hunt Story

Great story and super pic's!!!

[hobie]

Re: NY Youth Turkey Hunt Story

Great story

[Guest bexar_county89]

Re: NY Youth Turkey Hunt Story

Wow, how awesome! wonderful story