First of Two NY Gobblers on the ground!


dbHunterNY

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Story:

Friday (May 1st season opener), after work I made the drive to the family farm and watched the valley on a high hilltop for birds. I watched a shooter bird and found out about where it was roosting. The next morning (Saturday)I setup close by the edge of the woods, where the bird went in. I was setup in an island within a field, higher up the valley. I did some soft calling, later a fly down. I called in a bird from 350 yards out, that appeared on the otherside of the valley. As it got closer, I was thinking how it was coming in more on my offside. Well this monster worked straight to me, within 25 yards, and never gave me a chance to reposition. Got it fired up, but couldn't get it where I wanted it. I chose not make a pop shot at it and let it walk by then disappear. I met up with some others, later in the morning, that tried calling in a couple uninterested toms. They quit when the toms worked down into a swamp. I decided to go down after them. I setup ahead of them, on otherside of the swamp bottom. I was setup in a field edge, next to an access (barway) between two fields. I called the gobblers in, and they were fired up gobbling behind me. I could here them spitting and drumming, as they worked 10 yards behind me to the barway. The first tom worked out into the field under 10 yards away, with the second in tow! The second tom hadn't cleared the brush yet before the first one started making me nervous, so I let the first one have it. The Benelli with Fedral Heavyweight #5's with Flitecontrol wad dropped him hard.

The bird had a 9 3/4" inch beard and spurs 1" and 1 1/8 - 1 1/4" inches long. Didn't have any means to weigh it, so I had to guess at just under 20 lbs. Hear are some pictures of the bird and what I went out with, sorry about the vest and boots not being in Realtree, but I think they function well and it's what I have.

Well I seem to be having some trouble attaching the pictures. They are posted in my profile though. Maybe someone can post them for me or I'll try again later. Sorry.

- Dan

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