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1-1/2 spurs goes a long way to putting a big total score

there are more when adding weight, spurs and or beards. Tell me more on yours as I am cutting off interviews this summer and may entertain good stories that are below the current criteria. As it is it will be a large book

If you have gobblers that meet the current criteria we can certainly do an interview for inclusion. I am including NWTF registered birds and non registered birds. They do need to be verifiable. Weight is the tough one as few are hung on certified scales or even accurate scales.

The book project has been on hiatus for a long period while I started a tech company. It will be a large book over 400 pages. For those that I have contacted or attempted to contact at the beginning of the project: Your stories will be available to review as I complete them. For those I have attempted to schedule an interview, I will be imposing a deadline July 15th to put this edition on track for publishing. That said, should you change your mind I would be more than happy to include in future editions as I want this to be a positive endeavor and share your stories for readers to gleam and learn from. If you haven't been interviewed and would like to be included, please contact me, I would love to include as many as possible that met the original score criteria. The placings have shifted some, however I am still going by my original list as what was unique and noteworthy then still is of course. I am working toward a late 2019/ early 2020 book release. There will be future editions as records are broken and those I attempted to include, catch up with the project. The more hunters that come on board that I originally sought to interview, the better. Any record book gobblers bagged in NY during the 2018-2019 spring/fall seasons? or years prior? If your bird meets the following scoring criteria, I would love to talk to you about being included in the book! Note: Non registered birds- measurable attributes must be verified for consideration. Typical score greater than 75.000 (weight x1 + beard x 2 + L & R spur x 10) Non-Typical score greater than 105.000 (weight x1 + beard(s) x 2 + L & R spur x 10) Weight greater than 26.5 lbs. (verifiable certified weight) Beard Length greater than 12" (verifiable length) Spur Length greater than 1.625" (verifiable length) Please contact: [email protected] http://www.nylimbhangers.com/ https://www.facebook.com/Empire-State-Limb-Hangers-139342609441424/

Great Bird! Stats? May meet requirements for my book project

Scenario: It’s the middle of the second week of the spring season in Upstate NY. You are hunting state land and hear six, possibly eight different gobblers midmorning. After several volleys of nonstop gobbling, you determine they all are very close to each other. You make your moves to close the distance. Each call you make is drowned out by thunderous gobbles. As you close the distance you find they are just a hundred yards away on private land. With a grove of pine trees in front of you, you close to within fifty yards undetected. You also know the land drops down to the valley not much further out beyond the pines. You make the softest purr you can muster, eight strutting long beards gobble so hard your pants wave. In all the excitement you just now notice (except the dufus republican, and the conservative too focused on gobbling) to the far left of your setup there’s a 50-gallon drum painted in camo hung up against a big maple tree limb with a feeder motor. There is corn everywhere, there is also a 5′ high fenced enclosure just beyond the pines that leads to the farm below Eight strutting long beards appear. They drop strut into a dead run towards the feeder. You: Anarchist- You have in your hands, the fastest cycling semi auto 12 gauge ever made. You fire two custom made (on the black market) fragmentation rounds. All eight gobblers are flattened at the blast. You avoid the police, the conservation officers which are called as the blast is heard throughout the valley. You have a backup plan to kill them all, should events not go as planned. They’ll never take you alive. No tags are used or reported Democrat- Hunting? Firearms? It should be banned, after taxing it to death for twenty years. You back out, hatch a plan with the DNC, US AG, and the FBI. You pay for a full jacked up documentation package. Next day you sneak back using a silencer and poach them all as they show up at the first cluck. You destroy all evidence and lay out a two-year investigation blaming Trump Jr. as a hedonist animal killer. Despite the elaborate efforts you still lose out on 1st place at the local spring turkey contest scoring and weigh in. Republican– Landowner at work? You shoot two, sneak back over to state land, report your tags. Post like mad on Facebook. You then spend the next two years defending Trump Jr. You take 1st for beard, spurs, and weight. Rumors take on appearances as facts. You pick up your trophies leaving in a hurry and go on the fishing trip you just won… Libertarian- Do not give it a second thought, shoot two gobblers, get out. Nobody’s business, tags are not reported Conservative- You see the posted signs, you swear a bit, back up, set up and proceed to call in a gobbler from your right flank, and shoot. The birds out in front would not budge, not even to your $200 box call. They gobbled nonstop while you walked back to the truck. You tag and report. You go back a few days later hoping to call one off the property or until all the ruckus stirs one up from further down the ridge like before. Not a clue about the feeder until you hear it go off at 7AM. A pile of jakes show up at the feeder on cue. Mad as hell about the feeder, you leave. As you walk out in the daylight you notice the scattering of blood and feathers around the feeder. You get out of there and never look back. You have no clue about the enclosure until somebody at the diner accuses you of shooting a farm bird. You didn’t but now you are mad as hell, and damn sure it’s a liberal democrat that set you up. You decide to lay low, not enter the contest… Green Party- all hunters should be arrested for felony crimes against humanity. except you of course… -MJ © 2019 Mike Joyner- Joyner Outdoor Media

Turkey Obituaries, Ode Of Respect As a dyed in the wool New Yorker of the upstate variety, May is a favored month since my first turkey hunt over a quarter century ago. With the explosion of social media, despite some of the pitfalls, and overblown strife, for us turkey chasers it is a blessing in disguise, even for those that take the sport of arguing to Olympic world-class levels. From the start of the early season in Florida up until the final days in June for Maine’s late season, we get a continual stream of stories of successes and fails along with every conceivable successful hunter pose that can be had. It’s all good in my opinion. From the gorgeous sunrises and sunsets, endless valleys and vistas, and especially the smiling faces, I more than enjoy seeing these in my daily news feeds. As the turkey obituaries are posted daily and will continue the current pace up until the last few weeks, there will be many tidbits to learn, secrets of the trade and maybe a new tactic to add in our bags of earned humility. Although I may have very specific methods I find most agreeable and not amiable to some trends that are legal in different states I enjoy each of the successes of my fellow turkey hunting brethren. We all see it from different views and perspectives, and the hunting terrain and associated tactics are greatly varied across the continent. As the majority of my posse of friends on Facebook, Instagram are verifiable turkey hunters, there are long listings of postings to like. The ones with many pics of the epic excursions and attached stories are the ones I find the most interesting. We glean and learn so much from them. The long spurs and rope for beards are certainly impressive, and some of the birds taken push the weight scales to make one wonder how they ever got hefted over sore shoulders and hauled back to camp. With some experience, you can tell when it is a first time taking a gobbler, or a very special time with family and friends. The smiles are wider, and the faces are beaming with the experience of a grand day. Those are my favorites. As I can recall favorite stories from battling birds with smaller proportions, tattered warriors, jakes with bigger than life attitudes, I can enjoy just as well the many shapes and sizes of gobblers that are encountered. The quality of the experience or epic nature of it is seldom indicated by trophy parts. If one hunts enough seasons you come to realize that the crazy antics, the more memorable events may come from the most unlikely of quarry. As one might relish an old buck a very old hermit gobbler may succumb to your charms underweight, with broken spurs and a beard long past its prime. As a hunter only you would know from many seasons in pursuit as to how old and crafty the old warrior may be. Those become treasured memories and a collection of stories destined for turkey camp. There is never a shortage of keyboard warriors, the shot one bird instant pro’s and other detractors that are quick to rain on another’s parade. There are far more of us that enjoy and encourage the newly successful hunters, especially women and kids who join our ranks. Admittedly they are far more pleasing to the eye posing with a long beard than us old grumpy turkey slayers, not remotely debatable in the slightest. As I think back over the many turkeys taken back home in the truck each of those stories or for purposes here “turkey obituaries,” are ingrained into memory in ode to respect and to moments well lived in a grand pursuit. It is why we pause when retrieving them after the shot, it is also why we give praise when we give thanks for a meal we anticipate. We might be cavalier in pursuit, while being outsmarted, however as we reach a successful conclusion we come to grips with what transpires in the hunt and ultimately to our plates. In Ode to the grand wily wild turkey, I would implore you to take the time to record your stories, take pictures throughout your adventure. I can without hesitation guarantee each of you that as you become an old turkey chaser such as myself and my brothers and sisters in camo you will be forever grateful to heed this advice and relish the memories you retrieve and relive from doing so… With a lot of the season left to go in New York, I wish you a safe and most prosperous time afield with family and friends and look forward to reading your contributions to the turkey obituaries as the season progresses! -MJ © 2019 Mike Joyner- Joyner Outdoor Media

one hell of a hunt this morning in NY on one of my favorite ridges. Super quiet and the air was very still. The first gobble was almost 6AM. Moved up to within 150 yards Woods are wide open with no green up yet. 6 gobbles on the roost, and no response to a fly down. 15 minutes later the crow's startup, and they are coming my way. time passes and I get a consistent series of clucks straight out in front but beyond my sight line. Two jakes approach and now answer calls like they mean it. Strutter stays back in and out of sight, definitely out of range. Jakes walk within 8 yards of me and stop to gobble close enough behind me that you can hear that croak in their gobble. Stutter spins in place does not advance. I make two really soft yelps and I get my ears blown off as they walked up to the tree behind me. Impressive as they sounded like mature birds. This goes on for 90 minutes as the jakes want that hen, and won't leave, the strutter won't move. Fourth time back and forth from out in front to behind me in this game, the stutter commits and I drop him at 25 paces. One jake runs off,. the other stands there and just gobbles. Had to yell, and thrown sticks at him to make him leave. Odd bird, little over 17 pounds, no spurs, and three beards that two are broken off at 4.5" As I walked back to the truck after taking pictures, the two jakes were still gobbling until the rain kicked up and made for a wet mid-morning. Very fun and loud hunt, WIth the slow start of the opening ending up with gobbling right up till the noon fire whistle, it is a rather refreshing start of the season despite the lousy weather.

run bushnell and eotech holo sights on all my turkey guns, I wear progressive lenses and it solves a focusing problem between rear site and front sight. The circle works for me as the eye naturally acquires and centers target. within the circle.

great story, my father thought that he might hunt with me as he was close to retiring and got the idea I filled a tag every time I went, which of course I didn't but I put the days in. He got Leukemia that August and passed in February never made it to the turkey woods. You have a great memory to keep right there.

Age and genetics, but a number of caveats. Lack of melanin will show as lack of pigment (light tan or yellowish instead of black) and tends to be weak and break off. thawing and freezing in the winter can result in ice balls forming on the beards and cause breakage (a common occurrence.) In general very unreliable for aging past two years.

stuff 'em full of styrofoam and they sit real well

Here's a fun one, guess the beard length on this little girl. Before the peanut gallery gets too excited about taking a bearded hen, this was tagged in the fall of 2013 in Philadelphia NY, she was one of about 50 birds roosted on this farm the first week of October. Something between to 37-38 of them was hens. Locales such as my homesteads I'd be hard-pressed to shoot a hen in the fall or bearded hen in either season. On this farm, it would be no big deal to see 100+ birds in November back when I hunted it.

using Hevi-13"s #6 out of a 11-87, NWTF 25th Anniversary gun with a Hevi-Shot Choke tube (branded by hevi-shot) I get 42-43 pellets in a 3" circle at 40 yards. Other than a clean barrel, no modifications

http://www.turkey-talk.com/tblog/?p=811 A TURKEY HUNTER’S PRAYER...