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Had an awesome morning boys! I have hunted this bird 3 different times now and got darn close on Sunday about mid-morning. He's been a sporadic roost'r, usually way back in the timber where I wouldn't be able to get in quiet enough. My plan this morning was to get to the field I have spotted him in with his hens before and just stand by a tree off the edge of the field and listen for where he was because he's been very vocal in the mornings. Well as i made my way down a logging road to the field he rang out the first gobble of the morning and he was roosted right on the field I was headed too. With the cover of darkness on my side I was able to slip within about 60 yards of where he was gobbling just around the corner from him. I let out a few tree yelps and down he came with his hens. After picking around for a bit i was able to finally convince his hens to make there way over to me and I shot him at 30 yards about 10-15 mins after they flew down at 5:35. Best gobbling morning so far! I could hear birds gobbling on all the surrounding properties. --His fan is quite pitiful to be honest so that's why I don't have him fanned out. He must have been a fighter because he was missing a good portion of his middle tail feathers.

Well, I finally did it. Went up to my place in Chenango County with my brother. On Saturday the 4th set up on a little clover field we have on the property and the birds were going crazy! Had one bird about 150 yards away to our right, I believe roosted in some hemlocks near another little clover field, that must have gobbled 30 times on his own. Heard birds all around us and then another single gobble close to our left near some other pines. I tried calling after daylight but did not get any real response to my calling so I waited. Then about 6 am a crow sounded off and I heard a gobble nearby. A few minutes later the crow sounded off again and the bird shock gobbled a second time and he was getting closer. I then made a few clucks with my old knight and hale mouth call waited then followed up with another series a few minutes later then they came sneaking in. 3 jakes came up to the plot. I wanted my brother to get a shot (even though I have never taken a turkey in my life) because he just got back into hunting after taking a 2 year layoff due to an accident and work issues. Problem was my brother was to my left and the birds came from my right. I waited as log as I could (seems like it was 10 minutes but probably only 10 seconds HA) and then took my shot because the birds were acting a little squirrely when looking at my hen decoy. One shot with the Mossberg 835 (old school gun at least 12 years old in mossy oak shadow branch camo pattern) with Pure gold choke shooting Winchester 3 1/2 inch shells put him right down with only a little wing beat thereafter. Finally, I have been hunting these birds hard, practice, watch every video, have every possible turkey implement in my vest and it finally happened. Even though it was only a jake it was still a great experience because of how it all unfolded and my brother with a front row seat. And the fried turkey fingers that followed were the icing on the cake.

Nailed him at 11:49 AM 32 yrds... pics and story to follow... 10" Beard 1" Spurs

i have a hen and a strutting decoy, I usually use both. Sat I had both setup, the flock at first didnt pay alot of attention, after about an hr the boys started to investigate until one took a 3 1/2 shot. 3 yrs ago I had been hunting this big tom for two yrs and he was beating me up. I went to dicks one friday night and spent $60 bucks on a strutting decoy. Sat am he flew into the field off the roost. He faced the decoy puffed up and came in pretty quick. I finally won. Now he struts in my family room everyday!!

We all just love those breasts.

It was a short but fun hunt this morning. Big Tom and I were walking up the power line when we stopped and Tom owl hooted. A gobbler responded immediately about 75 yards away. We quickly set out a decoy and set up. Tom owl hooted again and he gobbled again. We then had an owl start hooting and this tom responded to every hoot. We started with some soft tree talk and he became unglued with a series of gobbles the likes of which I have personally never heard. He sounded like he was trying to double and triple gobble all in one gobble. Almost sounded like he was gagging!! *lol* At about 5:25 we decided to do a fly down cackle...at 5:30 he flew off the roost and I could see him land in another tree...immediately after that I heard wings flap as he hit the ground...at 5:35 he was dead. Nice two year old bird weighing 17lbs with 7/8" spurs and a 9" beard. We used one of Tom's boxcalls and a prototype potcall that Tom made a few years back.

I stopped by a friends house to drop off something and here, right in his backyard are a whole flock of possible guest (main meal) at a future backyard BBQ cookout. He never told me that he had deer in his yard like THIS! I think it was 4 or 5 that just ambled across the back 40. Does it look familiar to anybody?? I had my zoom maxed out to get these shots so the quality suffered a bit. Tasty looking critters................grin.

I didn't shoot all of them...a few are from family members too. They're not all this big; I just don't take pics of the smaller ones...lol.

"The Official Turkey slayer JOE" congrats young man, you had a great season

Congrats!! Im still working on #1 LOL

This law is confusing and flawed. It is due to the fact that Cuomo needed to rush this out there while the spotlight was brightest. He seized maximum publicity and support by being the first to enact strict gun control as a kneeJERK reaction to the Newtown shooting. Despicable.

Good hunting.

Great bird! Sounds like you earned him! Congrats!

Well done!

Congrats!

congrats! does you stock have a cabelas logo on it?

Congrats...Nice Tom!

Congrats man! Great bird! Must feel good to shut that one up!

Beard is 9.5" for the most part with 1 strand making it 10" haha with inch spurs. I estimate the weight at 18-20

I don't really see this as being helpful to pro-gun causes. I think there may be an attitude back-lash from the general public. I'm not against public demonstrations, but willful violation of laws is kind of in a different category than legal protests. Anytime you pit yourself against the men in blue, you run the risk of alienating law abiding citizens.

Congrats on a fine turkey. What are the measurements?

Still got some dam nice hooks and a beard, congrats!

Cut breast cutlets 1/2" thick...pound to 1/4". Brown a pound of venison burger and simmmer with packaged taco seasoning and a teaspoon of liquid smoke. Cover the thin breast cutlets with a layer of the taco meat and a layer of shredded taco cheese. Roll 'em up...wrap with bacon...and stick 'em in a 350 degree oven until the bacon is crisp. You will be in for a treat!

Just because something is expensive doesnt mean its a guarantee its perfect by any means. Im anal as well when it comes to my bowhunting and I have bought all sorts of shaft and broadheads over the years. I can tell you I find atleast 1 out of every six arrows brand new out of the box no matter what brand it is to be bad. Spin test, water test etc and one always always is not up to my standards. Never rely on cost or claims of specs to be good enough. I also like WNYB shoot G5's now and have for years. It is not all that hard unless you have like 80/80 eyesight to see knicks or a spin test for a bent head. What would worry me far more than a head I inspected resharpend and that has taken multiple deer is a stupid rubber band or some other mind boggling simple device to lock a set of razors in place while in flight and hope like heck it depolys on contact. No thanks I know my G5's cut on contact are razor sharp, nick and bent free and there is no second guessing a rubber band to not fail or a head not deploy. When someone spends the time to properly tune there bow, arrows and broadheads, get there FOC right a fixed blade will be deadly accurate shot after shot. WIth a mechanical head there is more tolerance for imperfection on tuning which in my mind also takes away performance from a piece of equipment we all spend a ton of money on and demand reliability and accuracy out of. That is I think the biggest selling factor with mechanicals, I hear guys all the time say how pinpoint accurate they are and when they shoot a fixed blade they are all over the place. Its normally not the broadhead its the un-tuned equipment.

Now thats cool!!! http://home.windstream.net/tomf42344/

Nope. Its NY govt at its finest. Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

Doesnt sound like a smart idea. More then likely will never happen.

I'm so going to edit your post with my referral code. Your referral code is: CoYe4

Sounds great john!!! I will bring some BBQ sauce along...

Outstanding as usual!

They both have beards and peckers,lol Absolutely no excuse for this stuff to happen.

Lol we try to have some fun with it.