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Who's shooting em?

We had a unanimous decision by all three judges as to who the winners are. Here they are in order... 1. Skillet 2. G-man 3. rotorooter23 Congrats to the winners as well as everyone who submitted an entry for the contest!! Skillet your youth hunter can choose between the antler lamp that wooly donated or a custom boxcall by SS Calls donated by Al Shoemaker, along with a $25 gift card to Bass Pro which was donated by MACHINIST. G-man's youth will receive which ever prize you don't choose. rotorooter23's youth will receive a potcall donated by Rick Howard. I need you guys to PM me your addy's so we can get the prizes to you!! As far as the rest of the entries please PM your addy's and I will get something to you all. I would also like to thank MACHINIST for once again donating a prize for this contest. It is greatly appreciated. A big thanks to wooly, Rick Howard and Al Shoemaker for donating prizes for the contest!!

A relatively new turkey hunter, who has never had a tom in range, finally gets a legal, bearded, puffed, bird close enough to shoot and does shoot it. If he left his house at 430 AM to get to his spot, 13.8 miles away, and traveled 41 MPH, what color are his socks??? Thats the question!!!! Congrats man…Live and learn..

With all due respect that's a bearded turkey and legal in NY.Here's what the website says Spring Turkey SeasonIn the spring you may take two bearded birds. You may only take one bird per day. Immediately after taking a turkey, fill out the carcass tag and attach it to the bird. You do not need to save and send in turkey legs in the spring. You do need to take careful spur, beard, and weight measurements for reporting. Spur measurements: spurs should be measured from the tip of the spur to the base of the spur, where it emerges from the scaly part of the leg. Measure to the nearest 1/4 inch. Do not measure to the forward edge of the leg, only to the base of the spur. Beard Measurements: beards should be measured from the tip of the beard to the base, where it emerges from the skin. Butt the end of your ruler against the base of the beard and extend the beard along the body of the ruler. Measure to the nearest 1/4 inch. Record the weight to the nearest pound. You shouldn't slam someone for doing something legal,is it your choice not to shoot one?Yea but its his tag,his time and his choice....A LEGAL CHOICE AT THAT!!!!!

Thanks to all involved that made this possible and congrats to all the Youth Hunters on their harvests!

I walked from the truck at 4 am and was set up on a familiar point where I knew a good longbeard was hanging out. 5:!5 he revealed his location just across the ravine from me. I knew since he roosted farther west of me it would be tough if not impossible to get him to cross the big ravine and creek, my only chance off the roost was to convince him to fly over to me first thing. no matter what I did he decided to fly down right at the base of his roost tree. I took a good mental note of the location and got up and trolled south trying to get one to hit me, I got caught up with a vocal hen and had some fun with her for a little while but she was alone and I let her walk off to finish churning up the leaves. continued on my journey with no response from a gobbler. I was now back close to where I started and dropped down through the ravine and crossed the creek and got up on the next bench and was soon close to his roost tree. My first calls from the Burrville Bomber were cut off with double gobbles from 2 birds. I made a few more calls and each time they were cut off by both gobblers. I eased ahead 60 yards and let them know I was on the move and their response let me know they were closing the distance in a hurry. I got set up and a few more calls to verify their progress and then I went silent. They didn't gobble for a while and then one of them gobbled and they were closer. I let them gobble again before giving them more calling, they were now under 100 yards and all the deer out in front of me were giving away their location since they all had their heads up and staring in the direction of the last gobbles. Finally I see 2 gobblers working through the beech brush headed NW which was gonna have them pass just out of range. They also had a hen with them, I allowed them to walk by and get to the NW of me out the bench about 80 yards then gave them some soft clucks and yelps on the bomber, they all spun around and shortly were 40 yards and closing with the hen now on a deliberate and steady vocal march right to me. There was no way to shoot as I would have killed them both and the hen was now 15 feet from me and had slowed down but still walking towards me. The hen is now less than 5 feet from me but the 2 longbeards are side by side and still no shot, now she is 3 feet and purring softly, 2 feet purring harder and now a loud cluck, both gobblers separate and are now at 20 yards, the hen is within 2 feet of the gun barrel I purr on the diaphragm and she sharp clucks which causes both gobblers to break strut and extend up. My crosshairs were already on the smaller bodied gobbler as I knew what he was sporting for spurs. At the shot the hen bowled over backwards as the gobbler hit the ground, she got up looked at me, looked at the other gobbler standing there looking at the one on the ground and they both walked away slowly. I sat there as the walked away and once they were out of sight I got up and walked over to my bird. Just as I knew a good dominate lightweight bird with 1 1/4" spurs. 9 3/4 " beard and a whopping 17 lbs. he has been pretty busy fending off intruders from his hens over the last month and it was evident he was a scrapper.

Close but no cigar today, one of the biggest toms I've ever seen led me on a chase around the woods as he tended hens, at 730 am he was alone and came in quiet at 40 yards, I waited till he was behind a tree and raised the gun.. doesn't he turn behind the tree ans walk straight up the hill when he pops out he's 65 yards and walking away.... another day I'll catch up to him again..

We do tend to demand an awful large say in what the goals, attitudes, and motives of other hunters are, don't we? We want to tell others why they should be hunting, what kind of animals they should be taking, how big, how old, what gender... We also want to tell them what they must feel about the animals that they take, what ones should go on the wall, or even if any should be displayed at all. So, we have assigned names to the different styles and attitudes of hunters. There are those who despise the "trophy hunters" who tend to be a bit arrogant and judgmental. And we have assigned the term "meat hunters" to those who forsake antlers and are simply out there like going to the grocery store to bring home some meat. They too have been accused of arrogance and judgementalism. Each camp seems to view the other as some kind of inferior. It's funny how it all works. There doesn't seem to be a lot of room left for the rest of us who appreciate a good rack, but will cash in on opportunities for a bit of meat gathering as well without a whole lot of strings attached.

Nothing wrong with your bird zeus. Don't let anyone's BS get in your head. Did you breast it, pluck, or skin it?

He took his time and identified it as a bearded turkey.....how the F*** would he have mistaken it for a person,dog or any other damn animal that walks the earth????

Sigh...Theres always "That Guy" in these threads. Hey, congrats on your LEGAL bird! Ive been trying to knock one down for a few years and still havent done it. Great job!

Huge props for all who donated prizes. And congratulations to the winners and all the youth hunters who participated. And most importantly to all the mentors who took the time to take a kid hunting! You are all winners!!!

Ok let me know a addy and Ill have it mailed out

Congrats on your LEGAL bird. I myself shot a hen with a 9" beard in my first couple years turkey hunting. I knew something didn't look right on the bird, but i was new to the game and i saw the big beard swinging, KNEW it was a legal bird(as you did) and squeeze the trigger. It was the first hen i have ever seen with a beard, actually ever heard of having beards. now i see hens with beards at my place fairly often.. Mistakes happen, everyone makes them at least once, unless your bowguy... critiques every bodies wrong doings on this page.... but nothing bad happened, you seemed to do your best at judgments and you harvested a somewhat rare bird.. congrats! We live and we learn... Since my bearded hen, i wont shoot one for the fact that they carry eggs and keep the population up. But you can also think of it as turkey management too. Its like the rut only for turkeys. if hen numbers are high, your thinning the competition if it makes you feel any better Might make that tom easier to call in... again Congrats, were all not experts at everything..

For Christmas I bought my daughter her first deer gun. A CVA Optima 50 cal. I figured she should get a few years of learning just how to use it before she will hit the woods with it (shes 12). A couple of weeks ago I had a great deal on some Vortex Crossfire II 3-9x40 scopes pop up on eBay, so I grabbed 2 of them. One for her and one to put on my Encore. I had been using an old Bushnell on my Encore for the last year or so and I hated that piece of crap. The other day I popped the scopes on the two guns. I think I got the rings on the CVA backwards, so I have to change those around. I cant wait to take her out and get her started with it after turkey season is over.

Man what a cool sliver of moon this morning! Heavy fog along Rt 78 slowed my travels but as I gained some elevation on the road the fog was nonexistent, letting me see the moon off to the east. Unfortunately it was the highlight of my morning............ Nice temperature and very light winds made for good condition but I never heard a peep.

Mercury and Mars Star in Rare Celestial Sights This May This month offers skywatchers two very interesting planetary sights that have not been seen from Earth in at least a decade. On May 9, Mercury crosses in front of the disc of the sun — a transit — that will be visible across all of North America. And then, later in the month, yellow-orange Mars will make its closest approach to Earth since 2005 and will briefly attain a dazzling magnitude of minus 2. (For comparison, the full moon shines at magnitude minus 13, Venus' magnitude is about minus 4 and Jupiter's is about minus 2. The lower the magnitude, the brighter the object.) In early May, Jupiter is the only planet visible at dusk. But as the month progresses, Mars rises progressively earlier after sundown, until it's finally evident low in the east-southeast as evening twilight fades. Following behind Mars is zero-magnitude Saturn, not too far from the ruddy first-magnitude star Antares in Scorpius. At dawn's early light, the eastern sky will be empty, with Venus having disappeared into the solar glare. http://www.space.com/32786-mercury-mars-rare-celestial-sights-in-may.html

I had a bunch of gift cards and a lot of cabelas cash, I put it towards a yeti tundra 50. This is beyond impressive....I can get rid of any other cooler I have. This thing will out live me

Finally the weather took a turn for the better. Got into the woods this morning by 5:15am, listened to about 5:45 before setting up my blind in an area that I have taken birds before. About 6:30, I hear a goofy gobble, figured it must be a jake. Sure enough, 3 show up right into the decoys. They milled around for almost 30 minutes before heading off. I waited until 8:30 before calling, since I didn't want to call then right back to me again. After about 10 minutes later, I head another goofy gobble, and from behind me comes 4 more jakes!!!! That's 7 jakes, no hens, and no Toms!! Stuck it out till 11:30 before packing it in today. I always attach my watch to my blind, makes seeing the time much easier and less movement on my part. Got bored and snapped a pic of my gun on my lap!! LOL

Good job this year to everyone who got involved with ANY aspect of the youth hunt, whether birds were killed or not! I've grown to really enjoy the pictures and stories you all share here during this youth hunt. Special thanks goes out to Lou for orchestrating this contest again to help encourage getting the next generation of hunters off to a good start! I've said it before, and I'll say it again.... it's a great thing you do Lou putting it all together for anyone that wants to participate! Bravo buddy!

Last man standing.

Well Grampy I'll tell you, but first let me explain this: When I first saw this I immediately went to it's a Pig Oohh damn! Called Mr B in and he said Fox,but then wavered to pig. So I posted it on a site I frequent, that is country wide but southern based. Many replies and not a one said anything other than pig...I did this because who better to ask? They deal with them all the time and get night pics. Not one to sit on their haunches ,as it were, whilst waiting for the replies to " For you Southern guys" I really looked the pic over. The best way was with the Kindle because the touch screen enlarged it well...I then knew what it was for a couple of reasons. Close up revealed both the ears and the feet. The snout was still iffy Then there are the many many good (no fog) pics of my frequent visitor. It is a red fox that comes to that exact spot nearly every other night.. why that spot? because that seems to be the favorite patch of clover in the entire field for a rather big bunny...and he sits there every other night. Now as far as I'm concerned Hunter 49 had the best answer " pigs body with a fox face". I went back and told the guys sorry but it is a fox...I enlarged the pic. The response was this...a continuation of it's a hog! I was told they also enlarged it and it's a hog! Bear with me here. See hogs are entrenched in their lives and not in a good way. When I posted this here, I got the results I expected. I knew because most of you( I'll assume) have no or little experience with hogs either domestic or wild. The pictures your subconscious would gather as a reference would go to what it knows, canine /fox. Those of you that have had swine or worked with swine would have to go to it's a pig as I did. I say this because when viewing that picture it shows the distinct curvature one looks for in a good hogs ham and the shoulders and neck from that angle show something normally seen in hogs and not fox...So our eyes gravitated to those things and our subconscious filtered through those memories as a reference. In a recent post I said what we see is 1 part fact and 1 part mental referencing,or rather perception. Sometimes what we see triggers such strong references that takes a bit of time to reason out what we are actually seeing. So sometimes what we see has a lot to do with our experiences...Which is why criminal witness accounts are so unreliable... and a bearded hen can look like a jake....remember all computers are only as reliable as the information they are fed...

fill it with beer and bring it over. I'll help you in testing

Diplomat don't be so naive. The gospel singing family that abuses their children is coincidentally attacked by the CPS after they went to visit the Bundy crew? Ok. All it takes is a phone call from some hater to bring these nasty burocrates into your lives and turn it upside down. It then becomes your job to prove your innocence.

Keep grinding it out. You WILL be rewarded!

Spot Hoggs are nice sights. I think they used to have stainless bolts and screws which is a plus. those are the first thing to rust on any bow or accessory. micro adjust for long range is great and will save you lots of time and headache getting dialed in. it's got wrapped fiber and provisions to install a light so for long range, unless your eyes aren't the best I'd go with .010" fiber pins versus 0.019" as they take up a lot of the target especially with pin glare. if you hunt a lot out of blinds and question your vision then go with .019". my only real critical points are 7 pins are a lot and it doesn't have 2nd & 3rd axis adjustments. the additional adjustments are available in the Hunter model that's the next up from the one you're looking at. when shooting up or down hill or out of a treestand it makes that bubble valid. otherwise it'll be off and you have to ignore it, as it'll throw you off. I use a single pin for competition but I'm a firm believer in fixed pins for hunting setups. that said I've used lots of pins before and now I don't. shooting long range you want lots of light and a solid anchor that doesn't change, so I use a larger peep centered just around the pin guard and don't center the pin in the peep. otherwise your anchor changes especially with more pins and distance. depends on speed you're getting but usually with 7 pins you've got a small gap between the top pin and the pin guard. for out west with longer hunting shots you're mostly not using the top pin so seeing more of the animal isn't an issue. around here most shots are top pin close. so you've got the animal now covered up mostly by the pin guard. I'd go with the 5 pin at most. set your top pin more centered in the pin guard. lets you get on the animal faster and just see what's going on, whether it be the game or something in the way of your arrow. set each pin then the bottom gets pushed as far down as it'll go for practicing at furthest distance you can get out of your sight setup. this might mean you've got 20, 30, 40, 50, and 75+ yard pins.

When I was a young fellow chucks were many more in number than what I am seeing these days. Back then I was an unrelenting chuck hunter and loved it. A great way to learn range estimation and long range marksmanship in the field. Al

When it comes to varmints and vermin for the most part I am a live and let live kind of person as long there is no personal conflict. The vast majority of the time I have no problems but when I do I take care of it. For example a Fox that is killing my chickens gets shot, Starlings nesting in my chimney plugging it up get shot, Rats in the barn crapping up hay and feed get trapped, poisoned or shot etc. etc. for Coons Skunks and Possums. I live and hunt in an area of the state that seems to have plenty of Porcupines, As long time hunter that hunts with various breeds of hunting dogs porcupines have caused me more grief quilling my dogs than I care to remember. I have also had a couple of incidents where my Cows apparently came up to Porcupines in the pasture and got close enough to get quilled in the nose. Any Porcupines spotted where I hunted with my dogs I would kill, any porcupines that are around my property I find I kill. They also have an appetite for chewing on odd things, I had one destroy several sheets of styrofoam insulation before I took him out. I once caught a baby Porcupine and kept it in a pen and raised it to adulthood. It became quite tame and was always happy to see me and made a big fuss when he saw me coming at feeding time. I had an ulterior motive and that was to use him to break my hunting dogs off of the wild porkies using this captive guy and an electronic collar, and it worked out well for all involved. After my dogs were well trained to leave the wild porkies alone I crated the boy up and released him in an area that I through he would do well and where he would not be a problem with someone's dogs. Al

At the end of the day who cares, it's a legal bird, a tasty bird, and a mutant bird. Be proud of your bird and if I ever got one with a 9 inch beard I'd have it stuffed because that is awesome! Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

I would love to shoot a porcupine to mount it. Would love to watch my taxi try and skin it[emoji48] Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

My first muzzleloader

Found this matched set a few weeks ago. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If you plan on eating the legs i suggest you put a brick in a large stockpot, put in some chicken stock, put in the legs, cook to doneness, throw out everything in the pot, and proceed to eat the brick Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

Nice. Just remember when cooking it, it's a bit leaner so it can dry out faster then a Butterball. At least in my experience.

I can't be the only guy to pick up some bone while turkey hunting... also found a real old chewed up 4 point side.

Obviously a NY mountain lion. Couldn't be anything else!

That's OK...It's why I have hours of video and thousands of cam pics. I work at basing my opinions on facts seen. Now seeing is 1 part fact and 1 part mental referencing. If one isn't use to seeing substantially bearded hens in a flock then seeing a Jake not displaying his colors(a calm feeding stance) with a beard he's obviously a Jake...but to someone that routinely sees several well bearded big hens feeding with a bunch of Jakes and Toms...those calm colorless Jakes can look like a hen. 3 Jakes no puffy wattles, caruncles, long dangling snoods and smaller beards than the ones on several of our hens...but I can tell from the fact I have other pics of them strutting other than that...dark conditions no coloration from excitement...looks like hens to me.

Same here,just like I'd shoot a albino or piebald deer as long as I had a tag for it and it was in season.....If I see a bearded pterodactyl the next time I head out that SOB is going down also!!!!HAHAHA

One walks by me legal with a beard its getting shot! And I'll send you a pic of the fried turkey fillets I will be enjoying!! Congratz on the bird!!

Excuse me but........ Hen do have wattles, they are just smaller and not as red...they also get rather long and good beards...I have pm'd pics to some members of a few of the ones on our place this year..one has a 7-9 in. beard...and yes hens some times have spurs as well..not as common as beards. Also I watched a hen this morning that had a distinct black head...not a hint of grey/blue...Go enjoy some tender wild turkey Congrats!

Thank to those not ripping me apart. I expected to get it from all sides posting here. As for a safe shot. I identified the bird as being a turkey. Having a beard and being small... I took it for a Jake. Having never seen live turkey this close before. I was shooting down a slight Hill and behind the bird was a hummock of earth left from some old project which was over 5 feet high. 20 yards isn't far. I wasn't shooting at a blue head. I was shooting a clearly defined Jake ( to me). Having seen it half strut. It's not like this was a 60 yard shot 20 minutes before legal light at what could have been someone's dog. Turns out hens do half/full strut. Lots of videos out there. Take into account that I am learning all of this on my own and doing it on my own. Real beneficial for future hunters out there when the old dogs rip em down at the tiniest perceived infraction. Gives all hunters a bad rap. Again thanks all for the insight. I assure you now that I have had this experience I will be waiting for a full Tom. And all the precious Bearded hens are safe from me. Either way it was legal. Sent from my D6708 using Tapatalk

Congrat's to zeus on your first turkey! Please don't lose sight of the fact you got a legal turkey! And should be commended for the hunt and not criticized for it. Who among us has done everything perfectly, every time, while afield? Any hands?........Didn't think so......

Regarding the missing feathers, you are probably describing the brood patch. It let's the hen get bare skin on her eggs to incubate them.

Hunted a new property a buddy and myself got permission to hunt on Saturday for the PA opener. Hopes were high, as the birds were right on the ridge of this small property and shown to be roosted in a great spot for us to get setup when we scouted it out 2 Saturdays before. We got set up and unfortunately, all the birds we heard were across the road and sounded like they were a longggg ways off. We repositioned about 6:30 to try and project our calls across the road. After a long morning of distant answers we gave some calls and I about jumped off my seat when we heard a gobble that sounded like it was right in front of us. a couple soft yelps and we heard him close the distance. We catch a glimpse about 80 yards out and he was headed right up the logging road like we planned. He got about 40 yards out and we confirmed it was a jake. He came up on the left (my buddy's shot opportunity) and he goes "you'll have to kill him, I cant get my gun up". lol.... so it was up to me to decide whether or not I wanted to take a jake. I let him come to about 25 yards and was really weighing the options and decided a bird in the hand was worth it, especially with 2 NY tags in my pocket. Took him right there, just off the logging road, 9:00am. We sat there for about 35 minutes and then started with a couple more calls since we knew there were more birds across the road, and we were convinced that is where the jake came from. At one point, I thought I heard a gobble on our side of the road but couldn't be sure and he didn't answer again....for a little while anyway. He finally gobbled again and although he sounded like he was ways off, he was on our side of the road. So we beat feet across the small property to at least close the distance. We got moved, sat down, and as soon as we called, he gobbled just over the knoll in front of us, probably 80 yards away. we got quiet and sure enough, he popped out above some car-sized boulders, in half strut. a couple purrs and he hopped down on a boulder and worked his way to another logging road. He popped out at 45 and my buddy drilled him right there, 10:35am. What a morning! We started the day off feeling like not much was going to happen, to both getting a bird and filling our PA tags.

I don't target them so much but, if a see one I kill it. Then out comes the skinning rope and plastic bag I always carry, hang upside down and skin like a coon. No quills on the belly side. I keep all the meat I can. The wife makes a pot roast with the meat. She really likes the porkies, as do I. Save trees and get a few meals. Win-Win.

Sitting on the sidelines is a mistake, as much as being a soldier that refuses to fight. Many soldiers don't agree with the position the military takes either, but if you're not in the fight, what good are you?

Took the legs/thighs and breasts. Made a slit. Pulled back the skin. Sent from my D6708 using Tapatalk

I'm with Paula, pig.

Pig

Thank you!