alloutdoors

It really depends on what you are hunting and how. For turkey and bow I like rubber, the last couple years I've been using the Alpha Mudlite's; I have the snake boot version because I take them down south in the spring for turkeys. If I'm tracking deer in the Adirondacks it's hard to beat a pair of uninsulated Bean boots. If it's tree stand hunting in late November or December I want the warmest pair of pac boots I can find.

Any of the Slick Trick fixed heads. I personally shoot the GrizzTricks and love them. They are scary sharp and very sturdy.

You want a canoe. But seriously, three miles? When I hunt the Adirondacks I'll cover 10 miles on a normal day and may be 4 miles from a road. 3 miles is nothing.

This guide covers the basics: http://www.customcalls.com/yabbforumimages/jgwingbone.pdf I use ApoxieSculpt to build up the joints to a smooth taper before I wrap, I've also used a carpenters epoxy in the past with good results. I use size A thread for wrapping (the smallest) and I like to use ProWrap from Mudhole. I like their ColorFast line which is UV resistant. Once you have the wrapping done you will need to use a finishing epoxy over top of it, I use ProKote (also from Mudhole). This is a very slow setting epoxy and you will need a way to keep the bone turning while it dries, you can pick up a rod turner on ebay for about $30 and modify it for the task. Another item to consider is a thread wrapping jig, you can just pass the thread through a closed book but a jig can be nice to have and they are relatively cheap. Other useful items are a set of dental picks, small sharp scissors, and a thread burnishing tool. A few of my calls. A couple in progress, this shows my jig setup.

I feel terrible for Lundqvist, after all these years they make it to the finals and once again the rest of the team lets him down. It's pathetic that management has squandered the career of one of the best goalies in the league by not putting a team in front of him that can win it all. The Kings were just the better overall team, so congrats to them. That said, if not for the questionable non-interference call on the LA goal in game 2, and the atrocious tripping penalty called last night that let LA tie it up in the 3rd, there's a very real chance that NY would be up 3-2 right now. Way to go refs...

Nice bird, that's how you hunt a turkey!

Must! See! Hooks!

Yeah I've used sticks in the past too. If you haven't seen the Photo Fan before though take a look, makes it so easy. http://skipenterprises.com/hunting_products.html#the_photo_fan

Nice bird! Are you using a Photo Fan to spread the tail? I love mine, they work great. Looks like a really pretty spot to hunt too.

Congrats! Get yourself a Thermacell and you can say goodbye to the mosquito problem. Although this year it's been so cold I only used my Thermacell once, didn't even use it when I was in SC/GA.

Cleaning my gobbler from this morning and noticed a couple strange feathers in his tail fan. The two central feathers have banding at the base that looks like what you would see on the wings. Pretty sure I've never seen that before.

Well, it's been a while since I was still hunting for myself this late in the season. The last few years I've been averaging a bird for every two days hunted, but it's been fun to have a longer season too. A few days ago I had this bird and his buddy at 60 yards in an open field at about 9:00 but they had a hen with them and I couldn't get them any closer. This morning I slipped in under their roost and got it done nice and early. It was about 4:15 when I parked, and there were distant flashes of lightning to the north and south, thankfully though the storms stayed away. The spot where the birds roost is just off the back of a plowed field, they usually hit the ground just inside the edge in a nice open piece of hardwoods and then make their way to the field. I set some decoys out in the field and then got set up about eight steps inside the woods facing away from the field and toward where I expected the birds to be. I figured I would either get a shot at them when they hit their strutting area or I could turn around and shoot them in the decoys if they made it past me (or flew out into the field). I didn't have long to wait before I heard the first hen start calling, she sounded like she was inside 30 yards up in her tree. I answered with a few soft yelps, pretty much just to be able to say I had called. Within a few minutes both gobblers joined in as well. At about 5:20 they both flew down and this one landed within range. The dot on my Fastfire was already on his head when his feet hit the ground and a load of HW7's ended both my morning and season. 18lbs, 10" beard, 15/16" spurs My view looking into the woods from where I was sitting, the field with my decoys is to my back. The bird landed right in the middle of this clearing. Lots of sign out in the field.

18lbs, 15/16" spurs, 10" beard

Bird #2 just hit the dirt. Photos will be up when I get home.

I've been doing it online ever since that became an option with no issues at all.

I usually see several each spring but have no real interest in shooting one. There's one with about an 8" beard on one of the farms I'm hunting this year.

Well the 23lb bird with 1 3/8" spurs that I shot this year is near the top of my list, but my biggest typical bird was 24lbs, 1 1/2" spurs, and 10 1/4" beard. My highest overall scoring bird is this triple beard. 20lbs, 1 1/8" and 1" spurs, 11 1/8", 9 1/2" and 8 1/2" beards.

100 hits in a 10" circle is the benchmark to ensure a clean kill on a gobbler. You also want a nice even pattern. Of course having some extra insurance is always nice, my 20ga setup that is my primary gun will put about 170 in 10" at 40yds.

Thanks everyone! It was nice to get this one out of the way. It's been an odd year with lots of action but no chances to pull the trigger until now. It's been awhile since I've still been hunting for myself at this point in the season, I've gotten used to tagging out by the end of the first weekend. You should get one. Some people pick it up very quickly, and others not so much. I was able to make passable yelps and clucks almost immediately when I started, although it took a bit longer to get the consistency and confidence I needed to go to it in a hunting situation and there is always room to refine and improve your technique. Agreed, it really is some pretty turkey country.

I've called enough birds into range so far this year to fill several seasons worth of tags, but none had presented a shot opportunity until this one. I got to the farm I was planning to hunt yesterday morning only to find that someone had beaten me there. Normally this wouldn't bother me, but the day before I was working birds on this property when this same idiot showed up, saw my truck, and still decided to try and belly crawl the birds that were in the field. Needless to say I was a little steamed. I've been hunting this farm pretty hard because there are a ton of birds there, and with all my focus there I haven't been keeping close tabs on some of the other properties I usually hunt. Last weekend though I roosted a bird on another nearby farm so I decided to head that way and see if he was close by. A quick rain had moved through about an hour before daylight so I figured he would head for the nearby field once he flew down. I walked in and found a spot just off the field edge between the field and where I had heard him roost a week ago. As it got light he gobbled and was right where I was hoping. He gobbled two more times and then I heard a hen fly down out into the field. I gave a few soft tree yelps, waited a couple minutes and then gave another short series of yelps before using my hat to do some fly down wing beats. After a brief pause I let out several sporadic clucks and then shut up. I heard him hit the ground about 70 yards away, and he gobbled two or three more times as he came my way. It was all over in ten minutes when my M2 seriously ruined his morning with a load of HW 7's at 35 yards. The best part was when I drove out and the guy back at the other farm was still sitting in his tent out in the middle of an empty field. As I drove past and got near the top of the field two gobblers and a hen were crossing the road away from where he was hunting so I graciously slowed down to let them pass, then pulled up and "encouraged" their progress across the field and into the woods on the neighboring property. The bird weighed 22lbs 15oz, had a ratty 8 1/2" beard that looked like it took a beating with the snow we had this winter, and had 1 3/8" and 1 5/16" spurs. The trumpet is from Billy McCallister, MacDaddy Custom Calls. I had a chance to meet Billy when I hunted GA last month and he gave me the call in trade for one of my wingbones. It's the first of his new design and I'm calling it Black Magic for the effect it's been having on the birds, and because I was starting to wonder if I had acquired a curse by taking it from its master. The number of birds I called in this past week without being able to get any shots was getting ridiculous. Thankfully it appears the curse has been lifted. I highly recommend hitting Billy up for some calls to add to your collection. He also makes some pot calls that are absolute screamers.

Got one yesterday. 22lbs 15oz, 8 1/2" beard, 1 3/8" and 1 5/16" spurs.

Just frozen is fine. If you remove as much meat as possible when removing from the turkey it will help prevent yellow spots forming on the bone (all wingbones yellow over time, but meat and grease can cause discolored spots right from the beginning).

If you save your wing bones from this spring I'll make you a free wingbone call if you send me four sets of bones (that's both wings from two birds). If you only get one bird send both wings and I'll give you a discounted price on a call. I would especially like to get some jake bones. These will be plain field grade three bone calls, no thread wrapping, carving, or wood burning. I will do a discount on the fancier calls instead of a free call if that is what you would prefer.

The raffle went pretty well. The call went to Jack "Pappy" Lewis, a call maker from MO who had me enter some tickets for him. Would the call maker from Delevan happen to be Harold Perry? I'm not all that familiar with his work but the pieces I have seen are top quality. I'm hoping to enter some of my calls in to competitions in this coming year. Here are a few of my calls. This first one is similar to the one I donated and is the first carved call I made. It has a southern oak branch instead of white oak and was gifted to a good friend in GA that I have hunted with the last couple years. Some thread wrapped calls.