wooly

Mine is missing too...

I wouldn't mind tagging along on that trip as your cameraman. I've never had any desire to hunt African animals, but I sure would enjoy the heck out of an African photo safari! Good luck to you but remember..., one rookie mistake and you could find yourself on the menu as an appetizer right next to the kudu!

This is kind of a silly question to me. I don't relate pride to where my or anyone elses roots are planted. You should be proud of the person you are, not where you come from. If you're proud to be a NY'er, or Floridian, or Alaskan, or Mississippian..... I could care less if you're an idiot,lol

Great gobbler! Congrats Sesame Street just ain't gonna be the same without "Big Bird". Hope you can find a quality replacement for that character next season... but I wouldn't count on it!

Congrats on the new rig, and good luck with her this fall! Guy at the local shop says x-bow sales have gone through the roof! Should be a great premier season for many NY'ers.

Ok, now I follow ya. Yeah, right now they have a pretty tight little core area they don't venture out from. From what I've seen, momma will keep them in these best areas of food for her, and cover for the fawns for the time being, until they start exploring on their own without her. Even then they will still call these areas home right on into the coming fall.

Yikes- I just tried reporting my kills online but found I couldn't access my harvest report any longer via my tag ID #. It also didn't recognize any email/passwords created.(I don't think I ever set that up or ever needed to) Next I phoned it in and had trouble with it translating what I was speaking so I tried manually typing the information on the keypad which apparently didn't work any better. Without warning or any estimated wait time announced, someone picked up the line and recorded my harvests through an actual phone conversation. Glad that's done and over with. For some reason I thought we had 10 days to report, but it's only 7. My first bird was on it's 7'th day today.

Nice shot of the little one chiefbkt! I've had a few more encounters recently, and they are getting to the age that they have learned fleeing is the better option over curling up in a ball laying motionless if you get too close. Not sure what you mean by this Papist. I've never noticed any negative effects to being in the woods during fawning season. I'm sure there's a slight possibility of the fawns becoming victims of predation if left unattended by the mother for long periods of time, but I see your in 9h the same as me, and I don't think we have near as high of predator densities as other areas. As long as encounters are kept brief and fleeing fawns not pursued over long distances, I believe there is no harm in enjoying them. I am curious if you have another reasoning behind this.

Thanks so much everybody! I had an absolute blast this season! All those opportunities early on with the bow were just building up to this final hunt. I learned so much more about these birds the first three weeks by watching them than I would if I'd tagged out early. Some of my crazy tactics would have made anyone who knows anything about turkey hunting cringe and say there's just no way I'd kill a nice one like that. This was a bitter sweet hunt for me, but I too am a little sad now that the saga has finally ended. This gobbler had come out on top of me dozens of times. It almost feels wrong to celebrate my one small victory without giving him most of the credit for making my season what it was, and by teaching me what he did over the course of the last month. I got so much respect for all the critters out there that keep me entertained by letting me into their world to see how they live and survive every day. In reality, I'm more of a student with the best teachers than I am much of a hunter anymore. It truly was an amazing month amongst the turkeys, and I'm glad you all enjoyed following along with me!

Thanks! Nah.., just sticks! I got all kinds of patience for pictures.

Thanks guys! It's been a looooooooooong time since I killed a bird this nice! I know I don't look too excited but I am.... I'm just sleepy,lol I've been patterning this dude for a while now because it was the only way I was gonna kill him either right off the roost, or over his mile journey around the block. Today I got in front of him at my second set and there was nowhere for him to run. He was dead by 6:55am. The fake worked like a charm, and yes Steve, that $50 gun did too,lol ....and if Paula asks, yes, I was wearing shorts again! I gotta admit, I almost hated to pull the trigger on him after he beat up on me so bad all season.

Me and ol' "Turkenstein" woke up at the witches hour to get an early jump into our honey hole! Before the sun came up, things were awefully quiet, but eventually I started to hear some yells from the ladies as the branches were now ghoulishly silhouetted against the morning sky. Turkenstein was 30yds in front of me keeping a watchfull eye out for that other monster of a bird that has been haunting me for the last few weeks. Suddenly the silence was broke as the hellish beast let out his evil morning scream from the tree tops! The tension was building, and neither me nor Turkenstein dared to move an inch. The demon finally swooped down and collected his flock of virgins. Like ghosts, they all vanished before our eyes. I assume he took them off to the dungeon to have his way with them as he has so many times before! I looked at Turkenstein to see what we should do next, when out of the silence we heard a blood curdling scream from below us. We knew what had to be done... we had to be brave... we had to pursue the creature before he disappeared back in his lair. We took chase and headed the giant off. It was now or never. With nerves of steel, Turkenstein spread his chest and stood tall to his nemesis! As his rival appeared and approached, they engaged in a brief stare down before the demon swaggered over to Turkenstein and literally spewed venom in his face..."GRRRROOOBBBBBLE GOBBBLE GRRROOOOBBBBBLE....", rendering him motionless and petrified! It was now up to me to protect my friend who had been so brave, and sacrificed so much for me! I said a quick prayer, and without hesitation I cocked the hammer on my gun of holy goodness, and peppered the devil in the neck with my blessed BB's! Together, me and Turkenstein had finally vanquished the woodland warlord, and dragged his carcass through the forest for all Gods other creatures to see! Today I was "The Chosen One"! You could hear the other creatures celebrate when I announced Thunderdome was finally dead and..."We finally get to sleep in!" Oh yeah, stats.... 9 1/2" beard... 1 1/8" spurs... no idea on the weight. Probably 65-70 lbs,lol

Sorry buddy......, I got that big fat SOB!!! Pics and story later!

It's zip tied (bread bag twist ties) to an arrow and I poked a hole in the decoys tail for the shaft to slide through. The fan itself is just super glued to a small piece of cardboard. It was never intended to be weather resistant, but it will do for now. The tail is adjustable on the shaft so I don't have to force the shaft into the ground any further than it wants to go. It pivots on the shaft in the wind too for a little bonus motion affect. Only question that remains to be answered is...."will it work?"

That's funny! His wings are held on with a sharpened metal rod through his chest... kinda like a nipple ring if that counts! Just need to figure out how to gobble with a lisp now,lol

Hmmmm, fresh ideas! I haven't tried this one yet. I haven't tried gonehntn's either. What are the odds of me finding a friend tonight?

That's ok, there's enough days left to try both methods......AGAIN! I've showed him everything I got to this point, besides Turkenstein. I guess some birds live to see another Thanksgiving unless something makes them do something goofy or something goofy makes them do something different.

That was pretty darn sweet Joe! Good to see you remembered your sponsors while rolling the credits.., that's VERY important,lol I got no constructive criticism for you besides "keep it real". Good job, and congrats again to you both!

LMAO- I've been sitting under the same roosted gobbler 3 days in a row now and I can't get him to crack. I've been following him since week 2. He runs from any calls.., I follow him for miles.., I get set up this morning at 3:30am... he gobbles non stop till 11am.., he has several hens Every time I think I got his patterns figured out, he changes things up. If this doesn't work, I may just climb into his roost tree and wring his neck while he sleeps,lol

Heading into the final few days now so anything goes... tomorrow I break out my secret weapon..... BEHOLD, Turkenstein!!! They better not try to flock with this dude or they'll wind up dead,lol I think these early rises are finally catching up to me!

Way to go killer! Real nice birds this year jo-jo!

Congrats! It was a great season to be you! Another nice one.

Yup- don't over sleep,lol

Sweet machine! Lots of cup holders too..., not that that had anything to do with the final decision! Does it have on-star and sattlelight radio?

Looks like a great hunt to me! Congrats on another nice bird! You two are gonna be the next "Lee and Tiffany",lol