wooly

Yep- now I see it.

Can't shut them up here in 9H. Lots of gobblers with no hens sounding off all hours of the day. Birds are very responsive to any calls right now. I worked 8 different gobblers to my camera lens in the last 3 days.

I saw something real similar to that on "The Incredible Dr. Pol". I think it was with a dog, or a goat though. It kept spinning in circles and losing it's balance. Turned out to be from pressure on the brain, I forget the cause. They said the animal was suffering from the most intense headache imaginable. I bet the Dr. Pol clip is probably on you tube somewhere, but I don't have time to look for it. Interesting similarities.

Hey Doewhacker, I tried to get you something with some more color today.... this is the best I could come up with! Make sure you send me some framed canvases of all these freakin' birds, ok?

I went for a hike today and got on some more gobblers! I heard one gobble on his own as soon as the snow stopped and the sun peaked out. I found an old downed tree to hide behind, so I quick set out my rubber chicken,lol I gave a few excited calls and I heard some serious double gobbling coming my way, so I got tucked in and waited. Birds were on a dead run to my decoy. First to show up was 5 hens, and then a jake and a longbeard stopped by for a little dance off before they moved up the hill to strut and gobble. They left the ladies behind, and I literally had hens within 5ft of me for about 10 minutes straight. I'm think I'm kinda starting to get the hang of this spring turkey stuff! Heck, I even found another antler! Before all the turkey got a chance to leave the area, this little deer showed up and practically kissed me.

Going solo, or meeting up with other members of the "Eh- Team"? Good luck!

Those will work just fine. I've never used anything but the cheap collapsible foam Featherflex and Deltas. They fool plenty of gobblers.

I've never really thought to pull them out of strut before now. For the most part.., the first clean shot I get has been working well for me so far, so I don't think it's time for me to start complicating things. I've shot them both ways and still get pellets in my breasts.

The vids posted here too in the turkey forum. http://huntingny.com/forums/topic/22420-new-video-un-henned/ It was made perfectly clear it was from spring 2013 so chill out. I would have deleted it too when folks start making assumptions to the contrary...like you have in this post.

Dynamite footage and narrating once again guys! Great job on that longbeard...! (yours.., and the gobblers,lol!)

That is aweful! I was really hoping you were gonna pick up his antlers yet this year...., but not like this. Anyhow, it's great you had such a history with him, and only fitting that you were the one able to rescue his skull before the rats got to it!

Wish I did, but I can't seem to get one to come in during the "golden hours". Check out Chenango Dave's pbase site, I know he's got some sweet sunlit gobbler shots that would make for some nice artwork!

Oh damn, that would have been a nice fresh on to have in the antler archives! Still a great find for sure, especially at this stage of the game. You really put together an impressive season this year. Maybe you can add a few more while you're out collecting spurs now!

Hoppy Easter every bunny!

Thanks for looking fellas! I thought I saw that in the second pic, but I wasn't sure if I missed it in real life. I get so caught up in the moment with these critters sometimes, I don't pay attention to the minor details until I see it blown up on my screen! It's a bottom of the line Sigma 70-300mm Doc. F4-5.6 It's still sitting in front of my hunk o' junker Nikon D-3000, but in combination, they both make for a great beater package for recreational outdoors photography stuff. I don't worry about babying any of this gear in the field, so that, coupled with the low resale value, makes it acceptable when it does malfunction at the moment of truth,lol

I think most of you all know by now I'm not a real big turkey hunter dude.... so I was super surprised to call in this ol' boy today! He gobbled on his own from the field above me, so I unloaded the fakies from my pac and started looking for a place to hide. First place I noticed was the neighbors treestand..., so up, up, and away I went! I broke out the box cutter and let a few clucks and yelps rip, but he never responded. 15 minutes later he gobbled on his own again, and this time I knew he was coming! I could hear him spitting and drumming before I could see him. He gave my jake deke a good flogging and never looked twice at my hen 3ft behind it. My lens focus started messing up on me, so I missed a lot of the action shots of the can of whoop ass he opened up on my fake, but it was a good show to watch anyhow! You all will have to take my word for it!

Bummer about that joint. I really like the fish fry and service at the Varysburg hotel. Locally, I like the VFW frys in Arcade. They serve up some real whales! Another good fry at the casino in Batavia. Never regretted the tips left at any of those places.

I've had that happen with gobblers that would roost on the other side of a creek before. I got tired of watching them strut off out of the creekbottom every morning as soon as they hit the ground on the other side, so one night I snuck in and gave 'em a few yelps just before dark to let them know I was there from my side. The next morning they never stepped foot on the other side and glided right down to the end of my barrel before I could make my first call!

I've never liked these kind of posts from the start, as they tug at the photographic connections in me. A picture speaks a thousand words...., but more importantly, it has millions of translations and interpretations, depending on who you are, and where you came from, and who you're showing it to.. I didn't like the original pic. From a photographic standpoint, the guy behind the lens knew what he was doing and captured what he wanted. Whether his intentions were to shock and awe everybody are still unclear without a little back story behind it. Belos pic with his boy was "cute"...., but it ain't no glamour shot when you're that ugly of a "bowhunter"!

I hope they allow Horton shooters,lol Seriously SITS... I can appreciate what you and a few others have been trying to do here, but it's getting a little old listening to the anti-x nonsense, highjacking of posts, and "look at me" personalities in this section of the forum anymore. It's an already done deal... it's probably best to find a new site for pertinent information on the topic for me so thanks for the site tip there. I'll be a first timer this year myself. I've found a few x-bow sites to follow along with this summer to get better acquainted with the fundamentals of "x-bowing 101", and some of the advanced aspects of gear prep, performance, and maintenance as well. Being a gun and bowhunter already, I'm pretty sure the rest is all up to me! It's a different hunt that I'm looking forward to this season, so hopefully I can gather enough valuable basics this off season to not make any rookie mistakes when it really matters. Thanks for the tips you've passed along here so far.... I take them all into consideration being a newb to this new style of hunt!

For the right price, I'd have some fun flashing that beasts face in front of my buddies trail cams this summer,lol

Maybe he just got sick of everyone calling him "Mr Johnson" all the time!

Hey chief, any and all of the above listed will work. I'm pretty lucky to have access to a 3 mile square block right out my front door. Other than a few parcels that are off limits, most everything else is free range. Going back a bunch of years, my block was like a community hunting ground as long as you lived on it. Many of my permissions from neighbors were granted back then when everyone bumped into one another during hunting season and stopped to exchange observations and learn of each others kills. A few new guys on the block posted up solid, but the regulars still run into each other every year out there and stop to chat. I do a lot of hiking around my local parks as well. I've got two of those within hiking distance of home even if I have to hop on the road for a bit. That gives me another couple thousand acres. I also hit both my sisters small properties, and my uncles a few miles down the road, and my aunts a few counties over, and my ex brother in laws mothers farm..... yep, try to stay in touch with everybody to keep your connections to their land! Make sure you get to know your familys neighbors to try to obtain permission there as well. I haven't had much luck in that regard, but it's was worth a shot. I've also got a public trail system that connects many of my areas so I seldom have to step foot out of the woods. I may have an ex-wife I can't stand being close to, but that doesn't mean I don't get a long with her neighbor who owns another 350 acres. Half the spots I'll never make it to in a season, but it seems every year something comes up where I lose another chunk of land or two for some reason or another. Honestly, I think your question should be the first one asked by anyone that wants to start finding a mess of antlers. Once you got permission to start roaming as much land as possible, then you can start narrowing down the finer areas you want to hit at different stages of the shedding season! In a nutshell, you can't have too much property to hike, and you should constantly be looking for new ground through ANY connections you can come up with.

I remember when I took mine maybe 25yrs ago it was just a written test. The instructors were giving out the answers, not guns! If you didn't understand the question, you'd raise your hand and he would come over and help you rule out "A,C, and D".

Thanks guys! We're really heading into the home stretch now, so my goals have changed from finding as many as I can, to finding the few I'm really after. chifbkt- I got a ton of pics of that buck late last season, but didn't have a tag left to hunt him. Instead, I hunted him with my cameras and did really well at figuring out where he survived the season. Now his last two seasons antlers popping up in these narrow thickets between backyards just confirms he was where I thought he was. I'll definately have a game plan in place for him this year. I guessed he was a 4.5yo during the 2014 season. Now that I have his 2013 antler to compare it to, there's no doubt in my mind he's at least that, and will be 5.5 by this fall. I've picked up a few consecutive years sheds from other bucks in this age class, and it's really surprising how here they don't seem to "blow up" from one year to the next and instead seem to have very minimal, almost unnoticeable size difference. Without top notch genetics, and an abundance of agricultural fields in the area, the bucks antlers here seem to "level off" at an impressive plateau, without ever reaching the full potential they may in a more ideal/managed area. So I guess when I hear everyone saying "he'll be a great buck next year"....... well, it's more likely he'll be very similar to what he was last.