wooly

Not only is it the only one I used, it's the only one I own,lol. Heck, even the shotgun is borrowed! I'm not really cut out for this turkey stuff!

Ok guys, today after I killed my turkey I decided to swing by my cams to check the cards. My pack on my back, my gun over one shoulder, and my turkey over the other.... I was anything but quiet on my way out. I was easily a mile or more from home at this point. When I got to the cam, I bumped 3 deer and watched them run off. Well, untill I opened the cam and looked up to see a deer running right to me! I didn't want to move and scare it so I slipped my pocket cam out and started taking pics with my point and shoot. After a little while, it was obvious this deer wasn't afraid of me. I think when it licked me, that was a dead giveaway,lol. So I got out the Nikon and backed up for a shot or two of her at my trail cam. Well she was still sticking around so I dropped my pack, gun and turkey and figured I'd get as many shots as I could. She was browsing all around me and would come over to lick my lens and sniff me whenever I moved around. She eventually made her way over to my gun and grabbed my hat nocking my gun over! I zoomed a bit more than I intended on this shot but it's close enough. I already had a mess of pics of her so I said goodbye and started to head home again. A few hundred yards later I found a nice log to take some more field photos of my turkey on so I composed the pic and got ready to hop in it. All of a sudden, my little friend comes flying up on me again and wants to be petted. Shortly after that she got in my field photo and became the star of the show! I messed around with her some more there, and wondered just how far she'd follow me. It didn't take long to realise, she was going home with me! Here she is on the edge of the yard over a mile from where she started following me. Eventually she made her way over to my "wall of shame" to see all her dead relatives. Finally she bedded down in the yard after mowing down some dandellions and clover. But the story aint over yet folks! Gotta edit and load more pics..... things are about to get interesting!

Thanks guys! I'm not sure what happened on the first shot. I'm just not a very good turkey hunter to begin with, so it was probably shooter error caught up in the excitement. Elmo- I use a wireless remote when I take field photos($6 on ebay). You can see it in my right hand in this pic. It's so much nicer than running back and forth using the timer.

I still have a ton of pics to load, but I'll get the field photo out of the way for starters! The rest of the day was interesting to say the least, so stay tuned. Had one gobbling across the field first thing this morning. I knew as soon as I hit my call he was gonna shut right up like he had so many times already. I let him go off on his own for an hour before I couldn't resist any longer. After my first series, he never gobbled again. I sat tight for another hour when I heard some gobbling behind me from the other direction. What the heck, I aint got nothing to lose, so I called like a lunatic turkey on crack corn! To my surprise he fired right back at me and I worked him for another 15 minutes. Suddenly all went silent but he had to be so close... but where? Off to my right an alarming gobble shocked me to attention! Two jakes snuck in on me at 40yds so I took aim and flopped one! He thrashed around for a bit and got back on his feet and started walking again. I dug through my pockets to find another shell and let him have it again! I haven't put much effort into turkey the last few years so I'm coming off a 5yr drought.....and then comes the rest of the story and pics of another wild encounter I'll post later!

No bearded hens for me........ if I see one with a mustache it's getting popped!

Cool, I was hoping to hear how you finished up! Great season Sam, and congrats on hitting your goals! You logged a lot of miles and got some nice antlers to show for it! It was fun following along with your journal this year, and who knows, you may find a few more to add on while you're out and about.

Pipe down pecker lips.... I think some of these guys may be 'bill' collectors!

Outstanding as usual!

Guys are just being responsible gun owners.... if Cuomo ever says "nobody needs more than 3 shells to kill a turkey"... they can say, "yes we do",lol

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

Nope, don't recognize it. Wish I did because I see some antlers up in the tree behind the slide,lol

I think Tebow rubbed off on him. Looks like the framework for a crown of thorns,lol

I headed down to the town hall this morning to get my turkey stamp. Got there around 11 but they didn't open up untill 2pm on Tuesdays so I had 3 hours to kill. I shot down to the crick and was gonna watch the fish swim around the pool for a while, but once I got in the thicket along the shore I decided looking for antlers might be more fun and productive! It's not a pretty one, but I was happy to have another horn before turkey time break! Antlers- 33 Sets- 5 Dead bucks- 15 Dead doe/fawns- 17

Close call, glad he's just bumped and bruised! At 27 he'll be invinceable again by the end of the week.

Easily 200" if he hadn't broke off that g4.., but I don't want Biz running back to another site with this so we'll stick with 190,lol

Thanks guys! Not sure what he would score Pav. Only measurements I took are 19" spread and 10pts..... gotta be close to 190" with that info,lol His right side is real weak.

Well, I finally got around to wrapping up the euro of my last dead buck find. My last hike I grabbed an old rough cut plank from an old abandoned stand site and brought it home for my plaque. One knotty section I really liked in this board that I really hoped I could make it work with what I was doing. Nothing fancy here. I just cut my shape with a jigsaw, sanded the snot out of it, and sprayed it with a good coat of Krylon semi-gloss satin finish. Here you can see the wood grain around the knot I was after. It looks like this hunk o' lumber was made for this skull. Since I wanted to do some sort of raised table mount display I needed to add some feet. I used a couple of antlers me and Red cut off a dead buck this winter while shed hunting and they worked out great! For now I just have them Super-Glued on, but I'll have to set a couple screws through the front even though it's pretty solid. Then I cut some pieces from an old bicycle tire tube and glued them on the antler tips and the front edge of the plaque so it doesn't slide all over the place. Here's a look from behind.. That's all she wrote! I gotta putty the nail hole in the front of it and drill the legs, but here's the finished product for the most part! Total cost of $7 for the can of clear coat and tube of glue.

You're not fooling us. We know those are GIANT "Trophy Rocks" in your second pic..... fess up,lol!

Lol- we'll know somethings fishy if they all show up wearing Redskins or Capitals jerseys!

I read your first post and thought to myself it sounded like a dead buck.... but I didn't want to say anything. He's a nice one, good spotting! He's got a good home now away from the rodents and hot summer sun!

My calculations came out to 160 1/8 I crunched the #'s in my new Primos "Truth Stretcher"

Thanks for the great comments everyone, glad you all enjoyed the pics! Whitetail Addict- I was set up only about 5-6ft away from the den. I think momma yote was telling the little ones not to get any closer untill the coast was clear of danger.

These were with the Nikon D-3000 w/ Sigma 70-300mm lens. Hopefully soon I'll have my new D-7000.

Out looking for antlers today when I got sidetracked by 8 coyote pups in a big hollow tree log. Four of them ran inside with mom, and the other four were playing in the treetops down below. I sat outside the den for 5hrs. and got a few keeper shots of them as they'd peak their heads out or run out for a quick potty! Mama yote was inside the den letting out some low frequency "growls" every time the four outside started to get close to the den. She was warning them to stay away, and every time she did that, they ran back to hide in the fallen tree tops again. On my way out, I stopped to see the straglers outside and they just layed there at my feet. It took everything I had not to toss the 4 of them in my pac! Sure wish I had the new camera today but I'm glad I had something! Another sweet encounter!

Yep false. Water in your waders is no denser than the water outside them so it has no affect. Like Ford said, getting out is the hard part.