wooly

Would ya look at the red noggin on that old bird,lol Sweet gobbler too Lawdwaz! WTG tagging out in a season that's giving so many others of us fits so far.

BAD, very bad...

I found it! Who picked the color,lol Congrats on the new pad bubs!

Yup- they could start dropping any time now, but most will fall later in the month. Here's one from last year on May 12'th 2014. He was likely only on the ground a few hours before I found him on my way to chase turkeys.

Awesome day for sure! If your buddy's wife complains that the turkey is "dry"..... well, tell her that's her fault!

Let's put it this way.... You and momma jjb4900 are spending some time stretching the sheets on the new Serta when the phone rings and caller ID shows it's her MOTHER! She keeps calling.., and calling.., and calling.., untill she finally gets the picture you are BUSY! Would you answer it.... or let it go to the machine and MAYBE call her back later? ...a moment later, Mrs. jjb4900's young friend "Jenny" walks in on you two and asks if she can help with the interior decorating. There's really not much to say at that point,lol

Just for kicks, I'm curious what you guys would prefer after seeing the early opener idea being brought up in a couple posts. If there was going to be a change in spring turkey regulations, which would you like to see? I pick "d", but I wouldn't have a problem if one of the other options came to be eventually. Totally opposed to "c" though. a) 1/2 hr before sunrise till sunset for the entire month of May.(all day spring turkey hunting) b.) April 15'th opener through the end of May. (still only hunt till noon) c) Early opener AND all day hunting. d) No change- it's all good the way it is.

Don't you Mississippi guys write up your own carcass tags on a seperate piece of paper too.... or you don't even use carcass tags or something like that and just report the animal? I thought I remembered seeing that on anotheer site durring the deer and turkey contests.

I never really had a problem wearing a back tag. At least I always know where my carcass tags are. We'd still need to carry those right?

Thanks for checking them out everyone! WJ- they are Reds no doubt about it. This den has been active each spring for well over 30 years now. I have a few sightings this year of momma red leaving the den. Suprisingly, you guys seem more understanding of my encounters than some folks on a photog forum I post on but I'm in no mood to argue with them. In their opinion, I may as well have killed these little guys on site by getting so close and "conditioning" them to human interactions. I certainly understand the point they are trying to make, but I don't think they realize my history with these dens on a yearly basis. Some have even taken my attempt at humor with the "Kibbles and Bits" comment at face value,lol

Turkeys have been very quiet the first few days so I went to hang out with my foxy friends for a little while on the mound. The one little guy was practicly crawling up my shorts so I had to manually move him away before he started chawing on my kibbles and bits,lol!

Thanks everyone, glad you like the fuzzy little furballs as much as I do! jg- I shot these from about 20ft. Tomorrow I'll try from 8-10ft away with a different/wider lens. They saw me and heard me but they didn't seem to mind so I'll try for a different look/perspective with the next series and see what the give me.

Grats to your buddy Joe! Real nice gobbler!

That's a really nice pic for a trail cam! He almost looks like he has a decoy fake finish! Nice setting there.

Decided to kill two birds with one stone today and go try to call some turkey in to my fox den blind for some pics. Decoys on one side, and the den on the other. No turkey showed up today, but I did see momma fox walk right past me with a mouth full of moles before she disappeared over the next ridge. I knew there was another den over there so I packed up and got to it. Momma usually just dumps the moles at the door and goes off hunting again while the little guys eat and play. As I snuck up the next hill I could see and hear a pup on the mound chirping! One of his brothers or sisters came out to join him in the sun for a bit and then they shot back down the hole, so I shot back to my hole to warm up and put some pants on! I got a nice close spot set up for tomorrow if I can time it right!

Good job, congrats!

That's a good question Burt. I don't think this vid is going to change any ones mind about what they're goals are for hunting season. Some guys will still deny this sort of thing (mass winterkill) even happened in their areas. While everyone thinks that food plots make up the bulk of a deers diet throughout the winter, I'd have to disagree with that around my area. The fact is the deer couldn't even get into these open areas first of all, and if they did, they certainly spent more energy digging through 4ft of snow than they walked away with. It happens every year to some extent, but your average deer hunter will never see something like this once he locks his gun in the cabinet and settles in on the recliner until next fall. It's much easier for hunters to blame the DEC for mis-management of the herd rather than it is for them to realize the reality of what happens out there when they leave the woods for the season. Just listen up next fall when you hear all the crying about guys not seeing deer in general. We still have a few kill off stages to go through before then with spring fawning predation, yards breaking up, and summer and fall roadkills which can pile up in a hurry as well. I have to say, nothing pizzes me off more than hearing guys say "the deer look good and healthy" when they see a herd along the road throughout the winter months. Not 30 yds inside the woodline could be a pile of deer belly up that they'll never see. I read it here all the time. The guys that take a walk around their property after the snow melts and finds one or two dead deer and think all is well with the herd. That's simply not the way you get an accurate total of winterkill estimation for an sizeable area, but it's the easiest way for hunters to assess winter survival. Put it this way... if you found 2 dead deer on your 40 acres, there's probably 2 more on your neighbors 40, and there may be 10 more on the next guys 20... and it goes on and on. I could really give a crap what other hunters criteria are for pulling the trigger. Trophy bucks, fawns, all the doe your heart desires..... the real problem I got is most guys will never stop after season to evaluate what happens outside that month or two of weekends they spent in the woods. They take their harvest numbers alone for what they're worth and base future hunting expectations off of that alone. You can do that, and it works to an extent for your average guy, but that's not really much of a management plan as they like to make it sound.

East of Syracuse.

Guys, check out this video my buddy Monte put together from this past winter. If you don't like to see deer suffering and dying, then DON'T watch it! He's got some other AWESOME nature videos on his channel if you got some time to spare, check them out. The man is a true outdoorsman I respect a great deal! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsvg-B4VUbQ

I'm gonna need another week. Still need to get a good pre-season picture day of my opponents. Other than that, I'm ready and waiting.

Would have rather seen an escaped herd of mountain lions, but these will do!

Sounds like you're dealing with an old pro Pygmy! Anyone that walks through the woods half naked looking for antlers through blood shot eyes and a cloud of fog must know what he's doing,lol

I kinda like that idea. I don't see how that would break anyones season. It would weed out some of the wannabes and leave more antlers for the guys that earn them!

The biggest part of shed hunting for me is learning the land and how bucks use it naturally. Some of my most memorable critter encounters have also come on the trail miles from home. There's so much more to shed hunting than just the antlers IMO, and I enjoy it all no matter how many antlers I find... or don't find any given day. Finding an antler at a baited trap station wouldn't really tell you a whole hell of a lot and I wouldn't expect it to add much understanding or knowledge about your bucks, and I doubt it adds many more antlers to the pile. I don't think I'd get much satisfaction out of shed hunting being a "feeder checker", and a "feeder checker" doesn't hold a candle to a true shed hunter no matter how many antlers are dislodged at his trap. I found a very large wooden trough style antler trap/bait station a few years ago. It had a conveniently low roof line with only a few inches for the bucks to squeeze their muzzle in for the corn while their antlers rubbed against the surrounding bungee cords above and below. I didn't do anything to it other than make note of it and then focused on the typical buck holding land features around it. I didn't find anything in the immediate area, but I did haul a few out of a thicket about a mile further up the same ridge over my next few hikes.

Awesome job, great gobblers, sweet pics, and excellent story! Congrats to you and Mrs WNYBowhunter! Can't wait to see what you throw over your shoulder back on NY soil next week!