Pygmy

I know what would get them gobbling.. I need to sacrifice a virgin on the altar of The Great Warty-Headed Turkey God... Anybody know where I can find one ? There aren't any around here, at least lot not any of legal age...

Keep at 'em, Paulie....It is a tough season for me also...Between Ontario and here, I've hunted every day except 3 since April 25th, and the longbeard that I killed Saturday is the only adult gobbler I've seen. Lots of hens and jakes, though and I know the big boys are there. They're due to bust loose anytime now...

Fine bird, Grizz...Congrats !!

Geeze, Bill, with all of those jakers around you should have a good crop of hard gobbling two year olds there next year ! Good luck in the morning..

Patience finally paid off at about 9:30 this morning... 20.2 pounds on the digital scale, 10 inch beard and 1 inch spurs... Never heard a gobble until about 9:15... Every now and then even a blind hog finds an acorn...

DAMN !! I thought I was going to see some nude pictures of some hot foriegn girl !

Please excuse me, because some of the members here have heard this story.. When I was in my late teens I had a sword fight with a porcupine underneath a junked car ..I was armed with the 18" Japanese bayonet that my Dad brought back from WWII, and the porky was armed with his natural defenses.. Suffice to say, I had to jab and parry like crazy to keep him from filling my face with quills, and I made a quick retreat in reverse lying on my belly. There is a good chance that alcohol was involved in that incident. I can't remember for sure since it was about 50 years ago.

Geeze, Larry, I remember the last LIVE one I saw.. He fed in the clover plot in front of my turkey blind for about an hour opening day of NY turkey season.. I have seen several roadkilled since then.. We have lots of them around here.. Maybe I could crate up a few and send them up...

Mange is one of nature's ways of controlling populations of some animals, notably red foxes and coyotes. I have never seen a mangey grey fox or coon, but lots of red foxes and coyotes. The disease is nearly always fatal, at least to red foxes. It is a slow, agonizing death. the hair falls off and the skin literally rots away. I have seen several reds with maggots burrowing into the rotten flesh while the animal is still alive. If you shoot one that has the mange, you are certainly doing it a favor. Dogs can contract mange, but in domestic animals it is easlly treatable. The wild critters have so such luxury.

. Anybody who hasn't missed hasn't shot at very many turkeys. I have certainly missed my share in the last forty-some years...

Do they taste like PORK, or chicken ? <<grin>>.. Back when I had dogs I killed every one I saw if it was in an area where it might affect my dogs. Now that I no longer own dogs, porkies get a pass from me.

I heard NADA this morning..In fact I have only heard 3 gobbles all week here in NY. All I have had in front of me so far are jakes and hens.. Oh well, it can only get better.

Good job, fine bird and welcome back, Girlfriend !!,,,<<BIG grin>>....

Congrats ! Did he gobble ? I had 9 turkeys ( 5 of which were toms) around me and never heard a gobble.. One of my buddies had 5 adult gobblers around him and killed a nice longbeard, but never heard a gobble..

I thought about you yesterday morning, Wooly.. I found a shed...If the other one was similar, it would be about a massive, , appx. 18" wide 6 point ! As far as being fluent in French Canadian, , I have all of the ROMANTIC languages nailed.. I guess you could call me a cunning linguist...

i'I'll be there....Haven't missed a gobbler operner since 1974 nor a deer opener since 1966...

Good luck, Larry ! I'd go for the LOW one...<<grin>>...

Gorgeous smallies ! Probably my favorite gamefish... They aint too shabby on the table, either...

It may be raining in the morning, but I have a nice, dry blind to sit in... I pulled the card on the gamecam right beside the blind today, and Holy Crap ! what a menagerie... I have turkeys, deer, bears ( including cubs), coyotes and some other critters.. Hopefully tomorrow morning I'll have SOMETHING interesting to look at..

I'm back from Ontario.. Opening day I could have shot a jake ( or 3 or 4) but I was holding out for a longbeard. I saw 2 bearded hens also, one with about a 9 inch beard and another with perhaps a 6 inch beard. After that, I was hard pressed to even hear a gobble..Just not my year, I guess. My Canadian buddy had better luck. Opening day he had a longbeard in range but was screwed up by a coyote at the last minute. Then yesterday morning, he killed a hog..22.5 pounds, 10 inch beard..The spurs were only 7/8 ", but the bases were huge..I think it was a solid 3 year old bird. It came racing in and attacked his full fan gobbler decoy.

I agree, Ants...That pattern is scary tight...I think you would be handicapping yourself on shots at the range most of us shoot turkeys, say 20 to 40 yards.. What's the point of having a pattern that will kill at 65 yards if we never intend to shoot past 45 yards ? It makes more sense to me to use a load that that will kill at 40 or 45 yards but leaves a little more margin of error if the shot is taken at closer range, especially when the adrenaline factor kicks in. The object here should be efficiently killing turkeys at normal ranges, not doing a competitive "turkey shoot" where we place the most pellets in an inch circle at long range.

Good looking kid...She must take after her Mom !

Good luck in the morning, DT...When that bird gobbles out there at about 75 yards, I'll bet the kid will forget about that electronic device, at least for a few mintutes..hehehehe..

We'll work it out, Biz... I'll shave and wear a facenet to conceal my "turkey neck"... I'll PRETEND to be the youth, and you the mentor, but in reality, you'll do the shooting, and I'll do the guiding and the calling. A few beers and one of your gourmet meals and we'll call it even !

I want to wish the best of luck to all youth hunters and mentors this weekend. I have never been involved in it, because I have hunted opening week in Ontario for years, which always opens around the same time as our youth hunt. I don't know how much longer this will last, because my host up there has health issues and I sure ain't getting any YOUNGER, myself... However, if there comes a time while I am still able to hunt that I no longer do the Canada hunt, I'd love to find a kid that wants to go kill a turkey..