Pygmy

I have gone from single bead, to double bead, to adjustable fiber optic sights, to holosight, and to 1x4 Leupold... I did well with the adjustable open fiber optics until I had problems focusing on them with my old eyes.. I tried the holosights and the scope, but didn't care for the bulk and the difficulty in getting a good sight pictures in some of the odd positions I may have shoot from while set up on a bird. I have finally gone back to what I was using in 1977...A simple front bead with a mid bead to remind me to keep my silly melon head down when I shoot... One added advantage of this sighting system is that if I SHOULD miss or wound with my first shot, I can shoot instinctively and stand a good chance of killing a running or flying bird with a backup shot..That is more difficult to do with an optical type sight like a red dot or a scope.. I know that we're always supposed to kill 'em with the first shot, but in the real world, there have been a number of times when I have been very happy to have a quick second shot available.. Over the last 40 years I've killed a few with my second shot and even a couple with my third..

Now is the time of year when you can catch as many bluegills/sunfish as you want to clean..As long as you don't exceed the 50 fish per day limit.. They are spawning now and fishing should be good for at least 2-3 more weeks. Four of us fished last Friday at the Penn Yan end of Keuka Lake.. We fished 3 hours and ended up filleting 80 fish, which resulted in 8 pounds of succulent panfish filets. Look for the fish concentrated on spawning beds in shallow areas of you favorite lake, in 2 to 15 feet of water.. We use small jigheads tipped with wax worms, redworms, mealworms or most any other type of grub, but small plastics or flies are effective also.. It's fun, easy fishing...A great time to take the kids along..

I hadn't put my rain gauge out yet, but my neighbor said that his rain gauge recorded 6/10 of an inch overnite..That's certainly enough to help.

I just got the buckwheat plot seeded yesterday morning, and last night we got a good rain ..PERFECT !! As fast as that stuff germinates, it should be popping up by next weekend..

Holy mackerel, db, that was pretty descriptive....!!.. Some day you'll have to tell us about the first time you "rode the wild pony".... Of course, if it was anything like MY first time, it was over much quicker than the time it would take to TYPE it...<<grin>>....

Yeah....I have never seen any black vultures here in SWNY, just turkey vultures.. I have seen many black vultures down south in my travels in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.. Regarding whether turkeys vultures eat carrion.. Does a duck's a** pucker in a power dive ?...

Geeze Wooly, Ol' Pal, you must be REALLY bored...... That's OK, though...I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy....

Good luck, OMG....Keep us posted on your results... A few of us "rifle loonies" really enjoy the technical stuff....

My 7mm-08 Rem mountain rifle likes 140 Nosler ballistic tips, but it likes 120 grain Barnes TTSX even better.. I get a little over 3000FPS and MOA accuracy with that bullet and Re-15, and it kills deer like lightning. A couple of my friends load the 120 Nosler BT and get similar results.

I reported for active duty April 25th, 1971... I served two years active duty aboard a Navy Destroyer, but never served in a combat zone, so I guess I was lucky also... Lots of flower children and deadbeats fled to Canada to avoid their military obligation.. I'll never forgive Jimmy Carter for letting the scumbags come home scott free... " Mr. Peanut" was the most spineless president we ever had...

There's a good reason for that Vince...They are really the same species.. DEERKEYS.. They can change their physical appearance.. During turkey season they look like deer, and during deer season they look like turkeys.. I thought EVERYBODY knew that......

I'll reflect on one of my best buddies from high school....He was killed in action in March 1971, six months before his 21st birthday.. I was a pallbearer and helped lay him to rest just one month before I ,myself reported for active duty in April , 1971..

I agree with WNYBOW that not all crows calls are created equal...Mine is an open reed call and it is LOUD..I call loud, raucous and raspy...No, they DON'T gobble at it every time, but they gobble at it often enough to make it worth hanging around my neck everytime I go out.. Not all owl calls are created equal, either..I started out with a homemade PVC hooter, similar to many commercial hooters that were made at the time.. never had much luck with it.. then I hunted a few times with a couple of guys who were very talented natural voice owl hooters..One won the NYSNWTF owl hooting championship one year.. THOSE boys could make turkeys gobble with their very authentic owl hooting..At one time I could do a fair owl hoot by mouth, but I lost the voice for it..I guess I finally reached puberty at age 50 or so.. I don't hoot anymore, but I hear birds respond to live barred owls quite often..

No offense, Pilgrim, but if you've never heard gobblers gobble at crow or owl calls here in NY, you must not have hunted here much...Over the last 40 years, I have heard literally HUNDREDS of gobblers respond to crow or owl calls, both natural and artificial...I have also heard many gobble at gunshots, coyotes and many other loud noises. Just this spring I was working a gobbler and there were loggers working across the valley from me...They dropped a tree and he gobbled at the noise of it falling.

Things have been a little quiet here in Canada the last two days. Gator had a bird gobble good on the roost but shut up as soon as he hit the ground. He had a girlfriend... I passed up another jake..PROBABLY the same one I passed up a few days ago. Gonna do an early morning hunt tomorrow and head the pickup home..

I don't know, DB... Lawdwaz has a longer snood than I do, but I am definitely an older gobbler.....

Lawdwaz and WNYBow are spot on concerning the stats of WNY gobblers. In 40 years of gobbler hunting in Steuben County I have only seen perhaps 3 birds that weighed 23 pounds or over..One was a 2 year old and one was a slammer that weighed 25 pounds on a certified scale, had twin 10" beards and 1.5" spurs... My personal heaviest NY bird weighed 22.5 lb. I also once weighed a 2 year gobbler that weighed 12 pounds.. he seemed perfectly healthy, but was just a little guy, like me...<grin>..... I have never taken a gobbler with an 11 inch beard, and have seen only a few. I have only killed one bird with spurs over 1.25 inches, and a handful with with 1.25" hooks...I have taken a fair number of birds with spurs from 1" to 1.125", which I have always figured were 3 year olds.

Growie....Glad to hear that you are okay....As Lawdwaz said, that could have broke bad (worse) in a few seconds.

Beautiful bird, young feller !! Any tom with spurs like that is a true trophy gobbler ..Congrats !! Sounds like a pretty cool scenario with 4 birds fighting, too..

I'm four days into my hunt in Ontario...My buddy tagged a slob ( 1 1/4" spurs) yesterday and I killed a 2 year old this morning... I have had two other close encounters with big toms and passed up a jake...Heard 4 gobblers this morning from my listening point.. The boss gobbler that Gator shot yesterday had 7 hens with him.. Yeah, I think things are warming up.....<<GRIN>>.....

Cool pics,Eddie...Thanks for sharing...

I have a 4 bearder and several double beards at home. I just cut out the strip of skin surrounding all the beards and let them dry. I got my first double beard in 1977 and it has held up well so far.

Beautiful bird....Congrats !! I have only ever seen one 5 bearded gobbler before and that was a jake. My buddy borrowed it from the guy who shot it for our NWTF display at the Bath Fair. He left it on an end table in his living room and his springer spaniel ATE it...Poor guy had to tell the owner that his dog had eaten his priceless trophy....

I'm heading to Ontario in the AM to hunt with my buddy Gator for a few days. I may be able to check in with y'all through his puter.. Since I'm tagged out in NY, when I get back I'll be through with this silly turkey hunting and I'll be able to do some FISHING.. Oh yeah...PLUS, The Mermaid will have a long list of honeydos for me to catch up on, PLUS I'll need to get busy on my food plots, yada,yada... A retiree's work is never done...<<SIGH>>....