Pygmy

Great birds and great account of your hunt. Congrats to you and the lovely young lady !! Did I TELL you those Kentucky birds are SLOBS !!

Not to highjack your thread, but that reminds me of a story. A few years back, in my former home in my former life, I had been losing chickens to some kind of critter. I awoke in the middle of the night to the sounds of chickens cackling. I jumped out of bed in my pajamas ( which means NOTHING since I've never OWNED a pair of pajamas) and looked out the back door toward the chicken coop. There was a red fox trying to break into the henhouse. I picked up my ex-wife's Rem 1100 20 gauge, which was leaning in the corner by the back door for JUST such an occasion, cracked the door open and cycled in a round. The fox must have heard the sound, because he stopped digging and stood broadside, looking in my direction. His mistake...I stood BUCK NAKED in my kitchen, and dropped him in his tracks with a load of copper plated #6 shot. Then I went back to bed...the wife never even heard the shot...

Not if they are killing chickens in NY, either.

Culver...My old M59 Winchester is USELESS with slugs also..I never hit close enough to a target to know WHERE it shot them.. I always blamed it on the fiberglass barrel.

At age 14, I raised a Hereford/Holstein cross calf. I sold it at the local auction for $123. I used part of the money to buy a 16 gauge Rem 11-48, choked modified used for $85. A year later, a 12 gauge Winchester M59 equipped with "Winchoke" choke tubes appeared used in my local gun shop. It was like new for $105. I sold the 11-48 and bought it. I didn't have the entire amount, but old Jim Coakley, who owned the shop let me take the gun home and pay him $5 a week until it was paid off..It had 3 choke tubes, IC, Mod, and full. It was my main gun for years..I killed my first goose, and my first turkey with it, plus all kinds of other small game, including literally 100s of crows and many limits of ducks. I still have gun, although I don't shoot it much anymore. It has an aluminum alloy receiver and a fiberglass barrel, and I believe it was the first factory shotgun produced with choke tubes similar to the ones that are so common today.

I never hunted in Ohio, but in most states you need a license to participate in the hunt... Years ago a buddy of mine was calling foxes in PA and had his girlfriend holding the light... He got checked by a game warden and learned that it was illegal for her to hold the light unless she had a license. The guy gave them a break and did not issue a ticket.

Yup, I just looked it up in the Pa syllabus...It says in the spring gobbler season, hunting by calling only-No stalking.

I believe that PA has a similar regulation.

Right you are, G-Man... And, if I remember correctly, Western Auto sold as REVELATION and Montgomery Ward sold as WESTERN FIELD. Same deal...Most of the guns were made by High Standard, Mossberg, or Marlin.

Honeoye Is loaded with largemouths....Not a lot of big fish, but plenty of 12-15 inchers and enough 2-3 pounders to keep it interesting. You can have them to eat, though...I prefer smallies over largemouths and would much rather have bluegills, perch, or crappies over either.. Genny Cream Ale, eh..?.. You haven't LIVED until you have experienced a Genny Cream Ale fart in a snowmobile suit....

What action is your Sears shotgun ? Sears and Roebuck, of course, did not manufacture firearms, but put there brand name on guns made by several different companies. If I remember correctly, their pumps and autos were made by High Standard. I believe that their bolt shotguns were made by Mossberg, and their single shots were made by Savage.

Remingtons could be had from the factory with Cutts Compensators also...I have also seen quite a few Win M12s with the Cutts, so they may have been available from Winchester also and maybe Browning.. For some reason, I don't recall ever seeing an Ithaca with a Cutts. I actually liked the looks of the Cutts better than the polychokes, despite the fact that they were larger. You could buy fixed choke tubes for them( a lot of guys used the SPREADER tube for skeet) or you could screw an adjustable tube into them.I had a Rem 11-48 28 gauge with one, and shot several Remingtons, M12s, and Brownings belonging to friends that were equipped with Cutts Compensators. Those suckers were LOUD though !! They were worse to stand off to the side ( as on a skeet field) than they were to shoot.

There were several different adjustable chokes available in the days before screw in choke tubes became common. The most familiar one was the Poly Choke, and many oldtimers refer to any adjustable choke as a "polychoke" regardless of the manufacturer. They were functional, but ugly as a side order of s**t. On the used gun market they are a kiss of death. Many quality repeaters such as Win M12s, Browning A-5s, Ithaca M37s and anothers are worth less money because Grandpa decided to have a Polychoke installed back in 1952..

Point taken, jjb...As I said in my first post, if it weren't for the calling I'd quit turkey hunting and go fishing. Also, that's the reason that I never hunted Osceolas..They don't gobble a lot, and hunting them is more like hunting deer than turkeys. If I am going to pay to hunt out of state for another subspecies, I'd want to hunt birds that gobble a LOT, like Merriams or Rios.

When I was younger I covered a lot of ground , running and gunning. Most of my gobblers have been shot in the woods, without a decoy, as I sat with my back against a tree. Decoys are of little value in this type of mobile hunt. The last few years as I have got older, I spend a lot of time in pop up blinds along fields or other open areas. Decoys are useful in this type of hunt, because in those open areas a gobbler expects to be able to see the hen at a distance. Sure, I have had a few toms spook at the decoys...Perhaps they fear that it is a dominant gobbler, or perhaps they have recently had a BAD EXPERIENCE with decoys. However, many of them have come in and ended up in that big strutting zone in the sky. One rule of thumb...Once you are sure the gobbler sees the decoy, quit calling and let the decoy do its work.. I have watched toms strutting to my decoys out of range for as long as 45 minutes...Be patient and stay quiet, and MOST of the time, he'll decide the hen is not going to come to him and will commit and come into range. I hunt every spring in Ontario, and much of the hunting up there is on the edges of cedar pastures, flat as p**s on a platter and sometimes as much as a mile wide. Blinds and decoys are the main method of hunting there. On the Ontario opener last year I watched two gobblers come together and get into a fight about 150 yards from my blind.. I had out a gobbler decoy and two hens.. After fighting for perhaps 15 minutes, the birds disengaged ..I yelped a couple of times and they made a beeline for my decoys.. Both birds seemed to be about the same size, so the first one that came into range got a facefull of #6 shot for his effort..

I don't see safety as a big issue here unless someone is stalking turkey "sounds". Setting up ahead of a gobbler that you have spotted to cut him off isn't any more dangerous than setting up in the woods and calling.

Don't be so quick to condemn. Not everyone is limited to a little postage stamp of property. Many of us, especially those "locals" who grew up in rural areas and are friends with lots of landowners , have permission to hunt large areas of land.

For me, the calling is what makes the sport so special. I'd rather call in a bird and have someone else shoot it than bushwhack one myself. If calling was not involved, I'd quit turkey hunting and go fishing.

As long as it is good and dark you should be OK..You can get get away with some noise in the dark, either after dusk or well before dawn. I have a friend who kills several birds with his recurve every spring in Florida and Georgia. He often sets up his blind in plain sight of a gobbler's roost tree before daylight, and he kills most of his birds at ranges of 10-15 yards.

So sorry for your loss..Please accept my sincere condolences.

I have seen your basement too....Bondo is your only hope....<<smirk>>.....

A crow call wouldn't hurt a thing. However, an easier and less intrusive way to find out where a bird is roosting is to listen for him to gobble on the roost in the morning, and MORE IMPORTANTLY, figure out where he goes when he flies down..

Congrats on your draw ! I hope you get a good one. We'll be looking forward to the stories and the pictures.

COOL !! Love those Cubs !! What were you fishing for ? Did you catch anything ? How thick was the ice ?

Thanks, db.... Don't ya just LOVE a happy ending ?