Pygmy

Nice pict, Paula ...The white head certainly stands out. 20 years ago an eagle sighting was rare here in the Canisteo Vally. Now they are a daily sight, with quite a few nesting pairs. Last year my buddy had one land in the field beside his turkey decoy...The eagle eyeballed his decoy for a couple of minutes and then took off, leaving a wing feather as a momento.

Those are some HAWG smallies, Muck.... Awesome fish...!!...

Congrats, Growie... Things are tough all around this year.. Everybody I know is struggling, including a few guys who are EL PRIMO gobbler slayers most years.. However, we still have over half the season to go.. It ain't over till the fat lady sings...

I'm talking about THIS year, with the cold spring...Last year there may have been a significant number of poults by now..In an average year, the average hatching date is June 11th... Breeding has been at it's peak the last couple of weeks..That accounts for the lack of gobbling..Toms are too busy strutting and taking care of business to gobble much...I would expect that the earliest hens have just started to incubate within the last week or two.. Cold, wet weather in the first three weeks of June will have a much greater effect on poult mortality than it will now. This morning I saw 6 different hens running around and heard ONE gobble between 5:00 AM and noon...

I have never personally shot one without spurs but have seen several over the years that friends or aquaintances shot with no spurs..Just last month when I was hunting in Ontario, my host's nephew stopped in with a nice adult gobbler that had no spurs.

I doubt there are are many poults yet this year...

That's a downright bodacious BEARD, Pilgrim..!!.. They must grow 'em big up there in NW Steuben..Down here along the Pennsyltucky border we don't see a lot of beards like that.. Congrats on a fine bird !!

Congrats to both of you...You for being a good GUIDE and your hubby for getting his first bird..

Glad you have an extra arm ..It's much handier than having an extra of some other body parts... I mean, who needs 2 or 3 belly buttons ? Reminds me of a girl I used to date.. She had 3 breasts....One grew in the middle of her back... She was my favorite girl to slow dance with.... She had to pay a BUNDLE for those custom made bras, though....

Coons are mostly nocturnal, but it is not rare to see them out and about during the day.. I would give old ringtail the benefit of the doubt unless it shows some real aggressive or unusual behavior... If the animal seems to be feeding, it's probably healthy.. Perhaps it's just ECCENTRIC, like some of the members of this forum, myself included..<<grin>>..

Congrats, Joe !!! Good job there, Buddy ! Now you'll have to call one in for one of your buddies and be the cameraman...

That's a real slammer, WNY....Fine bird.. I've killed two birds with twin 9" plus beards and one with twin 8" beards... I've also killed several with 8 or 9 inch main beards and small , wispy 3-4" second beards.. I killed a heavy ( 23 lb. ) gobbler in Kentucky a few years back that had 4 beards...The main beard had a huge base but was cut of at the skin line..He had 3 distinct smaller beards growing above it.. The gobbler I killed yesterday was a double beard, but had also lost his main beard at the skin line..The second beard was a wispy 4 incher.. I knew he was an adult bird when I shot him due to his full fan..He had 1 inch spurs, making him a possible 3 year old or a precocious 2 year old.. The most beards I have seen personally is 5..A friend of mine shot a 5 bearded jake years ago.. Another friend borrowed the beard to display at the county fair...He left it on his coffee table and his springer spaniel ate it.. He had to explain that to the guy who USED to have a priceless trophy... Sorry, Eddie...My dog ate your once in a life time beard.....

What man in his right mind would want to have to deal with more than ONE woman ???

The breast feathers have buff tips, which is a sure indicator of a hen.. A jake's breast feathers would have black tips.. A hen's head can flush bright colors when she is excited also...Years ago I shot an adult hen for a jake in the fall because of her red head...

I don't think hearing a few extra shots is a sinister trend... I've heard multiple shots now and then for many years...Some of them were mine.. I have killed about 120 turkeys in the last 40 years, and my first shot was not always perfect, due to many factors, not the least of which is ADRENALINE .. I have killed a number of birds with my second or even my third shot, after I flubbed the first one, for whatever reason.. I never shot more than 3 times at a turkey, because the guns I have used have either been double barrels or were plugged for 3 shots, since some of the states ( and Ontario) I hunt in require a 3 shot limit.. I just leave the repeaters that I use for turkeys plugged..

Yeah, Doc, those were the "good old days" in Ontario.. Not too long ago, an Ontario NR moose license was over the counter and it was good for any moose, bull, cow or calf.. Now, unless you buy one of an outfitter's alloted tags, you need to have half your neighborhood apply along with you to draw one adult moose tag. Tags are also sex specific although everyone gets a calf tag with thier license.. However, odds of seeing a calf are low and not many hunters want to spend the time and money to drive hundreds of miles to shoot a calf ...

A grouse drumming sounds like an old one lunger John Deere engine starting to fire up and then dying out... I'm sure there must be films of grouse drumming on youtube... At a distance, the sound almost seems as if it is coming from somewhere INSIDE your head.. It's very hard for me to tell what direction it's coming from.... A turkey drumming no way resembles what you would EXPECT drumming to sound like.. PHFTTT.......HMMMMMMMM.... If you can hear it, he's probably within range. Some guys claim they can hear a bird drumming 100 yards away, but I've never been able to hear it more than 20-25 yards away. It is a pretty subtle sound.

I suspect you hit the nail right on the head, Truth... Old, smart gobblers who KNOW how the game should be played..Good luck... They may be tough, but they aren't UNKILLABLE.... Stick with those bad boys...

Hehehehehe..My mom would KILL for a mess of bullheads..<<grin>>... Like early, I used to skin and gut them and I have a really fast and easy method for doing that.. However, I now use the electric knife...Quick, easy, and I like the way the filets fry up better than doing the whole fish.

If a gobbler seems to hang up, I usually go quiet... Resist the urge to call..the more they gobble, the better chance they will come looking.. However. are you sure they did not have hens ? Gobblers are SERIOUSLY henned up in most areas now..If they have hens. you are probably not going to call them in, unless you get lucky and bring the hens in..Then it is a tough game avoiding having the hens bust you before the gobblers get in range.. Also, gobblers that have been shot at in the past sometimes REFUSE to come close to any turkey calling, even though they may gobble at every call.. Some of those birds WILL NOT come within gun range of a calling source, unless they see a live hen.. They just stand back and gobble and wait for the hen to come to them... Those gobblers are frustrating and hard to kill.

Tags are plentiful in Quebec ( 2 people per tag) but success rates are generaly fairly low , perhaps around 10% average, and a lot of those French Canadian outfitters are crooks..I have heard a LOT of negative stuff about moose hunting in Quebec, and very little positive. If you go with an outfitter in Ontario you have a reasonable chance to draw a tag, as outfitters are alloted a certain number.. Success rates aren't high, but are better than Quebec...If you apply for a tag in the general lottery, it takes at least 8 people to draw one bull or cow tag..hardly a good option for nonresidents. I'm waiting for the results of the New Brunswick lottery May 14th.... NB has about a 1/20 draw ratio for nonresidents and better success rates than Ontario or Quebec.

Typical of the reports I have been getting from my buddies, PLUS my own experiences.. Birds are gobbling damn little, and most of them shut up as soon as they hit the ground. Typical behavior of henned up gobblers..Things will improve later in the month.. In a "normal" weather year like this, in 40 years of gobbler hunting, I have had my best luck around mid-month...

Good job, Joe !! Belated congrats on your bird..I've been unable to sign in for a few days.... Glad the shells work ...<<grin>>...

Glad to hear you are having a good season.. I agree that those 1 1/4" spurs are 3 year old minimum.. Probably 4 year old minimum...2 year olds seldom have spurs that are 1"..More often 3/4 or 7/8... I always figured that 1" spurs ( or slightly longer) meant a 3 year old and anything longer is probably 4 years old or older. Regarding the heavy jakes... It may be due to the early nesting last year due to the early warm weather.. I remember a year back in the 80s when we had some early hatches and a reasonably decent winter, and I saw several 18 pound jakes shot that spring..

It's in Knoxville, PA, for Pete's sake... Other than a few high traffic days , like last weekend's grand opening and maybe the day before the PA deer season, there aren't likely to BE 25 people on Main St in K'Ville on any given day.. Red headed chick ? Perhaps she was the one that sold me the 3 pounds of powder there Saturday. I would have flirted with her, but it always bums me out when I do that and then she tells me that I remind her of her grandfather...