Two Track

Being that i have yet to fill any turkey tags, period, I would take a Jake. Need to have my tags start paying for themselves. Wife thinks this is a expensive hobby that keeps me out of the house. So far I have 1 very expensive pheasant for the 2012/2013 hunting season.

Nice pic's. See you have the adult seat set up for dinner at the kids table already lol. Enjoy.

Nice job. Send some birds my way. My youngest daugher is disappointed any time I come home empty handed.

Hmm. It is bearded, but a hen. Maybe if desperate at the end of the season. It is similar to whether or not you shoot an antlered doe - they are not common, but do exist.

I have confirmed there are turkeys in Sterling or at least this morning they were there. Called in a nice size hen - about 30 yards away at 9:30. Took some pictures of her. She came in from behind me quietly. She only clucked a few times around 9:00 and then again around 10:15 when she was no longer in sight. I was set up on the for hunting on the other side of a stone wall facing a grassy open area. I switched my set up and moved my decoy to the side of wall the hen passed by on in the woods. Later got three birds started up and calling to each other from different directions ( 2 to my left and one in front of me), but nothing came in. Note that two birds were from the direction I just moved from I was the only one in the area so I took a quiet walk (or as closely as possible) to try to see the other birds. They had already gone silent. I appearently passed them as I got them talking after hitting them with a crow call and the calls were now behind me. I worked my way to a woods road ended up circling around them. Sounds like they were in or near a swampy bottom area - but the clock for today had run out. Never heard a single gobble. Scared up a coyote on my way out. Now have to decide whether try that area again, or go to Stewart where i had turkeys go past me during deer season - but will have a very long hike in to get to that spot.

Stewart is not bad during bow season. I don't bow hunt yet, but I go there for small game like pheasant. Early gun season is difficult to get a spot. Sometimes it is easier to go in around noon-1:00 when the morning crew heads out for lunch. Big game season is suppose to be hunters and trappers only at Stewart. Last year there was a couple walking the roads for excerise and a couple mountainbikers riding the trails. Another place to try is Storm King Mountain, they allow rifle, but stay clear of the trails. Had several hikers pass near by including someone with dogs off leash. I saw someone going into back area of Sterling with yellow labs during gunseason for deer. Saw the dogs running through the trees before I saw their owner. My initial reaction was "damn, wrong part of woods and leaving too early for lunch" because out of the corner of my eye they looked like running deer. So no matter where you go, watch out for the rule breaking, self endangering clueless people out there. WestPoint allows deer hunting but you must have a 3p doe permit and take a doe first. Not sure if the allow rifle or not.

Apoallo, We are in the same town. Mostly I have been heading to northern section of Sterling forest and Stewart for hunting. We had a bear visit 2 weeks ago on my block. Haven't seen it since. Still very cautious with the dog at night. No bears where I grew up so not sure how to handle that if one was in my sights in season. This is my third season trying for turkey, so that is still new for me. Perhaps we will run into each other sometime.

Three weeks ago they were feeding along the NY State Thruway near the South Fields pedestrian bridge. Don't know if they roost in Harriman State park (which is no hunting) or go into Sterling Forest near the renaissance fair grounds.

Finally decided I should add my input to help out others with the little that I know in hunting around here. Only been hunting in NY for 3 years, as did not know of any place nearby to go or have any where to store hunting supplies until I got a house. The only game I have gotten in NY so far is pheasant. Have seen several deer, but only had tail for a target during hunting season - not something I am willing to take a shot at. I grew up in another state hunting on my grandparents farm and land belong to a couple close family friends. Deer hunting seasons are different here, I grew up with 3 deer gun seasons - early November, anterless in mid-December and a late January season (not including primitive/muzzle-loader). I am surprised that there is no Dove season here, and small game over laps with Deer season (prevents using #6's on a deer and slug on a rabbit). I would love to be able to hunt on private land but do not know any one in my area at this time.

As long as you have a permit from Sterling, you can hunt there for Spring Turkey. Fall turkey and small game in the fall is a bit different - no guns until early November. Only saw one turkey in the Spring last year - 3 feet behind my bumper in the parking lot - obviously no shot there.