adkbuck

Making it look easy! Congratulations!

Well Done, great bird, narrative and photos. Congrats to you and your Dad!

Congratulations. Great looking bird!

Congratulations on a great bird! Displaying him on the stump was a brilliant Idea, really like it!

I would stick with D. Not only for the bird's sake but for the mental well being of hunters. A full day hunting gobblers would take a heavy mental and physical toll on us guys over 40 and could lead to strained domestic relationships as well as job performance issues.

Nice!! Congrats again!

Congratulations, Job well done!

Thanks everyone. Vince, You are welcome. When I hunt the woods as opposed to a field I don't really have a set-up. I just have my camo suit and head net, my gun, my call(s) and my seat cushion (if I think of it). I never use decoys in the woods anymore because the gobbler will often have a hard time seeing them and I like be able to move without worrying about moving decoys. I try to move on birds because the gobbler naturally thinks the hen should come to him. So I try to close the distance whenever I can. Even closing the distance a little bit will help get the older birds moving toward you because they know the hen is acting in a natural manner and they get more excited. Admittedly some gobblers and most jakes will often come in without it but pressured birds and older birds may need the additional reassurance. I think it is good to give the gobbler the perception that the hen has moved toward him, at least to some degree. If you are hunting public land or private land and a gobbler is on property that you don't have permission to hunt, moving as much as you can in the gobbler's direction will help. Also I never try to get closer than 100 (brush) or 200 yards (open woods) to avoid the possibility of spooking the gobbler. I will answer his gobbles with hen calls, the yelp and the purr with a cluck are my best producers. A hen will often repeatedly cluck and purr when she is trying to find another bird, be it another hen or a gobbler. When I think I am close to 100 yards (heavy cover) or 200 yards (open woods) of a gobbler and he has heard me call, I stay put. I never call again once I think he is within 100 yards. He will know your approximate position. He will most likely either quickly come into range or will drift off for whatever reason. He will normally come in with his neck and head very extended looking for that hen. I get my gun up and ready when he passes behind a tree or brush and take him when he gets to an opening within range. I

If I have time I like to pluck the bird because my family and I like the flavor of a bird roasted with the skin on. It gives it a rich flavor that's hard to beat. Usually you can dry pluck the bird if you can get to it within an couple of hours after the kill. I cut the wings off at the first joint since there isn't much meat on them and this makes the plucking much easier. I dress the bird right after plucking then wash him out real good with cold water. I like to let the carcass set in a bucket cold water for 15 minutes to cool him down good. To cook the bird I use the Alton Brown method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaKOLGIcMGE If I don't have time for plucking I take the breast and the thighs and cook them separately, I especially like marinating and grilling them, although making turkey tenders is great also! The roast turkey method using Alton Browns method comes out tender and juicy every time. It enables the dark meat to cook to a higher temperature (which it needs) without over cooking and drying out the breast meat. The method uses a aluminum foil breast covering to avoid overcooking the breast meat after the bird is browned. I throw some cut up onion and apple inside the body cavity and close up the front and back openings before roasting.

Thanks guys. Grow, it was a raggedly broken stub of hair, I'd say the fleshy base was 3/4 inch maybe 7/8 inch in diameter where the beard attached to the skin. The hair bristles were a bit thicker in diameter, about an inch. The length of the remaining hair bristles was less than half of an inch. The area looked like a very hairy wart after the bird was plucked. Wish I had taken a photo. I just figured it was the result of icing up and the weight of it caused it to fall off. I must say that I don't know anything about beard rot. I had not even heard of it before. If it is related to lack of nutrition it may have been the cause. When I think about how long they had to remain roosted before we got some crust on the snow I am amazed that they could make it through last winter. The wild turkey is a really amazing bird. Grizz, You may be right since the spurs had a pretty good curve to them.

Killed 0940 May 4, 2015 Detailed Narrative: I hunted Saturday Morning but couldn’t raise a gobble. It seemed pretty dead. I figured the boys where pretty much on hens. I was able to get most of the morning off on Monday May 4 so decided to give it another try. Yesterday (Monday) I Initially was set up on the edge of a field again with couple of hen decoys but hadn't heard a gobble or any hen talk from 0530 - 0830. I figured it was too warm and sunny for the field hunt so I decided to forget the field and decoy thing and headed into the woods. I set up near a small pond and blind called for a while. At 0900 I heard a few clucks to my east, shifted position moving 50 yards to the East to get a better view hoping a for a hen with gobbler in-tow. Threw out a few more clucks but no response. At about 0915 sent out a few clucks and purrs followed by some yelps. Heard a gobble far away to the Northwest and a few clucks and putts much closer. Moved 75 yards to the Northwest. Heard some "where are you" putts from the hen and responded in kind. At 0930 heard two gobblers, one estimated at about a 500-600 yards to the Northwest and one closer, about 300 yards to Southwest. I decided to close another 100 yards on the Southwest bird. After getting set up the base of a maple I sent out a few purrs and clucks and was immediately answered by the hen again to the west and the gobbler (now about 200 yards) to the south. At 0935 I sent out a series of purrs and few yelps. A couple of minutes later saw something 100 yards to the south. At 0940 saw the body and a glowing bright red head of a gobbler 60 yards to my Southwest moving Northward. The gobbler would have a CPA of 30 yards and I fired when he reached CPA. He went right down. He was a 19.5 # two-year-old, with one inch spurs. The beard had been almost completely broken off from the snow and ice. After plucking and dressing him for roasting he seemed in very good condition considering the winter and deep fluffy snow we had from late January to mid March. He had an appreciable sponge fat deposit but I imagine he would have weighed in a bit more after a normal winter. I was grateful to take him!

Wow. Beautiful mule deer and antelope ...and sure 'nuff big! Those are some handsome looking mounts! Nice job by the hunter and taxidermist!! Did you get them both on the same trip or two different trips?

Certainly not off topic Jennifer. Thanks for the additional historical range map. The presence of a huge and reliable mast resource certainly has a huge impact on the winter survivability of a species. A large cervid like the elk would certainly be in much better condition to survive. It all makes sense. I was impressed by the introductory scene of the 1992 movie "Last of the Mohegans" when Hawkeye cocks and fires his flintlock, his ball intercepting a prime eastern bull elk in mid flight. Chingachgook then takes out his knife and approaches the fallen bull reverently saying " We are sorry to kill you brother, we respect you strength and speed." (May not be the exact script) A scene like that is hard to forget. I found it interesting that the film considered the historical presence of the elk in the eastern forest environment.

Jennifer thanks for the SUNY ESF link on the chestnut. Fascinating! I was unaware the one out of 4 trees in the Eastern US was a chestnut. I had the impression that most of NYS state historically had chestnuts but that didn't seem true due the one chart he put up shows the historical Pre-blight range of the American Chestnut: Looking at this it seems that large portions of NYS were outside the range of the chestnut. Also according to that chart much of the historical eastern elk range apparently did not have chestnuts. Just an observation. One of the things I learned from the presentation was that chestnuts are stable annual producers of nuts. Imagine if the Adirondacks had that food source available for wildlife. Deer and Bear would probably go into winter in much better shape than they do now. In portions of the ADK's I hunted last fall I don't think I found a single beechnut. Compared to the stable nut bearing of healthy chestnut trees, beechnut trees are very unstable from year to year. So from what I could see the deer in the Central and North Central ADK's went into this winter without the benefit of a good beechnut crop. I'm not a biologist but given the nasty winter they could have used the extra fat from a good nut crop. Again, just an observation. Doc, I don't think anyone is advocating the reintroduction of elk (especially me) into NYS at the time. The post was in response to a previous poster inquiring about elk moving from PA to NY and was geared to explaining what the history of elk was in NYS and what feasibility studies have been conducted regarding elk in NYS. It was for information only.

Here are a couple of Church signs of interest:

Thanks guys. I sure learned a lot myself. One of the articles I referenced talks about the possibility of some "Eastern" elk possibly still in existence. Some of the eastern strain may have been transplanted to New Zealand from a game reserve in Massachusetts in 1905. http://www.otsego.org/prca/articles/eastelk.htm I agree it is unlikely that a huntable population will ever exist in NYS but it sure is interesting to speculate. One wonders if the Rocky Mountain or one of the other strains of elk could adapt and evolve in an Eastern woodland loving sub species. There is a little story I would like to relate. I had heard that attempts were made to reintroduce elk in the Adirondacks and I was hunting an area around Raquette Lake during the height of the rut mid November 2001. I was about 2 mile from the nearest road on a ridge. I saw some buck signs, rubs and a scrap line. It was about 3 PM and I heard some branches cracking above me. At first I thought it might be another hunter. The I saw a big bodied brown animal about 50 yards above me. Not knowing that the elk had been gone for many years I though for a brief couple of minutes that it might be an elk. I couldn't see the head or rack. I knew he was very close to me but I couldn't see him and that made me very nervous (as in buck fever nervous). After a few minutes the wind shifted and he was downwind of me. Suddenly I saw a very wide rack big buck bounding away. I never got a shot. He was definitely a whitetail. It was a good spot as I saw another smaller deer about 20 or 30 minutes later. He was smaller deer but still a very respectable eight pointer. I still had the big one on my mind I guess and I was shaken by the earlier encounter. As a result I cleanly missed him! I had to head back for work that night and didn't get back to that spot for another week. I never saw another buck in there that season although I did connect with a big racked 8 pointer during the 2002 season a few miles away.

The question posed by sbiono51 in his post: http://huntingny.com/forums/topic/26963-elk-in-new-york/ got me thinking and inspired me to do a bit of research about elk in NY and effort to reestablish them. I'll share what I found out. 1.Elk in North America According to the USFWS elk have been in North America for the last 120,000 years, having migrated from Asia across the great land bridge which once separated the Bering Sea from the Arctic Ocean. More than 1 million elk exist in the US, mostly in the West with several small herds in the East. Figure 1, Current range of elk in North America The closest wild herd to NY is the Pennsylvanian herd numbering about 800 animals in Cameron, Clearfield and Elk Counties. In PA approximately 70 animals are taken by hunters each year through a state run lottery. 2. History of Elk in New York State According to the RMEF the fossil record shows Elk ranged throughout much the Eastern US for most at least the last 3000 years including all of NYS. Figure 2, Historical Range of Elk in the Eastern US The according to the RMEF ( http://www.otsego.org/prca/articles/eastelk.htm), prior to the modern era the last elk was killed in NY in 1847. 3. Reintroduction attempts in the 20th Century. Historically, there have been several attempts to restore elk in NY State. A number of unsuccessful attempts were made from 1900 to 1940 in the Raquette Lake area of the Adirondacks. An initial release of 20 animals by private citizens was made in in 1900 followed by subsequent releases for 155 additional animals. Successful reproduction in the wild was taking place and the herd around Raquette Lake grew to an estimated 350 animals. Another attempt was made by the NYSDEC in the Debar Mountain Refuge area near Meacham Lake in 1932. Figure 3. Elk at Debar Mountain Refuge prior to release. it believed that the Adirondack population due to both release sites was totally wiped out by 1946 due to poaching and/or brain worm disease. 4. Recent Studies In October of 1998 a report was released discussing the feasibility of restoring Elk New York State. The report was sponsored by the RMEF and the study was conducted jointly by the SUNY ESF, Syracuse, University and the Human Dimensions Research, DNR, Cornell, University. The results of the study indicated that suitable habitat existed in three area of NYS. Namely the Peripheral Adirondacks, the Catskills and a SW NYS area. Factors such as forage, cover, habitat diversity, road density and social acceptability were taken into account. Figure 4. Habitat suitability results. If any introductions are made in the future it would likely be in the "Peripheral Adirondack" or Catskill area. The study in its entirety can be found at: http://www2.dnr.cornell.edu/hdru/pubs/FeasElkNYS.pdf

That's a really great looking mount to honor your buck! Congrats!!

Yet another great question. Here is an example and a true one. A guy I know loves the 270 Winchester. He was an impressionable youth in the days when Jack O'Conner was writing for Outdoor Life and Jack was singing the praises of the 270 Winchester. He hand loads and he shoots a lot. He has one 270 Remington pump action carbine with a very low power scope (1-3X) that he uses for woods hunting in places like the ADK's, NH and Maine. Places where you have a heartbeat to pick up the deer and shoot. He has a second 270 in the exact same model topped with a Williams peep sight that he uses when tracking deer and hunting on days when it is likely there will be falling snow or freezing rain. He would rather have a peep sight when it too miserable to reliably keep a scope snow- free and open, especially if he has to cover ground. He feels the "see under" or "dual purpose" type mounts put the scope too high and he also likes the idea of having a back-up rifle that shoots the same ammunition should he have a problem with his scoped rifle. He has a third 270 Winchester rifle that is a Browning Bolt action with a 2-8X power scope for hunting in open country in the east or out west for Mule deer and Antelope. He loads 150 grain loads in his two wood rifles and 130 grain for the open country bolt action rifle where very long range shoots are a likely possibility.

Last night had friends over and roasted up a wild turkey from this past Spring. Served with some frozen veggies from the garden and a sausage and wild rice stuffing (cooked outside the bird). The bird was well wrapped (no freezer burn, thankfully) and I gave him 6 days to defrost. Used the Alton Brown method and he came out tender and juicy. Bird sewed up with apple and onions inside. After roasting.

Some young marines having a good time enjoying the movie Frozen. God bless the Marine Corps! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOPe9WqpOAc

jrm, You made some really good points and seem to have a good thought process! I don't agree with some of what you said but at least you made an effort to make a decent contribution to the debate and you succeeded. I know everyone's IP address goes to each website that is addressed but the government will instantly be able to know those IP's and in-effect our identities almost instantly if they wish. Warrants will not be necessary. They will know the location and identity of all US users which they will regulate differently than foreign users. I hope you are right and I am wrong on some of these. Thanks! I was called away in the middle of my reply. I apologize. I am much more skeptical about the governments intentions than you are because of the way this was done. To me its déjà vu all over again (as Yogi would say) relative to Obamacare and the SAFE Act. I don't think American citizens should be treated so badly. They seem to think we are really dumb. Again thanks for your good comments!

Grow, That sounds very funny!! Too bad the camera wasn't handy. Found a couple of photos (not mine) of our friends in deep snow'

What net neutrality means? In short Obama has done administratively what he could not accomplish in fair and open congressional action. As pointed out the secret document has not even been released. But from what has been revealed during the administrations prior 5 failed attempts to pass "net neutrality" bills in the house and senate and what we have heard from the two republicans who voted against it in the 3-2 decision yesterday we have a good idea: The entire wide - world web is reclassified under Title II of the Communications Act. Fixed and mobile broadband world wide web applications are now classified as a telecommunications service, and as such providers will be regulated as common carriers under Title II of the Telecommunications Act just as land line telephone service was in the past. While the full implantation make take years, the Trojan horse of for internet censorship is in place Website owners will eventually be required to be licensed by the government. Anonymity on the internet will come to an end. A fairness doctrine on political speech will be implemented and decided by unelected bureaucrats Net Neutrality solves a problem that does not exist. The cost of moving data on the internet has dropped 30% each year since the late 1990's. The biggest supporters of the FCC Net Neutrality such as Netflix and Comcast are also the biggest providers, they know the new regulation will discourage smaller lower cost competition. The internet will eventually run at the speed of the government The same people that gave you the shipwreck of Healthcare.com will now have power over the world wide web. Censorship and Chinese style oppression will come in time. The government will eventually tax internet commerce (i.e. your purchases). More regulation will eventually = slower speed + less innovation + less investment. After the Monica Lewinsky Scandal Hillary Clinton called for the government to have of gate keeper function to review content before it appears on the web. It can now happen. "Net Neutrality" is probably Obama's biggest scam yet. If you loved freedom lost under Obamacare you will love Obama-net!