reeltime

It's been a season for sure, my walking counter rolled over 208 miles yesterday. After filling out my tag I sent Judy a text message... you wanna go to Maine? Her reply was "when" I know I shouldn't go because we got tons of work but their season goes till June 3rd. And I would love to kill a gobbler in June. Sent from my SM-S536DL using Tapatalk

Headed out to pa Sunday afternoon arriving in time to do some late season inventory of birds remaining and signs of hunting pressure. Lots of vehicle sign where people pulled off to park. Lots of boot prints. But did see birds. Monday morning I walled away from the truck at 3am. I was hunting a farm that has been absolutely pounded by guys. I parked a mile from where I would be set up as the birds were extremely spooky. I don't know what time I eased onto my seat at the base of my tree but it seemed to take forever to get light. But I thought I was in great shape when 2 birds gobbled 100 yards out and a hen was just to my left. Long story short the gobblers stayed in the trees till the hen pitched down and they all 3 walked out the logging road all the way to the other end of the field. Monday afternoon I went to where we doubled up on the first day and I passed up 2 longbeards as we already took 2 off this property and I was simply scouting and making my presence known to all the road hunters. Yesterday morning I parked same spot but sat where I could cover that logging road,,, rhe 2 gobblers were roosted right where I sat Monday morning and the hen was behind me they flew down and went the other way. Lol. Yesterday afternoon I parked a half mile the other side of the farm because if I didn't score before my 730 self imposed stop time I would be setting there till 930pm before I could sneak out. I took the long way in and got set up at the base of a multi trunked tree. Shortly after 6 I had a bearded hen come out into the fresh planted field. She worked back and forth and was doing alot of purring. Finally about 645 she had wandered out about 100 yards so I ever so softly clucked twice on the bomber she responded with a couple clucks and yelps and aggressive purrs. 2 birds hammered within 200 yards over the roll of the hill in the field. The hen was working towards me as I see 2 white heads crest the hill 150 yards to my left they hammer again and slowly start my way obviously seeing the hen and can likely hear her aggressive purring at the hussy intruder. They walked into 30 yards before separating enough that I could safely kill just 1 bird. I sat until the other birds walked out of the field so while I waited for them to leave I sat there and filled out my tag thus wrapping up my pa season. Sent from my SM-S536DL using Tapatalk

Passed up a handful of 2 year old birds early on in the ny season. Last Friday morning I was able to get in tight on a 3 year old bird as daylight broke I had a hen pitch out from the tree I was leaning against and the gobbler rips off a gobble 70 yards out. He pitched down up on the flat. The hen was in the field behind me which allowed me to give a few soft clucks on the bomber longbox. The hen went ballistic yelping and cutting and coming towards me. He gobbled 1 time as he is full strut coming to me and the hen is getting close but its too late He is at 40 yds and closing in the open woods. The hen is so close I can hear her soft purrs. The gobbler stopped at 25 yards and periscoped to look at the hen I slid the safety off and lights out. Yesterday morning I walked way back to the back pasture and it was well after light before I heard the first gobble.... way back towards the truck.. off I go, trolled my way just in case, finally got within 200 yards of the field and he starts cutting me off but not moving my way so I eased up and set up. Finally he broke and started coming in but when. He was in the fresh planted part of the field 80 yards out I was able to put the binos on him ànd see he had short spurs. He came in to 30 yards but I never moved the gun his direction. He eventually walked back out in the field and continued to gobble. I hear something walking from behind me and a hen walks by at 5 yards. Gets to the field and runs out 30 yards and plops down like she is sliding into 2nd base. Lays there for a few minutes the gobbler paid her no attention. I hear more walking and another hen walks by me the path as the first one. The other hen in the field laid down 3 more times and no response from the gobbler. The drift into a pasture but return 15 minutes later and finally after 2 more laying attempts the gobbler finally steps up on her back. They come towards my side but go out the gas line, he starts gobbling again so I get up ease back 100 yards call and here he comes gobbling like crazy again. Then he turns and heads back to the original field. So I ease back to my original tree just before I get there a bird gobbles out front to the right in the woods, I was midstep when he gobbled but was almost sure it was hooks. I got set up and he rips a gobble just at the woods edge and I know its Hooks, I catch movement to my left and when I look over there is the 2 yr old running across the field like the roadrunner lol. I see 2 birds come out into the field and when I put the binos on them I see the twisted tail feather confirming its Hooks and he has a jake with him. I call and the jake starts yelping and Hooks gobbles a few times. I do 3 more series of calls cutting off the jake and here they come. The jake came in the woods to my left and got to about 10 yards but I couldn't see Hooks one he walked behind a big locust tree. Finally I see him step out to the right but now my brain said make sure its him just as he fans up and I see the twisted tail feather. He breaks strut and periscoped, eased the safety off and at 25 yards it was over. Now to finish off PA. And starting to really think about running to Maine. Sent from my SM-S536DL using Tapatalk

State 5 half done, bird 1 in pa. My buddy Matt and I doubled this morning. 5 states, 5 birds in 9 actual hunting days. Sent from my SM-S536DL using Tapatalk

State 5 half done, bird 1 in pa. My buddy Matt and I doubled this morning. 5 states, 5 birds in 9 actual hunting days. Sent from my SM-S536DL using Tapatalk

Thanks Dan. Still running the bomber, would rather leave my shells home than that call. Dan, I felt it was our duty to show our support, and as I said before you need anything we are just a phone call away buddy. Sent from my SM-S536DL using Tapatalk

Below is a text I received from the dec earlier in the week. The wild turkeys have been in decline for the last 8 to 10 years, across a lot of states and across multiple species meaning easterns, rios, merriams, and Osceola. There have been many ideas talked about as far as cause. Certainly bird flu is a factor, predation is a factor, habitat is factor, changes in pesticide in farming seeds. What is being discusses now is that inbreeding could be causing a weekend genetic line in the turkeys thus causing them to be more susceptible to disease. As is well known when we did alot of trap and transfer back in the 70s and 80s the numbers exploded and it was a huge success. But turkeys don't migrate 100s of miles to disperse so the belief is that the blood lines over a 20,30 year period are too close. They want the upper leg section, so cut the spur off like normal where tou cut the leg off just above the spur and then send in that part which would be between the knee joint and just above the spur. They want the bone marrow to do the DNA analysis. As far as trying to farm raise birds like the ringnecks,, that was tried in the past and was a complete failure both survival and financially. Here is the text message I just got off the phone with Dr. Mike Schummer and it sounds like this research may aid in sorting out the wild turkey population decline. He indicated that he doesn't need the spur, just a section of scaly leg above or below the spur (the foot, for example). Put it in a ziplock bag, write the county and town of harvest on the bag with a sharpie and store it in your freezer. You can coordinate with him directly for more details and where to send samples. Anything you guys can do to get the word out would be greatly appreciated! Sent from my SM-S536DL using Tapatalk

My 2023 turkey tour started April 12th when we rolled into nebraska for a few days scouting prior to heading up to south dakota to start actually hunting. Way too much to tell the whole story of each hunt, I started actual hunting on 4/15/23 in south dakota had idle/travel days on 4/19, 4/21 4/24 4/16/23 south dakota merriams 4/20/23 nebraska merriams 4/23/23 wyoming merriams 4/25/23 kansas rio Arrived back at pa camp today to get in a couple scouting days or maybe go to west Virginia, I wanted to hit missouri on the way back but Judy had enough traveling. Sent from my SM-S536DL using Tapatalk

Certainly a different season in ny, bird numbers in my area are way down so I changed up area to hunt. Most areas were an hour to 2 hour drive. Pa has been different also with fewer birds so scouting has been key as always. Had a lot of fun, put on a little over 7000 miles between scouting and hunting in ny, pa and west Virginia. Tagged out yesterday morning in pa and am currently listening to birds hammer on both sides of the truck, LOL imay have a disease. Sent from my SM-S127DL using Tapatalk

This is one of the most assinine statements I have ever read in this turkey forum. It shows just how much of a hypocrite you are. Preach how God loving you are then in the next breath saying its "no big deal" to maim a turkey now and then, one of gods finest creatures. I would hope that one of the mods will remove the post so it doesn't give us all a bad rap in the publics eye, as far as that goes they can remove this one as well. Sent from my SM-S127DL using Tapatalk

Depends on what you want out of your 20 ga. Last week I changed up the kids Tristar 20 ga to beco.e my backup as the kids are old enough now and I have bought them their own turkey guns. I did a barrel touch up with polishing, replaced the red dot with a 1-4 circle duplex scope, put on a Carlson longbeard .555 tss scope. Sigthed in at 15 yards with 7.5 which was a pattern size of about 2 inches. Moved out to 30 yards with same loads tweeked the scop settings a little. Taped out 120 feet set up the turkey target and then dropped in the 3 inch tss 7 shot. Not a bad pattern at 40 yards. I think I can live with that. Sent from my SM-S127DL using Tapatalk

Well we had my 13 year old granddaughter and my buddies 8yr old daughter out, all total I called in 10 jakes , 2 longbeards , 4 hens all male birds walked away without a shot being fired. We did a lot of walking and the kids stuck it out from 5am till 12:30 Sent from my SM-S127DL using Tapatalk

West Virginia Sent from my SM-S127DL using Tapatalk

Kicked off my 2022 season this morning, always a good feeling sliding shells in the mag at 430 am. Called a hen in just after daylight, let her walk off started a slow troll and had a bird fire back gave him a minute and hit him again and he cut me off but he was 4-500 yards out. Set down to give him 5 minutes to take his temp again as I was way above him on the mountain so he had a good vantage point to bustme making a move. It started raining about 7am and by 715 it was pouring. I set on the dry side of a triple trunk wild cherry out of the wind and most of the rain... he never gobbled again after setting an hour. So I was on my feet and trolled the toothed all the way back to the truck, unloaded put gear in the truck and beat feet to a new piece of public 25miles away that I have been scouring over maps of. Worked my way up a very steep 400 foot incline which would put me on a power line and a bench below 2 hidden field on the back side of the 1200 acre parcel. What didn't show on the map was EQT drilling a gas well and laying gas mains. Oh well play the hand your dealt, and I had already seen plenty of turkey sign. I had trolled several hundred yards along the power line road when I had a bird about blow my hat off in response to a call sequence. I hit the closest tree and thought altho loud it sounded jakey. I called again and he cut me off and now was sure it was a jake but he was so close sometimes a full adult bird can sound odd. When he hit me the third call sequence it was time to get the 835 ready for action. Finally a hen came up the roadway and behind her was a white snowball. All I could see was his neck and head so as I am looking at his head in the scope I'm thinking man it looks small. Finally he drops into strut and......yup a step fan.. dang oh well fun anyways. A well truck started down the roadway and the 2 birds pitched off the hill and glided all the way across the valley to the other mountain. I trolled some more and ended up calling in a massive hen and then had to hustle to be back at the truck by 1pm. Now to get ready for pa youth season Saturday Sent from my SM-S127DL using Tapatalk

thanks everyone, appreciate the bday wishes. unfortunately i was out the door by 4 am and just got back to the house but it wasn't a fishing day it was just another work day of putting up another big pole barn. I thought 92 hours last week was bad enough but at 33 hours so far this week so this week isn't looking any better.. man I need a day on the ice and not just an hour here or there that i have been getting. thanks again everyone.

You gotta come east if you want bigger cats Larry. Sent from my SM-S127DL using Tapatalk

this all started as treeguy said back in early Oct. and unbeknownst to me there was a surprise birthday party planned on the same weekend that the pa youth hunt was happening and being nice weather and pre rut timing it would of been perfect timing and i almost blew it for Andrew, but an out of the blue phone call one night from a fella named duke who explained that i couldn't invite them down "that" weekend because of the party.... lol so i rearranged my schedule and tried to make it happen. it was fun seeing the excitement in all of your eyes while you guys were there. the deer did not play nice, the real kicker was the buck that walked 10 yards from the blind 20 minutes after i had picked you guys up. I am sure the wacky weather did not help matters either. I would love to see Kaiden get his first deer, and I want to see duke there with him. so lets make this happen!! It was a tough weekend for me emotionally as Saturday was 3 years since i lost my best hunting buddy ever, there is not a day goes by that I don't think about him and I miss him terribly. I am trying to follow his wishes by passing on the hunting opportunities. For those that still have your dad spend every moment you can with them because you never know how long you will have them. thanks for making the trip and you guys are welcome anytime.

Mine from last week doesn't count.. lol Sent from my SM-S127DL using Tapatalk

happy birthday tree,, glad i was part of the keep it a secret team. LOL

generally speaking overnight camping is not permitted on most gamelands in pa. state forest and national forest lands generally allow overnight camping in designated areas. best advice is call the regional office in the zone you plan to hunt and talk to them. depending on the area you should be able to find a private campground within a reasonable driving distance to the area you intend to hunt. where are you guys planning on going in pa?

I would agree that the issue probably lies in the gfi. If you have power on the load out side of the gfi I would then suspect you have a dropped neutral. When you looked at the outlet or switches did they wrap the screws or use those push in holes in the recepticals and switches? If they used the push ins and you have power on the load side of the gfi I would bet you have a loose wire at 1 of those devices. Also may want to check all the breakers and make sure they didn't stack 2 commons on 1 breaker. Not sure if this helps but good luck and if you are unsure of anything seek experienced help. Sent from my SM-S127DL using Tapatalk

Well not live from the water as it was pretty hectic on the boat but we spanked them on erie yesterday morning out of geneva ohio. Worked all day Monday putting up another pole barn. Drove to geneva ohio Monday night arriving at the hotel at 130 am ( we had a 2 hr. Meeting in filmore NY on the way to ohio) Up at 430 to get licenses,ice,food etc. At the dock by 615. We were supposed to be having a meeting with our everlast metal reps...lol. We ran about 9 miles NW of the harbor in 2-3 foot side chop as we had a stiff sw wind. Turned the boat e/se and tried to set lines....tried as in we couldn't get 3 lines in for the first 2 hours and by 930 we were really about limited out. We saved our last 3 on the limit for bigger eyes and ended up with a couple bonus steelies. We were back at the dock by 11 and sent the fish to be cleaned and headed to a local diner/bar for lunch and our meeting before heading back. Our 4 packed gallon bags of cleaned fillets and cheeks were delivered to the bar for us and we were back on the road by 3 and home by 7pm. It was fun as I got to help set lines, hand off fishing rods,, net fish, and I even got to reel in 2 water filled pillow cases...I mean walleye. Sent from my SM-S127DL using Tapatalk

while I know this question was directed at Bill I will give my honest 2 cents worth for a response. when we were doing the trap and transfer here in pa back in the late 70's, 80's and releasing birds into areas where there were small populations or no populations it seemed that the "new" resident bird numbers increased very quickly. the numbers seemed to explode to the point where just about every woodslot had birds. I know up along the lakeshore counties of NY the numbers did the same fast increase. It seems the numbers reach a maximum carrying capacity ( I don't believe its food carrying capacity, its more population driven within the species) once they plateau they seem to stay at remarkably high levels for 8-10 years and then the numbers drop back to a lower level. so once the numbers fall back any fluctuation in flock numbers is far more noticeable and along the same lines when you have fewer hens nesting and you have a bad nesting season resulting in a poor hatch it is once again more noticeable. also I believe that the poult recruitment is much more successful with 2 +yr old hens -vs- the 10-13 month old jennys it just seems the older hens are far more successful in raising a clutch of poults. We all know that no matter what late spring early to mid summer weather plays a huge role in nesting, the weather we are forecasted for here in PA and NY this weekend will certainly be detrimental to any of the poults that have hatched in the last 3 weeks. with all that said,,,, what has changed in my eyes.... 1. hunter numbers,, with all of the hunting shows, forums, everyone wants to be a celebrity channel (youtube) there are FAR higher numbers of hunters now hunting turkeys than when I started hunting them 43 years ago. higher numbers of hunters generally equates to more pressure which can cause birds to be less vocal and certainly less responsive to calling. As I have always said the birds go 11 months and hear very little hen talk on a daily basis, then they wake up one morning on their favorite roost branch and it sound to them like there is a hen behind every tree it doesn't take them long to figure it out. 2. habitat, its remarkable how much the habitat has changed everywhere in the last 20 years, there are hundreds of thousands of acres that used to be good wildlife habitat that is now housing developments, malls, parking lots, business building sites. farms are being sold weekly to only become housing tracts. 3. food, with the demand in lumber and people wanting all the $$ they can get from their land the oaks, beech, wild cherry trees are being hauled out of the woods at alarming rates. these are not fast growing softwoods these hardwood mast bearing trees can take 10-15 to even 20 years to produce a mast crop. current farming practices are NO comparison to those of 20-30 years ago, the way the land is managed and crops. The harvesting machines of today leave very little spilled food while harvesting... rotation crop fields are being turned into orchards, vineyards, nursery stock fields. 4. Predators.. as we all know the predator numbers have increased 10 fold in the past 30 years, when I was a kid and ran coon hounds a 6 coon night was talked about for weeks, today you can do that in 1 field.. skunks, possums, yotes, fox, fisher, bobcat, mink, weasels can and will raid nests, kill poults and will even kill adult birds given the opportunity. these are all predators we can help control. hawks, owls, eagles, we can not control legally but they are certainly killing poults if given the opportunity.

recap of this mornings hunt and some history with this bird. as I said I made a not normal for me mental mistake on this bird back on 5/13 when he bought my fly down and soft yelps hook line and sinker and knowing this bird has been hounded relentlessly since youth season I knew I should of got across the little part of the field to get closer to the outside corner and roll of the hill because my sixth sense told me he is going to come down that edge drop down the hill then come up the finger of the field I was at the end of and when he didn't see a hen there he was NOT going to come in.....had I scurried over and set up I would of had him dead at 25 yards. Monday I heard him and played cat and mouse over 2 miles and I swear he was part road runner because i could not get ahead of him., at 10 am. I unloaded the gun and took off for the vehicle to try and get around him and by the time i got over there he was another 1/2 mile farther on the power line. Tuesday i got in super early and when he gobbled he was almost a mile away across the big hollow so off I was and just simply could not get caught up to him. Wednesday he was back in our playground but he somehow got around me and out to the hens and then he off to the races again. today, walking in at 230 am was like walking out at 6 am,,, man it was bright! I had a hunch that today the back finger of that field above the river was going to be the spot. it took a long time to walk in there when using the periodic clouds to block out the full moon as I knew I was going to be in with the hens. Finally got settled up against a double trunk apple tree on the outside corner. It was pretty light when I heard the first gobble WAAAYYY behind me and i knew immediately it was not road runner, 5 minutes latter a gobbble WAAAAAAAY out front and across a 80 foot deep ravine with a big creek at the bottom. As much as I didn't want to do it as I had hens right above me in a oak tree 10 yards away I knew i had to let him know there was a hen there waiting on him. so I hammered a flydown cackle into some short hard cutts. man did the trees light up around me with one hen being extremely harsh with her response. He gobbled again from the same spot and as the hens all calmed down some when he gobbled a few minutes later I could barely hear him but knew he was on the ground and on my side of the creek. he gobbled 3 more times the last just before entering the field directly across from me, the one really sassy hen was coming down the edge looking for that first hen to talk and she was going through the entire hen vocabulary from putts to kee kee's, purrs....and she was getting close now at less that 5 yards. He had worked across the field half way and was now at 25 yards but in full strut with nothing but air between us and he finally broke strut as the hen is now 5 feet from my right knee, my thumb was already on the safety so when he broke strut I eased the safety off settled the crosshairs on his eye and it was over. he was a lightweight at 16 lbs, sported a paintbrush 10.5" beard and 1 3/16 needle sharp spurs,,,,,and 6 copper plated #5 shot in his left thigh and lower left breast muscle. I put a jr. hunter and his dad on a pair of 2 year olds yesterday morning and.........well lets just say the JR hunter learned there is way more area around a turkeys head than on a turkeys head as he promptly missed him with a scoped 20 gauge at a whopping 7 yards... I told them how to walk in there, what tree to set up on, where the birds were going to come from......I just failed to tell him to let the bird walk out 20 yards into the field before trying to shoot him LOL. at least it was an absolute clean miss. I put those birds to bed tonight and tomorrow morning its Jason's turn at trying one of them, while he is trying those birds I am scouting for a back up for him or intell for next year.

Finally after being under my skin since I made a mental mistake on this bird the day after I killed my wv/pa double and for the last 6 days playing chess he made a mistake. Story later. Sent from my SM-G930VL using Tapatalk