reeltime

yup every year, going to hunt here saturday then hustle gavin back so I can try to get a bird in ny on sunday gonna have our 2 grandkids and my buddy with his daughter here at camp for saturday. 2 girls ages 8 and 10 and gavin is 13 so it should be fun.

got out at first light and heard some gobbles, back to camp ate and we went back out to sight scout at 8 am and saw a decent number of gobblers and a silly amount of jakes. back to camp and spent 6 hours on the backhoe repairing flood damage to my driveway and then it was off for an afternoon scouting trip and more jakes and a couple new gobblers found. 2 of which are certainly on the late season list, just came in from outside and heard 1 gobbler down the hollow from camp so we will see how scouting goes in the morning but I would guess its going to be cold again.

not sure paula, the rehabber said that they eye does not show signs of trauma but it will not open its left eye. she said sometimes it takes a while for them to fully recover from head trauma. I hope it gets well enough to release back into the wild and more importantly where I found it on the road.

Talked to the rehabber thos morning , she said the owl is still not opening its left eye but is moving around in the cage good and has gobbled up the mice she puts in with it. Sent from my SM-G930VL using Tapatalk

Found this feathered critter on my way home from work Friday night. at first thought it was someone's hat laying in the road but when I rolled the window down I realized it was an owl. Picked it up to lay it over in the orchard but realized it was still alive, obviously injured. Hopped back in the truck and headed to the house. It pretty quickly got its feet to my pinky finger and wow for a little bird they have some powerful grip. Made a call to secure possession approval and once to the house we put a box together with a towel in the bottom and I put a Y stick in there for it to perch on. It was pretty groggy and we had to pry its feet off my finger but it was in the box for the night. Early Saturday AM I got up to scout for turkey and when I looked in the box the owl was looking back at me. It made no attempt to move and appeared to have issues on its left side. I called the dec rehabber and met her at 10:30. After filling out the paperwork we talked for a few minutes and when I told her IF it can be rehabbed I want assured that you are going to take it back and release it where I found it. She kinda looked at me like I had 3 eyes. But I reiterated that it was to be released back where I found it or I would retain possession and find someone else that would. Hope it makes it, it has a chance now and it certainly wouldn't have laying in the road. Sent from my SM-G930VL using Tapatalk

I finally convinced judy that we needed to can some venison this year. I told her that she will have to get over the "look" of the canned meat but assured her that if she would just try it she would like it. we canned my pa buck after we got back to ny. she tried it and after killing my ny buck she wanted it all canned. its disappearing quick. yes it takes a little more work but there is no way you will ever have more tender meat, you can do chunked, steaks, and even burger.

i put a 2.5 bushnell scope on my dedicated 835 25 years ago and never once have I regretted doing so. with the barrel work I did and choke and shell combo's I started tinkering with it was out of necessity as the pattern was so tight, still shooting a tight pattern but now it greatly helps me to look at their legs to see if its got decent enough hooks to make me release the safety.

More dinners. Didn't keep any over 12 inches kept my 50 between 10 and 12 Sent from my SM-G930VL using Tapatalk

Some guys will move rating on your spot lol Sent from my SM-G930VL using Tapatalk

as others have said be out just before daylight to listen and leave the calls at home. while you may have company on the youth weekend and I love hearing others getting kids involved it is amazing the lack of participation the youth spring season generates. with that being said scout your competition as much as the birds, what I mean is pay attention to other vehicles in the area. Have more than 1 bird located, having multiple properties is beneficial also. not sure what your work schedule is but scouting later in the morning is also valuable intel to keep in your back pocket, some birds can be very patternable in their daily travels. knowing where the birds will end up late morning can be priceless info. depending on the youths experience in hunting situations would let me know how we set up and or what our set up would be. I know here in NY the min age is 12 unlike the PA youth of basically no age restriction. I had my grandkids on gobblers by age 6 so I had no choice but to use a pop up blind. I would strongly suggest an enclosed blind, movement is the #1 biggest reason gobblers live another day. their eyesight is unmatched in the game animals we hunt here. unlike deer with turkeys you can set up a blind in the center of a plowed field and turkeys will walk right up to it while deer on the other hand wont come within 200 yards of it. I still laugh about the first time Judy went on a fall hunt with me, I set up the blind on a logging road ( I had broke the birds up the evening prior) lol her first turkey experience in the blind was when a bird pooped on the blind as I had set up right under one bird. called a bunch in and shot a gobbler that was with the group. but I kept calling and ended up having a hen walk right up and she actually stuck her head in the window of the blind, Judy's eyes were as big as silver dollars. it was all I could do not to bust out laughing as that hen looked us over for about 30 seconds before turning around to continue feeding. If you have not done so yet get the youth on the pattern board, you have to pattern the gun the youth hunter will use. once the gun pattern is verified its time to set up another pattern board and have the youth set up the way your plan to hunt is. what I mean is if your just going to set up against a tree with a shooting aid ( mono or bi pod ) have them shoot off of that. if your going with a blind have that set up and shoot from the seat with the mono, bi pod or caldwell field pod ( that is what I started my youth hunters with) one thing to make sure you tell the youth if your leaning against a tree is to make sure your back and shoulder is away from the tree before you shoot. As far as the actual hunt goes if you can roost the bird that can be a benefit. if you know where the gobbler has been roosting you want to be in and set up before daylight. while a turkey seems to have poor night vision they still have superb hearing, they are used to hearing night critters walking through the woods at night so try and mimic a deer walking. I do not use a light, I move slowly and pay attention to what my feet feel in regards to sticks and rocks. If the gobbler has hens with him in the area "if" you can set up between them even better and if you KNOW what trees the hens are in and there is enough distance from the gobbler you can flush the hens out away from the gobbler. ( I do this as a last resort ) once the woods start waking up and depending on how far from the gobbler you are and how you are set up will dictate your next move. If you are certain no birds are within sight of you and he is within hearing distance or if you are inside a blind I do a wing flydown and right into a yelp cluck purr series, I wanna be the first vocal hen on the ground. I have had a lot of gobblers pitch out and glide right in landing within 30 yards of me. if you have to work the bird, his answers will dictate what and how you should be calling, we all love hearing a gobbler blowing the leaves off the trees with thunderous gobbles as they come in but the more you make that bird gobble the better your chances are its going to attract unwanted attention (other hunters) and it doesn't matter whether its private or public land. decoys, youth hunts are about the only time I use a decoy, the youth seasons are earlier and gobblers are very receptive to coming to a decoy. the decoys provide a distraction and gives the bird something to focus on, you still have to time your movements to when the gobblers head is shielded by his fan or behind a tree. it also often times focuses your shot opportunities to a smaller area. good luck and be safe.

Not gonna starve. Sent from my SM-G930VL using Tapatalk

Here's what the Greatest Generation thinks about this: "I talked to a man today I talked with a man today, an 80+ year old man. I asked him if there was anything I can get him while this Coronavirus scare was gripping America. He simply smiled, looked away and said: "Let me tell you what I need! I need to believe, at some point, this country my generation fought for... I need to believe this nation we handed safely to our children and their children... I need to know this generation will quit being a bunch of sissies...that they respect what they've been given...that they've earned what others sacrificed for." I wasn't sure where the conversation was going or if it was going anywhere at all. So, I sat there, quietly observing. "You know, I was a little boy during WWII. Those were scary days. We didn't know if we were going to be speaking English, German or Japanese at the end of the war. There was no certainty, no guarantees like Americans enjoy today. And no home went without sacrifice or loss. Every house, up and down every street, had someone in harm's way. Maybe their Daddy was a soldier, maybe their son was a sailor, maybe it was an uncle. Sometimes it was the whole ---- family...fathers, sons, uncles... Having someone, you love, sent off to war...it wasn't less frightening than it is today. It was scary as ----. If anything, it was more frightening. We didn't have battle front news. We didn't have email or cellphones. You sent them away and you hoped...you prayed. You may not hear from them for months, if ever. Sometimes a mother was getting her son's letters the same day Dad was comforting her over their child's death. And we sacrificed. You couldn't buy things. Everything was rationed. You were only allowed so much milk per month, only so much bread, toilet paper. EVERYTHING was restricted for the war effort. And what you weren't using, what you didn't need, things you threw away, they were saved and sorted for the war effort. My generation was the original recycling movement in America. And we had viruses back then...serious viruses. Things like polio, measles, and such. It was nothing to walk to school and pass a house or two that was quarantined. We didn't shut down our schools. We didn't shut down our cities. We carried on, without masks, without hand sanitizer. And do you know what? We persevered. We overcame. We didn't attack our President, we came together. We rallied around the flag for the war. Thick or thin, we were in it to win. And we would lose more boys in an hour of combat than we lose in entire wars today." He slowly looked away again. Maybe I saw a small tear in the corner of his eye. Then he continued: "Today's kids don't know sacrifice. They think a sacrifice is not having coverage on their phone while they freely drive across the country. Today's kids are selfish and spoiled. In my generation, we looked out for our elders. We helped out with single moms who's husbands were either at war or dead from war. Today's kids rush the store, buying everything they can...no concern for anyone but themselves. It's shameful the way Americans behave these days. None of them deserve the sacrifices their granddads made. So, no I don't need anything. I appreciate your offer but, I know I've been through worse things than this virus. But maybe I should be asking you, what can I do to help you? Do you have enough pop to get through this, enough steak? Will you be able to survive with 113 channels on your tv?" I smiled, fighting back a tear of my own...now humbled by a man in his 80's. All I could do was thank him for the history lesson, leave my number for emergency and leave with my ego firmly tucked in my rear. I talked to a man today. A real man. An American man from an era long gone and forgotten. We will never understand the sacrifices. We will never fully earn their sacrifices. But we should work harder to learn about them..learn from them...to respect them."

there will be plenty of trout as long as streams don't get blown out from heavy rains.

could be the delay in shipping units to NY was because with the units in "storage" for who knows how long they wanted them all tested prior to shipment. I would think its rather foolish to send delicate equipment with integral moving parts with lots of plastic, rubber, neoprene parts/tubing that age of those products can cause failures. better they are tested/fixed/retrofitted/ whatever where they currently are than after they are moved into an area of high infection numbers. getting techs, parts, repair equipment into these contaminated areas would be a logistical nightmare.

Well only 1 gobbler hollaring on the flats this morning. Not enough time to head up on the hill as we need to be on the road back by 9. At least I have a starring point if I get back for spring gobbler. Sent from my SM-G930VL using Tapatalk

There is very little ammo ar the Indianapolis Indiana cabelas store as of 8 PM last night. The only guns they had were some high end bolt action rifles. Other than that pretty slim pickings. Just about to head out to listen for turkeys. Sent from my SM-G930VL using Tapatalk

carlson makes a decent choke, I set up a 20 ga. auto loader with a carlson choke partnered with federal heavyweight 7 in 2 3/4 inch shells for the grandkids to use and it is a deadly combination out to 45 yards. not sure what you are shooting for a gun. shells can get pricey, its all in what you are looking at achieving with a pattern and budget. my suggestion is to start at 20 yards, and all my patterning is done off a bench or my caldwell field pod. I used a 4x4 sheet of plywood as the backer, then use the white side of christmas wrapping paper for the pattern paper. put a 3" circle in the center then a 10 inch circle from the center. one thing to remember is that you are not now wing shooting, you are shooting by sighting, same trigger control as shooting a rifle, sight, breathing control, slowly squeeze the trigger. not the point and slap the trigger like wing shooting. when I start on a fresh set up I start with just regular small game loads, this is just simply to see where my point of impact is compared to point of aim. sometimes if its not real easy to see where the majority of the shot hit I will shoot again and should be able to see where the majority of the pattern landed. if using rifle sights or optics I move my aiming point and then replace the paper with a new sheet and shoot again. once the pattern is centered in the 10 inch circle I move the target back to 30 yards. and try it again with regular loads to see if the pattern stayed centered. if the pattern stayed centered its now time to start trying the actual hunting loads. you can not "assume" the hunting loads are going to pattern the same nor that the point of impact will be the same. You have to verify where your pattern is going to be hitting and whether or not its even an acceptable pattern ( even with no big gaps in coverage) and what will be your max effective range is going to be so you know how close you need to let the bird get. can it get costly ? yup, but we owe it to the game we hunt to try an execute a quick ethical kill. far more gobblers are wounded and lost because people do not pattern their gun and or take shots beyond their guns effective range which with an unmatched shell/choke/gun/sight combo could be as less as 30 yards. yes 1 pellet in the right spot can kill a bird but if that is what your counting on your going to wound and or miss far more than you will kill. as far as boots go I wear uninsulated lacrosse boots that are a half size over my common shoe size. I like a soft crepp sole as I do not ever use a light and I can feel sticks and rocks as I am trying to ease into my set up locations. I like a rubber boot so I can tuck my pantlegs in and not get soaked walking through tall grass later in the season. and not worry about wet feet crossing a stream. there are a ton of turkey vests out there, you don't need to spend a small fortune right off the bat. I will say that the best investment I ever made for comfort was a small folding leg stool to set on, it only elevates me 3-4 inches but I can and have sat at the base of a tree for hours in comfort.

happy birthday ya ole perch jerker

a little late to the party on this thread but will offer some hopefully helpful advice. proper preparation is essential in all aspects for a successful hunt, can someone just blunder into a bird occasionally....sure but to consistently kill turkeys you have to be properly prepared. prior to the actual hunting season beginning. - scouting, probably one of the most overlooked key details and the first steps in a successful hunt. learning the lay of the land and where gobblers roost, where they go after fly down, where they are willing to travel and what areas they avoid. doesn't matter how good of a caller you are or think you are if a gobbler doesn't feel comfortable going into an area he is most likely NOT going into that area. set up where you can see a bird approaching, give yourself space from the lip of a ridge. you don't want to be 10 yards from the lip of a ridge when the gobbler pokes his head up to look for the hen that was talking. know where there are obstructions, creeks, thick brush areas, swamps, this will aid in set up locations, I have seen gobblers refuse to walk over a 6 inch log across a logging road but I have had gobblers fly across a creek to get to the hen calling, heck they are turkeys they do what they want when they want. keep your locations that you find to yourself, don't plaster locations all over the internet or to other hunters in the area, there are tons of cyber scouters out there just trolling for "free" info. you may not even realize it at the time but in due time where you often times never saw a vehicle all of a sudden there will be multiple vehicles there every morning. Remember as well as a new turkey hunter not only may you be ruining your spot you scouted but others that have hunted there for years and kept their location quiet. Also something folks don't think about is the "Anti" hunters, don't for a minute think that where they can ( on public land) where spot burning has happened that they will not go there to intentionally try to disrupt or ruin hunts by hiking, jogging, mountain biking etc. second most over looked but very important step is your gun, choke, shell, sights set up. all guns are NOT equal, even same make and model will throw different patterns with all components being the same, you have to KNOW what your gun does and where the pattern goes ( POA vs POI ) point of aim -vs- point of impact. i have seen POI a foot or more off from POA. If POA and POI are not equal you will need to install some type of sighting system, either rifle sites, red dot, scope or whatever. Do NOT be the " I will just remember to aim high and to the left" guy. there are lots of choke and shell options out there to try. most important is to know your limits and stay within those limits. chokes and shells over the last 25 years since all the aftermarket chokes hit the scene and custom ammo are light years ahead of where things were when I started chasing these crazy birds. my current set up is a comp-n-choke xxfull with federal 3.5 tss 7 shot through my own custom polished 835 mossberg topped with a 2.5 bushnell scope. I have ran a scope the last 30 years and would never go back to a bead sight for spring gobbler. Being confident in your rig is important, you will hear people all the time saying where they missed ( high, left, right, low) and unless they saw the pattern hit a particular place they are just guessing, and often times their "miss" isn't a miss at all just not an instant death, just the bird runs or fly's off to die later. Everyone misses, things happen, but by waiting for the right shot presentation before easing off the safety stacks the odds in your favor and sometimes keeps you from pushing the envelope. calling and set up- calling is probably one of the most over hyped aspects of turkey hunting. while there may be a time and a place for the " on stage calling" the loud aggressive repetitive calling,,,, you will kill far more birds with soft subtle calling and more importantly realism to your calling. you don't hear live birds walking through the woods yapping their brains out, often times you can barely hear the birds flock talking. while there may be a time and a place for loud calling when trying to fire up a hen most times more natural calling volumes work better. Be aware of your surroundings and other wildlife, I have been tipped off by an approaching silent gobbler by song birds, squirrels, crows, and even deer, they have also tipped me off to an approaching hunter as well. there seems to be a trend over the last 10 years for gobblers to be less vocal, I believe a lot of it is due to predation, whether people want to believe it or not but coyotes are extremely efficient turkey killers and as the populations increase gobblers have learned they die if they run their mouth too much. I could type for hours about calling and setups but don't want to bore everyone. set up should be where you scouted and know the birds are comfortable being there, pick a large tree or a uprooted tree to set against. set up defensively! no matter where you are ALWAYS think the approaching sound can be another hunter trying to sneak in on your set up. set where you can see another hunter or a bird approaching. IF its another hunter call out as soon as you realize that its a hunter, don't worry about screwing up the hunt the other hunters approaching has probably already ruined the hunt. I can not stress safety enough especially if you decide to use some kind of a tom/jake decoy, my self personally the crap I have seen people do over the last 42 years of spring gobbler seasons I will NEVER have a "legal" bird decoy set up anywhere near me. in closing one other very important thing is IF someone takes you to "their" spot, even if its on state land DO NOT go back there on your own unless they offer, don't even ask because that just puts them on the spot, and while they cant "lock down" a public land spot, they knew that spot, have probably killed birds there and were being a nice person taking u there so accept the lessons learned and move on to find your own spot.

thanks all, just got home from working. hope i didn't miss anyone's text messages. no pole varnishng, but did walk out on the ice for a couple hours mid day, even with my float suit on i didn't feel real comfortable so went back to work. thanks again every one.

Never could get those accelerators to shoot accurately out of any of our pre 64 model 70's. And yes the plastic buildup was terrible. They made them in 30 30 also and neither lasted long in production iirc simply accuracy failure was the end of life for them Sent from my SM-G930VL using Tapatalk

make sure to check the tread pattern, unless they changed they used to only have basically a tennis shoe tread pattern and were certainly not the best for trying to walk in snow/ice.

lol. fat finger typing error. no button heads for me.

per Judy our 2 vacuum sealers wont see much use anymore. finally after 16 years i talked her into cold packing venison and now she wants very little going into the freezer. Actually both buck I shot this year are in canning jars and are dwindling fast. lol

i hope so, i do worry that they will be disappointed when they embark on their own. they have all been very successful while hunting.