WNY Bowhunter

It ain't easy, I promise you that...

I worked one for an hour and a half this morning. He gobbled 80-100x but the woods he was in was super thick from being logged a couple of years ago. He was hot to trot and totally digging the seductive calling from my crystal but never came closer than 50 yds from dad. We moved on him 3 times and I thought his feathered azz was ours on the last set-up but it wasn't to be. You can still fill tags during the late season, all it takes is finding the right bird!!!

The banded gobbler that I killed this year tortured me with that sound for over an hour...

You guys had a hell of a season indeed!!! Nice job posting those pics... .

No, you are correct...weight them just as they were before you killed them...guts/feathers and all. The point trying to be made here is that most people weigh their birds on innaccurate scales (bathroom scales) and the weights get over-estimated. Congrats to your father on his big gobbler. Make sure to post the pics when you get the process figured out.

Come to think of it, a friend of the family killed a monster of a bird back in the early 90's that was weighed in our shop. That bad boy tipped the scales @ 25 lbs (gutted) and had 6 beards!!! The family record still stands@ 23lbs though...

We've killed over 130 longbeards in my family (big family) over the past 25 years and the heaviest gobbler that's been weighed in on our scale at the butchershop is 23 lbs. We've had a bunch of 22 pounders brought in over the years but breaking that 23lb. mark hasn't happened yet.

Spit-n-drumming...you know, the PPFFFFTTVVVRRRMMMMM sound you hear when he's getting close!!!

That's a tough one...sounds like an old bird that knows how to play the game. He wants the hen to come to him just as nature designed it to work. All you can really do is get his attention with a few calls and then sit back, be patient and keep an eye out for him sneaking in to check you out. A gobbler's mood can change from day to day, maybe tomorrow he'll mess up. Good luck!

Congrats, that's a nice one too!!!

1.) Resize the photos to around 600 X 800 or so 2.) Upload to a photohosting site. I use photobucket... http://photobucket.com/ 3.) After uploading, right click on the photo that you want to post and copy the URL address 4.) Start a new thread on here and click on the little square block underneath the smiley face. Paste the URL that you copied. Another way to do it is type out and paste the URL in the middle between the sets of brackets.

I'm fairly confident that your second bird WAS NOT a two year old!!! :D

Here's an example of why you can't always go by spur length when attempting to age a gobbler. It's a good method to get a ball-park etimate, but it's not 100% accurate... http://huntingny.com...-great-weekend/ This bird was was banded in february of 2007. At the time, he had 1 3/16" spurs meaning he was likely a 3 year old. When I killed him this spring, 5 years later, he had a 1 1/4" spur on one leg and 3/4" (broken) on the other. Conventional thinking would be that he was a 3-4 year old turkey. In reality, he was 8 years old!!! His spur had only grown 1/16" in 5 years time!!! You would have thought that he would have been packing 1 1/2 to 1 3/4" hooks at that age. Apparently, he was genetically programed for spur growth. He was certainly a survivor, a grizzled old warrior of the turkey world.

For the most part this is true: 2 years olds in my area generally average around 20 lbs, have 9-10" beards and 3/4-1" spurs. Just like with deer, genetics will determine spur and beard length in a gobbler. Next time you kill a 2 year old hold his beard up to a light and check out the tip...it will have the same orangish tint that can be seen in my photo.

X2!!! Those big dumb birds with their inferior little walnut-sized brains sure can be a royal pain in the butt to put a tag on... . Stick with it man!!!

I put up three cams on saturday. Hopefully, I'll have something good when I check them next weekend.

Here's a photo of what I was referring to in my previous post: The beard on the left is from friday's bird. Notice all of the orange coloration on the tips = 2 year old. The beard on the right is from one of last year's birds. He had 1.25" spurs and was definately 3-4 years old. Notice there is no orange tint at all beacuse his beard has had an extra year to grow and the intitial "jake tip" portion of his beard has been worn off.

If you are undecided about a turkey's age...hold it's beard over a light source you can instantly tell whether he is two years old or if he's 3 years plus. On a jake, the tips of the beard strands will have a distinct orange-amber color to them due to a lack of melanin. At two years old, the beard hasn't grown long enough yet to wear these "jake tips" off and they still show the orange coloration. By the time he is three years old, a gobbler has grown over 15" beard and these amber tips will have broken off. Thus, a turkey with a 10" beard with orange tips is a two year old. If you have a 10" beard where the tips are jet black when viewed over a light...he is at least three years old. This may sound like a load of BS (I didn't make it up) but it you candle the beards of a bird with 1.25" spurs versus one with 3/4" spurs the contrast is extremely evident.

It's seems to be hit or miss this year...one spot will have a bunch of birds and other areas where you traditionally see them are empty?

Thanks. One of my uncles tagged out this morning too...nice triple bearded bird. It's been a heck of a week for turkey hunting with 6 longbeards down for myself/family members since last saturday!!!

Best of luck!!!

Thanks. It was a pretty good week...3 longbeards down in 7 days!!!

Decided to go for broke this AM and get right into where these birds have roosted everytime I've hunted this place. I ended up in the middle of three gobblers. This one was roosted behind me...I actually walked right under him this AM!!! He was so close that I didn't even sit down for fear of spooking him. He was the first to fly down @ 5:45 and proceeded to circle around to meet up with his two buddies. I didn't have a great shot (had to buck a little beech brush) but it was the only one that I was going to get. The hevi-shot pulled through for me again. No much of a story really...no calling involved...just knew where they've been roosting and where they've been going to. 17.5 lbs (all "rutted" out with no breast left) 10 3/8" beard (2 year old with lots of orange/amber color on the tips) spurs were 1" & 3/4" (broken tip)

Another one of my uncles finally connected this morning on the bird that he's been chasing all week: 19 lbs, 1 1/8 & 1 3/16" spurs and 10.5" beard. Now, that's a paintbrush!!! I had two gobbling on the roost within 60 yds. and a deer started snorting and they shut up. Don't know if they ever flew down or not?

Looks like a 100% wild smoky-gray hen to me. Don't think I've ever seen one from NY before?