WNY Bowhunter

Thanks.

I'd put the buck in the trail cam pic at a bit ahead of average for June 8th. Some bucks start early and finish up early. Others come on strong at the end of July/early August. The tips of the tines closest to the beam and beams themselves are the last to finish growth...as long as they appear "bulby" they are still growing. I've been seeing a bunch of bucks around...only one was beginning to bulb into G3's but most older bucks that I've seen are forked at the G2's. Here's one from last year that is pretty average on his growth timeline. All dates are correct. Interestingly, this was during last year's drought. Hope he blows up this year...no pics of him since January.

No, most forms/manniken these days have preset eye sockets built into them. After you set the eye you build the brow area up with clay.

The eyes are the most important feature on a mount!

Thanks everyone!!! I have one more mount to do which will make #30 since November.

Ohio has a new line of wall pedestals out this year.

136 gross. Left g2 is 11". Also have his sheds from the previous year...50" jump from 2.5 to 3.5!!!

I recently finished up a demo mount for my shop. The rack came from a buck I found dead several years ago, the cape belonged to my mid-October bow buck from last season. I'm pretty happy at how he turned out...

I'm guessing mid-140's gross. I pulled cams in mid-Septemeber to move them other places so I never got any hard horned pics last fall. I'd say his bases are 4.5-5". Here he is in January. I've been watching him since he was a yearling 8-pt back in 2012. He seems to have a very small home range with a good amount of hunting pressure all around so he must have a nice little spot to crawl into during gun season.

That was with a bad drought last summer too...

With bases like that, he's a mature 4.5+ year old deer. Looking forward to see what he develops into! Here's a mid-May buck last year / what he turned into (5.5 yo). He's still alive...hoping he shows up on cam soon.

I shifted my efforts from the gobbler that I've been chasing for the past week and a half to a new one on the neighboring farm. He has been out here with 4 big jake's for the past several days. Saw him here last night. Yesterday's hunt indicated that he wasn't a big fan of calling. He's gobbled twice so far across the field. Gonna sit tight with no calling and hope the jake deke does the trick. The darn mosquitoes are terrible this morning! !!

My bird flew out of the roost with the other two hens and landed 250 yds down the field. I'll be waiting out there tomorrow morning. I watched him breeding a hen from my truck.

A hen flew down into the field 10 minutes ago. She came right to the dekes and is 10 yds from me calling. Just waiting on Mr. Longbeard to join her. He'd better hurry.

Well, roosted the tom that I've been chasing last night. He had three hens with him. Right now, I'm camped out in the plowed field below him. I killed a late season bird with this set up last year He just gobbled less than 100 yds away but hasn't gobbled much over the past few mornings. I'm probably not even going to call at him. I hope he comes down into the field early and the dekes do their job. I have to leave by 6:30 for work.

Me too. I use my crow call on nearly every hunt and always get responses if birds are in the area. 16 minutes to get him...

It seems redundant to say...but, congrats on another great gobbler! You and the bomber make it look so easy (I know it's the result of a lot of time in the field / scouting).

16 minutes to get him...

I'll be out after them til the end. Still have several LBs on the radar but none play by the rules. They're not public land birds but I guarantee will be just as tough to tag. Time to start hunting them like deer based on travel patterns. The hens are definitely heavy into the nesting cycle now.

Dang, awesome day for sure. Eastern NY seems to be the place to be for turkey hunting in the state.

Teamed up with dad this morning and called him in one of the birds he's been after. Best hunt of the year...five birds gobbling. Dad whacked him at 12 yds after he knocked the Jake deke off the stake.

The turkey master strikes again! Those birds don't have a chance when the bomber starts singing. Glad you don't hunt any of the areas I do!!! Congrats on the great season (as usual).

One down...one to go. I'm not giving up until I kill another one or noon on the 31st.

David Halloran Metal Mouth and Twisted Sister crystals. They're pretty much all I use.

Third time hunting this guy was the charm. He came very close to dying the first two times. Slipped in tight to his roosting area this morning...actually managed to set up right between him his hens. I could hear him drumming in the tree. The hens started tree talking...he flew down and came strutting into a load of mag blends @ 25 yds. Slumps over!!! On to #2. Even made it home in time to cook my wife a mother's day breakfast.