WNY Bowhunter

Thanks. Used to have what...lots of turkeys?

Yes, my friends are headed back in October to bowhunt. The prices are very reasonable...

Well, I'll start off by saying I was the only person out of six that didn't kill a bird...but, I did call a few gobblers into gun range and had a blast doing it. The weather was a lot better than last year and the amount of gobbling was unbelievable but the birds were henned up and the terrain made it tough to get them in. There were a ton of jakes too so next year should be awesome!!! Called this one in for my dad on day 2... The following day I called in a longbeard for my wife and she ended up missing due to a poor setup on my part. The following day I arrived back in camp around 11:00 all beat down and tired after a four hour stand off with a gobbler (should have killed him) to find seven jakes in the field out back. We quickly got around on them and coaxed them into range and she popped one after he seperated from the others. Not a longbeard, but a fun hunt none the less. My buddies birds... Few sheds we picked up...

We "rented" a 2,000 acre farm for the first five days. Other than that, it's total DIY...the landowner just turns us loose and we do out own thing. My dad and I have made a couple of trips to Daniel Boone National Forest...lots of other people had the same idea... A KY nonresident license/tags cost $215. The two we killed last year were studs...mine was 24#, 10.5" beard, 1 spurs and my wife's was 24.5#, 11" beard and 1 3/8" spurs. Here is hers... This year I'll kill any full fanned bird that comes in gobbling!!!

Thanks. There will six of us in camp. Last year we started out as the stereotypical "NY guys", I think they were a bit surprised to find out we were rednecks that could actually kill turkeys!!!

We are departing NY around 8:00 this evening to make the 687 mile trek to Hardinsburg, KY. It was quite a task getting all of the gear ready to go as my wife and I moved into our house this past fall and I had to remember where everything was. It sure takes alot of gear to kill a few birds!!! We should pull into camp around 8-9:00 tomorrow morning just in time to get out and do some last minute scouting. The weather is supposed to be nice and I'm hoping the KY gobblers will be lonely and ready to play!!!

Looks like you are gonna have an action packed opening morning. The birds in my end of the county are keeping a low profile.

I was just out driving around looking for turkeys...pulled the truck over at one spot to glass a woodline and instantly spotted bone sticking up in the air!!! It was a soggy 200 yd walk in my sneakers to recover it...

I would, but no Verizon service at the farm. I hope to post harvest pics / stories when we return. There are six of us going (including a buddy who is the state champion caller), hope we can kill a few of them out there!!!

Nope, 22 years of turkey hunting has taught me that nothing is a sure thing!!! Roosted definately aint't roasted as the saying goes. I am leaving to chase gobblers in KY next week, I wouldn't doubt that this field gets plowed up before the youth opener. Is so, we will have to get on him closer to his roosting area...

Haha. Usually I drink the even cheaper stuff...

If this guy keeps on doing what he's doing now he is gonna get a headache on 4/23! Love this spot, it's produced youth gobblers by 6:30 on opening morning for the past three years running... Neat pic with shed buck and longbeard in the background... Check the time stamps...gotta love those quick early spring NY weather changes!!!

The afternoon started off as a turkey scouting mission for the youth hunt. After a while my mind wandered off to sheds.I decided to follow some promising looking stuff along a creek that led into an open wet/marshy area boardered by fields. A local guy had found a really nice shed in one of these neighboring fields a few weeks back and I believed the other side was still nearby. Not too far into the marsh I found this guy. He would have been lower 130's had his brows not been busted... I didn't find the big shed or any others but had only walked the back edge, it was a great looking spot so I thought I would come back in a couple of days to look some more. I went back up the hill to check out a potential spot for the youth hunt. As I was cresting the hill a gobbler started hammering up above and there were a ton of tracks in the field too, just as I had hoped to see. On the way back through I walked through some thick "sheddy" looking brush at the upper end of the field to see if I could locate a shed or two. Almost to the end and Bingo!!! As I walked up it started looking bigger. To my surprise it was the other side of the big one the other guy picked up!!! There is a little squirrel damage but not too bad. This bad boy scores 64" with a 25" mainbeam...my new best 4-pt to date!!! The other guy's shed...

Put the finishing touches on this guy today...

I was bummed that I got rained out of today's planned shed hunt. We got a break in the rain around noon and I decided to go check some turkey cams. I parked the truck and headed down the hill through some thick pines on the side of the road and BOOM...there laid shed #13 and my biggest of the year. Looks like last year's...only 50 yds off the road...I've driven by it hundreds of times. It has some super mass and would have gone around 62" had the brow and G2 not been chewed on.

I felt kinda bad about it, but I'm sure it will happen again. Thankfully, my cousin was really understanding about the whole thing. I'm in the same boat with my bowkill from last fall...I decided to remount him on a different cape. The mount looks much better bow but it's not the deer that I killed.

Once the hide is removed from the deer it's susceptible to bacteria growth and once they get into the hair follicles the hair can pull free. The deer was killed in the afternoon on opening day and I caped it the following day and immediately put the hide in the freezer. There is a reason that taxidermists keep extra capes on hand...ruined capes happen.

Hevi #7's or Mag Blends!!!

I did not flesh or tan the hide myself, a local taxidermist did it. I did the tanning on my first two mounts with no issues. It is really a simple process if you have a fleshing machine.

Actually, I find it quite difficult to take good quality pics of a mount where everything is in proportion. I may be a bit biased, but...I believe my mounts are more realistic than what most people around here get back from their taxidermists. Honestly, most people don't know what to look for in a quality mount; if it resembles a deer they are happy with it. Not me...

Patches of hair were coming out...

I mounted my 6th and final deer from last season yesterday. Now, I just got to keep an eye on him while he dries and then do the finishing work... The pose we were going for... Unfortunately, the original cape starting slipping bad when I first attempted to do the mount a few weeks ago. I had to find a replacement cape that would match the light orangish color of the buck... Also, I remounted my October bow buck last weekend...

Nice!!! One nice young deadhead today...

I'm not ready to quit my day job just yet (unfortunately), but I do plan on taking in some deer this fall...

I took the puppy out for a few hours today... #8 was easy to spot out in the open: #9 was an oldie buried in the beanfield: