WNY Bowhunter

Congrats! It's been tough going so far. I only heard one distant gobble this morning. The woods were eerily quiet...

Awesome birds and nice shed too, congrats!

Congrats. I'm still working on #1...

Here are the pics... They ended up coming out below us. I got them very interested in the calling but not enough to leave their girlfriends. Round two in the morning!!!

Watched the two gobblers from these pics go in to the woods tonight at 7:40. They are right where they are supposed to be. It's gonna be a sleepless night for me!!! There is no other place in the world that I'd rather be in the morning, man I love it!!!

Just got in from my final preseason scouting trip and man am I jacked up to get out in the turkey woods with the shotgun in my hands. It's been a LONG 11 months since last season!!! First, I checked out the spot that I am hunting tomorrow morning...bingo...right where they have been for the past 4 mornings straight...roosted right on the gulley. I set a trail cam out up last week to try to monitor movement...ended up getting pics of a pair of longbeards with several hens on 3 of the past 5 mornings. They will have a surprise waiting for them in about 22 hours... Also checked out the farm where we killed the youth gobbler on saturday and there were several birds fired up in all directions!!! Good luck every one!!!

Well, I took a friend of mine's 12 year old son out this morning on his grandfather's farm. For the past years I had taken his older brother out for the youth hunt in this same location and we went two for two. I was really hoping to keep the streak alive today. Yesterday afternoon I set my blind up at the bottom of a gully that is a preferred roosting location. At first light a gobbler sounded off above us and then a couple more off to the left. They hit the ground and went silent. I called a little bit and got a response not too far above us. It wasn't long till we had a longbeard working in, strutting the entire way. He eventually spotted the jake decoy and made a b-line to it. As he made it into range he went behind a log and all we could see was his fan until he finally stepped out at 15 yds and Caled dropped the hammer at 6:27. What a fun hunt, and a great way to kick off the 2015 Season!!!

Yep, my crystal pot calls are pretty much all I use any more...

Thanks everyone!!! Can't wait to get back after them in the morning...

You weren't kidding. These are the only two 24+ pounders that I've ever had my hands on!!! Erin's bird is the overall biggest gobbler that I can remember seeing and the only true 11" beard...

Day Three: The morning hunt was a washout again and the afternoon was super windy... Day Four: The day dawned cool and clear...finally. Dad and I headed out to a nice looking area that we found the previous afternoon. The first gobble erupted in the flooded woods below us. We quickly set up on him and a hen started tree calling so we ditched that spot and headed up after another mouthy gobbler on the ridge above. We got set up on the ridge, I got him fired up with the crystal and he was on his way. Instead of coming down the ridge to dad he ended up coming up the gulley bank...saw dad's silhouette and vacated the scene without offering a shot. He was putting the whole way but I fired him up again, we moved on him but after a 45 minute battle a real hen showed up and took him away. Darn, so close!!! That afternoon the other group of guys hunting the farm left and Jeff invited us to stay at their camp to hunt the other side of the farm. That night I sat on the powerline with the binos in hopes of roosting some birds. The view: I ended up locating a gobbler with three hens in a greenfield about half a mile away... A trio of jakes arrived on the scene and ran of the longbeard. I watched where they went in and made plans for a last ditch effort in the morning... Day Five: We found that a flooded stream stood between us and the greenfield. After a little looking around we found a place shallow enough to cross and set up. The three jakes came out first, then the three hens pitched right out into the field. The jakes went to them a put on a show. The longbeard was MIA. After a half hour or so I called and a gobbler sounds off in the next field over. He came down to the other birds and the jakes started pushing him off the field. He circled around to our corner...saw the decoy...and started to cautiously strut in. He made it to 45-50 yds when the trio of bullies put an end to it and starting mobbing the decoy only 20 yds from dad. The longbeard stayed in the background...dad wanted him to be a little closer...after several minutes the jakes ran him the other way and it was over. It was a dishearting end to the hunt. After a 12 hour drive home, we we greeted with snow here in NY. Hopefully, it will not hinder things for saturday's youth hunt...

Day Two: It rained the entire day. Our morning hunt was a total washout. Later in the morning the rain cleared up for a little bit, we set up my Rhino blind in a beanfield that the birds had been frequenting around 11:30 and the three of us crammed into the blind knowing that the birds like to hit the fields during the raining weather. It wasn't long when a hen emerged right in front of us and started picked around. A few minutes later a fan appeared on the horizon about 120 yds out. I tried calling to him but he already had a girlfriend and payed no attention to us. We watched him out there for about and hour and a half before I decided it was time to take action. My dad stayed in the blind while Erin and I crawled out the back of the blind to attempt to get around him and get set up on the trail where I figured they would exit the field at (where I shot mine the previous day). After navigating through three hundred yards of the thickest clearcut, thorn infested jungle that I've ever been through, we managed to get where we needed to be. He was still in the same spot and as it turned out...had three hens. We watched him put on a show and breed one of the hens several times over the next hour and a half. Finally, the rain/thunder started to return and the breeding party made the way out of the field passing just out of range of dad in the blind. Things got suspenseful when they disappeared over a knoll in the field. A few minutes passed and finally the gobbler reappeared to our left heading down the trail. In the heat of the moment, Erin was able to make one heck of a shot just as he was about to step out of sight. The 20 gauge and Fed Heavyweight 7's leveled him. It was one of the best hunts I've ever been part of!!! This old boss gobbler was worth the wait: 24.5 lbs, 11" beard and 1 1/4, 1 3/8" hooks... Erin's first official limbhanger!!!

So... We arrived in KY around 3:00 (central time) on friday afternoon, meet with the property owner (Jeff), got settled into our camp, aka "the clubhouse" and discussed the opening morning game plan. At last light we attempted to roost a prospect for the morning hunt with no luck. Opening morning: Jeff arrived bright and early to show us around the property before sending us out on our own. We heard 6 different birds and decided to try to go after the nearest one in the bottoms below. As we were closing the distance, two birds gobbled just up the logging road causing us to hastily set up. They must have heard us scrambling around and went silent. The original bird went away gobbling and I believed he already had hens with him. We walked around a bit to see the property and headed back to camp. Around 11:00, my wife, my father and I headed back to the bottoms where we were early. We had only made it a short distance across the cornfield when I spotted two longbeards picking in the corner of the field right where we were headed to. I watched them for a couple of minutes until they headed down the trail where we were earlier. It was warming up quickly so we cut the distance in half and I tried some calling but got no response. We started down the trail, I hit the Halloran Metal Mouth and they thundered back below us only 40-50 yds away!!! To make a long story short...we went back and forth for two hours and after two different set ups we were at a standstill. Several times they were within 30 yds of my dad just gobbling and spitting-drumming away but just down over the ridge where we couldn't see them. After literally baking in the sun the entire time we were getting restless...it was time to make an aggressive move...I belly crawled down the roadway while dad kept them gobbling. Finally, I eased up to a small cedar and slowly raised up. I could make out a tail fan about 40 yds below in the shaded timber. As I was getting into position to shoot he went behind some trees for several minutes before reemerging. The Browning barked and bird #1 was down!!! He tipped the scales at a healthy 25 lbs (my new personal best), 10 3/8" beard and 1" spurs... First victim with the Metal Mouth... That afternoon we went back out but only saw a couple of hens.

Those are a couple of studs!!! My highest scoring bird was a double beard that I killed last spring... Here's an awesome triple bearded bird (28 total inches) that my uncle killed on the last day of season on 2013...

Dang it man, you are the gobbler king!!! I hope to kill a 24 pounder in KY this weekend...

In spirit of the upcoming season, I thought it would be cool to see everyone's overall best NY gobbler... Here's my biggest in 20 years of spring turkey hunting. I killed him in 2011 in the town of Urbana here in Steuben County. It was also one of my quickest hunts ever. I heard him gobble on the roost at 5:00...snuck in to within 50 yds of him...made a few soft calls...he hit the ground early and came strutting in and I was putting a tag on him at 5:30!!! 22.5 lbs (tied for my heaviest) 10 3/4" beard (my longest) 1 1/4" spurs (tied for my longest)

I've been waiting for this thread to appear. Congrats on the finds so far!

She has some swelled up teets...

Checked my turkey cam set up yesterday and found a whole bunch of pics of this breeding pair of coyotes (and no turkeys pics in the past several days). It's kinda cool to see them up close in the daylight but it will be super tough not to give 'em a dose of hevishot in a few weeks, especially if they screw of my turkey hunting!!! The male... You can see that she definately has a litter close by...

I have never used an owl hooter...but locate with a crow call from preseason scouting all the way through season. Once you hit the call in the morning and all of the real crows in the neighborhood respond to your calling then you can put the call away and listen for the gobbles.

My biggest trouble is trying to pry my wife out of bed when she says that she wants to go hunting in the morning...

Shed #11 belongs to this yearling buck with a cool little palmated rack...

That definately is a goofy rack!!!

#10 = MONSTER!!!

Mink.