one hell of a hunt today

May 2, 2019

one hell of a hunt this morning in NY on one of my favorite ridges. Super quiet and the air was very still. The first gobble was almost 6AM. Moved up to within 150 yards Woods are wide open with no green up yet. 6 gobbles on the roost, and no response to a fly down. 15 minutes later the crow's startup, and they are coming my way. time passes and I get a consistent series of clucks straight out in front but beyond my sight line.

Two jakes approach and now answer calls like they mean it. Strutter stays back in and out of sight, definitely out of range. Jakes walk within 8 yards of me and stop to gobble close enough behind me that you can hear that croak in their gobble. Stutter spins in place does not advance. I make two really soft yelps and I get my ears blown off as they walked up to the tree behind me. Impressive as they sounded like mature birds. This goes on for 90 minutes as the jakes want that hen, and won't leave, the strutter won't move. Fourth time back and forth from out in front to behind me in this game, the stutter commits and I drop him at 25 paces. One jake runs off,. the other stands there and just gobbles. Had to yell, and thrown sticks at him to make him leave.

Odd bird, little over 17 pounds, no spurs, and three beards that two are broken off at 4.5" As I walked back to the truck after taking pictures, the two jakes were still gobbling until the rain kicked up and made for a wet mid-morning. Very fun and loud hunt, WIth the slow start of the opening ending up with gobbling right up till the noon fire whistle, it is a rather refreshing start of the season despite the lousy weather.