The season opened May 1st here in NY and I was holding out on my favorite farm that I have been hearing 4 birds gobbling in and in a big block of hardwoods. I was planning on saving these birds for my dad as he has only killed 2 jakes and I had a feeling these were a bachelor group of longbeards and I would rather enjoy calling for him and watching his face then me pulling the trigger (he is a highschool tennis coach and gets one weekend to hunt in May). So Opening morning I decided to arrive early and wait in hopes to keep anyone else with permission to hunt elsewhere on the farm and not bump these birds on the roost. Thursday came and went and no one went in after them off the roost. Same with friday, so looking onto saturday, I was extremely excited!
Saturday morning came as three of us (cameraman, dad, and myself) got into the woods around 4:45. Thanks to the rain we have been getting we were able to slide closer and closer to their roost when at 5:15 the first gobble screamed out (pretty early!). They had changed locations from the previous 3 days of listening so we eased closer to them and were able to get about 125 yards from their bedroom. Long story short, the birds gobbled GREAT and we had 3 longbeards within 60 yards between 6:15 and 8:00am with heart pounding excitement. As we left around 8:30 we heard a "Hen" (definately a box call) and as we hit the edge of the woods, saw 3 guys walking in! Drive by this morning and a completely different vehicle is there!
Not mad one bit, but does anyone else have spots like this and just cant wait 2 more weeks when everyone is practically done chasing these birds? Me, I LOVE late season as a lot of people will hunt the first weekend and MAYBE the second weekend, then the place will be practically open. Only a select few die hards hunt later on when the birds are more skiddish, yet that is my favorite time to get after em!
Hope everyone is being safe and having success, let me know your thoughts!
