Done in NY

[njdevilsb]

The bird we had been trying to hunt all season has kind of disappeared for the most part.  A friend of my dad's has been talking about seeing a strutter with 4 jakes and some hens in the plowed field behind his house all season.  After not seeing anything on the farm we hunt Friday night, we decided to try this bird Saturday morning.  We had hunted this property the weekend before and had 4 birds hammering for 2 hours from 10:00 until noon, so we figured we might have some action.  We went to the area of this property that we had heard the gobblers the week before at about 4:40am, but we heard the birds gobbling right where the guy says he sees them.  We cut over through the woods and worked to the edge of the plowed field and struggled to find a place to setup.  After playing musical sit downs for about 15 minutes, my dad and I settled into our spots not a moment too soon.  About a minute after I got situated I see a hen come out of the woods about 200 yards out.  Soon after I could see a tail fan over top of a rise in front of me, in a similar area to where the hen came from.  We called lightly, did a little yelping, hoping to convince some of the birds to work our way.  Eventually I see a jake to my right.  He brings his 3 other buddies in to 15 yards and checks out of decoys, while the tom is hanging about 60 yards behind them on top of the hill strutting and gobbling, but not coming an inch closer.  One hen appeared in front of me, takes one look at the decoys, and turns around and goes back.  That was all the tom needed to see, and he followed right behind her.  He taunted me for over an hour, but never would come into range and eventually the whole flock worked out of sight and that was it for that day.  We knew he was aggressive as he was chasing the jakes around.

Since we knew where they came out the day before and that he was the dominant bird, we figured we'd get in real tight Sunday morning and put our strutter decoy out.  Getting so late in the season, we didn't have much to lose.  As we were walking in around 4:40am, he started on his own.  The whole time we were trying to set up, he was gobbling every 15-60 seconds.  We finally got all set up and did a few clucks to let them know we were there and just waited.  We could tell that the gobbles had hit the ground at about 5:15.  Soon after I see a hen come out, but she didn't pay attention to the decoys.  The tom has gone from gobbling non stop to not gobbling at all.  About 10 minutes after that, all I see is a red head and a tailfan coming up over the slight hill in front of me.  He got about 35 yards from the decoy, dropped strut and started doing the mean walk.  Once he got about 20 yards away, he knew something wasn't quite right and putted and turned to leave.  I don't know if he saw one of us or something about the decoys.  Since I was caught off guard when he came in, I didn't have my gun up yet.  Once he turned to leave, I slowly started bringing it up.  I decided just to get it to my shoulder quick and as I did that he started trotting.  I put the sights on him and pulled the trigger and missed and he took flight.  I racked another shell in, put the sight just in front of him, shot and dropped him out of the air.  He weighed 18lbs, had a 9" beard and 7/8" spurs. We had him in the truck on the way to breakfast before 6:00am.

After a tough season and putting in a lot of hours and hunting hard, it was a nice way to end off my season.  I ended up getting our 2 bird limit this year.  My dad still has one tag left.  We might get a chance to get out one more time, but if not, the waiting starts until next year.  We had some great hunts in the woods even though the birds were tough and henned up this year.  We heard birds every morning we were out, which was about 10 or 11, and saw birds all but 1 day.  All in all it was a great season and I can't wait until next year.

[DirtNap647]

congrats 

[troutfisher13111]

Sounds like a great hunt, congrats!

[trkycaller]

congrats!!

[boomer]

Congrats!!

[Gooserbat]

Nice bird

[WNY Bowhunter]

Nice way to end the season...congrats!!! 

I was all done for the year, had all my stuff put way until a friend's daughter asked me to take her out tomorrow morning.  Looks like I'll give it one more try before officially putting 2012 in the books.

[turkeyfeathers]

Nice way to end the season...congrats!!! 

I was all done for the year, had all my stuff put way until a friend's daughter asked me to take her out tomorrow morning.  Looks like I'll give it one more try before officially putting 2012 in the books.

Pssst....check your calendar. It's 2013!!

[tomstopper]

Congrats.....

[Gold Spur]

Congrats on a nice bird...

[surehuntsalot]

congrats

[nystrut]

great bird! congrats

[kansas hooks]

Congrats on a nice bird.

[RutnNStrutn]

Good looking bird! Congrats!!

[turkeyfeathers]

  nice bird. Congrats.