Tagged out in NY

[alloutdoors]

Well, it's been a while since I was still hunting for myself this late in the season. The last few years I've been averaging a bird for every two days hunted, but it's been fun to have a longer season too. A few days ago I had this bird and his buddy at 60 yards in an open field at about 9:00 but they had a hen with them and I couldn't get them any closer. This spot is actually my secret little "honey hole", but I hadn't been seeing much there this year and hadn't hunted it much. It was nice to see some birds on it and it looked like they were getting into their normal routine on this property.

This morning I slipped in under their roost and got it done nice and early. It was about 4:15 when I parked, and there were distant flashes of lightning to the north and south, thankfully though the storms stayed away. The spot where the birds roost is off the back of a plowed field, they usually hit the ground just inside the edge in a nice open piece of hardwoods and then make their way to the field. I set some decoys out in the field for insurance and then got set up about eight steps inside the woods facing away from the field and toward where I expected the birds to be. I figured I would either get a shot at them when they hit their strutting area or I could turn around and hopefully shoot them in the decoys if they made it past me (or flew out into the field). I didn't have long to wait before I heard the first hen start calling, she sounded like she was inside 30 yards up in her tree. I answered with a few soft yelps, pretty much just to be able to say I had called. Within a few minutes both gobblers joined in as well. At about 5:20 they both flew down and this one landed within range. The dot on my Fastfire was already on his head when his feet hit the ground and a load of HW7's ended both my morning and season.

18lbs, 10" beard, 15/16" spurs




My view looking into the woods from where I was sitting, the field with my decoys is to my back. The bird landed right in the middle of this clearing.


Lots of sign out in the field.

[mikejd]

Awesome. Great bird, great story and great pics.

Good to see NY Greened up a bit.

Congrats

[J. Adams]

Congrats on great gobbler, Excellent pictures, that is some pretty woods.

[tomstopper]

Awesome. Great bird, great story and great pics.

Good to see NY Greened up a bit.

Congrats

Congrats....

[VanHelden Game Calls]

Very nice, and great pics   I can't believe how well the stock matches your outfit.....

What camera you using?  I want to upgrade but I am concerned about bulk and durability for carrying afield.  Any tips?

[TauntoHawk]

Excellent photos!

[1tiogabowhunter]

Awesome and great pics!  What camera are you using?

[alloutdoors]

I can't believe how well the stock matches your outfit.....

Haha I thought the same thing Doug, which is kind of funny since the gun is APG and my camo is Obsession.

What camera you using?  I want to upgrade but I am concerned about bulk and durability for carrying afield.  Any tips?

Well, my camera is not very friendly in the bulk department. It's a Canon 1DsMarkIII and it stays in the car until I need it. At some point I'd like to pick up a high end compact camera that wouldn't compromise on image quality but that I could carry in my vest. The cameras I've been looking at are probably way above what most people here would be interested in, but personally I like the Sony Alpha NEX6 or NEX7. These both have large APS-C size sensors which will give outstanding image quality and allow you to blur out the background and make your subject pop. Of course you're looking at almost $500 for the NEX-6 and that's before you put a lens on it.

I've also considered selling off one or two of my less used lenses for my DSLR and going with the Sony Alpha a7 or the Sony DSC-RX1, but those currently sell for $1500 and $2800 respectively. I may just wait for the price to fall on one of these, the nice thing about digital cameras is that in a year or two even the RX-1 will probably be available for $1000-$1200 on the used market. They both feature full frame (35mm) image sensors and compromise absolutely nothing on image quality. The NEX cameras and the a7 are "ILC" cameras, which have interchangeable lenses like a DSLR but they don't use a mirror so they are compact like a point and shoot. The RX1 is basically a very, very expensive point and shoot with a fixed lens, but it's a Zeiss lens. The ILC cameras give you similar flexibility to a DSLR in that you can use different lenses for different applications. The RX-1 has a relatively wide angle lens but it's a great focal length for in the field shots of game as well as general portrait work.

[alloutdoors]

This is a sample gallery of images from the RX-1 shot by various photographers. I never imagined a "point and shoot" would make me like this thing does.

http://rx1files.tumblr.com/

[Gooserbat]

Great Job!!!

[beagler]

Very Nice!

[WNY Bowhunter]

Congrats.  I tagged out a week ago and it kinda sucks.  Hopefully, I can get my wife out of bed in the morning so I can get back out after some gobblers before the season closes...

[troutfisher13111]

Congrats and great pics!

[DirtNap647]

congrats

[savduck]

Good stuff Ryan. Congrats. Pretty woods.