Has your NY turkey season got better?

[WNY Bowhunter]

I believe the state introduced fishers to keep turkey populations in check due to car vs turkey collisions.

Hmmm, that's a new one for me.  I know that the DEC is letting out mountain lions (mostly black ones) and wolves to keep the deer herd thinned out for the insurance companies...

[Terry]

I believe the state introduced fishers to keep turkey populations in check due to car vs turkey collisions.

Hmmm, that's a new one for me.  I know that the DEC is letting out mountain lions (mostly black ones) and wolves to keep the deer herd thinned out for the insurance companies...

[BABS9]

Well I still haven't even heard a gobble since Thursday the 14th. Been about a week and a half since and I've hunted just about everyday and absolutely nothing. It gets pretty frustrating.

[WNY Bowhunter]

It ain't over yet!!!

My dad tagged out today. He called two longbeards in from several hundred yards away and dropped the hammer on one of them @ 11:50. That makes 4 gobblers that he's called in over the past three days after 11:00...






Also, a good buddy of mine has been involved with a Wounded Warriors hunt in Yates County and they've taken 7 birds in the past two days...

[Snoodsniper]

Glad to see that. Been real quiet here the last couple days. Maybe it will turn around for us as well.

[mikejd]

Great pics. Congrats to your dad.


Anyone calling in any jakes. Last year was supposed to be a good hatch with the dry weather, I did not see any jakes this year. Pretty surprised about that.

[WNY Bowhunter]

Yes, there seems to be a fair amount of jakes around. The 2013 hatch was pretty good too, almost all of the longbeards that have been taken this year are two year olds.

[turkaholic]

I did see and hear quite a few jakes this year and that is a good thing. All of the jakes that I did see came in looking but no gobbling for the most part.  After a little over 3 weeks of hunting I did see about 40 hens, some of these are the same hens seen a few times I think, but still quite a few. I am hopeful that with this spring being so dry, they will have a good hatch. The problem is not the hatch but the freaking predators. This fall instead of hunting turkeys I may switch to coyote and beat down the dogs.

[Terry]

I saw more jakes than usual as well.


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[WNY Bowhunter]

My wife and I went out this morning after a longbeard that I spotted last night. I had an idea where he would roost. We got set up and at 5:00 he started gobbling. With the foliage we were able to get within 50-60 yds. of him. I gave him some soft calling and he gobbled off an on til he flew down at 5:50. He hit so close we could hear him "thump" when he landed. Instead of running in to get his face blasted he went away from us on to the neighboring property that was more open and made a stand just gobbling away and waiting for us to come to him.  Headed back out in a few minutes to another location...

[njdevilsb]

Same story for us this morning.  We roosted 2 longbeards and a hen last night.  My dad and I setup at the 2 spots that they usually take to leave the field.  The hen read the script and passed by me at 61 yards.  The toms did not.  About 20 gobbles on the limb starting at 5:10, 3 gobbles on the ground and they were gone.  One of the birds does most of the gobbling.  He has a much deeper gobble than the other.  I don't know if the other bird even gobbled at all this morning.

If they roost there again tonight, I am going to come in from the other side in the morning and try to get within 50 yards of the tree and hope they head the same way as this morning.  There is an old logging road that I think they were roosted on this morning so I'm assuming they pitched down onto the road.  I feel like it's going to be the death of me trying to get one of these birds this year, and we're running out of time.

I did have a skunk pass by me at about 5:00 this morning.  I saw him and stood up.  He kept walking directly at me close enough to where I could smell him about 5 feet away so I skipped out of the brush and got to the edge of the field.  I figured if he was going to get spooked, I was getting out of there before he did.  He wasn't bothered in the least and sniffed around the tree where I was sitting and proceeded to sniff my seat and my calls sitting on the ground.  I made a "psst" sound and said "get out of there."  He just turned and wandered off.  I went and sat back down and could smell a hint of him around my stuff.

[turkaholic]

I have been hesitant to call at all this year. The only thing that I feel good about is scratching in the leaves and using my turkey wing. If you make a call it seems the hens pull them the other way. The only bird I got was last Thursday and I never made a call. Herd him gobble to some Ravens and got as close as I dared and only scratched leaves. He few down and started to walk my way. I actually kinda felt bad about killing him. I walked over 40 miles so far this season, so that bad feeling turned into a good one pretty fast.

[mikejd]

When we have a season like this I usually try to concentrate my calling on calling hens. No its not as exiting as you are rarely hearing any gobbles. However if you do it enough usually you can find a gobbler in tow. We scored 2 this season doing that.

[WNY Bowhunter]

Well, we got in to the big boss gobbler we were going after right away around 10:45 and messed with him for about an hour.  He was in a small 10 acre island woodlot surrounded by fields...he was fired up between the crows and my calling...ended up moving and setting up on him several times but couldn't pull him across the planted cornfield to us.  We will be after him again bright and early tomorrow when he's roosted in the same woods as we are. Overall, a very productive day, especially for this late in the season!!!

[WNY Bowhunter]

I did have a skunk pass by me at about 5:00 this morning.  I saw him and stood up.  He kept walking directly at me close enough to where I could smell him about 5 feet away so I skipped out of the brush and got to the edge of the field.  I figured if he was going to get spooked, I was getting out of there before he did.  He wasn't bothered in the least and sniffed around the tree where I was sitting and proceeded to sniff my seat and my calls sitting on the ground.  I made a "psst" sound and said "get out of there."  He just turned and wandered off.  I went and sat back down and could smell a hint of him around my stuff.

Man, I've been there several times!!!