Right on. I'm also in Steuben County. The gobblers are still henned up pretty good around here. I've been hearing people say that the birds are all done, but that's not the case.

The pattern/ambush tactic has payed off twice for me in the past week. There simply is not much else you can do when you have a limited amount of ground to hunt and you're trying to put your tag on pressured, call-shy, henned up gobblers. It's not the hardcore "gobbling-in-your-face" hunt that everyone wants, but to me is nearly as fulfilling when a plan comes together. After all, how many times have you had a turkey roosted and just know that you'll kill him in the morning and then have things fall apart?

Anyways, here are the two longbeards that my father and I killed this past week. Mine was roosted with another longbeard and some hens. The would gobble on the roost but totally go silent once they hit the ground and met up with their hens. Finally, on the 6th consecutive morning of playing cat and mouse with these two I was able to tag out on a beautiful gobbler.

20 lb, 10 1/4" beard, 1 1/4" spurs





Saturday evening I located a longbeard strutting out in a field with two hens. Knowing where they typically roost, we decided to set up in the upper corner of the field in the morning where a logging road comes out into the field. At 5:25 a hen flew out on to the field and started picking around. I figured that big boy was close by but he never gobbled on the roost. At 5:40 I hear the unmistakable "pppffftttvvrrrrmmm"..."pppffftttvvrrrrmmm"...comi ng from the logging road. Twenty seconds later dad's 11-87 roared and he had bird #2 for the season down.

21 lb, 10" paintbrush, 1 5/16 & 1 1/4 spurs.





I guess the moral of the story is that its never too late in the season to "get it done." Sometimes you just have to put the calls away and use unconventional tactics to make your own luck.

Good luck to everyone out there during this last week of season!