I am surprised to hear about what a tough year people had, I thought it was an above average year in the little corner of Otsego County I hunt. I think on the whole the population is down (and has been down for the past few years) but I thought the birds were very responsive this year - my unscientific hypothesis is that the number of hens is down so the birds had to become more aggressive in coming to calls if they wanted to breed.

This is the only bird I shot, a good two year old I got on May 5th. I called very softly a couple times while he was on the roost, just enough to let him know where I was, and put the calls away. He flew off the top of this ridge and landed 30 yards away and double gobbled as soon as both feet were on the ground...they were his last words haha