PA Hunter Scored in NJ!
04-21-2008, 01:20 PM
#1
Giant Nontypical
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Phoenixville, PA USA
Posts: 5,541
PA Hunter Scored in NJ!
Last week I got to film my buddy Karl on the opener of the NJ season. We were hunting some public land in south Jersey. He had done a lot of scouting and wasn’t seeing the birds like he usually does. We tried to roost some birds Sunday night, but they just weren’t out that much. I roosted two in one field and Karl saw some, but didn’t know where they roosted.
He was really torn as to where we would go in the morning and he said the answer came to him in a dream. I honestly don’t know how he had time to dream because I felt like I just fell asleep when the alarm went off at 3 a.m. Since it is public land he likes to get there early to beat out the competition.
We got to the parking lot and enjoyed the breakfast of champions of Pop-Tarts and donuts and the plan worked because another truck pulled up and went to the other side of the lot. We headed in and got set up and had a little difficulty in that what Karl thought would be a good spot for filming was actually horrible. So, I had to find myself a spot, but I was able to do so fairly quickly.
The spot was in the woods off of a field. It was a nice change of pace to be filming in the woods because so much of the hunting in NJ is in fields. The area was completely torn up with turkey sign so being in the woods was not going to hurt us at all.
We got set up and it was getting fairly light before we heard our first gobble and it was pretty close. In fact, we were both pretty sure we past this bird on the way in. Karl called a little bit, but got no answers. We waited a while and heard some birds far away behind us and wondered what to do.
Out of nowhere I heard some of what I thought was a hunter using a box call very badly and it kept getting closer and closer. I was really starting to get nervous because I was close to the field edge and afraid that me and the camera might get mistaken for a bird. Karl was getting nervous too and was considering calling out “Hey!” but instead decided to slowly stand up behind his tree to see if he could see the “hunter.” After he stood he saw a longbeard with a head the size of a softball out in the field with about 4 hens with him. It just goes to show that hens are some of the worst callers out there. LOL
After seeing where the birds were we knew that we were in a horrible position for both filming and shooting so we decided to shift about 40 yards to the other side of the field corner where the birds would come into the woods.
We made the shift and Karl started calling. After a short period of time I saw a red head through the trees about 75 yards away. They were coming from behind where we had just moved from and surely would have busted us if we didn’t make the move we did. I pointed to Karl who nodded that he saw them and I started recording. There were 3 jakes that picked their way in silently trying to avoid the detection of the boss tom out in the field. They came all the way in to 18 yards and stopped. They were too bunched up for Karl to shoot so we sat there and waited for what seemed to be an eternity. Finally they started to split up and Karl took the lead bird. He dropped him in his tracks ensuring turkey for dinner that night.
The bird had a 3 inch beard and a little under ½ inch spurs. Not the trophy that many guys are looking for, but Karl is a duck hunter that likes to eat turkey so he was as happy as you can get.
Karl and his bird:
Me and Karl:
He was really torn as to where we would go in the morning and he said the answer came to him in a dream. I honestly don’t know how he had time to dream because I felt like I just fell asleep when the alarm went off at 3 a.m. Since it is public land he likes to get there early to beat out the competition.
We got to the parking lot and enjoyed the breakfast of champions of Pop-Tarts and donuts and the plan worked because another truck pulled up and went to the other side of the lot. We headed in and got set up and had a little difficulty in that what Karl thought would be a good spot for filming was actually horrible. So, I had to find myself a spot, but I was able to do so fairly quickly.
The spot was in the woods off of a field. It was a nice change of pace to be filming in the woods because so much of the hunting in NJ is in fields. The area was completely torn up with turkey sign so being in the woods was not going to hurt us at all.
We got set up and it was getting fairly light before we heard our first gobble and it was pretty close. In fact, we were both pretty sure we past this bird on the way in. Karl called a little bit, but got no answers. We waited a while and heard some birds far away behind us and wondered what to do.
Out of nowhere I heard some of what I thought was a hunter using a box call very badly and it kept getting closer and closer. I was really starting to get nervous because I was close to the field edge and afraid that me and the camera might get mistaken for a bird. Karl was getting nervous too and was considering calling out “Hey!” but instead decided to slowly stand up behind his tree to see if he could see the “hunter.” After he stood he saw a longbeard with a head the size of a softball out in the field with about 4 hens with him. It just goes to show that hens are some of the worst callers out there. LOL
After seeing where the birds were we knew that we were in a horrible position for both filming and shooting so we decided to shift about 40 yards to the other side of the field corner where the birds would come into the woods.
We made the shift and Karl started calling. After a short period of time I saw a red head through the trees about 75 yards away. They were coming from behind where we had just moved from and surely would have busted us if we didn’t make the move we did. I pointed to Karl who nodded that he saw them and I started recording. There were 3 jakes that picked their way in silently trying to avoid the detection of the boss tom out in the field. They came all the way in to 18 yards and stopped. They were too bunched up for Karl to shoot so we sat there and waited for what seemed to be an eternity. Finally they started to split up and Karl took the lead bird. He dropped him in his tracks ensuring turkey for dinner that night.
The bird had a 3 inch beard and a little under ½ inch spurs. Not the trophy that many guys are looking for, but Karl is a duck hunter that likes to eat turkey so he was as happy as you can get.
Karl and his bird:
Me and Karl:
04-21-2008, 02:05 PM
#3
Giant Nontypical
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Phoenixville, PA USA
Posts: 5,541
RE: PA Hunter Scored in NJ!
ORIGINAL: rybohunter
Congrats to him!
Can you come and film me? I could use your streak you are on
Congrats to him!
Can you come and film me? I could use your streak you are on
I'd also like to note that all of these properties are either public state game lands or private land openly accessible to the public.
