NY Turkey
05-22-2010, 05:40 AM
#11
Fork Horn
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: middle of western NY farm land
Posts: 371
I've been chasing a big longbeard for a week now...He's got 4 hens...will gobble, will strut, but will not leave them. He flies down and waits for them to join him....Driving me insane! Only way I can think of getting him is by luck or spot and stalk or something.
05-23-2010, 01:56 AM
#12
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Horseheads NY
Posts: 1,138
Birdhunter, my neighbor up the road said the same thing as you did. I talk to him yesterday and he said they are all hened up and try going out at 9 or 10 after the hens go to nest. I have gone out later, like 8 or so. I guess thats not late enough. He hunts a different area than me. I'm hoping for some rain, they are always out in the rain. I'm thinking at this point thats my best bet, going out in some lite rain and 10am... lets hope I get such a scenario.
05-23-2010, 05:45 AM
#15
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 1,085
Congrats West Ma Hunter.... Persistence pays off..
Ya gotta find the right bird at the right moment...
It's a dynamic thing, always changing... A gobbler may be without hens one day of the week or one hour of the day..You have to BE there when he is vulnerable...Some birds, especially old boss gobblers are so covered up with hens throughout the WHOLE season, that they are seldom, if ever ,vulnerable.. To kill one of them you have to get lucky, call in his hens or pattern him and simply wait in ambush... Certainly not as much fun as working in an actively gobbling bird, but sometimes it's the only way...
Ya gotta find the right bird at the right moment...
It's a dynamic thing, always changing... A gobbler may be without hens one day of the week or one hour of the day..You have to BE there when he is vulnerable...Some birds, especially old boss gobblers are so covered up with hens throughout the WHOLE season, that they are seldom, if ever ,vulnerable.. To kill one of them you have to get lucky, call in his hens or pattern him and simply wait in ambush... Certainly not as much fun as working in an actively gobbling bird, but sometimes it's the only way...
05-24-2010, 06:39 AM
#16
Fork Horn
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Steuben County, NY
Posts: 354
It's a dynamic thing, always changing... A gobbler may be without hens one day of the week or one hour of the day..You have to BE there when he is vulnerable...Some birds, especially old boss gobblers are so covered up with hens throughout the WHOLE season, that they are seldom, if ever ,vulnerable.. To kill one of them you have to get lucky, call in his hens or pattern him and simply wait in ambush... Certainly not as much fun as working in an actively gobbling bird, but sometimes it's the only way...
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!
Last edited by WNY Bowhunter; 05-24-2010 at 06:43 AM.
