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Any dead turkeys yet?

The farm I hunt on doesn't allow Sunday hunting ( religious reasons) so today was my opening day. First light had 2 gobblers making a racket. A hen entered the field directly across from me. This damn gobbler followed her back and forth across that field for 2 hours!! He would answer all my calls but would not leave that hen. Then the heavy rains came and they headed for the tree line

No but lots of RAIN

I hunted the farm on opening day and had this hen hang around me for over three hours. Two Jakes came in but I let them walk.

I also called in one gobbler that stayed behind me and wouldn't commit to my decoys.

I'm hunting again tomorrow morning so maybe have a better picture and story tomorrow.

I'm letting them fatten up a bit.

7M, Deruyter and New Woodstock. Both properties have always been productive,not a single gobble or even a sighting.

That's sad. I was thinking about making a two day trip to Deruyter on Thursday.

I've been out a handful of times in 6S. Going into the season I wasn't seeing many birds and once the season rolled around nothing has changed. I have also noticed VERY little gobbling. Either the birds just aren't there or they are being very quiet. Hoping things fire up later in May.

ITS NOT RAINING !

Nope, not just you Pat. Its really been a funny year. Numbers are definitely down in my area, but with an easy winter and what I considered a good hatch year (last spring), I was at least expecting to see more hens and jakes. I haven't been seeing many hens and have yet to see a jake. I have several different properties that I hunt and it just seems the turkeys aren't there. Not going to keep me from trying though!Good luck to everyone chasing long beards and hope to see some better reports soon.

Take me turkey hunting in Connecticut Pat and I will take you striper fishing in Montauk! I have been trying to take a Tom with my bow for years here in NY. I end up getting frustrated and end the season with the shotgun.

Pat; I agree with you. I have a big piece of property I have hunted for over 20 years. In the past I have heard up to 15 different gobblers off the roost in the mornings. The past 4 years or so it has taken a serious nose dive. I am lucky to hear even one bird. Pretty bad when your hearing more pheasants crowing than gobbles.

Pat, while I do think there is some merit to what you are saying, I believe the turkey numbers are up considerably in NY than they were say two years ago. The problem this year has been bad weather for the whole first week of the NY season. I spent the whole week in my hometown in Herkimer Co and at times saw over 100 birds in fields, but would hear very little gobbling. Long story short our group killed 4 birds the first week; not very impressive considering the experience that group represents, but then again not a bust either. When the weather finally stabilizes there will be much turkey fun! In Ct there seems to be a very stable population, but the birds are concentrated into smaller blocks of land. In my experience this ends up being a boom or bust type scenario for that days hunt.

Got two birds, a two-year old on Opening Day and this bird yesterday...almost inch and a half spurs.

Very slow here in my part of Steuben county- seems odd, at least very different than normal. We see turkeys all fall long, lots of them about every outing, and usually lots of sightings/sounds in Spring. This year we saw lots of them in early April while moving some stands around. Since May 1st though-not very good at all- I have seen only a couple of lone hen birds out feeding in huge grass fields by themselves, several mornings tried now. I got skunked this morning so drove all of our property and about 15 miles worth of surrounding farms just to see if anything was out- didn't see a single bird till I was back where i started. Same drive in the past is usually 20-30 turkeys, at least 3-4 strutters. I get back to our property and again see just a lone hen about 600 yards out in a huge grass field eating by itself. I did find a nest with two eggs in it on April 23rd. Thats my season so far-have no idea what to try next or just wait it out.

Hunted Putnam Co. last Friday. Had 2 birds gobbling like crazy to my calls, but couldn't get them to come in. They were on opposite ridge and wouldn't cross the creek between us.

Had 3 separate hens come in to my calling to 12 yards in a 2 hour period and no toms with any of them.

I got this one on opening day in the rain. Since then I haven't heard another gobble.

It's certainly not been easy this year. This has to be one of the worst weather first halves of a season I have seen in a long time. If the weather stabilizes it should be a great second half!

Nice birds Oak and Mint! I'm hoping the 2nd half of May proves to be more productive than the 1st half. Just not seeing the birds in my area over the last few years. The few birds I have been chasing are not talking much and are coming in silent for the most part. I did strike one bird up last week around 1130, but ran out of time. Good luck to those still in the game.

Hit the woods at 1000 today. Sat down and made a few calls and immediately got a response from a ways away. Gave a few more yelps and went quiet. Could hear he was getting closer, but then he shut right up. About 40 minutes later he gobbled again on the other side of the woodlot. Gave him a few excited yelps and cuts and listened for a response, but got none. He had sounded like he was a ways off, but within a minute or two of calling I could hear something behind me running through the woods. Sure enough it was the tom. I was hoping he would hit the planted field and come in that way, but he came screaming right through the woods directly behind me and when he got to about 10 yds he knew something was up and went walking off. Exciting hunt and encouraging. I think those still at it will have some fun the remainder of the month.

Part of the problem here is that the winter of 2014 knocked the hell out of the birds. I must of found 30 dead birds that winter and my buddies found a bunch as well. Shawn

I'm letting them breed more.

I had a good season, although with shotgun. I started in KS and got one 4/19 then my second on 4/21. I drove down to my buddy's place in MO and got my first on 4/22 and my second on 4/26. I came back home to NY and didn't go out until 5/5, when I got my first...then my second on 5/6. I wasn't going to hunt PA this year but after tagging out so quickly bought a license. I went down there on 5/16 and got a bird on 5/19. I've gotten a fair number of turkeys but never in so few days hunted. Two were apparent two-year olds, the others good birds.

Also, I took my grandson out near Corning. My DIL had been seeing a group of 4 or 5 back behind the house when walking the dog. The evening before our hunt I was in the hedgerow with binocs...one was a strutter. At first light we got back there, positioned well in the dark and, as it got light, I could hear and see him drumming on the limb about 70 yards away. He gobbled a couple times, flew down, and I ran a string of soft yelps at him. He came in on a string for my grandson's first tom. Lotta hootin' and hollerin'!

I'll call that a great season! Good work and congrats.

Wow Pat. Although the population is about a third of what it was back in the "heyday" I'm surprised at your findings. I saw/heard several others in addition to the two I got. Do you hunt the northern or central zone?

I hunted on my property a couple times. I have 3 Jakes and a couple hens. I am not going to shoot any of them. I hunted my buddy's farm a couple times and saw a Tom way out and wasn't able to call him in. I am wrapping up my season and hopefully with this war dry weather, next year we will have some birds. I am just afraid that the hunting will be for all young animals, both turkey and deer because the winter before last, and the DEC regulations have just DECimated out flocks and herd. It is pretty sad.

Jay

3M was disappointing this year. The farm I hunt is usually loaded with birds. This spring only saw one gobbler and 3 hens in 15 days of hunting.

6S for me was very disappointing this year. Numbers are definitely down significantly imo. I was fortunate enough to call a bird within range, but was not able to get a shot. I called in more yotes then toms. I feel fortunate for the opportunities to get out and saw some cool sights as usual, but from a hunting perspective it was a slooowww season. I hope numbers start to rebound over the next few years.

The numbers have plummeted these past few years. Very sad. They might as well do away with the season until the population recovers

See the link. Disease

The winter of 2014 killed a ton of birds, I mean way more then people realize. We had a few good pockets of birds and I believe that is due to the fact these few areas had standing corn during that terrible bad winter so the birds had access to food. Shawn

Sounds to me like it was a regional thing this year. I talked to and listened to guys from all different regions across the state and seems like many different opinions from those various regions. I can tell you in the area I hunt (Herkimer Co) we had an average season (success rate) even though it was very obvious that we had an easy winter and an incredible hatch last spring. I'm sure the messed up weather pattern had much to do with a so so season where I hunt. When I say we had a great hatch in that area, I am judging it by over all numbers of birds I see on a daily basis and by the number of jakes we saw while hunting. We had hunts where we called in any where from 6 to 13 jakes at a time. That wasn't a once in a while occurrence either, it happened constantly this year. Its not unusual in a "normal" spring to see or call in 2 or 3 jakes together. In more than one instance this spring I saw jakes chase longbeards around and away from hens. In fact I was calling for a friend and had a beautiful longbeard gobbling and strutting in a plowed field. He was making his way slowly to us from over 100 yards away. When he got to about 50 yards out he suddenly became alert and began to walk off the field to the West. Suddenly 6 jakes came running full tilt out of the woods from the East and chased after that big bird until he disappeared. Highly unusual in most years but this year it was like "The Gangs of New York" where I hunted.

I'm letting them get another year older.

I do a lot of winter hunting for bunnies as well as partridge. I do a few traditional bunny hunts every year and the winter of 2014 we were finding dead birds everywhere, ecsp in brush piles you would normally jump on to flush bunnies. I am sure this springs harvest will be down, in another area where I hunt, there was quite a few birds and this is only a few miles away, but as I said there was quite a bit of standing corn in that area and i am sure that helped them get through the winter of 2014. Shawn

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