I hunted a bow-only spot the first four days of the NY season and close but... So I went to a different area Monday and heard several birds about 500 yards away. I got there and was figuring a positioning plan, as I was in a brushy area, when I heard a false owl hooting and closing in on them about a hundred yards to my left. Darn. This is private ground but "open" private...the landowner let's anybody hunt it. I think owl-boy spooked them because he was getting close, it is pretty open timber, and the birds stopped gobbling. Never heard from any of them again. I was just hanging out for awhile and never heard any turkey calling, so I went into the timber about 25 yards and set up. I let a half hour go by and made my first wingbone call...nothing. I kept calling every so often and finally elicited a response about 150 yards out. He was coming in slow, but gobbling as he did. I sporadically called. When he got to about 75 yards he started circling me. Nice open timber but, due to the lay of the land, I never saw him. When he shut up for awhile I was thinking he was coming in. Not. I heard him gobble over a hundred yards away as he was leaving across a marshy area...telling the hen "I was there". So I started laying on him with the wingbone, and he turned back. This time, after he shut up for awhile, I heard him drumming and saw him approaching from 50 yards. When he got to 35 yards he met some TSS from my 20 gauge.
19#, 10 3/8" beard, 1 1/4" spurs
