New York Gobbling Activity 2017

[culpeper]

Taunto Hawk,  Green Co is s strong area for birds, has been for many years.  Congrats on your hunt, nice pics!

I can say from compiling 12.3 miles over the weekend that we heard not one gobble .  We saw birds strutting later in the evening, and some during the day with red heads, no white heads and no one excited about breeding.  A tough 2 days of casting calls and covering A LOT of ground with not much to show, except a lot of exercise.  One more weekend....hope their attitude changes this week.

[mikejd]

Congrats taunto.

Nice looking country there.

[EZ]

Taunto Hawk,  Green Co is s strong area for birds, has been for many years.  Congrats on your hunt, nice pics!

I can say from compiling 12.3 miles over the weekend that we heard not one gobble .  We saw birds strutting later in the evening, and some during the day with red heads, no white heads and no one excited about breeding.  A tough 2 days of casting calls and covering A LOT of ground with not much to show, except a lot of exercise.  One more weekend....hope their attitude changes this week.

I hunted Otsego Co. Sunday and Monday. Never heard so little gobbling in all my years. Heard one bird gobble on the roost twice. Did the same as you....covered LOTS of ground casting. Finally struck a group of two LBs and a jake. They shock gobbled twice and slowly fed in range. I filled my second tag on a 22 pounder with 1.25" spurs.

Went out with my buddy's son yesterday. We set up within 300 yards of at least 6 LBs and a pile of jakes. No gobbling at all.....all day. We saw them in two different fields just pecking, no strutting. They wouldn't gobble (or even look much) at anything we threw at them.

[culpeper]

EZ, glad ya got a couple to play...really tough out there right now.

[HUNTRYX]

Yep I was out both mornings last weekend and the jakes and LBs are grouped up, hens are nesting. Hard to get a rise out of the boys....just moving along and feeding. Did get a gobble or 2 out of the dominant bird, but thew strut lasted about 30 seconds and then they fed off. Keep at it, though.

[TauntoHawk]

Got a little more quiet rest of the weekend.

Saturday I got a youth hunter on his first turkey at 9am when 7 birds came running in but completely silent, couldn't raise a gobble rest of the day. This was after light limb gobbling and 2 gobbles on the ground immediately after flydown we just got in a good spot and posted up not my thing but the kid made run and gun not the best option. Sunday I had a longbeard (if you can call him that) and 5 hens roosted infront of me, he never gobbled once on the limb and didn't strut at all once on the ground just started pecking with the hens. Got glass on him and he was small bodied with maybe 7.5in piddly beard n little spurs so I left him to wander off as he didn't excite me enough to wrap my last tag on him. Encountered another bird that was the exact same later in the day on another farm just a small 2yr old pecking around with hens and jakes not gobbling at all, got in front but again figured he'd be more entertaining next year and wouldn't wear my last tag. Spent the rest of Sunday afternoon and evening Scouting and glassing looking for a good one. Found several flocks but eventually found what I was looking for, a haus of a Tom strutting for hens gobbling and chasing 2 smaller toms and a handful of jakes off single handily. Kept tabs on him the next hour until he left the field to roost.

Got in early the next morning and tip toes right into where I thought he'd roost. Sat down at 4:30 in the dark and could hear him drumming already. A coyote got him and his pals gobbling early and they got very worked up over the next 40min he was 36yds from me in a Big Maple facing right at me. I had the perfect place to land right out off my gun barrel and thought for sure this was it. Right before fly down a steady rain began to fall and the birds shut off as quick as they had turned on. A few of the jakes and other toms pitched further down the ridge and of course the dominant bird turned around and pitched back to them landing just out of range. The got heavier and the hens opted to stay in the tree. The Toms and jakes did something I've seen them do in fields in heavy rain before they literally huddled up like sheep and just stood almost motionless for 20min while the rain fell. As soon as the shower tapered off then hens pitched to the top of the ridge and the Toms/Jakes made a bee line for them passing just a few yards outside my comfort zone. The property only ran to the top of the ridge so I was out of room to play with on those birds. Didn't find anything of interest the rest of the morning and when more rain moved in I called it a day and NY season. Back to work now, camping this weekend so my season is a wrap.

[mikejd]

Got a little more quiet rest of the weekend.

Saturday I got a youth hunter on his first turkey at 9am when 7 birds came running in but completely silent, couldn't raise a gobble rest of the day. This was after light limb gobbling and 2 gobbles on the ground immediately after flydown we just got in a good spot and posted up not my thing but the kid made run and gun not the best option. Sunday I had a longbeard (if you can call him that) and 5 hens roosted infront of me, he never gobbled once on the limb and didn't strut at all once on the ground just started pecking with the hens. Got glass on him and he was small bodied with maybe 7.5in piddly beard n little spurs so I left him to wander off as he didn't excite me enough to wrap my last tag on him. Encountered another bird that was the exact same later in the day on another farm just a small 2yr old pecking around with hens and jakes not gobbling at all, got in front but again figured he'd be more entertaining next year and wouldn't wear my last tag. Spent the rest of Sunday afternoon and evening Scouting and glassing looking for a good one. Found several flocks but eventually found what I was looking for, a haus of a Tom strutting for hens gobbling and chasing 2 smaller toms and a handful of jakes off single handily. Kept tabs on him the next hour until he left the field to roost.

Got in early the next morning and tip toes right into where I thought he'd roost. Sat down at 4:30 in the dark and could hear him drumming already. A coyote got him and his pals gobbling early and they got very worked up over the next 40min he was 36yds from me in a Big Maple facing right at me. I had the perfect place to land right out off my gun barrel and thought for sure this was it. Right before fly down a steady rain began to fall and the birds shut off as quick as they had turned on. A few of the jakes and other toms pitched further down the ridge and of course the dominant bird turned around and pitched back to them landing just out of range. The got heavier and the hens opted to stay in the tree. The Toms and jakes did something I've seen them do in fields in heavy rain before they literally huddled up like sheep and just stood almost motionless for 20min while the rain fell. As soon as the shower tapered off then hens pitched to the top of the ridge and the Toms/Jakes made a bee line for them passing just a few yards outside my comfort zone. The property only ran to the top of the ridge so I was out of room to play with on those birds. Didn't find anything of interest the rest of the morning and when more rain moved in I called it a day and NY season. Back to work now, camping this weekend so my season is a wrap.

Sounds like a good season to me.

[TauntoHawk]

Got a little more quiet rest of the weekend.

Saturday I got a youth hunter on his first turkey at 9am when 7 birds came running in but completely silent, couldn't raise a gobble rest of the day. This was after light limb gobbling and 2 gobbles on the ground immediately after flydown we just got in a good spot and posted up not my thing but the kid made run and gun not the best option. Sunday I had a longbeard (if you can call him that) and 5 hens roosted infront of me, he never gobbled once on the limb and didn't strut at all once on the ground just started pecking with the hens. Got glass on him and he was small bodied with maybe 7.5in piddly beard n little spurs so I left him to wander off as he didn't excite me enough to wrap my last tag on him. Encountered another bird that was the exact same later in the day on another farm just a small 2yr old pecking around with hens and jakes not gobbling at all, got in front but again figured he'd be more entertaining next year and wouldn't wear my last tag. Spent the rest of Sunday afternoon and evening Scouting and glassing looking for a good one. Found several flocks but eventually found what I was looking for, a haus of a Tom strutting for hens gobbling and chasing 2 smaller toms and a handful of jakes off single handily. Kept tabs on him the next hour until he left the field to roost.

Got in early the next morning and tip toes right into where I thought he'd roost. Sat down at 4:30 in the dark and could hear him drumming already. A coyote got him and his pals gobbling early and they got very worked up over the next 40min he was 36yds from me in a Big Maple facing right at me. I had the perfect place to land right out off my gun barrel and thought for sure this was it. Right before fly down a steady rain began to fall and the birds shut off as quick as they had turned on. A few of the jakes and other toms pitched further down the ridge and of course the dominant bird turned around and pitched back to them landing just out of range. The got heavier and the hens opted to stay in the tree. The Toms and jakes did something I've seen them do in fields in heavy rain before they literally huddled up like sheep and just stood almost motionless for 20min while the rain fell. As soon as the shower tapered off then hens pitched to the top of the ridge and the Toms/Jakes made a bee line for them passing just a few yards outside my comfort zone. The property only ran to the top of the ridge so I was out of room to play with on those birds. Didn't find anything of interest the rest of the morning and when more rain moved in I called it a day and NY season. Back to work now, camping this weekend so my season is a wrap.

Sounds like a good season to me.

One of the best, 5 Birds in 3 states plus a few others for other people. Also saw a very nice piebald buck Sunday am too

[EZ]

TauntoHawk, sounds like you have a good area...what part of the State are you hunting?  Good luck this weekend

I'm in Greene County, south of Albany. Properties are scattered from in the Catskills to right against the Hudson. From what I can tell without having hunted many other counties we must have one of the better habitats and populations in the state.

Whose box ya running there?

[TauntoHawk]

TauntoHawk, sounds like you have a good area...what part of the State are you hunting?  Good luck this weekend

I'm in Greene County, south of Albany. Properties are scattered from in the Catskills to right against the Hudson. From what I can tell without having hunted many other counties we must have one of the better habitats and populations in the state.

Whose box ya running there?

EZ that's the 3rd place shortbox from 2016 Midwest Comp I won at Auction made by Terry Baker its a bloodwood over butternut and its one sweet sounding call.

[EZ]

I bet she is sweet....good looking call from what can be seen. Did I see you were from S.E. Pa.?
We must be neighbors, lol.

[culpeper]

Terry builds a good box call!

[TauntoHawk]

Terry builds a good box call!

Yes he does, I have 4 more on order

[turkaholic]

Just returned from my last trip to Cobleskill area. Had gobbling every day but not much. Monday's rain ended early and I had gobblers around 6:30 gobbling and strutting for about an hour, then silent for the rest of the day. The next two days were nice weather and we had a little action at first light. Gobbles by 4:40, we are getting up at 3:20 just to get in on time, ahhhh. Had a Bobcat come in to my calls, gave me a rush herd him closing the distance at 50 yards. He didn't care for what I gave him. I am not letting any predators walk anymore. This year has been my worst ever, after walking over 40 miles according to my GPS just in NY not counting the miles in CT. I managed one long beard in each state still planning next two mornings in CT. At one point I was sure I didn't want to kill anymore because of the lack of birds. The thing is I did see quite a few gobblers but the talking was minimal. Even hens were quiet. The last morning in NY I had a hot tom and I herd the best gobbling all season. I tried to get on him but another hunter got to him first. He pounded on a mouth call " sounded like Mat Morrett " he just kept repeating the same cuttin series over and over and I watched the long beard and his 5 hens leaving the area at at very quick pace. I had my best action not hen calling at all but using a gobble tube. The hens would pull everyone away at the first hen call. Wondering seriously about finding another state to hunt in. But I know I won't . I love NY

[TauntoHawk]

I couldn't buy a mid/late morning gobble here in the East pretty much all season, I never found a henless Tom. All my birds in PA/NY came right after fly down