Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Upstate New York comes through for me Again!!!

I was out at about 4:30 AM on Thursday. Beautiful cold, clear morning. Birds were vocal and I was in a perfect spot. I did a very few tree yelps on my 20 year old Quaker Boy box call and had birds responding, when all hell broke loose. I heard a turkey in distress and alarm putting and clucking. Next thing I saw was a coyote come out of the thick with nothing to show for his efforts. Went right past me in front. Next I see movement behind me,,,,,,,,,another coyote..........Then 2 more and one huge male stood right in front of me. I did NOT shoot,,,,,for two reasons. One NY has a season on them and the season is not now and the second is that there were too many birds around. About 15 minutes go by before I call again. I do and got a thunder back. I could see 2 birds coming to my decoy and calling. I let them get into range and waited for them to split and shot 1 of them. It was a 15 pound jake. The date on my camera is off by 1 day so please don't hold that against me. The next 2 days were rainy and terribly windy and even though I hunted both days, I came up empty. On the 4th morning it was rainy but it stopped a little after daylight. I heard gobbles, but had to relocate to take advantage of the situation. I had birds responding from 2 different locations. I was set up near a stone wall and the closest bird was on the other side. I made the fatal mistake and moved ever so slightly to get to a spot where I could see the other side. When I moved I was looking directly into the eyes of a huge longbeard. I was jiggered immediately. At the same time I heard alarm putting behind me. I looked and there were 4 jakes watching the whole thing unfold. I was able to rotate my upper body enough to get my already raised shotgun on one of them and got my second bird. This was a 17 pound jake with a 5 inch beard. I was perfectly happy with my 2 jakes. That's why they call it hunting!!!