tomcbigbucks
05-19-2007, 11:27 AM
Turkey hunting this year in N.J. was somewhat frustrating although successful. Before the season we were seeing birds all over but once the season started the birds disappeared and the ones that were there wouldn’t answer or were usually hened up. Youth day I took a kid named Chris and after working the birds for 1 1/2 hours 6 long beards came in and he took the biggest- 23# 1 3/16" spurs and 11 " beard. They came from behind us and I couldn't turn around to see but Chris and his brother both said they were 35 yards so I said take him! After the shot I ranged it and it was 52 yards! Some luck, it's his 3rd long beard in 3 years, next year he's an adult and on his own! 1st Saturday my friend and I went and heard birds all over on the roast (at least 15) none were overly hot though and after the 4th setup we located 3 birds that were sounding pretty hot at 8:15 AM we setup quickly and after 3 calls and 15 mins he had a 20 yard shot and a 20# 1" spurs and double beard 10" and 5 " gobbler. Now on to me my first this year was after 3 weeks in of cold birds or hened up, we worked 2 long beards, 2 jakes and 3 hens for 2 1/2 hours in a field, they would get to within 70 yards and then walk away again answering almost every call so I snuck down the hedge row at the inside corner of the field and had them go into the woods at 60 yards so I turned up the volume and cut and cackled and had a different bird answer and start coming from the other side, these birds weren't going to have another bird steal the hen so they popped back out and sealed his fate at 45 yards, 20 # 10" beard and 1" spurs. 3 days later I took the Chris's older brother Mikey trying to get him his first long beard, we got to our 2nd choice a little late because someone was hunting our 1st choice so as we were sneaking down the field we saw a nice bird with 2 hens across the field! We snuck thru the woods and setup up about 120 yards from where we saw him, Mikey was on 1 side of the hedgerow and I was in the far side. As he was setting up he was moving a lot and I was afraid they might see him so I purred and yelped to hear where they were and he answered from about 80 yards, Mikey stopped moving real quick! 2 more series of purrs and yelps and 10 mins later Mickey's gun went up and the tom went down! His first long beard 23 # 1 2/16" spurs 11" beard at 25 yards and 6:10 AM. My 2nd was yesterday a rainy, windy morning when I was second thinking even going but my stepson wanted to go so we got to the field late and a hen was already out there a 100 yards to our left, 2 calls which were answered across the field by a couple of toms had the hen start heading straight to us. She feed 20 yards out in front of us then left to meet 3 others hens that had worked their way across the field to our left, some purrs and yelps had the 4 hens heading to us and a new tom popped out across the field 300 yards away to our left, when I cut and yelped excitedly it had him strutting and walking straight to us. 3 series of calls later and he walked straight thru the hens to find the unknown in the woods, at 25 yards he found out! 22 # 1 1/16" spurs and after shooting half the beard off 9 " at 6:30 AM.