ADK Gobbler Down this morning

[SkunkADK]

Hey all,

New to gobbler nation, thought i'd make my first post by sharing with you my most recent hunt.

Today was the opening of New York's Spring Turkey Season.

Location: Somewhere in the woods of the Adirondacks in Franklin County, NY near Paul Smith's College

My and my buddy are both juniors at Paul Smith's College. We are avid hunters and trappers, we love the outdoors (as Im sure you all do). We are very fortunate to go to a college that is near to public land and easement land owned by the college that allows us to have all these outdoor experiences.

Had been scouting a couple birds in the past two weeks and had a pretty good idea where they would be at first light by finding a couple roosting areas. All ideal customers, went into opening day fairly confident (bear in mind this is public land). The only hitch in my plan was that one of the birds got called to and bumped by another hunter scouting the morning before the open (yesterday) and that of course was disappointing.

This morning I got into the area and stayed a good 300-400 yards away from the roost area in case the bird had moved. When legal shooting hours rolled around I made a couple calls with my Flex tone Hustler diaphragm call. No response for a about 20 minutes but thankfully me and my buddy finally got him to talk, and it was near where we had been scouting him, so the situation was salvageable, being that we knew where his strut zone was. We covered the distance in the hardwoods, setting up on a roadway about 100 yards from where we thought he was. I pulled out a slate call i had made myself, and with an Osage striker and a couple yelps and some cutting later we got him hooked and he had pinpointed our location. To our surprise, another guy who had owl hooted about 15 times at light with no success, yelped at our tom at this point, but there was no turning this bird around. Got him to come down the road to us, and with a little further coaxing and just for fun, I made some loud yelps to get him fired up as he closed in.

At about 45 yards i made a final yelp and with one triple gobble and the wave of his wings, my partner stomped him with his single shot 10 gauge. Flattened. And to boot this was all before 6:00a.m.! Down at 5:58a.m.

Excellent hunt and proves that even when things seem to go wrong, gobblers are stick suckers for a little tail feather action even if they had been spooked prior. Scouting is crucial, don't only carry luck around in your back pocket.

Lastly, i have always been a fan of the box and slate calls, and have made a few with a friend and had success with both. Today was the first time I had ever called in a turkey with the diaphragm call. Took a lot of practice during the preseason so that was pretty exciting for me. Great adrenaline rush and worth waking up for no doubt. Also a beautiful day to be in the woods.

Thanks for hearing my story

SkunkADK

By the way.. In the pic from left to right ... Myself -> Mr. Tom -> and my buddy Jerry (the shooter)

[Gobbler]

Welcome to the site. Congrats on the kill. Please put it also in the running total Gobbler Nation kill thread. Way to go!!

[pedro]

Welcome and congratulations!

[HuntnMa]

welcome and congrats