Viewing 1 - 5 out of 5 Blogs.

05.03.09

Things were looking good for the team on day 3, 2 tags had been filled and they couldn't have asked for better weather. Jamie and Jake were joined by Richard and where headed back to the same spot they had hunted the first two mornings. Instead of sitting the on fields edge they headed for the cover of the forest. It turned out to be a good choice. The flock had moved it's roost down the hill and over the stream. As the forest came alive so did the birds. They counted six or seven different gobblers sounding off and luck would have it that a single hen was roosted behind them and she was making her presence very known. As the sun came up Richard spotted a tom headed straight for them. Jake hit the record button and Jamie made the gobbler famous at 15 yards out. The crew packed it up and headed to another spot to get Richard a bird. On the way out they received a text from Doug, Bruce had a bird on the ground. They had been set up in almost the same spot as the previous morning but adjusted to intercept a long beard coming up the field toward them. Now sitting in some thick underbrush they waited for the bird to walk into range. Bruce made a beautiful shot and the bird fell where he stood. Back to Jake and Richard, they where now spotting fields looking for another tom to set up on. As the drove past a high hillside a lone bird stood out, a brownie. Moving down the road a little further Jake spotted two strutters at the base of the hill on the forests edge. It's now about 7:30am and everyone is thinking triple. With Jamie on camera Jake and Richard headed down in the woods to give these two birds a shot. They never saw the birds once they got into position, looks like they were busted. Minutes later 3 shots ring out in the distance and a bird sounded off about 400 yards to the left. While walking in that direction two more gobbles come from the top of the ridge. They get up against a few trees and hit the diaphragm call, were they came. The two birds headed down the hill, at the 30 yard mark both Richard and Jake unloaded. Two more down. While headed back to the house they spot Bruce and Doug hunched down in the upper field. Jake gets out of the truck and lets a few calls loose . Sure enough Bruce had been filming Doug as 3 long beards strutted just out of their range. It took quite some time, this bird strutted back a forth for a while but Doug finally got a clear shot and took his second bird of the weekend. In all the team had 7 NY birds harvested on tape in just 3 days, the weekend started slow but couldn't finished up much better.

Tags: NY Turkey

05.02.03
Things were looking better on Saturday morning. Bruce, Jake and Jamie were back on the same birds they had hunted the day before, meantime Doug and John had paired up and headed back to Doug's opening day hot spot. Things were looking good for Doug and John, the birds were talkative and had flown down to the exact spot they had hoped they would. John captured beautiful footage of 4 white heads coming over the ridge and down to the decoys in the early morning light. At about 20 yards Doug let the lead fly and had his first gobbler of the '09 NY spring season and his first after a two year hiatus from turkey hunting. Bruce and Jake had the birds pounding early but a grumpy hen would eventually lead the flock down the hill and out of sight. After a game of cat and mouse the crew decided it was time to move on to a new spot. Switching it up Brent and Jake headed out. Bruce teamed up with Jamie and Doug paired again with John to give it another shot for the afternoon. The birds kept well hidden in the wooded areas but Brent and Jake had zeroed in on a young jake and a nice long beard. After a little work on the Illusion slate the birds were on their way. Making and unexpected turn into the thick brush Jake got the camera settled on the strutting tom and jake in tow. Brent turned and made a great shot, blowing a tree limb to pieces and stopping the big bird in his tracks. Well day 2 was in the books and the team was on the board.

Tags: NY Turkey

05.01.09
The NY opener was a rough one for the SOTV Team, high early morning winds kept the birds treed and very quiet. As the morning went on everyone gradually started hearing and seeing birds but no one could get one to commit. Jake and Jamie bumped birds off the roost and John came close to scoring but had a long distance miss. Doug would eventually team up with Jake and Jamie, meeting up with them while they were working a flock of jakes and possibly a tom. This group would soon disperse without offering a shot and the search was on again. After a good hike 2 strutters were spotted in the distance. The hunt was on. Sneaking down a draw into a patch of woods the team had set up on a very vocal flock. The hens held the toms at bay and the team made the call to move into a better position. After moving 40 yards out of their setup the strutter was hot on their heals. Setting up again in a less than desirable position the team waited for a shot. The big long beard would make to the 45 yard mark before getting spooked and darting off. Doug took a poke at him but hit the ground just behind the bird as he took flight down the hill and out of sight. Day 1 ended in a shutout, long beards 1 - The SOTV Team zip. We all ended up back at the house to talk about what went wrong and began to strategize for the following morning.

Tags: NY Turkey

04.30.09
Back out in MA today, yesterday the team left the woods empty handed unfortunately. Today looked like it was going to much of the same until Jake and Jamie moved a few hundred and yards and the woods began to light up with the sounds of toms gobbling all around them. Jake was on the gun and had a few birds going but then they turned quiet. They pulled a loop calling as they went and as they got back to their original location a tom was coming in hot. They got set up and soon saw the bird that was making the commotion appear in the distance. This bird worked it's way into them, crossing a stream and walking right into their ambush. At 40+ yards Jake laid the hammer down. First bird of the day! As Jake and Jamie were shooting a post hunt wrap up another bird sounded off not to far away. Jake handed Jamie the gun and got behind the camera. Minutes after switching it up in came a tom followed by two jakes. After closing the distance the birds began to walk away but before they could Jamie took the tom at 30 yards with Jake's Benelli. Another fantastic day of hunting and another double in MA! Now the team would be headed to NY opener there.

Tags: MA Turkey

04.27.09
Well the spring turkey season has been very generous to the team thus far. The Massachusetts season started with a double on opening day. First Jake took our good friend Billy out to score his first long beard and boy did he. After a very quiet sit in their first spot they moved to another spot and again nothing, they had no idea where all the birds they had scouted had disappeared too. Back into the truck they went with their opening day hopes shattered. They drove to another spot, stopped, called and again heard nothing. Back into the truck again. As they drove away they spotted a hen on the side of the road and turned quickly around to see if a tom was in the area. As they got closer to the hen a bird pounded near were they had just stopped minutes before. Game on, into the woods they went. It didn't take too long before a monster of a bird was only 20 yards away and in Billy's sight. Jake had called this bird away from a hen and his day was about to turn into a bad one. Billy's shot flattened the long beard where he stood. 22lbs 6oz. 1.1250" on the left, 1.250" on the right and to boot a double beard measuring a total of 17.3750 inches. Later Jamie took a beautiful bird that weighed in at 21lbs, had a 9.5000 inch beard and .7500 hooks. It was almost a triple but a hung up bird cut their day short. What an opening day in MA!

Tags: MA Turkey