Monday May 1, 2006- NY OPENER!!!!!!!

For some reason this didn't post when I originally posted it, I just found it saved, so here it is.

Okay, it is May 1st! I have been waiting for this day since May 31, 2005. Seriously, last year during turkey season I told Bill Lang that this is my favorite thing to do, and I told him I would verify that by telling him the same thing during bow season in the fall, which I did, multilple times. Last night I sat up on Puro's pond and listened for gobbles in the "corners", an area where I have permission on multiple properties around a certain intersection. One of my last hoots brought a single gobble from just across the road down in the creek bottom below the pine plantation. I knew right where the bird was, so I had my morning plan all ready! Jason Sayers met me out front at 4:30am and we drove up to the corners. We parked and walked down the road to the edge of the pine plantation. He hooted once and the bird gobbled about 100yds away, I knew where he was and the terrain was right, so we snuck into position around a small green knoll just inside the woods. It was warm, about 50 degrees and no wind and a clear sky. The bird gobbled his head off for a while until it was light enough to fly down. Jason was setup about 75yds from me towards the road and I was in the lower corner of the clearing. It was almost necessary for him to fly down to this perfect little opening to begin his daily courting. We split up to ensure we could cover the entire clearing, neither of us are that greedy that we HAD to setup together. Well, I saw the bird pitch down towards us, after I gave him a short, soft tree yelp on my new Woodhaven Scorpion. As soon as I heard him hit the leaves I gave him the good stuff, and he answered right back. He gobbled a bunch and then proceeded towards us! I shut up to draw him in the last few yards, so he didn't gobble back, and I was scanning for the first sight of that snowball boppin' through the woods. Well, next thing I knew I heard that all to familiar sound of spitting and drumming. Where was he? Well, he was standing directly behind a baby pine tree that was only about 3' tall. I could see him turning his head in search of a hen, but I didn't have a clear shot, he was only 35-40yds. He turned around and I couldn't see him anymore, so I just waited, and the next time I heard him, he gobbled about 150yds down in the woods. I called and he answered, and so on.....as I got more aggressive, he got more excited, and ran right back to the clearing. This time I saw him moving around the edge of the clearing, just out of Jason's sight, and too far for me to make a good shot. He poked his head up once to check for the hen, and didn't see anything, and went back down into the woods. Jason is against decoys for the most part, so I would like to blame this on him, however I didn't think we needed one in this situation. Oh well, what fun would a two minute hunt be right? We snuck down through the pine plantation to try and get ahead of him, and when we reached the edge of the extremely open hardwoods, we called once and were answered by the gobbler who was standing about 80yds in front of us and in plain view. We froze, waited for the right moment and sat down. I was able to coax him in again, he paralleled the edge of pines at about 60yds and wouldn't come any closer until Sayers started scratching leaves behind him, since he was laying flat on his back because he missed the tree he was trying to sit on. The scratching brought the bird closer, but he never offered a clear shot. The beard on this joker was over 10", I'm guessing between 11"-12". He eventually walked off again. We made one more circle on him, and when I set up I was within 50yds of him, but he just gobbled and walked off. I guess they don't get that big being stupid! We made tracks getting to the next spot only to walk up on another hunter before making our first attempt to locate a bird, so we went across the road to another spot I have. We setup in the most likely spot and called for a while to no avail. I thought I heard one gobble, way off, but that was it. Jason said the same thing, so we just walked out into a little opening and gave the box call a try. It was answered by a pile of birds up on a mountain. It was hard to hear because there are multiple streams in the area that drown out most sounds. We started up the hill, which is steep as hell, and as we neared the bench where I wanted to setup, we stopped to catch our breath. As we stood there calming down, the birds gobbled about 75yds to our right. I sat right where I was, and Jay ran back behind me about 70-80yds. His first call was answered by at least three birds, all sounding like jakes. I didn't care, I just wanted the action. These birds were cutting Jason off as he called and each one gobbled, double gobbled, and triple gobbled at the others gobbling, so there was quite a show in front of us! The first bird to appear was a longbeard, and he strutted at 50yds on the top of the ledge in front of me. He turned and made a few steps down the hill towards me, and then stopped behind a tree at 40yds and stutted. The next birds were two jakes that came running along the top edge of the ledge until they were 35yds from me and turned to head down the ledge. They gobbled and looked around for the hen that was making all that racket! Just then a bug flew into my eye and I didn't have any choice but to blink hard. The jakes saw me and started to putt, and turn circles. I thought that the jakes getting nervous would make the big boy step out from behind the tree, and I fixed my eyes on that area. Well, by the time the jakes and given me plenty of opportunity to shoot one of them, and walked off over the ledge, I had realized that the big bird had snuck out of there stage left, without me noticing. Screwed up, my fault, move on! We headed over to a piece of property where I didn't have permission, but had seen three jakes and a hen the day before. I put my life at risk and walked up to a house with three doberman pinchers to ask who owned the land. I stopped by the farmers house and got permission for hundreds of acres, including where I had seen the jakes. That farmer was quite a character, and that is another story all in itself. Anyway, to make a long story short, we called our way into the woods and about 400yds deep, we were answered by two birds less than 100yds away. We dropped in our tracks and got ready. The birds came in fast, and showed up to our right, both jakes. We didn't have our guns in the right direction, so we had to wait it out. One jake came straight at us until he was about 15 feet from Jason and I. At that point, he turned around and put his head in the leaves to find some food. Sayers rolled off his butt and onto his knees, and put the bead on the bird, making enough noice to scare any wild animal within a few hundred yards. The bird never even lifted his head. With a quick yelp from his mouth, Jason raised the birds head and then lowered it with a bang. First bird of the year, down at 11:10am on May 1! We made it back to the house in time for me to get picked up by Jason and Libby and hear about Beeler shooting his first turkey ever with Greg and Tyrell over in Middleburg, NY. Congrats to both on their birds!