[JerseyFJ40]

Me and my buddy Max went out saturday morning... and like most other guys in the woods, get soaking wet. We "walked and talked" most of the day so we covered a lot of ground.... but we didn't even hear a gobble or see a turkey until we were on our way home and the rain had all but stopped. But it was still a pretty good day. Early in the morning, just after leaving the truck, we spotted a brown raccoon looking thing up a tree... turns out it was a porqupine (sp). I didn't even know they lived in jersey. We saw quite a few deer early on too... mostly does and yearlings. About 9:30, Max found a real nice 4 point shed... and then I think I may have seen the deer that left it... a really big bodied buck with about 6 inches of velvet already coming off his head. Shortly after that, I found coyote scat that was almost all hair... then I saw the coyote that probably left it... a really big one (probably 40 or 50 lbs and almost all blond... it almost looked like a white shepard). He was coming up a ridge as I was looking off it into the valley below. I stayed dead still until he was about 10 yards away then I yelled "BOO!!" It looked at me, turned, and ran at about mock 5 back down the hill. I'm surprised the thing made it through the winter... he had a really bad case of mange... his coat was patchy and matted and the last 3/4 of his tail was completely hairless. I think the scat was his... he was probably licking his coat and ingesting the hair. I also found a possum skeleton but didn't want to take the skull... rabies are way to rampant in Jersey for me to chance it. So we finished out the day with no birds but still had some fun.[up]

 

[JerseyFJ40]

AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

Well another day, another missed oportunity. I made it out early and was in the area I wanted to hunt at 5:30. I started moving along the ridge around 6:30 and heard a gobble around 7:30, I got him to gobble back once but he moved off the join some hens I heard in the distance. [mad]I waited about a half hour and went after them. I caught up to them around 9. I was on top of the ridge looking down into a valley when I heard him gobble from somewhere up the other side. I set up my decoy and called again to locate him. He was in the bottom of the valley already coming to me so I couldn't move down closer. I heard some hen yelps so I started calling to them. Every time they cut or yelped, I called, and he cut me off with a gobble... and everytime he was closer but I still couldn't see him. It got to the point that he sounded like he was right in front of me and I STILL COULDN'T SEE HIM. [mad]

Then it started to rain.[mad] We both shutup. After a 15 minute shower, and a 5 minute wait for good measure, I called again... nothing. So I called again... nothing. I figured he had moved off so I waited another 5 minutes in silence and decided to set up on him again down in the valley. I left the decoy where it was and started heading down the hill slowly. Much to my surprise, there was on old logging road cutting through the hillside 30 yards in front of me. I couldn't see it at all becuase it was so recessed into the hill... I also couldn't see the two hens and tom AT FULL STRUT for the same reason. I saw them as they saw me and just as I put the bead of my gun on the (now flying) toms head, a hen cut in front of him. SON-OF-A...[mad]

So I called it quits and went trout fishing.

 

[JerseyFJ40]

That's true... but the weather the past two saturdays hasn't been all that cooperative.[mad]

 

[JerseyFJ40]

During the week it's nice and on Saturday it rains. I'm starting to see a pattern here

In all the time I've spent outdoors, I have found one undeniable truth... Nature is a Mother!!

 

[JerseyFJ40]

That is a hell of a shot. I know a turkey is a small, thin skinned animal, but will you still be able to kill at that range?

 

[JerseyFJ40]

I'll be out there too... hopefully the weather hold and my luck changes.

 

[JerseyFJ40]

SON-OF-A...

I just saw the weather forecast for this weekend... there is a nor'easter forming that may hit this saturday and sunday!![mad][mad][mad]

We saturday hunters can't get a break!![mad][mad][mad]

 

[JerseyFJ40]

Thanks for pouring salt on an open wound.[mad]

 

[JerseyFJ40]

[mad][mad][mad][mad][mad]Notice the more times I go out, the madder I get?

My buddy and I heard a gobbler early yesterday morning... he gobbled twice (about 200 yards out in front of us) and we never heard him again. After some fruitless scouting and glassing, we decided to put some miles under our feet. We walked and talked about 3 or 4 miles and didn't even get a gobble back (either from shocking or hen calls). I know the birds are there... they're just shut lipped. I may be hitting NY next week, maybe I'll have better luck there.

But I did see a few bear yesterday... a big sow with a cub (probably between 60 and 80 lbs so it must have been a year old)... the sow was 3 or 4 times the size of the cub. Then a little later on, saw another cub without momma... which always makes me nervous.

 

[JerseyFJ40]

You know what I mean wiseguy

 

[JerseyFJ40]

Good luck man... I may be up that way too.

 

[JerseyFJ40]

Well, I give up.[mad][mad][mad][mad]

The birds in the Walpack area are so quiet it defies biology. I know they are there, I see them in the afternoons when I'm leaving or while I'm trout fishing. In four weeks I have yet to hear a bird gobble off the roost and have only worked two birds but neither would commit.

Yesterday, I headed to the top of the ridge I've started on for four weeks hoping to get a chance at the bird tom that normally roosts there. As usual, no gobbles from the roost and at 6:00am I saw a hunter walking right past his normal roosting area making more noise than an entire flock. So I headed out and saw two more hunters on my way back to my truck. I headed down the valley a ways to a spot with no road access. I parked and walked in about two miles before I heard a gobble. He was about 400 yards out on private property, I moved to within sight of the property line and set up. I called sporadically for about 15 minutes and he would call back 2 out of every 3 times I called. I decided to get more aggressive and started using a jake gobble call with my hen call. That pissed him off. I called with a hen call, gobbled with the jake call, then he would gobble. He occasionally gobbled on his own and I would gobble back with the jake call... he was moving in on me. He stopped short at about 100 yards and wouldn't budge... I couldn't see him, I'm only estimating where he was... my decoys were about 40 yards behind me so I know he couldn't see them. I pretty much stopped calling hoping to pique his interest but he eventually moved back to his original spot and no matter what I did, I couldn't get him to come back in. Since he was on private property, I couldn't even relocate on him. I eventually moved up the ridge behind me and glassed him in a field... all alone.. he was gobbling hoping to get a girlfriend to come to him. That was the only bird I heard all day.

Well, I'm heading up to Lake ontario next weekend for browns and jacks so my NJ season is over... hopefully my luck changes up there. This is the first time ever I've haven't filled a turkey tag.