I headed up to a different spot in NY this morning that is a little closer to home. My goal was to call in a bird with the cane yelper I made using a wingbone from the hen I shot on the 1st as the mouthpiece. I brought a long a couple box calls just in case but left the mouthcalls at home.
I didn't hear a peep off the roost and it was really windy and wet so I decided to walk for a bit. I walked through an area I thought would have turkeys and didn't hear or see a thing. About 9am I was moving to a new location when I thought I heard a yelp. I set up and made a few clucks on the yelper and after a half hour and no response I pulled out my trusty box from James(bowrebel) and made a few clucks. A hen started yelping below me to my left and crested the hill 25 yards in front of me followed by 5 or 6 young of the year. The hen was carrying on and her young were putting on a good show so I decided to sit back and take it all in. They continued to call as they moved off to the left of me.
11 am I walked to a different area and headed straight to the top of a ridge where I'd seen turkey sign. I set up and did my best gobbler cluck on the yelper every 15 minutes or so. All of a sudden after 45 minutes I see a dark black bird 50 yards to my left in some thick saplings. He stopped and looked my way letting me see that he had a nice beard before moving on out of sight. I sat until 12:30 before moving down the ridge 200 yards and set back up. I made a few yelps and thought I heard a bird yelp back but it was so windy it was tough to tell. Ten minutes later I saw 4 birds working up the ridge but headed away from me. They moved out of sight and I gathered my stuff and made a big circle in front of them to where I thought they would be going. 20 minutes into this setup a bird kee keed back to my yelps. I let out a few kee kees of my own and a couple birds answered. They worked their way into view at 40 yards and continuned my way. At 20 yards I let one have it and it dropped like a rock. Now the long 3 week wait until Pa opens up .
