Just a update for you all. I know that you have been dying to hear this. ( Yeah Right.)
I have been out every day since Friday May 5th. The birds are gobbleing great on the roost and we have been in the game everyday morning except for Sunday morning. Here is the kicker. We have not really heard more that 3 gobbles after 7 30 am. They are totally henned up. I have never seen them this tight to the hens. They will not even come to the open fields like they use to strut around. This a huge change from May 1st and 2nd when they were going crazy. Just a little update. I saw that Fullback tagged out. Awesome. 5 more days left to hunt and the weather sound like it is going to cooperate. Keep your fingers crossed.

Good Luck,

Tom

Stay after em.......Besides the one my buddy killed, the two that I killed were subordinate gobblers and that broke off the bunch and slipped off to check me out.........I actually witnessed one sneaker do this......my buddy and I got on some hot gobbling turkeys one morning, and it ended up being a hord of em.......we watched 3 big strutters pass, following hens, some subordinate two year olds(assuming that) and some jakes......probably around 20 turkeys altogether and almost half of em were gobblers.......but as the turkeys were passing by, out about 60-70 yards....the last gobbler stopped and froze.....and after the hord went out into the field and started to drift out of hearing, I made a little yelp, and his head instantly turned white and he started strutting and made a bee-line straight up there and got him a facefull of shot.....that was a pretty cool hunt, pretty cool to witness him sneakingly stop and let the others walk off, and when the coast was clear, act like he was a big stud.

For the woods to be this quiet, this early into the season, it means only one thing, the dreaded "gobbling Lull"!! Meaning that the breeding is going on hot-n-heavy right now, hence the need to gobble isn't there!! Give it another few days to a week, and I bet it will awesome again when they start up that second gobbling peak!! This morning I spooked two hens off their nests, and each nest had 12 eggs!! That means they are getting close to sitting and less time going to the gobbler!!

Yesterday I was walking through some tops from where they logged and I kicked out two hens that were nesting. I did not count the eggs but there were a bunch in both nests.

So here is the best chance of the week. around 730 am yesterday I heard two birds gobbling up a storm. So I cut the distance set up and they were on thier way, coming in strong. They gobbled aounf 50yds out but could not see them. I could hear them walking. Then all of a sudden that dreadful hen slipped in between me and them and that was the end of it. I saw her slip in ang thought it was one of the guys. Boy was I wrong. They gave me a gobble about 200 yds out just to say hi.

What a lull in NY. I picked a bad week.

Tom

Just to let everyone know that I did take a Jake this moring in NY my last day to hunt here. Weight about 15 pounds and sported a 5.5 inch beard. It really was not what I was thinking I was going to take but We hunted hard for 6 days to no eval. The birds are tight to the hens. The jake came in not making any sound at all. He stayed around for 30 minutes or so before I shot him. I was hoping his father was behind him. But he was not., I am done for the season in VA and NY. Thanks for all the tips the helped out great. I will post a pic as soon as I get home.

Tom