Final Days 2021 Spring Turkey Season in NY

With three days left, the fat lady is suiting up for the final curtain call. Whatever the strategy you plan to roll out for the end of the 31 day war may be, I’ll throw in what experience has taught me to some measure of success. Over many seasons you can assume I learn the hard way first. Eventually I regroup and come around to getting it done.

What you have observed during the past 28 days is essential information as to locations to try, changes in strutting areas, what hens have left the playing field to sit on their nests. In any late season advice, and one that I have adopted; I will generally play it old school. We do want to send the fat lady packing before show time. With exceptions noted, late season is about conservative tactics, having very recent sightings, and locations of birds willing to talk or at least show themselves.

Gobblers here in Upstate New York are acting like mid May birds as full green up takes place. There are pockets of hens reported still tagging along with gobblers,. In the stomping grounds I check on frequently in Cortland County, I am seeing gobblers alone or with a few hens, and single hens out and about later morning grabbing a quick meal before returning to their nests. As green out is in full swing, gobbling in many places is painfully nonexistent. As learned over many seasons, if you get within a gobbler’s comfort zone, his “bubble” you can get a welcomed response.

Running and gunning has in my opinion schooled a lot of the birds. The tactic has been less fruitful for the past several decades as the population has undeniably declined to a mere fraction of the past decade, and alarmingly so compared to the peak in the 1990’s. It has been a quiet season in Cortland and many hunters get antsy and move often, when a little patience would make for less wary birds. If you follow my musings you know I like my gobblers without an advanced education. If I can locate the dumbest gobbler in the county, I am all over it. The blessings of a kamikaze bird is a stroke of luck we seldom get to enjoy. With the reduced populations such encounters are even more rare.

I’ll repeat most of this advice from prior posts- Confidence calling, feeding purrs, whips and whistles, light clucks, and very soft yelping if any. If you get a gobble in response to your calling, get ready as they may not gobble again and come in silent. It is good advice to assume a silent approach. Late season encounters often conclude in minutes not hours. Both of the two birds I won over last season started and finished this way with minimalist calling. The only clues I had one coming for my first tag this year on the 19th in NY was a series of light yelps from a hen twenty eight minutes prior, and a deep cluck moments before the gobbler appeared at thirty yards. After chasing him for three mornings, he gave me some hard lessons but also left invaluable clues for me to act upon. I cashed them in just before noon on the third morning.

Woodsmanship plays a big roll in late season success, the scouting you did last June may yield the clue that puts you in close to where bachelor groups hang. When chasing hens no longer overrides their need to eat and replenish their fat reserves you’ll find them at likely food sources. All the scouting you did in March and April gives you a database of choice roosting trees, dusting bowls, and strutting areas. Most of the seasoned hunters I know actively scout as they hunt through May. Weeks old Intel has limited use as they are either moving to find receptive hens or hanging with other gobblers. If you can sight a gobbler going to roost you have a crucial clue for the morning. I normally would say listen for gobbling on the evening roost. Although others report some roosting success, I have experienced none of that this season. I learned to roost birds decades ago,and still do, but it has been very poor in producing clues unless I manage to lay eyes on them before they roost.

If you do get a hen that challenges you, match her and if she goes all in, add one more note, it either escalates quickly or whimpers out. Girlfriend mouthing off gets the boyfriend in trouble far more often than not.

Turkeys have been chased for four weeks and any mistake you make will in most cases result in a hasty exit. Attention to details on anything you wear or carry that makes an unnatural sound, the way you walk through the woods, calling too loudly, snapping twigs underfoot, are all subject to the scrutiny of a very wary bird. It is this scrutiny that amplifies what you can employ to your advantage. Using your fingers to imitate scratching for food in the leaves, using the brim of your hat to imitate a hen stretching her wings and scratching it on the tree bark is a far more effective call than you might first think.

Should you get a bird to gobble it should be noted that what you thought was two hundred yards in the woods three weeks ago is well under a hundred yards and closing. They often won’t gobble until very close, nearly in range the last week of the season, and if you aren’t focused and ready you may miss the opportunity.

If you can get out and roost each night, it may be the final and most useful clue for the Memorial weekend. With the foliage fully out you can get in close but you’ll have to be there very early tomorrow morning. Hunt all the way to your spot, and all the way back to the truck, the entire hunt can turn around in seconds and the action can be fast and furious. Stay sharp, safe, and alert.

Best of luck the final remaining mornings of the season.

-MJ

© 2021 Mike Joyner- Joyner Outdoor Media