Blog Posts
Last Call in NY

Best wishes to my fellow turkey hunting brethren still in the chase to fill a tag- As you can see, Our Viking Diva is warming up on my shoulder. 11:59:59 AM, the reigning queen of the opera sings the last act tomorrow.
No pressure… hunt smart, and you’ll send her packing.
Gobblers here in CNY are far fewer in number than most of us old timers remember. With longbeards being of the strong and silent type, the best or worst among us hunters can’t buy a gobble in many anecdotal reports.
Run and gunning may leave you eating a tag this late in the season. Play it old school. Confidence calling, feeding purrs, whips, and whistles, light clucks, and very soft yelping. If one stomps your call with a voracious gobble, get ready as they’ll likely not gobble again and come in swift but silent. Exceptions duly noted. With four weeks of renewed education, errors on our part in the turkey woods during the final hours will not be forgiven with second chances.
With an abundant but unfortunate supply of wet, cool weather, many hens have come off the nests and we have a dating/mating reset with the clock running out. If a hen challenges you, then you have to answer her appropriately. Girlfriend gets the boyfriend in trouble every time, and you may find one not on her first nest yet if you had a very late second or third hatch from last year. Too young to mate, but he’ll follow her anyway.
If you go in loud, you’ll likely leave empty handed. They’ve been chased all season, and any mistake you make will be an exit stage left with an alarm putt if you get any indication at all that you messed up. The foliage is thick as ever, and when a gobbler is pursued by a variety of predators, there is no tolerance for a clumsy two-legged one either. However far you may think he gobbled from, it might be better to halve that estimation in the woods now.
As they are not talking much now, any sightings are key tactical data. If you can get out and roost tonight, it may be the final clue to the last day. Bring your binoculars and glass as much as you can. With the foliage fully out, you can get in close, but you’ll have to be there very early tomorrow morning. The forecast is for more rain tomorrow, the last day, yet this morning is a rather nice one.
Hunt all the way to your spot, and all the way back to the truck, the entire hunt can turn around in 30 seconds, and the action can be fast and furious. On State Game Lands this past Wednesday, I filled a second tag, less than 150 yards away from my truck as I hunted back to it. It took him a full 20 minutes to show after a half gobble/half yelp.
Stay sharp, safe, and alert.
Best of luck in the final remaining hours of the season. Now if we can get this lady off our damn shoulders…
© 2025 Mike Joyner- Joyner Outdoor Media
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Turning Wishing Into Fishing

I would like to introduce my readers to a fantastic organization- Chasing Dreams Charters. I came to know of them this past week at the 2025 NYSOWA Spring Conference in Lewiston, NY. I got to spend a little time with Ned Librock, Founder of Chasing Dreams Charters, and came away with a firm understanding of who they are and the good works they do. To meet Ned is to like him, and it is a short study to know what he brings to the table in helping children deal with the difficulties of cancer and subsequent treatments. A fun and relaxing time on the water fishing is therapeutic in as many ways as any of us can think of.
Ned has assembled a fantastic and capable team of charter boat captains and a solid board of directors. To support their mission, they work closely with Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, coordinating programs with The Courage of Carly Fund and the Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) program.
I borrow and repeat from their published mission and website, and I strongly recommend that if you can support them in their mission, it will be well worth your efforts.
Catching Dreams Charters, Inc. a 501(c)(3) not for profit, provides fishing adventures for children and young adults battling cancer! Fishing Therapy for Cancer Kids! Cancer at any age is terrifying. Our motto of “turning wishing into fishing” promotes fishing therapy as a psychosocial therapy for these young warriors.
If you would like to donate to the mission, or have resources that can help expand to more of New York and reach more afflicted children, Contact Ned at 716-870-5326
To learn more visit-
https://catchingdreamscharters.org https://www.facebook.com/catchingdreamscharters
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Final Week Of CNY 2025 Spring Turkey season

Those with turkey tags still in their wallets may have a tall order to fill in the Central New York area. Being one of the wettest and coolest months of May I can remember makes it much more difficult. News reports indicate temperatures 20-degree degrees lower than average norms, and so far, the rainiest in the past 20 years. the past week around Cortland County, it appears that hens have come off their nests, and are looking to re-nest again. The lack of gobbling is another indicator. There will be exceptions, and like many things, it’s all about location, location, location. Like many of you, I see the smiling pics with gobblers with the obvious results of a great hunt on social media, texts, and emails, and there are hot spots to be had. Should you wake up to a bird that is gobbling his fool head off, you are a fortunate person in our area. I cover a lot of ground, so far I can’t buy a gobble.
The first nesting is thought to be the most successful for brooding, and has the best chances for poult survival. I believe we are looking at a second and possibly a third attempt at it. The cool, wet weather makes it easier for predators to find the eggs and will also increase the chances of nabbing a hen that may be trying to protect the nest. Second and third time around, the predators have figured out what to look for. Gobblers with well-stocked harems and hens out and about early and late in the day are not what you want to see in the last week of the season. If your areas, honey holes, are way down in turkey sightings, it might be good to let it rest, or hunt more fruitful hunting grounds. My scouting from last fall to the present so far has me checking all my spots to keep track, but declining to hunt them there. My personal choice is not to be that one hunter who takes the last gobbler left in an area. I have always thought it best to leave plenty for the next season and not overhunt great parcels of turkey woods.
Having started turkey hunting in 1993, I have memories of many spots I hunted with dozens upon dozens of gobblers targeted to hunt and pursue. Fast forward 33 seasons, I foresee a one-tag only in the spring coming or possibly a temporary hold for several seasons to improve and protect the populations, but that, of course, is decided on much more than my single anecdotal data point by the wildlife biologists and managers at NYSDEC. With much more research underway, the results and determinations are highly anticipated for what comes next in the great Empire State.
I have a few spots in the county and several invites in other areas of the state that I may still hunt before our Viking Diva makes a curtain call. With decent-sized flocks at hunting grounds that I do spend time at, it might be a very quiet and patient style of hunting. With another week of rain predicted, I’m not at all concerned about having a tag left in my pocket. Not my first rodeo.
As difficult as it may appear, where you hunt, all is not lost. Time for old school tactics. Without much gobbling, patience, and scouting are your tools. Roosting in our area has not produced much this season, but a chance sighting or a shock gobble jerked out of a gobbler at the last slivers of daylight may be the key to putting you on a long beard the following morning. After three weeks of being hunted, the birds are going to be coy and very cautious. More so than normal. The foliage and cover are thick and as green as we have ever had. With the grass in the fields getting very tall, plowed fields and open ridge tops are likely spots to find them.
Not likely you will get second chances on sloppy hunting. This means quiet walking, no unnatural noises or lids of box calls squeaking, etc. You may get a bird to gobble or only cluck at you one time. It may take an hour before they appear. Spit and drumming while they strut may be the only thing you hear. Again, you need to be focused and ready. When it does happen it will likely be fast, with the gobbler departing if he does not see what he came for. You will likely have better success by toning down the calling or at least testing the waters before getting aggressive with your calls. Remember by now they have heard it all, and will be suspect of a mouthy ‘hen’ that doesn’t shut up. Even the jakes will be three weeks wiser, and be just as hard to call to the gun. Soft clucks. whines and purr’s will get the job done.
Like many of you, I got into turkey hunting for the heart pounding action, and thundering gobbles. Not much of that this year. This season I experienced mornings of hard gobbling in Texas and Maine, not the case here in my spots in NY. So far, I have not had those periods of three and four days of excited gobbling that we usually get. Weather. reduced populations and hen availability have a big role in that. I filled my first tag on a morning with a single gobble by revisiting a known roost and good positioning of the gobbler with five hens in tow. He was a good bird, and glad to have got him, but I do love to hear them gobble.
From here until the last day, you may only hear a cluck, a fly down or fly up, that may be as much as you will hear. The rewards for sticking it out, and being patient may be a big old gobbler. Some of the oldest and more difficult gobblers are tagged near the very end of May, and well worth the effort.
BTW, much of this is repeated from a post made in 2011, and bits of commentary from other wet cool springs in Central New York.
Good luck on the final days of season!
© 2025 Mike Joyner- Joyner Outdoor Media
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Turkey Hunters’ Tall Tales?

Hmmm, heard this somewhere before. When it comes to measuring trophy aspects of our quarry, we might be outdone by fishermen, but there are doubts…
A prefix to this commentary: The subject of records, trophy aspects is one of a novelty, and excellent fodder for the diner, tailgate discussions, hunt clubs, and debate at hunt camps. The experience of the hunt itself, time spent with others, is most important in my view. Like antlers, spurs, and beards, they don’t eat well, unsuitable for soup stock.
As of late, the embellishments (or bending of the truth) appear to be heightened to a comical observation, although this commentary might ruffle some feathers and deflate a few claims. It is a foolhardy, harmless embellishment, unless someone’s forcefully claiming a record bird. In the end, your birthdays will remain unchanged, death and taxes will still prevail…
Noticeably increased observation of social media since the May 1st opener in New York reveals truly great gobblers, smiling hunters, which are the happy outcomes of a great day in the turkey woods. As an author and one who tracks records in the great Empire State, there are norms observed and expected, and it captures my interest when a gobbler exceeds in exceptional characteristics, as claimed.
Those of us with many seasons tucked away as fond memories will have more than a few gobblers encountered as hefty carries back to the truck. We’ll be able to eyeball rather quickly as to being of nominal expected size/weight, and lengths of beards and spurs, akin to deer hunters who can gauge racks and weights of whitetail bucks to within close to measured results. In the social media space, with a little lack of civility, opinions may vary.
Turkey hunters often exaggerate the weight of their gobblers due to a mix of tradition, pride, and some genuine confusion in measurement. Here’s why it happens:
1. Field Dressing Confusion: Turkeys are often weighed after being field-dressed (internal organs removed), but some hunters report the weight before. This can cause significant weight differences—up to a couple of pounds, depending on live weight. An 18-pound gobbler carries up to a pound and a half of entrails. These delta anecdotal differences are observed from involvement with spring and fall turkey contests for many years, in which rules dictated field-dressed for weight measure, and to cool the meat and mitigate spoilage, hopefully shortly after being tagged in the field.
2. Lack of Accurate Scales: Many hunters use inaccurate spring scales, cheap electronic scales of questionable accuracy and affected by battery strength, or just guess based on feel. In a turkey contest, you might be surprised how many soaking wet birds are brought in to measure/score on a perfectly sunny day. Sometimes hunters use a coveted measuring device: “SEF Weight Scale.” Surprisingly, the “Shoulder-Elbow-Forearm” weight measuring triangle is the ultimate weight scale device among some turkey hunters. One simple lift of the bird will result in a 25-pound estimate in an eager and optimistic view. Asking for a weight coupon, or placing the bird on a verified, accurate scale will not gain you many friends in such situations. All humor aside, it is an observation of casual conversations.
3. Bragging Rights & Storytelling Culture: Hunting, especially turkey hunting, has a strong oral tradition. Telling stories of the “25-pounder” is part of the culture—even if that bird was the typical norm of 18-19 pounds.
4. Misjudging Size: Wild turkeys in their appearance, look deceptively large due to their feathers. A 20-pound bird feels massive after carrying it through the woods, especially early in the morning.
5. True Big Birds Are Rare: A wild gobbler in New York over 25 pounds is genuinely rare. The average reported weight for an adult gobbler in New York runs 18-19 pounds. So when someone thinks they got a record book bird, they might lean into that claim, whether or not it’s verified. It’s all part of the mystique and fun of turkey hunting, though the conscientious, more serious hunters do strive for accurate records. A 22-pound or heavier gobbler coming at you in the turkey woods will appear as Gobzilla, and a world apart from the size of a 18-pound bird.

Turkey hunters often exaggerate the length of beards and spurs for similar reasons they exaggerate weight—but with a few unique twists tied to measurement error, ego, and tradition. Here’s why it happens:
1. Improper Measuring Technique: Beards should be measured from the skin (base) to the longest strand, pulled straight, not curved or fluffed. Spurs should be measured along the outside curve to the tip, not in a straight line from the middle to the tip. Some hunters measure around the spur or include feathers in beard length, which inflates the numbers.
2. No Standardization in the Field: Some hunters are using a tape measure incorrectly or, worse, eyeballing it. That leads to inconsistency and overestimation.
3. Ego and Bragging Rights: Long spurs and beards are often seen as signs of a mature, trophy gobbler. Hunters may stretch the truth—“That gobbler had a 12” beard!”—because it makes for a better story. We all know that 6” is sometimes expressed as 12”. We’ll stop there and keep it clean.
4. Beard Clumping Illusion: Some gobblers have multiple beards or thick, ropey beards that look longer than they are. Broken strands that haven’t dislodged. Been fooled a few times with that.
5. Curved Spurs or Fat Spurs Create Optical Illusions: Spurs with tight curves can look shorter than they measure along the curve. Wide or fat spurs can appear shorter compared to narrow, needle-like spurs.
© 2025 Mike Joyner- Joyner Outdoor Media
. #turkeyhunting #nywildturkeyrecords #wildturkey #nyturkeyrecords #recordbookgobblers
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NY Turkey Records 2025

If you tag a gobbler that meets the criteria listed below near the end of this post or in future editions that are anticipated, I would love to interview you for inclusion in the Empire Limbhangers book project. Although your stories and photos will be captured for the book, you will retain rights to your photo’s and your story. Should you wish to have the story I write up used for other uses. Copyright permissions can be granted as needed.
The main issue with keeping it all legit for the project is typically weight as most of the small scales that are used to weigh fish can vary +/- 1 to 2 lbs or more. A weight coupon from a certified scale ensures accuracy and proof of measurement. Otherwise, it can be legitimately challenged. The scale should be suitable for products or goods for sale that are taxed in the state. I live in Cortland County and own several scales suitable for trade with a 25lb calibration weight with certification tracible to NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology, formerly National Bureau of Standards,) and can also provide a video of calibration and the actual weighing of your gobbler. I will be glad to do so, and there is no fee.
Pics with tape measurement in the pics are required to show scale and accuracy for beards and spurs. There are several handy products to help measure spurs (including the curved outside edge) but as of this writing, none aside from a tape measure cover the spur measurements that have been described going back decades as published by the NWTF http://turkey-talk.com/scoresbpmeasure.html#spus As the decades long description covers the entire exposed spur that can occur below the outer edge of the leg, it is more often that the exposed spur is even with the leg edge. Anecdotal, as such, the differences observed have not exceeded 1/8″. As the calculation is x10 or x32 for each spur it is a detail to be aware of.
Anecdotal evidence unfortunately cannot be used to substantiate record book entries no matter how good the stories are.
Best bet if you think you have one for the books: weigh the gobbler on a certified scale and be sure to get a weight coupon. Take plenty of photos including those with a tape measure. NWTF requires witness signatures that also have to be an NWTF member if you wish to participate in their records program. Safari Club also has a program but is not viewable unless a member. I may include them if details can be worked out in the future.
Record entries not included in the NWTF system once verified can be accepted. You will note that the NWTF requires verifications that I have mentioned and I will accept their determinations for the project. I do support their system and would encourage you to enter your submission with the NWTF as well. NWTF submissions are now accepted online: www.nwtf.org/hunt/records.
Scoring tabulations for the project will include the NWTF system, and the SBP weighted system. for more info on SBP http://turkey-talk.com/scoresbp.html
For those that I have contacted or attempted to contact at the beginning of the project: Your stories will be available to review as I complete them.
If you have harvested a legally tagged wild turkey with one or more of the following attributes in NY during the 2023-2024 spring/fall seasons, or years prior, registered or not registered w/NWTF records, We would love to talk to you about being included in the book!
Please contact mjoyner@joyneroutdoormedia.com
Note: Non registered birds- measurable attributes must be verified for consideration.
Typical score greater than 75.000 (weight x1 + beard x 2 + L & R spur x 10)
Non-Typical score greater than 105.000 (weight x1 + beard(s) x 2 + L & R spur x 10)
Weight greater than 26.5 lbs. (verifiable certified weight)
Beard Length greater than 12″ (verifiable length)
Spur Length greater than 1.625″ (verifiable length)
Color phase variations, Hens with spurs
http://empirestatelimbhangers.com/
© 2025 Mike Joyner- Joyner Outdoor Media
. #turkeyhunting #nywildturkeyrecords #wildturkey #nyturkeyrecords #recordbookgobblers
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Opening Day New York Spring 2025

From all of us at Joyner Outdoor Media, we wish hunters heading out into the great Turkey Woods of New York for the 2025 Spring Turkey Season Opener a safe and most memorable morning and season afield in our great forests.
Be diligent in firearm safety and identify your quarry 100%. Do your part to ensure each of us turkey hunters makes it back safely to hunt again another day. If someone beats you to a spot, give them room to work the gobbler, move on to another spot, and check it later in the morning. If someone comes in on you, do not turkey call or wave. Speak in a firm voice- “I’m a hunter.” Courtesy and ethical behavior makes for plenty of respect and positive experiences.
We hope that you are inspired while spending time in the places that feathered monarchs thunder gobbles from the many old and ancient roost trees well known to the prepared, and set your hearts racing in anticipation.
© 2025 Mike Joyner- Joyner Outdoor Media
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Take the Time

To my turkey-hunting brethren, for that matter, deer hunting buddies, upland game hunting friends, and the hordes of fishermen I know: Take the time to capture a memory.
It is not the goal of incessant social media posting or creating shrines to one’s self.
Take the time to write in a daily journal, take the time to set up your camera to capture your hunt, and take the time to capture anything that attracts your eye. Sure, it might take ten to twenty minutes. Sit back down and write in your smartphone if you have to. Sometimes, it is a productive habit to write out your thoughts while waiting for the sunrise and the birds to gobble. Don’t like to write? Make a voice memo. The eggs and coffee at the diner will be there when you get there. Trust me, they’ll make more.
Attend to the trophy parts, ensure a clean harvest of the meat, and cool it properly, and ready to cook or put away in the freezer. The collections of beards, tail fans and spurs, along with the enjoyment of a hunter’s bounty, are all part of the hunt and your memory of it.
The emphasis here is to have the captures available years from now, as decades later, and if you put enough days afield, the stories and recollections merge, bits and pieces become one until you think long and hard and sort it all out. I can assure you from real-world experience. I started chasing gobblers in 1993. Since then, between spring and fall seasons in New York and add in out of state hunts both spring and fall it is fair to say that I’ve been afield somewhere north of a thousand mornings, and a lion’s share of all day hunting or combined with scouting and roosting over three decades. I can kick myself for not burning through rolls of film before digital cameras were cheap enough and all the rage. Had I not written out my story books as I have, starting in 2005, I would have much of it now as distant memories and so glad I captured them.
You’ll thank me many years from now should you adopt this as part of your hunt. It has never been easier with smartphones to quickly capture your thoughts, your story, and photos. You may not fancy yourself as a writer or photographer, but I can guarantee you that over time, you will find your skills, voice, and style, and it improves greatly with practice. I can tell you that as I age, officially entering the retirement years with no signs of actually retiring, that without the photos from my good cameras or smartphone, the note taking, and the story captures I incrementally do with each hunt, I would have far more difficulty in separating each hunt, as I have been blessed with so many fantastic days in the turkey woods. I know so many of you that are afield as I am, and there are hundreds of stories to tell. It would be my goal to encourage more of you to keep a journal. Turkey hunters as storytellers do not play second fiddle to any fisherman, and I encourage you to share those stories.
What I hope to strongly impart with each of you is that having these captures is instrumental to having vivid recall of each of these hunts. As time passes, this becomes an essential habit to enjoying these memories. Think of this arm-twisting as my gift of hard-earned wisdom. As we are soon to embark on the 2025 Spring Turkey Season in New York, I wish you all the best in your days afield.
© 2025 Mike Joyner- Joyner Outdoor Media
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NY NWTF $100K Commitment to Forests and Flocks Initiative
State Chapter President Eric Davis, on behalf of the New York NWTF Chapter, announced and presented a check to the Forests and Flocks Initiative, supporting future projects in New York in mid January 2025. The $50,000 commitment for New York to the Forests and Flocks Initiative will match other state commitments that cover a 13 Northeast state region.
The other $50,000 committed over a five-year period will go to the creation of an endowed professorship in the Northeast. The endowed professorships are an important goal for the new Forests and Flocks Initiative.
The donation/commitments celebrate the state chapter’s 50th anniversary, and a commitment to wild turkey conservation research. A check was presented at the 50th annual awards dinner this past January.
For source press releases:
https://www.nwtf.org/programs/forests-and-flocks
© 2025 Mike Joyner- Joyner Outdoor Media
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Turkey Hunters-CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS Matter to you on Nov 5th 2024?

Let’s Start with the only rational answer- HELL YES…
A ‘Yes’ response serves no one if expressed only as lip service in the voting booth when it comes down to making a real difference. Core principles put to action is the only action that matters in your voices and our participation in the election process.
We are learning firsthand in real time that who wins elections has far reaching impact in nearly all aspects of our lives, making a living, raising our families, pursuing our passions, and the resulting absolute nonsense of our political circus. We winch and shake our heads constantly over this as we endure. It is a simple observation of hundreds of years of recorded history, and a dash of common sense, that without the ability to defend against tyranny as a citizen from the less than honorable human traits within our own government, there is no guarantee of the first amendment which had been significantly attacked in recent years and in the quest for political power and domination of opposing parties. There are no Nobel intentions in this narcissistic effort despite the ruse that is constantly in play to disarm opponents in political realms, and anyone who does not agree with faux narratives and party dictate.
As those of us who hunt, fish, and enjoy, use, and support gun ownership, we are treated rather poorly by far too many of our elected representatives and the monster of bureaucracy that is in need of a severe financial diet and retraction of authorities. Try to imagine us as citizens that are effectively neutered of firearm ownership and can be ran over rough shod by any rogue politician or power hungry political party. Cult of personality is not a valid factor if one cares about end goals being accomplished. The reaffirmation of the second and even the first amendment may be rightfully corrected in my lifetime should we wake up and participate and vote as one voice.
Voting day is upon us, whether you participated in early voting, absentee ballot or voting in person, make it count.
I will not demand what party you should affiliate with, or whom you should vote for. If voting today, I hope each of you took the time you look up each candidate, each party, and research their platform, their positions, and most importantly their past voting records and history. Too many change and flip flop to gain votes. We need steadfast constitutionalists, representing us as stewards of our constitution and champions of the first and second amendment rights we hold dear.
I will put forth that in critical review, I might not trust the flip flopping post non violent coup after a legal primary. Anti gunners, anti hunters will flip flop to get votes, but only long enough to get in the drivers seat. Make no mistake, you will come to regret protest or cult of personality voting while falling for the ruse, voting against a candidate that supports these essential amendments down the road.
The mainstream media, and social media actively steer your feeds and searches and what is presented to you on the first pages of your searches, Be mindful that others will forcefully tell you what is fact and what is not. It is evident the fact-checkers are suspect. There is too much at stake and all the stops are being pulled. As opponents of our positions are happy in the strategy of the ends justify the means to gut the first and second amendments, disarm us, and to end hunting and fishing as dictated by special interest groups.
As a whole, gun owners, hunters, archers, trappers competition shooters, and sportsmen in our grand union and especially in New York State fail miserably in casting ballots, despite a large demographic and cross-section of the population in the nation and the Empire State. If it is not our responsibility who then should this be assigned to,? Leftist Democrats bent on a single-party rule, Marxists, Socialists, Radical Fascists? Political parties make strategic calculations based on mediocre participation and furthers the lack of respect of us by those we send to Washington to represent our concerns and core values.
To be fair, there are those among us that vote with firm conviction, educated on the issues, and especially on those candidates professed to protect our first and second amendment rights. You know who you are and my comments are not intended to disparage your good efforts.
We are being browbeaten and dictated to by those that have no understanding or working knowledge of history, the second amendment, sustainable wildlife conservation, and yet allow us to pay our way while putting a virtual knee on our necks in every aspect of our activities and inalienable rights. The same folks that are quick to assert their first amendment rights are the very same that are bent on removing the first and second amendments for conservatives, those who refuse to kneel in front of them. Do we allow by the stroke of a pen to declare firearm owners felons by merely owning a legally purchased firearm? It can be argued that treason is being committed against the citizens of our country and entirely unconstitutional on its face.
The framers of our constitution and subsequent amendments intended that the second amendment be written purposely to defend against a tyrannical government and acts of treason upon us. It is that plain and simple. I am certain that the amendment was not written in the anticipation of a unruly uprising of monster gobblers and Boone and Crockett whitetail bucks
None of us alive today were born into servitude or as serfs to kings whom we broke away from in our founding. If you give a damn about your rights and freedoms and that of your loved ones, your neighbors, your brethren, the passive response, sitting out elections is not a responsible choice, and you must exercise your rights as a citizen.
We cannot afford to sit back and continue letting others do our bidding…
Note from the author: Some of this written in part is a reposting of prior comments and well worth their inclusion here.
© 2024 Mike Joyner- Joyner Outdoor Media
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River Boating for Fall Turkeys

With a bit of back-and-forth scheduling changes with work contracts during the summer, a fall turkey hunt trip back to the great state of Maine would follow the annual NYSOWA Fall Safari at Peck Lake.
As always, every trip to Maine to hunt with Dan Daman would be somehow different if not unusual, and a new experience. For several weeks leading up to the trip, Dan would inform me, that we might be doing a boat trip for fall turkeys and they were using a favored roost consistently. Music to my ears and added to the anticipation. With all the corn still up and unharvested in the many places we scout, this was a tactical improvement in the odds of working a fall flock of turkeys.
The drive from Peck Lake to Maine was a scenic one as I chose to take the northern route to enjoy a beautiful drive. Leaving just as the sky began to change I enjoyed an inspiring sunrise as I headed towards Rutland, Vermont to cross over the mountain passes toward Route 2 in New Hampshire. Well worth the extra drive time versus taking the major highways. I would scout more intently as I crossed into Somerset County, Maine. No feathered sightings were made until I drove over to meet Dan for a bit of scouting for turkeys. I did find a flock of gobblers on the way over, but not on a property we had access to.
Easy decision to go after the river access to a flock that had revealed themselves routinely that week. We took a flat-bottom Johnboat up the river to reach them. It was eerily quiet, almost surreal with the cool dense fog and near-pin-drop quiet in the predawn darkness. An ultra-quiet electric troll motor made the trip effortless, and just as quiet as our surroundings. We secured the boat and made the short uphill climb to our first sit. Turns out we had closed within 50 yards of the boss hen. It was a late start as far as turkey talk went. Once the boss hen opened up, we had a “significant” conversation up until she pitched down in the adjoining field.
The hen gathered her flock shortly after and we could hear her give a soft cluck in response to Dan’s slate call. She happened to like that slate call a lot. It was interesting when she got fired up on the roost, she sounded more raspy like the mouth call I was using. Switching back and forth between Dan and I, got her issuing 19-20 note assembly yelps, and we would add one more in response to keep her intensity at a peak. Having gone quiet for thirty minutes since fly down, I got up and moved toward a corner to a vantage point. I never got there as the flock was slowly working their way around. In short order, I lined up and took two young jakes. Maine allows five birds per fall season in some counties, no more than two on a given day in the fall. It was my first riverboat trip hunt for me, and I enjoyed the added element to the hunt. A prior boat trip in Clayton, NY to Grindstone Island during a NYSOWA Spring Safari was to get to the dock and then transported by truck to our hunting spots on the island. We thought that was pretty cool as well.






We would load up the boat and take a tour further upstream. Awesome views from the boat. On the way back we watch the entire flock fly out across the river in full view and a spectacular sight to behold.
A fantastic experience and will be added to our repertoire of approaches in the years ahead!
-MJ
© 2024 Mike Joyner- Joyner Outdoor Media
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