Well this morning, the PA birds were a little more cooperative. I setup on them before light and they were very quiet in the trees. I thought this doesn't look good, but I'll give them a go anyway. I stayed quiet until fly down time, I didn't really want to tip them off. After fly down, I started calling and got an immediate answer. Then I heard the hens. The were hung up with the hens down over the side of a mountain and I was on the ridge. They would pace back and forth it sounded like but would never commit. I worked with them until about 8am. They quit gobbling at my calls, but would gobble at every crow they had a chance to. Strange.
I decided to go all or nothing, and move my position about 75 yards to my right, and closer to the ridgeline. Once setup I began calling sporadically, but no answer. Then, all of sudden there is a hen working her way toward me from the left. She went by and was most likely headed to nest. 10 minutes later, two toms popped up right in front of me, 50 yards out. It took them 20 minutes or better to make their way to 20 yards. I just used some soft yelps and clucks to pull them in. I killed the biggest one, which turned out to be a young tom with a 6 1/2 beard and 1/2 spurs.
I'm pretty tickled. I left my tradition boxcalls at home and went solo with the mouth calls for the first time ever. I just started using them this year and was having my doubts about using them. Not anymore. Being hands free is awesome. He's not the birds I was after, but I'll take him!
Finally!
