Odd Turkey Behavior
I put out a couple of trail cams about two weeks before the PA spring season which started on 5/2/20. I've checked them a few times since but hadn't really seen much in the way of turkeys. I see lots of does and yearlings and even had a bobcat pass by one night. However, when I checked them yesterday the camera in my orchard had over 500 photos from 5/3 through 5/13. Again, mostly deer but on 5/10 between 8:28 AM and 12:52 PM I had 179 photos of a group of four jakes. It averaged less than two minutes between photos. If anyone had told me turkeys would stay in one spot for almost 4 1/2 hours in broad daylight I would have said they were crazy. Not sure what they found so interesting there since the temp never rose above 48° the entire time so I doubt they were catching many bugs.
BTW, I took a gobbler on the first day of the PA season on my property at 7:05 AM. It had a 9" beard, 1" spurs and weighed 18 lbs. I was using a Tristar Hunter Mag O/U 12GA that I bought used on gunbroker.com back in January. The gun came with a pair of Carlson .665 chokes along with the five factory choke tubes. I added a set of Truglo sights which included a ghost ring rear sight. I also added a Limbsavers recoil pad and a sling. I was shooting Win Long Beard XR 3.5" 2oz #5 shot. Shot him with the top barrel at about 30 yards while sitting at the base of a hemlock and using an old Lynch World Champion box.