Tagged out in PA...
 

Haven't been on the board in a while... thought I'dsharea pair ofPA game landentries to ourtrophy room in 2008...

Hunt 1 - Opening morning, Saturday 04/26/08 - My boysTom ona text book hunt:

We knew the ridgewas promising... a week of pre-season scouting from long distance confirmedvocalgobblers were handy each morning.

Last trip in for a looky see Tuesday afternoon before the opener to gainintell on the lay of the land -while the birds are far from the roost.

Saturday daylight and we get him to gobble hard on the limb, a few more mouth calls to let 'em know we're there...
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[/align]He's way closer than intended, a mere 60 yards from our decoy...plainly visible through the branchesof the Hemlock he roosted beside.
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[/align]His partners liked my fly down and followed suit. They aren't as close but appear in minutes, a pair of full fans marching to our location.
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[/align]The big Tom cared not for this and flew down, cutting off the competition. It'snever less than awesome to witnessthe boss express dominance.
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[/align]He was out of sight for just under a minute and came back at half strut... but not all the way in like we intended.
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[/align]He's stalls out at the wrong time...45 yardsbehindbrush eyeing up myworn out, brand X,folded way too many times, re-painted foam decoy.
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[/align]I know he knows something's odd. I didn't want to call again... but I do, and it drags him up around,away from the decoy and off myright shoulder.
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[/align]He swings the barrel as his head passes the base of a white oak andthen BLAM!Game over. Toasted the ol' boy properlyat about 25 yards.
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[/align]His bigTom weighed in at 20.5 pounds... spurs@ 1/8 under inch withasuperthick paint brush of a beardreachinga whisker over 10 1/4 long.
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[/align]Home by 0730 hours... it don't get much better than that! :)



Hunt 2 - Monday,04/28/08 - My, not sotext book hunt:

It rains.
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[/align]I have Gortex. :)
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[/align]Scouted the same ridge andlocated the birdsagain Sunday afternoon... left withoutdisturbing them.
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[/align]Raining real steady at 0330 hours the next morning. Of course I went hunting anyway.
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[/align]On the ridge before 0445 and carefully walked within 100 yards of the roosting trees.
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[/align]Set up one NEW decoy. (Yep, I broke down and bought one... along withthereal feathers deke "jacket" too! :D)
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[/align]Daylight comes with no gobbling on the limb. Tree called a few times. No response. No visuals either.
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[/align]The crows go off... no gobbling. Crows fly over what I think are roosting trees... no gobbling.
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[/align]A little concerned with my location now...it grows brighter, then I callout with afly down cackle.This produces a single,far below me gobble reply.
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[/align]5 minutes later...I tree call a bit... and nothing. 10 minutes later... ditto...nada.
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[/align]20 minutes later... nogobbling...do some soft yelps...nothing.The birdis a no show.
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[/align]Wait 5 more minutes and figured it's time to ratchet it up.Callreal aggressive with a series of cuts downthe ridge.
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[/align]BINGO!!!Ahardy gobble,followed by an extremely irritated hen whomakes it clear the guy she's with was taken.
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[/align]I play her note for note. She wants to fight about it and needless to say,is not amused by me.
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[/align]Fromher callsthey are 100 + yardsaway and have already passed my elevation on the ridge.
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[/align]I call to her again and then abruptly cut her off when she tries to call back... ewww... now she's really jacked up.
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[/align]3 minutes later and she's standing 30 yards out, lookingto inflict serious pain on thetrashy little interloper that would steal her man.
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[/align]I keep her fired up when she goes to leave until her boyfriend,who I'm sureisthinking, "Sweet! a threesome", follows her into shooting distance.
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[/align]Click... (safety)... KER-BLAM! He gets shot in the head instead...rolled uplike a gum wrappercompliments ofa Browning shotgun.
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[/align]On his behalf, this gobbler gets props for almost evading capture... noticing his new "girlfriend" wasn't moving as she should.
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[/align]He did spina quick 180 after figuring something wasn't right to make abreak forheavy cover...
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[/align]But... theswarm of #6 Winchesterheavy shot ended that plan at about 23 yards.
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[/align]Ah,to think he would have made it too,if only he could havedashedoff stage at1201 fps.
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[/align]The rain didn't do much for his feathers and he'snot nearly as big as my sons, but his statsare dandy fine by me...
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[/align]Solid 18 pounds,1& 1/8 inch dagger sharp spurs and areal nice 9.5 inch beard. PA 2008... Happily tagged out on day #2
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[/align][/align][/align]Note: I've got the remainderof the week off... anyone in needa caller? ;)


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RE: Tagged out in PA...
 

Wow,, You're the first person I've talked to who even heard one on monday.. nice job..

RE: Tagged out in PA...
 

nice. Congrats. !!!

RE: Tagged out in PA...
 

yes, monday was terrrible here in wmu 2g of pa. BUT saturday opener was unreal..

i had 2 jakes come in to me and i could not get the big gobbler to come as other people did me in.turkeys were calling all over and lots of shots,some RIFLE shots which pissed me off.

but to rate saturday on scale of 1 to 10,i would rate it a 10

the week before, i never saw so many gobblers killed by kids 6 yrs to 10 yrs old.kids are killing big gobblers this year, no doubt about that.

RE: Tagged out in PA...
 

Nice. Congrats.

RE: Tagged out in PA...
 

Nice Birds Congrats!

RE: Tagged out in PA...
 

Nice birds. I'm going to be hunting some WMA's in PA and would love to have someone to tag along just in case a bird hangs up and i can get someone to walk behind me and call. Just let me know what WMAs are close to you and I'll go from there. God bless and congrats on some find birds.

DJ

RE: Tagged out in PA...
 

wooohoooooooooo:D