Larry A. Smail's Blog

The second morning  of the Pennsylvania Spring Gobbler Season found me working in Indian stealth up a shallow hollow ending on a flat ridge. I enjoyed watching the morning awaken while listening for a gobbler sounding off near to me.

I heard two gobblers, but both were off in the distance. The closest was a twenty minute move. The second was barely audible somewhere far away in some distant treetop. I elected to stay put having confidence a gobbler would be near. I did hear a hen cackle about a hundred yards to my right. I waited for half an hour expecting to hear a gobbler along with her.

I eventually moved to the area I believed the closest gobbler may have gobbled. I did not receive any response. I crossed a hollow and went up on the next ridgeline. I called and heard nothing. However, once I went up and over I saw a hunter about seventy yards setting next to a tree. I waved and left the area.

I crossed the road only to see a friend’s pick up parked near to my jeep. I surmised where he may have went to hunt and went in another direction. The winds had picked up a lot and I walked and called loudly at various spots. Eventually I worked down over a hillside and called and heard a gobble several hundred yards away. I picked up the pace and crossed a gulley and moved halfway up the opposite hillside. I called again and heard another blast of turkey testosterone. The gobbler was much closer. I quickly set up before calling again. GIL-OBBLE-OBBLE -OBBLE was the reply and only about a hundred yards away.

I waited now breathing forcibly out the left side of the mouth for my steam was trying to fog up my glasses. Eventually everything seemed to be stabilizing as for the steam because my glasses weren’t fogging up anymore.

The Turkey Tote made for me. I sent a fellow a bunch of deer antlers. This was one of antlers cut and painted for me. as a tote.

Suddenly I saw the white crown at about forty yards. I sat patiently when to my surprise a second gobbler appeared a little closer. The two birds moved even closer, but very slowly. Both were around twenty-eight to thirty yards, but I couldn’t get a clean shot due to many small tree trunks throughout. All the lead bird needed to do was take about two steps and be in the open, but he turned and walked in front of the second bird. The second gobbler  moved ahead a little and offered me a shot, but not as open as I would like, but I was on him with sight alignment.

BOOM!!!!!!!!  The bird was down and flopping as I saw two gobblers run away. I never saw the third gobbler prior to the shot.

The tom turkey weighed exactly twenty pounds. One spur was one inch and the second spur was seven/eighths of an inch. The beard was just shy of ten inches. Now I had the long walk back to the jeep. The turkey tote that was given to me made the weight somewhat easier to handle.

I stopped and placed feathers on my cousin Donnie’s truck wiper, as per our tradition, but he saw me. I later stopped at my step-father’s home to see him.

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Beautiful morning. The gobbler was on that distant hill.

It seems like only last year we had a similar event. The walk to a listening vantage point was quite calm. However, just prior to six in the morning a could feel the winds picking up. In a short time the winds were howling.

I could hear the hooting of a Barred Owl below me. A little after six o’clock I heard a gobble across the hollow from where I was listening. the bird was around one hundred and fifty yards or so. I moved down slope to get closer. I was fearful of moving to his side of the hill since this early in the season the leaves were sparse allowing the bird to possibly see my approach.

I could still hear the owl and then some hen talk. Could a hunter have moved in below me with these calls? I decided to walk away from this gobbler. The bird only gobbled four times in a half an hour. I walked back up and over the flats calling occasionally, but searching for the elusive morels.

Eventually I worked back and near the area where I had heard the gobbler. I called and received an answer. I  didn’t hear any hunters or see any tracks on a muddy gas well road. After a brief time I could see the dark form of a gobbler in the brush. I soon realized this bird was a yearling. (Jake) I left him walk. he came within twenty to twenty-two feet from me. I wished I had my camera in hand, but I kept the shotgun on alert for I hoped a second bird might appear.

I exited the area and crossed the road. I did a walk and call tour despite the howling noise from the wind. NO luck! I returned to the jeep a little before ten o’clock and called loudly and received an answer. Off I went to circle the bird. I closed in to around one hundred and fifty yards from the gobbler and called. He responded.  After a pause he answered my call again and that was it. I circled around and walked uphill close to a large lease land. I thought a change in position may find the bird up on top and call him back. I sat down and after a wait I noticed turkey movement about a hundred yards out. Could that turkey be the gobbler? No a hen showed up above me. She became quite vocal after I called again to her. She worked to about twenty-five feet from me. Again, the photo ops I had, but I was hoping the gobbler might show up.

I returned to the jeep only to see turkey feathers in my wipers. Cousin Donnie had scored this first morning hence the feather. This has been a tradition for us for a long time. I stopped to see him at the house while he cleaned the gobbler.

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