Larry A. Smail's Blog

May 3

I should do a short story on the third morning of the 2022 Pennsylvania Spring Gobbler Season. I hunted a different site closer to home for the weather people were talking of rain coming in towards eleven o’clock. I was still having cold symptoms although not too bad…just an occasional cough mostly. But I still thought getting soaked may not be a good idea. The season is young.

I failed to hear a single gobble all day. My buddy, Frank “Muskie” Maus shot early bagging a nice tom. I heard the shot and later texted him. I did see some gobblers way across a huge hollow in the field. This area is posted. I bumped into a turkey of unknown gender…maybe it was a trans turkey anyway.

Later, after calling, I continued a walk only to have a gobbler spot me. He was in a field.

Interestingly, as I left the parking area, I spotted a strutter with two hens along the wood line. They were close to a hundred yards or so from the road. I chose to not try circling around to call for him especially with the closing time not far off and thick multiflora Rose behind the birds and the fact of having two hens with him.

May 4

I didn’t go out early due to rain but once the weather changed, I headed for the woods. I hurried to the back side of the property calling periodically hoping for a response. Once I reached the site, I was originally heading for I called. I spoke to myself, “I think I heard a gobbler far off in posted property.” I called again and he gobbled a couple of more times before becoming silent. I took his silence as being a moving bird, so I set up where a grassy opening was next to the adjacent land.

Now the land between the two properties has lost of multiflora rose brambles. Would the gobbler come through this mess? Maybe. Another obstacle to overcome would be to convince the gobbler to walk off of a grassy gas well road. Typically, they like to strut and gobble on such places.

The next gobble was on that road. He continued walking the road eventually ending up at a strong right and behind me. I adjusted. Directly behind me was thick multiflora rose and the bird came off the gas well road and crossed through the brambles onto the property I was hunting.

A real hen began clucking and I watched her cross the grassy area. The gobbler was closing in on me but seeing him was difficult. Finally, I had the opportunity to adjust the 870 Remington at an opening. He stepped into the opening and the shot was sure. The bird was down. the distance for the shot was seventeen steps. Now the long walk back carrying the gobbler was the task at hand. I could tell he was a bigger than average bird.

Upon returning home the first step was to weigh the gobbler. I have an old brass scale that was my father’s scale. I was very much surprised to see the metal marker go below the 24 number. The scale only went to 24 pounds so how big was the gobbler? Could the weight reach twenty-five???? Possibly!

The beard was ten and half inches long. The spurs were one and a quarter inch on one side and one and three sixteenths’ inches on the other. It was a good day, and the obstacles were overcome. Hunting with obstacles often do not turn out with such success.