Another rough gobbler season is over
To most he’s an ugly bird. But most have never hunted him; seen his blazing white, red and blue head pop up over a small rise, twist and turn that huge oriental tail into the morning breeze and step into a new ray of sunshine where his iridescent feathers turn green and then bronze like shiny, hammered copper. To call him ugly is some perverse distortion of the meaning. You have to see him in his environment. Unfortunately, or fortunately, if you’ve dragged your aching body out of bed for many successive mornings, the spring turkey season has come to an end again. I’m sure I say this every year, but this was a strange season, at least from my standpoint. First and foremost is the amount of foliage we as hunters had to deal with this year. I don’t think I’ve ever cut grass three or four times before the season actually began, and even by the second week the ground cover (May apples, and saplings) in the woods made seeing anything difficult. By the end of the third week, fields and grasses were over knee high and just finding a decent opening to call in was a challenge.
I’ve talked to the Game Commission on many occasions about the practically of having the spring season “open statewide” on the same date. I mean let’s be realistic; our weather down here in the southern part of the state is not the same as it is nearly four hours away on the New York line.
How “they” could justify lumping everyone into the same pie has always been a mystery. Our weather and the turkeys natural breeding cycle is determined by more daylight and good weather than it is by bureaucrats in Harrisburg. It’s hard to get anyone to listen to sound reasoning or just plain common sense. Anyway, our season needs to begin two weeks earlier in the middle of April, not the first of May.
Other turkey hunters need to voice their opinion on this and we hope TGC is listening.
In one major change to the turkey regulations hunters will be able to hunt the entire day in 2011.
I am not sure how this will affect the hunting. For me 9 o’clock in the morning is late while turkey hunting, and once it starts to heat up, I am rarely in the woods after 11 anyway.
I have hunted in states where afternoon hunting was legal, and in some instances it worked out well for us. In general, I don’t think it will have much impact here in PA, and why this was implemented is certainly another mystery. Was it just so TGC could say “we” have added X amount of hunting hours for sportsmen?
This spring I hunted the same general area on most mornings, but did make a couple trips to my old haunts in Greene County and a couple other spots. It was the same everywhere + the gobblers would say a few words at first light (almost all had hens with them) and hit the ground never to be heard from again.
“It’s pretty typical. After the first few days the gobblers can become very call shy, and they know very well “something isn’t quite right there.” I heard a couple guys in the woods calling incessantly, and it is my opinion that all they are doing is further educating the big boys. Over the years I have learned (the hard way) to limit my calling, and sometimes, if you’re 40 yards away, you may not even hear or see me, but you can bet your best shotgun “he” knows where I am! If a gobbler wants to come, he’ll come.
I had expected some hunter interference this spring, because I had been forced out of my favorite area because of house construction there, but did not encounter much. Yeah, I heard some guys calling and had a few shots close in early in the season, but generally no one bothered me. I had one guy come charging down in front of me the first day when I had birds in front of me, but after I tapped on my gun with my brush cutter, he saw me and courteously backed out. I was surprised, and I must commend him for being a real sportsman. I have seen a lot worse behavior in the woods.
There were plenty of gobblers scattered around, and on the best morning I heard at least a dozen in a mile strip of woods. Getting them to come to a turkey call was another matter. I made the same mistake I make every year, although I vow each time not to do it again; I passed up several younger birds the first few days although I had purchased the extra gobbler tag. Then later, when I am getting tired and things have gotten quiet in the woods, I am kicking myself.
One of my other “faults” is getting locked onto a big three- or four-year-old-bird and wasting a lot of time trying to get him. It happened again.
I heard a guy miss him on the first morning. I picked him back up on Tuesday and chased him around for two weeks. On one morning during the third week, I called him down off the roost, watched him strut and come my way, until two Jezebels flew down and took him for a stroll around the hill.
The next morning at 5 I was sitting overlooking the flat he had strolled through the day before.
He did not say much, but was the first bird to hit the ground. I flipped the safety off and waited for him to pop up when another gobbler landed right smack in front of me. I instinctively slid the gun over on him and he “putted.” Game over. He was a two-year-old, with almost a 10-inch beard and 17 pounds, but not the one I had spent so much time on.
I slipped back in there two more mornings. Heard the big bird one last time, but he was still with those “girls” and was crafty enough to stay just out of gun range. Well + there’s always fall.
I’ve now been turkey hunting for 42 years. It is an obsession. It can be grueling, tiresome, and all the adjectives that make you feel like a zombie for weeks on end.
Each spring I swear it will be my last. I have been successful at it, not because I am some great caller or a superior woodsman. I have been successful through sheer patience, persistence and determination. I long to be out there at daylight as the dawn breaks and the woods come alive. I love to hear that gobbling! And I love to see that old boy coming across an open oak flat, shining like a polished copper statue!
Ugly? Not even close!