Pa Turkey Hunting Reports

[ACEarcher]

Enjoy guys, but please watch the spots.

[ACEarcher]

Went out this moring to a spot in Bucks Co. This is a very big place and their are several different roost sites. I usually make my way to them all in hopes to find something. So the first roost site (very close to the road) nada (what else should I expect).Next roost site nada, but a new house (how nice, another hunting spot bites the dust), and for the third roost site nada. Yep pritty much what I expected here a whole lot of nothing. On a brighter note I did find a decent amount of tracks and scat. I think the birds are there, but just not interested in much calling. I know about the second last week in this area I start hearing more gobbles and shots. I bet just all the gobblers have so many hens right now they have no interest in anything calling. I mean I didn't hear one gobble while walkin calling, or just anytime. Not even a random lone distant gobble.

I do know I have one gobbler visting a buddies farm very often. He's heard him every other day. In the morning and afternoon. I think I'll try and get my brother on him. He needs a hunting morale boost.

[Ole 20 Point]

Hey I need a turkey hunting morale boost too...get me on him! :D j/k

I hope to head back up to 3C Friday night for another go. Gonna be short on sleep though since I don't head up until after going to the Phillies/Mets game. I'm getting too old for that no sleep crap! :please:

[RUSS0079]

Went out around 0800 HRS, with Jocelyn. Heard some hens behind our set up. No dice on the gobblers. They just weren't talking. Hoping for the rain tomorrow. Hitting the largest field on the property in hopes the rain will push the toms from the thick stuff into the fields because of the coyotes. Hope we get them tomorrow. Keep at them guys. If you chase them long enough they'll slip up.
Good Hunting
Russ

[ACEarcher]

Found a few gobbling on the roost this morning!!! Yeah, no pics attached you can guess what happened. They responded great to me while on the roost, but once they pitched it was over. I even had 2 jakes come through the field I was in and not have any interest in comeing over (they where really far away). I even threw some soft clucks, purrs, and a quiet yep to them. Nothing!!! They just looked then kept on their way. Since when do jakes not have any interest?!?!?! Someone please tell me. Drawing a blank here:huh:! All I have to say is the latter part of this season is prob gonna be a banger!:fight:

[ACEarcher]

Well they are finally starting to get hot! We had one spot this morning we had them coming in silent, but didn't know it. We then spooked them. It was 2 nice longbeards. We proceed to another spot. We see a turkey wayyyyyyy off in a back field. So far 10x bi nocs can't tell if it's a bearded bird or not. So we go after em. Turns out to be a hen. As we're walking back to the truck I decide to give a call out at the truck. Suddenly one answers back across the street. And across the street we go. After we get set up and call a lil more he never answers me again. O well! While we're walking out we spot another gobbler and a jake in the field we just walked through. If the keep the path they're walking they will come right by us. We decided we'll try and cut them off. Every now and then we would peek through the headge row to see if they where still coming. The last time we peeked nothing. We get out and walk into the field and still nothing. They just dissappeared. Now I'm looking forward for the next several weeks left.

[Ole 20 Point]

I never made it up last Saturday...my truck broke down in Quakertown on the way up at 1am! :(

Gonna give it another try tomorrow in 3C...I HOPE! :D

[RUSS0079]

They started screaming in Berks/Lancaster Counties this morning. Tagged out!
Russ

[RUSS0079]

Just talked to my buddy's son, Little Lew. He went after the long beard at my spot and the birds were tight lipped. He said he hit all the spots we normally hit and not a peep,but we did have some wind today. Don't know if it was the temp or the toms moved down in the valley. I'll be back out on Monday in Wyoming County and then in Lancaster County on Tuesday, guiding. Hope it kicks back up.
Russ

[Shear Madness]

Three of us were in potter from 4-28 til 5-2. Heard birds every morning. Called one to 75 yards but he wouldn't budge. Heard a bigmouth on private land that just wouldn't shut up. He would gobble for 30mins straight then take a break and start all over. he never left that private hillside. Heard him every morning.

I would love to get back up there.

[RUSS0079]

Heard they shut up again, at least in my spot. One guy I know went out and had one gobbling off the roost. Now he was in a spot that wasn't hunted legally yet, private land. I say that because we live in a good ol boy area and I m sure someone was in there trying for a Tom.He worked the bird for an hour but had to leave because we had little league yesterday morning. Leaving to night for Wyoming County. Let ya know what the birds are doing. Going to do some guiding, filming and calling.
Russ

[RUSS0079]

Well, Not a gobble! Hunted way back, saw some fresh sign not one bird came in. Heard they were gobbling in Columbia County on some private land, but no bird was killed. My taxidermist said that the gobbling will happen in two day spurts and then shut off. Must be a regional thing. The same thing is happening here in Berks County. Headed out in a couple of hours to help a guy get his first bird.
Get at it!
Russ

[RUSS0079]

Well lets see? Hunted my -ss off for this guy for his first bird! Not a gobble. We set up for a long quiet sit until the end of shooting time. Perfect set up with the decoys. Heard some hens nothing came in. Please Dear Lord let the silence break so young Damian can shoot a bird!
Russ

[RUSS0079]

Just wondering has the silence broken yet? I was thinking of going out tomorrow again to do some calling for Damian. Would be alot easier if they would talk, then you could pin them down. The other day, I did everything I could think of. Not a peep. Cutting hard, purrs, cackles, yelps,feeding calls, scratching, gobbles. Either our birds got hit hard or the rush to breed is totally over. HELP!

[ACEarcher]

Was out yesterday. I heard em really far away during twilight in the morning. So I go about making my rounds around the property. I come up to a area that they ALWAYS come through to scratch. About 5 mins into sitting the area I had two hens come by and say hi to my deks. This was about 7:50. I told my self i was going to stay in this area till about quarter to nine. About 8:40 I make my last set of calls and as typical not a response. I started packing my calls and gear up. Just as I shut off my thermacell I hear a hen cutting and yelping really loudly. I know this can't be another hunter cause it is moving into me really quickly. So I start cutting and clucking back. Here she comes running in! Right when I get sight of her about 70yds away I hear a gobble about 100+yds away!!! Then another gobble really far inback of me. First thing I said to myself was "keep calling and piss this hen off as mucj as possible so she keeps going crazy and then it might lure in that gobbler. With about 30mins of her being beak to beak with my dek and that gobbler staying about 100+yds away he didn't budge. Oh well. It was nice to have some action, but still trying to fill that tag.

[Ole 20 Point]

At least when they call back it gets the blood pumping...sounds like that was fun.

[Ole 20 Point]

Not being as fortunate as a lot of you guys that hunt MANY days for turkey I had exactly 3 opportunities to get out. Yesterday being my final chance at a bird. I had two hens in a field early morning clucking with and at me and I was hoping one of the good ole toms would hear us and join the game...but none showed. Hung there a couple of hours because that's where I had seen 3 gobblers the Saturday before. I then racked it up and went to another spot I heard some talking the week before. But they just were not talking at all yesterday so I just decided to stay put in the new spot and call every 15 minutes or so and hang in there til time ran out. With two hours to go at 10am I heard something walking behind me and figured like usual it was another squirrel. When I slowly turned to peek a look he was crossing right through where I was and all I saw was beard...he was a shooter! And this tom was looking all around for the hen (me) that was saying come here for some luvins honey. In a matter of seconds I set up to shoot, he detected the motion, started to trot and I dropped him with a 20 yard shot to the head. Beard was 9 3/4 and spurs 15/16 and 1 1/16. Bird tagged..WAHOO!!! :yahooo:

[ACEarcher]

Awsome job ole 20!! Was it a public or private land bird? Don't ya just love it when they come in completely silent and inback of you! Little buggers! My first gobbler did that. Came in to 15yds inback of me completely silent.

Well, atleast someone got at em on Saturday. Where I was it was foggy and rainy. Didn't even hear a peep or see a feather all morning.

[Makoman]

Just returned from 7 days of hunting at my camp in McKean County. Between 5 of us we didn't kill a bird. Didn't even have an opportunity to work a bird. Most gobbles we heard were single gobbles and no replies to calls. Most locals feel they are still "henned up". Weather was very cool which has never been good for me. We know there are gobblers in our area from reports from the locals. We are wondering if eagles, coyotes and bobcats are causing the birds to be more cautious with their gobbling?? Anyway, we had a fun week and a half and got a lot of work done on the camp. Saw a few deer but very few.

[Ole 20 Point]

Awsome job ole 20!! Was it a public or private land bird? Don't ya just love it when they come in completely silent and inback of you! Little buggers! My first gobbler did that. Came in to 15yds inback of me completely silent.

Well, atleast someone got at em on Saturday. Where I was it was foggy and rainy. Didn't even hear a peep or see a feather all morning.My own private property in 3C...I do most of my hunting about a mile away but I took him just below a field about 100 yards from my lodge (ok, it's a mobile home :cool:). I'm just glad I heard the big ole sneak before I moved or something and shooed him away without me ever knowing he was there! :shoot:

[RUSS0079]

Nice Job. I hate when they sneak in. Thankfully they make noise when they walk!:thup:

[ACEarcher]

Yeah that is one advantage. They are very noisy when they walk. You can hear them coming from a distance.

[Ole 20 Point]

I have to say THANKS to all the turkey hunters on this site. I am admittedly not as crazy about going after the birds as many of the guys on this site are. I enjoy it and absolutely get pumped when I hear those gobblers but I usually loose interest quickly when I don't see much or they are not talking. But this year I received a ton of motivation by reading all the stories and excitement expressed by you guys and to be honest it kept me fired up and made me want it more. So THANKS guys!!! :thup:

P.S. Actually I just didn't want that little kid Bird Boy to beat me! :fight: j/k my young friend. :D

[ACEarcher]

Mako-

Yeah I've been hearing the same thing about my buds place in Drifting. He called me to ask if I was coming up at all for the last week. I told em I was sure yet. Seeming I might have other obligations. He hasen't been hearing much on gobbling lately. Every now and then he sees them passing by, buy put it this way it isen't very hot up there. This season is a lil funny this year. My spots in 3C have been saying the same. We had trail cam pics of a wintering flock of 10 gobblers on the property. As far as we know (and I talked to them earlier last week) nobodys gotten them. So I dunno? It's a pritty hard turkey hunted area. It still produces good every year, but just a lot of ppl turkey hunting in the area. I think it'd been more like down here in SE Pa lately. You'll get a day or maybe all a sudden a couple really hot hours and then thats it. Gezz I remeber last year my buds in 3C telling me the 2nd last week was on fire. You clucked once and they came running. Oh well not this year.

I will tell ya what I've seen twice already this year that I've never seen before (just walking around on the trails). TURKEY EGGS!!!! Yeah wierd. I guess their nests are getting raided and the preds drop them somewhere. I've already seen 2 different eggs and totally opposite sides of the woods I hunt.

It's coming down to the wire! Last Week! Good luck guys!

[ACEarcher]

I finally got a 09 gobbler!! Story time!

Actually woke up late this morning. Woke up at 5:30:eek:! So I quickly threw my gear on and out the door to the truck. When I arrived at my buds place I heard one wayyyyy off in the distance. This isen't the first time I heard him so I just shrugged it off. As I'm making my rounds and not having any luck I decided to see if I could maybe just maybe lure that wayy off bird in. After a very long hike I finally get to the area I think he may be in. While looking over the area, finding lots of feathers and scratches GOBBLE!!!!! Here luck have it he got off the roost he started to work his way over to where I can hunt! At this time he's about 100+yds away across a creek. I quickly cross the creek and set-up a hen dek. My first set of calls is just a very soft purr and a couple soft clucks and he double gobbles back! Obviously he really pumped and very lonely! Now the waiting game starts. So I waited about 10 mins. those 10 mins of silence felt like forever! I decided to give a call out just to see where he was GOBBLE!!!! He's only about 50-60yds away now!!! My hearts racing now! Only a min or two pass and I see something moving. I think now we're down the home strech here he his. I get my first full sight of him at about 45yds. He B-lining it for me. Strutting and gobbling the whole way. Now my deke is about 17+/-yds infront of me and about 10yds infront of the deke is a creek drainage or a culvert. The culvert starts infont of me angling to my left then around inback of me. As he's coming in I notices he's following the culvert. He dosen't want to cross it!!!:eek: The best shot I had when he was infront of me was a 35yd shot with a little bit of junk in the way. Now with the way the season has been going for me I'm nervous about the 35yd shot. Even thou I know my 835 with 3 1/2's can make it. He finally starts to ver to my left. I'm sitting with my back on a blowdown. The trunk is horizontal. At about 31-32yds he moves far to my left even with the blowdown trunk. Now I can't see him, but I know he's there! I can hear him spitting and drumming. A min or two pass I can still hear him walking around. I give out a cluck with my mouth call and he hammers back. It sounds like he's a little inback of me to my hard left. Moving a mm a min I strech my neck over the blowdown to try and see him. I catch just a glimps of a red head about 30yds. Keeping my one eye on him I wait till he moves infront of a tree. Ever so slowly I turn to my hard left and kneel with my Mossberg resting on the trunk of the blow down. My shot is spuratic he's in a little bit of junk, but he's moving closer and closer to me. Finally when he gets to about 20yds and a clear shot. I throw some yelps and clucks to get him out of strut and level my bead. BOOM!!!! I roll him. He starts flopping all over the place and I get up to claim my trophy. His measurments are 18 1/4lbs, 9 1/4" beard, and 3/4" spurs. Not my largest bird, but a trophy gobbler to me. Never give up guys, each day holds something new.:D

[Ole 20 Point]

CONGRATS Ace! Way to GIT-R-DONE!!! :thup:

[RUSS0079]

What F--K happened to that tail? Is that how they grow them up by the hazardous waste dump you hunt by? LMAO. Just kidding, Adam, nice bird pal!

[deerslayersean]

good job ace wish i could have made it up there but work got super busy havent been getting off till 7 every night maybe next year ill have a gun by then so it will be easier

[ACEarcher]

Thanks guys!

Sean don't worrie we've got deer season comin:D Thats Adam's time to shine!!

[RUSS0079]

Bee aach,
Never offered to take me to a spot up there to hunt deer. If it wasn't for my pointing dog expert- teeze Ruger would still be pissing and crapping and running away, everytime the gun went off!!! NICE!!!:razz:

[deerslayersean]

sounds good to me adam same for you if you wanna come hunt in jersey ill show you some spots but i wouldnt want to hunt in nj if i were you and i saw a deer with some nubs today cant wait

[mudmarlin70]

Congrats Adam!

[ACEarcher]

Thanks Mud!!

Well this moring was exciting. I almost got to use my second tag. The entire season their has been a gobbler roosting across the st from the ol ladies. He dosen't talk much and never comes over to my side. I woke up late again this morning:o thus getting to field late. It's already quarter to six when I get there. As I am putting my vest on and readying my shotgun I catch something moving across the street. I quickly grab my B-nocs in the truck and there he is. The gobbler across the street is walking inbetween the fence and woodline (across the st). Damn I thought to myself. Now How am I going to get him to come through their lawn, cross the street, walking inbetween 2 houses and into the field I can hunt. LOL NAH this ain't going to happen. So I go off and set up. My first several calls he's gobbling to me from across the street. As if this isen't torture enough their is a second gobbler across the street gobbling at me too. So I subject myself to about an hour of torture and move up further into the property about another 100yds. I tried a set of calls and nothing. I turn around and call another way and gobble from about 100+yds in the field I crossed to get into the woods I'm in! Now this wood lot is very small. Maybe at most 6-7 acres. It is surrounded by field on all ends with hedge rows leading into the woods from all 4 corners. I'm sitting in the upper righthand corner and he's in the upper left hand corner. I give it about 15mins and call again. GOBBLE he's only about 60yds infront of me in the field to my right. These woods are very open too. Even now with folage you can almost see across it. I can see him now about 50yds infront to my right. All he has to do is step out of the field, into the woods about 10-15 more yards. He stops at the wood/field line. HE WON'T STEP INTO THE WOODS!!!! WHY WHY WHY???? A couple mins later he starts to loos interest and walks back into the field he was first in. Dunno why he did that. He was all alone too. Not another gobbler not a hen or even a jake just him. Oh well!

Ole 20-
When he first started gobbling and coming my phone starts to vibrate. After he left and the show was over I check it. It's a text message from the ol lady "Hun do you hear that gobbler he's in the field right now". It happens all the time. Gotta love her!:D

[Ole 20 Point]

Ole 20-
When he first started gobbling and coming my phone starts to vibrate. After he left and the show was over I check it. It's a text message from the ol lady "Hun do you hear that gobbler he's in the field right now". It happens all the time. Gotta love her!:DTOO funny Ace! :D I guess our ladies are just tryin to help their honies.

Sounds like ya had a fun day too...cool beans.

[ridgerunnerron]

Congrats To Ace and Ole 20! :thup:
Nice birds you both got.

I took one Thurs in nNJ at 14 yds, 19 1/2 lbs, 10'' rope, 1'' ridge runner worn spurs.

Just knew the late season hunting would be better after the rains stopped.

[honeybrookhunter]

Since I couldn't get anybody to take me out and teach/show me the ropes, I decided to give it a try myself. Went out today to French Creek State Park for the first time ever ( got there about 9am hoping to get a straggler). Also attempted calling for the first time today as well.
Saw 2 hens and a tom. All three were out about 100yds. The tom didn't seem interested in the hens, so I attempted calling him in. He actually came in to about 70yds, but wouldn't come any farther. I kept trying to get him to come in closer, but all he did was hang out about 70-75 yds. After about 45 mins, he finally went back out to where the hens were, and then stayed there for about 10 mins more, until all three of them disappeared.
Oh, well. Guess I will have to wait until fall and see how my gun actually fires.

[Ole 20 Point]

That's a great hunt HBH...you done good. :thup:

[Ole 20 Point]

Congrats To Ace and Ole 20! :thup:
Nice birds you both got.

I took one Thurs in nNJ at 14 yds, 19 1/2 lbs, 10'' rope, 1'' ridge runner worn spurs.

Just knew the late season hunting would be better after the rains stopped.Thanks and CONGRATS right back at ya...way to git-r-done RRR.