Pennsylvania Game News - May 2012 - 17

The audible “peent” seemed to be all around us. We got to our listening location on an old logging trail at the point of a hill where we could hear multiple small valleys. I’ve hunted this area many times, and taken several gobblers right on this old grassy road in the past. I thought it would be perfect. As the light began to come up, the fog hung heavy in the valley. At about 6:15, after not yet hearing any gobbling, I decided we would start walking the old woods road, calling as we went, in search of a responsive bird. We had gone only about 200 yards, when Andy heard something respond to my calls. It was a hen. “She sounds just like you” he said. That type of a comment is a real confidence booster, even for a seasoned veteran turkey

female, as it was breeding season for grouse as well as for turkeys. After circling the entire valley and not hearing any gobbling, I decided we would head back to the car to try another spot. On the way down the hill, we flushed a hen turkey from some thick briars. I guessed she had a nest in the brush, so we looked around a little bit to see if we could find it. That’s when Andy discovered the carcass of a deer that had fallen victim to some type of predator. All that remained was the spine and the jawbone. Andy was intrigued, so I showed him how to determine the age of the deer by the wear and replacement of the teeth. We also happened upon some Indian cucumber flowers, and I introduced

hunter. We inched our way up the logging trail a little farther, and then I heard a wing flap really close. We froze. I spotted the hen not 50 yards away, still on her roost. She was nearly eyelevel, so I instructed Andy to stand perfectly still. The hen seemed nervous, but she couldn’t quite pick us out in the fog. For the next 10 minutes, she cut, cackled and yelped form her perch. In that entire time I never heard a gobbler respond. After she flew down to the field, I told Andy it was time to cover some ground. Now almost 7 o’clock, the birds would be on the ground for sure. We headed back into the valley, calling every couple hundred yards, trying to provoke a tightlipped tom. On the walk, Andy noticed a sound off in the thick brush. “Sounds like a helicopter trying to take off,” he said. I told him what he heard was a male grouse drumming, trying to bring in a
MAY 2012

Andy to the world of wild edible plants. Back at the car we headed out to try to find a gobbler that would play the game. After trying a couple different places, I sensed Andy getting a little disappointed that we hadn’t even heard a gobbler. Damon had built me up as a turkey hunting expert, and now I was feeling the pressure to produce. Andy assured me he was having a great time, but I knew I had to pull out all the stops to make his first turkey hunting experience a good one. We were both wet from the knees down after trudging through the dew soaked fields, so I suggested we return to camp and change our socks, grab a cup of coffee, and try it again after an hour or
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Pennsylvania Game News - May 2012

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