Pennsylvania Game News - March 2018 - 12

MONDAY

"After a tailgate celebration, the
realization sunk in of how fortunate I
was in harvesting one of Pennsylvania's
most-coveted big-game trophies, and
with a bow," Ryan said.
Ryan remembered telling the group
before the archery season that if there
was a year to harvest a bear, this was
it, because of the heavy acorn crop and
the number of bears everyone had been
seeing.
With cold overnight temperatures
expected, Ryan hung the bear at his
house and, knowing he had 24 hours
to have the bear checked, made plans
to hunt the following morning.

Gobblers come and go

Early on Wednesday, Nov. 1, Ryan
climbed into his hang-on tree stand on
an oak flat at public-hunting property
near his home.
Trail-camera photos had shown a
nice buck using the area, and Ryan had
seen turkey flocks there, as well.
The weather was ideal for stand
hunting. It was cold and dry, there was
no wind and the leaves were crunchy.
"Just as the sun was coming over
the mountain, I could hear turkeys on
the roost on a nearby ridge," Ryan said.
"They were yelping and even gobbling
a little."
Not long after, longbeards began
flying down, just 40 yards away.
"The gobblers put on a show," Ryan
said. "They were gobbling, strutting
and fighting like it was springtime."
After 20 minutes or so of remaining
perfectly still to avoid being spotted
by so many sets of eyes, Ryan finally
was able to grab his bow as the flock
worked its way to a small ridge in front
of him. Ryan spotted a small opening in
the cover ahead of the lead gobbler and

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TUESDAY

drew his bow. When the bird stopped
in the opening, he settled the sight pin
and released his arrow.
"The shot looked perfect, but the
arrow went just over the gobbler's
back and stuck in a log," Ryan said. "I
misjudged the range by a little."
Ryan watched the turkeys move off.
They didn't appear overly spooked.
An hour later a noisy flock of hen
turkeys made its way past Ryan's stand
but stayed out of range and fed out of
sight.
Fifteen minutes later, the gobblers
started gobbling again. They still
were over the ridge, but closing the
distance.
Ryan spotted the flock 100 yards
away. He picked out the largest bird -
likely the one he'd missed earlier - and
drew as the gobbler walked behind a
tree at 20 yards.
Ryan's movement put the rest of
the flock on alert. But by the time the
birds started putting, the arrow was on
its way.
The gobbler ran about 30 yards
before tumbling from a perfect shot.
Ryan couldn't believe his good fortune in getting a second chance at the
same gobbler he'd missed.
"It was 11:30 and I had to get the
bear checked at the Game Commission Southeast Region Office in Reading, but after donning my orange hat
and hiking out of the woods with the
20-pound gobbler with a near 9-inch
beard, all I could think about was the
possibility of taking a Triple Trophy in
less than 24 hours," Ryan said.
As it turned out, there wasn't enough
time for Ryan to get back into the
woods on Wednesday.
And work kept him from hunting on
Thursday and Friday. Then, he attended

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Pennsylvania Game News - March 2018

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