PA Opener Success

Chris B · May 3, 2016

Hunted a new property a buddy and myself got permission to hunt on Saturday for the PA opener. Hopes were high, as the birds were right on the ridge of this small property and shown to be roosted in a great spot for us to get setup when we scouted it out 2 Saturdays before.

We got set up and unfortunately, all the birds we heard were across the road and sounded like they were a longggg ways off. We repositioned about 6:30 to try and project our calls across the road. After a long morning of distant answers we gave some calls and I about jumped off my seat when we heard a gobble that sounded like it was right in front of us. a couple soft yelps and we heard him close the distance. We catch a glimpse about 80 yards out and he was headed right up the logging road like we planned. He got about 40 yards out and we confirmed it was a jake. He came up on the left (my buddy's shot opportunity) and he goes "you'll have to kill him, I cant get my gun up". lol.... so it was up to me to decide whether or not I wanted to take a jake. I let him come to about 25 yards and was really weighing the options and decided a bird in the hand was worth it, especially with 2 NY tags in my pocket. Took him right there, just off the logging road, 9:00am.

We sat there for about 35 minutes and then started with a couple more calls since we knew there were more birds across the road, and we were convinced that is where the jake came from. At one point, I thought I heard a gobble on our side of the road but couldn't be sure and he didn't answer again....for a little while anyway. He finally gobbled again and although he sounded like he was ways off, he was on our side of the road. So we beat feet across the small property to at least close the distance. We got moved, sat down, and as soon as we called, he gobbled just over the knoll in front of us, probably 80 yards away. we got quiet and sure enough, he popped out above some car-sized boulders, in half strut. a couple purrs and he hopped down on a boulder and worked his way to another logging road. He popped out at 45 and my buddy drilled him right there, 10:35am.

What a morning! We started the day off feeling like not much was going to happen, to both getting a bird and filling our PA tags.