At long last... Turkey Season, pt. 2

I really wish Google would get their shit together and get a decent mobile app for Blogger. With enough programmers and developers employed to fill an entire city, you'd think they'd have an app that you could actually do a half-decent blog post on, unlike their current offerin'.

But, I digress.

I finally found time to sit down at the computer, so hopefully I'll be able to catch up on a few posts.

First off, the second half of the PA turkey season. We were a little slow outta the gate this year, but the fellas managed to get on the board a few more times to make for another exceptional season outta our camp.

Tater needed only two days to account for two birds. The day after his success late in the second week, he was able to guide his friend Dylan to his first gobbler after an excitin' hunt.

Dylan's first gobbler, and a good one. 7" beard, 1-1/8" spurs, 19-3/4lbs.

That same mornin', Ron tagged a beautiful longbeard as well.

8-1/2" beard, 3/4" spurs, 19-1/2lbs

Memorial Day weekend, we were again able to host our friends Pete, Carey and TJ from Bear Track Outfitters. We hunted hard, but the two days they had with us, the bipolar weather made the birds fairly tough. I had the pleasure of guidin' Carey the first day of their hunt, but the birds just didn't cooperate whatsoever. TJ and I headed out on the evenin' of their last day and we saw several birds, but we just couldn't get them into gun range. After pullin' the trigger on the trophy of a lifetime his last visit, I was glad to see TJ still gettin' fired up with all those birds in front of us.

Carey and I headin' back to camp after a slow, but enjoyable hunt.

I got some great footage of this bird while huntin' with TJ,
but we just couldn't get 'em in gun range.

Dad and Danny were back at it again the last week, and Dad finally managed to connect on a fine longbeard. After his early season whiffs, I'd outfitted his Browning 10-gauge with a proper turkey choke and some Hevi-Shot Mag Blends. Dad loves to empty the gun, and I was a little nervous about springin' for the expensive stuff, but thankfully he was able to get it done with one shot.

10-1/4" beard, 1-1/8" spurs, 19lbs

Ron closed out our season with a jake. I was pretty proud of him for gettin' both his tags filled, since he didn't get many opportunities in the woods this year.

4-1/2" beard, 1/4" spurs, 14lbs

I didn't get to take as many pictures this year as I would have liked, but I did managed to snag a few. Here's a coupla notable ones...

When I get tired, I usually say screw it and just lay down
beside the tree for a few minutes and nap. Thus, this is
my view, and it's usually a good one.

A young buck browsin' along the edge of a well pad.

It's a little hard to see since my camera had trouble focusin'
through the foliage, but I had a black snake slither up to within
four feet of me.

Some sorta neat little critter. Never looked into what it was,
but I thought he looked neat against the wood grain of
my Charles Daly.

My final sunrise of the 2015 Spring Gobbler season. This
is one of the reasons why we set the alarm for dark-thirty.

All in all, it was another enjoyable and successful season. Although I personally only got one bird, I had plenty of excitin' hunts and close calls. Besides, the one I did get was thrillin' enough to last several lifetimes, and I'll take that trade-off. I'm always ecstatic when my friends and family get into the birds, and with Dad battlin' some health issues recently, I was more than thrilled when he called to tell me about his successful hunt.

The first week after the season ends usually brings a sigh of relief as we start catchin' up on long-forgotten chores and sleep. However, it doesn't take real long to start jonesin' for the spring woods again.