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Wild Turkey Hunters Have Early Spring Gobbler Success
May 2, 2006 - Potter County Pa. - Saturday was the first day of the Spring Gobbler Season to run from 4/29/06 through 5/27/06 in Pennsylvania and Potter County. Hunters, dressed in camouflage and outfitted with turkey calls enter the woods around 5:00am to set up a spot to call in the elusive spring gobbler.
Here's the story of two friends and wild turkey hunters: On May 1, 2006 Greg Wentz, of Glenville Pa., and Larry Rohrbaugh, of Spring Grove Pa., got to their hunting spot near Gold at 5:45am. Larry put out a call and had wild turkeys respond from a near by clear-cut. Larry decided to set up beside a field with Greg circling around to the top of the field. After finding a good spot and setting up a decoy, Larry started calling again. Almost immediately a Tom gobbled at the edge of the field where it bordered the clear-cut. Watching out about 80 yards up, first a long bearded Tom, and then a second long bearded Tom strutted out. They both gobbled, strut, and feed their way out into the grass field. Four Jakes followed but remained silent. The Toms would gobble in response to his turkey calls but the flock wandered out of site.
Larry pulled two more slate calls out of his call bag and made calls on all three. Within minutes the wild turkeys reappeared and headed straight for him. Larry felt the excitement as eleven wild turkeys, two long bearded Toms, six Jakes and 3 hens came right at him. The two toms stayed about 73 yards out in the field while the other nine got within 15 yards of him and started to feed. Larry passed up a number of chances to take the jakes hoping the toms would come closer, but they never did.
As the flock started to feed back towards the toms Larry picked out the largest Jake and took him down with a clean shot from his Remington 870 12 gauge.
It was a 35-yard shot; the Jake weighed 15 1/2 pounds with a 5 1/2 inch beard. The turkey was harvested at 7:14am.
After Larry's shot the remaining jakes ran up across the field with the hens and toms flying in the opposite direction. The jakes entered the woods just below Greg Wentz. He spotted them about 160 yards below him and put out a call. The jakes headed straight at him. He was lying on the ground when the first Jake's head popped up, when Greg raised his head the turkey disappeared behind a tree. Greg then swung around to the second Jake and killed it with one shot at about 15 yards. Greg's Jake weighed 14 1/2 pounds and sported a 5 1/4 inch beard. The bird was taken at 7:22am.