Tale of the Hunt

by his father, Dominick Mioni

 

This story is of my son Daniel's first Pennsylvania Spring Gobbler. We had hunted this wood lot roost site several times earlier including the youth day hunt in which he had his safety off twice but the "good" shot didn't present itself. He also missed early one morning during the first week of the season as two birds worked in on us directly off the roost.

Various responsibilities and obligations didn't let us get into this spot until the last week of the season. We heard and saw the birds on Saturday the 21st but again we didn't get the shot opportunity. On the morning of the 25th we snuck in as quiet and as close to the roost location as we dared. As the woodlot started to brighten with the light of day, gobbling time came and went without a sound??? I leaned over and told Dan that we would stay and listen for a little while longer and then slip out quiet since I had to get to work and he had to get to school.

As Dan snored against the tree next to me, I figured that I might as well get after it on the calls a little before we scooted out. I hit the slate call and nothing happened. I then hit my Lohmann mouth call with a louder series of yelps and a little extra-added cackle. I then heard a hen call right back and a muffled gobble down to our left. I gave Dan a poke in the ribs and told him to be alert because we were "in the game". The hen came up the trail above and behind us first. She was clucking and looking. I told Dan to get the gun up and around the tree since the gobbling seemed to be following the hen down the same woods path. The hen spooked mildly but kept moving up the trail away from the gobbling.

The gobblers hung up briefly just out of eyesight but proceeded to gobble about 10 to 12 times. I yelped and did a light cut and cackle and that broke them. Dan said that he saw movement and when the gobbler stepped into the opening he cut loose. As we hustled to the bird which I saw go down, another gobbler ran right at us. Dan thought for a second that he had missed but quickly saw his bird laying on the trail. As fate would have it, he shot the smaller of the two birds but that was OK with us. Needless to say, I was a pretty proud Dad!