2021 PA Late Season Gobbler

 

 The 2021 Spring Gobbler season was one full of hit or miss gobbling activity and gobblers that would not roost consistently in the same roosting locations.  One thing that was consistent in my season was one gobbler that I would bump leaving from a before work hunt, or spook if I was changing locations or had a late start to my morning. I took note of this bird in week one after a foiled hunt. This gobbler played the game a few times and I had only heard him gobble one day all season.  For whatever reason that morning he was not with his hens and flat out gobbling his head off.  For the life of me, I could not picture where this bird or his hens were roosting either which really complicated things. 

    One morning I saw this bird standing in a wide-open field just off of an off-road trail. He and his group of hens crossed the road in front of me without a care in the world into a smaller piece of thick woods. I took a mental of this. I would say this scene replayed itself at least three times in week one of the season. I decided after shooting my first gobbler of the year that I would attempt to kill this old bird. I set up to where I thought he would walk past and never laid eyes on the bird, and never heard him gobble. This was going to be one tough bird I thought to myself.

    Week three was rough for me. I received my first Covid-19 vaccination and it put me down for the count. I missed two mornings due to being sick from the shot. I felt better on Friday and decided I would try and kill this gobbler. I set up at the same spot as last time and heard a small group of gobblers sounding off around two hundred yards away. These were the first gobbles I had heard in week. I was led with the dilemma of chasing after these birds or hanging tight for the smart old bird that wouldn't gobble. My lack of patience got the better of me and I decided to chase the vocal birds. The birds were answering my call, but I knew for sure they were not coming my direction. I decided to not call and had a plan in mind to get to these birds. I closed the distance to roughly one hundred yards when I could hear a box call in the woods above me. I knew this hunter was completely out of position to kill these birds but decided I would just turn around and head out for the morning. I was really struggling to make it back to the Jeep because of the lingering side effects of the vaccine. I was kicking myself for leaving my first set up. I could only imagine that the smart old bird had saw me when I shifted locations.

    It was getting down to the wire for me on the last week of the season. I stayed out of my main hunting area in the mornings on Saturdays as the area receives a lot of hunting pressure.  I could only hope that no other hunters were on to my target gobbler. I wanted him bad. I tried a few other areas and came up empty handed. It seemed as if the hunting pressure on the State Game Lands near my camp was even worse than my favorite hunting areas. On the morning of May 26th, I decided it was going to be the day that the gobbler that had been driving me nuts was going to die. As I walked to my Jeep, a gobbler sounded off behind the house. I jetted up the hill to where I thought for sure he would be and got within 35 yards or so of his roost. I did some light calling and he answered every time. He flew down and went the exact opposite way. I never heard him fly down, either. I ran as fast as I could up the mountain to try and cut him off. I hit a logging road that I thought he was on and called him back to around 30 yards, but he took a 90 degree turn out to a clear cut that would make him nearly impossible to kill. I gave it a shot but figured I would end up spooking him and decided to go back to the house. That evening a storm front rolled in, and heavy down pours were present all evening. I figured the conditions would be perfect for the big silent bird. I knew he would hit the field to dry his feathers.

    I went to bed early that night to be sure I could get up early to try and seal the deal with only a few days left of the season. I woke up early and was ready to roll after the Tom that had been giving me fits all season. I'm not sure why but I decided to fire off an owl hoot by the house to see if the gobbler from yesterday would sound off. I am not the best at hunting silent birds. After my owl hoot yielded no answered I figured it was the time to chase my "Unicorn Gobbler" that seemed unkillable. I parked at my normal location and quickly took off for the exact spot that the hen and tom had crossed the trail in front of me back in week one. I sat down with my back against two smaller trees and decided that I needed much more cover than they offered. I hunkered down into a thick bush and kept another bush directly in front of me. I had a small window that I could look through. If the 

Tom did what he did before I would have to let him walk past me. It was going to be an up close and personal hunt that morning.

As it got lighter, I heard something go across the trail to my left. I could hear the shuffling of some larger rocks and knew it had to be a deer. I am thankful that I had the wind in my face that day as the large doe had no clue I was there. As she walked in front of me at roughly eight yards she would look back at the road. "Oh boy, she may be watching the Unicorn Gobbler coming down the road," I thought to myself. As the doe fed along suddenly a hen popped into view right where the doe walked in front of me. I just kept my shotgun held right on the spot the hen just walked.

"FFFFTTTTTTTT!!!!"

The old silent Tom was spitting just to my left and he wasn't on the trail but was walking in the grass adjacent to the trail. I had my gun where the hen was, and he was to my left at a mere two yards. I could see his bright read head through the little opening in the bush. He was close enough that I could see his pupils. I am not sure if he picked my eye movement up or not, but he started cocking his head, and wing flipped and walked off of the trail. I eased my body out from the bush.  I didn't have my gun fully anchored into my shoulder but knew the gobbler was about to get out of there. I put the circle of my reflex sight on his head and pulled the trigger.

"BOOOOOM!!"

My Mossberg 500 rang out into the field and echoed throughout the valley as it decked me from not being properly seated in my shoulder are. The old silent Tom was down.

"YESSS!" I exclaimed. I walked up to the tom and had an overwhelming feeling of excitement.  All of the early morning chess matches were over. It is such a bittersweet moment for me to fill that second gobbler tag. It means that my season is over. I looked at the gobbler and was just taken away. His wings had an noticeably dark coloration to them. I check out his beard and was happy to see it would be the longest beard I had ever gotten and appeared to be just shy of 10". I check his coal black spurs and they looked to be that of a three-year-old gobbler. Such an absolutely perfect gobbler to end my season with. When I picked him up I knew he had a little more weight to him than my first bird of the season.

Before I left the woods, I sent my wife a photo of the bird. I think she likes seeing that photo more than any other. It is a lot for a turkey hunters' wife to take when the only thing their husband can think about is turkey hunting before and during the season. I brought the Tom home and got some nice photos of the bird to remember him by. He was pretty wet from the rain the previous evening, but I managed a few good photos. My favorite photos to remember hunts by are what I call "PJ Hero Shots". I live for those before work hunts and trying to hunt every day of the season I can. I love getting to go in and wake up my best buddy and tell him "Daddy got a turkey," and see his face light up with excitement.

When Corbin came out to check out the gobbler, he noted how much bigger this bird was than his, as well as the first gobbler I shot of the season. He told me that he should have waited for longbeard. I told him that it's all about the hunt, and he needs to be proud of his first turkey.  Corb told me he is going to wait for a longbeard next spring, but we shall see.

For me, my 2021 turkey season was my best ever. I got to call in Corb's first turkey. I was blessed to take a nice loudmouth two-year-old that gobbled his head off to my call in the beginning of the season and then capped off the season with what could be my best gobbler yet. As I sit here and finish this post, and relive my first late season gobbler, I can only hope that the 2022 Spring Gobbler season is as good as last year.

The Sore Throat Gobbler

     The first week and a half of spring gobbler season was rather rough for me this year. I had spooked a few birds by making rookie mistakes. I was on gobbling birds ,which was a good thing, but my lack of time to scout before the season started was taking its toll on me. Every hunt felt rushed but I was gaining information on the birds in the area every time I was out.

    I had missed a nice longbeard the first Monday of the season as I took my head off of the gun to see the shot. I shot over top of that bird and he ran over the hill unharmed. As I walked up to double check that the shot was a clean miss, that gobbler ran back across the logging road in front of me.  After that hunt I quit the subtle tactics of using a stock shotgun and decided to take my fully loaded Mossberg 500. That gun has a reflex sight on it and is bad medicine on gobblers.

    In the middle of the first week I went to an old stand by spot.  I didn't hear any birds on my first spot choice so it was already light when I got to my Plan B location. I fired off a few yelps and cuts on my Lapp Shortbox, but did not receive any answers. With only a half hour left to hunt I decided to go down into the small hollow that I have had success in the past. As I was walking down the trail a monster gobbler was running up the trail to get to the spot I had initially called from. We made eye contact and he took off running. 

The rest of the week yielded only a few distant gobbles and no birds that I could actually work.

    The morning of May 11th, was a chilly one. My Jeep's in dash thermometer read 30 degrees as I was driving in to the woods before work. I headed to the spot that I had spooked the really nice gobbler the week before. As I was walking down the trail that big bird was sounding off like crazy. I planned my set up, plopped a hen decoy right in the middle of the logging road, and let out a few tree yelps. For whatever reason this bird was on fire. I worked that bird for a few minutes but it sounded as though he was going off of the point in front of me.  I had it in my head that this bird was going to work down off of the hill, and I had to make a move on him. I got up, grabbed my decoy, and headed to the point. About 40 yards down the trail that gobbler and I made eye contact yet again, and he just took off flying. These before work hunts don't help with my patience issues while turkey hunting. I decided to just go back to the jeep and get an early start at work but as I was walking out to the jeep  I heard a gobbler going bananas about 150 yards or so from where my Jeep was parked.

    I had enough time to work that bird before heading to work so I took off to close the distance as fast as I could. The bird was across a powerline from where I was first set up and this allowed me to only close the distance to around one hundred fifty yards or so. I knew this bird may not be easy to call through a clear cut, across a powerline, and down a ditch ,but his mood made me believe that I could get the job done. I couldn't risk getting busted so I had to stay back a bit to work this gobbler.

    While I was borderline jogging to get to a small meadow just off of the powerline that gobbler must have gobbled 50 times. I was thinking that another hunter may be working him. I got to the meadow that the twins and I had found earlier in the spring. The meadow was loaded with turkey sign at the time and I made it a point to remember that spot.  I set a hen decoy out in front of me and listened to see if I could hear another hunter calling to this bird.  The gobbler made it tough as he was gobbling about once ever 30 seconds or so. I had never heard a bird that fired up before.  I thought that possibly he had a usual girlfriend that was not present that morning. Once I decided that no one else was calling to the bird I started some excited cutting and yelping at him. It was as if his constant "Where are yous" had finally been met with the "Here I am" he was looking for. The bird really went nuts at hearing his girlfriend calling back to him.

    This lead to a non stop gobblefest for the next 10 minutes or so. He got to the point that he was triple gobbling and sounded out of breath on that third gobble. "This bird is going to give him a self a sore throat by the time I kill him", I thought to myself. The only issue was that he was hung up at the edge of the powerline. I made him go nuts gobbling, but he still was not wanting to cross out in the open to get to my location.

    After giving him the silent treatment I decided I would gobble at him to make him think that another Tom had moved in and stole his lady. I fired off some excited yelps at him and then instantly gobbled on my gobble tube after the last note of my yelp. As soon as I gobbled, he would gobble.  This sequence went on for five minutes or so. Such an awesome hunt thus far but could I seal the deal in time?

After firing him up again I went quiet and so did he. Was he coming in hot, or did he decide that the other bird was not worth the risk of getting beat up for? Just then he gobbled above me and to my left at about 50 yards. I toned down my calling and just let out a few soft yelps. All that was left in my mind was filling out the tag. This bird was going to come right to my hen decoy and get dropped at 15 yards I thought to myself.

    The gobbler had other plans. I had to watch in agony for what felt like an eternity as the "Soar Throat Gobbler" would strut back and fourth at thirty-five yards on the powerline trail. There was a roughly eight foot high ditch with just enough brush in the way that I could not shoot, and I feel made it impossible for him to see my decoy. To make matters worse the bird would turn directly at me and gobble every 45 seconds or so.  Such a rush to just hear the sound I crave all spring so many times and so close.  Now I had a live hen working her way from my left going right too him. This made me super nervous that he would just go off with her and the most exciting turkey hunt I've ever had would be over.

    With time running out and a live hen threating to steal my bird, I really poured it on him. I tried to sound like the most eager hen on the mountain. This drove him into another gobbling episode again. Just as I thought he was going to break I could see the hen with him. She and I exchanged a few words, and I assumed my hunt was over yet again.

    Suddenly I could hear a vehicle coming up the powerline trail to my left. This could either go really good or really bad for me, I thought in my head. I could see the vehicle through an opening and knew it was a hundred yards or so to my hard left. Just then the hen took off down the powerline. I thought to myself he is either going to fly down the powerline like the hen or try to sneak through the brush and come right to me. When the hen took off the vehicle stopped directly to my left at seventy yards or so.  I was thinking I was going to see a hunter get out and shoot my bird, but I watched my longbeard break strut, flip his wings and sneak down the hill in my direction. My eyes constantly shifted from the vehicle to where the bird was. I knew that I was safe to shoot once the bird hit the flat of the little meadow as the ditch would provide a perfect backstop. 

All of a sudden I could see his red, white, and blue head bob into my view at 25 yards. I put my reflex sight on his head and:

"BOOOOM!"

Finally after 2 years of tag soup I had a PA public land gobbler flopping. I was pumped and was in just disbelief of the events that had just unfolded in front of me. I have to laugh that these crazy hunts happen to me. To go from spooking one Tom, to lucking into this bird and have another hunter in a vehicle bump him right to me is hysterical.  I would bet the farm that this gobbler would have went off with that hen, if I couldn't pull the hen to me. I can honestly say that the number of times that this bird gobbled before I shot him was more gobbles than I heard in the last three years of hunting. 

    I snagged a picture of the bird as he laid and was just shaking my head at what had just happened. I took a hunt recap video on my phone as I like to do after every kill. It makes for a great thing to watch to relive hunts. I don't know if gobblers can get soar throats like a human but this bird sure gave his vocal chords a work out that morning. To finally punch a tag after eating tag soup for two seasons was a great feeling, and I knew that Corbin would be super excited.

    I've shot bigger birds than this gobbler. Gobblers that weighed more. Gobblers with longer beards and spurs. What this bird lacks in trophy potential he made up with on my most exhilarating and heart pounding spring gobbler hunt. I am addicted to hearing the bird gobble, and will admit that sometimes I am guilty of over calling just to hear it. I have to believe that in the 45 minutes or so that I worked this bird he had to have gobbled two hundred times. This chess match was awesome and one I will never for get. To checkmate a gobbler that wanted to gobble as much as this guy was an out of this world hunt and one that I will replay in my mind for a long time.

Corb's First Turkey

    Heading into the 2021 Spring Gobbler Season I felt overwhelmingly under prepared. I had no time to roost any birds and was going off previous years knowledge to make my plans for the season. I would rely on my in season scouting more so this year than any previous season.

    The Wednesday before youth day I realized that I could not find Corbin's 410 TSS shells that he uses. I searched the house high and low but could only find one shell. I decided that I would take Corbin out with his 20 gauge to practice with his gun a little more. I took some low brass and high brass shells for him to practice with. He was drilling the targets and was not afraid of the recoil of the gun so I was super pumped for the upcoming youth day.

    With high hopes Corb and I went to a friend of mines private property to hunt. My friend was kind enough to let Corbin hunt his property. He knew how hard Corbin had been hunting the last two years, and all of the trials and tribulations that he had faced within those two years hunting public land. We arrived at the property just before grey light started. A gobbler on the one end of the property was already hammering. I decided that this would be the bird we would chase after.

    We ended up switching our set up 3 times on that particular bird, but a hen foiled our plans on our third set up. We just ran out of property that we had access to hunt, and with his girlfriend by his side, there was no way we would be able to move that bird from his hen. Corb and I walked back to my friends house and took a quick break. Corbin and I shed a few layers as we had planned to hike to the other side of the property to a secluded meadow, and scout our way in. We came across a decent amount of turkey sign along the way.

    When we got to the meadow Corb decided he was going to call all of the shots. He picked out his "hide", some low hanging hemlock branches with a brush pile behind it. He set out the decoys in the exact spot that a gobbler would be sure to come into. We sat quiet for a little, and he noted that he wanted to do some calling on his own. I pulled out his Mike Lapp push pin call, and he started some excited yelps and purrs on it. Instantly a Barred Owl fires off to our right. Corbin jumped in excitement, as he love owls. He would do some calling and then told me that I needed to join in with him to call and pick a fight with him to mimic two hens squawking at each other.

    It was awesome to see how far he had come, and how much he had listened to me over the last two years of hunting when I would explain the why and how's behind my calling methods. Unfortunately for us, we only had a hen answer and no longbeards responded. We left empty handed but Corb was sure that his spot was just the perfect location to kill his first turkey on Opening Day.

    Opening morning came and I had barely slept a wink that night. We had really high winds the evening before so roosting the birds was impossible. I told Corb that because of the winds it was likely that the birds would be roosted at the meadow and we may be in some serious business. As soon as we dropped down over the hill from my buddies house a longbeard fired off down by the meadow.

"DAD!! I HEARD A GOBBLER BY THE MEADOW!!"

"I heard him Corb, so what do you want to do? Do you want to take the trail over to meadow, or walk down into the creek bottom to get there?"

"I dunno Dad.....I think we better go into the bottom in case he is roosted on Ramp Flat."

    So we took off for the bottom, and were on our way to the meadow. When we got to about 70 yards away I told Corbin that we were no longer going to talk until we got set up at his spot. I told him that I would put his decoys on the exact spots he picked last week. I set up to Corbins left to try and help shield his movements to the birds. I set the decoys and sat down with him.

Corb's set up I mimicked from youth day.

GOBBLE-OBBBLE-OBBBLE-OBBBLE!!! 

    The longbeard was roosted no more that 40 yards away in the pines on the ridge just above the meadow. It was just a little past grey light so I gave a couple light tree yelps. The gobbler turned our way and hammered again. "He knows we are here Corb, That's the last time I am going to call until his feet are on the ground." A few minutes later a hen started to call around 100 yards away. "Dad, you better call so that hen doesn't ruin our hunt," Corb whispers. "Corb, The more I call to that gobbler the longer he is going to stay in that tree," I whisper back. Corb just nodded, and sat back down. The hen calls again a few minutes later. "Dad, please call, she is going to pull that gobbler away!" He eagerly replied as she finished her last tree yelp. I didn't mention it to Corbin but I heard a group of jakes roosted above the meadow on our walk in. I didn't want to call and have them come roaring in and skip the hen the gobbler had heard.  I had called light enough so only the longbeard would hear it and at that point the jakes had not sounded off. 

"Corb, are you ok with shooting a Jake or do you want to wait for that longbeard?"

"Dad, a turkey is a turkey for me."

"OK, Get ready"

    I did a fly down cackle with my MAC slate call and all three jakes let out thunderous gobbles. It sounded like the crowd cheering at Beaver Stadium in the quite morning. Corbin nearly jumped out of his skin. "Dad, there are other Turkeys on the hill" "I know Corb, Keep your head on that gun." I knew those jakes were going to come in and a few seconds after my fly down cackle they were on the ground and coming in hot. I let out a few excited yelps and cuts and they were hammering. I would say I was overcalling a bit but wanted Corbin to experience the excitement of fired up gobblers. About 2 minutes later I could see them pretty much running into the creek bottom.

    "Corb, they are directly to my left, don't move a muscle. Once they see that Jake decoy they will come over."  I never called again, but the jakes slowly walked in front of me and were getting ready to cross the stream. "Corb, they are going to come up right behind that grey brush pile, get your scope right on the Jake decoys head and get your safety off" And just as I said they both came in. They had their heads lifted in the air, and ready to fight the decoy. 

"Corb shoot the one on the right...Wait, wait, wait.....Corb, shot the one on the left.....Wait, wait wait"

The birds kept walking in front of each other. The smaller of the two jakes was clear. 

"Corb, Shoot the one on the left."

"I can't."

"Corb the gun won't kick you too bad just shoot him."

"No Dad, the trigger won't work."

    In his excitement and bracing for the shot Corb must have pressed the slide release button on his Mossberg 500 and the slide was open a little, disengaging the trigger.

"Corb, its the pump, slide it forward a little but don't take the sight off of his head."

    Corbin handled this like a pro and lightly slid the pump, when it broke it clicked. The bigger Jake then attacked the decoy. After his round house kick he posed, wings down, and head raised in a defensive position.

"Kill him"

BOOOOOM!

Corb's Shot hit its mark, and the Jake never even flopped a wing. He straight leveled him with his Mossberg 500 20 gauge loaded with Federal TSS #9's.

"Oh my gosh, I got my first turkey, I got my fist turkey, Oh my gosh!"

"Yeah buddy! Give me your gun in case that longbeard comes down."

    It was just a hunting instinct I guess and in the heat of the moment it took over me. That's when Corb's emotions took over. "Thank You lord, Thank You Lord, thank you lord. I can't believe it."

    At this moment he was crying tears of joy and I knew that this private land gobbler in the tree to my left was not worth missing out on my little buddies first turkey kill. "Forget that gobbler, Corb lets go get your turkey!"

    Corbin and I were both super pumped for him to finally put a tag on a turkey. He has hunted very hard over the previous two years but something always went wrong. Corb wanted to film a recap video for his YouTube channel, and get a few pictures. We made a quick escape from the hidden meadow back to my buddy's house to hopefully make it in time to show him Corb's turkey. My friend was very happy for Corbin and gave him a congrats. Corbin then wanted to show a few other family members while his sisters were still sleeping. 

    This hunt will forever be etched in my mind. This hunt really got Corbin hooked on turkey hunting. He always liked hunting turkey but after finally having a plan come together without something or someone messing it up really planted the seed. He is already talking about hunting turkeys in the fall. I put together a mount on Corbin's jake and it now resides on his wall, and am going to have a good buddy of mine make a nice wingbone call from one of his Jake's wings.  After I try a few wingbones myself, Corbin is going to try to make a call from the other wing from his Jake. Corbin also wanted to save the primary wing section of his Jake to make a fly down call as well. I have made a lot of hunting memories over the years but it will be really hard to beat Corb's First Turkey.

Preserving Grey Squirrel Pelts For Fly Tying

I had a few requests for instructions on preserving a squirrel hide for fly tying. I don’t tan the hide where it becomes soft like leather, but mainly just preserve it. Don’t mind my amazing sketch on how to make your cuts.

I use Game shears and make a small cut on their belly. Then, I make a straight line up to their head. Next, take a line to their feet. Repeat this process on all 4 legs.

The tail is tricky. I don’t really use squirrel tails for flies, but do utilize this material for inline spinners.  You can remove it one of 2 ways. If you just shot the squirrel, just hang on to the front half of the body and slowly pull the rest of the hide back. The tail may just turn inside out.

The other option is to split the tail. Take your knife or shears and make a small incision at the top of the tail and cut straight down. You can then pull the tail out, but thus gets difficult where the tail is very thin.

Next I remove their feet. once the feet are removed I just pull the body out from the skin. You can remove the head if you’d like. You can slowly pull the rest of the hide forward and it should just come right off of the head. I don’t really use a lot of fur on the mask so a lot of the time I just get rid of it for the most part.

Game shears are the ticket, and its best to remove the skin immediately after you shoot the squirrel. This makes skinning the squirrel 500 times easier when you do it while the squirrel is still warm.

Then lay the squirrels pelt on a thick piece of cardboard. Stretch the squirrel out and pin the skin in place on the cardboard. Take a knife and kind of scrape as much if any fat or meat from the skin side. Make sure it’s all pinned right then take 20 mule team borax and rub it into the skin. Make sure it covers all of it. Let it sit a day. Refresh the borax for a day or two. Remove all existing borax and then reapply.  It won’t make it tanned but does preserve the fur. Similar to how the do hares masks.

I use grey squirrel body fur a lot for dubbing. It’s way better to have the entire pelt as you can see the different lengths of hair. For instance the leg hair is longer than the hair on the back. You can make bigger dubbing loops and such. This aspect is very beneficial. I would liken it to having the whole partridge skin vs having a baggy of feathers.

Hope this helps you out. 😎👍🏻

BUCK Knife Review

My brother gave me this knife on the last day of archery season. It is a BUCK 382 Trapper knife. I shot my doe and field dressed it with a different knife. 

I decided I would skin and butcher the entire deer with my BUCK Knife. I wanted to see how the knife would hold up. 

When I was skinning the deer the knife was cutting skin but also hair. After skinning the deer I then trimmed all of the fat off. This can be pretty hard on a blade. 

Once I trimmed the fat off I quartered the deer up. I washed the knife and then deboned all of the meat. Once the deboning was done I removed all of the silver skin. I purposely left the front shoulders for last as this has the most silver skin. I trimmed the last of the silver skin and NEVER had to touch the blade. 

I did the entire process and the only tool I used while processing was this little knife.

I’ve never owned a BUCK Knife before but this to me was an awesome statement to the quality of their knives. I’ve used some big name wild game processing kits that the knives needed touched up ever few minutes. The little blade was easy to manage and I never felt undergunned with this knife. 

Why? Why use a single small knife to butcher a deer? I just wanted to see how the little knife would pan out. Now I did not do any steaks and everything but the back straps, two roasts, and the fish was trimmed and sliced to fit into my grinder but this knife held a great edge throughout the entire process. A longer blade is just easier to cut steaks with but it could have easily been done with this knife.

Big props to BUCK. Just goes to show that you don’t absolutely have to have a butchering kit to process your own deer. 

I could have field dressed the deer with this knife as well but I like a little more distance between my fingers and the edge of the blade while I can’t see what I’m cutting. 

Great product, and won’t be the last BUCK knife I ever own.

Thanksgiving Raccoons, First Catches for Father and Son

Corbin really wanted to get into trapping this year. I bought a few Dogproof traps and a few 110's for mink and muskrat. Our line is rather small but it is located in a pretty good area. He was really discouraged the past week and a half as all of our traps have been coming up empty. A few had been robbed but we had no animals for our efforts. One day I did a little scouting up stream from where our first traps were. I found a log crossing a stream with a pretty well used trail going to it. Looking at the other side I had assumed that raccoons or another animal that climbed were using the downed log as a bridge. The tree that fell ended up getting stuck in another tree so I don't believe that fox or coyotes are using the bridge. I plan on setting up a camera on crossing to confirm my hypothesis. I had a lot of confidence in this set but just hoped Corbin could be patient enough to wait it out.

I've been getting up early and checking the line before work.  I left enough time so I could go home and get Corbin if we had something in our traps. He is only 7 so I don't want to get him up super early and out in the cold for nothing. When he is a little older he can learn the commitment and check tracks with me every day.

Thanksgiving morning I took a ride on the mountain until it got light. I took my fishing rod with me to try to catch a fish or two to help with my sets. It took me a little longer to get to the traps, but was a nice change of pace from just checking empty or robbed traps. All of our water sets were empty. I checked the box trap I have set up for a mink.  The previous evening I had put a creek chub in the back of trap. Something had pulled the chub through the hole and ate some of the head and tail, but did not commit to going inside of the trap. I think it is a weasel or a mink.  I have plans for catching this mystery robber but that is for another post.

After checking the mink trap, I walked up the bank and saw that the one DP was untouched, but the other had the cap nocked off. This trap had been robbed two days in a row. This DP contained Corbin's home made raccoon bait consisting of Berry Captain Crunch, Blueberry Cheerios, Strawberry Rice Crispies, Small Marshmallows, mixed in a near empty jar of peanut butter. The twins taste tested his concoction and and approved.

I soon came to the realization that we had our first Raccoon in one of our traps. Boy I was pumped. I was excited to get my first catch as a trapper, and even more excited that my helpers home made bait lured the raccoon to a trap. This raccoon was a big female with beautiful colors. I was elated, but was even more excited to check the spot I had scouted two days before.

With my held high I went back to my Jeep to go and check the other spot. I walked down to the log crossing only to find that I had a double. I was very optimistic going out this morning as we had a wind storm on Wednesday going into Thursday. I guess that was just what we needed. I was blessed to have two more big raccoons on our line. One was a super dark and gorgeous female and the other was a lighter colored male. WOW!!! I can't really put into words how blessed I felt. I just had my first catch, and now had a double. I keep thinking back to the saying "If it's good enough for one trap then it is good enough for two..." That saying is why I decided to put two DP's on the crossing and it paid off for me.

I have always wanted to get into trapping, and this year was the year I was going to jump in head first. I only have a few traps, and limited time but I was going to give it everything I had, and Corbin was too. We are both all in. He was quite discouraged after our first week or so did not produce. I mean our luck was low. So low in fact that I even had a raccoon climb a tree on the other side of the stream about 10 yards from our traps on a morning check. I could have easily shot the raccoon, but really wanted Corbin to get one in one of our sets.

We were very blessed this Thanksgiving. I could not have asked for a better outcome for our first catches. Three large raccoons can put a big smile on a discouraged little boys face. It was tough keeping his moral boosted. I had to laugh when he said, "Dad, Robby Gilbert catches something every time he goes out!" I had to explain to him the Robby doesn't show how many traps don't get touched, and the Robby still probably has a few traps get robbed also. He can only put his successful traps on his show. 

I am happy that both of us picked the spots together and Corbin even made the bait on our first catch. He helped in every aspect of these catches.  He can't wait until he is 12 and can officially be a trapper in Pennsylvania. We are learning this together and having a blast.  I think that trapping is something that both of us will do together for years to come. Corbin was so excited to take his raccoons home to show his sisters and explain how he set up the traps with me. The twins are super excited every time I come home in the morning from checking traps. Maybe next year they can come in the woods with us to check traps. They like sampling Corbin's raccoon bait, and are going to try to make their own in the next week or so.

After a few hero shots we went in for Thanksgiving dinner and skinned the Raccoons later that night. Corbin's Uncle John gave him a pocket knife that day, and Corbin was pumped to get to learn how to use it later that night when he go to skin his raccoons.

We have the raccoons skinned and I have some of them mildly fleshed. I will be freezing them until I get the right tools for fleshing and tanning. Corbin wants to make a quiver for his recurve bow out of the biggest Raccoon. I am going to do a trapper display tan on the really dark one, and will also be making a quiver out of the lighter one.

We are going to give canines a try now, and hoping to catch fox mainly. I will be picking up a few traps here and there to put out a few canine sets. Corbin and the twins are addicted to watching trapping videos and learning. He's a big fan of Robby Gilbert and Trapping Time TV. It is awesome to hear Corbin's breakdowns on why we should put a trap here, and how he thinks the animals are working the area. 

Trapping is an awesome way to introduce kids into the outdoors. There are a lot of things that trapping will teach them about animal movement, animal tracks, and all sorts of other areas of the outdoors that they may never be exposed to with hunting alone. I feel very blessed this Thanksgiving, and hearing Corbin say this was The Best Thanksgiving EVER!! only made it better.

 

DIY European Mount

I’ve seen a lot of requests on how to do a European mount by yourself. In this post I’ll cover my step by step instructions on how I do my Euro mounts. The skull used in the tutorial was from a buck my cousin shot a few years ago. I captured these images but never put them into a blog post.

I often see posts asking how hard Euro Mounts are to do by yourself. My process takes about 4 hours start to finish. I do this as soon as I get the deer or freeze the skull until I can find the time to do it. There are plenty of other ways of accomplishing this but this is how I do mine.

Start with head facing away from you.

Make the initial cut and spit the skin behind the head and between the ears.

Slice the skin all the way down to the nose.

Slice away the skin and peel it back to the ears.

Do this to both sides.

Slice around the antlers.

You can place your knife perpendicular to the antlers base and just push down. Do this the whole way around the base.

Grab the skin and pull back and slice away the meat and fat from the ears.

Do this to both sides.

Take your knife and slice along the inside of the jaw bone. Follow this down to where the jaw bones come together. Remove tongue.

Cut away the cheek meat that runs between the eye socket area and jaw bone.

Pull down on bottom jaw and continue to remove meat.

Once the jaw is removed I take my knife and screw driver and scrape away at the inside of the brain cavity. Remove the eyeballs.

I then take the skull and pressure wash the meat off. Be sure to blast inside of brain cavity.

Get as much as you can off with the pressure washer. IMO the more meat/fat you get off before you put it in the pot, the brighter your skull will turn out.

I bring a pot of water to a boil and add a generous amount of DAWN and peroxide.

I reduce the heat to just below boiling. I’ve found that when I let it at a rolling boil it makes the lower nose area want to fall out. About ever 20 minutes I remove the skull and continue to remove more meat and other tissue.

I hit the skull with a pressure washer again once I am happy with my picking then hang it in a sunny place. I’ll put peroxide on the skull every so often.

After a day or so this is what you end up with. The pressure washer is such a great tool to have. You can do it without but it requires a lot more time and effort.

I love doing euro mounts and think they are a great DIY project. I like to do these the day after I harvest the deer. Being from Pennsylvania it’s a great project for Sundays. I’ve done quite a few of these over the years and have never had any issues with the white fading. I credit that to getting as much of the meat and fat off prior to having the skull hit the hot water. I love doing things on my own and hope that this blog post can help you if you are thinking of giving it a try this year.