Hunting Penn's Woods 2015

Date line: 4:30pm Tuesday Sept. 1 2015 somewhere in the PA. Wilds.
 
Found a parking spot on one of the many state game lands that lay beyond my little piece of Penn's Woods.  My nephew was sitting in the passenger seat and one of my best friends occupied the back seat.  Not being anywhere familiar with the area we weren't long in making our exit from the car eager to begin our exploration in hope of finding the ultimate hunting ground.  Making our way past the familiar yellow gate we continued down the access trail making visual note of the terrain, types of trees, undergrowth and, animal trails.   Wasn't much more than a quarter mile when the road opened into a field, half planted with corn and the other half a combination of clover, vetch and golden rod.  The field was maybe 200 yd.s wide and stretched for as far as the eye could see.  After a couple of "wadda ya thinks" and "I dunnos" we decided to have a seat to see what we might see and hear what we might hear.  Wasn't long when we heard what we wanted but, we wasn't seeing what we wanted to see.  We back tracked to a path we had passed along the way and decided to continue exploring the area toward what we was hearing in hope of seeing what we wanted to see while continuing to make note of the trees, terrain, trails and undergrowth.
 
Quiet quickly turned to excited chatter when we saw animal trails leading through the woods, and under growth, from the corn field into the remnant of a apple orchard. Archery hunting soon became the subject with 'nibs' being called on choice spots for deer stands followed by "uh uh" that's my place and "I don't think so's".  Then quiet once again set in as we were reminded of why were here and our journey continued.
 
Grape vines hanging from oak trees brought about memories of those good ole days squirrel hunting or, a comment about possible turkey hunting this fall.  Ponds, some open, yet others filled in with marsh grass, cat tails and, other weed brought talk of duck and goose hunting as we continued to trek to destinations unknown.
 
Then, at the end of the path, lay a field half planted with corn and the other half covered in clover, vetch and golden rod. We had arrived where we thought we would see what we had heard when we first arrived.  Looking at each other, we placed our folding stools on the ground to have a seat to see what we could see and hear what we could hear.
 
Wasn't long before we saw and we heard what we had hoped to hear and see so, we were able to join in.  That is my nephew and I joined in, my best friend didn't seem to care for all the commotion, became very quiet and found a place in among the golden rod and thicker brush to wait out the action.
 
It is opening day for Dove season and my first to experience this type of hunt which, will leave me with some fond memories for the rest of my days.  Myself, I scored 0 as I only shot twice and I'm dang sure glad nobody had a video camera running (that I know of)  the first time I squeezed the trigger.  I'm telling yinz, a recording of me shooting would be going "viral" on face book right now....... BIG time.  It was a 'text book shot', me sitting on my seat low in the golden rod with cheek to the stock and bead on a dove gliding straight in at me.  I wanted to wait until the bird was  just the right angle over me so it would drop practically in my lap.  I mean it was really thick in the area and finding birds hit over the corn field or making it to the nearby woods would be difficult at best.  Plus my best friend wasn't exactly thrilled about helping to find any downed birds and my nephew was off in his own little corner.
 
Text book shot I tell you and my first dove on my first hunt, of this type, about to be placed in the 'bag'.  Cheek to the stock, I clicked off the safety, placed my finger on the trigger and slowly squeezed with the bead slightly ahead of  the bird still gliding toward me.   KA-POW went my 870 twenty gauge followed by "ya missed",  coming from my nephew and "really" I bellered,  as I picked my self up off the ground, "and ya can take this stupid stool ya let me use and stick it where the sun don't shine"!  A 'text book' shot made by a 'an old hairy rookie' while shooting near straight-up sitting on a three leg stool placed on unstable ground.  Meanwhile, my friend just sits there and stares at me as I pull the burrs and other unwanted matter from my clothing. 
 
I remained standing in the edge of the golden rod for the remainder of the day where, but one bird lent itself for another shot and once again, because of the sun glaring in my glasses, I heard "YA MISSED".
 
Nephew had five birds when we decided to call it a day and head back to the car where we were met by a very nice member of the PA. Game Commission whom I'd hoped hasn't read any of my threads on these boards.  Turns out he must not have because, he let me borrow his pen to sign my migratory bird hunting stamp where it says "must be signed in ink". heh hehhh  oops!
 
Returned home, making plans to trek on another adventure somewhere else in Penn's Woods in the near future.   Near future, as in, as soon as I can get all the 'new found' muscles in my entire body to stop aching.
 
Stay tuned...................