Impressions, halfway through

It's about the same in the NW part of the state. All my relation in Southern Pa limited out the first week and I haven't had my first shot yet. Did call one in for a mentored youth Sat but no kill.

Far less gobbling than usual
Far fewer birds than usual but still enough to make me get up in the morning
Passed the only jake I could have shot at. Have only seen 2 total
Been out every day until noon so far. Will try a few evening hunts but not too excited about them.
Thick, thick, thick folage and multiflora rose.
It would suck trying to kill one with the bow unless he was in a field.
I could have shot two out the truck window at 15 yards today but would have had to replace some fellows siding. Probably would have got some more property posted . Actually had to slow down to let them strut off the middle of a back road and into his yard. That after 3 hours of runnung the ridges and hearing nothing. Go figure
Tomorrows another day. Good luck DPMS

I hunt 1B, basically around Oil City and Dempseytown. I did little pre-season scouting due to working odd ball shifts. What scouting I did do was limited to glassing fields around the areas I hunt. I saw little field activity while scouting.

I have 2 areas I have hunted for numerous years. I focued on one of those areas for my hunts. I was working 11PM-7AM the first week of the season which limited my hunting somewhat. My hunts lasted the following hours starting from daybreak:
Day 1 untill about 9AM. Day 3, untill about 10 AM. Day 4 untill 9AM. Day 5 untill 0648 (first kill). Day 8 till noon. Day 9 till 0737AM (kill #2). Days 2, 6, 7 I did/could not hunt.

I heard very little gobbling on the roost and little in general. On day 4 I had 2 gobbling good on the roost and on the ground. They came to 70 yds and then walked off with their hens. Day 5 I set up for the day 4 birds and they had vanished. At 0620 on day 5 I heard one start gobbling, obviously on the ground, and about 500 yds away. I was able to move on him, and get him in to 23 yds for the kill. He did not gobble on the limb and I suspect he roosted with a hen that left him right after fly down.

Day 8 I had one gobbling at 1030. He went silent at 1045 and I waited him out till noon with no success. Being that heavy rain was forecasted for the next day, I elected to set up on a field (in a pop up blind due to the rain) adjacent to where I had the late bird gobbling the day before. I had not seen birds in this field yet this year but have in the past. At 0720 he showed up in the field and at 0737 he was squaring off with my strutter decoy when I shot him. Now, I'm assuming this was the bird that gobbled late the day prior but who knows, may have been a different one?

Bird 1 had a 9.5 inch beard and .75 inch spurs.
Bird 2 had a 10 inch beard and 1 inch spurs.

So.....about 20 hours of hunting over 6 different days for my 2 kills.

It was a successful season thus far for me but gobbling activity was down in the area I focused on. May still get out to call for friends, but they cannot seem to get out of bed!

My Father also hunts that area of Washington, and into Greene, and he had similar results. Quite a bit of gobbling and birds willing to come to aggressive calling. He tagged out 1 day before me.

I didn't mention this above but both of my birds this year wanted nothing to do with aggressive calling and would go quiet. On the flip side, they hammered right back to clucks and purrs and once I figured that out they basically came right in. I experienced the same last year. Unfortunately, we have quite a crop of road hunters in this area who like to ride the roads, stop and call loudly, then go after a bird that responds no matter who owns the property he may be on. I've summised that type of activity has "educated" the birds somewhat, in correlation with other factors such as predators.

PT2, congrats to your 12 year old, that's a great first bird. I can't wait to have my 6 year old get old enough to tag her first gobbler. My one regret this season is that I didn't save the second tag so I could hunt afternoons when she gets out of school and take her along to experience a hunt. She loves to sit in my blind and wants to go on a hunt to and see Dad shoot a turkey.