I’ve been checking out all our Turkey hunting spots during the past few weeks to get ready for the special Youth Day for Spring Gobbler on Saturday April 23. We found a good spot near some grape vines where we could set up our decoys and also see a clear view all around us.

I really wanted to get a Gobbler with my new 20 Gauge Mossberg 505 Shotgun. I took my first practice shot with it last week and I’m pretty sure I can get a turkey if we call one in. We had a really exciting morning hunt because we heard about 5 different big birds that were gobbling over and over and saw two long beards and a couple of hens, too. Check out our video below!

My cousin, Jared Csordas, lives in Maryland and on April 26, 2016, he shot this nice Gobbler. He used a slate call and the Gobbler weighed 20 pounds and had a 9.5 inch beard.

Jared was really excited about his hunt and I will be too, when I get my gobbler. Jared used a 12 gauge Mossberg 535 to shoot the bird at about 30 yards. Good shooting Jared!

The morning after I shot my Buck with my Parker Challenger Crossbow, my Pupup said he was going to take my buck to Pudliners Butcher Shop. As he was taking me to school that morning I told him that I really wanted to get my Buck mounted. Lucky I said that, cause he was going to just saw the antlers off. I would have been so MAD!

A few days later on Oct. 24^th 2015, we went to the Taxidermy Shop with my Buck Head, Cape and Antlers. Matt Gornick has a real nice Taxidermy Studio near Seward. He has a lot of interesting mounts of all kinds. He will do Bucks, Bull Elk, Buffalo, Mule Deer, Turkeys, Pheasants and African Game animals. He had Kudu, Gazelle and other Antelope species on his walls.

I had to pick out a form for my Buck. The form is a plastic sculpture of what your deer is shaped like. Then Matt puts the skin back on, just like fitting a leather glove on your hand. Matt showed me how he puts extra detail work to make the nose and the eyes look  real.

Some hunters told me that it takes a year or more to get your deer finished by a Taxidermist. But, when I asked Matt how long I’ll have to wait he said, “Oh, I’ll have your Buck ready by Trout Season!” I said, “Sounds good, that’s really fast!”

Well Matt was right on with his promise. On March 28, 2016, Matt called us to say my Buck was ready to be picked up. Wow, that only took about 5 months. A few of my friends shot their bucks TWO Seasons ago and they don’t have their bucks back on their wall yet.

I was so excited to drive to Gornick’s Taxidermy Shop to see my buck. When we got inside, there were so many mounts that I didn’t even see my Buck at first. And, It was hanging right in front of us. Vayda and I stood by a Big Buffalo head. Vayda was as tall as the Buffalo’s head. Matt took my Buck off the wall and said I could carry it. It was so light, I thought it was going to be so heavy.

The next day we got a ladder and we picked out a spot on our TV-Room wall. This is our outdoor display, My Grand Dad, Chuck, caught this big 20 inch Smallmouth Bass years ago in the Juniata River, my Dad caught this 29 inch Brown Trout in the Niagara River.

But, my Buck has the best spot in the room, high up near the ceiling. Now, I still have room for when I get an Antelope and a Bull Elk or even a Bear. My Buck looks so nice on the wall, I think about my best Hunting Day ever…every time I look up at my First Ever Buck.

Even though it’s snowing, blowing and cold outside, Spring Turkey Season is coming in a few weeks. So, this year I wanted to get my own shotgun for Turkey Hunting. We went to Sporting Goods Discounters in Richland and looked at different kinds of shotguns. The Mossberg 505 Youth Pump in 20 Gauge was the one I liked best.

This shotgun has a nice wood stock, it’s smaller to fit kids and it is very well made. My Grandpa has a full size Mossberg 12 Gauge Pump in 3-1/2 inch Magnum. He shot lots of Turkeys with his and says these are real good for Turkey Hunting. My shotgun is almost the same  but it shoots regular 2-3/4 and 3 inch 20 gauge shells.

For the past few years I’ve used my Mom’s old 20 gauge H&R single shot. It was really a long barrel and I never got a chance to shoot at a gobbler. Hope my new Mossberg brings me better luck! And I hope it stops snowing.

Stay tuned for a video when I go to the range to shoot my 20 Gauge Mossberg at Turkey Targets!

A few of my readers at “RORUSA” have told us that they have seen Eagles recently soaring  around Johnstown. When I was at the Trout Unlimited Fly Tying event, a guy told us while deer hunting he saw an Eagle. The bird was eating the entrails of a buck his friend shot. He said the Eagle ate so much that it could hardly fly.

Another friend saw an Eagle flying above the Conemaugh River in the West End of town going towards the Conemaugh Gap. Others have seen the Big Birds around the Stoneycreek. At Hawk Mountain in Eastern PA, they have a club that watches and counts all kinds of Hawks and Eagles. Their website says 6 Bald Eagles have been seen there recently. There are Eagles at Raystown Lake, too.

Lots of people still think we did not seeing an Eagle. Some say we are seeing Buzzards, Osprey or Hawks. Of all the hawks and buzzards, the Bald Eagle is the easiest of the big birds to identify, especially with its big White Head.

Some people wanted to know what happened to the eagle that we saw that day, ( see my Eagle Has Landed! Story).

We will always remember that day we saw the Eagle because we got our pet cat, Leo that day. My Dad was taking us to the pet store to pick up our kitten when he saw the Eagle near Greenhouse Park. We watched it sitting on a limb of a Sycamore Tree. Then it flew downstream. Vayda and I ran along the road to watch it.

It glided downstream and landed in a different tree. Well, as we were running, Vayda fell. When we got near the Eagle, Vayda was still crying. We tried to get a picture of the bird across the valley and us at the same time. Look really close, (in the Yellow Circle) and behind us you can see the Eagle across the river. My grandfather used his big telephoto lens to make it bigger in the other photos.

When the Eagle flew out of this tree it glided right over our Church. St. Andrews Church and School are near the Benscreek and Stoneycreek River. I went to school there from pre-school to Third Grade. Also, we thought it was really cool that the name of the Sport Teams at our church is the “EAGLES!” That’s our carved Eagle in front of the school.

A few of my friends didn’t believe we saw an Eagle until the B&W photo that my Grandfather took was published in the Tribune Democrat. So, Eagles do fly along our rivers and creeks to feed on fish. Eagles are around here you just have to keep looking for them.