Big Bird Down in the Sunshine State!

[harleytom]

Just got into the woods around 430 this afternoon on my first day in FL. Saw some strutting across a pasture and drove around property to set up. Put decoys out and started some light calling. Just as I finished my 4th sequence around 530 I looked to my right at a dark shape across a nearly dry watering hole. It was a gobbler in full strut. Looking closer I could see another one right behind him. I purred a few times and they went down into ditch, the one still in strut. I waited for what seemed like hours (5 minutes of actual time) for them to come up. Finally the sub bird popped up, I was tempted to pull trigger as he was stretched out in plain view but just them the strutter came up on my side. He looked at decoys and went into full strut again, took about 3 steps toward them and as he periscoped his head to look at them again a full load of Nitros hit him. He flipped back down in ditch and I ran to collect my best Osceola yet. 8 & 3/4 beard, 1 & 1/8 and 1 & 1/4 Spurs. Weight and pics to follow when I get back to camp.

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[xarcher]

Atta boy. That didn't take long.

[FullChoke]

Very nice! Did you kill him in the northern part of the state? The wing bars look to be an eastern and not an osceola. Either way, a great bird.

Cheers 

FC

[3seasons]

That's awesome. Congrats, heck of a nice bird.

[harleytom]

Very nice! Did you kill him in the northern part of the state? The wing bars look to be an eastern and not an osceola. Either way, a great bird.

Cheers 

FC

South of Suwanee River. Looked at him up close and some of the bars are broken up, maybe a hybrid of some sort. In any case, his location makes it official and I'll take it.

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[surehuntsalot]

congrats on the bird

[3bailey3]

Awesome congrats!

[harleytom]

I had forgotten to take my scales with me this weekend and had to use the landowners set. They showed the bird weighed 16.8 lbs. Could be correct but since I planned on mounting him, I put him in the freezer whole. I plan on weighing him again before he goes to the taxidermist and may update his weight if it changes significantly. I was hunting with an old high school classmate who I reconnected with a few years ago. He is a turkey hunting nut like myself and only needed an Osceola to finish his personal Slam. I hunted the edge of an open field Saturday morning and had a bird come into my setup from behind 30 minutes after first light, gobbling once on ground as he approached. I passed up shots on him twice as he worked around my decoys and picked up his hens. At lunch, my friend and I discussed what our respective morning hunts had been like and I encouraged him to hunt that field. I went with him to help call and we ended up working the bird for 2 hours bringing him to within about 10 yards on his comfort zone range wise. Sunday morning we needed to be on the road by lunch but wanted to give him another go. My friend hunted the field while I went back on the backside of property. He texted me that the bird had come out in the field but wouldn't come in, chasing 3 hens and whipping a group of 4 jakes. I spent the morning watching a large group of jakes and 2 gobblers play around about 100 yards away. He finally said he was ready to go and as I drove up imagine my surprise to see him sitting over the downed bird. After the obligatory congratulations and high-fives we told how a passing car had spooked the flock his way and sealed the bird's fate. I think he felt a little guilty about that part but I pointed out how many times such circumstances kept a bird alive for every turkey hunter and this was just a bit of payback for those situations. I'll try to add a pic of he and his bird later. Great end to a fabulous weekend of hunting and fellowship. One neither of us will ever forget.

[MountNMan]

Awesome bird. I'd like to try hunting a different state myself sometime.

[old frank]

Congratulations on a great bird!

[cramerhunts]

Way to go! Congratulations on a very nice bird.