Back from FLorida with My Osceola

[ElkTurkMan]

Guys my season started out very well.  I was able to shoot my Osceola On Saturday afternoon. I was hunting Central FLorida and it has been unusually cold there.  In factr they had frost Friday morning and some on Saturday.  The frost has all of the grass brown, and as a result the lcoas think the birds are behind, and will be on in acouple of weeks.  Anyway Saturday morning we didn't hear anything at first light so we set up in aarea where the birds frequented.  We heard a hun on the neighboring property and thought she would maybe get something gobbling.  About 8:30 we heard a bird and went to him, he gobbled prtetty good and I actually thought we were in business.  The only trouble with getting on him was there was jsut a smali group of trees for us to set up in, and from this patch of trees we couldn't see into agreen filed that we were sure he would be coming from.  We got set up and had him working.  Sure enough the last time he gobbled he was in the green filed that we couldn't see into.  We heard a hen with him, and we decided to crawl along the cover and see if we could get to the edge of the field.  We did that and never got tot he gobbler, the hen and him left the field before we got up to it.  We hunted until  noon the srest of the morning without hearing anything.  We ate lunch and drove around the ranch early in the afternoon and didn't see one bird.   It was a reallly hot day it ws in the low 80's, and the rancher said the turkeys will stay out of the fields drunign really hot days beause it burns there heads, makes sense to me.  One thing about Central florida where I was hunting was it was flat, and you would have acres and acres of huge fileds surrounded by islands of cypress hammocks.  You can see forever, but so can the turkeys.  At 4PM we decided to go back to where we went fiorst thing in the morning and cold call.  We had areally shady spot to sit on the point of one of the cypress islands.  We could cover two large fileds and one logging road.  We used a full body mounted gobbler and a hen Decoy.  We put them in the road.  About  5:25 we got a bird to gobble and he was close, I mean he was within ahundred yards.    He was jsut across the property line.  He was so  close I shouldered my gun and got ready. Then the bird gobbles again and he is going away from us.  I am going nuts thinking what the heck.  We call again and gobbles, but he is moving away fast, i mean he is covering some ground.  He is walking away from us but he is staying jsut behind the other propertys fence.  Then I see a fire engine red head about 300 yards away.  What the bird did was walk the fence of the property adjacent to us and cross it, then came our way.  It was the craziest thing I have ever seen.  Why the bird didn'tn cross the fence in front of us I'll never know.  There were no obstructions.  When I see him 300 yards away he sees the decoys and here he comes, he covered the ground quick.  I would give anything to ahve had this on video.  I hae seen my fair sahre of turkeys, and they are all beautiful, but I promise you this was one awesome sight watching him come throught that field ona mission.  The sun was  birght and he feathers were really glowing and that red head, man it was something.  Anyway When he got into range I rolled him.  I ran up thim and looked at my watch, it was 5:34PM.  I almost screwed the pooch on my shot.  These fileds will screww with your depth perception, when I shot him I thought he was right at 40 yards, well it was more like 50.  I got him, and it tunred out ok, but it could have been lucky.  My max shot I will usually take is 45 yards.  I could have let him get even closer, but I was always taught take your first shot your presented with provided its in range, and he paused briefly at what I thought was 40 yards and I let him have it.   I am very lucky to get this bird, because it is awful slow hunting.  There was a guy hunting with me from tennessee and he was having a heck of time.   They were hitting it hard as well.  This was an awesome ranch, I jsut think the birds haven't started up yet real good in Central FLorida.  Anyway that is my story.  This bird also completes my slam.  I am very pleased with that.  I saw a lot of wildlife on this hunt.  I saw  2 alligators, 7 deer, numerous ducks sand hill cranes, and had a run in with a moccasin yesterday morning, and we'll just say he didn't have to good of a day.  The rancher told me to kill every cotton outh I saw, so i obliged  him.  Gotta keep your land owners happy.  Here are some pics.

[ElkTurkMan]

O'h I fogot to tell yout he specifics.  he weighed 21# had a 9 5/8 beard, and 1" and 1 1/8 hooks.  Guys I ddin't enter him in the contest becasue I ddin't ahve a marker, aor a board to right things on, and it was pretty hot.  By the time I got him back to camp, and pictures made I needed to get him cleaned before he spoiled.

[gob09]

Congratulations Shane nice bird

Sent from my C771 using Tapatalk 2

[ElkTurkMan]

Here si the full body decoy we used and a picture of it in the filed how we used it.

[mfd1027]

That is awesome Shane!!!!!  What a story and CONGRATULATIONS on you slam.  That's a hell of an accomplishment.   Those ranch birds are suckers for decoys aren't they. 

If you don't mind me asking how much does it cost to hunt this ranch?   If you don't want to post it here send me a PM.   I'm sure there's a lot of guys that would like to know. 

No need to enter him.   I know there's at least one multiple bearded bird in your future.   Come on Saturday.   It looks like it might be a little damp for the opener.       

[ElkTurkMan]

Dan, I hunted the D&C ranch it was $1,800.00.  What I liked about that Ranch was you can do your own thing call your own birds, and basicallly run the hunt how you want it.  Plus they only shoot 4 birds a year off of the place.  This year he had me and one other hunter, and he was saving the last two birds for his grandkids.  I highly recommend it. It is a great place.  I am not going out west this year, so this si what I spoent my money on. 

[mfd1027]

That sounds like a great deal Shane.   Does that include lodging/food?   Sounds like it's just about 100% odds.   

[nctrkyhntr]

 

Congrats Shane

[Moore]

 

[ElkTurkMan]

Thanks Guys.  Dan that price did include food and lodging.

[unclerick]

Awesome bird Shane and sounds like you had a great hunt, congrats on your success,   

[Ricochet]

Awesome hunt, congrats!  I hope to get my slam some day too.

[harvester]

Congradulations Shane on a fine bird and the slam. Great story by the way.