Kicking off my season again this year hunting with my good friend, at his place in Florida. Between pre-season scouting and trail cameras we knew that there were lots of turkeys on the property (and the neighbors) this year, including several mature gobblers.
Day 1. Opening day and the weather forecast was calling for heavy rain and a complete washout. Lucky for us the weatherman was wrong (big shock) and we only had to deal with some scattered showers early.
Before daylight, we were able to move in and get setup fairly tight on 2 roosted gobblers. Just before they flew down, we could hear some hens off to our left. After the 2 gobblers flew down they were gobbling good and slowly working their way in our direction. Finally I could see them out in front of us and a couple minutes later my buddy shot one. 10-1/4" beard and 1-1/4 spurs.
Day 2. Still dealing with some rain showers and heavy fog. With no roost gobbling anywhere, we decided to check out an old pasture where the gobblers like to strut. When we got there we could see a gobbler strutting along the along the treeline on the far edge, about 300 yards away. We called and he gobbled, but he was in no hurry to head in our direction. After a few minutes I could see 2 hens about 1/2 way between us and the gobbler. A little soft calling and the 2 hens were headed our direction. They walked into the woods in front of us and they were standing about 20 yards in front of me, when I noticed the gobbler headed our way. He walked into the woods exactly where the hens did and was standing at 25 yards when I shot him. 9-7/8" beard and 1-1/8" spurs.
Day 3-5. My buddy was sick, so I hunted alone and had lots of action. I had 2 different gobblers hang up just out of gun range, bumped/messed up on a gobbler, passed on a small gobbler with a short, thin beard and called up several hens and jakes.
Day 6. We set up on some roosted gobblers with 2 in front of us and 1 off to our left. The 2 in front of us flew down the opposite direction and started moving away, but the one to our left was coming our direction. It only took a few minutes and my buddy shot him. 9-1/2 beard and 1" spurs.
Day 7. My buddy was still sick, so I was hunting alone. I headed back to the pasture where I had killed my bird. It was still dark when I got there, so I was able to cross the pasture and get to the back side. I was only there a few minutes when I heard 2 gobblers and several hens. They weren't roosted too far from me, so I got set up and began some soft calling. After fly down the 2 gobblers continued to gobble and they were headed my direction. I saw movement coming my way and had 2 hens walk past me to my left. I could see 3 more hens coming my way and as they got closer one of them began yelping. I hit the call and she went nuts yelping and cutting, with me hammering back at her. The gobblers were gobbling hard, but I still couldn't see them The 3 hens walked past me with one hen still yelping hard and then I could see the 2 gobblers slowly coming my way in full strut. After what seemed like 15 minutes, but was probably only 2, the gobblers were at 25 yards. One of them stuck his head up looking for the hens and I shot him. 9-1/2" beard and 1" spurs.
I had a great week of hunting in Florida and was tagged out. Time to head back home to Pa and wait for the opener.
