Hitch
Well-known member
I decided on or about sunset of Sunday, January 31st that I would go turkey hunting this year as much as I could get away with. I managed to get away for about a dozen days, all but one during the week, and I had a fabulous time. Anyone who has been out in the turkey haunts of Florida during spring turkey knows how special a time it is. The air is fresh, the temps are cool and the sense of spirit is strong. I had the chance to put a little character on the new Osceola hen decoy…
I chased more Toms this year in 12 days than I’ve ever chased in an entire season past. I skipped the first couple of weeks, which proved to be a good thing. By week three, most folks had given up on Tom turkey, and the roosts, hammocks and pines were mostly all mine. Rarely did I see another hunter; rarely did I hear another shot, but the Turkeys were all out in force. Hens ruled the roost until the final week.
I managed a fair bird the second week. Although not the biggest gobbler with the longest beard, he did put on quite a show for the new hen decoy. Putt, head up – BOOM!
I saw these boys with their hens 5 days straight, always in the open, always too far for a shot, always ignoring my best efforts.
I had enough after 5 days of these two, so I took the peashooter (17HMR) the next week, only to find someone camping on the spot where I snapped the previous photos…fire still ripping at 0300. So I took my best guess where the turkeys would have moved to and hit the nail on the head. I had a bird sound off on the roost to my tree yelp. 5 minutes later he flew down into my lap. Now 10 yards with a scoped rifle is easy if you have the muzzle aimed in the right direction – I didn’t, but he began to walk into it. Then two hens flew down between him and me, and I was busted. I decided to take the shotgun again the next day. Well of course the pair of big gobblers are working the other end of the area out in the open with their hens. I ended the second to last week with more sights and sounds, a lovely time…
Fox squirrel
Female Snail Kite
Mossy Oak
Wild hog
Thursday was my last day because I was attending the state DU convention and was planning on leaving for that on Friday afternoon. So Thursday was it. For some reason I decided to set up next to where the campsite was; where I took the photos of the dueling long-beards a few weeks past. I didn’t feel real good about it, but the campers were not there and no sign that they had been there (no trash), the birds seemed to love the spot, so I put out the decoy and plopped down under a big oak with lots of cover.
I had a hen fly down in front of me, busted me after walking by about 10 feet away. Well that was not good. But ten minutes later, I thought I heard a faint gobble, so I put on the headphones and sure enough, he gobbled again. I babble cut as loud as I could muster with the mouth call and he sounded off. I cut again and he answered. Then he went quite. It was the longest 5 minutes, but then I see this little black dot move out of the hammock, about 300 yards down the way. I cut again and he gobbled, turned and headed my way. He stopped a few times to look around and I called again. He spotted the decoy and headed straight for it and stopped a little short, strutting, doing his thing. So I called again and he came right up to the decoy, strutted his best show…Putt – BOOM!
A nice bird 17.1 lbs -10 inch beard – 1-1/8, 1-3/16
Hitch – over and out
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