Chris Coffey Takes a Turkey Grand Slam!

I get to meet a lot of interesting people through by guiding and this year I was privileged to share some turkey time hunting with Chris Coffey from Iowa.

Chris had called me late in 2013 to discuss the possibilities of coming down to Florida to try to take one of the four sub species of turkey, the fabled Osceola.

Chris's goal was to complete a Turkey Grand Slam in one season and is an accomplishment few turkey hunters ever achieve, particularly in one season.

Since the Florida season opens earlier than most other states, Chris's plan was to try to get the hard one out of the way first, the Osceola. Noted for being tight lipped and particularly resistant to calling compared to other species of turkeys the Osceola is an accomplishment un to its own.

Chris and I had a tremendous time on our hunt together and were actually able to take not one but TWO nice Osceolas in just a few days of hunting. One of those was a public land bird, I might add! Impressive.

 

As if that wasn't enough, not only did he harvest two great Osceolas, Chris was able to knock down a really nice Hog and catch 3 redfish from a kayak in some back country saltwater flats! Absolutely incredible.

• A Kansas Rio for Chris!

 

Well, fresh off of that high Chris went on to Kansas with his father and despite sub-freezing temperatures and 30+ mph winds, were both able to harvest 2 great Toms!

• On to Iowa for an Eastern!

From Kansas Chris moved on to his home state of Iowa to try to take his eastern.


Once again Chris's Father was able to accompany him to hunt which is obvious from Chris's recount made for a special hunt for him. They had quite a difficult hunt due to other hunters in the area though they heard a ton of birds.  Someone actually shot into the birds they were working on the first setup and both the first and second setup had to be abandoned due to other hunters.

They were finally able to put it all together and harvest two great birds, one having 1 1/2" SPURS!

• Last but not Least, Merriams in Nebraska!

This weekend Chris was able to accomplish his lofty goal with a double in Nebraska! Double is

 

 

significant because one of the two birds he shot had a "double beard." Incredible and another accomplishment most turkey hunters will never be fortunate enough to experience.


This was another tremendous hunt but he also got to witness some turkey behavior the very few have ever seen. One was a hen in full strut. I have seen it only twice myself. The other was a hen Gobble! I have to say, I wish I had been there to video that one!

Chris related that his first setup was nothing short of incredible. He called in 12 pissed off hens that beat up his decoy and 8 red headed toms that were gobbling! The unfortunate part was that they were all jakes so he had to move on.

Though he was plagued with gobbling jakes at every setup, he was finally able to find a couple mature birds  to finish his one year grand slam!!!

Way to go brother! Congratulations!!!!

Hopefully, we can get together for another hunt in the future!

Larry S.

Big Osceola Turkey Spurs 2014!

The 2014 Spring Gobbler season has come to a close and it was one outstanding year!

I ended my guiding this year with a 93% success rate! Only one of my hunters did not kill/miss or have an opportunity to shoot. Unfortunately for that one gentleman, he only had one morning to hunt!  I actually called a bird from across the ocklawaha River for him but the tom would not come closer than 90 yds.  He was able to harvest a true trophy of a bar hog however.

Anyway, many of the birds had outstanding spurs this year.

One of the best was this 1 1/2" monster killed near the Ocklawaha River.

This next bird was a pasture bird that we have hunted for about 4 years. At 1 3/8" he was a super trophy and was an outstanding hunt.

Many of the birds had 1 1/4" spurs. Following are just a few.

Here are few other exception spurs taken this year including a 1 15/16" Freak! Following courtesy of my friend Roy Huff.

We also harvested a large tom with a Deformed foot.....incredible, even the spur was deformed?

THE DEVIL OF THE DIKE!

I cannot now remember how many days I have been hunting this gobbler, 
but it is many!

I should have walked away from this bird in favor of something more cooperative, 
but I could not.

I have killed thinking it was him, but I was mistaken!

I have come close to shooting him, but only once.

I have scoured the woods only to find him strutting in the road within 100yds of my truck, 
parked in plain sight.

More than once I have stood exactly where he had stood, 
but 15 minutes ahead of me.

I have given up the hunt only to return the next day and find he showed 30 minutes after I departed.

I have sat in a blind for 7 hours straight only to have him strut to within 90yds and fade back down the road., offering no shot.

Now on this next to the last day of the season, the hunt has come to an end for us both.

This game will be played no more!

I have shot the devil down!
only to watch him rise again,
resurrected!

Yes, I am sure of it, this was the devil!

Larry Stephens, 2:15 pm, April 19, 2014, 
The Dike road, Quigley Bay.

Osceola Turkey Photo Slide Show!

The following photo's are just some of the recent photo's of some of the Turkey's I have collected.

These were mostly taken with Bushnell Trail Cameras. Set-up of your camera for getting quality photo's is very important and considerable thought needs to be given to where the animals are expected to enter the area, lighting throught the day, camera hgt. and angle, back ground and composition. Set your camera trap and surrounding just as if you were in a studio prepping for a quality portrate.

 

For more information on turkey hunting and wild turkeys, particularily Osceolas......visit

 

www.guidedturkeyhunting.com   & www.floridaturkeyhunting.net

 

Best of Hunts,

Larry S.

 

Florida Turkey Hunting Report #1 2012

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Well, were two weeks into the season and the birds are proving to be pretty tough! The Hens have been still bunched up in flocks and are just starting to break down a little.

The biggest problem has been to lack of gobbling and I do mean lack of! I hunted a bird in the Ocala National Forest last weekend and he gobbled a total of two times in four mornings. He gobbled once from the limb the first morning at 7:18 AM and once the second morning at 7:20 AM.! How's that for a biological clock. Actually, if I did not know better I would think I was hunting a jake by the way he acted. He never actually gobbled at me or responded to any owling or crow calls. The thing that kept me from pulling out on him was the massive amount of strut sign he left for me to drool over. I cannot see a jake making that kind of sign.

The first morning he flew down with some hens, looped around me in the swamp and out onto a right of way and strutted in my foot tracks while I was down on the river swamp calling to the wind.

It has not been all bad news however and I did kill a dandy bird the first week. I had been hunting a pasture bird that was spending most of his time off the club property. I almost killed him the first morning when he got way behind the hen he was following and strutting for. By their course it looked like they may exit the corner of the field. I looped ahead and just got set up as the hen came into view. However, she turned off 90 degrees away from me. By the time the gobbler got there he had lost her and came into view strutting at 35 yards! He was behind some scrub that was a little to thick to chance a shot and I was only to able to get some video of him before he figured out where his hen went he took off that way.

The third day I caught him roosted away from the field on a sand ridge and he gobbled decent but flew down and would not come to me. There was a bird that was gobbling beyond him just at the end of hearing. He was really hammering and I finally decided to run to the truck and drive around to the other side of the block to try to get to a place where he could come to me. I found him strutting at a fork in the road and I barely got the video camera running when he came into view. I shot him on video but the camera was very close to the gun and the recoil slammed the view finder shut which killed recording. It's tough being the hunter and the videographer! The bird had a 9 1/4" beard, 1 1/8" spurs and weighed 18.6 lbs.

The oddest thing I have seen is the lack of gobbling from the roost in the evening. I am usually able to roost a bird almost every time I go but so far I have not hear a bird in the evening since the season started. I have never seen this before.

A friend did give me a report of a super bird that was killed on his place that had (6) beards! I am hoping for a picture to post on that one.

My friend Rick Edwards took a really good multi-bearded bird with (3) beards. Here is a picture of the beard from that one.

I went to Georgia this weekend with a friend to hunt his small lease and were were in a hornets nest of turkeys! I killed a 20# bird with one of the widest beards I have ever killed. it measured 9 3/4" long and he had 1 1/8" spurs. Overall it was a great hunt and the birds could not have gobbled and better.

I will make a more detailed post on the hunt with some pictures and maybe some video. While we did hear a couple of birds gobbling on the ground one evening, again, we never heard one from the roost on the evening. We were close enough to them each evening to hear them fly up, just no gobbling.

Hope everyone is hearing plenty of gobbles.

I have some new videos posted on my guide site if you would like to watch them at http://www.guidedturkeyhunting.com/ , With a ton more waiting to be edited!

Good luck,
Larry

Bull Creek Hunt 4-18-17

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I have been debating whether to hunt my little bull Creek hot spot. There are a couple dandy gobblers hanging around there along with 8-9 jakes and a pile of hens. I have been shooting some video and photographing them every chance I get and have gotten some terrific video and still pictures. The thing that has eluded me a little is some good strutting pictures. These birds roost off the edge of a pasture on the edge of a creek swamp and fly down in the pasture about the same place each morning. The problem is they group up and move off from the roost quickly therefore offering little opportunity for strutting pics.

Tuesday afternoon I slipped down to a vantage where I could see the corner of the pasture where the birds fly up from. The two long beards were there and the sub-bird was walking off the field to roost. The dominate gobbler stopped to strut just a little, then got a running start and beat his way up to a roost limb with the other turkeys.

I waited until it was dark enough that I could get close and through together a blind at the base of a cabbage palm and slipped out of there.

I knew going in that this would be as sure a bet as you can find in turkey hunting but the wild card would be the video camera! I had decided that if the footage was not what I wanted, I would hold off shooting one of the gobblers.

I slipped in under the cover of darkness and set up a Primos strutting gobbler decoy along with a hard shell hen. The dominate gobbler only gobbled two times and then the whole flock all flew down at one time. It was a neat thing to witness. The only problem was most of them over shot me and landed beyond me, over my left shoulder.

However, the decoys did their job and sucked the sub-bird and about five jakes to them. Had I not had the decoys there it would have been a completely different story.

The whole flock was strung tight and on edge with the new intruders. Before the little group jot to the decoys I heard the strutter, drum off my left shoulder at 7 steps! he was in half strut and moving fast to get to the decoys and take charge of the situation. The two mature gobblers had just got to the decoys when the dom-bird broke into a strut. I held fast wanting a little more action and hopefully a gobble or two. I would have already shot the strutter had I just been hunting. I decided to call at them to try to get him to gobble......THAT WAS A MISTAKE! The duo was a mere 23yds and already on edge, when I called they looked right at my hide and turned inside out.

Unfortunately, I had zoomed in and in the heat of the moment there was so much going on I could not get the zoom back off. My brain had already switched over to hunter and I was about to panic. As soon as I called I knew from their reaction that the whole deal was headed sideways. They started moving off so fast and quartering to me, so as soon as I would stop panning the camera to go to guns, the tom was out of the frame. I couldn't keep him in the camera and shoot at the same time.

The whole gang passed by at 12-15 yds off my left shoulder and I just let them go when I realized the footage I wanted was just not there. I would shoot him off camera. Had he been any place else he would have gotten a ride home with me in my chevy.

I will try them again in the morning and set up a little differently. I thing I will also set the hen at the base of the gobbler as though he is about to mount her! THAT SHOULD BE MORE THAN HE CAN STAND!

More to follow!

The pics on this post were clipped out of the video of this hunt. I will post a link to the video when I get it edited.

For anyone wanting to get into self filming their own hunts, let me tell you it is difficult to say the least. It is extremely difficult to try to focus on the hunt and the shot while your trying to operate the camera. There is a lot to learn about how to do this that a hunter/camera man team would not have to worry about.

The mistake I made on this hunt was not backing out on the zoom before I called at the toms. Had I done that the  outcome would have been different. Every hunt is a learning experience with the camera along. It's almost like starting over from zero on the learning curve.

Anyone that might be interested in a hunt at Bull Creek can visit my Guide site at http://www.guidedturkeyhunting.com/

Larry S.

The decoys I was using on this hunt was the "Primos B-Mobile" and the Flambeau hard shell hen that is the predecessor to either the "Shady Lady" or "Fair Lady". They are as good a decoy that is available. Here is a like to them for more information or if your looking for a new decoy., L.S.

Florida Spring Gobbler Season Report - #6 -Fourth Weekend!

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 Friday, Apr. 9, 2011-day #14

I locked the doors at the office about 5 and headed for the huntin' club. I made my usual stops for provisions....drinks, ice, food and about a hundred dollars worth of fuel for the truck and generator. Man, this fuel thing is getting out of hand.

I got to the club with about 30 minutes to scout before dark. As usual I planned to track the roads well after dark and did not end up getting back to camp until after 9pm. I did however, find some interesting sign that looked real promising. It was the pair of pasture gobblers I have been hunting from the start of the season. I cut their tracks near the south end of the creek road just after fly up and followed them down to a sandy curve where a dim woods road extends off to the south and dead ends into a bay head. From the amount of tracks in the road I figured the turkeys had sent some time there milling around, waiting for roost time. There were tracks from two gobblers and several hens.

I was standing there studying the tracks, trying to unravel what had went on when I heard a turkey flush off the limb headed west to the creek strand. I had figured they were roosted there pretty close and it looked like I was right. I could not raise a gobble out of anything with my owling but I was confident they were within hearing. Most likely they had flown up from the road out into the sparse bays and pines between the creek and the road. However, having flushed one off the limb I was not surprised about the tight lips.

Later that night as I was tracking the South Low road I came across a pretty interesting sight. It took me a minute to realize what I was actually looking at. It was a gobbler with a deformed foot. One of his feet is Normal sized and the other looks more like a big fat crow track. It's less than 2" long with almost no "V" to the side toes. Pretty wild looking! The deformed track is the weird looking track between the two normal tracks below, near the center of the picture.

My plan was to beat it back there in the morning before light and pick out a spot I could set up on the road and call from. If the birds gobbled, I'd go to them if possible.

Saturday, Apr 10, 2011-day #15

In the moon light the next morning I picked out a big sand pine at the curve on the main road that gave me just enough room to shoot and put me between them and the pasture. I was standing there waiting for a gobble when an owl sounded off in the creek. His call was immediately challenged by a thundering gobble! "There he is!" He was where I thought he'd be but just a little down the dead end extension road. I owl'd and it was met with a double gobble! Two birds!

This duo of strutters has been uncallable and with hens every time I was able to locate them. Given my past experience with these two finicky toms I wanted to be as close to them as I could possibly get. I wasn't taking any chances, It was time to kill a bird and quit fooling around. I even decided to ditch the video camera. I regret that decision as this was a text book hunt and perfect example of how to employ the "whammy tactic";......sneak in to where you think he's going to fly down and wait quietly without calling, for him to flutter down within gun range. It's a little tricky to do and takes some time and experience to develop this technique but I have killed a pile of birds like this, many that you could not kill with conventional techniques. There are three critical points to get a successful out come with this method. First, you have to have scouted and located him on the roost. Second, you have to be able to get back to that spot in the hard dark if at all possible. This depends a little on where he's roosted. Third, and usually the hardest, you have to know exactly where he's gona fly down to in the morning. This one takes some experience but the longer you hunt the better you'll get at it.

The above picture is a view from the gobblers position to where I was sitting which was

on the right near the center of the picture in front of the dark green bush.

This is a picture from my position to where I shot the Gobbler.

I slipped down the dead end road to survey the situation and make a plan as quickly as possible. The south most bird was doing the majority of the gobbling so I concentrated on him. The two toms were actually roosted in big pines about 100 yds apart and about 125 yds off the road pretty near the creek. The woods between the road and the creek are sparsely treed with a mix of pine and bay. The ground cover is ty-ty's, gallberry, young bays and is extremely thick. No way a turkey could land in this stuff. I figured they would have to fly back to the road but it was quite a stretch.

The gobbling tom was roosted behind a low flat and it was a perfect flight zone to get back to the road. I took a chance and duck walked behind the low bushes to get to the other side and make sure there was not something I needed to know about over there. "No, that's the spot, he's gona land right here in this road!" I crawled back and set up about 15 yds up the road from the low flat. It turned out that the other gobbler was straight in from me towards the creek, off my right shoulder

The bad part and I don't like to hunt like this, is I had to set up against the bushes with no back rest in a small pocket, right on the edge of the road. I set up so I could see down the road just to the end of gun range, no blind.

Since I was so far from the birds I decided to do just a little calling about fly down. I waited quietly and enjoyed the sounds of everything calling and waking up for the new day. After a bit a hen started tree yelping over by the south bird. Shortly after that another started yelping near the other gobbler. The anxiousness over my setup just doubled! I thought, if one of those hens flies down first, the jig is up! She'll pick me out for certain and go off down the road puttin, game over.

I added a little more calling and decided to do a fly down. You can't do this when your close but I had enough distance I felt I could get away with it. As a matter of fact this is the furthest away I can remember setting up on a bird for this type hunt. I did not have my wing so I used my hat for the fly down....fop, fop, fop, fop, fop, fop, fop, fop with a little rustling bushes and leaves for a landing. The bird beside me immediately gobbled at it! "Man, I'm liking this!" I did a little soft yelping and purr/clucks to sound like a hen milling around and the illusion was set. All I could do now was wait for him to make a move. Any more calling could make him suspicious and blow the setup.

Well, as luck would have it, the South gobbler behind the low flat was the first to come off the limb. Instinctively I clicked the safety off in anticipation of what was about to happen. As soon as I heard the first bird fly the other one came off also and I caught a glimpse of him flying for the sandy corner behind me. Just then the first gobbler came sailing into view over the flat and I could see he was going to land in the road! Just as he neared the road he banked hard north towards me and touched down just 15yards from me, his big wings beating full reverse. It was quit a site

By the time the gobbler got stopped he was standing a mere 12 yds!! He had just flown almost 150yds and landed right in my lap. I love it when a plan comes together!

I didn't waste any time, when he got stopped I sent a load of 1 7/8 oz. #6 shot down range. The gobbler hit the dirt and the hunt was over. It was barely 7:15.

The second gobbler was still in flight when I shot but he got gone, quick, fast and in a hurry! All turkey activities ceased at the report of the shot and I never saw any of the other birds.

When Steve got to camp the first thing he said was "was that you that shot so early?", "coulda been, I replied.", "you kill?" "He's piled up in the back of the tuck!"

The wary tom was not an old turkey but he had been a challenge none the less. He weighed in about 17 lbs., had a 9 3/8" beard and his spurs were 3/4" and 7/8". A two year old to be sure. His wings showed plenty of wear from strutting and were nice and black with little barring just as you would expect to see in an Osceola.

It was a long time in coming but I finally got one on the ground! I have never struggled so hard to kill a turkey before. Actually, If you can believe this....I have not heard a single tom gobble on the limb in the evening the hole season! All strut sign on the roads ended by the third weekend. I think Steve said he had only hunted 3 mornings that he actually heard a bird gobble and had not been able to roost any either.

At this point I think I have only had about 3 hunts that I did not actually hear a gobble. The difference is the time I put in scouting! It kept me on top of the turkeys. This was really key as the turkeys in this place really move around a lot. You'll find a place all tracked up and their gone the next day. You have to hunt it immediately or your wasting your time.

Later that morning I was driving down the South low road and I drove up on the crippled gobbler with two buddies in the same spot I had seen his track the night before. Their running stride was as long as my shotgun! 

Sunday, Apr. 10, 2011

I did not find anything to get excited about Sat. afternoon so I decided I would just start at the north end of the creek road and prospect my way south and see what I could find.

I caught one hen on the road at fly down and two more in the pasture but did not see any toms or hear any gobbling.

Later up in the morning I ended up over on the power line and was looking at some turkey tracks around a sandy water hole when I spotted a turkey egg that had just been laid! pretty incredible. I have never actually seen one intact that had not been eaten by a varmint. Have a look at this thing!
That pretty much wrapped up the weekend.

Here's some more pictures from this hunt.

Hen track in my wheel sign.

Hen dust hole!

Turkey feeding/scratching sign!

Large hen dust hole!

Turkey scratching sign looking for leftover low bush acorns! I can never remember

seeing acorns still on the ground this time of year that are still good!

Best of hunts,
Larry S.