trophy-hunting: Florida Spring Gobbler Season Report

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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.