First Deer Fawn of the Year!

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I pulled my tail camera cards yesterday and was surprised to see all the deer that have started to frequent this spot. The interesting part was that one of the doe's showed up with the first fawn I have seen this year. I had been getting some pictures of a doe that had an incredibly huge stomach and Tammie, my bride and I were betting she was going to have twins she was so big. I think this doe and fawn is a different group of deer. Besides that, this fawn is 1.5 to 2 weeks old and I am pretty sure I have gotten pictures of the other doe since then and she had not dropped her fawn.

I also had a couple young bucks show up that are just starting to bud out some velvet horns.

As far as the turkeys, The hens are obviously spending most of the day on the nest and have all but disappeared. In fact, all of the turkeys have changed their patterns. I have been getting as many as 3,000 photo's in 4-5 days but that has dwindled to a 1/4 of that at best and the gobblers are starting to roost elsewhere.

It looks like the breeding is pretty much over for another year. Tough luck for the gobblers!

Thought I would share these pictures with everyone, Hope you enjoy them.

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.