Illinois Trail Camera Bucks 2014

 A look at some of the bucks we got on trail cam on our lease in Illinois during the 2014 season.

New Born Coyote Pups!

One of my Canadian friends Steve Tardif was turkey hunting a couple of days ago in Ontario when he happened on a coyote den with some new born pups. I have spent a many an hour in the woods and have never found a predator den with some newborns like this my self. I don't even know anyone that has found something like this,  pretty incredible.

To bad their going to grow up to be a major turkey predator!

Thanks for sharing Steve.
Larry S.

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.

Bear Eats Yellow Jacket Nest!

I cut some turkey sign while scouting today and took off on foot to try to unravel where they were coming and going when I came upon a huge yellow jackets nest that a black bear had destroyed and eaten. There was still some paper left up on the side of the oak tree that the nest was attached to. This thing was about 2 feet above the ground and extended down into the ground another 2'! The bear excavated a huge hole to get to all the larva in the nest. This was one of the largest nests I have seen. You get to see some pretty interesting things knocking around in the woods! Larry S.

Videos of Turkeys From First Scouting Missions of 2014

Man! you talk about some turkeys.....I found em baby!

It's the oddest thing, you go the entire deer hunting season in the fall and hardly see a turkey, as soon as spring starts to approach they begin turning up everywhere. It's almost like they have been living in a hole in the ground.

Sunday morning I headed to Bull Creek Ranch to see what was going on out there. I wanted to get to the pasture roost in time to see what flew down at first lightbut I was running a little late and the birds were already on the ground. It was quite a sight to see.....24 some odd Osceolas all in one wad! Strutting birds with white-blue heads everywhere. At least 6 mature gobblers and a number of jakes that were also offering to strut.

Since I was late I had to hold up at a small out building to video from. I couldn't resist calling at birds to try to get them to gobble on camera. It took a little coaxing but I got them to sound off a handful of times. The hens did a lot of calling also. It was a sight to behold.



Monday morning I went to another tract that is about 1,200 ac with some row crop fields on two sides. I did not hear a bird gobble on the roost but they were there!

After some loud aggressive yelping and cutting I had some hens begin to answer me in a wood lot adjoining a farm field. I moved down a woods road that bisected the wood lot and spotted a bird in a road to the west from a 4 way. Birds started calling from in the field. I took to steps and spotted strutters about 50yds into the field. There were 5 jakes there and 4 were strutting. I thought they were mature for a minute as most appeared to have full tail fans. After putting on a show they moved west to hook up with some more jakes and there ended up being a total of 10.

There was also birds in the field to the east, They were a long ways out but I could make out beards on a few. After reviewing the footage I realized it was a group of 6 long beards and some miscellaneous other hens and jakes.

I was ready to head out and stepped back into the intersection and spotted another bird down the east road.....another super nice long beard! After filming him for a minute I turned to the west and spotted a bird about 150yds and other turkeys started filing across the road.
At least 6 hens and 2 jakes there! One hen even sported a 6-7" beard.

It was one incredible morning of scouting. Check out this video...........

Larry S.