Six Monster Osceola Gobblers!

I ran across a bachelor Group of LongBeards today! I mean some Real Trophies! There were Six in the group. They were just hanging around in the sun being turkeys, preening and picking seed heads. They were some of the best birds I have seen in a long time.

When I pulled up to them in the truck my brakes squealed and two of the birds gobbled at it....that was pretty cool! It took me a minute to realize what had actually happened there. I was able to video them for about 15 minutes before they moved off. I called at them a little to try to get one to gobble or strut. I had to call natural as I didn't have a caller but they would not respond or even really honor it. While I was videoing I kept wondering what they had gobbled at and it finally doned on me it was my squeeling brakes!

I cut these pictures out of the video. Every one of them had a tremendous beard. One even had visible hooked spurs at 80-90 yds in the camera.

They don't get any better than this!

Larry S.

Look at the Hooks on the bird on the right!!

Of Gobblers, River Cooters and Alligators!

A recent cool spring morning found me laying for a long bearded Gobbler in a river swamp on the banks of the St. Johns River.

I had found the Toms strut sign two days earlier on a sand spoil pile and I knew he'd be roosting in the swamp within ear shot of his strut zone.

Unfortunately, the morning dawned partly overcast and just a bit breezy, not good conditions for gobbling and this morning would be true to form. Actually, the gobbler only gobbled one time that I ever heard and it was from the ground. He never gobbled on the limb despite my owling along with several excited cutts and cackles at fly down.

Once I heard him gobble I knew it was only a matter of time before he would be strutting in front of me on the little sand hill. I stopped calling at him and changed to the soft purrs and clucks of a contented feeding hen. I had my video camera rolling when he stepped out of the cabbage palm hammock. He immediately saw my hen decoy and broke into a half strut. He cautiously made his way towards the decoy as a wary old gobbler will do.

Against my better judgement, I could not  resist a few soft purs and clucks to try to pull one more gobble out of him for the camera. About 15 yds or so from the decoy the old gobbler realized something was not right with the motionless hen and turned around to come to my calling. Things were pretty touch and go there for a minute as he approached to within 10 yds, head stretched high looking for the source of the calling. Anytime you let a bird get that close you run a real risk of him escaping.  Absolutely no movement goes unseen. A tight choked turkey guns patter at such close range is very small and a turkeys head is always moving. Its a very difficult target to hit, especially if he spooks to flee. A body shot is about all you can hope for if your in a tight spot. IF the woods are open you might be able to let him get out to 20 where you have a better pattern before shooting but he'll be hauling the mail!

I got lucky with the shot and just caught him with part of the load and put him down. He was beautiful tom and make for another great hunt, all on video

Well, I told you that story so I could tell you this one.

Turtles like to crawl up from the river to lay their eggs on the sandy spoil pile and as usual there were numerous nests that had been dug into and eaten by various varmits. Probably, mostly by Coons.

I was doing some tracking in the sand to see if I could tell if all the strut sign was from one gobbler or if maybe there was another bird in the area. As I neared the weeds down towards the water I noticed a large turtle shell. It caught my attention and I slipped over to investigate. The shell was upside down and i immediately saw a golf ball size spot in the center of the shell that had been broken and crushed in. This however was not the cause of his demise. It was from a previous gator attack and had healed up. When I picked the shell up I immediately noticed two broken off alligator teeth in the top of the shell. Incredible!

Studying the shell it was obvious the turtle had survived many encounters with large alligators. There were lines of dots where rows of teeth had pocked the hard shell. Along the radius ed areas of the shell there were gouged lined where the gator's teeth slid down the shell.

The broken off gator teeth were absolutely amazing. I decided to keep the shell, clean it up and spray it with some clear polyurethane. It really shinned up great and is an interesting conversation piece.

The River Cooter is a basking turtle are often sold as pets. Anytime you are on the river in the middle part of the day you are liable to see them perched on logs sunning. The females are larger than the males and can live to more than 40 years of age.

They mate during May and June and seek out an open sandy location 50-100' from the water to bury their clutch of 10-25 eggs. With a lot of luck, 90-100 days later they will hatch.  While the species is highly herbivorous, river cooters will eat anything, plant or animal, dead or alive.

Judging by all the scars from the alligators this turtle must have been around for quite some time and survived countless attacks. I think I'll call him Lucky!

Keep your eyes open, you never know what interesting things you'll stumble across in the woods!

Best of hunts,
Larry S.

Illinois, Eastern Turkey Fan Mount!

I'm a little behind on this project but it's finally done!

My good friend Gerry Glass invited me to hunt his farm in Illinois in 2009 and I called this monster Eastern Tom in for Gerry.

We had roosted the bird the evening before but was not able to pin point his exact location. He was roosted in the back of a point of timber where it tied into a large block of woods. With a pasture on both sides of the point we had a 50/50 shot at which side he would pitch to.

Well, we picked the wrong side and he landed in the pasture on the other side of the point from us. The wind was blowing 20-25 mph so calling was almost useless. I quickly made a plan to go after the bird as I knew we were not going to get him to come back from the place he just flew away from even if he could hear us.

We used the lay of the land to get ahead of him and set up again. we did a little calling and in just a minute he came strutting around the base of the hill. Gerry rolled him up with a load of Winchester #6 from my Remington 11-87. It was quite a long shot at 52 yds. but Gerry has always been a lucky hunter.

The Bird was a whopper at about 23 pounds, had 1 1/4" spurs and a 10 1/2' beard. He was a true trophy.

I did a fan mount for him and added the spurs along side the beard. It finished out really nice.

 

This is a mount that most anyone should be able to handle himself with just some minor tools and know how. I will be putting together a post with a step by step process for preparing the fan. This method is one of the easiest I know of you can have a fan prepped and ready for drying in about 20 minutes.

Good Huntin',

Larry S.

Here are a couple mounting kits if you don't want to go thru the trouble of making your own. The less expensive one is a wood look a like.

Monster Osceola Gobbler Spurs!

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Now this is a limb hanger if ever there was one! "Better than money from home" as one of my old fishing buddies used to say.

My good friend Rick Edwards stopped by my office today to show me a set of monster Gobbler spurs he took a few years back. They were so large I wanted to share a few pictures of them with everyone.

They are the largest hooks I have ever seen in person with the longer spur measuring a full 1 11/16" along the curve. These are as long and sharp as they come.

Don't know how Ricky managed to take such a monster. Obviously, the bird was older than dirt and had to be in declining health. Probably just came limping by, looking for some hunter to put him out of his misery......sorry Ricky! couldn't resist that. Probably just my envy showing thru.

All joking aside, if your a turkey hunter, you know just how special a bird this is. A Gobbler that has lived this long has seen it all and is one of the wariest creatures in the woods. No sense of curosity. If something don't seem  right, he packs his bags and leaves, no questions asked. 

The following is a short recount of how Rick felled this magnum sized Gobbler.

Rick was invited to hunt a private ranch near Green Cove Springs, Florida. Recognizing this could be a hunt of a life time, he jumped all over the opportunity.

In the pre-dawn darkness, the ranch's hunt master took Rick to a promissing spot where he knew a number of turkeys were likely roosting along a large rolling pasture.

As daylight began to crack in the sky and the red birds started to sing,  Rick was able to just barely make out the gobble of a distant tom roosted all the way on the other side of the pasture. Eventually, the tom pitched down to a big flock of hens on the back side of a rise in the field. After a considerable time the hens finally began to top the hill. Ricky pleaded as loud as he could on his slate call to try to pull the flock his way. Just as the hens were nearing a road along the field, the hunt master showed up and split the hens off from the gobbler.

Rick was pretty worried that this had just ruined his hunt but decided to stay put and play out the cards he was dealt. At least the Bird was split up from his hens.

Rick let things settle down and started calling again. A period of time passed and a big white head finally appeared beyond the rise in the pasture. The old king made his way in at a painfully slow pace as many wary Gobblers will. Strut, step and look, strut, step and look.....Ricky was eventually able to hold out and coax him in close enough to roll him up.

As most turkey hunters do, Ricky raced to the bird to make sure he was down. He grabbed the still flopping gobbler by the ancle but the old bird managed to exact a measure of revenge before he gave up the ghost. The big beating wings rolled the gobbler's almost 2" dagger in Rick's hand and just about punched all the way through between his thumb and index finger.

Rick came out on top but he was bloodied!

There's something about a floundering gobbler that just makes a hunter want to grab a hold of him every time. His beating wings causes his body to spin in a circle. If he's got sharp spurs, they'll catch in your glove and before you know it your cut and bleeding and can't let go! Gobbler's revenge! I can't tell you how many times I've done it myself. Guess i'll never learn.

I hope when I grow up, I can shoot a turkey like this!

Great job Rick, a Limb Hanger to be sure!

Best of hunts,

Larry Stephens

Primos Diaphragm Sonic Dome Turkey Call Review

Another Spring Gobbler season is upon us and its time to be tuning up your calling and getting all your gear right and tight.

In my opinion, the mouth diaphragm call is the best turkey call ever invented for turkey hunting. Any call that a turkey makes can be duplicated on this type call including a kee kee.

Most of my Diaphragm mouth calls are in need of replacement so did some poking around and picked up some news calls to try.

One of the better calls I found was the new Primos "Sonic Dome Series", double reed, no cut. Right out of the box it fit my pallet better than any other call I have tried to date. In fact it fit so well i used it as a pattern to trim my other call to.

My personal preference in a mouth call is a twin reed with no cuts. I find the cuts make it difficuly to purr on which is a finishing call I rely heavily on. Also, more than two reeds or cuts are almost impossible for me to gobble on.

This call can make both raspy and clear calls and a range of soft and loud calls. Cuts are also nice and sharp.

My method of gobbling on a mouth call does not work with the dome style call but then again, I do not incorporate that call to much.

If your looking for a new call give this one a try, it a winner!

Best of Hunting,
Larry Stephens

Three Osceola Gobblers Show up on Scouting Trail Camera

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Elvis have entered the building!
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I was wondering when a bird was going to show up around this big flock of Osceola hens. I have been watching them for several weeks now. Up to this point, I have only got a couple of jakes on the scouting cameras. Two mornings this week i sat in a blind and filmed then hens before i went to work. One of those mornings I was able to call a Gobbler from across the creek but he did not get in front of the blind where I could get him on film.

Last night I roosted a flock of birds over a flooded swamp. I shot a little footage slipping up under them on the roost. As soon as I can get it downloaded I'll post it for you. it's probably low quality but you'll see just how easy it can be. I'm going to set a camera trap for this flock tomorrow. There is a strutter in the bunch although he looks small in size. Hopefully I can catch him on film strutting.
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Trail camera setup tips:

Here is an important tip for setting a trail cam for turkeys.......Don't set it at the height you would for a deer or you'll get mostly head and back shots. You need to locate it about 16-18" to the camera.

Also, be sure to double check the camera is set to on, before you close up the unit! This sounds simplistic but you'll be surprised how easy it is to forget to turn it on. It's a big disappointment to show up to pull your card and you find out it's just been sitting there set to menu or off and you got nothing! It's like getting a lump of coal for Christmas.

If the tree you are mounting your camera to has a taper to the butt, don't forget to adjust the angle of the camera . You can leave the strap loose and wedge a stick, of the right size behind the top of the camera for the correction.

These pictures were all taken with (2) different type cameras. Both are Bushnell. One is the small Bushnell "Trophy Cam" and the other is the "Trail Sentry 2.1". Both are digital infrared units and work great. I highly recommend either unit but I prefer the Trophy. The only drawback to that one is it costs considerably more than the Sentry. As is usually the case, the extra money buys you more features. In this case they come in the form of extended battery life, more picture capacity, etc.. Check out the spec's on both before you decide. One of the other nice features of the trophy cam is its small, super convenient size, one of the smallest on the market!

One last though regarding the price. Camera theft is always a concern. The lower cost of the Sentry makes a loss a little easier to stomach!


Notice the all white head and neck on the gobbler in the middle, in the second photo compared to this bird in the first photo. When his neck turns white he's hot to go!

These guys just made the "most wanted" list, that includes that pesky red boar hog. He's got a rendezvous with one of my muzzy's.

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If you have any good trail cam pictures of your own, send them to me and I'll post them for everybody to enjoy.

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Good hunting,

Larry Stephens

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NOTE: If you would like to receive an email note when I make future postings, just click on the follow button in the upper left corner! thanks, L.S.

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