ARO
New member
It was nice to get away from this cold weather for a while, and do a little turkey hunt'n in the Sunshine state. Went down to hunt the Big Cypress for 4 days, saw one hen scouting, called one hen in hunting, and heard one far off gobble. Its so vast, that just finding ANY turkeys is a chore. Without a doubt, the toughest place to hunt turkeys I've ever been. But the scenery is just awesome, and the dream of shooting a long legged, black winged, big cypress swamp chicken, just keeps me coming back.
Mid week we drove up to central Florida to hunt a different piece of public land, that Ive never been too. The wife and I spent all day Thursday scouting and hiking, and finally found the mother load of turkey sign. We also got to watch a bobcat stalking, that was cool. Got in nice and early Friday morning, and was greeted with the sweet sound of nothing! (Did have a coyote come in and check out my decoy.) So I decided to do a little running and gunning. About an hour later, bingo, got a gooble. After a little clucking and a couple purrs, he was coming in on a string. He cirlced wide, and I took the shot at about 40 yards. As he jumped up, flew 10 yards, then ran like hell, I could only hang my head in disgust, thinking I just blew my chance at a nice Osceola.
Decided to go back to the first set up, since I was thinking it was a mid morning struting zone. As I got there, there were several birds gobbling, so I set up and started to play some sweet turkey music. We played the game for 30 minutes, with 2 birds hanging up and not wanting to come any closer. So I circled around, set up on an old logging path, and gave them my best Barry White. Five minues later, it was to much for them to stand, as they crept out on to the path to investigate. With a face full of #6, the deed was done. There's just something about hunting turkeys down in the palmetto's!
Mid week we drove up to central Florida to hunt a different piece of public land, that Ive never been too. The wife and I spent all day Thursday scouting and hiking, and finally found the mother load of turkey sign. We also got to watch a bobcat stalking, that was cool. Got in nice and early Friday morning, and was greeted with the sweet sound of nothing! (Did have a coyote come in and check out my decoy.) So I decided to do a little running and gunning. About an hour later, bingo, got a gooble. After a little clucking and a couple purrs, he was coming in on a string. He cirlced wide, and I took the shot at about 40 yards. As he jumped up, flew 10 yards, then ran like hell, I could only hang my head in disgust, thinking I just blew my chance at a nice Osceola.
Decided to go back to the first set up, since I was thinking it was a mid morning struting zone. As I got there, there were several birds gobbling, so I set up and started to play some sweet turkey music. We played the game for 30 minutes, with 2 birds hanging up and not wanting to come any closer. So I circled around, set up on an old logging path, and gave them my best Barry White. Five minues later, it was to much for them to stand, as they crept out on to the path to investigate. With a face full of #6, the deed was done. There's just something about hunting turkeys down in the palmetto's!
