QuackAttack101
Senior Member
Well, I waited to post this well after the season so that y'all would have a new turkey story to read in the middle of the summer.
Enjoy!
Short Version: Hunted the same place last year and heard more birds gobble than I could count, but didn't kill one. This year, zero gobbles but lucked out and brought some meat back to GA.
Long Version: Wife and I got selected for the same Osceola hunt as last year, and were stoked because of the amount of gobbling we heard down there last year. Got to our best spot on the first morning (heard about 8 different birds gobble there last year), daylight rolls around, and we hear nothing. So we start covering some ground to try to get one to play. Saw plenty of sign but never saw or heard a turkey. The next two days are pretty much identical. We were in some of the most beautiful turkey woods that you can imagine, but we just could not get on them. Wasn't just us either. Talked to several others hunting and hardly anyone heard any gobbling or saw birds.
Fast forward to the last day of the hunt. Try to wake my wife up and she said she's going to sleep in due to lack of confidence (and probably her hangover) and I almost laid back down, but thought I better not since it's the last day and I had driven 6 hours down there. Got there and decided to try out a completely different side of the property (place is 30K acres so I was a long ways from where we had been hunting). Same results. The most beautiful habitat you could imagine but no gobbling or turkey activity to speak of. Continued hunting until about 11AM and decided to call it a day. Year 2 with no Osceola. As I'm driving down the road almost back outside of the gate, I see three red heads in the middle of the road. They didn't really spook but definitely eased on off to avoid me. Figured I'd never circle around and cut them off, but at this point I didn't have anything to lose. I threw it in park, got out, and made a huge circle to get to where I thought they may be going. Ran most of the way and took forever to catch my breath. Picked what appeared to be a good spot and got set up. Called just a few times and waited. Never heard any gobbles but thought I heard some scratching. Finally caught movement and realized it had a red head. They kept scratching around for what seemed like forever. I called one more time and they all of a sudden were interested. None gobbled but all three of them (2 long beards and a jake) headed my way. Dropped the first long beard that presented a shot. It was extremely lucky, but after the tough hunting we experienced down there, I was just glad to have finally gotten one.
These things sure are small. He was an average sized bird out of the 10 or so killed on this place before mine.
14 lbs
7 3/4" beard
7/8' spurs
Enjoy!
Short Version: Hunted the same place last year and heard more birds gobble than I could count, but didn't kill one. This year, zero gobbles but lucked out and brought some meat back to GA.
Long Version: Wife and I got selected for the same Osceola hunt as last year, and were stoked because of the amount of gobbling we heard down there last year. Got to our best spot on the first morning (heard about 8 different birds gobble there last year), daylight rolls around, and we hear nothing. So we start covering some ground to try to get one to play. Saw plenty of sign but never saw or heard a turkey. The next two days are pretty much identical. We were in some of the most beautiful turkey woods that you can imagine, but we just could not get on them. Wasn't just us either. Talked to several others hunting and hardly anyone heard any gobbling or saw birds.
Fast forward to the last day of the hunt. Try to wake my wife up and she said she's going to sleep in due to lack of confidence (and probably her hangover) and I almost laid back down, but thought I better not since it's the last day and I had driven 6 hours down there. Got there and decided to try out a completely different side of the property (place is 30K acres so I was a long ways from where we had been hunting). Same results. The most beautiful habitat you could imagine but no gobbling or turkey activity to speak of. Continued hunting until about 11AM and decided to call it a day. Year 2 with no Osceola. As I'm driving down the road almost back outside of the gate, I see three red heads in the middle of the road. They didn't really spook but definitely eased on off to avoid me. Figured I'd never circle around and cut them off, but at this point I didn't have anything to lose. I threw it in park, got out, and made a huge circle to get to where I thought they may be going. Ran most of the way and took forever to catch my breath. Picked what appeared to be a good spot and got set up. Called just a few times and waited. Never heard any gobbles but thought I heard some scratching. Finally caught movement and realized it had a red head. They kept scratching around for what seemed like forever. I called one more time and they all of a sudden were interested. None gobbled but all three of them (2 long beards and a jake) headed my way. Dropped the first long beard that presented a shot. It was extremely lucky, but after the tough hunting we experienced down there, I was just glad to have finally gotten one.
These things sure are small. He was an average sized bird out of the 10 or so killed on this place before mine.
14 lbs
7 3/4" beard
7/8' spurs
