One thing I love most about turkey hunting is the fact that
every hunt provides you with the kind of stories that you could never dream up.
This past weekend was a great adventure for my oldest son and I. We learned so
much about turkey hunting and the importance of scouting, persistence and
patience. The best part of this story is that it ended with a beautiful
Florida, public land longbeard on the
ground! It was a memorable turkey hunt to say the least.
1. Scouting
If you talk to ten different hunters you would most likely
walk away with ten different ideas of what scouting looks like. It is
definitely true that scouting takes on many different shapes and forms. To me,
scouting is just simply an all out effort to gather any scrap of evidence you
can find that will guide you to either a particular location to hunt or method
to use in your hunting. Scouting is also something that can be done over the
course of more than one season. Our success this past Saturday came about as a
result of the following pieces of the puzzle that we were able to put together.
Over the last 2-3 years Dad and I were determined to find
areas that held turkeys on Osceola National Forest, a huge tract of public land
in Northeast Florida that covers over 300,000 acres. We would literally pick
out sections of the forest on a map and go walk those sections over looking for
things such as diversity of habitat, remoteness, proximity to sections of
adjoining private land, and other various items that we have learned to look
for over the years.
Through a process of elimination and walking many, many
miles we were able to locate a few areas that definitely had turkeys. Last
year, we hunted the same area that my son and I were in this past Saturday. We
had some close encounters and on one of the last days of the season, as we were
walking back to the truck, a gobbler crossed the road in front of us and I
missed him at about 40 yards. This is the kind of information that we like to
tuck into our memory bank and store for future use.
Fast forward to this year, same area and Dad went in the weekend
before the season opened. Near the location where I missed that gobbler last
year he caught a brief glimpse of a gobbler strutting in a private land clear
cut adjoining the forest. Although he never heard a gobble that morning, just
that one glimpse of a bird confirmed for us that a gobbler was in the area.
There was also an obvious crossing through a wide gap in the
fence dividing the National Forest from the private land clear cut. It was
evident that both turkey, deer and other game were using this crossing .
All of these different pieces of evidence led us to set up
in that location this past Saturday morning.
2. Persistence
You read last week how our hunting trips over youth weekend
were not successful. It would have been easy for my son and I to give up after
three mornings of 5a.m wake-up calls and never even hearing a gobble. However,
turkey hunting demands persistence. You never know when it will be that morning
where everything comes together. If you ever feel like giving up just remember
that every unsuccessful hunt brings you that much closer to dropping the
hammer!
3. Patience
Saturday morning’s hunt started off perfect. We had gobblers
sounding off just fifty yards from our set up. Everything went downhill at
daylight, though. Instead of pitching down and coming to us, the gobblers flew
off the roost and sailed right over our blind into the clear cut on private
land and ended up 200-300 yards from us. They never gobbled again once they hit
the ground.
Our confidence was in the fact that they would come back to
us later in the day. I believed this would happen for the following reasons:
The hens would leave them. It has been our observation that
after 10a.m. hens get tired of the gobblers and leave. This leaves those Toms
eager to find more love. We have harvested many birds between the hours of
10-12a.m. over the years.
It would get hot out in the clear cut. Turkeys love to fly
into open areas off the roost. They will spend the morning hours out in these
open areas but once the sun comes up and starts getting warm, they will retreat
for the nearest wooded areas. I truly believed that these Toms would come back
through the fence gap on their way into the forest once the sun started heating
up.
Periodic calling. I did a series of calls every 30-45
minutes throughout the morning to let the gobblers know we were in the area.
This calling combined with a known crossing location is a deadly tactic during
the turkey rut.
It took until just after 11a.m. but as were sitting in the
blind enjoying some snacks and watching some funny clips on YouTube, I looked
up and there was a big gobbler coming into the crossing staring at our decoy.
Things got a little crazy at that point but when all was said and done we ended
up having not one, but two big longbeards just 10 yards from the blind. One of
them got to make the long trip back to Jacksonville with us. It was an
incredible hunt and not one that either me or my son will forget for a very
long time. It was so enjoyable to spend time with him and introduce him to the
great sport of turkey hunting.
I hope that you all are enjoying some good turkey hunting
action or at least preparing for it if the season hasn’t opened in your State
yet. We would love to share the photos of your successful hunt on our Facebook
page. Just email them to us at simplehunting@gmail.com and send the details of
the hunt along with it. Thanks in advance.
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