YEKRUT
Well-Known Member
My wife and I left work Friday afternoon at 5PM headed to Florida for the second time this year after my first Osceola. She wanted to go along for the ride and hang out in camp while I was hunting and since she is 7 months pregnant there is not much else she can do. We arrived in camp at 4:15AM Friday morning and I was dressed and ready to hunt soon after that. We headed out to the farm we were going to be hunting that was about 45 minutes from the lodge and start the hike in. The farm I was hunting was a huge cattle farm and I think we must have walked through 100 head of cattle going in. We finally got settled into the blind over looking a food plot well before gobble time. When daylight came I heard one bird way off to my left maybe 300-400 yards across the cattle pasture in some huge pines. The bird ripped off 25-30 gobbles on the roost and then went silent when he flew down, which seems to be the story of the season no matter what state I am hunting. While I was listening for this bird to gobble again to get a direction on where he was going I hear purrs behind me and finally get turned in the blind to see two hens feeding my direction and into the food plot. I watch the hens hoping they will have a gob with them, but they were alone. While I am watching them the gobbler that I had heard earlier gobbles again and he is CLOSE. I had some cabbage to my left in the direction where he gobbled so I could not see him and would not be able to see him until he was almost in range. The hens that were feeding in the food plot started feeding hurridly in his direction and I thought it was going to be all over. When the two hens made it almost out of sight they met another hen that was with the gobbler and they chased each other around for a minute or so, but the gobbler was still no where to be seen. A couple of minutes went by and now all three hens started feeding back into the food plot toward me again. When the hens made the edge of the plot I heard big boy drumming and knew I was about to finally after 40+ hours on the road to and from FL this year have my first Osceola in gun range. He steps out from behind the cabbage and is in full strut, dragging wings, spitting, drumming, and putting on a show for his three girlfriends in the food plot. When he turns so I can see his beard I can only see a short beard on him and my heart sinks as I think I am dealing with a full fanned jake, but can see that he has a huge fan and head. I let the birds feed on around in front of me and the hens are at 10-15 yards and the gobbler for whatever reason decides he is going to stay out at 35-40 yards and do his thing around a palm tree. I finally get a good look at his spurs and can see that he has some serious hooks on him and decide I am going to take him. I flip the safety off on the Super Black Eagle and get the Nitro train ready. He finally untucks his head a little bit and I shot him in the face at 35 yards. He didn't even flop, just gave a few kicks and that was it. I tore out of the blind and wne to retrieve my long awaited Osceola. He ended up having a 4.5" beard that was eat off and yellow from beard rot, weighed in at 19lb 6oz, and had 1 1/4 needle sharp spurs. I couldn't have been any happier with a bird that was 15 years in the making.
A couple pictures from manatee springs state park where the wife and I went to chill out Friday afternoon and do some sight seeing.
A couple pictures from manatee springs state park where the wife and I went to chill out Friday afternoon and do some sight seeing.
