Gobble4me757
Well-Known Member
After years of thinking about this trip and talking about doing it, my buddy Nate from Nebraska and I started planning it over a year ago. We ended up trading on trips for trade two Merriam's for two Osceolas on private ground near Okechobe though we stayed in Sarasota due to originally the guy having a spot close to there. We then went south to Immokalee, Florida and hunted right near big Cyprus on a couple of private leases as well with a buddy in my med school class and his family. Both of our wives were supposed to join. Well, my wife and I found out she was pregnant with our first and is 35 weeks, so her going was out of the question. Every hunt was unique and was tough due to the birds being super henned up so a multitude of tactics were utilized to kill. We ended up killing 5 in 5 days. My buddy and I limited with me killing at the last minute yesterday afternoon striking one at 3:20 only to kill him at 3:45 at 12 steps in the Cyprus heads! My buddy from med school ended up killing one as well! This makes 3 in the last two days! My buddy Nate and his wife got to experience a lot of firsts including going to the beach, seeing wild alligators, seeing and shooting hogs, etc He is still on cloud 9 as well as I am! Praise the good Lord for all the success and many memories were made! Here below is a photo dump…the last bird I killed I only had my diaphragms, no vest, and my buddy's gun as my Nebraska friends took the rest of my stuff. I hunt with my Big Papaw in the form of his picture everytime in the event I will share the stories when I meet him someday up in Heaven. Hope y'all enjoy!