Turkey Tour 2019

Turkey season has officially kicked off. Yekrut and I are headed to South Florida for an osceola. We are currently just inside the Florida line trying to catch a nap at a rest stop. Well I am trying, Yek is succeeding and rattling the windows in the truck with his snoring lol. Hunting Tuesday and Wednesday, pics to follow.

Good luck Matt! Y'all have fun and be safe!

I've shared several rooms with Yek and the snoring is terrible! Lol!

Y’all can both kiss my rear end, it takes extra oxygen to keep the engine on this finely tuned turkey killing machine running smoothly. Haven’t hunted Florida in. 8-10 years, I’m looking forward to seeing the orange groves, gators, and oak hammocks.

Good luck

Y’all be safe and post some pics of them Osceolas!

Good luck fellers..and what time does it start crackin daylight down there?

Sunrise where we are headed is 6:45ish est

10-4

Man I’m jealous. Good luck fellas.

Good luck! I guess the locations of my 2019 turkey tour will be dictated by which neighbors place they're gobbling on

So, we might have snuck in a late afternoon hunt after we got here. Turns out there was a turkey that wanted to die. I love South Florida. Headed to another place farther south tomorrow morning.

Dang killer on the loose

1st dead turkey pic of the year, and it's a great sight to see. Congrats Brandon!

X2... I love it! Keep em coming

Congratulations. Y’all have fun.

Congrats on the kill. Keep the pictures coming, us poor rednecks are living through y’all this week.

Congrats

Congrats fellas!

Having a blast, but just getting the bird dressed, supper, and crashing for a few hours now. We will have time for more elaborate stories in a few days when we are headed back north bound. We are both running on about 2 hours worth of naps in the last 2 days.

Heck yea!!

Ohhhh...mashed brains

Congrats Brandon! Poor Matt is really gonna hear you snore tonight, w that little rest!!! Good luck and safe travels!

Congrats buddy

Good job Brandon. Glad you got it done.

Congrats! That didn’t take long.

I made sure to lay down first last night. He may have snored, but I didn’t hear it. The ranch we were on yesterday was amazing. I called in 4 jakes and a hen quickly after getting there, but that was it. Hope to punch a tag today and get some better pics. This is a heck of a way to start turkey season off.

Good luck today!

Looks like yall got good weather..beautiful from the looks of it

Congrats

Dented the primer at 7:50. Pics and story later

Congrats to both of you!

Nice

Congrats on the kills

Congrats. Amazes me how yall kill turkeys everywhere you go so quick.

Congrats...

Congrats!

Nice one. Love those black wings. Congrats!

Congrats to y’all

Congratulations fellas

Congrats guys.

Congrats guys!

We gather all the info on the property, talk to everyone we can ahead of time to know as much as we can about sightings and travel patterns. We look at lots of maps from different sources since some are old and some are new, some are summer and some are fall. Find likely roost areas and figure out where they want to go to and get between them and make a turkey sound.

All I can say is yall some good map readers. Great job as always.

There is some luck involved as well lol.

Y’all wearing em out!

Congrats guys!!!

I have a college degree in it so I should be

The conversation in this oak hammock in south florida has shifted to a merriams trip late season. Since we already have our yearly rio trip planned we basically have to I think . Might as well go for a single season slam while we are at it since I’ve never done one in a single season.

Congratulations!

Y’all definitely should do that! And next year you can take me to Florida with you and maybe I can get my slam!!

Congrats

This was the first thread I clicked on today and it didn’t disappoint. Great job guys! I’ve got to make an early season trip to Florida next year.

Way to start us off fellas! Congrats!!!

We are going to overload this thread with stories and pictures in a bit. Just rolling back into civilization and going to get cleaned up and get some food

That's just click bait, now I'll check back a million times looking for pictures and stories.

Ha, Matt’s working on his story now. I’m about to shower and I’ll get to work on mine.

Good luck, my best friend is down there now on a 3 day hunt starts tomorrow, I was supposed to go but had to back out. Good luck to all.

I hate you guys

Wow, what a trip. We started this morning hearing a couple gobbles on a different ranch from where Yek killed his bird yesterday. We walked through a beatiful oak hammock trying to get to them, but it got thick quick and we were pretty sure they were roosted over water. It was flydown time by now and the birds had shutup, so we decided to go back to the hammock and try to kill them there. We finally found a tree that we could sit on and brushed ourselves in with palmettos, and as I was clipping a few out of my way I look left and see a gobbler at 70 yards looking right at me. We had a gobbler and hen decoy on the left and a jake on the right on the edge of the hammock and pasture in case some bird worked out there. It is important to note at this point that I am on the left and Brandon is on the right, so I told him to yelp and when he did the bird dropped into quarter strut for a few seconds then folded his wings and eased behind some palmettos. At this point, a hen appears from behind us and walks in front of us but then walks back to the gobbler who has a noticeable limp and they leave. About 15 minutes later the hen walks back in feeds around and walks out to the right.

After about 15 more minutes I thought I heard a bird spit behind us(I can’t hear drumming), I ask Brandon if he hears drumming but he doesn’t. A few minutes go by and he says longbeard to the right. This is where the importance of me being on the left side comes into play. I can finally see him and here he comes limping by at 30 yards. Brandon asked what I wanted him to do, and I told him to kill him there wasn’t any way that I could swing. Luckily a few steps later he dropped into strut so I could turn on him, and then proceeded to do bad things to Brandons jake. He finally flogged him and bounced over about 3 feet and I dented the primer. It was a beautiful morning and one I will never forget for my first osceola gobbler.
Now for the part you have all been waiting for.

Beautiful bird. Congrats! Did you figure out why he was limping?

Ligament was jacked up in his foot that lets it extend. He had big calluses on the top of his foot.

Nice!!!!

Congrats fellas

Finally....dead Turkey pics. Been waiting almost a year.

That’s from that chain y’all had him tied down with for the past month! Great pics, Congrats guys, hope you kill 2 more!

Thanks bud lol. We didn’t push for 2 more birds, free osceolas are hard to come by lol. We are coming home tomorrow, but we did get invited back next year.

South of 70, chasing the dream!!!!

I guess I should get with it. We left about 7:15 Sunday night from North Alabama and hammered down toward South Florida. We knew we couldnt hunt maybe at all yesterday, but if anything it would be after some locals got off work and were able to put us in touch with the ranchers.

Coonhunter and I started discussing this hunt months ago and it originally was going to be a public land, roughing it, camping trip for about a week on Big Cypress. He made some great contacts and over the last few months we have had some ups and downs with the contacts where we thought it wasn’t going to pan out and then things would look good again and then back to bad.

We weren’t in a big hurry to get here so we ended up getting an hour or two shut eye at a rest stop somewhere in North Florida. I was worthless to drive and after a rough week couldnt keep my eyes open. We got our nap and about Orlando got some gas, been borritos at a 7 Eleven and I took over the wheel and drove us in. We arrived at our Hotel about 11:00 EST yesterday morning, touched base with ranch managers and locals and got a couple more hours rest before we went and met everyone. We went to a ranch that is 10K acres plus yesterday afternoon and they put me out next to an orange grove and overlooking a pretty oak meadow where they see birds daily. They said they were taking Coonhunter almost an hour away to the other side of the ranch and putting him out at a beautiful spot. I settled in against a big live oak and called about every 15 minutes.

About the 3rd time I did that I had one cut me off from behind me in the grove. This grove is 14 miles to the next road so they have some room to roam. I soon see a hen about 300 yards out in the oak flat and call to her and lose her in the trees. About 10 minutes goes by and I call again to the bird behind me and I think I hear a bird that is in the general area of the hen I saw a few minutes earlier. Sure enough I see a red head at about 200 yards walking my way, fast walking with 1/2 strut thrown in every now and then. I get turned where I can kill him and wait him out. I watched him for a couple hundred yards walk and look, spit and drum, and put on a show. He finally gets in tight and is looking hard for me and stops behind a huge oak tree. I didnt know it at the time, but another gobbler, the one from the grove was standing 20 yards from me to the right strutting. The bird in front of me finally moves right, towards the other gobbler and I dent the primer on him at 30-35 yards. I didnt jump up, but just sat there, and caught the other gobbler staring at the gobbler I just shot who never flopped. I called the ranch manager and told him I was done and told him the story and he said...... I crap you not..... “you should have shot the other one too” I kicked myself for not clarifying if we could kill the limit before we left each other, but was just grateful that the hunt had worked out like it had and didnt want to be greedy since this was a free hunt. He is my heaviest Osceola to date at 20# 2 oz, which probably has something to do with him living with 3000+ head of beef cattle its entire life and drinking orange juice straight out of the tap. He has sharp curved hooks somewhere in the. 1 1/16’ range and a rope that is pushing 12” if it isn’t over it. Slam # 3 in the books and already have plans for a repeat next year, same time and same places.

We are North bound hammer down as early as we can get up tomorrow morning headed home and getting geared up for the Alabama youth hunt this weekend.

Awesome. Just plain awesome.

Dr. B

Great hunts fellas! And beautiful birds!

Living the dream! Congrats to both of y’all and thanks for sharing the pics and stories. Those birds didn’t stand a chance!

You have no idea. I keep saying it, but this was an amazing trip. I have killed 4 birds in a day, and 3 birds within 30 minutes in Texas, but this trip has just been incredible. It is a completely different part of the world.We are sitting at our room and reflecting before we go get some supper. This is our view.

Congrats fellas! I didn’t figure it would take long.

And the biggest thing going other than cattle down here.....

We got to see the World Famous Fisheating Creek today while out beating on doors getting permission for more places for next year, beautiful place full of cypress knees that just looks like turkey Mecca.

Y’all boys got it made!

Like a sore penis. Just can’t beat it ! Congrats

Awesome trip! Brings back memories of home.

Congrats again! Great stories and pics

Congrats!!

Good deal!

Awesome stories and congrats again guys

Wow. Thanks for sharing, and congrats! Well done!

Congrats again fellas!

Congrats boys! Good pics too

You pansies scared to try for a public land bird? Y'all have another day to hunt!

Congrats! That pic on the oak limb is really good.

How do you know that we didn’t take the two above on public land and just took pics in randowm locations to throw everyone off of our trail?

I told Matt that it was probably the best turkey pic I had ever taken before. Stunningly beautiful area makes for great pictures.

Congrats

Because my phone is blowing up with gps coordinates! Lol! I know if you knew where they were I'd be in the loop!

Well operation osceola is almost complete, we have a few more hours and we will be home. Here are a few more random pics from the trip. Brandon has some nice hammock pics that he will post later.

love them black wings

Do turkeys from different regions taste different? I always thought northern deer tasted different than ours.

Ive eat rios an easterns an i couldnt tell a difference

Congrats to both of you. I’ve always thought it would be really nice to start the Alabama season with a turkey under my belt already

Congrats guys! Nothing like the lighting in Florida for taking good pics or video. I loved filming there.

You go get that 1 year slam Brandon!~

You know how I know that lighting works freaking MIRACLES??

Did yall noticed Brandons big ole noggin looked Normal Size??? Now thats some GREAT photgraphic lighting!!

must be the face mask, cause its sure enough still big.

I don’t think a single season slam is all that important anymore, but all I need is a little bit of a reason to plan another trip and I’m game. Matt hasn’t ever killed one and really wants a Merriam so I feel like any good friend should go along and do it too. I pretty much have to ya know.

I’ve eaten several of each of subspecies, fresh, frozen, corn fed, swamp birds, ridge runners, shot, ran over, fried, grilled, stew, jerky and scrambled...... they all taste the same.

Yep you’d think corn and cricket fed ones would taste better but I’ve neber been able to tell the difference

I have no idea, but I was told that turkeys that eat alfalfa taste bitter

Never noticed it but it’s been a while since I tried one of those. Peanut hay doesn’t change the taste, I know that for a fact The extra peanut oil in their fat does make for some good frying though

Finally measured his beard at 11 1/16” and spurs at 1 1/16”.

Found three more sets in the freezer to cut off from last year too, guess they are from Oklahoma.

Mine was 1 1/8”, 7/8” and 10” beard. Got the fan and wings pinned out and some spanish moss drying to incorporate into the display somehow.