dhaverstick
Lil-Rokslider
Last Christmas I bought my best buddy, John "Cool Johnny" Norris, a Osceola turkey hunt with Tall Tine Outfitters in Williston, FL. We started our adventure on March 31st and arrived at our Florida hotel the afternoon of April 1st. Our hunt would take place over the next 3 days.
Cool Johnny letting viewers know that we weren't in Missouri anymore
We drove over to the house of the outfitter, Ted Jaycox, early Thursday morning to begin hunting. Our guide was his grandson, Dawson Weaver. He would be with us for the next 3 days, whether he liked it or not.
Ted and his wife, Shoni, have a beautiful place.
John and I weren't sure what to expect. We were used to the run-n-gun style of turkey hunting and this hunt would be taking place entirely in blinds. Dawson said the birds generally didn't respond to extensive calling so we watched our decoys and hoped for the best. The first day we were visited by several jakes, a few hens, and a bunch of deer. No toms graced us with their presence.
John finds out that he and Dawson have the same striker.
Eastern fence lizards were everywhere and it was fun to listen to them run across the top of the blinds. I guess it was a little chilly on the 3rd morning because this guy was torpid as he clung to the inside of the blind.
Dawson picked him up and flipped him over to show the brilliant coloring of the males. They are very similar to our prairie lizards.
The second morning of the hunt, we were hunting on an old road that ran near a big field. We heard a tom gobbling in the field and he eventually worked his way over to our setup. He stepped into the road about 50 yards away and immediately got spooked by something. He came back about 20 minutes later but would never come in for a shot opportunity.
That afternoon we moved to a different spot where we, again, were hunting an old road. Walking in to the spot, John and I passed a wild orange tree with oranges laying about on the ground. You certainly don't see that in Missouri! Dawson set the decoys out about 15 yards from the blind and told us there were a couple of good longbeards running together in the area. In the event they came in together, we decided that I would shoot the left bird while John would shoot the one on the right. Otherwise, John would get the first shot.
It was hotter than seven kinds of Hell in that blind and poor Johnny was sweating like a whore in church. I wasn't doing much better, especially since I had to keep my loooong smoothbore flintlock in a shooting position the whole time and just couldn't get comfortable. Around 4 o'clock I saw movement to my left as two toms came in to whip on our jake decoy. They came out of the brush strutting and both ran to the decoy. The road was only about 10 yards wide with brush on both sides. As soon as both birds faced away, I stuck Sweet Rachael out of the blind and pulled the hammer back.
Unfortunately, John had his head down at the time trying to keep from boiling his brains and didn't notice the birds until I got my gun ready. He hastily got his gun up which one of the birds saw and started to exit stage right. I put my front bead on the left bird's neck and pulled the trigger with John following up almost immediately with his shot. In the heat of the moment, though, he completely forgot about our arrangement and shot the left bird instead of the right one. So my bird got a double-tap while his ran off to strut another day.
After Sweet Rachael's smoke cleared, we went out to survey the damage. I had killed a nice mature tom with great spurs. He weighed 18 pounds 4 ounces, had a 10" beard, and 1 3/8" spurs.
Here is our guide, Dawson, with me, Sweet Rachael, and our prize.
Look at those hooks!
Their coloration is phenomenal!
We hunted long and hard the last day but never could get a bird to cooperate for John. It was our experience that the Osceolas didn't gobble as much as our Easterns do and didn't respond much to calling. Nevertheless, it was a great adventure and I was glad to get to share it with my best friend.
Darren
Cool Johnny letting viewers know that we weren't in Missouri anymore
We drove over to the house of the outfitter, Ted Jaycox, early Thursday morning to begin hunting. Our guide was his grandson, Dawson Weaver. He would be with us for the next 3 days, whether he liked it or not.
Ted and his wife, Shoni, have a beautiful place.
John and I weren't sure what to expect. We were used to the run-n-gun style of turkey hunting and this hunt would be taking place entirely in blinds. Dawson said the birds generally didn't respond to extensive calling so we watched our decoys and hoped for the best. The first day we were visited by several jakes, a few hens, and a bunch of deer. No toms graced us with their presence.
John finds out that he and Dawson have the same striker.
Eastern fence lizards were everywhere and it was fun to listen to them run across the top of the blinds. I guess it was a little chilly on the 3rd morning because this guy was torpid as he clung to the inside of the blind.
Dawson picked him up and flipped him over to show the brilliant coloring of the males. They are very similar to our prairie lizards.
The second morning of the hunt, we were hunting on an old road that ran near a big field. We heard a tom gobbling in the field and he eventually worked his way over to our setup. He stepped into the road about 50 yards away and immediately got spooked by something. He came back about 20 minutes later but would never come in for a shot opportunity.
That afternoon we moved to a different spot where we, again, were hunting an old road. Walking in to the spot, John and I passed a wild orange tree with oranges laying about on the ground. You certainly don't see that in Missouri! Dawson set the decoys out about 15 yards from the blind and told us there were a couple of good longbeards running together in the area. In the event they came in together, we decided that I would shoot the left bird while John would shoot the one on the right. Otherwise, John would get the first shot.
It was hotter than seven kinds of Hell in that blind and poor Johnny was sweating like a whore in church. I wasn't doing much better, especially since I had to keep my loooong smoothbore flintlock in a shooting position the whole time and just couldn't get comfortable. Around 4 o'clock I saw movement to my left as two toms came in to whip on our jake decoy. They came out of the brush strutting and both ran to the decoy. The road was only about 10 yards wide with brush on both sides. As soon as both birds faced away, I stuck Sweet Rachael out of the blind and pulled the hammer back.
Unfortunately, John had his head down at the time trying to keep from boiling his brains and didn't notice the birds until I got my gun ready. He hastily got his gun up which one of the birds saw and started to exit stage right. I put my front bead on the left bird's neck and pulled the trigger with John following up almost immediately with his shot. In the heat of the moment, though, he completely forgot about our arrangement and shot the left bird instead of the right one. So my bird got a double-tap while his ran off to strut another day.
After Sweet Rachael's smoke cleared, we went out to survey the damage. I had killed a nice mature tom with great spurs. He weighed 18 pounds 4 ounces, had a 10" beard, and 1 3/8" spurs.
Here is our guide, Dawson, with me, Sweet Rachael, and our prize.
Look at those hooks!
Their coloration is phenomenal!
We hunted long and hard the last day but never could get a bird to cooperate for John. It was our experience that the Osceolas didn't gobble as much as our Easterns do and didn't respond much to calling. Nevertheless, it was a great adventure and I was glad to get to share it with my best friend.
Darren
