The Weekend of the Osceola.....
Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 2:52 pm
So, Kris and I headed down to one of my college buddies places to go chase some Osceola’s for our first time. We were about 40 minutes north of Tampa hunting some Orange Groves and Cattle farms. My buddy had roosted two gobblers the night before and knew exactly where to set us up for in the morning. When morning came we made our way out to a spot next to a creek in a field near his parent’s home. Didn’t hear much gobbling until around 7:15 but when the two birds hit the ground they started putting on a show. Strutting and gobbling like crazy for about an hour. There were a few hens in the field with them and for a while we thought they were going to steal them from us. They were all heading into the woods when two of the hens did a 180 and started making their way straight for us. Shortly after a little a bit of calling and good luck the gobblers soon followed and made their way to about 10-15 yards in front of Kris and I. They thought about putting a hurting on the decoy we had set out but we went ahead and fixed that before they could get to it. So, an hour or so into our first morning we had 2 awesome birds on the ground one of them sporting one and a half and one and five eighth inch spurs.
Our next hunt there took place during the middle of the day. When we didn’t hear many birds gobbling, we decided to walk through the woods to a spot my buddy knew there were a few birds. I spotted one as he made his way through the cypress swamp and luckily he didn’t see us. We immediately found a close spot to set up and started to call. Sat for about 45 minutes and never heard a thing. I think we were starting to lose a little bit of hope and then my buddy looked over and the gobbler was working his way through the swamp only about 50 yards away ! Kris couldn’t see him because his back was to him. We whispered to him to sit still and told him there was one coming. Finally for what seemed like forever Kris was able to spot him and the bird walked behind a tree just long enough for him to raise his gun. It only took one cluck of the mouth call to get him from behind the tree and bring our third bird of the trip down.
It was an awesome experience and an awesome hunt. We all got to kill birds and see a lot. I would highly recommend going to hunt Osceola’s. The whole experience of the hunt and area where you hunt is really cool and very “Old Florida” looking. The fresh fried grouper and crawfish etoufee made the trip great as well.
Our next hunt there took place during the middle of the day. When we didn’t hear many birds gobbling, we decided to walk through the woods to a spot my buddy knew there were a few birds. I spotted one as he made his way through the cypress swamp and luckily he didn’t see us. We immediately found a close spot to set up and started to call. Sat for about 45 minutes and never heard a thing. I think we were starting to lose a little bit of hope and then my buddy looked over and the gobbler was working his way through the swamp only about 50 yards away ! Kris couldn’t see him because his back was to him. We whispered to him to sit still and told him there was one coming. Finally for what seemed like forever Kris was able to spot him and the bird walked behind a tree just long enough for him to raise his gun. It only took one cluck of the mouth call to get him from behind the tree and bring our third bird of the trip down.
It was an awesome experience and an awesome hunt. We all got to kill birds and see a lot. I would highly recommend going to hunt Osceola’s. The whole experience of the hunt and area where you hunt is really cool and very “Old Florida” looking. The fresh fried grouper and crawfish etoufee made the trip great as well.
