April Fools Osceola!!

[RutnNStrutn]

Looks like it was a case of April Fools Mr. Gobbler!!!
Flhuntress and I went out for the 2nd day of her WMA hunt, she as the hunter, me as the video guy. Yesterday we worked 3 gobblers, and had all 3 of them within 70 yards, but just couldn't seal the deal. One of them we spent an hour and a half dueling with. Crawling until we ran out of cover, and then getting him to strut back and forth just out of range.
But today was a new day, April Fools day!!
We went to the same area, and had multiple gobblers firing off, including a group of gobblers roosted together that were putting on a gobbling clinic!! Being on public land though, none were close enough for us to go to and risk bumping another hunter. Since we knew multiple gobblers always visit this field, we opted to set up in the area that I'd seen gobblers at on my last 3 hunts at this WMA. 20 minutes after flydown, we spotted a hen working her way across the field. She was feeding in the area of our decoys off to the left. About 15 minutes later I spotted a gobbler coming from the far end of the field. He took his time approaching. I glassed him and he was a big bird. We were excited at the opportunity, but he kept angling toward the live, moving hen instead of our decoys. I called and he would stop and look, but wouldn't come in. He seemed by his looks and actions to be the same bird we dueled with yesterday.
My preoccupation with him was interrupted by Flhuntress saying, "Oh my God!! Oh my God!! Oh my God!!"  I asked her what was wrong, and she said, "Look!!" I glanced over where she was looking and saw why. A steady line of turkeys was moving out of the woods into the field. I eased my binoculars up and started counting them out. Led by a jake, 6 longbeards brought up the rear. They all headed single file across the field towards the big solo gobbler. I called to them, and they veered our way, but were intent on heading to the big gobbler. They moved across the field from our right to left, allowing us plenty of opportunity to size them up, but no shot opportunities. The big gobbler was steadily working his way down the field away from the approaching mob. Flhuntress said, "Start b*tching at him! See what happens."
For those who aren't familiar, b*tching is a desperation tactic we use when the hunt doesn't look like it is going to happen the way we want. "B*tching" means to pour it to the gobbler, yelping and cutting, trying to get him to change his mind about leaving. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but if it doesn't, he was leaving anyway, so no harm, no foul.
As the group of turkeys approached the big boy, he decided he didn't want any part of a gang of male turkeys, so he headed for the hills. Satisfied that they were now in control, the gang turned around and came back towards our decoys. A few more yelps, and here they came. The jake disappeared, but the 6 longbeards came marching right in. They mixed around, and I had to keep track of the position of the dominant bird in the group. He finally verified my choice by briefly popping into strut. Flhuntress had a very itchy trigger finger and wanted to drop the hammer on her first bird of the season. I kept telling her to wait so she didn't accidently kill 2 gobblers. Finally they separated enough for the shot, and BOOM!!!
The rest of the gobblers jumped in the air, took off running, and then they all flew back into the woods where they had come from. Flhuntress had her first Osceola of the season down!! Then the comedy ensued as I videoed Flhuntress' usual bird recovery antics!!
Her bird weighed 18 lbs-10 ozs, had a 9-1/4" beard, and sported sharp 1-1/16" & 1-1/8" spurs, scoring 59.

Here's the link to the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKvL-rY9Qcg

[JVA54]

  Congrats!!

[Mailman]

Congrats on bird. Musta been gagging on diafram call! That was funny right there.

[boomer]

Congrats!!

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

[sugarray]

Congratulations!!!  Great to see you guys killing turkeys!!  She sure is funny about picking him up, my 7 yo isn't that timid!!   

[VA_Birdhunter]

Congrats!! 

[surehuntsalot]

 

[TRKYHTR]

Looks like you were in the right place at the right time. You are in so much trouble, and you lied to her. Congrats on a successful FL Osceola public land turkey hunt.

TRKYHTR

[cannonball]

Congrats!

[Jtodd12]

Congrats. Nice way to start the season.

[archery1]

JUST PICK HIM UP............LOL
GOOD VIDEO

[daddylongspurs]

I know it wasn't intentional, and congrats on the bird, but I've watched that video about 30 times and in slowmo and I'm pretty sure the bird behind was crippled. I don't think he was mortally wonder by any means. Just felt like he took a good bit of the charge to the body.  Looked like he was dragging a wing, hoping like he'll it wasn't broke. Again I know it wasn't intentional, just my conscience made me say something.

[flhuntress]

unfortunatley the bird may have taken a couple stray pellets but he ran away with the other birds and when they reached the tree line they all flew up so i'm thinking he'll be just fine......i was really upset when i saw the video but then a friend of mine told me about a buddy of a buddy of a buddy who killed a bird this season that had numerous pellets in the breast (and other places) which weren't his and his bird was just fine...with that in mind and knowing they all flew up i'm feeling confident that he'll be ok...hopefully i'm right because i'd hate to think that i crippled a bird.

[RutnNStrutn]

DaddyLongspurs, if you go back and watch the video again with the volume turned up loud enough to hear the whispering, you'll see that we did all we could to avoid that. Unfortunately the camera guy doesn't always have the same angle as the shooter. But, she is right, while the bird in the back definitely took a few stray pellets and initially looked bad, he recovered quickly. If you watch the video, by the time he makes it around and onto the video again, he is running fast. When they approached the woods, all of the gobblers took flight, including the bird in question.
I'm certain after watching the video that he took some pellets but I'm confident he'll be fine after watching his exit from the field, which wasn't on the video. And as she said, turkeys and other wild critters are tough animals. Who hasn't recovered an animal with evidence of a previous encounter with a hunter? They are resilient animals though. Certainly not intentional, but unfortunately it does happen if you hunt long enough.

[DirtNap647]

congrats