We decided to practice our favorite form of social distancing by getting away from the insanity and getting out in the woods for a couple of days. A good friend of ours who runs an outfitting business in south-central Florida invited us up to spend a couple of days hunting for an Osceola turkey. Unfortunately, his remaining turkey hunts have all cancelled due to the virus situation. Still, he was kind enough to invite us up and try for a bird that would otherwise have been reserved for a "paying" client... We dropped my wife off at a spot on the ranch where my buddy had been seeing several mature birds. His clients had already killed two good long-beards in that section opening weekend, and they still had a couple of good birds on the trail cameras in that area. About 20 minutes after dropping her off, I was just getting set up myself when I could hear the faint blast of a shotgun in the distance. I got a text about 30 seconds later saying "bird down".... We set her up in a known travel corridor where she put out a decoy spread and sat down in a make-shift palmetto blind. After 1 call sequence, this bird came into the decoys about 10 minutes later. He never gobbled (which is very typical of the Osceola), but sprinted into the spread after seeing the jake decoy fanned out with his hens. He was flopping on the ground at 30 yards a few seconds later... She was back at camp snapping pics with a glass of wine in hand before I even made a yelp... Although she has killed about as many turkeys as Butterball Farms, this was her first attempt at calling and hunting on her own.... I think I just lost my turkey hunting wing-man for good... Here is a good look at the main difference between the Osceola and the Eastern subspecies... With the Osceola, the wing is primarily black with with mostly solid white bars, while the Eastern is primarily white with broken black bars...
Awesome! I’ll bet she’s hooked for life calling in and hunting turkeys! A grand old sport! Now she needs the wing bone to call one in with just as the Indians use to do. Ultimate challenge!
good on her, i have been a avid turkey hunter for over 50 years and i get just as excided for this season as the first one.
have you tried the TSS shot yet? i have used for the last three seasons and it pattererns like you would not believe. the 12" target i shot at a honest 40 yards with a 3" federal 12ga 1-3/4 oz tss #9 shot with a .640 choke.
I don't think you've lost your wingman, but I'm willing to bet that from time to time you WILL be trading places!!
That's an impressive pattern.... I have not tried that shot yet, but it certainly looks like the right combo out of that T/C barrel and the .640 choke... I have been a big fan of this Magnum Blend load by HEVI-Shot for the last several seasons... It is a blend of 5,6,& 7 shot loaded into the wad in a way that provides a killing pattern at any range. We hunt quite a bit off the decoys which tends to pull the birds in real close, and this blended shot gives you a fairly open pattern as close as 10 yards range, but still holds a 60+ pellet pattern @ 10" circle out to 40+ yards.
winchester long beard LR # 5 shot are pretty good too. but TSS is the way i have gone, pretty spendy but are the cats meow. i do carry a .700 choke with me for setting up in thick cover that delivers a more open pattern at 25-35 yards.
TSS #9 is the ticket. TSS is much heavier than Heavi Shot. Last two years I switched and 9 long beards later I am sold. They aren’t giving them away and recoil in a 3 inch is modest but the pattern is tight and the 9s have plenty of energy to 40 yards.
