Made the annual trek to friends place down south. Has properties in Fla and Ga. Here is a very short version of the hunt.
Arrived florida last thursday midday and hunted till dark and never could strike or see a LB anywhere; completely henned i would say. I did call in some single hens late day. The Hurricane has laid down a lot of big timber and the swamp hunting was looking to be very tough; birds dont like those kind of blowdown infested woods IMO. Also there is some question abut the overall turkey population in that part of the world.

Friday morning in Fla I got on a LB at dawn; he gobbled hard, some hens got with him, but whole parade came my way. I was in a thick edge with big oaks and lots of undergrowth behind me , and a farm road to a deer patch in front. I drew the hens in to the field in front but the gobbler stayed behind me in the big trees for some reason. Im pretty sure he was less than 30 yards as I could hear his air bag crackle and pop as he ended his gobbles. I was in a low chair with a stake blind and the gobbler never saw me , and he strutted drummed and gobbled for an eternity very close behind me, but I could not turn on him due to the hens all around me. Finally a hen busted me and off they went. Very disheartening; but at least I didn't have to clean him.

Saturday morning the season opened n Ga and I got a two year old to fly down and come straight in off the limb and strut and drum to the set up on afield edge. . Shot him next to B mobile at 18 yards. Ten Inch beard and sharp spurs that might not have been an inch long. In the book for 2019.

You can kill all three of your season birds in one day on Ga. So due to a short planned trip I just Sat in a blind on the field edge for about all of the rest of the morning and early afternoon. Did not hear a single gobble from anywhere after fly down for the entire morning and all after noon; I mean the gobbling was non existent.

About six pm Sat I was back in the blind and about to give it up for the day; I had been in that field edge for perhaps eleven hours. I hit a crow call in desperation and a barred owl sounded off behind me. Then another and another barred owl opened up with a chorus of hooting and sure enough a gobbler chimed in with them. The LB was maybe 150 yards away I guessed. I had my call in my hands and did a short loud yelp and cut sequence and He answered it . I Laid the call down and in ten minutes I hear him drumming behind me and in two minutes he is in full strut by B mobile. Boom.. This was a beautiful old bird. I did not weigh him but guess mid 20's and he had a ten inch beard and 1.5 inch hooked spurs . I had to leave early sunday for a long long drive and did not hunt. Overall the birds were completely shut down on gobbling and incredibly henned up I think. Lucky to get what I did. I have heard from a couple of excellent turkey hunters in south Ga about their opening weekend and it was dismally slow from all of them I dont think any of them killed a bird and very few even heard gobbling they said.

That is awesome. I have been waiting to read your first report of the season and was not disappointed. Congrats.

Nice work youngster!

You kill birds when most can't.. patience like that is something most of us don't possess .. but it paid off with a huge gobbler for you. Congrats man..

Great successful spring training camp, congratulations. Beautiful set of spurs.

Earl

Nice old Tom. Sweet!

Nice hooks on that one for sure. Congrats for sure.

sure cant stop a turkey killer like GN!!!! Congrats on a nice gobber

Doug

Congrats! Impressive leg wear! GO Hoos!

Very nice GN, congrats. Set for 11 hours straight, wow. I can sit for a few hours but 11, I don't know if I could survive that.
V

Thanks for the congratulations.from all of you who have posted them... But just for clarification...I did take an hour out for lunch...it was not straight eleven hours in the blind...and I do have good nap chair in there with me. It was beautiful spring day to be out and it was total of eleven hours for the day. with a one hour break.

Those ain't spurs, those are Scimitars!
Congrats on a great bird and a great hunt!

Sounds like they may need to cut back on their season limit of three birds in GA (probably not a bad idea here in VA either)

Fantastic spurs GN!! That is awesome. So good to read and see the pics, thank you