Monday, the second day, l Hunted early in same area where I had killed the first day gobbler. Had a bird gobbling on the ground from daylight till 10 am but he would not get anywhere close and stayed anywhere from 75 to 150 yards out. He had hens ( or the hens had him) and never would commit to my set up. About the time I thought maybe the hens would leave that bird a logging worker drove a four wheeler nearby and spooked the whole crowd.

So after a quick sandwich I moved to a property greenfield where I had killed several birds over the years. Set up a pop up blind, full strut b mobile decoy and two Avian X hens, got in a nap, and waited for late afternoon when birds typically are in or around this field. The area is so open I wanted to get in there early and so waited /slept three hours for the magic time. Never heard any gobbles and tried hen calls and locators through out the period(except for thirty minute nap) but no responses. At 545 Im thinking maybe the birds won't show. Then I heard that distinct vibration of a gobbler drumming. It was not real close but it was clearly a drumming bird. I peeked around the three window sides of the blind where I had visibility but could not see the bird. Finally I spotted the strutting and drumming bird 80 yards out and marching ever so slowly through the woods adjacent to the field. I ran a few low hen purr and clucks on the Cody but the bird never gobbled but he did keep marching straight in to the edge of the field on a path that was going to be right in perfect shooting line. He kept on drumming and strutting and at 25 yards I dropped him , no flop, and with plain old lead shot at that!

Really nice bird, beard just short of 11 inches longest strand, spurs 1.25 and one seriously hooked. I did not weigh it but he was super heavy for this area of Florida, maybe 23 pounds I would guess. He also had one of those big ol snapping turtle -type-heads that tells me he was the boss of the area. Just a pure heavyweight .
Interestingly between two birds I killed there was one gobble only and both came in a long way just drumming. Not unusual for mid day or afternoon when Henned up birds are the targets.
Pictures of the hanging bird, and a poor shot of me and the bird, and the spurs and beards of day 1 and day 2 bird, after cleaning.

Way to go GN !

Keep it rolling man.. congrats..

Good deal!! Now where are you off to hunt?

Congrats both of them are nice birds.

no surprise here!! Congrats on 2 good birds!!

Doug

Florida...check. where to now?

sounds like you had a great hunt even though the birds were mostly silent. can you comment on differences this year with the warm early spring vs. the last couple seasons? did florida experience a more mild winter than usual leading into their opener?

Nathan, typically when north florida, south georgia and lower alabama open their seasons (say March 15 to late March), the birds are pretty much totally henned up. Ive hunted one or more of those regions every spring since 1972 and have yet to see what I would call wide open gobbling where birds run to the call any time of day. Typically (if there is such a thing in turkey hunting, so these are general statements at best) there are some days with serious roost gobbling, and some days with minimal roost gobbling in the period of mid march to early april but even on opening day the birds can/usually do go completely silent within 30-45 minutes after fly down. Hens. Some days you will get in the right place and catch one right off the limb, but if that doesn't happen and the hens get involved quickly my experience is that it can be a silent morning thereafter on the majority of the days in this calendar time period in that region.

I've found that to be generally true about every spring in that geographic area no matter what kind of winter preceded. So as a general occurrence mid morning and afternoons often give the best chance for a gobbler to be aggressive in gobbling and/or in coming to calls since they are usually without hens at some point later in the day. Who knows. They are turkeys.

Who would have guessed. No surprise here. Great hunts, stories and turkeys. Congratulations!


Earl

Awesome job, and your second post was really enlightenment something I was looking to hear as well. In 2010 I hunted south, south Florida somewhere between ft. Pierce and west Palm bay early March seen tons of birds driving around but never could get one to gobble on the roost or the ground. Needless to say left turkey less but did kill a few hogs.

Congrats.

Pretty work GN! An excellent way to begin the season. There aren't very many people who can scout just one afternoon and then close the deal. Enjoy the next days as other states open.