Back from Super Florida Osceola and Hog

Posted on March 19th, 2008 by Tim Herald

I have been Osceola hunting in FL for 18 years, and I would say without a doubt this was my best trip ever. We started off filming hogs at Chase Ruck’s dairy near Okeechobee. I ended up with a nice 160 pound sow and a huge bodied boar that was estimated at 350 pounds at a minimum. The photo doesn’t come close to doing the body justice. He had some tusks, but they just don’t seem to get big teeth at this dairy. Read on for full story…

Then it was off to the ranch I hunt near Haines City. I scouted that afternoon and the next morning, and there were so many gobblers, I couldn’t believe it. Last year the hunting was tough. On Friday at noon, I went and set my blind where I thought some gobblers would come out to strut the next morning.

The photo shows the setup in daylight, though I obviously didn’t put out the dekes until the next day. Opening day of turkey season had a bunch of birds gobbling in the woods about 150 yards off. Soon after fly down, a big tom came into my field, and slowly worked in to the dekes. He gobbled well to my call and it took him about 15 minutes to strut 80 yards. He came in and smacked B-mobile a bit, and I sliced him with a Rage broadhead at 5 steps as he was pecking B-mobile. After that, another gobbler came in and worked up to the dekes before we could get out of the blind. When he left, we sneaked out, and got my bird and the dekes and left. I planned to come back the next morning.

My bow bird only had about an 8” beard, but he had 1.5” razor spurs. That afternoon, I put writer David Hart in a place I had been seeing some birds and he missed one gobbler, and ended up killing a different bird that came in to 15 yards.

2nd morning had less gobbling as it rained all night, but soon after flydown, a big tom came out in the field. He acted like he was coming in, but then took off running to my right. I soon saw why. 2 more longbeards and a hen had stepped out of the woods, and he didn’t want to fight 2 birds. I made a loud yelp, and the 2 longbeards looked my way, saw B-mobile and forgot their hen. They came right in and aggressive purred, etc. One bird was at 3 steps and my cameraman moved and was spotted. The birds trotted out and were leaving, so I picked up the TC and dropped the back bird at 15 steps. He had a 10” beard and 1.25” spurs. Again, I got pinned in the blind, and over the next 2.5 hours, I had a ridiculous amount of gobblers come in to my setup - all within 10 yards.

I had put writer Bob Humphrey at the far corner of my pasture about a mile away - and at 10:30 after working him for 1 solid hour, Bob killed a nice mature bird. So when we got back at lunch, the only guy left without a bird was Eddie Stevenson from Remington Ammunition. I told Eddie to grab a bite to eat and I would take him to my blind. I kidded him that he would be back with a bird by 2PM. He was in my blind about 10 minutes when 3 gobblers (who came in on me that morning) showed and marched right into his dekes. One strutted and whipped up on B-Mobile, and Eddie gave him a dirt nap at 20 steps. It was 1:15 and he was back to camp before 2PM! SO we got all 5 of our birds by lunch on the second day. The birds gobbled and worked well. It was a rare treat to have everyone on good birds that acted like turkeys should. It was a great hunt for Osceolas. If you want to go - drop me an e-mail. The guy that manages the ranch I was hunting is about to get 2 more big leases, and he will have lots of birds. I love this hunt because it is do it yourself with no guides, etc. A nice house, good property and that’s it.