Florida Osceolas 2011 – The Whole Story

Battling oppressive heat, fire ants, tornado warnings, stampeding cows, trench foot and a curious panther that stalked to within 50 yards of my turkey decoys, were just a few of the exciting highlights of our 2011 Florida Osceola Turkey hunt. A normal man might ponder why any sane individual would subject themselves to this degree of abuse, in pursuit of game animals with the brain the size of an acorn. What they would be missing is the “unique” challenge hunting public lands in Florida presents to sportsmen.

Now you southern boys are going to have to cut this northerner some slack on these next few statements, lest you be invited to go sea ducking with me on the Atlantic in January while temperatures hover around a balmy 20 below zero.

One thing we have certainly well learned from our past two seasons chasing Osceolas, is that the Floridian jungle is like being on a completely different PLANET compared to the boreal forests of Maine. In Florida, even the simple act of sitting down is a complicated by a laundry list of potentially lethal possibilities. Fire ants, poisonous snakes, spiders and a dozen different plants with venomous spikes are just a few of the horrors that await any sportsman lax about where he places his fanny. Added to these pleasures, was this year’s added excitement of the angry free-range devil cows populating Seminole Ranch. This spawn of Satan, we quickly learned, took great pleasure in charging any sleepy turkey hunters who had the audacity to approach field edges in the early morning darkness. Lesson learned, lit headlamps not only attract moths but also 1500 pound cud chewers. Long will be my fond memory of frantically trying to shut off my headlamp, whilst dodging 25 stampeding pissed off cows and attempting to keep my lower intestine from completing an uncontrollable act. All that was heard in the night’s perfect blackness, by my hunting comrades, were the dozens of heavy footfalls and the frantic yelling of a (rabid) maniac yelling WOAH COW!! Good times, good times! BTW, instantly be considered one of my close personal friends by throwing a steak or two on the grill this weekend!

Throw into this season’s mix, of animal encounters, the unpredictable thunder and lightening storms, tornado warnings and hurricane force winds and you have all of the ingredients of a hunt that will eventually have you delusional, thrusting your arms skyward and screaming at the top of your lungs to God in heaven “Is this all you got”! Not that I would ever mentally digress to that degree of complete loss of self-control BUT I have this friend of a friend and that is all I am going to say.

Seminole Ranch is outwardly an awesome place. Huge fields filled with snowy egrets, hawks and yes, even turkeys are sure to impress. As a hunter, it is easy to scout these massive open expanses and think that shooting a turkey would be imminent. Unfortunately, this could not be further from the truth. Seeing turkeys and getting one to within 40 yards are two COMPLETELY different things and public land Osceola toms are very unwilling to come to a call or set-up of decoys, no matter how convincing you think you might be. I am not going to say it won’t happen, only that it is exceedingly difficult.
Hunters have a MUCH better chance at scoring a bird by hunting roads, hiking paths and routes leading to and from roosting and feeding areas (the massive fields). Using the tactic of hunting pinch points, thoroughfares other natural funnels, to your advantage, you limit the areas that a wily tom can escape. If you are lucky, a gobbler may even wander in front of your barrel with no calling or use of decoys. If you think you can accomplish that task, you are getting the idea of what it is like to hunt Osceola turkeys.

My best chances of scoring a bird, were first setting up 300 yards from another hunter who scored, second being surrounded in all directions by gobbling toms and third stalking a watering hole late morning that contained two hens. Each of these events, were they slightly altered or if fate decided to reward rather than punish me, could have potentially allowed me to score a bird. Unfortunately, time and knowledge of the area were ultimately against me and I now need to determine if I try for the Floridian resident Osceola again next season or head to Texas?!?!.

Florida Osceola Turkeys - 2011

The following is a letter my hunting buddy sent to a friend concerning our recent Florida Osceola hunt. It provides a perspective on our trip that in the days to follow, I am certain to embellish with wild stories of panthers, stampeding cows, tornadoes, soggy feet and other associated general mayhem. For more on hunting the Osceola turkey, from our 2010 trip, see HERE.

We have been duped again! However, our 2011 trip chasing Osceolas trumped last years by a long shot. We knew going into the grand slam, Osceolas were the most difficult. We did see toms and jakes daily but man, talk about a bird that will not come to a call! Public land Osceolas are flat out difficult. I would say our best chance was early Sunday (Yes, you can hunt on Sunday's in Florida!) morning when a Floridian named Hank provided us with GPS coordinates that put us smack dab in the middle of 4 gobbling roosted toms. Talk about exciting! Unfortunately, 2 other hunters arrived at the same spot 30 minutes after we were set up and bumped the birds. They ignored our waves and whistles and were simply unwilling to move on to another spot, a forbidden practice and seen as a huge no, no in New England but apparently an accepted practice in the swamps of Florida. I'm sure we will look back and laugh when this is all over but at the current time it is still burning in my soul.

On the plus side, I did NOT see any poisonous snakes. However, my buddy Steve (rabidoutdoorsman) had a Florida panther stalk in on his hen decoys. He finally spooked it at about 50 yards. Talk about a scary walk in the dark the next few mornings! No wonder the turkeys don't gobble when they hit the ground!

Unfortunately, we were given some false info at Bull Creek during our 2010 hunt that spoiled our final 2011 hunting day. In a nutshell, last year we were told that there was a portion of the ranch that was off limits to hunting and of course that is where we were seeing all of the birds. We set up on the edge of it Monday morning and saw toms and jakes on this small parcel all morning but like most Florida toms, they would not come to the call. They would have been easy, easy, easy to set up on in the dark and pattern. We could have hunted that piece the entire time but did not get this info until we checked out Monday. I blame myself for not persisting to find out and really wish the volunteer last year knew the property boundaries better because we would be done.

The flights were smooth both ways. We had a lot of help with the Pastor from my church and another friend from church with the early morning and late evening car rides. I still don't know how you southern folks handle that heat. I'm planting the seed now for our Texas trip, which may happen next spring if we decide to give Florida a rest for a year. It will be determined around December when they do the quota drawing. We had tremendous help this season in Florida through my buddy Ronnie and a great new friend Hank. (Hank BTW is older than I am and still looks like he could saddle up for the Boston marathon tomorrow morning and win)!  We realize that this info pre-hunt was priceless and saved us a ton of time. Hank and Ronnie collectively put us onto birds daily. We also saw over 40 deer, give or take, and 5 hogs. As always, my mom and her husband and my oldest sister really provided loving hospitality and patience for two dubs like Steve (rabidoutdoorsman) and I. An old fraternity brother of ours and his amazing wife, opened their home and their hearts and put us up for a couple of evenings and hosted several spectacular meals.

Florida Osceola Turkeys - The Story

Here I am sitting on South West airlines flight 482 flying out of Orlando Florida and bound for Manchester New Hampshire. Having just completed a trip, three years in the planning, to hunt Osceola turkeys. There were several moments on this particular trip that were exciting, stressful and even potentially dangerous. Ultimately, however, all of these elements came together to form the adventure of a lifetime.

This story starts with a friendship that teeters on the edge of brotherhood and with an idea enriched with solid planning that eventually grew into reality. Paul and I first dreamed up the "idea" of this hunt, while sitting in a duck blind on an early October morning. At the time, we both realized that the chances on our dreams becoming reality were close to zero. Such a foreign idea, to actually believe that in a few short years we could potentially be in the Florida swamps chasing the elusive Osceola.

As the years rapidly flew by, Paul and I exchanged various pieces of literature, web sites, maps, etc. and I began to grow more and more excited that the hunt might actually occur. Perhaps one of the strangest conversations occurred at this time around Florida's extensive list of lethal snakes and assorted creepy crawlies. Paul a hater of all thing "snake", had advised me that I probably should pick-up some form of clothing or boots designed to protect my lower extremities against a potentially life threatening bite. As this conversation slowly sank into my conscious mind, I began to seriously wonder exactly what I had gotten myself into. A few weeks before the hunt, a package arrived from Cabela’s containing my new investments in turkey hunting “southern style”. I had to smile, as I pulled the “Snake Chaps” out of the box. Though at one time timber rattlesnakes made their home in Maine, long ago they evacuated these lands along with the Timber Wolf and Caribou. Hunting with lethal reptiles was and still is a strange concept to this “Yankee”.


Bull Creek Wildlife Management Area sits well within the borders of Osceola county Florida and is the home of the elusive Osceola turkey. Of the 5 subspecies, the Osceola is perhaps the most difficult to hunt, typically a quiet bird, possessing keen eyesight and able to completely disappear in Florida's thick growths of Palmetto. To create more pressure on Paul and I, we were going to pursue these birds on public lands. This meant competing against hunters who were much more familiar with the hunting areas and the habits and habitat of this southern sub species of turkey. Even more chips were stacked against us as we were forced, due to work complications, to hunt the second week of the season in a year having one of the lowest turkey harvest since 1988.

Our only gem of wisdom and assistance came in the form of a long time local and lifelong friend of Paul’s named Ronnie. Ronnie is the type of “southern gentleman” that anyone could take a liking to. His mud thick deep southern accent, friendly demeanor and ability to chain smoke cigars had me immediately impressed. Of course, the fact that he showed up at the airport with a cooler full of beer didn’t hurt to perpetuate his rock star status. In the weeks before our arrival, Ronnie had worked tirelessly to pattern birds in several WMAs and scouted likely intercepts to assist us in working birds. Without his pre-work, we would have wasted several days in just trying to work out the logistics.

To get the jump on the "locals" required starting earlier and walking into remote locations within the wildlife management areas to beat the crowds. This meant a 3-mile walk every morning in complete darkness through a maze of swamps, palmetto thickets, sugar sand, alligators, pygmy rattlesnakes, scorpions and other hazards. This journey was made even more interesting, by a noontime return trip with temps ranging from 80-90 degrees Fahrenheit and high humidity that had these two northern boys, fresh off winter, struggling to maintain their composure. By the end of the adventure, Paul and I would both succumb to the introductory effects of heat exhaustion. It was such an odd feeling to experience; with us being much more familiar with COLD related injury and illness rather than HEAT.

Packing for a trip of this magnitude, with so many unknown variables, ultimately ended up with the accumulation of way too much stuff! Easily the best investment in gear was comprises of snake chaps, bug netting and bug spray. The swamps may not have beat the deep Maine wood in late spring for the number of black flies and mosquitoes BUT it was VERY close. In addition, we saw several pygmy rattlesnakes and other unidentifieds that simply slithered into the grass and disappeared leaving us wondering.

The line between public and private lands is CLEARLY identified. A 6 strand barbed wire fence separates the Bull Creek wildlife management area from the much less pressured Mormon properties. It was simple to see that the tom turkeys had also managed to identify this distinction. Setting up on these fence lines we on several occasions attempted to call birds off the private lands and into shooting range. Unfortunately, all that we managed were several hens and a jake that lacked any type of beard (and trust me we looked that bird over for an ½ hour!). It certainly was an act in frustration to hear birds gobbling all morning only to be unable pull them off their harem of hens.

Over the course of the 4 days, we tried several different hunting techniques including tag team calling, hunting separately, still hunting, spot and stalk and setting for hours at likely intersections. As with any hunting situation, the possibility of not managing to fill your tag is always a very likely possibility and this trip was no exception. By weeks end, neither Paul nor I were ever presented with an ethical shot opportunity.

As with any trip to strange locale, differing wildly from your own geographic location, there is a steep learning curve. Perhaps most valuable for next year would be this initial trip. So with all that we learned and experienced what would we do different next year?

(What we learned next!)