Florida Outdoors Hunting & Fishing Forums - FOHAF.COM

nacho grande wrote:if going for a slam, how would a hybrid place(or not at all?) and are we gonna be allowed to use 22 lr's or 22 mags, I hope?

If its on one side of the line, its an eastern. If its on the other side, its an Osceola. A hybrid is a generalized term for birds sharing both characteristics.

Ive seen pictures of birds killed in S carolina that looked like they came out of the Everglades

I dont think you can use rifles at all for turkeys this year. Im not trying to ruffle feathers or make any enemies but turkey hunting is about calling them in and tricking them not sniping them with a rifle. You can buy turkey breast in the store way cheaper but you cant buy the experience of him gobbling in your face and drumming, while you have convinced him to do something nature has told him hes not supposed to do. Everybody owes it to themselves to try spring turkey hunting. When you get a bird gobbling in a swamp or river bottom the sounds are absolutely addicting and in my opinion nothing else in hunting can come close to comparing.

Going into my 4th year of chasing thunderchickens without having been able to close the deal so far. I've come close a few times and can honestly say that when they're going off and you can get them to come to you it is very addicting. I think I actually get more anxious as we get close to turkey season than I do to deer season.

DONY1 wrote:Going into my 4th year of chasing thunderchickens without having been able to close the deal so far. I've come close a few times and can honestly say that when they're going off and you can get them to come to you it is very addicting. I think I actually get more anxious as we get close to turkey season than I do to deer season.

For me, I think its the fact that you are interactive with the animal. As opposed to deer hunting where you are incognito from them.
When a turkey hunt is on, there is no better adrenalin rush. However when its not on, it can be boring

Iluv2hunt wrote:

DONY1 wrote:Going into my 4th year of chasing thunderchickens without having been able to close the deal so far. I've come close a few times and can honestly say that when they're going off and you can get them to come to you it is very addicting. I think I actually get more anxious as we get close to turkey season than I do to deer season.

For me, I think its the fact that you are interactive with the animal. As opposed to deer hunting where you are incognito from them.
When a turkey hunt is on, there is no better adrenalin rush. However when its not on, it can be boring

That's definitely a big part of the rush being able to try to fool them to come to you. I happen to really like walking through the woods so when they're not talking I just go on a walkabout and call every 300 yds. or so.

thanks for the info. if FL is gonna make it illegal on wma's why not just do it for the whole state, and make things a little less confusing. I certainly have no problem as the shotgun would be my 1st choice for turkey hunting, but there have been a few occasions when sitting in a stand waiting for hogs with a 22 mag I'd see turkey and was tempted, but didn't want to blow my cover. I've never shot one with anything other than a 12 ga and wouldn't want to use anything larger than a 22 mag anyway.my exp is with easterns and it seems these southern birds are a lot more reluctant to come into the open than the easterns were. a bird in the brush with the body covered by brush and the head sticking up like a telescope bobbing and weaving would make a more difficult target with a rifle than shotgun anyway (if strictly going for the head shot only). and yes talking back and forth with a tom or several is quite an experience. one time I lured a giant tom, a few smaller jakes and a couple of hens from one side of a valley to the other, (crossing a stream, 2 fences and a road) by belly crawling for a couple hundred yards holding a decoy on a stake out in front of me (quite a sight for someone my size, must have looked incredibly funny, but it worked). I'm looking forward to my 1st Osceola and ending my benelli curse. ( I usually always got one with the m-berg mdl 500 with 6's, but nothing since switching to a 3 1/2" benelli, rolled one at app 40 yds, it got up and lit on a limb, I knocked it off the limb with the second shot and it still managed to run away. and yes I would never shoot at a roosted bird, but it was already hit once. sorry for the long/rambling post. and good luck this season.

Personally, most of the upper part of the state is pot luck on what you're going to get.

This bird was killed approximately 5 miles from Lanark Village this year. You can't tell me he's not an Osceola...

Osceola from Orange county on the left and an Eastern from Hamilton county on the right. Definitely a difference in these two.