BOWHUNT FOR THE FLORIDA OSCEOLA
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Ryan Prince, Mike Pentecost and Sam Huff.

Mike Pentecost & Ryan Prince
Ryan Prince and Mike hunted together and Brett Berry manned the video camera. They took what they knew from the last few hunts and moved to the turkeys travel corridor. They set up by trees to break up their silhouettes at a transition zone where the woods opened up.

It was very hot so they planned to wait for it to cool off. But a crow called in 15 minutes and Ryan heard a Tom gobbles at the crow. Mike called with his  Woodhaven Real Hen box call and in minutes Brett said he saw two turkeys. MIke yelped and clucked again, "trying to get their interest and to let them know we were here.".

MIke saw the gobbler's heads coming toward the decoys. Ryan let the gobblers get closer.

The wind made the decoy flutter and the Tom's back pedaled and started to leave. Ryan saw his opportunity going away and looked for a shop opportunity. Mike cut, hoping to stop them. It worked and they came up to 15 yards. Ryan saw his chance and took it. The longbeard went down. Ryan was ecstatic.

The second gobbler was confused and went herky jerky in the palmettos. Mike grabbed his shotgun and got his bead on the gobbler and shot. They had a Double on two big Florida Oscelolas..

This was Ryan's first Osceola gobbler. Mike said, "It was special to me, two good friends shared  a great day in the woods. I thank David Mills and the rest of the Sting Team and others in camp for making this a special hunt."

Ryan said, "Mike taught me how to turkey hunt 16 years ago. He called up my first longbeard for me and called up my first Osceola. I lack the Merriam's to complete my Grand Slam, I was the only one that heard him gobble, if I hadn't heard that we wouldn't have known he was around."

Sam Huff
Billy Yargus and I have hunted the same gobbler for the last 3 hunts. They were within 60 yards of the gobbler. They had seen him fly down with a bunch of other turkeys but they stayed in he area. By 9:00 they moved closer to the group of turkeys. ON the way Billy saw turkeys and called. Two jakes came up but the longbeard stayed in the back gobbling.

They had been calling aggressively and decided to do switch to soft calling this afternoon. Our plan was to get between where we saw him last night and where he roosted this morning. We sat an hour with no activity.

The wind picked up and Billy used the Woodhaven Real Hen box call and did a series of yelps. Sam heard hens cluck and Billy talked to them. Four hens came in and did excited clucking and Billy did soft purrs and accented some clucks. The four hens stayed several minutes and left.

Five minutes later another hen came to the decoy. Then they heard a mature gobble 80 yards away and Sam waved his cap at the hen to run her off. They didn't want the gobbler to see her. But she wouldn't leave.

The gobbler came up the fence line in the lead of 5 jakes and several hens. In the clutter of turkeys Sam could not tell which was the mature bird. When he struted Sam saw the big fan and kept his eye on him until the other turkeys cleared away. Sam shot and the Tom went 15 yards.

This Osceola longbeard finishes Sam Huff's Grand Slam.

Ryan Prince, Mike Pentecost and Sam Huff with their Florida Osceloa gobblers taken on the second afternoon of the Woodhaven hunt.
 

In Florida we are hunting with David Mills of Zolfo Springs, Florida in Central Florida's Osceola wild turkey country. David is an immediately likable guy and makes you feel at home from the get go.  David has thousands of acres available to hunt Florida Osceolas. He understands this unique species of wild turkey and knows his extensive area like the preverbal back of his hand. David is now part of the Woodhaven Sting Team and is hosting them on this hunt. To contact David about Osceola hunts, bow or shotgun, phone 1-863-990-9087.

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