Feathers are flying and turkeys are dying... 2015 Edition

Its that time of year! A lot of my turkey hunting friends were giving me grief about the fact I typically hunt private land. So I decided to draw a quota hunt permit and see what I could do on those tough public land birds.

I was hunting a cut line opening morning and missed one right off the roost. So I licked my wounds and pushed on.

I went down the line about 1/3 mile and set up again where I guestimated I heard one earlier. I set up the Avian X hen deke (the horror!) and figured I'd make a few hour sit out of it.

I grabbed my old Clint Corder Osage slate and gave a few yelps. A few minutes later I spotted this fella sneaking around behind a water filled ditch that paralleled the cut line. He never made a peep. I gave him a few purrs and a yelp. He eventually flew over and landed 50 yards from the deke. He dropped into strut and did his death march. 20 gauge TSS stopped him at 25 yards.

Lowest of lows to highest of highs in 2 hours.

8" beard, 3/4" spurs and 17lbs. Not my best but darn pleased for my first public land Osceola.

Hope your season goes well!