YEKRUT
Well-Known Member
I don't post here much anymore, but I thought some of you might like to read a story I posted on another forum from a hunt I had last weekend down in FL to pass the time until TN opens up. "n2deer" is another forum member from the other site that went with me.
They're not playing either!
Well guys after a year of planning and hours upon hours of internet scouting on other forums and looking at imagery it all finally paid off for us. After going on a guided hunt last year on private land and both filling our tags we devised a plan to go it alone on public land this year and see if we could get it done. This winter when everyone else was deer hunting we were planning to go turkey hunting and entered several quota drawings for WMA's that I had taken a liking to in South Florida. I drew my 4th pick which I will not disclose the name just to keep the competition down in the future. The hunt is for one bird between two people, so in other words you can hunt alone or bring one guest who you must be responsible for at all times. On to the story now.
We left of Thursday at 11:30 headed south on a 14+/- hour drive. We arrived at the WMA we were to hunt at about 2 our time and got some shut eye in the truck for a couple of hours. We spoke to a forestry guy before daylight about the check in/out process, where he had been seeing birds, etc. and headed out to listen. To make a long story short we heard 3 or 4 different gobblers and actually put eyes on 5 or 6 hens that morning withon an hour or so of daylight. We felt good already that we could get it done on this WMA. We went to the campground where we would be staying and checked in, showered, and got a couple more hours of sleep.
Home for two days, roughing it is tough.
We returned to the WMA around 2 our time and did some more scouting which on this particular wma and how it is laid out you can ride and glass a ton of it and the birds really use the roads a lot. While riding around we saw a black bear up a palm tree about 20 yards off the road, don't know what the heck it was doing up there, but it got the heck out of dodge when it spotted us. Later in the evening we spotted 2 male birds before dark standing in a road and devised a plan to kill one of them the next day only knowing that they had red heads at the time through the binocs. We watched them for a good while at a few hundred yards crossing the road and crossing back later in the evening. Google on your phone is a huge help in a situation like this in an unfamiliar area. We determined where we needed to set up the next morning off of the aerials and headed in to get ready for opening day.
I think we both woke up before our alarms went off at 4am and were out the door shortly after 4 on the short drive to the wma. We got in position just about the right time and settled into our gobbler loungers up against a big palm tree about 20-25 yards off of one of the roads.
You can see our set up in this picture at teh base of the palm in the middle. N2deer was sitting on the right in the picture and I was sitting on the left facing the camera.
At good daylight and not knowing exactly where the birds were at but knowing they should be close we both let out a few soft yelps. Maybe after our second or third set of tree talk we got a raspy yelp in return that made both of use look at each other and say "that didn't sound like a hen" By this time we could hear 3 or 4 gobblers hammering away in the distance and were staring to get a little edgy and ready to go after them. We had both relaxed and both let our gun barrels drop while still keeping the stocks on our shoulders while we listened to the birds in the distance when I saw a bird coming out on to the road right in front of me, and another, and another, and another. There were 5 of them at least I told n2deer that they all looked like jakes and I swear as long as I live I will never forget the next words out of his mouth. He said "shoot them mother $%&*^%$" and I layed the wood to the nearest one ending our hunt after only being out of the truck 45 minutes tops.
We agreed about a month ago that we were going to shoot the first legal bird that we could and whoever could shoot it would be the man who cashed in. A years worth of planning, scouting, 1845 miles of driving round trip, several hundred dollars in gas, licenses, and 100 of pms all added up to my first ever big game animal on public land and a great trip with a good friend. I can't wait to get down there next year and let n2deer smoke him one in the same spot.
A few more pics from around the WMA.
They're not playing either!
Well guys after a year of planning and hours upon hours of internet scouting on other forums and looking at imagery it all finally paid off for us. After going on a guided hunt last year on private land and both filling our tags we devised a plan to go it alone on public land this year and see if we could get it done. This winter when everyone else was deer hunting we were planning to go turkey hunting and entered several quota drawings for WMA's that I had taken a liking to in South Florida. I drew my 4th pick which I will not disclose the name just to keep the competition down in the future. The hunt is for one bird between two people, so in other words you can hunt alone or bring one guest who you must be responsible for at all times. On to the story now.
We left of Thursday at 11:30 headed south on a 14+/- hour drive. We arrived at the WMA we were to hunt at about 2 our time and got some shut eye in the truck for a couple of hours. We spoke to a forestry guy before daylight about the check in/out process, where he had been seeing birds, etc. and headed out to listen. To make a long story short we heard 3 or 4 different gobblers and actually put eyes on 5 or 6 hens that morning withon an hour or so of daylight. We felt good already that we could get it done on this WMA. We went to the campground where we would be staying and checked in, showered, and got a couple more hours of sleep.
Home for two days, roughing it is tough.
We returned to the WMA around 2 our time and did some more scouting which on this particular wma and how it is laid out you can ride and glass a ton of it and the birds really use the roads a lot. While riding around we saw a black bear up a palm tree about 20 yards off the road, don't know what the heck it was doing up there, but it got the heck out of dodge when it spotted us. Later in the evening we spotted 2 male birds before dark standing in a road and devised a plan to kill one of them the next day only knowing that they had red heads at the time through the binocs. We watched them for a good while at a few hundred yards crossing the road and crossing back later in the evening. Google on your phone is a huge help in a situation like this in an unfamiliar area. We determined where we needed to set up the next morning off of the aerials and headed in to get ready for opening day.
I think we both woke up before our alarms went off at 4am and were out the door shortly after 4 on the short drive to the wma. We got in position just about the right time and settled into our gobbler loungers up against a big palm tree about 20-25 yards off of one of the roads.
You can see our set up in this picture at teh base of the palm in the middle. N2deer was sitting on the right in the picture and I was sitting on the left facing the camera.
At good daylight and not knowing exactly where the birds were at but knowing they should be close we both let out a few soft yelps. Maybe after our second or third set of tree talk we got a raspy yelp in return that made both of use look at each other and say "that didn't sound like a hen" By this time we could hear 3 or 4 gobblers hammering away in the distance and were staring to get a little edgy and ready to go after them. We had both relaxed and both let our gun barrels drop while still keeping the stocks on our shoulders while we listened to the birds in the distance when I saw a bird coming out on to the road right in front of me, and another, and another, and another. There were 5 of them at least I told n2deer that they all looked like jakes and I swear as long as I live I will never forget the next words out of his mouth. He said "shoot them mother $%&*^%$" and I layed the wood to the nearest one ending our hunt after only being out of the truck 45 minutes tops.
We agreed about a month ago that we were going to shoot the first legal bird that we could and whoever could shoot it would be the man who cashed in. A years worth of planning, scouting, 1845 miles of driving round trip, several hundred dollars in gas, licenses, and 100 of pms all added up to my first ever big game animal on public land and a great trip with a good friend. I can't wait to get down there next year and let n2deer smoke him one in the same spot.
A few more pics from around the WMA.
