Hunting Turkeys on Public Land in Florida
We got our first Osceola Turkey!
Florida Quota Hunt at Ocala National Forest
By Mike Collins
Harvesting a gobbler on my Ocala National Forest Quota Hunt in Marion County, Florida is a memory I will cherish forever.
The drawing results for the quota hunt were released in December 2023. When I saw that I got picked I started planning immediately.
I e-scouted with OnX Hunt for months and found multiple areas that looked good for turkey hunting. I focused on fresh clear cuts and newly logged terrain that had a good mixture of diverse habitat around them. One caught my eye right away when I saw it on the map. It was an 80-acre logged area that had a lot of dense woods around it. At the back end of the clear cut, it grew narrow, and there was a strip of forest that came together. The little strip of woods separated two different clear cuts. I was confident that it was a place I could have success.
Heading South
I rolled into Ocala on the evening of March 26, after checking into my camper that I rented in Salt Springs, I drove around the unit to get familiar with the roads. On Wednesday, March 27 I got up early with plans to scout all day. I used a bike throughout the day to help me cover some ground. I also felt it would give me a chance to go through different spots to listen for gobbles. I figured if I was in a truck, I wouldn’t be able to hear as well.
I biked over 10 miles and walked about two miles by the end of my scouting day. I ran into a coral snake, found deer, hog, bear and turkey sign, too. I didn’t hear one gobble the entire time I scouted. It was important for me to find out if the birds were gobbling or not. Gobbling, or lack thereof determines how I approach my turkey hunts. Whenever I don’t hear any gobbling, I plan to sit in a place longer. I mentally prepare myself for longer sits, hunts that will require a lot of patience.
A Full Day of Scouting
Scouting paid off. I ended up seeing several hens and observed a gobbler walking in the area I had e-scouted for months. Fired me up because I had assumed that clear cut was attractive to turkeys. After seeing the longbeard in the spot I wanted to hunt, I ended my scouting trip and drove to Salt Springs Pizza for some dinner. There, I continued to study OnX to pinpoint the exact place I wanted to set up.
On the opening morning of the quota hunt I walked about 700 yards to the back edge of the logged acreage. There was so much diverse habitat around it, I wanted to get to where I was going to be close to where things transition from one habitat to the other. I set up my Avian X Lookout Hen decoy and sat down around 7a.m.
Turkeys didn’t make a sound at daybreak. Just as I suspected would happen. It didn’t concern me at all. My plan was to let the birds come to me; I didn’t need them to gobble. I opted to wait until about 8a.m. before making a call. It had begun to rain, and I left all of my rain gear in the truck. I just accepted that I was going to get soaked.
Don’t Let the Weather Stop You
During a small break in the precipitation, I decided to grab my Primos Lil’ Hot Box to run through a sequence of loud yelping. I wanted to use a call that would get sound to carry. I also mixed in some softer calling with my Turkey Hunting USA Ghost Cut diaphragm call. Three hens came into the clearing in front of me. They milled around for a while and eventually moved off into the woods.
Of course, more rain rolled through. The sky opened up and I got drenched, it rained hard for about 10 minutes. When the rain broke again, a turkey gobbled in the distance. It was faint, but I heard it. I grabbed my box call and yelped loudly with it. He gobbled once at my calling. I sat my call back down and got quiet.
An hour passed and the sky cleared up. The sun was beaming down on the big clear cut in front of me. I hit my box call again and mixed in some cutting on the diaphragm call. A hen started yelping in the woods not far from where I was sitting. The longbeard gobbled at the hen a few times. At first, I started to think another hunter had heard the bird and the hunter slipped in between myself and the tom. The hen I heard yelped some more, I could tell it was a real hen. At 12:15 p.m. that hen popped out to my left and she walked across the clear cut and into the dense understory. I had my Mossberg 835 Ulti-mag on my lap already, I went ahead and propped it up on my knees to get ready, just in case.
I had some brush to the left of my setup; I had thought I needed to be ready if a gobbler were to come from that direction. He would be on me quick. Sure enough, a gobbler quickly popped out from behind the brush. He came in silent and strutted right to my decoy. I clicked the safety off and aimed the bead at the end of my gun barrel at the turkeys neck. The sun was illuminating his feathers as he circled the decoy. I squeezed the trigger and the bird just folded.
I took a minute to process how the hunt unfolded. I filled out my paper copy of my harvest log and then checked the bird in on the Hunt and Fish Florida App. I walked over to the gobbler; he had an eight-inch beard and inch long spurs. After taking some pictures, I threw the bird over my shoulder to head back down to the sandy road that led back to where my truck was parked.
This trip back to the truck was a little bit sweeter than usual. I put in hard work, I got rained on, used patience and stuck with my plan. I harvested my first public land Florida gobbler.
Turkey Hunting on Public Land in the Rain
Turkey hunting on public land has grown in popularity. Hunters looking for new experiences and adventures travel long distances to hunt wily ol’ gobblers. As hunting pressure increases, you’ll need to change your mindset, particularly when rain is in the forecast. There are no rain delays during turkey season if you are hunting on public ground.
Turkey hunting in the rain might not sound fun, and it may even feel like a waste of time. Gobblers tend to love brisk, clear mornings. They gobble more on those blue-sky sunny days. Hunters love to hear turkeys gobbling so they hunt hard on those beautiful mornings. Days with increased gobbling activity make it easier to run and gun to find turkeys, which is the preferred method of hunting to most hunters.
Hunting on rainy days is not appealing to most hunters because longbeards won’t gobble as much, and it isn’t fun to get wet. Little to no gobbling makes it hard to run and gun on birds. Hunters will end up having to walk aimlessly to different areas trying to locate birds, or they will have to just hunker down against a tree and play the waiting game. Many hunters will just decide to stay home in those conditions because they don’t like to sit and wait. If you want to increase your hunting opportunities and fill a turkey tag, you need to hunt on rainy days.
Field Edges and Open Areas
Intermittent storms and rain showers pop up all the time during spring turkey season. Whether you’re a repeat visitor on a piece of public land or trying a new area, make sure you are using onX Hunt to find fields, timber cuts, power lines, pipelines and freshly burned habitat. Look for places where these landscapes might transition into one another. These are places turkeys will go to when it’s raining. OnX Hunt is an awesome tool for public land hunters.
Bugs, worms and other creepy crawlers are abundant in these open areas after a rain shower. It becomes a buffet for wild turkeys. Turkeys will come out to grab an easy meal. Rain can make it hard for turkeys to see and hear if they are in the woods. They become a little more vulnerable to predation, so they move to open areas so they can see better. Turkeys will also head to these open areas when there is a break in the rain so they can fluff their feathers to dry off.
Decoy Setup
Rain is in the forecast, and you don’t feel like packing a bunch of gear all over the place. Leave what you can, but don’t leave your hen decoy in the truck. She is your visual effect, the gobbler’s eye candy. Make sure you put the decoy in a place where turkeys will see her right away from any of the directions they could come from. You are building a realistic scenario.
Picture this, it is late morning, the rain has stopped, and the sun has come out. You’ve been calling every 45 minutes or so from your location. A tom has left his morning hens and he’s on the move to hook up with a new hen. He remembers your calling, so he travels to the timber cut you’re in to come find you. Soon as he enters the clearing, he sees your decoy and struts all the way to the end of your gun barrel. Yeah, that’s worth dealing with a little bit of rain on a public land hunt.
Breaks in the Rain
If at any point you get a break in the rain, pull out a box call and run through a sequence of yelps to get some sound to carry. Let the birds know where you are. Listen for gobbles if the sun comes out. Toms will get fired up. When you hear a bird gobble, answer that gobbler with a box call and then put the call down. Go silent for a little while before making another call.
This can help you in multiple different ways. On public dirt, other hunters could potentially hear the same bird that you are hearing. If you are calling a bunch and that tom starts to gobble more, other hunters are going to zero in on his location. You want that gobbler to come find you. He will stop gobbling when he's on the way. Sit tight, he knows where you are, let him come to you.
Patience
If an ol’ longbeard starts to gobble his head off after the sun pops out, don’t lose patience and get up to run and gun. Stay put because you have already let him know where you are hanging out. There is a good chance that bird will come in and you won’t be there anymore if you get up and run off. You also increase the chance of spooking the bird if he is coming to you and you are going to him. This is such a common mistake, don’t be the one to make it. Just stay put.
Toms will visit places where a hunter has called to them, even if it is hours after the hunter has left the field. Patient hunters that commit to sitting longer on public land will harvest a turkey. Good luck and be patient this spring!
Calling with Turkey Hunting USA
The Thunder Taker
Congratulations. Osceola is still left unchecked on my list.