The Florida woods that my family has called home for six generations are the closest thing the United States has to a jungle. They’re hot, wet, muggy, and full of everything that likes to bite—from mosquitoes, to water moccasins, rattlesnakes, gators and everything in between.
Of the four North American subspecies of turkey, I think that the Osceola is bar none the most elusive and hardest to hunt. For one reason, our terrain is so thick with so much cover for predators that our birds seem to always be on edge. Live oak, cypress, sabal palm, wild fern and hanging moss give turkeys and the animals that prey on them a lot of places to hide.
Our birds, for the most part, do not talk or gobble a lot. Therefore, we generally use a soft call with a less is more calling approach. We get folks from the west or up north that are used to hunting other turkey subspecies, and their tendency is to call too loud and too often.
This particular call is a soft purr box that my grandfather handed down to me. It has a particular volume and tone that makes it a lot of fun to work—a unique soft, soft sound that I’ve been unable to duplicate with any other call. It’s the non-aggressive purr of contentment that turkeys make when feeding.
Because Osceolas don’t gobble a lot, a lot of times hunters will give up on the hunt prematurely. Just because that turkey stops answering doesn’t mean he isn’t still coming. The more challenging a hunt is, the more rewarding it is when you do kill one.
I feel so fortunate to have all this in my backyard and to have grown up learning the place and the skills to hunt and fish it. Now, as founder of the hunting and fishing lodge and guide service, Florida Outdoor Experience, I’m lucky to have the opportunity to watch people experience the real wild Florida. I love helping people check things off their bucket list, whether that’s taking their first Osceola turkey or catching a tarpon on the fly.
