WEEKEND LONGBEARDS: PUBLIC LAND ROADTRIPS

 

WEEKEND LONGBEARDS: PUBLIC LAND ROADTRIPS

    

April is upon us and along with baseball, flowers and showers comes possibly the greatest gift of the year.... and that is turkey season. But April is a busy month in the construction industry and coaching high school baseball full-time does not make things any easier on an addicted turkey hunter. The occasional weekend, and specifically Sundays, will be my time to get my fix of running up and down hills chasing gobbling turkeys. For example, a last minute trip to Tennessee is in line for the weekend of April 4 and 5 and I will be getting to spend Easter morning with God up on the top of a hardwood ridge listening to the woods come to life. Online scouting and extensive research is the key to maximizing 2-4 day trips in spots that you have not had time to scout or check out in person. After Tennessee, we will be chasing Maryland gobblers throughout the state and continuing to scout weekday mornings back home in PA (PA and NY do not open until May 1). Most of our early season Maryland weekends will consist of taking off Friday night after work/ practice and hunting Saturday (I will not be able to do this as we have high school practice on Saturday mornings almost all month, so I will be joining the boys on Saturday afternoons most of the month) and Sunday then heading back home Sunday afternoon/ evening. It is certainly a grind but there are sacrifices that must be made to fulfill an addiction. These are sacrifices that only a true turkey hunter would know and although we cover many miles to enjoy the bird we love, it never really feels like we are far from home. 

 

FLORIDA RECAP

 

Florida Recap

Spring is here! We kicked it off with a bang (more than 1... or 2... or 3) during opening week in South Florida. I don't want to give away too much before the videos hit Youtube but it was nothing short of a dream come true for all of us. We walked/ biked over 115 miles in 8 days of hunting and the highs and lows of this trip were incredible to say the least. Between my bike breaking 6 miles deep in the swamp on day 2 and my red dot literally falling off the gun as I am set up on a gobbling bird this was a trip I will never forget. Despite the rough start to the week, by Tuesday we were on gobbling birds and finding excellent sign (fresh gobbler tracks, strut marks, roost trees). We were then able to catch up to a gobbler on Wednesday of Opening week around 7:30 AM and I was (very) fortunate enough to lay the hammer down on my first Osceola. My good buddy Zack was now up to bat to try and kill his first turkey ever. We spent Thursday and Friday hunting hard in the mornings and scouting the afternoons. By this point in the week things were going much more smoothly, and although the hard work did not stop, we were able to enjoy ourselves a bit more in the afternoons and evenings now that we were more comfortable with our knowledge of this spot. We were considering heading home Friday night, however we decided to stick around for Saturday and it was a good thing we did. We went and gave it one last ditch effort at a new spot, hiking 5.5 miles in and ended up having 2 gobbling birds to choose from. We were lucky enough to have an awesome hunt and I DEFINITELY am not going to give away any details on this one. The first Youtube video will be hitting the channel @keystoneroots this week so make sure you check it out if you want to see some hard gobbling, South Florida public land Osceolas (as well as a new hunter try his hand at killing his first gobbler!!). Next time you're thinking about planning a DIY public land turkey hunt make sure to remember that hard work and grinding through the highs and lows will almost certainly pay off in the end. 

         Youtube Channel: Keystone Roots - YouTube

 

DIY OSCEOLA TRIP

 

DIY OSCEOLA TRIP CHECKLIST

Hope this post find everyone doing well amidst the frigid winter across the US. Thankfully spring 2021 is right around the corner and myself and a few buddies have been hard at work planning a DIY Osceola trip for the second week of March. There will be a post or 2 recapping the hunt (Ideally would be daily posts but internet/ service might be spotty) but more importantly some video content of our adventures in the swamp (Youtube Channel is coming)! This is a checklist I put together that we are using to plan our hunt and make sure we are prepared for 8 days truck camping in the Florida backcountry. Hopefully someone else can find this useful for planning a trip of their own someday. We are most definitely looking forward to chasing gobbling Florida longbeards next week!