I was leaving my mid morning stand the other day when I killed the doe and this old boy was in the road.
It's hard to tell just how big he is untill you see my shadow.

These woods I'm hunting continue to impress me.Something new everyday that I go.
Today it was a donky in the woods with a farmer chasing,my hunt was over after that.we got him though.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp7CleZiHr0

What kind of turtle was that? No more than I know about turtles,lookslike a sea turtle, can't really tell. Like I said I don't know my turtles

Looks like a very old Gopher Tortoise.

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/UW048

It's a Gopher and he's been around a while
The armour scales on his legs were bigger than my thumbnails

WOW!!! That really was a big turtle. A lot of good turtle soup and stew there. But I am like you, I let them go as I hate the bother of cleaning them.

They are protected here,but back when my grandma was alive,that ole boy would have been cooter soup

Same here. My mom's dad - a dyed in the wool Cajun -would take a nice turtle over chicken any day. So far as I know Gophers are protected in all of the Gulf states. Alligator snappers now, that's good eating.

I have et' mich snapping turtle! Tastes like chicken!!

Gopher Tortoises .. I looked them up. Rather interesting. Also that would explain why I had no idea what kind of turtle it was. We have mud turtles, snapping turtles, box turtles, water turtles, and soft shell turtles. We do have a turtle season in some areas of the State but they are getting really strict about turtles. When we were littlekids we'd catch snapping turtles in marsh ditches and shallows.Dad would make soup out of them. He used to chew us out for catching them although. He kept telling us we were going to get bit, but we were pretty careful. We'd catch them and carry them back in a box or a garbage can. Also I knew an old fellow that would roast turtle meat over a campfire and it was really good to eat. He rolled that meat is salt and something because it was kind of spicy, but it sure was good to eat.

Turtles all over the world are having trouble
Mostly sea turtles,leatherback specificly.

If they would open a hunting season on them we would make sure they were restored like the wild turkey