HuntingNet.com Forums - Got to hunt at Chappy's w/ Adrian this weekend.....

I've been talking to Adrian Hare about an Osceola hunt down at Chappy's Outfitters for a few weeks and finally decided to go down and hunt with him. My wife's grandparents live about 2 hrs from there so I turned the trip into a little mini-vacation/turkey hunt. We drove down Thurs. evening and spent the night with her grandparents....

. I headed out about 2:00 Fri. and headed on down to Chappy's. I arrived about 4:30 and meet and greeted with everyone then Adrian and I decided to go out and do a little looking around. It didn't take us long to spot 2 nice longbeards and a plan was hatched for the following morning.
Sat. morning we were greeted by cold and wind. Not ideal gobbling weather by any means... We hung tight till about 8:00 but the birds just weren't talking. We decided it was time to get moving so we put on our walking shoes and headed out. About 8:45 we got some birds to talk, only problem was they were on one side of a dike and we were on the other. We knew the birds were wanting to fly across and get in the field so we got manuevering to where we thought they would cross. Unfortunatly we got there to late as 2 jakes come sailing over head and one decided to light right in the tree above us. He proceeds to bust us and that shuts the big gobblers up on the other side of the dike. I bet there were 5 longbeards in that group too. Needless to say, they didn't fly across. Disappointed, we trekked on. Not to far on down the field we spotted a couple birds. Adrian did a little calling and brought a jake in from 1000 yards if it was an inch. I wasn't ready to shoot a jake yet so he got to live another day. Put our walking shoes back on and walked to somewhere in south Ga. i'm sure.....

. I ain't took a walk like that in a long time. Couldn't get anything to talk, but we did see the random hen here and there, just no boyfriends. About 11:30 it was time to eat so we called it a morning.
After a quick bite we headed back out after 'em. Adrian had another promising spot so we headed out. We got there pretty early and just sat down and did a little calling along. About 5:45 we were calling and I drug out my box and hit a few licks and a gobbler blew our hats off no more than 60 yards away. I threw the box down and got my gun up just in time as he walked into view. Adrian kept him coming with some soft clucks and purrs till he entered a little opening about 30 yards out. Adrian gave him a big cluck and I gave him a big load of Nitro's. He hit the ground and I had my first Osceola. 16 lbs. 8 1/2" beard 1 1/4" spurs. Total time from gobble to boom.... maybe 15 seconds...

I'm sure I was the happiest guy in FL. Bret has a good operation down there and got one heck of a good turkey guide. Adrian, had a great time and look forward to hunting with you again. Tell Bret thanks again for the hunt.

Now for the pics.....