MerriamMagician's 2015 Grand Slam

[BOWHUNTER45]

Good job    Have to ask one question ..What's up with the flip flops and standing on the turkeys head 

[trkykilr]

Good job    Have to ask one question ..What's up with the flip flops and standing on the turkeys head 

Forgot my boots and it was 30 degrees

[MerriamMagician]

Our Osceolas

[MtnMuley]

You two don't look as thrilled as I'd be to bag a pair of those.

[jackelope]

Smile guys!! Congratulations. Great looking birds.

[Limhangerslayer]

Smile guys!! Congratulations. Great looking birds.

I'm guessing jet lag and late night Florida hangovers   Nice birds congrats.

[MerriamMagician]

Actually it was just because there were 4 people all taking pics at random times so we didn't know where to look. 

[RadSav]

Did you schedule a gator hunt while you were down there?  I mean, you flew all that way just for a dumb bird

Congratulations!   

[trkykilr]

That's awesome stuff buddy. Now go get you an eastern and let me know if I can help. Out birds in SC are getting right

[flcracker]

Good deal, hope you enjoyed my home state. What WMAs are you hunting in the panhandle? I maybe could find some local info on them as I used to hunt WMAs all over Florida. Good luck and check for ticks!

[bearpaw]

great looking birds, congrats 

[MerriamMagician]

My buddy got his Eastern out of the way with this Northern Florida bird. 

[MerriamMagician]

So heres the story for my Florida Osceola. Last saturday morning we set up on a flock of birds that were roosted near a narrow funnel that connected two fields. It was a foggy morning, humid as heck and the mosquitos were thick. Thank God for Thermacells. The birds only gobbled twice off the roost and we could hear two other birds behind us. I was suprised how quiet the gobble is compared to Merriams and Rios. He was only 150 yards away and I could barely hear his gobbles.

The flock ended up flying down to our left. They flew directly in front of us, but landed out of sight. We cut aggresively, going back and forth between another hen to our right. This got the gobbler fired up, and we could tell he was coming our way. After about 20 minutes we spotted him moving in from the left. He ended up hanging up at 50 yards. At this point he put on a show. He strutted back and forth for a good 10 minutes. Finally, he committed and came strutting right up to the decoy. He walked right past the two hen decoys and straight to the Jake. He brushed up against it and glared down at it, ready to beat up the scoundrel. I never came him a chance to though. I took the 12 yard shot and he went down hard. It was an awesome hunt and I captured the whole thing on film. I couldn't have asked for a better hunt and am thrilled with my bird!!

My buddy took his bird the same day. His hunt was much more grueling. He sat in a blind in the fierce Florida heat and humidity from 6 am till 4:30 pm, when he finally got his bird. Talk about a trooper. His hunt is also filmed and I will post the videos when we return back home.

Meanwhile we are in North Florida now, trying to get one more Eastern. My buddy killed his Eastern last Evening. He set up on a field edge hoping to intercept the birds as they headed back to the roost. It worked perfectly. I did some light calling and brought in a group of three gobblers. Unfortunately, he shot the jake by mistake, but it was still a nice bird. I shot at and missed a big gobbler myself this morning. I had to turn ackwardly to shoot, and missed wide right. We've got three more days to hunt, so hopefully we can get it done!!

[jasnt]

Congrats and good luck on the eastern

[MerriamMagician]

Heres the videos of our hunt, both taken on Saturday the 21st. The first video is my hunt. You can see the birds fly down to the left at about the 1 minute mark. They flew down out of sight and I had thick brush to my left, so I had to leave the camera focused on the decoy. He shows up at the 17 minute mark. The other video is my buddys hunt, who shot his bird out of a ground blind at 4:30 pm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=idng6W-JMSI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=UQ86vc-6nrw