Editor’s Note: Osceola turkey season arrives earlier than any of the other turkey hunts in the U.S.   These birds are limited to Florida – generally from central Florida to the southernmost tip of the Florida peninsula. Any turkey taken in the counties of Dixie, Gilchrist, Alachua, Union, Bradford, Clay and Duval is considered by the National Wild Turkey Federation and the Florida Wildlife Commission to be an Osceola subspecies. Florida’s 2024 turkey season opens March 2 and runs through April 7 on lands outside the WMA system. North of State Route 70, spring turkey season opens March 16 and continues through April 21. Keith Kelly, the general manager of Dee Dot Timberlands throughout the state of Florida, hunts two different areas of Florida for Osceola turkeys.

According to Kelly, “Typically, I hunt in the north Florida region that I call home with its mostly flat woods, timberlands and a few open pastures but mainly woods. In south Florida, I hunt down around Lake Okeechobee. There I hunt more cattle pastures, orange groves, open areas, and places with cabbage palms and oak trees known as hammocks where you see mostly field turkeys. South Florida has much-more open ground than north Florida. North Florida homes Osceolas and intergrades, which are Osceolas that have bred with Eastern turkeys. But in south Florida, those turkeys are considered true Osceolas.

“The true Osceola is a very-dark-colored turkey with very-long legs. The Osceola don’t usually weigh as much as the Easterns, Rio Grandes and/or Merriam’s turkeys do. You can tell the difference in the birds by the number of solid-white bands in their wing feathers. An Eastern turkey’s wing has solid-white bands. In the Osceola turkey, those bands either will be broken or nonexistent sometimes. That’s what makes the Osceola subspecies look so-much darker than other turkeys.

“The Osceola turkey got its name from Chief Osceola, the head of a tribe of Native Americans who lived from central to south Florida. Myth has it the Seminole Indians thought he was a ghost turkey because oftentimes he would appear in cemeteries and then vanish.

“The Osceola turkey lives mainly in central and south Florida with its open ground like cattle pastures, orange groves, some oak hammocks and what’s known as cabbage hammocks that have cabbage palms growing in those oak hammocks. Some palmettos live down there, but not nearly as many as we have in north Florida.

“When you’re hunting an Osceola turkey, you’re hunting primarily field turkeys. There’s not many woodlots or oak hammocks in south Florida, so the Osceola turkeys are limited to certain places where there are trees big enough in which to roost. So, locating these turkeys on the roost is somewhat easier than finding Eastern turkeys, because there’s not much habitat in which they can roost. Often Osceolas will pitch-down right under the tree where they’re roosting, or they’ll pitch-down right into an open field. These turkeys spend a lot of time out in open fields bugging. Because generally cattle are out in most of these fields, Osceolas will eat the whole grain in the cow manure.”

Looking for more content? Check out our YouTube channel and watch “The Hung-up Turkey with Eddie Salter” by John E. Phillips.

Check out John E. Phillips’ 12th book: “Turkeys: Today’s Tactics for Longbeards Tomorrow“

Expert Guidebooks on Turkey Hunting: Best Sellers

Turkey Hunting Tactics
This turkey hunting audiobook has entertaining chapters like: “How to Miss a Turkey”, “Hunting with a Guide”, and “The Turkey and the New York Lady”.

You’ll learn about all the subspecies of turkey across North America, how to use a turkey call, how to scout before turkey season, how to find a turkey to hunt, and what hunting gear you’ll need to put the odds in your favor to take a wily gobbler.

VERSIONS: AUDIBLE, KINDLE & PRINT

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How to Hunt Turkeys with World Champion Preston Pittman
You easily can take a turkey if you don’t make any mistakes, but you have to know what the deadly sins of turkey hunting are to keep you from making those mistakes. If you understand how to hunt a turkey, you’re far more likely to take a gobbler than if you just know how to call a turkey.

Of course, calling is important, and if you want to learn to call a turkey, Preston Pittman will teach you how to call turkeys with box calls, friction calls, diaphragm calls, and other turkey sounds.

You’ll also learn why Preston Pittman once put turkey manure all over his body to kill a tough tom.

When you have turkeys that strut and drum in the middle of a field, when you know there’s no way to get close enough to get a shot, Pittman will show you some weird tactics that have worked for him to help you hunt tough ole toms.

But the main thing you’ll learn in this book is how to become the turkey.

Using what he’s learned while hunting wild turkeys, he’s also become a master woodsman who can take most game, regardless of where he hunts. To learn more secrets about how to be a turkey hunter from one of the world champions of the sport, this turkey-hunting book with Preston Pittman is a must.

VERSIONS: AUDIBLE, KINDLE & PRINT

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The Turkey Hunting Guides’ Bible
The quickest way to learn how to turkey hunt successfully is to either hunt with a turkey hunter with years of experience or a turkey-hunting guide. These two types of turkey hunters have solved most of the problems turkey hunters ever will face. 

Just as one size of shoes won’t fit every person, one style of turkey hunting doesn’t fit each hunter.  Each turkey-hunting guide interviewed for this book has his own style of calling, hunting, and outsmarting turkeys.  

While listening to this book, make a list of the new information you’ve learned, take that list with you during turkey season, and try some of the new tactics. Then you’ll become a more versatile turkey hunter and prove the wisdom from The Turkey Hunting Guides’ Bible.   

VERSIONS: AUDIBLE, KINDLE & PRINT

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Outdoor Life’s Complete Turkey Hunting (2nd Edition)
This Audible book will help you learn how to call turkeys with two of the nation’s best, longtime and well-known turkey callers, Rob Keck, formerly with the National Wild Turkey Federation, and Lovett Williams, a wildlife biologist who recorded wild turkeys giving the calls that you’ll learn how to make on various types of turkey callers.

VERSIONS: AUDIBLE & KINDLE

Tomorrow: Scouting and Guiding to Osceola Turkeys