Osceola Turkeys with William Sullivan on the Lands
of General Van Fleet
Hunting with the Right Stuff
 Editor’s
Note: William Sullivan, president of the Florida chapter
of the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF), has hunted
turkeys in Florida all his life. During the first of
March in 2007, I hunted with him on property formerly
owned by General Van Fleet, a general during the Korean
War, who entertained most of the generals from the Korean
and the Vietnam wars on this property. Too, the lodge
on this property has been used by the Queen of England,
President Eisenhower, the President of Korea and many
other national and international dignitaries.
We were hunting a field and set up a stand with a big
pasture in front of us. We arrived at our stand site
before daylight. As the first rays of light announced
the presence of the coming day, we heard hens tree calling,
yelping and clucking. We also heard two gobblers screaming
right behind us. “We’re pretty much underneath
those turkeys,” William Sullivan, a 35-year veteran
of hunting Florida’s Osceola turkeys, explains.
We also heard a turkey gobble off in the distance to
our right.
When the turkeys finally flew from the roost, instead
of pitching down in the open field in front of us, they
pitched out to a field behind us. I was ready to chase
the gobblers we’d heard at daylight, but Sullivan
said, “Let’s sit still awhile and see what
happens.” In less than 20 minutes, we heard the
gobbler to our right coming to us as Sullivan called
to him. Although we had a decoy out, the gobbler never
spotted it.  He
moved slowly and deliberately down the edge of the field,
stopping to gobble and strut. Sullivan kept on calling.
As the turkey got closer, he knew he should’ve
seen a hen, especially one that was calling as much
as this hen was calling to him. When he was at 40 yards
and still hadn’t seen his sweetheart, he turned
off the edge of the field and started into the woods.
“I’m gonna have to take him,” I said.
I’d patterned my Thompson/Center .20-gauge Encore
at 40 yards, and the Winchester 20-gauge Xtended Range
HD (High Density) No. 5 shells, I knew I could make
the shot. I was also using the Hunter’s Specialties
V-Pod Shooting Stick that attaches to the barrel of
your gun, holding the gun in place and giving a solid
rest when shooting. When the turkey stuck his head up,
I squeezed the trigger and the big bird folded.
Now, this wouldn’t have been a very difficult
shot for a .12-gauge, 3-inch magnum, but when you consider
I was shooting a .20-gauge, most hunters don’t
believe a small, lightweight .20-gauge effectively can
take turkeys at that range. However, I had all the right
stuff. I was using the Hunter’s Specialties Undertaker
High Density Ported Choke Tube, the Winchester .20-gauge
Xtended Range HD No. 5 shells, the V-Pod Shooting Stick
and the very-accurate Thompson/Center .20-gauge rifle.
I also wore the Hunter’s Specialties’ Sportsmen’s
Utility Vest with two new features – a Gun-Stock
Buddy, a loop that snaps onto the vest and holds your
gun up as it rests in the V-Pod.  Then
you can use your hands to operate a friction calls,
or just relax comfortably without having to hold up
the gun. The folding seat in the back of this deluxe
vest has an air-cushion seat on the bottom and a back
rest, allowing you to pull the back forward to give
your back better support, even if you’re not leaning
up against a tree. I know already I’ll be using
this vest for squirrel hunting, turkey hunting and any
other type of hunting where I need to carry equipment
and want a comfortable seat. When all of this equipment
was combined with the lightweight, easy-to-handle, deadly
Thompson/Center .20-gauge Encore, I had extremely-efficient
hunting aids that made this turkey hunt comfortable
and fun. Every piece of my equipment was designed for
taking turkeys, and the test of the equipment came when
I squeezed the trigger, and the bird went down. The
Winchester Xtended Range shells, a non-toxic shot, gives
you get better pattern and density than you’ll
have do with lead. Shooting those Hunter’s Specialties’
Undertaker Ported Choke Tubes with these shells drastically
increases the density of your shot pattern, especially
out to 40 yards.
Sullivan called in the turkey with the Hunter’s
Specialties Split V II, the Slate Witch Call and the
360 Yelper. “I mainly call with the Slate glass
call, because not only can I call loudly with it, but
I also can call softly,” Sullivan says. “I
can’t control the volume of the calling with my
mouth nearly as well as I can with the glass call. That
turkey was coming in so fast and so close that I really
wanted to call to him softly. I’d heard the hens
in the tree behind us, and even when they came down,
they weren’t calling loudly.
One of the secrets to calling turkeys is to imitate
the calling of the turkeys in the area. I called to
that turkey so much because I wanted to get him fired-up
and interested in coming to us. But, mainly, I wanted
him to see that decoy, which he never really did. Many
times, when you see a turkey coming to you, you may
want to stop calling. However, with this particular
turkey, I noticed that the more I called, the more he
kept moving toward us.
I think this turkey was a whipped-off turkey. By that
I mean, he wasn’t roosted with the other two gobblers,
and he sure wasn’t roosted close to the hens.
The other two gobblers probably had whipped him and
forced him to stay away from them and their hens. So,
when he heard a hen that had apparently strayed from
the rest of the flock, he wanted to get to her quickly
before the other gobblers came and beat him up. He’d
probably heard the other turkeys that were roosted right
by us gobble and heard the hens call, so when he heard
a hen that didn’t go with the flock but instead
stayed at the roost site, he thought he had an easy
date.”
To hunt with William Sullivan, you can write him at
2830 Blackwater Oaks Dr., Mulberry, Florida 33860, or
call him at home (863) 425-6104, or on his cell at (863)
640-1395, or you can email him at wesnwtf@aol.com.
To learn more about Hunter’s Specialties top-quality
turkey-hunting products, visit www.hunterspec.com.
For more information on Thompson Center’s fine
guns, go to www.tcarms.com.
Tomorrow: Hunting with a General
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