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Speaker 1: Welcome to this country life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves

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Speaker 1: from coon hunting to trotlining and just in general country living.

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Speaker 1: I want you to stay a while as I share

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Speaker 1: my experiences in life lessons. This country life is presented

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Speaker 1: by Case Knives from the Store More Studio on Meat

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Speaker 1: Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you the best outdoor podcast that

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Speaker 1: airways have to offer. All right, friends, grab a chair

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Speaker 1: or drop that tailgate. I've got some stores to share

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Speaker 1: the art of turkey hunting. According to a finger painter,

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Speaker 1: when the folks I worked for told me we were

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Speaker 1: going to have a turkey week, I got to wondering

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Speaker 1: where are they going to put it? We already got

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Speaker 1: fifty two at least that's the way we think about

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Speaker 1: it down here. And I just got back from Mississippi

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Speaker 1: from hunting with my brothers of the turkey, and do

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Speaker 1: I have a tail for you? I do have a

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Speaker 1: tail for you. And there ain't no better time to

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Speaker 1: get to talking about it than right now. A wild

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Speaker 1: turkey is a precious thing not to be taken lightly,

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Speaker 1: and my reverence for them is only one generation deep.

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Speaker 1: My father an excellent houndsman, horsemen, fishermen, and Woodsman wasn't

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Speaker 1: a turkey hunter. My passion for turkeys started when I

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Speaker 1: was a young man. I would turn nineteen before I

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Speaker 1: ever had the honor of listening to a gobbler on

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Speaker 1: the roost, hearing him fly down, then strut, drum, and

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Speaker 1: gobble his way into the very fabric of my life.

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Speaker 1: I love chasing a wide variety of critters in a

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Speaker 1: wide variety of ways, but there is something more alluring

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Speaker 1: about chasing turkeys in the spring that goes beyond anything else.

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Speaker 1: It is a primal desire that has no off switch.

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Speaker 1: Colonel Tom Kelly, in his book Tenth Legion in nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy three, said I do not hunt turkeys because I

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Speaker 1: want to. I hunt them because I have to. And

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Speaker 1: from that second week of April back in nineteen eighty five,

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Speaker 1: with my first glimpse of a mature gobbler only seconds old,

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Speaker 1: and before I ever moved my trigger finger into the

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Speaker 1: position to take that turkey's life, I knew that I

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Speaker 1: would do this again and would only stop when regulations

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Speaker 1: over my health prevented it. I get asked often what

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Speaker 1: my favorite thing to hunt is, and talk about all

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Speaker 1: of the different things that I enjoy and how I

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Speaker 1: enjoy doing them. But the ultimate answer will always be

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Speaker 1: spring turkey hunting in the South. I'll take hardwood flats

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Speaker 1: and cypress, sloughs and mosquitoes, snakes, gators, hogs and swamps,

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Speaker 1: over hills, rocks and mountain vistas any day of the week,

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Speaker 1: and twice on Sunday. I can no more give you

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Speaker 1: an explanation for this obsession than I can give you

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Speaker 1: a reason for it, but it is real and everlasting.

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Speaker 1: Last week I was in Mississippi at the invitation of

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Speaker 1: my friend and colleague, Lake Pickle. Now Lake hosts our

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Speaker 1: Backwoods University podcast, along with an independent podcast called Speak

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Speaker 1: the Language with our mutual friend and brother of the Woods,

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Speaker 1: Jordan Blissit. I highly encourage anyone who likes good, practical

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Speaker 1: and interesting content to follow them. Both these boys are

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Speaker 1: veteran turkey hunters and cinematographers from back when they used

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Speaker 1: to follow mister will Primos around while he was gathering

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Speaker 1: up wild groceries from the woods. Lake would be running

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Speaker 1: the camera for me, and most of my hunts would

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Speaker 1: be on a piece of ground that Jordan manages. I

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Speaker 1: stayed at Lake's house in the come of his wife

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Speaker 1: Lacy in their two labs, Knocks and Fern, and the

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Speaker 1: alarm would ring at four point thirty every morning, and

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Speaker 1: I don't think it ever caught me asleep. It was

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Speaker 1: the first hunt of the year and I couldn't wait

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Speaker 1: to get started. The first place we hunted was at

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Speaker 1: our friend Keith Polk's place. I hunted there a couple

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Speaker 1: of years ago, and I sat through a tense morning

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Speaker 1: of back and forth calling and gobling between us and

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Speaker 1: a squad of hens and three gobblers. It was a

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Speaker 1: chaotic morning of moving here and there and encountering the

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Speaker 1: moves the turkeys were unknowingly subjecting us to. People described

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Speaker 1: turkey hunting as a chess match, but it's it's not

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Speaker 1: much of a game when there's only one side playing.

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Speaker 1: The turkey is just going about his life. He has

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Speaker 1: three things on his mind in the spring, and the

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Speaker 1: rest of the year only two. But that morning two

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Speaker 1: years ago, the third thing that had him gobbling nearly

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Speaker 1: every racket in the woods owl's, crows, woodpeckers, songbirds. It

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Speaker 1: didn't matter. He was also responding to Keith's, Jordan's and

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Speaker 1: my calling. It had taken a while, but we'd finally

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Speaker 1: gotten within one hundred and fifty yards of them, and

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Speaker 1: listening to them duke it out and have a goblin

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Speaker 1: contest with our hearts full of hope as we determined

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Speaker 1: he was finally making his way in our direction. Our

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Speaker 1: morning of zigging and zagging, whispering plans and looking at

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Speaker 1: it on ax trying to figure out our next move

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Speaker 1: was finally fixing to pay off. When boom, the neighbors

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Speaker 1: shot him as he skirted off Keith's property and walked

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Speaker 1: in his lap. Apparently he'd been calling at him too

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Speaker 1: that morning, and neither one of us knew the other

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Speaker 1: was hunting. We never got close to the line, and

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Speaker 1: he didn't either. He was just in a better spot

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Speaker 1: than we were in fortune favored him and respecting each

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Speaker 1: other's property is the only way that worked out. It

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Speaker 1: was a good thing to see and be a part of,

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Speaker 1: even though I got the short end of the stick

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Speaker 1: that morning. Congratulations Keith's neighbor. But I hope you beat

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Speaker 1: in the bed that night. That hunt was two years ago,

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Speaker 1: and this morning we were standing over there. But there

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Speaker 1: were three things different than the last one. Lake was

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Speaker 1: there running the camera instead of Jordan. It was thirty

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Speaker 1: degrees and we weren't going to hear that particular turkey

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Speaker 1: gobble at daybreak. Actually, we weren't going to hear any

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Speaker 1: turkey's gobbling at Keith's place that morning. We heard one

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Speaker 1: way off the property, but he only gobbled a couple times.

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Speaker 1: It was cold, I was cold, we were all cold,

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Speaker 1: but we chose a good spot to sit down and

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Speaker 1: listen for a bit and do some calling. Because where

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Speaker 1: you're in a place where you know there's turkeys, you

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Speaker 1: have to give them every chance to reveal where they

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Speaker 1: are on their own. Plus you don't just want to

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Speaker 1: go gallivant all over the creation of bump turkeys that

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Speaker 1: were either coming to you or in your general vicinity.

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Speaker 1: We all picked our spot, got it comfortable, and started

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Speaker 1: doing a little call. We got to yelp in response

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Speaker 1: from directly behind us, and after listening to it getting closer,

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Speaker 1: we decided we should spend around and face the direction

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Speaker 1: in case of gobbler was trailing along with that hen,

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Speaker 1: and one time before we saw it, I thought it

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Speaker 1: might be a jake, and I wish I would have

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Speaker 1: set it out loud lake because when he finally stepped

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Speaker 1: out into the open and revealed himself as a nine

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Speaker 1: month old baby boy. I would have looked like a

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Speaker 1: real turkey hunting genius. Then, for the next fifteen minutes,

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Speaker 1: that clown walked around in circles between us and Keith,

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Speaker 1: close enough for me to hit him with a pool Q,

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Speaker 1: clucking with every breath looking for the hen he heard

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Speaker 1: but couldn't find. Finally, he and his IQ rating up

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Speaker 1: somewhere around the ball. Turnip walked away free of us

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Speaker 1: to get up a better spot. By forty five, we'd

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Speaker 1: walk less than one hundred and fifty yards from where

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Speaker 1: we called in that jake and bumped two hens off

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Speaker 1: the roost. Apparently nobody wanted to get out of bed

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Speaker 1: that morning except meet Keith and Lake in that feathered

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Speaker 1: bowl Turnip we could just run into. We decided to

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Speaker 1: make a bold move. Keith went to work, and Lake

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Speaker 1: and I headed the Jordan's spot about forty five minutes away.

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Speaker 1: After a pit stop for fuel and a convenience store

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Speaker 1: fried pork chop, we got the Jordan's place around eleven,

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Speaker 1: where we spied a couple of hens about a quarter

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Speaker 1: mile away on a pire line. Right away we saw

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Speaker 1: them any of the woods and quickly made a plan

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Speaker 1: to loop around in front of them and the off

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Speaker 1: chance there was a gobbler walking with him, which is

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Speaker 1: a good plan this time of year especially. We hoofed

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Speaker 1: it down the road. We entered the woods and found

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Speaker 1: a spot to sit and settled in to spend some time.

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Speaker 1: We designated twelve thirty as I get up and try

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Speaker 1: another spot time. Now, that's my least favorite way to

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Speaker 1: hunt turkeys. It's basically deer hunting them, and that just

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Speaker 1: ain't how I like to do it. Since the first

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Speaker 1: time I saw will Primos get up and moved after

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Speaker 1: he heard a turkey gobble, I knew running and gunning

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Speaker 1: was the style of turkey hunting that I am. I

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Speaker 1: told Lakies. We sat there whispering back and forth between

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Speaker 1: calling and listening for a response. That I remembered seeing

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Speaker 1: the first Premost video on VHS and watching it at

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Speaker 1: my brother Tim's house with his brother in law Joe

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Speaker 1: Bryant and his father in law, mister Billy Bryant. Now

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Speaker 1: mister Bryant was and remains to this day, a mentor

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Speaker 1: not only in the Turkey woods, to me, but to

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Speaker 1: everyone that knows him how a man should live his life,

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Speaker 1: but running, gunning, calling loud and often wasn't in mister

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Speaker 1: Bryant's playbook. He grew up when turkeys were scarce. It

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Speaker 1: was more or less a Southern doctrine of yelping three

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Speaker 1: times on a wingbone or a box call, and sitting

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Speaker 1: still until the gobbler showed himself or or it got dark.

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Speaker 1: Maybe not to that extreme, but you didn't get up

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Speaker 1: and move and move on a goblin turkey, and that

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Speaker 1: never happened. His philosophy was, if he answered you, he

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Speaker 1: was more than likely at some point during the day

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Speaker 1: gonna come see you if you were still there. Now,

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Speaker 1: I can't tell you how many times over the past

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Speaker 1: forty one years that I've gotten up and moved after

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Speaker 1: a turkey went silent, only to have them gobble in

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Speaker 1: that spot I left from, or have them roosted in

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Speaker 1: that spot the next morning. Now, I bet that's happened

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Speaker 1: to some of y'all too. And at twelve thirty I

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Speaker 1: asked Lake if he wanted to get some support and

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Speaker 1: footage and cutaways or b roll is what we call it,

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Speaker 1: before we moved. He popped up with his camera and

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Speaker 1: started getting shots from different angles and we'd been sitting

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Speaker 1: there in total stillness for an hour and a half

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Speaker 1: at this point, just calling occasionally. He moved out in

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Speaker 1: front of me about ten yards, and I picked up

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Speaker 1: a pot call and started yelping and clucking, And as

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Speaker 1: he was filming a turkey gobble no more than one

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Speaker 1: hundred and twenty yards away, Blake's eyeballs looked like they

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Speaker 1: were on stems when they bugged out of his head

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Speaker 1: as he scrambled to get back in position to film.

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Speaker 1: I called again once Slake was back in his spot,

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Speaker 1: and the gobbler cut me off. Twelve thirty five and

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Speaker 1: I had a turkey answering me. Now, by every rule

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Speaker 1: in the book, that turkey was a dead man walking

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Speaker 1: more times than not. If I get a turkey to

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Speaker 1: answer in the middle of the day and cut me off,

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Speaker 1: that joker is as dumb his corn bread. We figured

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Speaker 1: him at eighty yards or less the last time he

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Speaker 1: answered me, he'd cut the distance by a third. And

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Speaker 1: even though the hardwood flat we were sitting there was

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Speaker 1: pretty open, there was a tangle of brush and briars

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Speaker 1: about forty yards in front of him. He was going

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Speaker 1: to have to pick a side to go on right,

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Speaker 1: and the natural lady of the land had him stepping

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Speaker 1: out to my right, and when he did, he was

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Speaker 1: going to be close enough to shoot. On his approach.

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Speaker 1: There was no way he was going to see us.

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Speaker 1: With the short privet bushes leafed out and staggered between

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Speaker 1: us and him, we were absolutely invisible. We knew that

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Speaker 1: for a fact because Lake had just sat it in

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Speaker 1: that spot between us filming and saw it for himself,

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Speaker 1: and what we guessed him to be less than sixty

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Speaker 1: yards We started hearing drumming. Lake whispered, he's drumming, and

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Speaker 1: I nodded my head and acknowledge me and tried to

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Speaker 1: calm my breathing down. This joker was fixing to step

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Speaker 1: out to our left instead of the right, But it

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Speaker 1: didn't matter either way. I was sutarting to push his

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Speaker 1: nose in with a tablespoon full of number ten tess.

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Speaker 1: Any second now, I'd see him step from the shadows

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Speaker 1: into the sunlight, and it would be the last time

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Speaker 1: he'd have to squint his eyes looking into the sun.

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Speaker 1: Second now, any minute now, he'd step from the darkness

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Speaker 1: of the leafed over hardwood flat. Any minute now, Any

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Speaker 1: minute now, for the love of humanity? Where'd he go?

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Speaker 1: Immediately you replay the scenario in your mind, wondering what

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Speaker 1: you did wrong? At least I do, no matter what happens.

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Speaker 1: Both Lake and I were looking at each other like

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Speaker 1: a calf looks at a new gate. What just happened?

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Speaker 1: No putting, no running off, no nothing, just silence. Lake

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Speaker 1: had him coursed pretty well by hearing him drum as

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Speaker 1: he walked away. I missed it, but I knew he

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Speaker 1: knew what he was talking about, so we had to

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Speaker 1: plan to get around in front of him. Off we

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Speaker 1: went back toward the truck. We made a big loop

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Speaker 1: and got set up on a food plot, one of

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Speaker 1: many that Jordan has put in since taking over that

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Speaker 1: piece of property, turning it into ground zero for Turkey's deer.

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Speaker 1: And we even heard Quail whistling out there. If he

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Speaker 1: kept going in the general direction Lake had him leaving in,

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Speaker 1: we'd be in a good spot to cut him off.

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Speaker 1: Once we got there. It was a pretty good haul

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Speaker 1: to get around him, but we made it quietly, got

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Speaker 1: settled into a new spot and waited to hear him

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Speaker 1: and see what our next move was gonna be. Well

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Speaker 1: about two and a half hours later, after calling Session

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Speaker 1: nine million, a turkey gobbled, and he was a long

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Speaker 1: ways away, but he answered me nonetheless. We gave him

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Speaker 1: a minute and he gobbled again, and this time he

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Speaker 1: was on the move, and so were we. A quick

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Speaker 1: check of the old an act showed him moving down

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Speaker 1: the edge of a scope of pines into a bigger

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Speaker 1: hardwood flat. The dude was walking towards us and gobbling

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Speaker 1: every so often. Maybe he was coming to turn himself in.

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Speaker 1: He must have heard who was on his trail. We

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Speaker 1: beat feet toward where we thought he was going, and

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Speaker 1: after a couple of hundred yards we were surprised by

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Speaker 1: him again when he gobbled less than one hundred yards away.

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Speaker 1: He had been coming towards us as fast as we

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Speaker 1: had been going towards him. We planted our behinds on

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Speaker 1: the ground before a barncat could lick his, and I

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Speaker 1: gave out a soft yelp, and ah, he answered right back.

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Speaker 1: Then a jake tried to gobble, and then I heard

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Speaker 1: wings slapping, and I knew immediately that there was a

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Speaker 1: fight taking place just out of sight. And once you've

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Speaker 1: heard it before, that sound is unmistakable. We were sitting

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Speaker 1: on the edge of the road. Jordan had planted his

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Speaker 1: one big long food plot to the right with some

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Speaker 1: cover that buffered a pine plantation that had been burned

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Speaker 1: a couple years ago. To our left was an open

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Speaker 1: hardwood flat full of white oak, red oak, and beech trees.

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Speaker 1: We were looking down the food plot road for about

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Speaker 1: two hundred yards before it turned back out of view.

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Speaker 1: All at once, I saw a big turkey with a

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Speaker 1: redhead do a forest gump imitation as he hit the

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Speaker 1: road like he was flying by his mailbox on his

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Speaker 1: cross country run. I could almost hear Jackson Brown play

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Speaker 1: it in the background. Good riddance. The gobbler has beat

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Speaker 1: up to Jake and he's headed for green of pastures.

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Speaker 1: Now there's nothing left to do but uncorked this load

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Speaker 1: of number tens I got from my boys at Rocky

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Speaker 1: Ridge Amo and go put my foot on the reason

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Speaker 1: I'd driven five hours in Mississippi. As soon as he

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Speaker 1: steps out into the open, let me go on and

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Speaker 1: make him gobble one more time, just for fun. I

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Speaker 1: called to him. He didn't answer. I waited nothing. I

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Speaker 1: called again, he didn't answer. This was starting to not

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Speaker 1: be fun. Right where that turkey got scooted out of

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Speaker 1: the woods and down the road a band of four

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Speaker 1: jakes walked out. I was a detective for a long time,

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Speaker 1: but it didn't take a Sherlock Holmes to figure out

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Speaker 1: that jake I saw smoking it down the road like

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Speaker 1: a road runner cartoon wasn't a jake. That was the gobbler.

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Speaker 1: And he was being bullied by that quarteta juvenal delinquents

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Speaker 1: on both times he tried to come into our calls.

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Speaker 1: The first time on the other side of the property,

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Speaker 1: and this time that had just happened. Good night, nurse.

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Speaker 1: Now there wasn't a whole lot to complain about. We'd

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Speaker 1: been on turkeys all day, had come really close twice

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Speaker 1: on filling one's lips full of high speed steel. And

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Speaker 1: I was hunting with my friend, and we were hunting

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Speaker 1: on our friend's land. And like Scarlett O'Haras said, after all,

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Speaker 1: tomorrow is another day. It was another day. And when

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Speaker 1: the sun started turning the Magnoli State sky, Pink Lake

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Speaker 1: and I were standing two hundred and fifty yards from

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Speaker 1: where Jordan had heard that turkey gobble three or four

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Speaker 1: days in a row. But you already know what happened.

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Speaker 1: He gobbled twice, and he was so far away we'd

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Speaker 1: had to call an uber to get to him. Alas,

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Speaker 1: all was not lost for a second. Turkey was goblin

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Speaker 1: on the other side of the property, and although it

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Speaker 1: wasn't that long of a walk to get to him,

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Speaker 1: it's gonna feel like a week before we get there,

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Speaker 1: literally a week like next week. On the next episode, Brent,

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Speaker 1: what a dirty trick extending the turkey hunt for a week.

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Speaker 1: It better be good. Well, it will be good, I promise,

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Speaker 1: at least for someone. Reva insert the foreboding music here,

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Speaker 1: because something that can to skullduggery is afoot. On the

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Speaker 1: next episode. Ooh, that's scary. Hey, don't forget. It's still

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Speaker 1: Turkey Week going on over at store dot themeateater dot

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Speaker 1: com until next week when I finished this turkey hunting saga.

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Speaker 1: This is Brent Reeves signing off. Y'all be careful having

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Speaker 1: done at