Speaker 1: Welcome to This Country Life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves.
Speaker 1: From coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living.
Speaker 1: I want you to stay a while as I share
Speaker 1: my experiences in life lessons. This Country Life is presented
Speaker 1: by Case Knives on Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you
Speaker 1: the best outdoor podcast the airwaves have to offer. All right, friends,
Speaker 1: grab a chair or drop that tailgate. I've got some
Speaker 1: stories to share. Double your pleasure, Double your fun O.
Speaker 1: On my Turkey episode before we switch gears, the main
Speaker 1: offering is from a hunt this year that was a
Speaker 1: first for me and my friend Toby Neemeyer. It seemed
Speaker 1: like we could do nothing right in the Turkey woods,
Speaker 1: and then we caught a break. I'm gonna tell you
Speaker 1: all about it, but first I'm gonna tell you this story.
Speaker 1: This is from This Country Life listener Brady Johansson. Brady's
Speaker 1: from the great state of Texas and said in this
Speaker 1: one about chasing turkeys in the lone Star state. So,
Speaker 1: in Brady's words, in my voice, here we go. Last year,
Speaker 1: my eight year old son Porter and I had a
Speaker 1: great day in the field for spring turkey season, a
Speaker 1: red letter day. As my dad and his grandfather would say.
Speaker 1: But before I get into everything that happened, I have
Speaker 1: to explain a long standing family tradition that my brother
Speaker 1: and I are committed to upholding, and one that we
Speaker 1: cherish and our family. You must wait until you're ten
Speaker 1: years old to kill your first deer and your first dove.
Speaker 1: The two standard game animals and hunting seasons US Texans
Speaker 1: look forward to every year now leading up to your
Speaker 1: tenth birthday. Starting at about six years old, you're giving
Speaker 1: a b B gun and you get to start tagging
Speaker 1: along with Dad, and if you're the younger brother, you
Speaker 1: get to go with your older brother too. Now, then
Speaker 1: after you have mastered the BB gun and can show
Speaker 1: the basics of gun safety, you're allowed to start shooting
Speaker 1: at twenty two and also a twenty gauge. Then, after
Speaker 1: you show proficiency with these calibers on targets, you advanced
Speaker 1: to start hunting small game rabbits and varmints, squirrels, et cetera.
Speaker 1: This typically happens around eight years old, and then finally
Speaker 1: you graduate to a rifle large enough to kill a deer.
Speaker 1: And our family, we have an old Remington Mom seven
Speaker 1: hundred and six millimeter with the original Weaver scope on
Speaker 1: it that was purchased when Porter's grandfather was ten years
Speaker 1: old in nineteen sixty five. In fact, my fo killed
Speaker 1: his first deer with this gun, as have my brother
Speaker 1: and I and countless other guests and family members. So
Speaker 1: by the time you're ten years old, you've been practicing
Speaker 1: for quite some time with this rifle in anticipation of
Speaker 1: your first hunt. But no matter how good you get,
Speaker 1: you still have to wait all the way until you
Speaker 1: pass your tenth birthday to finally make that first shot
Speaker 1: on a deer. Now back to why all this matters
Speaker 1: for my then eight year old son and I. Last
Speaker 1: year he was showing some advanced proficiency with this rifle
Speaker 1: and shotgun skills were pretty good too. And I should
Speaker 1: also add that he's big, if not bigger than many
Speaker 1: ten year olds I know, and he started asking about
Speaker 1: when he gets to shoot a deer. Now, me having
Speaker 1: already explained the family tradition to him multiple times, he
Speaker 1: already knew the answer, but he is getting quite impatient,
Speaker 1: and to be to be perfectly honest, so am I.
Speaker 1: He is my oldest of three sons, so I'm not
Speaker 1: sure who is excited more for that first deer, him
Speaker 1: or me, but neither of us can hardly stand the weight.
Speaker 1: In response to the extremely hard answer of no to
Speaker 1: the deer hunting, he asked, well, what about pigs? Now,
Speaker 1: we have a little wild hog problem here in Texas
Speaker 1: where we currently hunt, but we did not where my
Speaker 1: brother and I grew up hunting with our dad. So
Speaker 1: this poses a bit of a gray area when it
Speaker 1: comes to the family tradition. Now I think for a moment,
Speaker 1: and I decided that a hog is not considered a
Speaker 1: game animal in Texas, more like a varmit, as there
Speaker 1: is no season or bag limit, or hardly any regulations
Speaker 1: on killing them. So why not? Yeah, yes, son, hogs
Speaker 1: are in play, I answering. His eyes light up. Then
Speaker 1: he asked, what about turkeys? Now I have a real
Speaker 1: problem because my reason for the hog approval, well, I
Speaker 1: did not consider that he would ask about a turkey.
Speaker 1: Once again, growing up, we didn't have turkeys in the
Speaker 1: area my family hunting, so this it never came up.
Speaker 1: There is also one other problem, and that is that
Speaker 1: my father passed away seventeen years ago, so he's not
Speaker 1: here to consult about the rules and the regulations of
Speaker 1: this long standing family tradition. There's no board of directors either,
Speaker 1: but there is my brother and Porter's uncle to consult.
Speaker 1: So I started trying to justify my explanation to him, because,
Speaker 1: to be honest, I wanted to take my son turkey hunting.
Speaker 1: A quick phone called in a discussion that probably sounded
Speaker 1: like a teenager trying to convince his parents let him
Speaker 1: stay out late past curfew, and my brother gives his
Speaker 1: blessings and says, yeah, turkeys can be taken prior to
Speaker 1: the deer at ten. And with that endorsement, it's on now, buddy.
Speaker 1: Opening the morning of Texas's youth turkey season, and we
Speaker 1: head to our first spot and within five minutes of
Speaker 1: getting set up and hitting that call a couple of times,
Speaker 1: we hear a gobble. I hit the call and he
Speaker 1: God was again. I told Porter to get ready and
Speaker 1: be still. He's going to come in five minutes past,
Speaker 1: another yep and another gobble. I don't blieve my eyes
Speaker 1: when I see him about one hundred yards away. Bobbed
Speaker 1: it weaven through the grass, coming in hot. He popped
Speaker 1: up over a little hill and Porter lets him have it.
Speaker 1: Maw the turkey goes down and sodas Porter. I swapped
Speaker 1: his twenty gates from my twelve and a three inch
Speaker 1: turkey load because I wanted to be sure he got
Speaker 1: his first turkey and he didn't leave the situation with
Speaker 1: the wounded or miss bird. Now I did mention that Porter,
Speaker 1: he's a big eight year old, but he's so sure
Speaker 1: he was ready for that. In hindsight, I realized that
Speaker 1: was a little much, but he popped back up quickly,
Speaker 1: and we celebrated and high fived and laughed and cried
Speaker 1: over his first turkey. I explained to him, Now, you
Speaker 1: kind of got spoiled on that first one, because it
Speaker 1: never happens like that, especially the first time out, and
Speaker 1: especially with a tom that was sporting eleven inch beard
Speaker 1: and curved spurs that were well over an inch long.
Speaker 1: If that was the end of the story, it would
Speaker 1: have been a great one. Here's where the story gets
Speaker 1: even crazier. That evening, we decided to give that little
Speaker 1: honey hole to our hunting buddy and his son, and
Speaker 1: we headed to a part of the ranch, and we
Speaker 1: had never seen turkeys before, but we figured, what the heck,
Speaker 1: we might as well try, so I pulled up in
Speaker 1: the truck and told Porter to stay inside, not anticipate much,
Speaker 1: and as I hit the box call, I didn't believe
Speaker 1: my ears. A gobbler responded before I even got out
Speaker 1: my fourth yep, and he was only about two hundred
Speaker 1: yards away. Get out of truck, Porter, get the gun,
Speaker 1: let's go. So we set up again, and once again
Speaker 1: a gobbler is responding right away, and then we see
Speaker 1: him one hundred yards out way across an open field
Speaker 1: in full strut. Then, much to my surprise, two jakes
Speaker 1: come charging right at him, and they proceeded to get
Speaker 1: into a vicious two o one all out broad. They
Speaker 1: are jumping and spurring and pecking and scratching, and eventually
Speaker 1: disappeared back into the tree line. On top of that,
Speaker 1: there was a hen up and further down the tree line,
Speaker 1: right where they were headed. I started letting Porter down
Speaker 1: gently and told him how cool that was to see,
Speaker 1: but our hunt was probably over. But it's all right
Speaker 1: because we'd already got one that morning. Once again I
Speaker 1: was wrong. After a few minutes, he reappeared in full
Speaker 1: strut and had a straight for our jac and hen decoys.
Speaker 1: I guess he figured he just whooped two of them.
Speaker 1: What's one more? And we got an absolute strut show
Speaker 1: for all the time it took him to get within range,
Speaker 1: and finally I tell Porter to let him have it,
Speaker 1: and wham, Turkey number two goes down. More celebrations and
Speaker 1: high fives and hugs that I explained once again, this
Speaker 1: never happens like this, and how fortunate he is. But
Speaker 1: I don't think he understood. And as the sun was
Speaker 1: setting on that beautiful March evening, while we were taking
Speaker 1: our pictures and selfies holding up Turkey number two our
Speaker 1: fingers signifying the second bird of the day, I can't
Speaker 1: help but to think that his grandfather was looking down
Speaker 1: upon us. He might have had something to do with
Speaker 1: sending us both of those birds, letting us know he
Speaker 1: approved by the loophole that we'd come up with in
Speaker 1: the new family tradition. And according to Brady Caller of Turkeys,
Speaker 1: litigator for Youth Turkey hunters and father of Porter, the
Speaker 1: Gobblers smashing baseball playing eldest Joe hadson tax deduction. That's
Speaker 1: just how that happened. I had the pleasure of visiting
Speaker 1: with young Porter during a FaceTime call, hearing him tell
Speaker 1: me that story and another turkey tale that has his
Speaker 1: tally up now to three. I'd be lying if I
Speaker 1: told you any particulars about it that the last turkey
Speaker 1: he killed, I was so distracted by how polite and
Speaker 1: respectful he was and how good his manners are. I
Speaker 1: feel confident his two younger brothers are a similar demeanor.
Speaker 1: That's a good boy you got there, Brady. Thank y'all
Speaker 1: for sharing your story, Toby said, I'll just go hunting
Speaker 1: with you tomorrow. Job site is too wet to do anything,
Speaker 1: and I ain't killed the turkey in thirty years. Well.
Speaker 1: I was surprised, to say the least, but not shocked.
Speaker 1: My Missouri born and bred brother by choice had been
Speaker 1: hosting me for over twenty years now, and anyone who's
Speaker 1: paid half attention has heard me talk about him numerous
Speaker 1: times on here. His home was my home away from
Speaker 1: home every spring. His family is my family every day
Speaker 1: of the year. They're the kind of folks I don't
Speaker 1: have to talk to every day, week, or even month,
Speaker 1: even though I'm all for it. Our bonds transcend time,
Speaker 1: space and frequency. I have a handful of folks like
Speaker 1: that in my life, but none surpassed them. I love
Speaker 1: these people. I didn't think twice when he said he
Speaker 1: wanted to go with me. I did, However, when he
Speaker 1: said I ain't got no camo to wear, I checked
Speaker 1: my bag and found a leafy top I hadn't been
Speaker 1: wearing yet this year, and I knew I had an
Speaker 1: extra face mask in my turkey vest. Always told an
Speaker 1: extra because before the season is over, it winds up
Speaker 1: being the only one I have, because I've lost the
Speaker 1: originals somewhere between the South and the Midwest. Fortune favored
Speaker 1: Toby this time because I had yet to lose one.
Speaker 1: He looked at me and said, I can't find any
Speaker 1: camouflage pants. Well. My response was, you know how many
Speaker 1: turkeys have been killed by folks wearing overalls? A lot
Speaker 1: is tall. You've got on some brown jersey gloves, that
Speaker 1: leafy jacket and a face mask. You'll you'll be good.
Speaker 1: Just be still When four point thirty am rudely punched
Speaker 1: me in the ear. The next morning, I stumbled out
Speaker 1: of my room to see my new turkey hunting partner
Speaker 1: dressed and pouring coffee. I told her we were going
Speaker 1: to my regular spot and listen. It was my favorite
Speaker 1: jumping off spot for hunting their family's land. I knew
Speaker 1: it as well as my own, and had been standing
Speaker 1: in that spot at daylight for the majority of the
Speaker 1: last three decades. At Goblin time, we were there standing
Speaker 1: the side beside, sipping coffee and listening to Missouri wake up.
Speaker 1: And I add what I thought was a reasonable, if
Speaker 1: not perfect, fac simile for barred owl leaning forward as
Speaker 1: to catch the recoil of the coming gobbler, and dang
Speaker 1: there fell on my face. When I got no response,
Speaker 1: I dare that turkey not answer me? We waited a
Speaker 1: few more minutes and have to hear nothing. We moved
Speaker 1: out on foot. Toby, We're gonna go down to the
Speaker 1: bottom field across the creek at your deer stand, and
Speaker 1: listened in that other bottom field where they normally roosed.
Speaker 1: We walked the five hundred yards along the edge of
Speaker 1: the woods and slipped down past Toby's stand. We were
Speaker 1: standing at the fence directly under the roof tree where
Speaker 1: the day before I'd called four hens to me off
Speaker 1: that roost. I sat up at the edge of the
Speaker 1: field one hundred yards behind where we had just walked through.
Speaker 1: But now it was well after flying downtime, No way,
Speaker 1: they're still on the roost. I know this land, and
Speaker 1: I know these turkeys. I told Toby, now, those hens
Speaker 1: were roosted right here, right here, close yesterday. They flew
Speaker 1: out in the middle of that field and they came
Speaker 1: straight to me. They didn't roost here last night, obviously,
Speaker 1: or we to heard him fly down. This morning, Toby
Speaker 1: looked up to our left at a big sycamore tree
Speaker 1: thirty yards away and said, there's a turkey on the
Speaker 1: limb right there. I looked up and saw two turkeys.
Speaker 1: I pulled out my bioes and confirmed one did have
Speaker 1: a beard. But it was the beard and hen that
Speaker 1: I'd called up the day before. They put it a
Speaker 1: couple times and flew off. I out right behind there, leaving,
Speaker 1: and a gobbler sounded off a long way in the
Speaker 1: direction they flew for them leaving. Ain't gonna bother us nothing.
Speaker 1: Let's slip across the creek and set up right over there.
Speaker 1: They like to meet up in this spot and strut.
Speaker 1: I've seen them do it a million times. I wasn't
Speaker 1: kidding when I told him that I'd killed several turkeys
Speaker 1: out of that bottom field over the years, my confidence
Speaker 1: level had yet to wane. My plan was solid, and
Speaker 1: all we'd scared off was a couple of Hens, which
Speaker 1: more than likely was going to help us by eliminating
Speaker 1: some competition. Because if there's one thing I know, it's this.
Speaker 1: The turkey, you hear, goblin ain't the only one out there.
Speaker 1: This is when patience and knowing the land comes into play.
Speaker 1: I ain't a rookie at this. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: I pretty dang good at it. That's what I was
Speaker 1: telling myself when two gobblers blasted off the roofs across
Speaker 1: the little bottom field, flying to what I can only
Speaker 1: assume was Nebraska, followed by three more Hens. I looked
Speaker 1: back at Toby. He was giggling in me like a
Speaker 1: little girl. We changed directions. We sat up on the
Speaker 1: edge of another field, and to make a sad story
Speaker 1: shorter and even sadder, we couldn't convince six jakes an
Speaker 1: hour later to walk up to our decoy. They ignored
Speaker 1: me and her. I wanted to cry. Then it started
Speaker 1: raining and we walked three quarters of a mile back
Speaker 1: to the side beside, chasing something we felt we had
Speaker 1: more control over. Breakfast. The waitress at the Pioneer restaurant
Speaker 1: tried to kill me with eggs, pancakes, biscuits, and all
Speaker 1: the coffee I could hold the tote in my pockets.
Speaker 1: And for the next few hours we drove around looking
Speaker 1: at turkeys middling around in the big open farm fields
Speaker 1: as safe from us as they could get. Nothing short
Speaker 1: of an artillery or lightnings Strake had harmed them, with
Speaker 1: the latter being a greater possibility than the former. It
Speaker 1: was storming then around three that afternoon, we drove by
Speaker 1: a family friend's farm. A visit with the landowners saying
Speaker 1: we were just killing time, riding and looking until the
Speaker 1: rain stopped. Turned into a genuine invitation to hunt his property,
Speaker 1: and his property is loaded with turkeys. He said, there
Speaker 1: was five strutting down there by that gap this morning,
Speaker 1: Y'allso to try that out in the morning. And I
Speaker 1: asked Toby, why don't we just go this afternoon. You see,
Speaker 1: we can get ahead start on tomorrow morning. What a
Speaker 1: grand idea. So after driving around Muddy Mile after Muddy
Speaker 1: Mile for a few hours, looking at turkeys all over creation,
Speaker 1: we parked and made our way into our new hunting spot.
Speaker 1: We started the layout on auax before taking off, and
Speaker 1: I said, you see that field right there, Toby, that'd
Speaker 1: be a great place for turkeys to be this time
Speaker 1: of day after this rain. Well about six hundred steps
Speaker 1: later we confirmed that being a great place for turkeys
Speaker 1: to be. As we watched them spook out of the
Speaker 1: field that we were trying to slip up on, Tobe
Speaker 1: suggested we'd go home before we cause further calamity. That
Speaker 1: made close to a dozen turkeys we'd spooked. If that
Speaker 1: trend carried on, it would be like hunting turkeys on
Speaker 1: Neptune by daylight. We walked down to the gap that
Speaker 1: farmer told us about and scooped it out, kind of
Speaker 1: picking out a place to set up the next morning,
Speaker 1: and we left. Two hours later. The farmer sent us
Speaker 1: a text, there's a whole pack of turkey strutting down
Speaker 1: there by that gap. Are y'all down there? I hate
Speaker 1: turkeys and everything they stand for, but tomorrow it will
Speaker 1: be another day. Alexander Pope was a poet born May
Speaker 1: twenty first, sixteen eighty eight, in London, England. And there's
Speaker 1: no doubt in my mind that that dude was a
Speaker 1: turkey hunter. Here's how I know. He wrote a poem
Speaker 1: called an Essay on Man, and in that work he
Speaker 1: wrote the line that every turkey lives by hope springs eternal.
Speaker 1: The full quote is, hope springs eternal in the human breast.
Speaker 1: Man never is, but always to be blessed. The soul,
Speaker 1: uneasy and confined from home, rests and expatiates in a
Speaker 1: life to come. The phrase suggests that hope is an
Speaker 1: inherent part of human nature, a persistent and resilient force
Speaker 1: that allows folks to persevere even when things seem bleak.
Speaker 1: Now that's every turkey hunter I know, right up until
Speaker 1: the season closes. Tomorrow is going to be better. Tomorrow
Speaker 1: is another day. Now you need further proof. Alexander hunting turkeys.
Speaker 1: Check this out. He died May the thirtieth, seventeen forty four,
Speaker 1: at fifty six years of age. He stood four foot
Speaker 1: six inches tall, and I soon measured the same in
Speaker 1: his casket. But regardless, he died at the end of
Speaker 1: the spring. Probably had a rough go in to turn woods,
Speaker 1: and turkey hunting had obviously stunted his growth. The next morning,
Speaker 1: I rolled out of bed for day three and beat
Speaker 1: Toby to the coffee pot and in short order we
Speaker 1: were on the way to our new spot. Our plan
Speaker 1: was simple. We just sit inside the fence just down
Speaker 1: from that gap, and that meant that before daylight I'd
Speaker 1: have to slip out and job that he and decoy
Speaker 1: up in the edge of the filled to give the
Speaker 1: gobbler something to concentrate on. Due to the limited back
Speaker 1: and cover we had, the trees were small where we
Speaker 1: had to sit, and there was a five strand bobble
Speaker 1: our fence that could become an obstacle, but we had
Speaker 1: no choice. We had to sit right there because of
Speaker 1: the cover or like thereof so picture in your mind
Speaker 1: were sitting there, just down from this gap. We're on
Speaker 1: one side of the fence, decoys on the other. God
Speaker 1: in time came and went, and we heard one faint
Speaker 1: gobble we estimated to be a half a mile away.
Speaker 1: Time ticked away, and by eight thirty, after two and
Speaker 1: a half hours, we hadn't heard anything else. Then directly
Speaker 1: across the field a gobble. The lay of the land
Speaker 1: and the rise of topography kept us from seeing directly
Speaker 1: across in front of us, which was south or back
Speaker 1: to the right on the west end of that eighty
Speaker 1: acre opening. I called, and he responded. Then another unseen
Speaker 1: gobbler gobbled further to the west, and that would be
Speaker 1: the way it went. As they traveled away from us,
Speaker 1: down to the right from the west end of that field,
Speaker 1: out of sight and for the moment, out of our lives,
Speaker 1: we were stuck, unable to move because we didn't know
Speaker 1: where they were, or really where they were going. For
Speaker 1: all we knew they could be making their way toward us. Yeah, right,
Speaker 1: but that's the last place I expected them to be,
Speaker 1: And unfortunately this time I was right. A more faint
Speaker 1: goble confirmed that they relocated to the southwest end of
Speaker 1: that field, a quarter and a half away. I slipped
Speaker 1: up behind a tree right on the fence roll. When
Speaker 1: I washed through the knockers, they strutted and gobbled and
Speaker 1: walk could have passed for a turkey. Do you believe
Speaker 1: that was taking place down there? They like they were
Speaker 1: having a lot of fun. I wanted to go, they
Speaker 1: didn't invite us. Then another turkey, God will do west
Speaker 1: straight down the fence line from us in the northwest corner, Kobe,
Speaker 1: we find to crash this party. We're gonna slip down
Speaker 1: this fence one hundred and fifty yards and try to
Speaker 1: work this other turkey. Now the only bad thing, and
Speaker 1: I told him when we were moving so we couldn't
Speaker 1: get that decoy without spooking every bird on that age
Speaker 1: acre field. My reasoning was we'd call to this turkey
Speaker 1: that was at the west end but on the same
Speaker 1: side of the field as us, and the easiest way
Speaker 1: for him to come to us was right down the
Speaker 1: edge of the field where we'd be sitting. Then he'd
Speaker 1: walk up the little rise between us and him see
Speaker 1: that decoy that was way down back behind us to
Speaker 1: the left, and he'd walk within a few feet of
Speaker 1: me and the killing end of my double barrel. We
Speaker 1: stopped one hundred and fifty yards or so west of
Speaker 1: the decoy. I sat down against a small tree, but
Speaker 1: in front of me on the fence row was a
Speaker 1: cedar tree that I could see through but absolutely made
Speaker 1: me disappear. Toby laid down to my left at the
Speaker 1: ten o'clock position, his feet towards me and his head
Speaker 1: right at the edge of the bottom strand of barbed wire.
Speaker 1: Now I wouldn't have done that, and he was in
Speaker 1: a terrible position to shoot a turkey, but at the
Speaker 1: time I didn't think much about it, but I should have.
Speaker 1: I could hear the gobler to our immediate right at
Speaker 1: the northeast corner, and see the other one strutting out
Speaker 1: at the southwest corner. I watched him until they faded
Speaker 1: out of sight, drifting away further and further, I assumed,
Speaker 1: to the southwest, away from us and that field. Fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes later, the gobler on our side of the field
Speaker 1: down at that corner quit answering me, and he never
Speaker 1: got any closer. I pulled out my phone to look
Speaker 1: it all next again and see about finding a way
Speaker 1: to loop around toward where he was if I could
Speaker 1: get him to answer me one more time. That's when
Speaker 1: I caught movement from Toby. I saw him frantically pointing
Speaker 1: with his hand down behind his leg and below the grass,
Speaker 1: out toward the field. He looked back at me to
Speaker 1: see if I was looking, and saw my eyes bug
Speaker 1: out of my head as I saw gobbler's head poke
Speaker 1: up above the rise in that field one hundred yards away,
Speaker 1: And then another one, and then another one, and then
Speaker 1: four jacos seven turkeys, the first one running point, the
Speaker 1: second in full strut, the third one riding herd on
Speaker 1: the four youngsters that were trying to work their way
Speaker 1: up to pecking order, and they wasn't having any luck.
Speaker 1: I whispered to Toby that that hen decoy was going
Speaker 1: to wreck us. When the league gobblers saw it, they'd
Speaker 1: make a bee line for her, and where they stood
Speaker 1: right now, at one hundred yards, would be as close
Speaker 1: as they'd get to us. And my street sweeper, the
Speaker 1: strutter gobbling, the point man under his order, started making
Speaker 1: tracks towards the decoy. Toby, blessed his heart, was now
Speaker 1: looking back at me, unable to move, having to judge
Speaker 1: everything that was going on by what I was doing
Speaker 1: and how I was reacting. The vibe I was putting
Speaker 1: off was desperation, because I had already done the math.
Speaker 1: No calling in the world was going to compete with
Speaker 1: the decoy sitting in the very spot they were heading
Speaker 1: towards anyway, but I was going to try to do it.
Speaker 1: I turned my head and I started purring and yepping
Speaker 1: to the right, and that strutter started gobbling, still inching
Speaker 1: his way to our left towards that decoy that had
Speaker 1: gone about ten yards in the wrong direction, and I
Speaker 1: poured it on him. It's best I could anyway, purring
Speaker 1: and yeping, begging him to turn towards us and come
Speaker 1: to me something he couldn't see instead of something he could,
Speaker 1: And to my surprise, he did. He pivoted and started
Speaker 1: easing in our direction. I kept turning my head and
Speaker 1: calling him back over my right shoulder, and now he
Speaker 1: was on a string, coming straight to us, and that
Speaker 1: was bad. Toby was laying on the ground looking back
Speaker 1: at me, but directly between me and the turkey rodeo
Speaker 1: that was taking place in front of us. I wasn't
Speaker 1: gonna be able to shooting unless I could get them
Speaker 1: to fade more to the right around that cedar tree
Speaker 1: that was hiding me. And I turned my head even
Speaker 1: further as far as I could get to turn without
Speaker 1: turning completely around, and I called some more. The strutter
Speaker 1: gobbled and started moving more to the right. The point
Speaker 1: man was now on the left edge of the group
Speaker 1: and finally made his way directly in front of me.
Speaker 1: Now it was safe for me to shoot. I let
Speaker 1: him keep walking, and I picked out a hole in
Speaker 1: the cedar tree at the one o'clock position that would
Speaker 1: have me shooting away from Toby, away from where he
Speaker 1: was laying. I used my shotgun and my shoulder. I
Speaker 1: popped his safety off and took starvation aim at the
Speaker 1: point man who was just left of the strutter. Bam,
Speaker 1: I sent watermounted to a tablespoon full of poisoned seed picks,
Speaker 1: right from the barrel of that four ten. It was
Speaker 1: the last thing that went through that turkey's mind the
Speaker 1: instant he dropped off the radar, Toby rolled over and
Speaker 1: smoked the strutter the last one raised the four jakes
Speaker 1: to see who could get across that field first before
Speaker 1: they broke out and bullet holes themselves. Toby had missed
Speaker 1: the whole show, but he had redeemed his poor choice
Speaker 1: and shooting positions by making up for it with reflexes
Speaker 1: so fast they would have kept Johnny Ringo around for
Speaker 1: the end of Tombstone. It was that quick reva stick
Speaker 1: a fork in turkey season. I'm done with them until
Speaker 1: next spring, maybe, but I'm headed to have some fun
Speaker 1: adventures this summer, and I have some other things that
Speaker 1: I want to talk to you all about as well,
Speaker 1: and it's all coming up here in the next few weeks.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. We appreciate y'all. So much until next week.
Speaker 1: This is Britt Reeves signing off. Y'all be careful.