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 and 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, flying deer and counting turkeys. Turkey season
Speaker 1: is getting craked up just about everywhere over the next
Speaker 1: few weeks, and your old uncle Brent has got turkeys
Speaker 1: on the brain. I got a good story from nineteen
Speaker 1: years ago that involves my son, perseverance and a question
Speaker 1: that's still unanswered. I'm gonna tell it and let you decide.
Speaker 1: But first I'm going to tell you this story. This
Speaker 1: story comes from This Country Life listener David Jackson. David
Speaker 1: lives in Lead Hill, Arkansas, which is in Boone County
Speaker 1: and close enough to Missouri to hit the show Me
Speaker 1: State with the twenty two. I myself have chased turkeys
Speaker 1: near Leadhill many moons ago, picking a few of the
Speaker 1: ripe ones and toting them home to the flat land.
Speaker 1: But David has offered the following for your approval. So
Speaker 1: in David's words and my voice, here we go. It
Speaker 1: was open in the morning a turkey season spring two
Speaker 1: thousand and fourteen. My dad had recently passed away, leaving
Speaker 1: my sister made the family's hunt farm east of Hardy, Arkansas.
Speaker 1: For several years, my Dad, my sons, and I had
Speaker 1: enjoyed hunting and camping there. Lots of memories were made.
Speaker 1: As you can imagine, my brother in law had never
Speaker 1: gotten a turkey, so I decided that this would be
Speaker 1: the perfect time to introduce him to our farm and
Speaker 1: hopefully both of us would be successful. But Dad and
Speaker 1: I had taken deer, turkey and squirrel over there for
Speaker 1: years from that farm, but the turkey population was superior
Speaker 1: to that of the deer. They were everywhere back in
Speaker 1: the day. This cool Chris morning turned out to be
Speaker 1: exactly what we had hoped for. Clear skies do on
Speaker 1: the ground, hot coffee in the thermost, and most importantly,
Speaker 1: knowledge of where the turkey is normally roosted. At least
Speaker 1: we thought we knew. The property north of Ireland was
Speaker 1: known for noise, late nights and more noise. This must
Speaker 1: have been the reason for the unexpected relocatetion of what
Speaker 1: we called our predictable turkey roost, causing them to move
Speaker 1: on the adjacent ridge on our southern border. I sent
Speaker 1: my brother in law to the normal roosting ridge while
Speaker 1: I chose to huddle up on the ground on the
Speaker 1: edge of an ATV trail near the northwest corner of
Speaker 1: our land. I just knew my hunting partner was at
Speaker 1: the perfect spot. I'd seen them flying down many mornings
Speaker 1: near this location. What we expected to happen that morning
Speaker 1: did not happen, not even close daylight broke in a
Speaker 1: few minutes past when I heard goblin to the south.
Speaker 1: I had never heard a sound from my brother in
Speaker 1: law's location, so I decided to just stay planted and
Speaker 1: wait a few more minutes. What I didn't know was
Speaker 1: that my brother in law also heard the gobbles too,
Speaker 1: and he decided to leave his spot and head to
Speaker 1: the south ridge as fast as he could go. Now,
Speaker 1: have you ever hunted on a ridge? Sounds sometimes seemed
Speaker 1: closer than they really are. His thought was the turkey
Speaker 1: was close, but in reality it was much further. Ir
Speaker 1: ATV trails allowed us to walk between various deer stands
Speaker 1: on the property with ease. You could cover lots of
Speaker 1: ground quickly and quietly. My brother in law made it
Speaker 1: out to the trail just fine, but apparently had made
Speaker 1: quite a bit of noise going through the woods from
Speaker 1: that ridge he was on to the trail. What neither
Speaker 1: of us knew was that there were several deer bedded
Speaker 1: on that ridge right between us. I was thinking of
Speaker 1: gathering up my stuff and heading south to that ridge
Speaker 1: before they flew down and I heard the noise. Now,
Speaker 1: I've heard deer running through the woods hundreds of times,
Speaker 1: but from a deer stand. This was my first time
Speaker 1: to ever hear him running from a seated position next
Speaker 1: to a main trail in the dark. He had apparently
Speaker 1: busted the deer from their bed, causing them to run
Speaker 1: for their deer lives, and it was fight or flight,
Speaker 1: and they chose the ladder. Fortunately for me, Most of
Speaker 1: the deer ran just to the right, but one deer
Speaker 1: one deer did not. I'm guessing it was a doe,
Speaker 1: but I really couldn't say. It was pretty dark. All
Speaker 1: I know is that that deer was big, But I mean,
Speaker 1: running right down the trail right in my direction. This
Speaker 1: dear didn't know I was on the ground in his path,
Speaker 1: and I suspected at the last second it must have
Speaker 1: thrown huh a new stuff on the ground. Well, that
Speaker 1: stump was me and it jumped over my head. And
Speaker 1: the last second was one of its back legs grazing
Speaker 1: my left knee cap as it flew over me. But
Speaker 1: it felt like someone took a baseball bat and swung
Speaker 1: it at my leg. That that really just happened and
Speaker 1: my injured? Is my knee? Okay? Are there any more
Speaker 1: ore coming down that trail? Questions galower flashed through my mind,
Speaker 1: but thankfully only that one made contact. Now I had
Speaker 1: no clue that my brother in law had moved and
Speaker 1: jumped his deer, and neither did he. I also didn't
Speaker 1: know he decided to circle around and head to the
Speaker 1: same ridge I was going to as well. We had
Speaker 1: both heard the goblin on the south ridge and both
Speaker 1: decided to head that way, coming in from opposite directions.
Speaker 1: Even with the deer collision, I managed to get there
Speaker 1: before he did, which turned out to be a blessing
Speaker 1: and a curse. My path was pretty much straight up
Speaker 1: the ridge while his was over and around and then
Speaker 1: up quickly in position. A short time later, I saw
Speaker 1: the tom's head and beard and ranged just twenty yards away,
Speaker 1: and I let him have a three and a half
Speaker 1: Winchester number five. That was the blessing. My brother in
Speaker 1: law hadn't made it there yet. It was still down
Speaker 1: the hill on the other side and was out of
Speaker 1: range of my shot. That was also a blessing. The
Speaker 1: curse was that I would have preferred him to be
Speaker 1: the one to get that bird. It would have been
Speaker 1: his first. He came running and asked me, did you shoot? Ah? Yep,
Speaker 1: it was me. We were both shocked to see one another,
Speaker 1: him thinking I was far away to the north of me,
Speaker 1: thinking he was still up there where I had left him.
Speaker 1: While hunter and gun safety were drilled into our heads
Speaker 1: from childhood, this is case and point that you could
Speaker 1: never be too careful. We celebrated and enjoyed fresh fried
Speaker 1: turkey over the next couple of days. I supported the
Speaker 1: sowordine for a week and wished that dear jump could
Speaker 1: have been documented on video tape. Backed several turkeys since
Speaker 1: that Chris Spring morning, but none have been more painful.
Speaker 1: Safe hunting out there and watch out for those knee
Speaker 1: knocking high flying deer. Well. David Jackson of Leadhill, Arkansas,
Speaker 1: thanks for sharing your story and the reminder for the
Speaker 1: rest of us to make a plan, have contingencies, and
Speaker 1: communicate above all else. But according to David Jackson, that's
Speaker 1: just how that happened. My son Hunter had been rambling
Speaker 1: around on the planet for eight years and one month,
Speaker 1: and it just smashed his first long beard a fortnight before.
Speaker 1: It was an Arkansas opening morning double that had two
Speaker 1: turkeys flopping after three shots from his twenty gauge pump.
Speaker 1: He fired once and me sending two more after he
Speaker 1: patiently handed me his age seventy, the last of which
Speaker 1: hit its mark. It would be the fuse that burned
Speaker 1: bright for several years until, for one reason or another,
Speaker 1: his interest led him elsewhere. But that season we learned
Speaker 1: a lot, both of us, me teaching him everything I
Speaker 1: knew about chasing turkeys and he teaching me too that
Speaker 1: to borrow Steve Vanilla's freeze, a fresh set of eyes
Speaker 1: does find more beans. For our last tags, we were
Speaker 1: hunting a farm in southeast Darkansas that had little to
Speaker 1: no pressure and a good population of turkeys. We'd seen
Speaker 1: one in particular that had a harem of hens that
Speaker 1: frequented a section of timber and open fields. He roosted
Speaker 1: along the edge of a big open pasture almost eighty
Speaker 1: acres worth of prime manicured cowfu. The only irregularity was
Speaker 1: a point of wood that pushed out into the fields
Speaker 1: about sixty yards. Also, there was a spring seep that
Speaker 1: acted as a natural watering hole and shade for cows
Speaker 1: in the summertime. Was also where that turkey roosted. Nearly
Speaker 1: every day, would pitch out into the middle of that pasture,
Speaker 1: and the hens followed suit, usually joined by several jakes
Speaker 1: who lingered around the edges, a flock of seven hens
Speaker 1: that that gobbler pushed around the pasture like a cow
Speaker 1: dog moves cattle, always keeping the tight rein on the
Speaker 1: seven hens. I played every trick I knew on that turkey,
Speaker 1: who would answer at nearly every call I threw at him,
Speaker 1: only to strut in circles as he herded the ladies
Speaker 1: around and around the open landscape. I called at the hens,
Speaker 1: but he wouldn't let them leave. I called the jakes
Speaker 1: up so many times I started being able to recognize
Speaker 1: the differences in them. We'd become some paticos from our
Speaker 1: many visits, all within sight and earshot of that old
Speaker 1: boss Gobbler who paid attention to their ventures but never
Speaker 1: tried to join their escapades. Now he was satisfied with
Speaker 1: courting that gaggle of hens up and down the middle
Speaker 1: of that pasture. Even though he was ruthless and heavy
Speaker 1: handed about any of them straying off, he was unbothered
Speaker 1: with the adding number eight to his hair. It was
Speaker 1: like he knew his limitations, and apparently seven was it.
Speaker 1: I tried a combination of calls and decoys and tactics
Speaker 1: with him, diaphragms, box calls, slates, snuff box calls. Snuff
Speaker 1: Tobacco used to come in small ten canadas, about the
Speaker 1: size of a half dollar in circumference and three to
Speaker 1: four inches long. Old timers would make them out of
Speaker 1: an empty can. You cut half the lid off, replaced
Speaker 1: that portion with latex held in place with a rubber band,
Speaker 1: with a narrow gap between the latex and the ten Now,
Speaker 1: with the bottom of the can removed and a little practice,
Speaker 1: you can make some show enough turkey record that I've
Speaker 1: seen make some old tough turkeys come in like you
Speaker 1: had them on a string, But not this hickory nut.
Speaker 1: He wasn't playing around with anything but the safety of
Speaker 1: the middle of that pasture and those seven hens. Eventually
Speaker 1: they walk off and disappear in the woods around the field.
Speaker 1: Edges were so open from cattle use that there was
Speaker 1: zero chance of moving on him. After he passed us up,
Speaker 1: we just had to sit and watch him walk away.
Speaker 1: Other turkeys would gobble, but it had gotten personal. No
Speaker 1: other turkey would do. It had to be this one.
Speaker 1: And that wasn't just for me. That was all Hunter.
Speaker 1: He was on a mission to show this gobbler who
Speaker 1: the real boss was. Whenever we employed the decoy, we'd
Speaker 1: get there way before daylight and set up, only to
Speaker 1: have him approach up to a certain distance from us,
Speaker 1: and the decoy always out of comfortable range of Hunter's
Speaker 1: shotgun and his ability to shoot it. This was his turkey,
Speaker 1: and even though I might I might have smashed him
Speaker 1: on a couple of occasions with my shotgun, I chose
Speaker 1: not to even try. I was just as hypnotized by
Speaker 1: wanting Hunter to succeed as he was, maybe even more so,
Speaker 1: and we approached it every day like we were engaged
Speaker 1: in battle. We had long given up the decoy the
Speaker 1: last times we'd used it. The gobbler had gotten kind
Speaker 1: of spooked, and I don't blame him. It was made
Speaker 1: from foam, The paint had almost all chipped off of it,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't that much of a true representation of
Speaker 1: a hen turkey anyway. As a matter of fact, it
Speaker 1: was ugly. It was only in my vest because I
Speaker 1: had forgotten to take it out. It weighed nothing, it
Speaker 1: favored nothing, but it folded up and stayed unnoticed in
Speaker 1: the game bag. More accurate description would be that it
Speaker 1: looked as much like a wild hen turkey as a
Speaker 1: Hearsey's chocolate bunny looks like a wild rabbit. On day
Speaker 1: number five of hunting this gobbler, we were once again
Speaker 1: standing on the south edge of this big pasture, facing
Speaker 1: the north way before daylight. A quarter of the property
Speaker 1: laid to our left or our west from where we stood.
Speaker 1: The other three quarters, obviously were to the east and
Speaker 1: our right, and we were present on the west side
Speaker 1: of that point of woods that stuck out in the pasture,
Speaker 1: the one with the seeping spring. I told you about
Speaker 1: this morning. The turkey gobbled on the south side of
Speaker 1: the pasture, just like always, but he was further to
Speaker 1: the right or the east, towards that end, further away
Speaker 1: than normal, placing that point of woods between him and us.
Speaker 1: So picture it in your mind. We were standing on
Speaker 1: the edge of a cow pasture, twenty acres of open
Speaker 1: pasture to our left and to our right was sixty
Speaker 1: acres except for that point of woods that stuck out
Speaker 1: in the field on the same side we were, and
Speaker 1: the gobbler was roosted on the other side. We never
Speaker 1: tried to get closer, and we never made a peek.
Speaker 1: To tell you the truth, I was all out of ideas.
Speaker 1: I heard him when he flew off the roofs, and
Speaker 1: I split second later I saw him fly out into
Speaker 1: the middle of that pasture in the early dawn. A
Speaker 1: few moments later, the hens followed, and I heard Hunter
Speaker 1: counting in a wisp one two, three, four, five, six, Dad,
Speaker 1: six hens. Yeah, I see him hundred. I've been seeing
Speaker 1: them for a week, No, sir, we've been seeing seven hens.
Speaker 1: What was right? There had been seven with him, and
Speaker 1: we waited for number seven to fly off throost counting
Speaker 1: and recounting all the hens that he was ushering around
Speaker 1: in that field like a bull elk does cows. I
Speaker 1: wonder what happened to him, I told him I didn't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe she was already sitting on the nest. But if
Speaker 1: there was ever a chance for this hideous decoy virus
Speaker 1: to work, it was right now. It was my last play.
Speaker 1: He could see the wheels turning in my knogging, and
Speaker 1: I grabbed him by the arm and we sunk deeper
Speaker 1: in the edge of the woods, and Duck walked to
Speaker 1: where that point of wood stuck out in the field.
Speaker 1: From there, we got down on our bell, all up
Speaker 1: the edge of that point to the opposite side, away
Speaker 1: from those turkeys, both of us sopping wet from the
Speaker 1: mud and morning dew. After crawling forty yards, I struck
Speaker 1: that hen decoy up and keeping a big red over
Speaker 1: between us and the turkeys. I crawled over to it
Speaker 1: on the west side of that point, and sliding up
Speaker 1: next to it, we sat down, facing the absolute opposite
Speaker 1: direction from where they were. We couldn't even see them
Speaker 1: when we got settled in, but round and round he strugged,
Speaker 1: pushing those hens around as they fed more or less
Speaker 1: in our direction, but on a course that would once
Speaker 1: again keep him well out of range. Hunter sat on
Speaker 1: my right and shotgun oriented toward that decoy in his back,
Speaker 1: to the goblin and yeppling that was taking place right
Speaker 1: behind his shoulder out in that field. Not turning around
Speaker 1: was like trying not to watch a fishing partner's court.
Speaker 1: Was all I could do to keep still, to not
Speaker 1: roll over, and try to peek around the back of
Speaker 1: that tree to see where they were. They hadn't made
Speaker 1: a sound in what seemed like forever now, and there
Speaker 1: was absolutely nothing between us and them but that big
Speaker 1: red oak, no underbrush, nothing. We were as hid as
Speaker 1: the terrain would allow, which was only good until the
Speaker 1: turkeys got past that point of land and would then
Speaker 1: be able to see us sitting against the base of
Speaker 1: that tree, plain as day. Our only hope was that
Speaker 1: raggedy decoy I had jobbed in the ground out in
Speaker 1: front of us, on a sweet gum limb I'd cut
Speaker 1: a week ago, and hopefully it would keep their attention.
Speaker 1: The stake that came with it was lost to who
Speaker 1: knows where, but that gum limb was a fitting substitute accessory.
Speaker 1: That looked abouite as much like a turkey leg as
Speaker 1: that decoy did a turkey. But we were all in
Speaker 1: that peg legged out cast from the island of misfit
Speaker 1: towards was our obi wan Kenobi. It was our only hope.
Speaker 1: I looked down at Hunter and he was rock solid,
Speaker 1: his shotgun propped up on his knee and aiming down
Speaker 1: the barrel toward that decoy. I had to give it
Speaker 1: to him. The little man was mission focused in front
Speaker 1: side oriented. You good, buddy, Yes, sir, do you see him?
Speaker 1: I looked up out toward the middle of that field,
Speaker 1: and I did see them there. They were loosely taking
Speaker 1: the same path they'd taken every morning before, rolling westward
Speaker 1: down the middle of that pasture, with that gobbler taking
Speaker 1: inventory every step of the way. He strutted around each hend,
Speaker 1: turned his fan toward whichever one he was closest to,
Speaker 1: as if she was the only gal in town. Bud,
Speaker 1: they're out there right now. We'll be able to see
Speaker 1: him in a second. We're still only six hens with him. Dad,
Speaker 1: I'm looking number seven, and when he sees her, it's
Speaker 1: going to be all over him. He was. He was
Speaker 1: as confident as anything got seeing me not so much.
Speaker 1: I gave it one in a million. Nothing else had worked,
Speaker 1: and now I was betting on a turkey's math skills
Speaker 1: to lure him within shotgun range of my eight year old,
Speaker 1: and doing so, he'd had to be close enough to
Speaker 1: see what no living entity should confuse with a live
Speaker 1: wild Eastern Turkey hen, the same one that he'd been
Speaker 1: leary of approaching two different times this week. Cut your
Speaker 1: eyes over, Eddy, Now you ought to be able to
Speaker 1: see him by now. They were moving at a slow
Speaker 1: but steady pace, and the hens were feeding along with him,
Speaker 1: right on their heels, strutting the whole way one hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty yards from us. I glanced down at Hunter.
Speaker 1: I washed him close to me, make sure he was breathing.
Speaker 1: He wasn't moving an inch. I felt good about that.
Speaker 1: I looked over stairs at that deco and lost what
Speaker 1: little bit of confidence I'd built up over the past
Speaker 1: few moments. The turkey gobbled and broke me from my
Speaker 1: sneering gaze at that unreasonable facsimile of a hen Turkey.
Speaker 1: I had not bought another one. I looked over and
Speaker 1: he was looking in our direction. He gobbled again. And
Speaker 1: came out of his trut, facing our direction, but looking
Speaker 1: straight at that decoy. He didn't move, and after a
Speaker 1: few seconds all the hens were looking too, and I
Speaker 1: figured at any moment this was going to be the
Speaker 1: repeat of every other interaction. Then, after what seemed like forever,
Speaker 1: the hens went back to feeding, He went back to strut,
Speaker 1: and all of them slowly fit toward our direction. Wait
Speaker 1: a minute, were they actually doing this, son? Can you
Speaker 1: see them? Yes, sir, they were covering those one hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty yards at a snail's pacing. With every step
Speaker 1: they made towards that decoy, I thought it would be
Speaker 1: the last. The hunter never flinched. E been sitting that
Speaker 1: way without moving from more than twenty minutes and was eight.
Speaker 1: I was forty and about to lose my mind. The
Speaker 1: ground was rock hard at the base of that tree,
Speaker 1: with all the years of cows patting down that dirt.
Speaker 1: On the thing between my behind in China was two
Speaker 1: square feet of Arkansas and a butterbean sized piece of
Speaker 1: flint I'd miss sweeping away when we sat down. That
Speaker 1: seemed to be growing in both volume and sharpness with
Speaker 1: each tick of the clock. I stared back at the decoys,
Speaker 1: who were now starting to pick up the pace as
Speaker 1: they came closer, and one by one they passed in
Speaker 1: front of me and Hunter and either walked up to
Speaker 1: or just behind that one legged raggedy decoy that was
Speaker 1: twenty yards in front of us. They never gave us
Speaker 1: a second look, feeding right on past her. Then the
Speaker 1: gobblers strolled in and took his spot next to that
Speaker 1: foam Jezebel fan, fully spread wings, dragging the ground and
Speaker 1: drumming like it was his job. Hunter waited until he
Speaker 1: stepped right in front of where his gun barrel was pointed.
Speaker 1: Without moving an inch, he popped the safety office shot
Speaker 1: that joker square in the left ear right then. Now,
Speaker 1: from that day forward, that old raggedy decoy was known
Speaker 1: as Number seven. No idea on what became of her.
Speaker 1: We moved a few times since then, and she was
Speaker 1: on our way out the day she lured Hunters Second
Speaker 1: Turkey into its doom. The real question is King Turkey's count.
Speaker 1: I have no clue, but it makes me wonder. I
Speaker 1: appreciate so much all of you who's been the biggest
Speaker 1: part of this country life. It's not possible without you,
Speaker 1: and I encourage you to keep sitting in those stories
Speaker 1: to my tcl story at the meadeater dot com. We
Speaker 1: love sharing them with you. Thanks for listening to me
Speaker 1: and Clay Bow here on the Bear Grease Channel. We've
Speaker 1: got a lot of new stuff coming soon that I'm
Speaker 1: really excited about and I know you're going to enjoy.
Speaker 1: Knew this country life merch is coming in the next
Speaker 1: few months. Folks are working hard to get it here
Speaker 1: just as soon as possible. See y'all hang in there
Speaker 1: until next week. This is Brent Reives signing off. Y'all
Speaker 1: be careful