Speaker 1: I'm joined today by my good buddy Randy Milligan. Randy
Speaker 1: goes to work every day as a c p A
Speaker 1: where he's a principal in Arkansas, but his real passion
Speaker 1: lies in farming for turkey and deer at his property
Speaker 1: in Kansas. Today, we're going to discuss what he sees
Speaker 1: as an essential habitat for turkeys. This information should be
Speaker 1: just as helpful for public land turkey hunters as it
Speaker 1: is for people on private It should be a great conversation.
Speaker 1: But first let's get to some listeners questions. The first
Speaker 1: questions we got from our listeners is what kind of
Speaker 1: calls do you like to use? And so for me,
Speaker 1: I'll take a stab at it and then I'm gonna
Speaker 1: throw it over to Randy to kind of see how
Speaker 1: how are our kids kind of compare and then how
Speaker 1: they differ. So what kind of calls do I like
Speaker 1: to use? Being a you know, elk caller that that's
Speaker 1: kind of transitioned over to turkey. Really have a love
Speaker 1: for turkey. I always have two or three diaphragms, And
Speaker 1: with that said, I'd like to have one that's that's
Speaker 1: fairly heavy, you know, a fairly raspy call, and then
Speaker 1: I like to have one that's pretty clean for for
Speaker 1: light subtle calling. UM, I'm always gonna have at least
Speaker 1: one pot call on me with a couple of different strikers,
Speaker 1: and then I'm gonna carry a box call. So on
Speaker 1: those windy days, you know out here in the Pacific Northwest,
Speaker 1: we have really dense you know, vegetation in some of
Speaker 1: the areas we hunt, and we really want to reach
Speaker 1: out and touch them. We'll we'll grab that high pitched,
Speaker 1: you know, loud box call. With that said, I would
Speaker 1: say eighty percent of the time we're running diaphragms, but
Speaker 1: there's just certain birds where that pot caller, that box
Speaker 1: call is kind of the ticket and you gotta kind
Speaker 1: of stick with it. But um, that that's kind of
Speaker 1: my setup. Keep it really simple. You know, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of different you know shape gobble calls. There's you
Speaker 1: know the spring loaded you know, cluckers and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: But I keep it pretty pretty uh, you know, playing
Speaker 1: with some diaphragms, pot call with a few strikers in
Speaker 1: a box call. What do you use, Randy, Um, as
Speaker 1: far as what calls do you like to use? You know,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of like you. But I have a pouch
Speaker 1: full of mouth calls, so I have several mouth calls.
Speaker 1: I may have five or six different mouth calls. I
Speaker 1: normally carry two, at least two podcasts. One of them
Speaker 1: will be a slate call. One of them might be
Speaker 1: a glass or you know, something like that with several
Speaker 1: strikers and I and I too carry one box call.
Speaker 1: Now I use mine a little different. Where in the mornings,
Speaker 1: when I'm sitting on a roost and I'm close to it,
Speaker 1: I'm normally always used that pod call. I can get
Speaker 1: as low as I can. It's quiet. I don't want
Speaker 1: to be very loud, so I'm using that podcall. Once
Speaker 1: that turkey hits the ground, I'm normally going to a
Speaker 1: diaphragm because you know, I don't have to move my hands.
Speaker 1: I feel comfortable calling that mouth, you know, with a diaphragm.
Speaker 1: And then I keep a box call. A lot of
Speaker 1: times I'll hunt different states. If I'm in Texas or something,
Speaker 1: or in Kansas. As you know, he came out and
Speaker 1: hunting with me last year. It can give very wendy,
Speaker 1: So in the middle of the day, I may hit
Speaker 1: that box call where you know I can make it
Speaker 1: pretty loud. So, uh yeah, I try to. I don't
Speaker 1: really use a shape tube or anything like that. And
Speaker 1: those those are my three go to calls. Perfect. Perfect.
Speaker 1: You brought up a point. Um, you know, turkeys on
Speaker 1: the roost. It's it seems to have been like my
Speaker 1: Achilles Hill. If if I called to a bird on
Speaker 1: the roost, my chance of killing them seems to be,
Speaker 1: you know, very very slim. What's your success in calling
Speaker 1: birds off the roost? Um? You know with some light
Speaker 1: you know, tree yelping and and some you know, real
Speaker 1: light calling. Like do you have good luck with that?
Speaker 1: Or do the turkeys just tend to do what they
Speaker 1: want to do and go to the opposite direction. Um,
Speaker 1: if you make a peep, you know, I've had luck
Speaker 1: on the roost. And I still I was in Texas
Speaker 1: last year and the buddy and I doubled off the
Speaker 1: roost called him into us. But uh, you know, I start,
Speaker 1: I kind of let the turkeys tell me what to do. Uh.
Speaker 1: If I'm sitting on a roost and the gobblers or
Speaker 1: goblin the hens aren't any noise, I'm not really making
Speaker 1: a lot of noise, you know, I'm gonna let that
Speaker 1: gobbler know where I am sitting there. I try to
Speaker 1: get as close as the roost I can without bumping them.
Speaker 1: But uh, you know, I'll let that gobbler know where
Speaker 1: I am and and then you know, cut it off.
Speaker 1: Now if the hens get real vocal, I don't normally
Speaker 1: get pretty vocal, so I just kind of let the
Speaker 1: turkeys tell me what I'm gonna do. There you go.
Speaker 1: The two questions we got are both related around calls
Speaker 1: and and there's not a lot of other information around
Speaker 1: this one, but how important are calls? And I'm gonna
Speaker 1: I'm gonna kind of add to this question, so how
Speaker 1: important there calls as far as if it was like
Speaker 1: calls versus you know, habitat and you know, turkey population,
Speaker 1: or how important our calls to your success could have
Speaker 1: been in another way to to kind of put that
Speaker 1: out there. But we'll just I'm gonna let you answer
Speaker 1: this one first, Randy. How important are calls um to
Speaker 1: you as far as spring turkey season goes? You know,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm I would tell you if I was saying,
Speaker 1: what's the most important is it? Turkey hunter, I'd say
Speaker 1: the Woodsman ship, you know, to get around in the woods,
Speaker 1: where to set up, to get on the ridge in
Speaker 1: front of and things like that. What I enjoy about
Speaker 1: the cause and the reason I try to be good
Speaker 1: at it. And I can't say that I'm a great caller,
Speaker 1: but I you know, I've killed a lot of turkeys,
Speaker 1: and I practiced quite a bit with a call. I
Speaker 1: want to be able to know when to call, when
Speaker 1: not to call, and when it is time to call.
Speaker 1: I want to be able to use it and and
Speaker 1: be able to use it without you know, sounding like
Speaker 1: somebody scratching a chalkboard. And so I have over the
Speaker 1: years of practice with a call, and I want to
Speaker 1: make sure the three calls you talked about, the mouth call,
Speaker 1: a slate, call, in the box call. I try to
Speaker 1: be efficient at all three of them. Now, as long
Speaker 1: as you're efficient at one of them, I think a
Speaker 1: lot of people, can you know, will kill turkeys. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's the most important, but I think that
Speaker 1: calling and woodsmanship are the best, you know, the two
Speaker 1: things out there that you've got to be pretty decent that, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure, you know, I love to make the calls
Speaker 1: the most important. But just like you, you know, woodsman ship, um,
Speaker 1: you know understanding of what that turkey wants to do
Speaker 1: throughout the day, from the time they you know, come
Speaker 1: out of the roost to feed, you know, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: following his flock to you know that that tom breaking
Speaker 1: off later in the season. You know, all that stuff
Speaker 1: is is is quite a bit more important. And you know,
Speaker 1: like Chris and Dirk's bird last year, you know what
Speaker 1: I would have loved to say, we called those things
Speaker 1: all the way across the field, but we spotted him,
Speaker 1: um worked the terrain, you know, worked the vegetation, got
Speaker 1: set up, and you know, let those turkeys do their
Speaker 1: own thing, you know, ultimately lead to us back in
Speaker 1: those turkeys. So you know, I love to call turkeys
Speaker 1: in the spring, but just like you, I think there's
Speaker 1: a lot of other stuff that that may be more
Speaker 1: important to you know, to being successful. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: now that we've got those two user questions of the way,
Speaker 1: let's jump into kind of the reason, you know, the
Speaker 1: main reason we brought you on. And don't let Randy
Speaker 1: Foolia out there. He's a great turkey caller, knows what
Speaker 1: to do, you know, makes the right noises. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: he can call for me any day. But uh, you know,
Speaker 1: it's more of what do the turkeys need? Um. You know,
Speaker 1: there there's areas we've we've all seen it lately. You know,
Speaker 1: your your own home stata, well not your home state,
Speaker 1: the state you hunt in the majority of the time, Kansas, UM,
Speaker 1: seems like the population's way down. You know, Missouri's trying
Speaker 1: to figure out right now why they're turkey populations you know,
Speaker 1: way down. And so you know, one of the questions
Speaker 1: that needs to be answered is what do turkeys need?
Speaker 1: What do turkeys need to thrive? What do turkeys need
Speaker 1: just to get by and live? Um? You know, what's required,
Speaker 1: what's preferred, what do they prefer? Um. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of different answers, but that's kind of what we're gonna
Speaker 1: tackle with you today. Randy is a guy that sets
Speaker 1: out and and just being able to spend you know,
Speaker 1: five four or five days at your property and just
Speaker 1: kind of see everything that's been built for the you know,
Speaker 1: the deer and the turkeys out there. UM. You know,
Speaker 1: be a great guesses to go over you know, some
Speaker 1: of these questions we have and then get your opinion. UM.
Speaker 1: Since you've got to you monitor the property and kind
Speaker 1: of see what they do like and where they do
Speaker 1: prefer to go, and how you've been able to keep
Speaker 1: you know, your numbers on your own property so high
Speaker 1: compared to you know, the surrounding properties. Jason, I there's
Speaker 1: so turkey populations and you're correct, you know. I I
Speaker 1: read in the WTF and all these states and numbers
Speaker 1: are down and and a lot of areas and even
Speaker 1: in my area in Southeast Kansas, we used to have
Speaker 1: a two bird limit and now we're down to one
Speaker 1: bird limit. And you know, there's so much that goes
Speaker 1: along with that, you know, raising a turkey, as I
Speaker 1: call it, And you've been on my place. I try
Speaker 1: to make it better every year. I try to do
Speaker 1: something different. And if it's planting, you know, gobbler sawtooth trees,
Speaker 1: which I have several planted, chestnut trees, I mean, turkey's
Speaker 1: love ans. But you know, one of the things you
Speaker 1: notice when you're out there, you know, I've got already
Speaker 1: forty acres of food plots, and of them are in
Speaker 1: clover turkeys bug And I've got a lot of other acreage.
Speaker 1: And you know that's not clover in fields that I
Speaker 1: will most strips in where a turkey can walk down
Speaker 1: the strip with her pots and bug but if danger
Speaker 1: is close, she can run right into the tall grass.
Speaker 1: You do a lot of things like that. One of
Speaker 1: the things I did I started years a few years ago,
Speaker 1: is I do a lot of hinge cutting. You hear
Speaker 1: people talk about hinge cutting. I try to do, uh,
Speaker 1: timber management where a lot of people don't do that.
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of people go out and do
Speaker 1: food plots, they put feeders out there, but timber management
Speaker 1: is very important, you know. But give them that nest
Speaker 1: area where turkey can go into that tree top and
Speaker 1: nest and and hopefully you know, go unseen. And uh.
Speaker 1: The other thing I think, you know, I hear people
Speaker 1: talk about, you know, is if farm kimble cools, what's
Speaker 1: killing these turkeys? Why there's not as many? And and
Speaker 1: I'll still go back and people disagree, But I think
Speaker 1: predator to control is the main thing. You know. I
Speaker 1: grew up coon hunting, and man, you could sell a
Speaker 1: coon pelt for twenty dollars, and kids like me, we're
Speaker 1: going out coon hunting and selling you know, coon pelts.
Speaker 1: And now they're not buying cones and in the palates
Speaker 1: and they're just everywhere. I mean I can put out
Speaker 1: a hundred cameras and they'll be twenty coons on almost
Speaker 1: every camera. If I got food up, yeah, I think
Speaker 1: last year and we were there, uh you know, we've
Speaker 1: seen your one camera that we were watching for turkeys
Speaker 1: had coons that kept showing up and I think we
Speaker 1: we bumped some raccoons off of one of the feeders,
Speaker 1: and uh yeah, it seems like that's a big issue
Speaker 1: back there, for sure, it is. And I think prect
Speaker 1: or control is something that I know, you know, from
Speaker 1: a duck standpoint, I know what Ducks and Lamon is
Speaker 1: really working on predt or control and no, n wtf
Speaker 1: is but I think that that's probably the number one
Speaker 1: reason you see a lot of decline and uh but
Speaker 1: you know from the food p tat, you know, I
Speaker 1: try to provide them a lot of acrons, which in
Speaker 1: Southeast Kansas I happened to been fortunate and bought some
Speaker 1: farms and had a lot of oak trees on it,
Speaker 1: white white oak. And in Red ohk I try to
Speaker 1: do half of my food plots and clover. Again. I
Speaker 1: try to mow strips so they can hide, they can
Speaker 1: bug because you know, you go up there in the
Speaker 1: summertime in June and July and and and there's as
Speaker 1: long as you've got the grass motors grasshoppers everywhere, it's
Speaker 1: fun to watch those little posts just get out and
Speaker 1: start chasing them around. And uh so, you know, I
Speaker 1: just try to provide them all the food and cover
Speaker 1: and I can provide them. Yeah, I got you, and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do my best, uh my best. Barbara Ross
Speaker 1: to kind of verbally describe your property, Randy, and some
Speaker 1: of the stuff you mentioned. You know, you don't see
Speaker 1: big large tracts of anything on your property, like to
Speaker 1: me being a being a guy from out you know
Speaker 1: on the Pacific coast where you know, we've got industrial
Speaker 1: timberlands were growing, you know, forty to fifty year old
Speaker 1: Douglas fur and lock forest. You kind of get the
Speaker 1: same thing over and over until you down the river bottoms.
Speaker 1: But when you go to your place in Kansas. What
Speaker 1: I loved about it is it it doesn't seem to
Speaker 1: be you know, a hundred acres of clover. You know,
Speaker 1: your clover and your your cut corn, and you know
Speaker 1: where you you kind of mixed clover in with like
Speaker 1: a planted um you know, alfalfa hay field. Everything was
Speaker 1: broken up in a way where those turkeys felt comfortable.
Speaker 1: You know, you might have a hundred hundred foot two
Speaker 1: hundred yard wide strip, but then they've got hardwoods right
Speaker 1: next to it. And then like where I killed my
Speaker 1: turkey and you left a standing cut corn field, which
Speaker 1: it wasn't very big. It was only what three or
Speaker 1: four acres, and then it was surrounded by a hedgerow
Speaker 1: and hardwoods, and then you go to the corner of it,
Speaker 1: and then you enter into like a two acre clover field.
Speaker 1: And it was just kind of cool to see. How
Speaker 1: you know, where people out west, if there's age, it's
Speaker 1: it's like forever where you're looking, it seems like with
Speaker 1: your your food plots um and the way that you're harvesting.
Speaker 1: You know, you know some of the crops that it
Speaker 1: really is. You know, it's not it's not just wide open.
Speaker 1: It's strategically placed. Um. The birds and the deer have
Speaker 1: a ton of security um, which kind of is going
Speaker 1: to get into our next question. Randy is like, what's
Speaker 1: the most important? Is it the food? Is it the roost?
Speaker 1: Is it the security and nesting? You know, what is
Speaker 1: that in moments before I killed my bird on your
Speaker 1: place last year. Um, we were walking down one year
Speaker 1: old farm roads and we kind of spotted a hen
Speaker 1: up ahead, maybe a couple hundred yards, and we were
Speaker 1: kind of watching her and not wanting to really spook
Speaker 1: birds in case something else was with her. And we
Speaker 1: walked up there, gave her enough time, and she just
Speaker 1: kind of disappeared. Um. And and I don't know whether
Speaker 1: you designed this into your property or not, but that
Speaker 1: you had kind of a pile of of logs there
Speaker 1: that were kind of leftovers, and we had all kind
Speaker 1: of confirm we thought that that hen was nesting inside
Speaker 1: that pile of logs. So whether you design that or not,
Speaker 1: like your your property so broken up, and so you
Speaker 1: know unique that it's it's opportunities like that where that
Speaker 1: hen picked that pile of logs and nest. Like what
Speaker 1: is the most important there? And is it? Is it food?
Speaker 1: Is it roost? Or is there is there not one
Speaker 1: that's most important? Is it? In your opinion? Like they're
Speaker 1: all equals. I think it's a combination, you know. I
Speaker 1: try to provide them all of that and even the
Speaker 1: you know, the food, the cover turkey has gotta have cover.
Speaker 1: I mean, you think about a turkey, Everything out there
Speaker 1: is trying to hunt it. I mean, coons and postums
Speaker 1: are eating their nest, Skunks are eating their nests. You've
Speaker 1: got hawks and birds, you know, killing them when they're small,
Speaker 1: killing them when they're big. I mean, hoot owls are
Speaker 1: trying to kill them. They have got to have somewhere
Speaker 1: to nest. And so I try to make that when
Speaker 1: I do hinge cutting, do a lot of around the
Speaker 1: edges in my food plots, just like that pile. You
Speaker 1: know that was just some logs there, an old tree
Speaker 1: that I piled up. Or a hen can run away.
Speaker 1: She's out there with her pots and they're out there
Speaker 1: in that little clover field around those trees, and you know,
Speaker 1: a hawk is flying over. She can run them right
Speaker 1: into that tree log And uh so I tried. I
Speaker 1: think it's a combination of all. It's hard to just
Speaker 1: pick one, you know. I believe you can have all
Speaker 1: the cover you can, but if you don't have any
Speaker 1: food for them, you know, it's it's just as detrimental
Speaker 1: for them. So I think it's a little bit of
Speaker 1: combination of all of them, for sure, for sure, And Randy,
Speaker 1: can you explain hinge cutting for all of our listeners
Speaker 1: that might not know what that is. You know, hinge
Speaker 1: cutting is is I go out in a piece of
Speaker 1: ground and and I try not to really do you know,
Speaker 1: twenty or thirty acres of it. I'll do a few
Speaker 1: acres here and there. I go out and you see
Speaker 1: a lot of old trees that are about as big
Speaker 1: as my leg or you know, just not huge trees.
Speaker 1: But there may be hickory nut trees, or they may
Speaker 1: be some tree that's not producing. Basically, I always say,
Speaker 1: if it's not producing an acren, I'm gonna hinge cut it.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna cut it about belt high. Instead of cutting
Speaker 1: it all the way through. When it starts to tip over,
Speaker 1: I just push it on over so it's still it's
Speaker 1: it's actually still growing for a few years. Uh, And
Speaker 1: it's laying on the ground and a lot of deer
Speaker 1: turkeys can nest in it. And for several years, even
Speaker 1: though that tree is laying down, Uh, you know, ben
Speaker 1: over as I say, it's still growing its leaves every
Speaker 1: year and turkeys can get in their dear love to
Speaker 1: eat on it. Dear love to always say, like a
Speaker 1: cedar tree. I don't Hinge cut sedars. I only do
Speaker 1: you know the what I call the ugly tree. But uh,
Speaker 1: they like to get in there and put their back
Speaker 1: up against it. You know they can. Uh. I killed
Speaker 1: this year. We're talking about turkeys, but I killed a
Speaker 1: hundred seventi five inch buck this year. And I had
Speaker 1: Hinge cut a piece of property last year of about
Speaker 1: five acres and he walked right out of it right
Speaker 1: to me, you know, And that thrilled me to know
Speaker 1: he was bedded up in that that you know, thicket
Speaker 1: got you. Yeah, And I remember we walked down off
Speaker 1: of that one really heavy oak ridge and we walked
Speaker 1: down across I. I don't I don't want to misquote you,
Speaker 1: but I think you said, like every every oak tree
Speaker 1: that was bigger than a certain like eighteen inches breast height,
Speaker 1: you were taking them down because they were no longer producing.
Speaker 1: And that bottom is that? So I remember that correct,
Speaker 1: that you were. You were taking down some of those
Speaker 1: medium sized oaks throughout that that bottom, well, the larger ones.
Speaker 1: I had a timber guy come in and again I
Speaker 1: try to do all the timber management I can if
Speaker 1: they're really twenty five inches and again some people will
Speaker 1: say they gotta be a little bigger. If they're twenty
Speaker 1: five inches are bigger, I let him cut them. And
Speaker 1: and uh, I use a guy that is he's a hunter,
Speaker 1: he's a timber guy. He understands him. He'll come and
Speaker 1: mark them. And when he marks him, he and I
Speaker 1: walked through there and make sure I agree with the
Speaker 1: ones he marks. And but he's cutting the really big trees.
Speaker 1: And you know, it's a it's always amazing how much
Speaker 1: better my hunting's got over the several years as I'm
Speaker 1: doing timber management. When I cut that big tree out
Speaker 1: of there, there's three or four smaller trees that are
Speaker 1: that are around it that all of a sudden really
Speaker 1: starts producing good acrens. You know, that ten twelve fifteen
Speaker 1: inch tree starts producing. So you know, it's like I
Speaker 1: said earlier, timber management is something I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people miss out on that I think really has
Speaker 1: improved my wildlife. Got you perfect perfect. So now that
Speaker 1: we kind of have talked a little bit, you know
Speaker 1: that food roost, you know, security nesting, you know, everything
Speaker 1: that you're providing on your property is there um as
Speaker 1: far as food um let's let's just put you in
Speaker 1: a scenario like we're gonna let go a band of
Speaker 1: wild turkeys and they can go veer off a little
Speaker 1: bit to the left and go get in the clover field.
Speaker 1: Or they can go straight ahead and get into like
Speaker 1: a chief of field. Um, they can go to the
Speaker 1: right and getting like an alf alfa field. Um. In
Speaker 1: your opinion, like, what is the best food source? I
Speaker 1: know you've already touched on clover a little bit and
Speaker 1: you know the bugging and then um, you know, using
Speaker 1: the clover for food. But is have you found that
Speaker 1: you know, turkeys prefer certain foods at certain times of
Speaker 1: the year or is it really just hit and missed
Speaker 1: for the area and they can be found in all
Speaker 1: of them. Well, I think it depends on where they are,
Speaker 1: you know, where they're located. I grew up hunting Missouri,
Speaker 1: you know, as a college kid, and and chase them
Speaker 1: all over public ground and Mark Twain and they had
Speaker 1: a lot of acorn flats, you know, white white oak
Speaker 1: and red oak flats. And you take my farm. You know,
Speaker 1: we killed we killed that bird of chris and dirks
Speaker 1: that you know they doubled on the clover field. You know,
Speaker 1: we come over the hill. I could see him way
Speaker 1: down there with the binoculars, and I told you, these
Speaker 1: birds are coming to this clover And what was cool
Speaker 1: about that video where those hens were just out there
Speaker 1: are those gobblers just bugging everywhere. The hens were bugging
Speaker 1: and the gobblers were just strutting with him. And uh
Speaker 1: but there's a lot of time, like you killed Jrors
Speaker 1: ten o'clock in the morning, and when he first gobbled,
Speaker 1: he was in the cloverfield, so he had been out
Speaker 1: there bugging ten o'clock in the morning and when he
Speaker 1: heard us call, and Chris Parrish I think was calling
Speaker 1: at the time. And you know, most turkeys are probably
Speaker 1: gonna come to Chris when he's calling, but being a
Speaker 1: world champion, uh, you know, he come across that cornfield
Speaker 1: and and right to you. But uh yeah, I think
Speaker 1: depends on where the location is. You know, if a
Speaker 1: turkey is in a wooded area, are grown up cattle
Speaker 1: fields because they love to bug, you know, and cattle
Speaker 1: and chase grasshoppers and and they may not even have
Speaker 1: any clover. Uh. So it all depends where that turkey
Speaker 1: is located. And I've hunted several states where I hunt Texas.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can't find a clover within twenty miles
Speaker 1: where I'm hunting, So I'm hunting cattle pastures with grasshoppers,
Speaker 1: you know. So it's just difference of where you're hunting. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well we hunt here in northeast Washington, you know, very
Speaker 1: very little agg you know, just along kind of the
Speaker 1: county roads, and then you kind of shoot up into
Speaker 1: the mountains where it's you know, Ponderosa pine and just
Speaker 1: kind of your native grasses and stuff, and you know,
Speaker 1: trying to figure out where those birds want to be
Speaker 1: and that stuff is sometimes difficult because it looks, you
Speaker 1: know the same for miles and miles and miles um.
Speaker 1: But you eventually figure out, you know, draws and ridge
Speaker 1: tops and and some of that stuff, you know, where
Speaker 1: they prefer to be, even though there's a vast um,
Speaker 1: you know, never ending supply of of native grasses and
Speaker 1: and you know, pine trees and whatnot. So yeah, same thing.
Speaker 1: You've got to just kind of adapt to the area. Um,
Speaker 1: even though I do kind of always like being close
Speaker 1: to somewhat you know, some part of agg um seems
Speaker 1: to be and make those turkeys a little more predictable,
Speaker 1: but um you know, you just got to kind of
Speaker 1: adapt to to those um So, one thing I want
Speaker 1: to touch on, you know, the the intent of this
Speaker 1: podcast is to hopefully help you know, the listeners be
Speaker 1: more successful, is how do you use the habitat to
Speaker 1: hunt the turkeys? As far as we've went over, like
Speaker 1: everything that turkey wants for food and security and roost
Speaker 1: trees and you know how they can set up their
Speaker 1: own daily routine, you know, based on the habitat. But
Speaker 1: how do you use that to to give you an
Speaker 1: advantage Randy as you kind of put the day's plan
Speaker 1: together or you know that hunt plan together, you know,
Speaker 1: in in the mornings, Jason, I'm I'm going to go,
Speaker 1: you know where I hunt normally, even when I hunt
Speaker 1: Missouri or a hunt ends is hunt Texas. I know
Speaker 1: where a lot of the turkey's gonna roost. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: try to find them on the roost and and go
Speaker 1: there and get as close as I can in that morning.
Speaker 1: And most of the time, you know, they're they're in
Speaker 1: the woods a lot of times on the creek bottom,
Speaker 1: and they're gonna come down to you know, in those
Speaker 1: woods somewhere in the middle of the day. A lot
Speaker 1: of times I'm gonna go to specific clover field or cornfield.
Speaker 1: The other day you killed your bird, we were headed
Speaker 1: trially really to the clover field and and the cornfield
Speaker 1: you know, still had had corn in it, you know,
Speaker 1: standing corn and things. So we set up there because
Speaker 1: it had been raining, if you remember that day. And
Speaker 1: and uh, I like to hunt till about noon. Truthfully,
Speaker 1: over older, I get I try not to hunt in
Speaker 1: the afternoons. I try not to hunt roost sites in
Speaker 1: the afternoon. I want to give them a break. And
Speaker 1: that's kind of when we go crappie fishing, but in
Speaker 1: the afternoons. But uh, yeah, I will try to hunt
Speaker 1: off the roost in the mornings. And once you know,
Speaker 1: if the turk he's in the first second week in
Speaker 1: April and Kansas, they'll stay in the woods for a while.
Speaker 1: So I enjoy getting into timber and hunting them. In
Speaker 1: the middle of the day. I'll go to the food plots.
Speaker 1: I'll go to that clover field because I think those
Speaker 1: hens are coming to buck and you know, so I
Speaker 1: I kind of know I've hunted there over twenty years.
Speaker 1: I kind of know where to go up there where
Speaker 1: they're gonna be. Yeah. And one thing that I liked
Speaker 1: on your places that we kind of hung around that
Speaker 1: same area and we did a lot of calling. You know,
Speaker 1: Chris did a lot of calling early in that morning
Speaker 1: and and things weren't working. We got close a couple
Speaker 1: of times, and those hens kind of did the same routine. Um,
Speaker 1: when Chris and Dirk were able to kill their birds,
Speaker 1: they kind of pulled those toms right pastes. They didn't
Speaker 1: really care. But you know, one thing is as I
Speaker 1: get older, I'm convinced and talking with you know, some
Speaker 1: Turkey experts like Mike Chamberlain as those those toms you know,
Speaker 1: later in that season, they know that you were around
Speaker 1: that area, and once their hens go to lay, they
Speaker 1: may come back looking for you. And so like you said,
Speaker 1: you know, calling in that area and then staying there,
Speaker 1: you know throughout the late morning, UM could definitely beat
Speaker 1: to the hunter's benefit, you know, not to leave the
Speaker 1: area and go find new birds, but kind of continue
Speaker 1: that play that you played on the morning, UM and
Speaker 1: get them to come back and see if you're still around.
Speaker 1: I totally agree. I mean, you know, I like to
Speaker 1: a lot of times even you know if if I
Speaker 1: know the birds are really hand up, you know, we'll
Speaker 1: go eat breakfast, be gone about an hour, hour and
Speaker 1: a half and give them time to do their thing,
Speaker 1: get them bread and hopefully the hands will leave them,
Speaker 1: you know, and later this season it's a little easier
Speaker 1: to do. You go back to the same exact same spot,
Speaker 1: and the turkeys were gobbling. I couldn't tell you how
Speaker 1: many times I had a buddy. A couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: we were down in Kansas about the same spot Dirks
Speaker 1: and Chris Hauld killed their birds. We were down the
Speaker 1: ridge a little ways and uh we had five long
Speaker 1: beards with about fifteen hens hu hung up in the
Speaker 1: woods and they gobbled probably to eight thirty never moved. Jason,
Speaker 1: we went back to the house e breakfast, got back
Speaker 1: about Levin called eleven o'clock. I called. They were in
Speaker 1: the same spot. You know, it's amazing turkeys don't move
Speaker 1: a lot. They can be in the same spot for
Speaker 1: hours and you think they're gone, and two hours later
Speaker 1: they're still on the same ridge. Yea. You know. So
Speaker 1: the key is you just gotta stay after him, you know,
Speaker 1: you gotta get after him. And when I'm going to
Speaker 1: make a mistake. Yeah, that day, I think we started
Speaker 1: we touched everywhere those turkeys were, and then when we
Speaker 1: came back it I believe we showed up at what
Speaker 1: two o'clock, those turkeys were right back in the same spot.
Speaker 1: They had never left there. They just walked a circle
Speaker 1: around us all day. Um. Yeah, so that was that
Speaker 1: was pretty cool. And uh so on that day, I
Speaker 1: want to ask you specifically about that situation, Randy, and
Speaker 1: whether we know the answer or not, we'll take our
Speaker 1: best stab at it, you know, so we should you
Speaker 1: know later And well, I guess it was what was
Speaker 1: at May seventh and eighth? We were there, um a
Speaker 1: little bit later and you know, in the season, and
Speaker 1: those those hens were still what the birds out till
Speaker 1: one and two o'clock. Do you feel that those hens
Speaker 1: had already went to nest and then came back or
Speaker 1: were they just uh not being bred yet? Like what
Speaker 1: was the reason those hens were hanging onto those toms
Speaker 1: so long? Um that day? You know, one, we have
Speaker 1: a lot of hens down there, so you know that
Speaker 1: morning they may have bred several of them and several
Speaker 1: of them went to roost and and several of them, uh,
Speaker 1: May have not have been bred yet. So you know
Speaker 1: when if you remember when we were down there, you
Speaker 1: could hear hens all in the woods and uh, those
Speaker 1: two turkeys, you know, they we had four or five
Speaker 1: hens just struck, you know, walked right by us bugging
Speaker 1: and um, so I would think probably several of the
Speaker 1: hens they had bread had gone to nest. I mean
Speaker 1: made the seventh in Kansas. I mean a lot of
Speaker 1: hens are sitting on nests, and but there's so many
Speaker 1: hens in there, I would imagine they were still with them.
Speaker 1: And you know, early Jason, I've seen, uh, I've seen
Speaker 1: turkeys up there with several hens sit under a couple
Speaker 1: of trees out in an open field. They'll be there
Speaker 1: for hours and never so I think, you know, depending
Speaker 1: on what the time of the year is, those gobblers
Speaker 1: aren't leaving leaving those hens very often. Now you're going
Speaker 1: back up there May or twenty nine, you know, those
Speaker 1: those hens would have definitely left those gobblers and go
Speaker 1: and sit on the net more than likely. You have
Speaker 1: my favorite time here in Washington to hunt. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: you would always get all amped up for opening day
Speaker 1: April fifteen. You wanted to be in the woods and
Speaker 1: then you realize one, everybody else is, you know, just
Speaker 1: as excited for opening day. So the woods, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: are just a mess with people everywhere. Number two, you
Speaker 1: would find a gobbler and he wouldn't leave those hens
Speaker 1: or nothing. And so we kind of just developed that plan.
Speaker 1: Like we found out the best time for us to
Speaker 1: hunt was early May here, um, just because the crowds.
Speaker 1: But then almost you know, we always picked that first
Speaker 1: weekend in May, which was typically you know, somewhere between
Speaker 1: you know, first or the seventh, whatever that is, and
Speaker 1: and almost always by I would say tenor at eleven o'clock,
Speaker 1: we would almost have you know, hand free gobblers. They
Speaker 1: would they would go off to lay, and then we
Speaker 1: would have him all to ourselves. You know. There were
Speaker 1: a few times, and I don't know if that's because
Speaker 1: we're you know, but it would it would seem to
Speaker 1: be opposite, like further north, we're a little bit later
Speaker 1: than you guys. But um, I was just a little
Speaker 1: surprised to see those two hens kind of you know,
Speaker 1: our three hens kind of leading the show there in
Speaker 1: the in the mid afternoon, and then those gobblers were
Speaker 1: not going to leave them either. Watching them strut all
Speaker 1: the way. You know, they came to link to that
Speaker 1: big road. They're all the way down in that clover field,
Speaker 1: and we set up on the south end of it,
Speaker 1: and they came strutted all the way down to I know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it on video and it's pretty cool to watch. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a really cool you know, just to watch
Speaker 1: them come through that clover and just kind of you know,
Speaker 1: spitting drummond and just puffed up the whole way. Was
Speaker 1: was pretty cool to watch. And then Chris and Dirk
Speaker 1: made great shots and doubled up there and uh yeah,
Speaker 1: a great hunt. So we touched on a little bit. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna dive a little bit deeper into predators because
Speaker 1: I know, you know, talking with you before the show, Um,
Speaker 1: we feel that that may be the biggest issue currently. Um.
Speaker 1: You know that that's that's given just these wild turkeys
Speaker 1: a fit right now. Um, you know, everything from the
Speaker 1: cons the possums, the everything that we've have here. You
Speaker 1: know what's the solution. Is it just the landowners or
Speaker 1: the hunters themselves. You know, the same reason we hunt
Speaker 1: coyotes out here because they wreak havoc on you know,
Speaker 1: the the young fawns and calves. I mean, are we
Speaker 1: just gonna have to to take it into our own hands?
Speaker 1: Is that the solution is to just take care of
Speaker 1: these predators, regardless of you know, the pelts being worth
Speaker 1: anything or you know, apossum is never gonna be worth
Speaker 1: a dang thing. Um Like, what's the solution to take
Speaker 1: can care of this randy? Is it? Is it people
Speaker 1: just you know, doing it because it's the right thing
Speaker 1: to do for the wild turkey? Um? Or is there
Speaker 1: anything else we can do to to help fend off
Speaker 1: these predators? Well, you know, I think and it there's
Speaker 1: two parts of that. You know, in a way, there's
Speaker 1: private landowners, and I think a lot of private landowners
Speaker 1: can do more trapping. And and I know in Kansas,
Speaker 1: in the area I'm in up there this weekend, they're
Speaker 1: having a cow competition. Whoever kills the most colts and
Speaker 1: brings them in, you know, wins a prize because cowls
Speaker 1: are rough on turkeys too. And and and I've never
Speaker 1: seen anything kill a turkey as fast as a bobcat can.
Speaker 1: And uh and I say, so, I think you've got
Speaker 1: the private landowner that I think just has to be
Speaker 1: more aggressive in their trapping, but on public ground, I
Speaker 1: think that the Game and Fish, you know, commissions of
Speaker 1: these states have to to back up and look at
Speaker 1: some programs they have and what can they do to
Speaker 1: really urge people to do more trapping, more coon hunting,
Speaker 1: more things like that. And and uh, you know Arkansas
Speaker 1: has a bad problem with hogs, and and I know
Speaker 1: our Game and Fish is really spending a lot of
Speaker 1: time and effort trying to figure out how are we
Speaker 1: going to control those And but it's the same thing
Speaker 1: when it comes to the coons and and couts and
Speaker 1: bobcats and everything. I mean, they're those predators are tough
Speaker 1: on turkeys. So I mean, as a private landowner that
Speaker 1: grew up hunting public ground, which I still enjoy doing,
Speaker 1: I think I think it's going to take two sides,
Speaker 1: I mean, the private landowner and the Game and Fish
Speaker 1: commissions to to get serious about this predator control. All right, Randy,
Speaker 1: now that we've kind of hit on, you know, the
Speaker 1: private habitat and what turkeys prefer, if you can create
Speaker 1: kind of the ideal situation which you have there on
Speaker 1: your place, Um, you know, growing up you've hunted a
Speaker 1: lot of public kind of where the majority of us
Speaker 1: out west get to do our turkey hunting. What would
Speaker 1: you say is the most important? Um? You know, we
Speaker 1: can still use habitat to our advantage on the public ground.
Speaker 1: Like what do you look for when you're you know,
Speaker 1: either EA scouting or boots on the ground, Like are
Speaker 1: you looking for some of the same stuff like a
Speaker 1: feed area versus where they're going to come out of
Speaker 1: the roost versus you know, where they want to spend
Speaker 1: their day, you know, scratching and bugging. Like, explain to
Speaker 1: me a little bit about your public land approach, but
Speaker 1: still using habitat um to help you out. You know,
Speaker 1: that's a good question. I still hunt some public ground
Speaker 1: I grew up and, like said earlier, in college hunting
Speaker 1: Mark Twain National Forest up in Missouri, which I still,
Speaker 1: you know, think is some great hunting. You can find
Speaker 1: a lot of birds on some of that public ground.
Speaker 1: And and I think there's so many people I've been blessed,
Speaker 1: And she said earlier, I joke with people that I
Speaker 1: only work to pay for my hunting hobby, you know,
Speaker 1: but I've been blessed there. So I do have my
Speaker 1: own own property. But you know, growing up hunting public ground.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of people that still hunt in public ground.
Speaker 1: And and I I elk hunt on public ground a
Speaker 1: lot lot of times, and and I use you know,
Speaker 1: you can go out there and get the ONYX Hunt
Speaker 1: map and a lot of these maps. And so when
Speaker 1: I'm going on public ground, I'm using these maps to
Speaker 1: figure out where these ridges are, you know, uh, where
Speaker 1: the creeks are lie within in that area I'm hunting.
Speaker 1: And and so Mark Twain, I'll use them ill brag
Speaker 1: on Missouri. I'm not from Missouri. I'm from Arkansas, but
Speaker 1: I've hunted up there for years. And I think their
Speaker 1: Game and Fish did a really good job with their
Speaker 1: public grounds on their Mark Twain National Forest. And and
Speaker 1: I know in Arkansas we have a lot of public
Speaker 1: ground and in a lot of states, and I think
Speaker 1: that's so important that public ground is provided to you know,
Speaker 1: residents of that state to come and hunt. And uh
Speaker 1: so I used to live I lived pretty close to
Speaker 1: the Missouri line in Arkansas when I grew up, so
Speaker 1: we could get up there in about an hour. And
Speaker 1: you know, back then in those days, we didn't have
Speaker 1: that on X maps. I mean, we had paper maps
Speaker 1: and we lay it down and figure out, Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: going over here on this ridge and you go over
Speaker 1: on that ridge. And I think that's the key because
Speaker 1: a lot of those public grounds you're hunting acorn flats
Speaker 1: and uh. And once you get in there and you
Speaker 1: find where them turkeys are, they're gonna be in there
Speaker 1: most of the time if you're hunting a ridge like that.
Speaker 1: But you know a lot of the game and fishing estates,
Speaker 1: And I think that's always been good on in in
Speaker 1: Missouri and Arkansas and Kansas, there's a lot of control
Speaker 1: burning and that control burning. It's amazing how fast turkeys
Speaker 1: come in there after after woods are burned, our grasses
Speaker 1: are burned, and and so I know in Kansas we
Speaker 1: do a lot of control burning. We we burn a
Speaker 1: lot of our properties up there, and I think that
Speaker 1: really does help with a lot of the the turkey population.
Speaker 1: But yeah, when I'm hunting public ground, I'm normally using
Speaker 1: a map trying to figure out, okay, uh, where do
Speaker 1: I need to go in here? And and probably nothing
Speaker 1: better Jason and calling a buddy or someone at hunted
Speaker 1: that area and say hey, I'm up here for a
Speaker 1: few days, you know, send me to the right spot. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've always told people hunters get along with hunters. There's
Speaker 1: not a lot of jealousy there. You know, I want
Speaker 1: you to kill a turkey as bad as I want
Speaker 1: to kill a turkey. A lot of times I want
Speaker 1: my grandson. I want my grandson to kill a turkey
Speaker 1: more than I want to kill a turkey. Yeah. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you guys out in the Midwest might be
Speaker 1: better guys than us out West, because I think it's
Speaker 1: the opposite. Like people out here wanna, you know, they wanna,
Speaker 1: they want to do everything themselves, don't want to share.
Speaker 1: It doesn't seem as much, but I know that's that's
Speaker 1: good on you that you know, everybody's trying to help
Speaker 1: each other back there, and uh um, that's pretty cool
Speaker 1: because you know, that's that's what I love about turkey hunting,
Speaker 1: as well as just you know, being able to go
Speaker 1: out with some good buddies, you know, hang out. It
Speaker 1: seems to be a little bit more relaxed than big
Speaker 1: game hunting, but it's it's still hunting. It's still a
Speaker 1: great chess match with a you know, a worthy opponent.
Speaker 1: You know, it was doing wild turkeys, they get a
Speaker 1: bad rap on, you know, being a dumb bird, or
Speaker 1: why can't you guys kill one? They're standing all over
Speaker 1: the the you know, the edge of the road or
Speaker 1: the fence line, and I'm like, these turkeys might be
Speaker 1: the dumbest bird until you put a shotgun in your hand,
Speaker 1: and then they become like the smartest bird. You know,
Speaker 1: they instantly change at the point where you're trying to
Speaker 1: kill one. Well, I got some friends in Arkansas that
Speaker 1: go up to Kansas, not far from me, to hunt
Speaker 1: on public ground, and Jason, they killed birds every year.
Speaker 1: I mean, these are good hunters, you know, give them credit,
Speaker 1: but they're hunting public ground there. They don't have private ground,
Speaker 1: and so there's a lot of I love reading magazines
Speaker 1: when it talks about a state just you know, bought
Speaker 1: and put four thousand acres of public ground in you know,
Speaker 1: for hunters. I mean that that's exciting and I hope
Speaker 1: the states keep doing that because that so many people
Speaker 1: have to hunt there. And and again, when I grew
Speaker 1: up hunting, that's all we had to hunt. We we
Speaker 1: couldn't we didn't own private land, you know. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: that's that's a good segue into my next USh and
Speaker 1: um out west. You know, we're hunting the majority of
Speaker 1: a public ground. You know, if you're lucky enough, you
Speaker 1: might be able to to get you know, onto a
Speaker 1: piece of property for maybe a youth season, or if
Speaker 1: you know a family friend, you might have a little
Speaker 1: piece of of private you can get on. But the
Speaker 1: majority of the time we're we're running and gunning on
Speaker 1: um you know, public ground, big vast chunks of property
Speaker 1: with turkeys that aren't you know, they're they're three four
Speaker 1: miles in on a road, which is is great. But
Speaker 1: one question I've always had and I haven't really figured
Speaker 1: it out yet, but you know, on on big wide
Speaker 1: open country, um, you know, the turkeys need to go
Speaker 1: grab water if the area isn't holding small pockets of water. Um.
Speaker 1: Our turkeys here seemed to travel a long ways to
Speaker 1: go get you know, to a puddler, to a small creek,
Speaker 1: um and get their daily water. Like, what have you found?
Speaker 1: Have you have you had a chance to hunt out
Speaker 1: and more of that open country, you know, drier country
Speaker 1: where these birds are having to go, you know, a
Speaker 1: fairly long distance from roost to to food the water
Speaker 1: and how does that kind of a your hunt is
Speaker 1: These turkeys aren't just sitting in one spot like they
Speaker 1: were on your property. They're moving, you know, a mile
Speaker 1: a day or you know a mile and a half
Speaker 1: on their on their routine. You know, I've hunted out
Speaker 1: midway our father out like you're talking about up in
Speaker 1: northern Nebraska. I would in in different places where you're
Speaker 1: hunting that Merryam turkey. And I assume you're hunting to
Speaker 1: Merriyam turkey where Yeah, yeah, we have Merriam's up up
Speaker 1: in the northeast corner where I'm hunting Eastern's here. But
Speaker 1: when I go out there to hunt Merriam's, I will
Speaker 1: say I work. I walk a lot more out there
Speaker 1: than I do in Kansas or Arkansas or Missouri. I
Speaker 1: do a lot of walking and a lot of calling
Speaker 1: and walking, and and those birds travel a lot more
Speaker 1: than the eastern turkey does. And uh, but you know
Speaker 1: it's the same way when I go out there and
Speaker 1: i'm hunting, I'm looking at a map trying to figure
Speaker 1: out where the creeks are, where the water is, you know,
Speaker 1: where where would they be? Is there a cornfield, is
Speaker 1: there a farmer it's got a close overfield or our
Speaker 1: fal filfield. I'm using that map to find those turkeys.
Speaker 1: And but you're you're right, you know you got to
Speaker 1: I hunt Rio's in Texas, South Texas. Every year I
Speaker 1: hunt Rio's and they're a lot like a Merriam. I mean,
Speaker 1: I could cover teen eleven miles a day. You know,
Speaker 1: we my buddy is and I we're watching, tell us
Speaker 1: how far we've gone. We may walk eleven miles and
Speaker 1: one day chasing Rio's. So you just gotta be ready
Speaker 1: to move depending on what type of bird you know
Speaker 1: you're hunting. So you've had the same experience where you're
Speaker 1: hunting those Merriams or Rio's um that we have in
Speaker 1: the northeast corner, you lace your boots up a little
Speaker 1: tighter that morning than you know. The Easterns that I
Speaker 1: grew up with right here around my home. You know,
Speaker 1: they didn't leave you. They had their one little feed spot,
Speaker 1: they get their water right next to them, and they
Speaker 1: might not leave that quarter mile circle, you know, for
Speaker 1: a month. Um. They're just those Easterns here are locked
Speaker 1: down pretty tight. I learned a hard lesson when I
Speaker 1: said the first time I was fortunate to go up
Speaker 1: in northern Nebraska, to hunt Mariam's and uh, I you know,
Speaker 1: I've grew up hunting Eastern turkeys, so I wouldn't used
Speaker 1: to do it all that walking. I learned pretty quick.
Speaker 1: You better pack some water when you're out hunting, Meriam. Yep,
Speaker 1: ye a lot more. Do you think you're gonna need
Speaker 1: because you may be five miles from the truck before
Speaker 1: you realize it. Yep, yep. Well we we kind of
Speaker 1: covered all the questions I had on habitat, But I
Speaker 1: have a couple of another question for you, and I'll
Speaker 1: see what answer you give me here. But Randy, if
Speaker 1: you could give you know, one or two pieces of
Speaker 1: advice to struggling turkey hunters or maybe people that aren't
Speaker 1: finding success out there, um to make them more successful?
Speaker 1: What would it be just kind of you know, anything
Speaker 1: from you know, calling the setups to scouting, you know,
Speaker 1: any of that, Like, give give us kind of your
Speaker 1: best one or two tips to make you successful. Well,
Speaker 1: if I was gonna give two tips, one of them
Speaker 1: would be scouting. I mean, you've got to scout to
Speaker 1: air your end, you know. And if you're hunting public ground,
Speaker 1: you know you're going to be facing competition. There's gonna
Speaker 1: be other hunters there, so you gotta get out and scout.
Speaker 1: And the other other tip I think would is very important. Um,
Speaker 1: you know there's you take us. You know, we got
Speaker 1: to know each other and friends with Chris Parish and
Speaker 1: a lot of people like that. There's so many chat
Speaker 1: rooms on there that talks about turkeys, where to go,
Speaker 1: you know, you can get on them all day long,
Speaker 1: and and there's so many hunters get along with hunters,
Speaker 1: and they're willing to share. And maybe not up north
Speaker 1: where you are, but most of the time down in
Speaker 1: the Midwest and places you know they're they're willing to share.
Speaker 1: And and I I've had a buddy here in Arkansas
Speaker 1: that has killed a bird in every state that has
Speaker 1: a turkey, and he and I have visited about how
Speaker 1: did you do that? And so much of it was
Speaker 1: just getting on a site and saying, hey, I'm coming
Speaker 1: to Nevada. You know where would I go? I'm trying
Speaker 1: to kill a bird in every state? And and he
Speaker 1: was helped so much by people, you know, just other
Speaker 1: hunters and said, hey, man, you know, come here. I
Speaker 1: think you can get on this public ground and and
Speaker 1: go to this certain area and there should be a
Speaker 1: turkey in there. So yeah, a lot of a lot
Speaker 1: of people aren't fortunate to have their own public ground
Speaker 1: where you walk out there. And and believe me, it
Speaker 1: didn't come easy for me. I was fortunate and and
Speaker 1: worked hard and and uh and and if if I
Speaker 1: didn't happen to have a farm in Kansas, I'd still
Speaker 1: be hunting public ground today in Arkansas. Wouldn't bother me
Speaker 1: a bit, you know, because I'm going to hunt, uh
Speaker 1: and uh. But I think those are the two things.
Speaker 1: I mean, get out and know other people. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and we you know, I'm gonna add onto the scouting.
Speaker 1: I grew up what I I feel is maybe the
Speaker 1: hardest turkey in the world to kill. Where these Eastern
Speaker 1: that they planted here in western Washington um very very
Speaker 1: low numbers, and that was the battle. Like you couldn't
Speaker 1: kill one if you didn't find it. So we would
Speaker 1: spend literally, you know, the entire month of March out
Speaker 1: locating every morning on the weekends just trying to have
Speaker 1: a bird, maybe two if you got really lucky to hunt.
Speaker 1: But and without that scouting, you would have just been,
Speaker 1: you know, dead in the water come season. So you know,
Speaker 1: figuring out where that bird or birds like to roost,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of where his um you know, a
Speaker 1: few spots are he would move a little bit, but
Speaker 1: kind of his core area. And then just kind of
Speaker 1: pounding that when season came was really your best you know,
Speaker 1: bet because if you didn't, like I said, locate that
Speaker 1: bird prior to season, um, you were scouting the entire
Speaker 1: season and not really hunting. Yeah, And you make a
Speaker 1: good point on the scouting part, because you know, even
Speaker 1: where I hunt, where there's a lot of turkeys is amazing.
Speaker 1: I think of a couple of times in the last
Speaker 1: few years where we'll get up there a couple of
Speaker 1: days before Sasan starts and go out there one morning
Speaker 1: and they'll be pretty blue bird day and cold in
Speaker 1: in early April, and in one area, Jason, you know,
Speaker 1: one morning we might hear twenty to twenty five turkeys. Guy, boy,
Speaker 1: it sounds like in the very next morning, go out
Speaker 1: there and you don't hear a sound. And you know,
Speaker 1: I swear those turkeys are living in caves. I mean
Speaker 1: there's you know, how in the world can you hear
Speaker 1: twenty sitting right here in tomorrow? I didn't hear one,
Speaker 1: you know, so I try to scout several places because
Speaker 1: I can tell you I'm one of those running gunners.
Speaker 1: If I get out there and a bird doesn't gobble
Speaker 1: early in the morning, I'm jumping in the truck going
Speaker 1: to another spot. I'm trying to find that turkey. You know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a bird out there somewhere, gobbling his head off
Speaker 1: somewhere where. So uh yeah, we did the same thing
Speaker 1: here in eastern Washington. We'd have a few little pieces
Speaker 1: of private we could hunt, but we would save it,
Speaker 1: you know for a day or a slow day, like, oh,
Speaker 1: public is on fire, we don't need to mess with
Speaker 1: our private birds. And we did a lot of um,
Speaker 1: you know, night roosting where we would drive around on
Speaker 1: the roads as it got dark, you know, let our
Speaker 1: predator calls out, you know, do a bunch of you know,
Speaker 1: peacocks whatever, and locating these ding Miriam's. They moved so
Speaker 1: much on their own, you knew they weren't really getting bumped,
Speaker 1: but they would be you know, a ridge or two
Speaker 1: over and you couldn't hear them, or they just decided
Speaker 1: to roost in a different spot that night. Um. So
Speaker 1: for us kind of piggyback and on scouting. Um, we
Speaker 1: did a lot of night locating after our night hunt,
Speaker 1: and and then just went and made sure we had
Speaker 1: two or three you know, fresh birds to start on
Speaker 1: in the morning. And then you know, climbed in close
Speaker 1: and sat up under that tree, and that just ensured
Speaker 1: that we always have something to go on in the morning.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have You're gonna have some live birds, you know,
Speaker 1: somewhere around you versus you know, start in the morning
Speaker 1: running and gunning. Um, you know, at least at least
Speaker 1: gets you a little bit ahead. Yeah, we do. We
Speaker 1: do a lot of scouting, even even on land. We're
Speaker 1: from marry With, We're gonna Part of it is we
Speaker 1: just want to be outside. I mean, we really enjoy
Speaker 1: you know, this is what we live for, you know,
Speaker 1: and so we're gonna be out there scouting no matter what. Yeah. Well, uh,
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you taking the time from your busy day.
Speaker 1: It's about tax time, so I'm sure you're just getting
Speaker 1: about overwhelmed with everything coming in. So I really appreciate
Speaker 1: you taking time out of your day Randy and talking
Speaker 1: turkey and turkey habitat with us, and uh, I can't
Speaker 1: wait for a couple more months for me to get
Speaker 1: to you know, join up with you there in Kansas
Speaker 1: and see if we can't do it again. Well, I'm
Speaker 1: looking forward to it too, and I know and April there,
Speaker 1: you guys will be down there and we'll have a
Speaker 1: good time. So I'll make sure we save a few
Speaker 1: for you guys. All right, perfect, I appreciate it. Randy,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I can get my boy. He's
Speaker 1: he's got this weird phobia of ticks, so I don't
Speaker 1: know if I can get him out there for the
Speaker 1: Kansas opener. I might try to get him through that,
Speaker 1: get him through that here in Washington and see if
Speaker 1: he can, you know, get through it, and then we'll
Speaker 1: maybe planning for Kansas in the future. On a on
Speaker 1: a youth, Hod, I'll tell you you just said, I
Speaker 1: sent you a whole box of spray. Make sure you
Speaker 1: put it on his clothes, not on his skin, and
Speaker 1: he won't have any he won't have any problem with this.
Speaker 1: You need to bring your son out to you season.
Speaker 1: It would be a lot of fun. I mean, well,
Speaker 1: if we uh, you know, even get him in a
Speaker 1: in a blind or something on a on a clover
Speaker 1: field to just watch Strutter's come across here. He would
Speaker 1: have a good time. Yeah, I'd love for you to
Speaker 1: bring him out. Nobody understands like the severity of this,
Speaker 1: like tick phobia he has though, Um so I just
Speaker 1: I figured, like him freaking out in the Washington is
Speaker 1: a lot less um of an issue than him freaking
Speaker 1: out in Kansas and the Well, this one we could do,
Speaker 1: like said, put him into players. We'll drive him right
Speaker 1: to the blind can probably in and get right back
Speaker 1: into players. Perfect. Perfect Yeah, um, all right, well thanks Lorandy,
Speaker 1: take care and we'll see you in a couple of months.
Speaker 1: All right, sounds good.