1
00:00:05,480 --> 00:00:09,119
Speaker 1: And all of a sudden boom. As soon as she shot,

2
00:00:09,240 --> 00:00:12,600
Speaker 1: I jumped up and one of the birds was flying off,

3
00:00:13,080 --> 00:00:15,520
Speaker 1: and the other one had his head up and he

4
00:00:15,560 --> 00:00:18,520
Speaker 1: was just turning his head one eyeball turn another, one

5
00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:21,480
Speaker 1: eyeball turn another, just trying to figure out what's going on.

6
00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:25,360
Speaker 1: And I started screaming, reload, reload, reload, because she's shooting

7
00:00:25,360 --> 00:00:27,840
Speaker 1: this old single shot shotgun and she ain't got but

8
00:00:27,920 --> 00:00:30,120
Speaker 1: one shot. And she's looking at me like, oh no,

9
00:00:30,720 --> 00:00:34,600
Speaker 1: what in the world did I do. We've found ourselves

10
00:00:34,720 --> 00:00:38,479
Speaker 1: on the rising tide of spring turkey hunting. It's time.

11
00:00:39,040 --> 00:00:42,240
Speaker 1: It's early April, and surely every gobbler in America is

12
00:00:42,320 --> 00:00:45,800
Speaker 1: sounded off in the pre dawn darkness, doing the limbs, strutting,

13
00:00:45,920 --> 00:00:50,159
Speaker 1: drum tight rope walk dance every morning, pitching down with

14
00:00:50,240 --> 00:00:53,800
Speaker 1: the business of love on their mind. The biology of

15
00:00:53,840 --> 00:00:58,000
Speaker 1: turkey breeding is complex yet simple. We understand more than

16
00:00:58,040 --> 00:01:01,520
Speaker 1: we ever have, but much is still a mystery. It's

17
00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:05,600
Speaker 1: fundamental in its purpose pro creation. But to a human

18
00:01:05,840 --> 00:01:10,720
Speaker 1: the spring turkey woods can be poetic, even symbolic. A proud,

19
00:01:10,880 --> 00:01:15,360
Speaker 1: beautiful bird strutting his iridescent feathers to the ladies literally

20
00:01:15,440 --> 00:01:19,440
Speaker 1: puffed up, presenting his best self to the world, hoping

21
00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:23,440
Speaker 1: to be appealing, maybe start a family. Isn't that the

22
00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:28,440
Speaker 1: story of mankind? A gobble is an excited, hopeful sound

23
00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:31,800
Speaker 1: fitting for the spring. And I do not know whether

24
00:01:31,840 --> 00:01:34,360
Speaker 1: the sound of a gobble was made for the spring

25
00:01:34,680 --> 00:01:37,840
Speaker 1: or if the spring was made for it, but goblin

26
00:01:37,959 --> 00:01:43,160
Speaker 1: turkeys create a rare intoxication for many. It's exhilarating to call,

27
00:01:43,360 --> 00:01:45,480
Speaker 1: get a response, and watch a turkey work in the

28
00:01:45,600 --> 00:01:49,640
Speaker 1: shotgun range, and to partake of this ancient ritual. The

29
00:01:49,760 --> 00:01:52,720
Speaker 1: turkey hunter has the opportunity to step into the world

30
00:01:52,800 --> 00:01:56,400
Speaker 1: he does not fully understand, and participate in it for

31
00:01:56,480 --> 00:02:01,960
Speaker 1: short windows of time. It's a rare experience. On this episode,

32
00:02:01,960 --> 00:02:05,680
Speaker 1: we've got eight storytellers, one of which is North Carolina

33
00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:09,799
Speaker 1: novelist David Joy. Jim ron Quest also tells us a

34
00:02:09,880 --> 00:02:12,320
Speaker 1: Missouri turkey utton story, and we've got a couple of

35
00:02:12,360 --> 00:02:16,400
Speaker 1: great Mississippi stories again. But also we've got some old

36
00:02:16,520 --> 00:02:20,640
Speaker 1: favorite storytellers and Gary Believer, Nukeam, Brent Reeves, and Andy Brown.

37
00:02:21,440 --> 00:02:24,760
Speaker 1: I really doubt you're gonna want to miss this second

38
00:02:24,880 --> 00:02:27,959
Speaker 1: Turkey Stories episode. God, they're just so purty you know,

39
00:02:28,120 --> 00:02:30,920
Speaker 1: some's coming up and kind of backled it through that

40
00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:33,520
Speaker 1: tail fan. It's just so per I could see it

41
00:02:33,560 --> 00:02:36,519
Speaker 1: like it was yesterday and this has probably been gosh

42
00:02:36,600 --> 00:02:40,560
Speaker 1: nang forty years ago. Holy smoke, that just kind of

43
00:02:40,600 --> 00:02:51,240
Speaker 1: did the math in my head. That's that's been a minute.

44
00:02:52,760 --> 00:02:55,400
Speaker 1: My name is Clay Nukem, and this is the bear

45
00:02:55,480 --> 00:03:00,440
Speaker 1: Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search

46
00:03:00,520 --> 00:03:04,080
Speaker 1: for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the

47
00:03:04,240 --> 00:03:08,320
Speaker 1: story of Americans who lived their lives close to the land.

48
00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:14,600
Speaker 1: Presented by f HF Gear American Maid, purpose built hunting

49
00:03:14,639 --> 00:03:18,160
Speaker 1: and fishing gear that's designed to be as rugged as

50
00:03:18,160 --> 00:03:32,480
Speaker 1: the place as we explore. Just this week, I killed

51
00:03:32,520 --> 00:03:35,720
Speaker 1: a gobbler in Mississippi while hunting with two sure enough

52
00:03:35,960 --> 00:03:39,240
Speaker 1: bona fide turkey hunters. You'll meet them next week on

53
00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:42,680
Speaker 1: the bear Grease Render. We all three witnessed the same

54
00:03:42,720 --> 00:03:45,760
Speaker 1: event from slightly different angles, and after the turkey was

55
00:03:45,800 --> 00:03:50,240
Speaker 1: done flopping, we all had three different but very true stories.

56
00:03:50,920 --> 00:03:53,800
Speaker 1: What we all agreed on was the durned thing had

57
00:03:53,840 --> 00:03:56,600
Speaker 1: an eleven and a half inch beard. I ain't even

58
00:03:56,680 --> 00:04:01,040
Speaker 1: lying hearing the interpretation of the event of life through

59
00:04:01,080 --> 00:04:04,840
Speaker 1: the eyes of another is extremely important. It's like using

60
00:04:04,920 --> 00:04:10,520
Speaker 1: triangulation and navigation to find an exact location. He saw this,

61
00:04:11,040 --> 00:04:14,120
Speaker 1: the other person saw that, and I know for sure

62
00:04:14,280 --> 00:04:16,919
Speaker 1: what I saw. And you take all that and do

63
00:04:17,040 --> 00:04:20,080
Speaker 1: some mental trigonometry, and you can come away with the

64
00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:24,080
Speaker 1: clearer picture of life on this planet. I'm not just

65
00:04:24,120 --> 00:04:27,200
Speaker 1: talking about Turkey stories either, but really the importance of

66
00:04:27,279 --> 00:04:31,240
Speaker 1: stories in our human existence. Stories are entertaining fun, and

67
00:04:31,320 --> 00:04:35,400
Speaker 1: we learned stuff. But I believe this sense of entertainment, intrigue,

68
00:04:35,480 --> 00:04:39,440
Speaker 1: or interest in listening to stories gives us a biological reward.

69
00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:44,440
Speaker 1: The enjoyment of a story functionally like what actually makes

70
00:04:44,480 --> 00:04:47,200
Speaker 1: you like it is a dopamine release in the brain,

71
00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:51,520
Speaker 1: causing us to feel happiness and satisfaction. Something deep in

72
00:04:51,560 --> 00:04:55,240
Speaker 1: our DNA is scripted to reward us for listening. Think

73
00:04:55,240 --> 00:04:57,960
Speaker 1: about that and to nerd out, just to touch more,

74
00:04:58,120 --> 00:05:00,920
Speaker 1: just hang on, boys, and further convinced us of how

75
00:05:00,920 --> 00:05:07,039
Speaker 1: we're all addicted to stories. Netflix, sitcoms, the news podcasts, YouTube,

76
00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:10,680
Speaker 1: it's all stories. Human life could almost be broken into

77
00:05:10,680 --> 00:05:14,080
Speaker 1: two categories, the stuff we do ourselves and then the

78
00:05:14,160 --> 00:05:19,839
Speaker 1: stories we're told about what others are doing. The good news, though,

79
00:05:20,160 --> 00:05:22,719
Speaker 1: is that this podcast we're about to listen to has

80
00:05:22,760 --> 00:05:26,880
Speaker 1: some very important stories, Turkey stories, and I'd like to

81
00:05:26,920 --> 00:05:32,200
Speaker 1: invite you to sit back, relax, pay attention, and listen

82
00:05:32,360 --> 00:05:38,080
Speaker 1: for distant gobbles and drumming. These are good stories, like

83
00:05:38,160 --> 00:05:40,640
Speaker 1: a big gobbler pitching down from the limb our first

84
00:05:40,680 --> 00:05:44,400
Speaker 1: storyteller is none other than my dad, Gary Believer knewcom

85
00:05:44,920 --> 00:05:48,839
Speaker 1: It's one of those unique hunts when things work out precisely,

86
00:05:49,200 --> 00:05:53,320
Speaker 1: and I mean precisely as he predicted, and he has

87
00:05:53,360 --> 00:06:00,920
Speaker 1: two very unusual guests witness the hunt. Here's Gary. Years

88
00:06:00,960 --> 00:06:04,359
Speaker 1: ago and I don't know how many years ago, I

89
00:06:04,400 --> 00:06:06,880
Speaker 1: went to a kind of a new spot. We all

90
00:06:06,960 --> 00:06:09,680
Speaker 1: knew about it, but very few people hunted in there.

91
00:06:09,960 --> 00:06:11,719
Speaker 1: And you parked right on the side of the highway

92
00:06:11,760 --> 00:06:15,080
Speaker 1: and you walk up an old road, keep getting high

93
00:06:15,120 --> 00:06:17,400
Speaker 1: and higher up on this mountain, one of the highest

94
00:06:17,400 --> 00:06:21,719
Speaker 1: places in that part of the county. And I got

95
00:06:21,760 --> 00:06:23,480
Speaker 1: up in there and sure enough got a bird working,

96
00:06:23,880 --> 00:06:26,159
Speaker 1: and I had my bow and I sit down. I

97
00:06:26,240 --> 00:06:28,240
Speaker 1: was on the bird. Things were going good, and all

98
00:06:28,240 --> 00:06:31,000
Speaker 1: of a sudden, somebody starts calling, and you know, I

99
00:06:31,080 --> 00:06:32,920
Speaker 1: got my bow, so I put a lot of time

100
00:06:32,960 --> 00:06:35,159
Speaker 1: into this. I found a place I could sit where

101
00:06:35,240 --> 00:06:37,960
Speaker 1: you know, I had a shot if he came in.

102
00:06:38,080 --> 00:06:40,680
Speaker 1: It's a lot of work put into it. And all

103
00:06:40,720 --> 00:06:44,359
Speaker 1: of a sudden, this guy below me starts calling. And

104
00:06:44,480 --> 00:06:47,520
Speaker 1: the way this road is laid out, you can hear

105
00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:50,520
Speaker 1: birds from way off, you know, I mean, the road's

106
00:06:50,560 --> 00:06:53,279
Speaker 1: going up, everything down in this little canyon type deal,

107
00:06:53,360 --> 00:06:57,080
Speaker 1: you can hear birds. So I'm working the bird. He

108
00:06:57,240 --> 00:07:00,599
Speaker 1: starts calling, bird leaves. Never heard the bird again. Go

109
00:07:00,680 --> 00:07:04,480
Speaker 1: back to the truck, and here he's parked probably five

110
00:07:04,520 --> 00:07:08,160
Speaker 1: feet from my truck, parked right beside it, and he

111
00:07:08,200 --> 00:07:10,960
Speaker 1: came up the same road. So anyway, I wasn't too

112
00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:13,320
Speaker 1: happy about that, but I mean, you know, it just happens.

113
00:07:13,600 --> 00:07:16,920
Speaker 1: He might might have never thought anything about it. So

114
00:07:17,720 --> 00:07:20,680
Speaker 1: I looked his truck over and got his license number.

115
00:07:20,720 --> 00:07:22,640
Speaker 1: I wasn't gonna do anything about it. I just kind

116
00:07:22,680 --> 00:07:25,880
Speaker 1: of like to know who he was. And I found him,

117
00:07:26,200 --> 00:07:29,560
Speaker 1: found out where he worked, and I never said anything

118
00:07:29,600 --> 00:07:32,360
Speaker 1: to him, because I mean, you know, maybe I've done

119
00:07:32,400 --> 00:07:34,920
Speaker 1: somebody like that. I don't know. I surely hadn't. But

120
00:07:35,200 --> 00:07:39,880
Speaker 1: so anyway, in the process, I find the strutting zone

121
00:07:39,920 --> 00:07:43,480
Speaker 1: and it's probably where I was setting up. You know.

122
00:07:43,640 --> 00:07:45,440
Speaker 1: Once the bird was gone, I just got up and

123
00:07:45,440 --> 00:07:48,360
Speaker 1: started walking around, and I go, holy smokes, this is

124
00:07:48,360 --> 00:07:51,960
Speaker 1: a major deal right here. So I go home and

125
00:07:52,840 --> 00:07:54,600
Speaker 1: have lunch and puddle around for a while, and I

126
00:07:54,640 --> 00:07:56,720
Speaker 1: tell Judy, I said, I'm gonna walk back up there.

127
00:07:56,720 --> 00:07:59,800
Speaker 1: Want you go with me. It's about I'm gonna guess

128
00:08:00,320 --> 00:08:02,800
Speaker 1: half a mile to a mile walk on old road,

129
00:08:03,440 --> 00:08:06,600
Speaker 1: pretty easy walking. I said, we'll get our exercise. I'll

130
00:08:06,680 --> 00:08:11,040
Speaker 1: kill this turkey and get my lab some exercise. We'll

131
00:08:11,040 --> 00:08:13,280
Speaker 1: take Gracie with us. Gracie, you could take her to

132
00:08:13,440 --> 00:08:16,520
Speaker 1: church and just go, Gracie, sit stay. You know, you

133
00:08:16,520 --> 00:08:19,280
Speaker 1: could park at Walmart parking lot and go sit and

134
00:08:19,320 --> 00:08:21,560
Speaker 1: stay in a parking spot and she'd come. She'd be

135
00:08:21,560 --> 00:08:25,600
Speaker 1: there when you got back. So Gracie, Judy and myself

136
00:08:25,720 --> 00:08:29,320
Speaker 1: Juju took off. So we just we just walked up

137
00:08:29,320 --> 00:08:31,400
Speaker 1: that old road. And when we got just to the

138
00:08:31,480 --> 00:08:35,360
Speaker 1: point where I knew that Strutton zone was, I go, Gracie,

139
00:08:35,360 --> 00:08:38,480
Speaker 1: sit and Judy. You know, you guys, get comfortable because

140
00:08:38,480 --> 00:08:41,880
Speaker 1: this could take five minutes. So I ducked down as

141
00:08:41,920 --> 00:08:44,600
Speaker 1: low as I could and started walking with my gun ready,

142
00:08:45,400 --> 00:08:49,960
Speaker 1: and I probably walked thirty yards forty at the most,

143
00:08:50,559 --> 00:08:53,360
Speaker 1: and I squatted down, and soon as I got to

144
00:08:53,400 --> 00:08:56,080
Speaker 1: where I could almost hear him drumming and stuff, well

145
00:08:56,120 --> 00:08:58,439
Speaker 1: I could, I'm sure, you know. I just stood up

146
00:08:58,520 --> 00:09:01,439
Speaker 1: and there he was. You know, I had a thirty

147
00:09:01,480 --> 00:09:05,240
Speaker 1: yard shot, and that sucker he was up there strutting.

148
00:09:05,400 --> 00:09:08,800
Speaker 1: He wasn't goblin, but he was strutting. And so as

149
00:09:08,840 --> 00:09:10,880
Speaker 1: soon as I got to where I could see him,

150
00:09:10,880 --> 00:09:13,120
Speaker 1: I just stood up. He saw me, and I shot him,

151
00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:14,559
Speaker 1: and he was a big bird. You know, he was

152
00:09:14,600 --> 00:09:17,760
Speaker 1: a good bird. He was one of those deals where

153
00:09:18,720 --> 00:09:21,880
Speaker 1: you're pretty sure you can pull this off, but it

154
00:09:21,960 --> 00:09:25,640
Speaker 1: never works the way you wanted to. Something always goes haywire,

155
00:09:25,679 --> 00:09:28,440
Speaker 1: and there's so many things that could go haywire. You know,

156
00:09:28,800 --> 00:09:31,680
Speaker 1: this is a wild bird. I don't know. I don't

157
00:09:31,679 --> 00:09:33,760
Speaker 1: even think I was all that shocked. I just, for

158
00:09:33,800 --> 00:09:35,960
Speaker 1: some reason, I could just tell by the sign that

159
00:09:36,040 --> 00:09:39,439
Speaker 1: bird he wanted to be there. So we threw him

160
00:09:39,440 --> 00:09:43,680
Speaker 1: over my shoulder. Juju thought I was Superman and walked out.

161
00:09:45,960 --> 00:09:48,559
Speaker 1: I loved the audacity of bringing your wife and a

162
00:09:48,640 --> 00:09:51,800
Speaker 1: Laborador retriever and having them sit less than seventy yards

163
00:09:51,800 --> 00:09:54,320
Speaker 1: from where you think of turkey's gonna be and simply

164
00:09:54,360 --> 00:09:57,600
Speaker 1: walking up and killing it. Dad strutted out of there

165
00:09:57,600 --> 00:10:00,000
Speaker 1: with that jelly head thumping on his thigh, while Jude,

166
00:10:00,080 --> 00:10:01,800
Speaker 1: you and Gracie must have thought he was the best

167
00:10:01,800 --> 00:10:07,439
Speaker 1: turkey hundred in Arkansas. That's a good story. Our next

168
00:10:07,480 --> 00:10:12,600
Speaker 1: story is told inside of the Mississippi Wildlife Heritage Museum

169
00:10:13,040 --> 00:10:18,000
Speaker 1: in Leland, Mississippi, by the curator Billy Johnson. Billy has

170
00:10:18,080 --> 00:10:21,280
Speaker 1: just got back from a hunt, and he's wearing some faded,

171
00:10:21,520 --> 00:10:25,840
Speaker 1: mismatched camo muck boots, and he's sporting a dashing food

172
00:10:25,840 --> 00:10:29,320
Speaker 1: manchew mustache too melt the grin off a possum. He's

173
00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:31,959
Speaker 1: got a story that will take us deep into Mississippi

174
00:10:31,960 --> 00:10:35,960
Speaker 1: turkey hunting history. All right, We're in the Mississippi Wildlife

175
00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:40,040
Speaker 1: Heritage Museum this morning, and it's in a converted hundred

176
00:10:40,120 --> 00:10:44,319
Speaker 1: year old two story hardware store building. And I'm sixty

177
00:10:44,360 --> 00:10:48,760
Speaker 1: eight years old. And when I was seventeen, before there

178
00:10:48,760 --> 00:10:54,640
Speaker 1: were walmarts and all these cabellas and bass pro all

179
00:10:54,640 --> 00:10:57,960
Speaker 1: over the South, hunters and fishermen would go to their

180
00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:04,559
Speaker 1: local hardware stores to buy whatever they needed, clothing, ammunition, guns,

181
00:11:04,840 --> 00:11:08,280
Speaker 1: And I was in here happening to be in here

182
00:11:08,360 --> 00:11:12,040
Speaker 1: one day and a man named EO. Mitchell walked in

183
00:11:12,120 --> 00:11:16,360
Speaker 1: and he sold turkey calls here. Mister Mitchell and his

184
00:11:16,480 --> 00:11:23,440
Speaker 1: turkey hunting friend, Henry Milner, were telegraph operators for the railroad,

185
00:11:23,960 --> 00:11:27,199
Speaker 1: and they became interested in turkey hunting. And there was

186
00:11:27,240 --> 00:11:32,720
Speaker 1: a country store out on Highway fifty one between Vaden

187
00:11:33,200 --> 00:11:37,640
Speaker 1: and Winona, Mississippi, and a widow lady had the store.

188
00:11:38,520 --> 00:11:43,120
Speaker 1: And in that store she had a turkey call that

189
00:11:43,200 --> 00:11:47,640
Speaker 1: came from Montgomery Ward. And mister Milner would go out

190
00:11:47,679 --> 00:11:50,600
Speaker 1: there and play the call, and this and that, and

191
00:11:51,080 --> 00:11:56,320
Speaker 1: his time moved forward. Telephone lines took the place of

192
00:11:56,360 --> 00:11:59,880
Speaker 1: the old telegraph lines. Well, when they took the telegraph

193
00:12:00,040 --> 00:12:02,960
Speaker 1: lines down, they were one hundred year old cedar poles,

194
00:12:03,600 --> 00:12:08,679
Speaker 1: and mister Milner and mister Mitchell they got a lot

195
00:12:08,720 --> 00:12:13,319
Speaker 1: of those old poles, and through the next sixty years

196
00:12:13,440 --> 00:12:17,480
Speaker 1: they made hundreds of turkey calls using the Montgomery Ward

197
00:12:17,600 --> 00:12:22,960
Speaker 1: pattern and using the gold cedar poles. In those days,

198
00:12:23,240 --> 00:12:27,080
Speaker 1: people like mister Mitchell that sold calls would go out

199
00:12:27,160 --> 00:12:31,800
Speaker 1: through the country to different hardware stores and the day

200
00:12:31,840 --> 00:12:35,200
Speaker 1: that I was fortunate enough to run into him. He

201
00:12:35,320 --> 00:12:38,880
Speaker 1: pulled an old polaroid picture out of his pocket, and

202
00:12:39,240 --> 00:12:42,480
Speaker 1: those polaroid pictures had that old black plastic stuff on

203
00:12:42,520 --> 00:12:45,200
Speaker 1: the back, and it was all cracked and gone, and

204
00:12:45,240 --> 00:12:49,600
Speaker 1: it was a picture of a mostly white turkey. And I,

205
00:12:50,080 --> 00:12:51,920
Speaker 1: you know, ask him, I said, well, I got to

206
00:12:51,960 --> 00:12:54,960
Speaker 1: hear this story. Well, come to find out he was

207
00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:59,120
Speaker 1: in start from Mississippi. They had a hardware store and

208
00:12:59,200 --> 00:13:03,360
Speaker 1: they had some chairs sat up. People would come in, old,

209
00:13:03,480 --> 00:13:06,760
Speaker 1: old retired guys would come in and they would whittle,

210
00:13:07,160 --> 00:13:11,040
Speaker 1: shotten their knives and spit the back and tell stories. Well,

211
00:13:11,080 --> 00:13:15,520
Speaker 1: the story was they told him about this white turkey

212
00:13:15,559 --> 00:13:20,120
Speaker 1: that couldn't be killed, and that all of these fifteen

213
00:13:20,160 --> 00:13:23,200
Speaker 1: or twenty people had been out there and tried to

214
00:13:23,240 --> 00:13:26,280
Speaker 1: call a turkey up and couldn't call it and couldn't

215
00:13:26,320 --> 00:13:29,960
Speaker 1: be killed. He said, well, if his turkey can't be killed,

216
00:13:29,960 --> 00:13:33,640
Speaker 1: then you fellas probably wouldn't have a problem with me

217
00:13:33,800 --> 00:13:36,360
Speaker 1: hunting it. So one of them took him out there

218
00:13:36,360 --> 00:13:39,560
Speaker 1: and showed him the ridge where the turkey roosted, and

219
00:13:39,760 --> 00:13:43,520
Speaker 1: showed him the bottom where he flew down. So he

220
00:13:43,720 --> 00:13:47,440
Speaker 1: surmised that Colin wasn't a way to kill the turkey.

221
00:13:47,840 --> 00:13:50,800
Speaker 1: So he sat down the next morning in the bottom,

222
00:13:51,280 --> 00:13:55,160
Speaker 1: and sure enough, the old turkey started sounding off. So

223
00:13:55,240 --> 00:13:59,240
Speaker 1: he refrained and waited until flydown time. And once fly

224
00:13:59,360 --> 00:14:03,400
Speaker 1: down time came, he took his cap and he went

225
00:14:05,480 --> 00:14:08,560
Speaker 1: like a hen, flying down. And he waited a minute

226
00:14:08,600 --> 00:14:12,600
Speaker 1: or two, and he got a stick and started scratching

227
00:14:12,640 --> 00:14:17,000
Speaker 1: in the leaves, when lowing behold, a big turkey pitched

228
00:14:17,040 --> 00:14:20,880
Speaker 1: down and landed within twenty yards of it. He killed

229
00:14:20,880 --> 00:14:24,240
Speaker 1: a turkey time. He got the turkey loaded up, got

230
00:14:24,280 --> 00:14:26,560
Speaker 1: back to his truck, got the turkey loaded up, and

231
00:14:26,640 --> 00:14:29,880
Speaker 1: got back to town. The hardware store had opened, and

232
00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:33,640
Speaker 1: those old guys were in there, and he goes in

233
00:14:33,680 --> 00:14:36,960
Speaker 1: there and he said, well, you boys want a firsthand

234
00:14:36,960 --> 00:14:39,560
Speaker 1: look at this turkey. Y'all said, couldn't be killed. Come on.

235
00:14:39,640 --> 00:14:42,080
Speaker 1: I got him out of here in my truck. And

236
00:14:42,680 --> 00:14:45,960
Speaker 1: those guys couldn't believe it, you know, And one of

237
00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:49,560
Speaker 1: them spit his tobacco. He said, mister, I tell you

238
00:14:49,600 --> 00:14:54,000
Speaker 1: what this is. Fifty years ago, he said, I'll give

239
00:14:54,040 --> 00:14:57,200
Speaker 1: you one hundred dollars with a call that you used

240
00:14:57,200 --> 00:15:00,680
Speaker 1: to call this turkey up. He took his cap off

241
00:15:00,680 --> 00:15:06,680
Speaker 1: his head. He said, so, you know, less than thirty

242
00:15:06,720 --> 00:15:10,800
Speaker 1: feet from where he showed leaves the picture of that turkey.

243
00:15:11,160 --> 00:15:15,560
Speaker 1: We now have the turkey mounted here in the Mississippi

244
00:15:15,600 --> 00:15:21,000
Speaker 1: Wildlife Museum. Those old call makers, I mean EO. Mitchell's

245
00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:26,240
Speaker 1: called Ruther Smithsonian. EO. Mitchell's mounted white turkey is in

246
00:15:26,280 --> 00:15:29,880
Speaker 1: the museum, along with several of his famous calls. I

247
00:15:29,960 --> 00:15:34,080
Speaker 1: was really impressed by the Mississippi Wildlife Heritage Museum. If

248
00:15:34,120 --> 00:15:37,440
Speaker 1: you're traveling near Greenville or Leland, you ought to stop in.

249
00:15:37,760 --> 00:15:40,400
Speaker 1: It's full of big white tails, mounts of all kinds,

250
00:15:40,600 --> 00:15:44,280
Speaker 1: lots of waterfowl stuff, unique displays from old call makers,

251
00:15:44,280 --> 00:15:48,600
Speaker 1: several turkey beard collections, and incredible photos. It's a template

252
00:15:48,640 --> 00:15:50,520
Speaker 1: of what every state ought to be doing to document

253
00:15:50,560 --> 00:15:57,200
Speaker 1: their hunting the heritage. Our next storyteller is one of

254
00:15:57,240 --> 00:16:01,440
Speaker 1: my favorites. It's Andy Brown of our Saw. I'd say

255
00:16:01,520 --> 00:16:05,640
Speaker 1: for certain this is a one in a million hunt.

256
00:16:05,640 --> 00:16:08,200
Speaker 1: One time I was having to work and we always

257
00:16:08,200 --> 00:16:12,000
Speaker 1: had a turkey camp in uh in April, and uh,

258
00:16:12,160 --> 00:16:13,800
Speaker 1: I mean we had a We had a big time,

259
00:16:13,840 --> 00:16:17,000
Speaker 1: and I wasn't able to get off early enough that

260
00:16:17,080 --> 00:16:19,360
Speaker 1: evening It was the day before season to go rooster Turkey.

261
00:16:19,400 --> 00:16:21,360
Speaker 1: So when I when I get to camp, my my

262
00:16:21,400 --> 00:16:24,800
Speaker 1: buddy Wayne says, I got you at Turkey roosted and

263
00:16:25,040 --> 00:16:27,480
Speaker 1: he said, he gobbled, he stail office even I said round,

264
00:16:27,560 --> 00:16:28,920
Speaker 1: he said, I said, you know where? He said, I

265
00:16:29,040 --> 00:16:30,960
Speaker 1: know right where he's at. He said, well, we'll go

266
00:16:31,040 --> 00:16:33,480
Speaker 1: up right in the morning. So anyway, next morning we

267
00:16:33,560 --> 00:16:37,160
Speaker 1: got up double early. Ridoran pulled the mountain, got right

268
00:16:37,240 --> 00:16:39,240
Speaker 1: in on top and he said, he's just over on

269
00:16:39,280 --> 00:16:43,280
Speaker 1: the south side, right here, And sure enough, just a

270
00:16:43,320 --> 00:16:46,360
Speaker 1: minute he put in and he was just he wasn't

271
00:16:46,760 --> 00:16:48,680
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think he was over seventy five

272
00:16:48,760 --> 00:16:51,440
Speaker 1: yards off the top. But all the gobble he does,

273
00:16:51,560 --> 00:16:53,760
Speaker 1: he gobbled, he got one hundred times on the roost.

274
00:16:54,080 --> 00:16:56,080
Speaker 1: And right there where we were at on the end

275
00:16:56,080 --> 00:16:57,840
Speaker 1: of that mountain, there wasn't nothing. I mean, it was

276
00:16:57,920 --> 00:17:00,000
Speaker 1: open at the end of that right I only end

277
00:17:00,160 --> 00:17:01,640
Speaker 1: it. It It was just opening there, and there wasn't no

278
00:17:01,720 --> 00:17:04,080
Speaker 1: place to getting. You know, I'm trying to figure out

279
00:17:04,119 --> 00:17:05,520
Speaker 1: where I want to get and how to how to

280
00:17:05,560 --> 00:17:07,760
Speaker 1: do all this. So I finally get over on the

281
00:17:07,800 --> 00:17:11,240
Speaker 1: north side about fifty yards that on the north side,

282
00:17:11,560 --> 00:17:15,119
Speaker 1: got in a big old bushtop and in a minute

283
00:17:15,119 --> 00:17:17,679
Speaker 1: I could tell he hit the ground because he you

284
00:17:17,720 --> 00:17:19,520
Speaker 1: know how they do. He couldn't hear him as well.

285
00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:21,680
Speaker 1: I never liked to call a turkey on the roof,

286
00:17:21,760 --> 00:17:23,680
Speaker 1: so they un till they dump off, because you never.

287
00:17:24,040 --> 00:17:25,920
Speaker 1: They'll sit there on you a lots of times. But anyway,

288
00:17:26,359 --> 00:17:28,480
Speaker 1: he hit the ground, and I hammered him. He right

289
00:17:28,560 --> 00:17:30,600
Speaker 1: back at me, and you can tell here he come,

290
00:17:31,240 --> 00:17:33,080
Speaker 1: and he come right up over the top, just like

291
00:17:33,080 --> 00:17:35,720
Speaker 1: he's supposed to. And he got out there and he's

292
00:17:35,760 --> 00:17:38,159
Speaker 1: in full strut, which I don't I just never did

293
00:17:38,280 --> 00:17:40,080
Speaker 1: like shooting way full strut and neither there. But all

294
00:17:40,080 --> 00:17:41,800
Speaker 1: the doing around up there he done, and back and

295
00:17:41,840 --> 00:17:44,040
Speaker 1: forth and back and forth. I couldn't get him to

296
00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:45,600
Speaker 1: come out of strut. I cut at of me. Would

297
00:17:45,600 --> 00:17:48,000
Speaker 1: he just staying strut and just back and forth? And

298
00:17:48,160 --> 00:17:50,680
Speaker 1: I got a little antsy, probably, and I thought, I

299
00:17:50,920 --> 00:17:55,280
Speaker 1: kill you, you know, So anyway I pulled the trigger.

300
00:17:55,400 --> 00:17:57,840
Speaker 1: I shot at eight seventy pump At those days, two

301
00:17:57,840 --> 00:18:00,919
Speaker 1: and three quarter super X number six is you know,

302
00:18:01,119 --> 00:18:02,920
Speaker 1: I mean, that's all you could get back in the day.

303
00:18:03,560 --> 00:18:05,359
Speaker 1: I couldn't drive at that dude, and he took off

304
00:18:05,440 --> 00:18:07,760
Speaker 1: running and I shot at him again. And this when

305
00:18:07,800 --> 00:18:12,280
Speaker 1: he pitched a fly. There was a big canyon that

306
00:18:12,400 --> 00:18:16,359
Speaker 1: laid west and I'm talking about a quarter and a

307
00:18:16,359 --> 00:18:19,840
Speaker 1: half mile wide, maybe a half a mile wide. And

308
00:18:19,960 --> 00:18:22,200
Speaker 1: I stood there and I watched that turkey sail all

309
00:18:22,200 --> 00:18:25,480
Speaker 1: the way across that canyon, and he sailed over there,

310
00:18:25,680 --> 00:18:28,280
Speaker 1: and he just flew in there on the thing and lit.

311
00:18:29,200 --> 00:18:33,320
Speaker 1: So he gets up. He said, out of the world,

312
00:18:33,320 --> 00:18:35,919
Speaker 1: you miss that dirt? Yes, I said, there a lot

313
00:18:35,960 --> 00:18:37,439
Speaker 1: of air around him, was all I did, you know,

314
00:18:37,560 --> 00:18:39,919
Speaker 1: But I said, I know, I've been out of shape

315
00:18:39,920 --> 00:18:44,680
Speaker 1: and shaking my head. And back in those days, I smoked,

316
00:18:44,720 --> 00:18:46,560
Speaker 1: and so I got me a cigarette out and I

317
00:18:46,600 --> 00:18:49,399
Speaker 1: wasn't shaking my head and saiding there, and we're looking

318
00:18:49,680 --> 00:18:51,480
Speaker 1: across the canyon there, and all of a sudden, that

319
00:18:51,520 --> 00:18:55,639
Speaker 1: turkey he just pitches out like he flew in, and

320
00:18:55,720 --> 00:18:59,600
Speaker 1: he sailed right down that canyon south around down there.

321
00:19:00,720 --> 00:19:03,480
Speaker 1: He flew a quarter and flew right into the side

322
00:19:03,520 --> 00:19:06,080
Speaker 1: of the mountain there and just you know, you just

323
00:19:06,119 --> 00:19:10,280
Speaker 1: hear him flat there. So Wayne says, if you didn't

324
00:19:10,320 --> 00:19:12,879
Speaker 1: hit him, we'll give him about thirty forty five minutes

325
00:19:12,920 --> 00:19:14,479
Speaker 1: the way that and gob will go over and kill him.

326
00:19:14,520 --> 00:19:17,720
Speaker 1: He'll cook put in the gobblin again. So awful mountain

327
00:19:17,760 --> 00:19:19,159
Speaker 1: we went and we went down there and we hit

328
00:19:19,200 --> 00:19:21,439
Speaker 1: a four wheel trail. We went around there and we

329
00:19:21,480 --> 00:19:23,399
Speaker 1: got in there about where we thought he flew in

330
00:19:23,560 --> 00:19:25,480
Speaker 1: and walked up on the side of the mountain there

331
00:19:26,080 --> 00:19:29,440
Speaker 1: dug in and we probably lay there forty five minutes, nothing,

332
00:19:29,600 --> 00:19:34,520
Speaker 1: nothing beautiful more. And I told Wayne, I said, before

333
00:19:34,520 --> 00:19:36,560
Speaker 1: we leave, I said, let's just walk up here on

334
00:19:36,600 --> 00:19:38,840
Speaker 1: the side of the mountain. I said, that turkey. It

335
00:19:38,840 --> 00:19:41,720
Speaker 1: didn't sound quite right where that turkey flew in the

336
00:19:41,760 --> 00:19:44,600
Speaker 1: mountain there. And we walked up there. We didn't walk

337
00:19:44,680 --> 00:19:48,480
Speaker 1: seventy five yards and there late that gobbler dead. I

338
00:19:48,560 --> 00:19:50,400
Speaker 1: never forget it, had red ants on his head where

339
00:19:50,400 --> 00:19:51,840
Speaker 1: the blood was coming. Just hit him a two or

340
00:19:51,880 --> 00:19:55,720
Speaker 1: three shot. But that dude had flown the turkey was.

341
00:19:55,760 --> 00:19:57,800
Speaker 1: He was a half a mile from where from where

342
00:19:57,800 --> 00:20:02,480
Speaker 1: I shot him. We found him dead, laying there just perfect.

343
00:20:01,920 --> 00:20:05,160
Speaker 1: You just don't do that, you know, But we got

344
00:20:05,200 --> 00:20:09,480
Speaker 1: him good three year old, I mean a good That

345
00:20:09,760 --> 00:20:13,320
Speaker 1: is a wild story. What are the chances of finding

346
00:20:13,359 --> 00:20:15,600
Speaker 1: that turkey a half mile from where they shot it

347
00:20:15,880 --> 00:20:20,119
Speaker 1: after watching it fly across the canyon twice. Only Andy

348
00:20:20,200 --> 00:20:26,280
Speaker 1: could have pulled that off. Our next Storyteller is currently

349
00:20:26,359 --> 00:20:31,320
Speaker 1: working as an undercover wildlife agent posing as my dear friend,

350
00:20:31,440 --> 00:20:34,840
Speaker 1: trying to catch me doing crimes that I am completely

351
00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:38,840
Speaker 1: unaware of. He seems to have really dug in because

352
00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:41,360
Speaker 1: he's been at this with me for over a decade.

353
00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:45,560
Speaker 1: He's always available, always ready to hunt, and always has

354
00:20:45,600 --> 00:20:50,680
Speaker 1: an unbelievable alibi and ridiculous backstory when he can't. Brent

355
00:20:50,800 --> 00:20:54,359
Speaker 1: Reeves is a Bargreave's favorite, and he's got a good

356
00:20:54,400 --> 00:20:57,720
Speaker 1: one from the Saline River bottoms of Arkansas with his

357
00:20:57,840 --> 00:21:01,880
Speaker 1: brother Tim. You'll laugh and scratch your head on this one.

358
00:21:03,800 --> 00:21:07,880
Speaker 1: This story takes place in the Saline River bottoms where

359
00:21:07,920 --> 00:21:12,240
Speaker 1: a bunch of my brother Tims and I's adventures started

360
00:21:12,280 --> 00:21:15,919
Speaker 1: and stopped. Turkey season was the one season that we

361
00:21:15,960 --> 00:21:19,320
Speaker 1: didn't hunt together a lot. Probably about sixty percent of

362
00:21:19,359 --> 00:21:22,520
Speaker 1: the time in Turkey season we hunted alone because one

363
00:21:22,560 --> 00:21:24,880
Speaker 1: hundred percent of the time that we hunted together there

364
00:21:24,960 --> 00:21:28,720
Speaker 1: was some kind of calamity that ensued. Something happened. On

365
00:21:28,800 --> 00:21:31,720
Speaker 1: this particular time, it was my turn to kill a turkey.

366
00:21:31,760 --> 00:21:34,280
Speaker 1: And we had gone way down in the river bottoms

367
00:21:34,480 --> 00:21:37,760
Speaker 1: before we ever heard the first turkey. We walked in

368
00:21:37,840 --> 00:21:40,639
Speaker 1: way before daylight. We got in there and we waited

369
00:21:40,640 --> 00:21:43,399
Speaker 1: and waiting, waiting, filing turkey gobbles. And he was long

370
00:21:43,600 --> 00:21:46,040
Speaker 1: ways off. I mean, it's about as far as you

371
00:21:46,080 --> 00:21:49,480
Speaker 1: could hear. And we both coursed him pretty good. Knew

372
00:21:49,480 --> 00:21:52,240
Speaker 1: the area well. My family had been hunting this land

373
00:21:52,280 --> 00:21:56,240
Speaker 1: down here for generations. We got there, we took off

374
00:21:56,240 --> 00:21:59,440
Speaker 1: for that turkey. We get about halfway to him, and

375
00:21:59,480 --> 00:22:02,560
Speaker 1: he's goblin. We don't hear anything. We happen to stop

376
00:22:02,560 --> 00:22:05,080
Speaker 1: at this big old deer stand. And at that time

377
00:22:05,119 --> 00:22:08,160
Speaker 1: we didn't have any big tower stands on our where

378
00:22:08,160 --> 00:22:10,720
Speaker 1: we deer hunted. It was all individual stuff, just lean

379
00:22:10,840 --> 00:22:12,960
Speaker 1: up stands, or we'd sit on a bucket or something.

380
00:22:13,280 --> 00:22:15,199
Speaker 1: But this stand was big enough for two people to

381
00:22:15,240 --> 00:22:18,639
Speaker 1: get in, and we were marveling at how much room

382
00:22:18,760 --> 00:22:21,000
Speaker 1: that guy had up there, and we thought, you know,

383
00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:23,600
Speaker 1: if we had one like that, we could sit together

384
00:22:23,840 --> 00:22:26,320
Speaker 1: and make enough racket that we wouldn't kill a deer,

385
00:22:26,359 --> 00:22:28,719
Speaker 1: but we could still be out there hunting and not

386
00:22:28,720 --> 00:22:32,119
Speaker 1: have to worry about skinny one. But while we were

387
00:22:32,119 --> 00:22:35,359
Speaker 1: sitting there marveling at this wonderful tower stand, this guy

388
00:22:35,440 --> 00:22:39,120
Speaker 1: had a turkey gobbled fifty yards from where we were,

389
00:22:39,600 --> 00:22:42,480
Speaker 1: and both of us hit the ground like, oh my gosh,

390
00:22:42,520 --> 00:22:45,080
Speaker 1: we're caughting the balled open. But there was a thicket

391
00:22:45,160 --> 00:22:47,840
Speaker 1: right behind that deer stand and where that turkey gobble.

392
00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:50,800
Speaker 1: And I yelled twice on a call, and that turkey

393
00:22:50,840 --> 00:22:53,880
Speaker 1: gobbled and came straight to me. And I'm looking through

394
00:22:53,920 --> 00:22:56,320
Speaker 1: this thicket. My brother's sitting right there. We're leaned up

395
00:22:56,359 --> 00:22:59,080
Speaker 1: against each other because we're not we're in the balled open,

396
00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:02,040
Speaker 1: not against a tree nothing. I'm leaning against him, he's

397
00:23:02,119 --> 00:23:05,040
Speaker 1: leaning against me. And I am looking through this thicket

398
00:23:05,040 --> 00:23:06,560
Speaker 1: and I can see a hole, and I can see

399
00:23:06,560 --> 00:23:09,720
Speaker 1: that turkey coming. And when he gets to that twenty

400
00:23:09,800 --> 00:23:12,240
Speaker 1: five yards, I guess to the edge of that thicket,

401
00:23:12,600 --> 00:23:14,520
Speaker 1: I said, I see him boom, and I cut it

402
00:23:14,640 --> 00:23:17,879
Speaker 1: loose and the turkey started flopping, and then the turkey

403
00:23:17,920 --> 00:23:20,960
Speaker 1: started running, and I got up and took off running

404
00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:22,680
Speaker 1: after him, and I got hung up in all them

405
00:23:22,680 --> 00:23:24,920
Speaker 1: briars and stuff, and I was fighting through that thing

406
00:23:25,040 --> 00:23:27,600
Speaker 1: like a buzz saw, and finally got on the other

407
00:23:27,640 --> 00:23:30,760
Speaker 1: side and leaped and jumped on that turkey and caught him,

408
00:23:30,760 --> 00:23:33,240
Speaker 1: and my brother knocked him in the head with a

409
00:23:33,280 --> 00:23:36,920
Speaker 1: pine knot, and we always called that the story of

410
00:23:37,400 --> 00:23:40,480
Speaker 1: the time that I shot a turkey but Tim killed it.

411
00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:44,879
Speaker 1: So we were congratulating each other and talking about this big,

412
00:23:45,359 --> 00:23:48,720
Speaker 1: fantastic hunt that had just happened and how surprised we were.

413
00:23:49,119 --> 00:23:52,000
Speaker 1: And we heard that turkey gall that we had heard originally,

414
00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:54,639
Speaker 1: and he was right where we had said he was,

415
00:23:54,720 --> 00:23:57,040
Speaker 1: and we were about half a mile from him. So

416
00:23:57,160 --> 00:23:59,760
Speaker 1: with one turkey dead, I threw that one over my

417
00:23:59,760 --> 00:24:01,560
Speaker 1: show older and me and my brother take off. It's

418
00:24:01,560 --> 00:24:04,840
Speaker 1: gonna be his time. Were getting within less than a

419
00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:07,080
Speaker 1: quarter of a mile, and the turkey gobbles again, and

420
00:24:07,160 --> 00:24:09,479
Speaker 1: we got up to the edge of this big old flat,

421
00:24:09,720 --> 00:24:11,520
Speaker 1: big old oak flat, and he usually had a lot

422
00:24:11,560 --> 00:24:14,840
Speaker 1: of water in the springtime, but this time it didn't,

423
00:24:15,200 --> 00:24:19,000
Speaker 1: and it was wide open bottom land. There was nothing

424
00:24:19,040 --> 00:24:23,160
Speaker 1: but huge oak trees and grass had grown in there.

425
00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:27,280
Speaker 1: It absolutely looked like a park. And across this way here,

426
00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:30,000
Speaker 1: this thing was probably one hundred and fifty to two

427
00:24:30,080 --> 00:24:33,800
Speaker 1: hundred yards across, and on the other side of that slough,

428
00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:37,639
Speaker 1: just this flat. When we sat down, turkey gobble. He

429
00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:40,520
Speaker 1: was just out of sight. So my where this thing

430
00:24:40,640 --> 00:24:43,560
Speaker 1: was that the land went down like three feet into

431
00:24:43,600 --> 00:24:46,240
Speaker 1: this flat. There was no place for me to hide

432
00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:48,680
Speaker 1: other than there was an old stump right there behind

433
00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:51,160
Speaker 1: where my brother was gonna sit down. I laid down

434
00:24:51,200 --> 00:24:54,040
Speaker 1: beside it, laid that turkey down beside me, and Tim

435
00:24:54,080 --> 00:24:56,480
Speaker 1: went right over the edge of that flat, so he

436
00:24:56,560 --> 00:24:59,040
Speaker 1: had that high bank behind him, and he was six

437
00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:02,119
Speaker 1: feet in front of me. He called to him. The

438
00:25:02,200 --> 00:25:05,119
Speaker 1: turkey answered and immediately popped up on the other side.

439
00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:08,720
Speaker 1: Now he's one hundred and fifty yards away, in full strut.

440
00:25:09,119 --> 00:25:12,520
Speaker 1: He starts walking towards us. Light was shining in there,

441
00:25:12,680 --> 00:25:14,960
Speaker 1: like a spotlight on the stage. It was like this

442
00:25:15,080 --> 00:25:18,760
Speaker 1: turkey was on Broadway, and we had the best seats

443
00:25:18,760 --> 00:25:21,480
Speaker 1: in the ass. And I am right over my brother's

444
00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:25,600
Speaker 1: left shoulder. That turkey take five or six steps, stopped,

445
00:25:25,840 --> 00:25:28,840
Speaker 1: strut and gobble, and he did this till he got

446
00:25:28,880 --> 00:25:32,280
Speaker 1: to eighty yards, and it took him three or four

447
00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:35,520
Speaker 1: minutes to go that far. He was the boss. He

448
00:25:35,640 --> 00:25:38,479
Speaker 1: wasn't worried, he wasn't in a hurry. He was running

449
00:25:38,520 --> 00:25:43,200
Speaker 1: this whole show. And at eighty yards, he stopped and gobbled,

450
00:25:43,240 --> 00:25:45,239
Speaker 1: and when he come out of strut and started to

451
00:25:45,240 --> 00:25:47,879
Speaker 1: take a step, I heard my brother click his safety

452
00:25:47,880 --> 00:25:49,760
Speaker 1: off and I thought, well, that's a little premature. And

453
00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:53,720
Speaker 1: about that time he let that eight seven to go.

454
00:25:54,400 --> 00:25:57,760
Speaker 1: That turkey jumped about fifteen feet off the ground, hit

455
00:25:57,840 --> 00:26:01,919
Speaker 1: the ground, gobbled, turned around and strutted and gobbled the

456
00:26:01,960 --> 00:26:06,600
Speaker 1: plum out of sight. Why my brother did that, I

457
00:26:06,640 --> 00:26:08,960
Speaker 1: don't know. Why he shot at him at eighty yards

458
00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:10,960
Speaker 1: when he was coming to us on a string. I

459
00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:13,280
Speaker 1: mean it was like he was on rail and coming

460
00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:15,439
Speaker 1: straight to us. And why he did that, I don't know.

461
00:26:15,880 --> 00:26:18,600
Speaker 1: He never turned around, he didn't say anything. He took

462
00:26:18,600 --> 00:26:21,480
Speaker 1: a cigarette out of his pocket as he began to

463
00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:24,320
Speaker 1: light it. I said hey, and he held his hand up.

464
00:26:24,480 --> 00:26:26,280
Speaker 1: He never turn around and looked at me. He said,

465
00:26:26,359 --> 00:26:28,920
Speaker 1: give me a minute. So I just set back there,

466
00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:32,800
Speaker 1: reliving everything that was going on while he smoked half

467
00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:35,840
Speaker 1: his cigarette. He wouldn't never smoke the whole thing because

468
00:26:35,840 --> 00:26:38,199
Speaker 1: he said he saw a commercial when he was like

469
00:26:38,359 --> 00:26:42,119
Speaker 1: fifteen years old and Tony Curtis was talking, was advertising

470
00:26:42,160 --> 00:26:44,560
Speaker 1: some kind of cigarettes, and he said, only smoke half

471
00:26:44,720 --> 00:26:46,879
Speaker 1: because the laft half is the part that kills you.

472
00:26:47,359 --> 00:26:50,840
Speaker 1: So my brother, my brother at that time when he smoked,

473
00:26:50,880 --> 00:26:53,280
Speaker 1: he was only smoke half a cigarette, so I knew

474
00:26:53,320 --> 00:26:55,760
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be long and I would get an explanation

475
00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:59,000
Speaker 1: on what had happened. So when he got half of

476
00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:01,880
Speaker 1: that cigarette smoke, I saw him look down beside him

477
00:27:01,880 --> 00:27:04,399
Speaker 1: and there was a crawfish hole there, and he poked

478
00:27:04,440 --> 00:27:06,960
Speaker 1: that lit cigarette down in that hole and covered it up.

479
00:27:07,320 --> 00:27:09,399
Speaker 1: He stood up and he said, let's go. So I

480
00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:12,000
Speaker 1: picked that turkey up and we started walking back to

481
00:27:12,080 --> 00:27:14,080
Speaker 1: the truck. And we were a mile from the truck,

482
00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:16,680
Speaker 1: and we walked half of that distance and nobody had

483
00:27:16,680 --> 00:27:19,800
Speaker 1: said a word. We were walking side by side and

484
00:27:19,880 --> 00:27:23,199
Speaker 1: I was toting that turkey and he was just walking.

485
00:27:23,720 --> 00:27:25,600
Speaker 1: And at half a mile he looked over at me

486
00:27:25,640 --> 00:27:28,080
Speaker 1: and said, hey, you want me to tote that turkey.

487
00:27:28,200 --> 00:27:30,520
Speaker 1: It's bound to be getting heavy. And I took two

488
00:27:30,600 --> 00:27:33,080
Speaker 1: or three steps and I said, now to him, it

489
00:27:33,119 --> 00:27:35,600
Speaker 1: ain't near as heavy as that loads you're toting. And

490
00:27:36,480 --> 00:27:39,360
Speaker 1: he started laughing and I started laughing. And we never

491
00:27:39,400 --> 00:27:42,040
Speaker 1: did figure out why he shot at that turkey when

492
00:27:42,080 --> 00:27:44,679
Speaker 1: it was so far away. As far as I know,

493
00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:47,399
Speaker 1: that turkey is still living. That's just how it happened.

494
00:27:49,560 --> 00:27:52,320
Speaker 1: It ain't near as heavy as the load you're toting.

495
00:27:53,040 --> 00:27:59,120
Speaker 1: That's good, Brent. Our next story is told by Mississippi

496
00:27:59,160 --> 00:28:03,400
Speaker 1: author Robert Hittneil Junior. He wrote a very successful book

497
00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:06,440
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety called The Jakes. It's about a young

498
00:28:06,520 --> 00:28:08,680
Speaker 1: boy growing up in the South and it involves some

499
00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:12,080
Speaker 1: turkey hunting. On the last episode, mister Neill told us

500
00:28:12,080 --> 00:28:15,800
Speaker 1: about the flaming turkey hunter. He'll now tell us about

501
00:28:15,800 --> 00:28:18,800
Speaker 1: his first turkey hunt on the Mississippi River that involves

502
00:28:18,880 --> 00:28:23,160
Speaker 1: some lightning and a skunk. I'm gonna tell you about

503
00:28:23,240 --> 00:28:28,400
Speaker 1: my first turkey that I killed was on Montgomery Island

504
00:28:28,440 --> 00:28:34,800
Speaker 1: sixty five years ago. I was fifteen years old and

505
00:28:35,640 --> 00:28:40,560
Speaker 1: Montgomery is where the White River splits around Montgomery Island

506
00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:44,400
Speaker 1: coming into the Mississippi River. That's where we would go,

507
00:28:44,440 --> 00:28:46,400
Speaker 1: and there was a big hunting club up there by.

508
00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:50,800
Speaker 1: Daddy was in it Oxam, and we had turkeys on

509
00:28:50,840 --> 00:28:55,080
Speaker 1: that island when hard to anybody else had turkeys. We

510
00:28:55,240 --> 00:29:00,080
Speaker 1: got up real early and Montgomery's two islands, but my

511
00:29:00,200 --> 00:29:04,320
Speaker 1: daddy and Curry Holland were going over to the Big

512
00:29:04,360 --> 00:29:07,840
Speaker 1: Island and I wanted to hunt the little island fifteen

513
00:29:07,920 --> 00:29:10,480
Speaker 1: years old, and so they had a longer trip than

514
00:29:10,520 --> 00:29:12,920
Speaker 1: I did. So we left the Kevin and they dropped

515
00:29:12,920 --> 00:29:15,960
Speaker 1: me off into flat black dark, and when they let

516
00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:19,000
Speaker 1: me out of the jeep, you could see lightning flashes

517
00:29:19,240 --> 00:29:24,280
Speaker 1: back in the west. And Curry said, I've always heard

518
00:29:24,360 --> 00:29:28,600
Speaker 1: that turkeys will gobble when it thunders, so you listen

519
00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:32,880
Speaker 1: for that. Said, okay, So I walked on off and

520
00:29:32,920 --> 00:29:36,040
Speaker 1: they took off in the jeep. So went down there

521
00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:40,720
Speaker 1: and God situated, and I like to stick a few

522
00:29:40,760 --> 00:29:43,080
Speaker 1: little Papa branches or something up in front of me,

523
00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:45,080
Speaker 1: break the out line, you know, a base of a

524
00:29:45,160 --> 00:29:50,680
Speaker 1: tree sitting there below a big pecan tree. And the

525
00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:54,320
Speaker 1: lightning got closer, and you started to hear a little

526
00:29:54,320 --> 00:29:57,920
Speaker 1: bit of rumble of thunder, and it's just black dark,

527
00:29:58,520 --> 00:30:06,400
Speaker 1: and I sniffed something that and then a lightning flash

528
00:30:06,480 --> 00:30:10,200
Speaker 1: hit and there was a skunk there was about ten

529
00:30:10,360 --> 00:30:13,640
Speaker 1: steps in front of me that was monking around in

530
00:30:13,680 --> 00:30:17,440
Speaker 1: a little brush pile there. He hadn't released his scent,

531
00:30:17,520 --> 00:30:20,360
Speaker 1: but you can smell a skunk if he's round. So

532
00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:24,680
Speaker 1: I just bed real still and hoped he'd move on off.

533
00:30:24,720 --> 00:30:27,120
Speaker 1: Before it got daylight, and I was going to turkey

534
00:30:27,120 --> 00:30:30,520
Speaker 1: call and all that kind of stuff. And the storm

535
00:30:30,600 --> 00:30:34,360
Speaker 1: got closer, and the lightning flashes came more frequently, and

536
00:30:34,520 --> 00:30:36,840
Speaker 1: I could see the skunk right there in front of me.

537
00:30:37,240 --> 00:30:40,200
Speaker 1: And then the storm got close enough to where all

538
00:30:40,240 --> 00:30:43,160
Speaker 1: of a sudden, there was this tremendous clap of thunder

539
00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:48,360
Speaker 1: and lightning, and a turkey gobbled right there in the

540
00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:53,640
Speaker 1: next tree, over another big pecan tree. Of course, it's

541
00:30:53,760 --> 00:30:57,000
Speaker 1: dark except for the lightning flashes. I can't see the turkey,

542
00:30:57,320 --> 00:31:00,600
Speaker 1: but every time it would thunder, he would goble right

543
00:31:00,600 --> 00:31:03,520
Speaker 1: there over me. And there's a skunk right there in

544
00:31:03,560 --> 00:31:07,160
Speaker 1: front of me, between me and the turkey. And so

545
00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:12,240
Speaker 1: as it got a little bit more lighter, still hadn't

546
00:31:12,360 --> 00:31:16,000
Speaker 1: rained yet, the storm still hadn't broken, still lightening and

547
00:31:16,120 --> 00:31:20,480
Speaker 1: still thundering. I can see the turkey, and he's strutting

548
00:31:20,680 --> 00:31:25,600
Speaker 1: on this limb. Nobody's called yet or anything, because it's

549
00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:29,800
Speaker 1: not even light enough to really see well. And the

550
00:31:29,840 --> 00:31:33,760
Speaker 1: turkey's just, you know, pop into a strut and walk

551
00:31:33,840 --> 00:31:37,160
Speaker 1: a few steps on the big limb, and he'd look

552
00:31:37,360 --> 00:31:40,960
Speaker 1: over and the skunk was still right there in front

553
00:31:40,960 --> 00:31:46,040
Speaker 1: of me. I'm shooting a milele thirty one Remington shotgun

554
00:31:46,640 --> 00:31:50,040
Speaker 1: with a thirty two inch full choked barrel on it.

555
00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:54,440
Speaker 1: I got my gun up and the thirty two inch

556
00:31:54,520 --> 00:31:58,960
Speaker 1: barrel is almost over the skunk. He's still rooting around

557
00:31:58,960 --> 00:32:03,680
Speaker 1: in the brush top. And the next time it lightened good,

558
00:32:04,200 --> 00:32:09,400
Speaker 1: the turkey's there, and I boom and shot. The turkey fell.

559
00:32:09,440 --> 00:32:14,400
Speaker 1: I jumped up and jumped over the skunk, and he

560
00:32:14,680 --> 00:32:19,320
Speaker 1: flooded the woods behind where I'd been sitting and missed me.

561
00:32:20,120 --> 00:32:22,880
Speaker 1: And so I got to the turkey. He was dead

562
00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:25,320
Speaker 1: as a hammer. He had like a twelve inch beard,

563
00:32:25,480 --> 00:32:28,760
Speaker 1: huge gobbler, one of the largest I've ever killed. And

564
00:32:29,560 --> 00:32:35,080
Speaker 1: the skunk left deaf, probably, and the turkey was just beautiful.

565
00:32:35,520 --> 00:32:39,200
Speaker 1: And then here came the rain. But I had my

566
00:32:39,760 --> 00:32:44,200
Speaker 1: rain suit rolled up there, and I took the rain

567
00:32:44,280 --> 00:32:48,320
Speaker 1: suit out, shook it out, and I wrapped that beautiful

568
00:32:48,400 --> 00:32:53,480
Speaker 1: gobbler up in my rain suit, and I walked back

569
00:32:53,520 --> 00:32:57,040
Speaker 1: to the cabin three quarters of a mile in the

570
00:32:57,080 --> 00:33:00,840
Speaker 1: pouring rain without a rain suit on. That turkey didn't

571
00:33:00,840 --> 00:33:06,120
Speaker 1: get a feather wet on him. That turkey didn't get

572
00:33:06,120 --> 00:33:09,400
Speaker 1: a feather wet. Now that's a good story, And I

573
00:33:09,400 --> 00:33:11,560
Speaker 1: don't blame a fifteen year old in the mid nineteen

574
00:33:11,680 --> 00:33:13,960
Speaker 1: fifties in the least for shooting a turkey in a

575
00:33:14,040 --> 00:33:18,320
Speaker 1: tree when lightning flashed. Actually, in many states there's no

576
00:33:18,480 --> 00:33:21,000
Speaker 1: law against shooting in the roost as long as it's

577
00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:24,600
Speaker 1: past legal shooting light. And I'm certain with a thunderstorm

578
00:33:24,680 --> 00:33:29,760
Speaker 1: rolling in it made shooting light exceptionally dark. Our next

579
00:33:29,760 --> 00:33:33,560
Speaker 1: storyteller is very well known in the waterfowl world and

580
00:33:34,040 --> 00:33:36,160
Speaker 1: even in the beargrease world because he's been on here

581
00:33:36,200 --> 00:33:39,240
Speaker 1: several times. But he loves turkey hunting about as much

582
00:33:39,280 --> 00:33:42,600
Speaker 1: as he loves Mallard ducks. I've noticed that people only

583
00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:46,920
Speaker 1: say good things about Jimbo ron Quest. Here he goes

584
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:51,000
Speaker 1: with the Missouri turkey story about him his dad, A

585
00:33:51,120 --> 00:33:57,760
Speaker 1: fine spring morning and another skunk. My dad was my

586
00:33:57,800 --> 00:34:00,360
Speaker 1: favorite turkey hunting buddy for years and years. Grew up

587
00:34:00,400 --> 00:34:02,920
Speaker 1: hunt turkey him with dad. Dad was a really good woodsman.

588
00:34:03,520 --> 00:34:07,080
Speaker 1: That's a picture him right there behind me, and that's

589
00:34:07,120 --> 00:34:09,240
Speaker 1: how he liked to be to carrying the dead turkey

590
00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:12,960
Speaker 1: with his camouflage coverall was on. So we had been

591
00:34:13,040 --> 00:34:15,080
Speaker 1: hunting some we had place up in Zury. We love

592
00:34:15,120 --> 00:34:17,160
Speaker 1: to hunt. Of course, I know, you spend a lot

593
00:34:17,160 --> 00:34:18,640
Speaker 1: of time in the woods in the dark, and you

594
00:34:18,680 --> 00:34:21,240
Speaker 1: get used to seeing things, so you get used to

595
00:34:21,480 --> 00:34:24,359
Speaker 1: your surroundings. I'm sure if you're walking up an old road,

596
00:34:24,800 --> 00:34:29,480
Speaker 1: if there's something that wasn't there yesterday, you probably recognize that. Seeing.

597
00:34:29,560 --> 00:34:32,000
Speaker 1: Dad wouldn't let you wear, you know, no kind of flashlight.

598
00:34:32,080 --> 00:34:33,839
Speaker 1: You might have a little pen light that you'd had

599
00:34:33,880 --> 00:34:36,640
Speaker 1: to shine through your fingers, you know, so you can see.

600
00:34:37,200 --> 00:34:39,000
Speaker 1: So we're easing up this road and just one of

601
00:34:39,040 --> 00:34:42,840
Speaker 1: them perfect April mornings, you know, it's clear, it's cool,

602
00:34:43,320 --> 00:34:46,480
Speaker 1: turkeys hadn't started gobbling yet. And we're going down this

603
00:34:46,560 --> 00:34:49,360
Speaker 1: road and look up there and I see something in

604
00:34:49,400 --> 00:34:50,920
Speaker 1: the road and I'm like, what the heck is that?

605
00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:53,760
Speaker 1: And we step a little bit more in about that time,

606
00:34:54,360 --> 00:34:57,040
Speaker 1: my dad's shoving me out of the way. And DA's

607
00:34:57,080 --> 00:34:59,759
Speaker 1: pretty good sized, felt and at that time I was

608
00:35:00,080 --> 00:35:02,439
Speaker 1: I was a lot rounder than what I am now,

609
00:35:02,800 --> 00:35:04,600
Speaker 1: and he's shoving me out of the way. And back

610
00:35:04,680 --> 00:35:08,040
Speaker 1: that time, I could smell scump and I started laughing

611
00:35:08,080 --> 00:35:11,640
Speaker 1: when I realized that he got sprayed all over his

612
00:35:11,760 --> 00:35:13,799
Speaker 1: left side. And I kind of seen those scump throw

613
00:35:13,840 --> 00:35:16,040
Speaker 1: its tail up and take off to like, oh man,

614
00:35:16,480 --> 00:35:20,120
Speaker 1: And I was laughing and puking and gagging. You. Yeah,

615
00:35:20,120 --> 00:35:24,799
Speaker 1: I'm dad in this incidence had kind of blocked me,

616
00:35:25,040 --> 00:35:27,680
Speaker 1: so that helped a whole lot, but I still got

617
00:35:27,680 --> 00:35:30,200
Speaker 1: a pretty good dose of it. So backing up, we

618
00:35:30,480 --> 00:35:33,560
Speaker 1: get rid of the scump, but things settled down and

619
00:35:34,080 --> 00:35:36,919
Speaker 1: we hear a turkey goblin. Dad always said you needed

620
00:35:36,960 --> 00:35:39,319
Speaker 1: to be where you wanted to listen from an hour

621
00:35:39,440 --> 00:35:42,160
Speaker 1: before daylight, and we were pretty early, you know, but

622
00:35:42,280 --> 00:35:45,200
Speaker 1: it was get starting to get light, so we had

623
00:35:45,200 --> 00:35:48,160
Speaker 1: to get up crawled under a fence. So he ease

624
00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:51,359
Speaker 1: up there and Dad's holding a fence and I'm trying

625
00:35:51,360 --> 00:35:53,640
Speaker 1: to crawl through it and my best hung at bottom,

626
00:35:53,640 --> 00:35:56,239
Speaker 1: staying of bob ward and I'm hung up and the

627
00:35:56,280 --> 00:35:58,839
Speaker 1: fence made a bunch of racking. I'm like, oh god, name,

628
00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:01,880
Speaker 1: we're gonna focus turkey. What we get to him? Well,

629
00:36:02,040 --> 00:36:04,080
Speaker 1: I kind of give it. He gets me unhooked and

630
00:36:04,120 --> 00:36:06,960
Speaker 1: I grabbed the fence. Dad gets underneath it and we

631
00:36:07,280 --> 00:36:09,640
Speaker 1: ease down there and we finally get set. It's still dark,

632
00:36:09,680 --> 00:36:12,600
Speaker 1: turkeys ain't flew down yet, but they're gobbling dude, So

633
00:36:12,680 --> 00:36:17,080
Speaker 1: we get set. You hear Old Turkey from him. I've

634
00:36:17,120 --> 00:36:18,600
Speaker 1: got to look and I can say it, old white

635
00:36:18,600 --> 00:36:25,200
Speaker 1: headed we chips here now, Bob Old Turkey finally dipped

636
00:36:25,200 --> 00:36:27,600
Speaker 1: at him, just barely on the tree, got him thinking

637
00:36:27,640 --> 00:36:30,960
Speaker 1: our direction. Sucker flew down, and he flew down. He

638
00:36:31,080 --> 00:36:34,040
Speaker 1: kind of hit lit underneath the ridge. There's old old

639
00:36:34,120 --> 00:36:36,239
Speaker 1: dam road right there. I knew he said he hit

640
00:36:36,320 --> 00:36:38,120
Speaker 1: the ground. You can hear him shuffling them leaves and

641
00:36:38,200 --> 00:36:44,480
Speaker 1: drumming gobble hard. Wow. Okay, and I not quite got shakes,

642
00:36:44,520 --> 00:36:46,000
Speaker 1: but I know he's coming. You know, I got my

643
00:36:46,040 --> 00:36:49,240
Speaker 1: gun on my knee. He's up there in full strut

644
00:36:49,560 --> 00:36:52,840
Speaker 1: and just god, they're just so purty. You know. Some's

645
00:36:52,880 --> 00:36:55,839
Speaker 1: coming up and kind of backled it through that tail fan.

646
00:36:56,000 --> 00:36:58,200
Speaker 1: It's just so prey. I can see it like it

647
00:36:58,280 --> 00:37:01,960
Speaker 1: was yesterday, and this has probably been gosh dang, forty

648
00:37:02,040 --> 00:37:05,160
Speaker 1: years ago. Holy smokes. That just kind of did the

649
00:37:05,239 --> 00:37:08,600
Speaker 1: math in my head. That's that's been a minute. Anyway.

650
00:37:08,600 --> 00:37:12,479
Speaker 1: He finally stuck his head up shout it's cool deal.

651
00:37:12,880 --> 00:37:15,560
Speaker 1: He flopped out. Man, We high five not again. Like

652
00:37:15,600 --> 00:37:18,399
Speaker 1: I told you, Dad and I loved hunt together. It

653
00:37:18,480 --> 00:37:21,160
Speaker 1: was a big time so we snatch him up. I've

654
00:37:21,200 --> 00:37:23,680
Speaker 1: told Dad that he smelled like skunk and he skunk bad,

655
00:37:23,719 --> 00:37:25,840
Speaker 1: and he's all right, let's go find another one. So

656
00:37:25,880 --> 00:37:28,160
Speaker 1: we hung that one up in a tree because we

657
00:37:28,280 --> 00:37:30,239
Speaker 1: was going on a pretty good hook up from here.

658
00:37:30,600 --> 00:37:33,480
Speaker 1: They'd like to walk, but we'd heard other turkeys way down,

659
00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:35,800
Speaker 1: so we went and made another set and struck another

660
00:37:35,800 --> 00:37:40,560
Speaker 1: turkey and got set to him and just one, you know,

661
00:37:40,719 --> 00:37:44,759
Speaker 1: mid morning, seven thirty hunts, you know, gott and cant

662
00:37:44,880 --> 00:37:47,399
Speaker 1: yepping at him. Here he comes, and old turkey would

663
00:37:47,400 --> 00:37:50,000
Speaker 1: stop and strut and stop and strut, and you know,

664
00:37:50,120 --> 00:37:51,560
Speaker 1: decos and that, and you just try to get into

665
00:37:51,600 --> 00:37:55,480
Speaker 1: woods and hide somewhere. We're made that God to look

666
00:37:55,520 --> 00:37:56,920
Speaker 1: for the hen. You know, I think a lot of

667
00:37:56,920 --> 00:37:59,759
Speaker 1: people have lost that nowadays. We've gotten used to using

668
00:37:59,800 --> 00:38:02,600
Speaker 1: d coos and hunting fields or pastors. If you think

669
00:38:02,640 --> 00:38:04,440
Speaker 1: about when you set up in the woods, set up

670
00:38:04,440 --> 00:38:05,920
Speaker 1: where that God has got to come look for that

671
00:38:06,000 --> 00:38:08,879
Speaker 1: hen that he just can't see her from wherever he's

672
00:38:08,880 --> 00:38:11,440
Speaker 1: at in open woods. And Dad was good about that.

673
00:38:12,080 --> 00:38:15,840
Speaker 1: So another fantastic hunt, just the kind of morning you

674
00:38:15,880 --> 00:38:20,719
Speaker 1: live for Old Turkey's drumming. It's damn there is. And

675
00:38:20,840 --> 00:38:23,840
Speaker 1: he was just milking it, you know, And I'm aunty.

676
00:38:24,480 --> 00:38:26,760
Speaker 1: Dad choosed to turkey. So we've killed two long berridges

677
00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:30,279
Speaker 1: this morning. So we had we high five and do

678
00:38:30,320 --> 00:38:32,800
Speaker 1: all that stuff. And I'm tolding the turkey because I'm

679
00:38:32,840 --> 00:38:34,960
Speaker 1: I'm the kid. So I told the turkey, we go

680
00:38:35,040 --> 00:38:38,000
Speaker 1: find my turkey, go get the truck. We get in

681
00:38:38,040 --> 00:38:39,560
Speaker 1: the truck and we get there. And at that time

682
00:38:39,560 --> 00:38:42,040
Speaker 1: in my life, I tried to keep my truck pretty clean.

683
00:38:42,200 --> 00:38:43,960
Speaker 1: I was a kid, and I had the inside. I'll clean.

684
00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:46,920
Speaker 1: I said, Dad, you can't worry them coveralls up in

685
00:38:46,920 --> 00:38:49,000
Speaker 1: my truck. I can't be having the inside of my

686
00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:52,840
Speaker 1: truck smell like scump. So he throwed him into tool box.

687
00:38:52,880 --> 00:38:55,440
Speaker 1: And at that time, we you know, in Missouri, had

688
00:38:55,480 --> 00:38:58,120
Speaker 1: to go to a check station and physically go take

689
00:38:58,160 --> 00:39:00,719
Speaker 1: the bird and check it in and get somebody. So

690
00:39:00,800 --> 00:39:03,640
Speaker 1: we're thinking, man, have a have a honey bun and

691
00:39:03,760 --> 00:39:06,399
Speaker 1: a cup of coffee or something or coke. Bigod were

692
00:39:06,440 --> 00:39:09,560
Speaker 1: walking this store and this lady worked behind the counter.

693
00:39:10,040 --> 00:39:12,640
Speaker 1: We no more walked in. I mean we didn't look around.

694
00:39:12,760 --> 00:39:14,600
Speaker 1: She didn't say in a hip you do you need

695
00:39:14,600 --> 00:39:18,600
Speaker 1: to check a turkey. She throwed her head up like

696
00:39:19,200 --> 00:39:22,839
Speaker 1: somebody put a spotlight on her. She said, I don't

697
00:39:22,840 --> 00:39:24,920
Speaker 1: know which one of you two got that skunk piss on,

698
00:39:25,080 --> 00:39:29,279
Speaker 1: but get the heck out of my store. So that

699
00:39:29,520 --> 00:39:32,480
Speaker 1: that was. That was one I will always remember. She

700
00:39:32,520 --> 00:39:34,960
Speaker 1: did check the turkeys, but she said, y'all stay outside,

701
00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:38,440
Speaker 1: I'll come out there. And we lost dad in March

702
00:39:38,560 --> 00:39:42,319
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty. And I remember we was laying when

703
00:39:42,320 --> 00:39:44,759
Speaker 1: we was watching turkey hunting videos or something, and he talked,

704
00:39:44,800 --> 00:39:49,240
Speaker 1: he'd always want to talk about that. That's a good story,

705
00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:53,960
Speaker 1: Jimbo love it. Our next storyteller you'll be familiar with

706
00:39:54,080 --> 00:39:58,000
Speaker 1: because it's old Moe Shepherd. I always learned something listening

707
00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:00,960
Speaker 1: to Moe talk about these Ozark pub the land turkeys,

708
00:40:01,440 --> 00:40:04,440
Speaker 1: even if he won't tell me where he hunts. Here's

709
00:40:04,560 --> 00:40:09,680
Speaker 1: mold Well, I've got a pretty good turkey story. And

710
00:40:09,840 --> 00:40:13,479
Speaker 1: all I'll say is perseverance and don't give up. That'll

711
00:40:13,600 --> 00:40:16,160
Speaker 1: kill you more turkeys than a lot of fancy calls

712
00:40:16,200 --> 00:40:20,600
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just stay after him. This story begins

713
00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:24,960
Speaker 1: on an evening in about twenty twelve. I was hunting

714
00:40:24,960 --> 00:40:28,600
Speaker 1: in those dark mountains again on public land I'd hunted

715
00:40:28,680 --> 00:40:31,840
Speaker 1: several days but hadn't had any luck. I mean, i'd

716
00:40:31,920 --> 00:40:33,719
Speaker 1: heard a few birds, but I don't think i'd even

717
00:40:33,760 --> 00:40:37,000
Speaker 1: call one in and gun range. I mean that season

718
00:40:37,040 --> 00:40:39,720
Speaker 1: that you're ended. On a Tuesday. I hunted that weekend.

719
00:40:39,760 --> 00:40:42,239
Speaker 1: It didn't even hear a bird. But I side, well,

720
00:40:42,440 --> 00:40:44,680
Speaker 1: you can't give up. I've got vacation i'm taking. I'm

721
00:40:44,680 --> 00:40:47,200
Speaker 1: gonna take the last two days and hunt. Well. I

722
00:40:47,239 --> 00:40:50,960
Speaker 1: get up that Monday morning, the temperatures dropped about forty degrees.

723
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:53,480
Speaker 1: It's about thirty five degrees, and this is like the

724
00:40:53,680 --> 00:40:56,520
Speaker 1: second or third or fourth day of May, and the

725
00:40:56,560 --> 00:40:58,799
Speaker 1: wind is blowing. Well, I go to a place where

726
00:40:58,800 --> 00:41:02,200
Speaker 1: i'd heard some turkeys back earlier in the season, hunting

727
00:41:02,200 --> 00:41:04,759
Speaker 1: there all morning. Don't hear a thing. It's boy, I've

728
00:41:04,760 --> 00:41:09,080
Speaker 1: wasted my vacation. Birds ain't goblin. I thought, well, i'm

729
00:41:09,080 --> 00:41:10,480
Speaker 1: out here. I'd as well stay after it, so I

730
00:41:10,600 --> 00:41:12,279
Speaker 1: ate me a little lunch. I thought, well, I know

731
00:41:12,280 --> 00:41:14,160
Speaker 1: a place I'm gonna go. I hadn't even been in

732
00:41:14,200 --> 00:41:16,040
Speaker 1: here this year, but I've killed turkeys in here in

733
00:41:16,080 --> 00:41:18,600
Speaker 1: the past. It's a long walk from where you can

734
00:41:18,640 --> 00:41:22,120
Speaker 1: park and get to It's a big, long mountain. It's

735
00:41:22,120 --> 00:41:24,520
Speaker 1: got a big saddle on it, and two knobs on

736
00:41:24,520 --> 00:41:26,320
Speaker 1: each side of that saddle, and it's got finger ridges

737
00:41:26,440 --> 00:41:28,560
Speaker 1: runs off of that each of those knobs. It's a

738
00:41:28,560 --> 00:41:30,600
Speaker 1: great place to turkey hunt. I'm not gonna tell you

739
00:41:30,640 --> 00:41:33,840
Speaker 1: where that's at. That's one of my secrets. But anyway,

740
00:41:33,920 --> 00:41:36,520
Speaker 1: I decided to go up there that afternoon, so I

741
00:41:36,560 --> 00:41:39,919
Speaker 1: took off walking, started walking up a long finger ridge

742
00:41:39,960 --> 00:41:42,200
Speaker 1: to one of those knobs. I thought, we'll all making

743
00:41:42,200 --> 00:41:45,400
Speaker 1: my way up this long ridge through the saddle, up

744
00:41:45,440 --> 00:41:47,440
Speaker 1: on the second knob, and then come back off of

745
00:41:47,520 --> 00:41:49,200
Speaker 1: it on a long ridge, and that'll make a good

746
00:41:49,200 --> 00:41:51,759
Speaker 1: evening hunt. Well, I went all up its long ridge.

747
00:41:51,800 --> 00:41:53,120
Speaker 1: Took me a probably an hour and a half or

748
00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:54,880
Speaker 1: so to get up in there. Up on top of

749
00:41:54,920 --> 00:41:57,400
Speaker 1: that knob. Hadn't heard nothing to wind, still a howling

750
00:41:57,440 --> 00:42:00,200
Speaker 1: and the blowing. So I'm calling a little louder and

751
00:42:00,200 --> 00:42:02,400
Speaker 1: and more frequent than I like to, but sometimes you

752
00:42:02,440 --> 00:42:04,319
Speaker 1: have to do that when the winds blowing. And well,

753
00:42:04,320 --> 00:42:05,800
Speaker 1: I still didn't hear anything like, well, I'm gonna go

754
00:42:05,800 --> 00:42:07,359
Speaker 1: through this saddle. Maybe the wind will be a little

755
00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:09,400
Speaker 1: calmer in that saddle. So I got in that saddle.

756
00:42:09,520 --> 00:42:11,080
Speaker 1: I was wrong about that. The wind was worse than

757
00:42:11,080 --> 00:42:12,640
Speaker 1: the saddle. It was whipping around. There was a knob

758
00:42:12,680 --> 00:42:14,399
Speaker 1: and just whistling. I thought, well, this ain't no good.

759
00:42:14,600 --> 00:42:15,960
Speaker 1: I thought, I'm not gonna get up on that knob.

760
00:42:15,960 --> 00:42:17,520
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go around the side that knob and get

761
00:42:17,520 --> 00:42:19,759
Speaker 1: on that finger ridge over where. I made my way

762
00:42:19,800 --> 00:42:22,480
Speaker 1: around over there, called if you tidy, didn't anything. Got

763
00:42:22,560 --> 00:42:24,120
Speaker 1: on that ridge there, and it really look pretty. There

764
00:42:24,160 --> 00:42:27,240
Speaker 1: were some fresh scratchings in there. I thought, these turkey's

765
00:42:27,280 --> 00:42:29,400
Speaker 1: in here, they just ain't say anything. So I'm just

766
00:42:29,400 --> 00:42:31,880
Speaker 1: gonna sit down here. So I got situated in there

767
00:42:31,880 --> 00:42:35,040
Speaker 1: against a big old tree and started calling. And I

768
00:42:35,080 --> 00:42:37,080
Speaker 1: don't know, I probably sit there thirty forty minutes, and

769
00:42:37,120 --> 00:42:39,440
Speaker 1: I just fixed the get up, and I thought, I

770
00:42:39,480 --> 00:42:41,480
Speaker 1: believe I heard a gobble down. Blow me in the

771
00:42:41,480 --> 00:42:43,480
Speaker 1: hollow right, blow me there. So I settle bit and

772
00:42:43,520 --> 00:42:45,399
Speaker 1: I called again. It's short enough, it was. I heard

773
00:42:45,400 --> 00:42:48,680
Speaker 1: a turkey gobble, so I called in. Didn't hear nothing.

774
00:42:49,280 --> 00:42:52,040
Speaker 1: Called again after five or six minutes, didn't hear anything.

775
00:42:52,480 --> 00:42:54,279
Speaker 1: I thought, well, maybe it can't hear me, you know,

776
00:42:54,320 --> 00:42:56,920
Speaker 1: because it's winds a howling. So I don't mere if

777
00:42:56,960 --> 00:43:00,239
Speaker 1: I cut or cackle or this yep loud or what

778
00:43:00,840 --> 00:43:04,120
Speaker 1: I did and ride over the break from me just

779
00:43:04,440 --> 00:43:07,240
Speaker 1: I mean got after it. So I got all excited

780
00:43:07,280 --> 00:43:09,799
Speaker 1: and got ready, and I looked, and here comes two

781
00:43:09,800 --> 00:43:13,000
Speaker 1: big red heads. It was two gobblers, two big my

782
00:43:13,080 --> 00:43:15,279
Speaker 1: tree gobblers. And here in Arkansas we're only allowed one

783
00:43:15,320 --> 00:43:19,719
Speaker 1: per day. Anyway, I just called and messed around and

784
00:43:19,760 --> 00:43:21,799
Speaker 1: final him. One of them got in a good place

785
00:43:21,800 --> 00:43:24,560
Speaker 1: down a rank right shoot and I shot, took him

786
00:43:24,600 --> 00:43:26,480
Speaker 1: down and the other and flew off down the canyon

787
00:43:26,520 --> 00:43:29,560
Speaker 1: just out of sight. This was about probably five five

788
00:43:29,719 --> 00:43:32,319
Speaker 1: thirty in the afternoon. I was tickled to death. I

789
00:43:32,360 --> 00:43:35,040
Speaker 1: went down there and looked at my gobbler and thought, man,

790
00:43:35,080 --> 00:43:37,319
Speaker 1: it paid off to come back in here and hunt,

791
00:43:37,320 --> 00:43:38,680
Speaker 1: even though I hadn't been in there this year, because

792
00:43:38,680 --> 00:43:40,480
Speaker 1: this has already been a good spot for me, and

793
00:43:41,239 --> 00:43:45,000
Speaker 1: took vacation his last next last death season. I got thinking,

794
00:43:45,239 --> 00:43:49,279
Speaker 1: there's one more Dad Turkey season. I thought, why would

795
00:43:49,320 --> 00:43:51,440
Speaker 1: I want to go anywhere else? I'm ass spooked him

796
00:43:51,440 --> 00:43:53,760
Speaker 1: by shooting, But so what I know, there's a gobbler

797
00:43:53,800 --> 00:43:55,839
Speaker 1: and here. If I'm interesting next morning, maybe I can

798
00:43:55,840 --> 00:43:58,600
Speaker 1: get him. So I carried my turkey out, got back

799
00:43:58,600 --> 00:44:01,399
Speaker 1: in my truck, went home, slept what little I could

800
00:44:01,480 --> 00:44:03,440
Speaker 1: during the night, got up the next morning. It was

801
00:44:03,560 --> 00:44:06,879
Speaker 1: same way, cold, wind blowing. I thought that turkey's up there,

802
00:44:06,880 --> 00:44:09,120
Speaker 1: somewhere off that long ridge down and there. Got about

803
00:44:09,160 --> 00:44:12,280
Speaker 1: halfway up to that knob up there, and I hooted,

804
00:44:12,640 --> 00:44:14,279
Speaker 1: and that dude gobble. He was right on top of

805
00:44:14,280 --> 00:44:16,640
Speaker 1: that knob, up bearing all that wind. So I made

806
00:44:16,680 --> 00:44:19,000
Speaker 1: my way up there. Within I wasn't at the same tree,

807
00:44:18,880 --> 00:44:20,719
Speaker 1: but I was probably within thirty forty yards or where

808
00:44:20,719 --> 00:44:22,400
Speaker 1: I killed that one day, evening four and it was

809
00:44:22,440 --> 00:44:25,000
Speaker 1: starting to break light. He'd gobbled several times while I

810
00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:26,400
Speaker 1: was walking up that way. He was still up on

811
00:44:26,440 --> 00:44:29,200
Speaker 1: the hill above me. I thought, I'm gonna set up

812
00:44:29,280 --> 00:44:30,640
Speaker 1: right here, even though if that's the one that was

813
00:44:30,680 --> 00:44:32,680
Speaker 1: here yesterday. And then he thought there was a hen

814
00:44:32,760 --> 00:44:36,080
Speaker 1: up here because they were coming. So I sat down

815
00:44:36,080 --> 00:44:38,120
Speaker 1: there and way a little bit of hurt him gobble again.

816
00:44:38,160 --> 00:44:40,799
Speaker 1: It was getting light. I made a few soft yelps,

817
00:44:40,920 --> 00:44:43,680
Speaker 1: tree ups, and a couple of clucks. He answered me back.

818
00:44:43,960 --> 00:44:45,799
Speaker 1: I just shut up and just got my gun ery

819
00:44:45,840 --> 00:44:47,520
Speaker 1: and set there, and the women was blown, so I

820
00:44:47,520 --> 00:44:50,600
Speaker 1: never heard him fly down. Probably ten minutes. I looked,

821
00:44:50,840 --> 00:44:52,560
Speaker 1: and I've seen a tail fan right out there, right

822
00:44:52,600 --> 00:44:54,879
Speaker 1: above me on the hillside there. I just got ready,

823
00:44:54,880 --> 00:44:57,000
Speaker 1: and he just strutted his way right down about twenty

824
00:44:57,000 --> 00:44:58,839
Speaker 1: five yards from me before I got it open him

825
00:44:58,840 --> 00:45:02,239
Speaker 1: to shoot at him and took him down. Another nice, big,

826
00:45:02,280 --> 00:45:05,480
Speaker 1: old material, longbearded gobbler. And I asked, part of the

827
00:45:05,480 --> 00:45:08,560
Speaker 1: moral that story is that I'd hunted all season, hadn't

828
00:45:08,560 --> 00:45:12,160
Speaker 1: heard many turkeys or anything, but I love the turkey hunt,

829
00:45:12,440 --> 00:45:14,560
Speaker 1: and I decided to take off and hunt those last

830
00:45:14,560 --> 00:45:18,399
Speaker 1: two days. Patience and persistence will bid you a lot

831
00:45:18,440 --> 00:45:22,799
Speaker 1: of turkeys out in those woods. It's hard to be

832
00:45:22,880 --> 00:45:25,640
Speaker 1: the guy that just won't give up. We've all had

833
00:45:25,719 --> 00:45:28,399
Speaker 1: bad years. The fact that the last two days were

834
00:45:28,440 --> 00:45:32,880
Speaker 1: cold and windy and he went anyway is inspirational, because

835
00:45:32,920 --> 00:45:35,040
Speaker 1: that would have been a great excuse not to go.

836
00:45:36,760 --> 00:45:40,600
Speaker 1: Our last storyteller is new to the Bear Grease podcast.

837
00:45:41,480 --> 00:45:45,520
Speaker 1: David Joy is a novelist from western North Carolina. He's

838
00:45:45,560 --> 00:45:48,560
Speaker 1: won a lot of prestigious awards for his books. He's

839
00:45:48,560 --> 00:45:51,960
Speaker 1: written for Gardening, Gun Time Magazine, and New York Times,

840
00:45:52,239 --> 00:45:55,879
Speaker 1: and his novel Where All Light Tends to Go. It's

841
00:45:55,960 --> 00:45:59,400
Speaker 1: being made into a film, and they tell me, listen

842
00:45:59,440 --> 00:46:02,160
Speaker 1: to this. He's got a big following of people in

843
00:46:02,239 --> 00:46:05,480
Speaker 1: Europe as well as here in America. As fancy as

844
00:46:05,480 --> 00:46:08,799
Speaker 1: all that sounds about mister Joy, I bet you'll be

845
00:46:08,840 --> 00:46:12,440
Speaker 1: surprised when you hear him talk. He's one of us.

846
00:46:12,960 --> 00:46:17,200
Speaker 1: He's a turkey hunter. Here's our last story, Meet David Joy.

847
00:46:19,040 --> 00:46:21,799
Speaker 1: So I'm really fortunate in that the woman that I

848
00:46:21,960 --> 00:46:26,600
Speaker 1: fell in love with understands and has somewhat adopted my

849
00:46:26,680 --> 00:46:29,960
Speaker 1: obsession with turkeys. But the difference between us is that

850
00:46:30,040 --> 00:46:32,799
Speaker 1: she works like a real job, and I'm forty years

851
00:46:32,840 --> 00:46:35,600
Speaker 1: old and I really hadn't struck a lick at anything yet.

852
00:46:36,320 --> 00:46:40,279
Speaker 1: So because she works, though, she might get two to

853
00:46:40,440 --> 00:46:44,360
Speaker 1: three days to hunt every year. So this was probably

854
00:46:44,400 --> 00:46:47,960
Speaker 1: her second season, and I had gotten she'd still never

855
00:46:48,000 --> 00:46:50,640
Speaker 1: even taken a shot at a bird. But I'd gotten

856
00:46:50,640 --> 00:46:53,680
Speaker 1: this permission on a buddy of mine's farm. And the

857
00:46:53,719 --> 00:46:56,520
Speaker 1: way that this land lays out, it's kind of like

858
00:46:56,560 --> 00:46:59,600
Speaker 1: you're in a big bowl and at the bottom it's

859
00:46:59,600 --> 00:47:02,680
Speaker 1: probably like twenty five hundred feet somewhere around there, and

860
00:47:02,760 --> 00:47:07,760
Speaker 1: the ridgeline is probably four thousand feet and he owns

861
00:47:07,800 --> 00:47:10,360
Speaker 1: all of it. But the house and the majority of

862
00:47:10,360 --> 00:47:13,879
Speaker 1: the pasture is in the bottom of that. And when

863
00:47:13,920 --> 00:47:16,359
Speaker 1: you sit down there of a morning, you can, you know,

864
00:47:16,719 --> 00:47:20,000
Speaker 1: you'll usually hear four or five turkeys goblin. And the

865
00:47:20,040 --> 00:47:22,399
Speaker 1: way that those turkeys use that landscape is they tend

866
00:47:22,400 --> 00:47:25,799
Speaker 1: to roost high and then they pitch low, and then

867
00:47:25,840 --> 00:47:28,120
Speaker 1: they land in them fields at the bottom, and then

868
00:47:28,120 --> 00:47:31,480
Speaker 1: throughout the day they slowly worked their way back up high.

869
00:47:31,520 --> 00:47:34,759
Speaker 1: And so we were hunting this place. We'd spent all

870
00:47:34,840 --> 00:47:37,160
Speaker 1: morning trying to get on birds and hadn't really gotten

871
00:47:37,200 --> 00:47:41,759
Speaker 1: on anything, and it was just about time that she

872
00:47:41,920 --> 00:47:43,399
Speaker 1: was about to give up and we were gonna call

873
00:47:43,440 --> 00:47:46,839
Speaker 1: it quits. And I thought, well, we'll just kind of

874
00:47:47,000 --> 00:47:48,879
Speaker 1: throw the bag at them and see if we can't

875
00:47:48,960 --> 00:47:51,600
Speaker 1: get something to happen. And a lot of times I

876
00:47:52,640 --> 00:47:54,680
Speaker 1: like to run two calls at once just to try

877
00:47:54,719 --> 00:47:57,239
Speaker 1: to sound like a couple of different hens. But the

878
00:47:57,320 --> 00:47:59,919
Speaker 1: ideas like, you've got these two hens that are big

879
00:48:00,120 --> 00:48:02,640
Speaker 1: and back and forth, and so I'm doing that and

880
00:48:02,719 --> 00:48:05,919
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, this bird's hams just paah. Both

881
00:48:05,960 --> 00:48:08,440
Speaker 1: of us, you know, just look at each other. And

882
00:48:08,719 --> 00:48:12,160
Speaker 1: it's like a game on and where this bird is.

883
00:48:12,760 --> 00:48:16,759
Speaker 1: I can tell that he's maybe two pastures over. So

884
00:48:16,840 --> 00:48:19,440
Speaker 1: we start looking around on where we might get set

885
00:48:19,520 --> 00:48:21,799
Speaker 1: up and whatnot. Still don't know if the bird's coming

886
00:48:21,880 --> 00:48:24,200
Speaker 1: at this point, but kind of get to an area

887
00:48:24,200 --> 00:48:26,759
Speaker 1: where I know we can set up. I do the

888
00:48:26,840 --> 00:48:31,400
Speaker 1: same calling sequence again and he's just pah, and this

889
00:48:31,560 --> 00:48:35,200
Speaker 1: time he's cut the distance in half, and I can

890
00:48:35,200 --> 00:48:39,440
Speaker 1: tell that he's in that very next pasture. And I

891
00:48:39,520 --> 00:48:41,920
Speaker 1: told her, I said, and I said, this bird's doing everything,

892
00:48:42,400 --> 00:48:45,200
Speaker 1: everything just right. I said. We'll get up here, I said,

893
00:48:45,239 --> 00:48:48,400
Speaker 1: and we'll get set up in this timber. And I

894
00:48:48,400 --> 00:48:51,239
Speaker 1: said that bird should just pop into this pasture and

895
00:48:51,280 --> 00:48:54,080
Speaker 1: he'll work his way up the edge towards us. And

896
00:48:55,200 --> 00:48:58,440
Speaker 1: as turkeys are wont to do, this bird doesn't follow

897
00:48:58,440 --> 00:49:01,080
Speaker 1: the script. You know, we're sitting there and we're set

898
00:49:01,160 --> 00:49:05,279
Speaker 1: up looking down this pasture. The next time this bird gobbles,

899
00:49:05,560 --> 00:49:09,400
Speaker 1: he's above us and we're pinned down like there is

900
00:49:09,440 --> 00:49:14,480
Speaker 1: no getting up, moving nothing, And Ashley's set up below me,

901
00:49:15,160 --> 00:49:17,960
Speaker 1: and I kind of peek over my shoulder and I

902
00:49:18,040 --> 00:49:21,920
Speaker 1: see this bird and he's basically set up a strutson

903
00:49:22,080 --> 00:49:24,360
Speaker 1: up there and he's working back and forth, just bow

904
00:49:26,080 --> 00:49:29,520
Speaker 1: and I called to him and he answers, but he's

905
00:49:29,560 --> 00:49:33,520
Speaker 1: not coming, and I start making hand signals at Ashley

906
00:49:33,920 --> 00:49:36,200
Speaker 1: and I tell her that we need to switch spots,

907
00:49:36,600 --> 00:49:40,960
Speaker 1: and she understands and she gets set up on that

908
00:49:41,040 --> 00:49:44,920
Speaker 1: tree and I start belly crawling down the hill and

909
00:49:44,960 --> 00:49:48,040
Speaker 1: I start just doing some real light hen calling, like

910
00:49:48,160 --> 00:49:50,719
Speaker 1: a like a just a feeding hen, some purrs and

911
00:49:51,040 --> 00:49:55,320
Speaker 1: you know, real light clucks, just wines, whistles, real soft stuff,

912
00:49:55,440 --> 00:49:58,359
Speaker 1: leaf scratching. And the idea I had was that I

913
00:49:58,440 --> 00:50:01,080
Speaker 1: was gonna try to make this bird leave, that I

914
00:50:01,160 --> 00:50:03,359
Speaker 1: was a feeding hen that didn't want nothing to do

915
00:50:03,480 --> 00:50:05,440
Speaker 1: with him, and I was just feeding my way on

916
00:50:05,560 --> 00:50:09,240
Speaker 1: out of there, and so that's what I did. Well,

917
00:50:09,880 --> 00:50:13,640
Speaker 1: the bird's still answering. Next thing, I know that bird's coming,

918
00:50:14,600 --> 00:50:17,200
Speaker 1: and so at that point I'm not I'm kind of

919
00:50:17,239 --> 00:50:19,680
Speaker 1: out in the open, and so I'm laying on my

920
00:50:19,760 --> 00:50:23,080
Speaker 1: stomach and I've just got my face down buried in

921
00:50:23,160 --> 00:50:26,239
Speaker 1: my arms so that I hopefully will just look like

922
00:50:26,280 --> 00:50:29,600
Speaker 1: the ground. And Ashley's up there with their gun pointed

923
00:50:29,640 --> 00:50:33,360
Speaker 1: in the pasture, and I hear this bird answer, and

924
00:50:33,480 --> 00:50:36,719
Speaker 1: I lifted my head, and I'll never forget this. There

925
00:50:36,840 --> 00:50:42,200
Speaker 1: was two gobblers and there may be thirty yards above her,

926
00:50:42,680 --> 00:50:47,879
Speaker 1: coming down this pasture in full strut. Both of their

927
00:50:47,920 --> 00:50:50,960
Speaker 1: heads just drained like our glasses, I mean, just just

928
00:50:51,120 --> 00:50:54,759
Speaker 1: white heads. And I thought, oh my god, they're on

929
00:50:54,880 --> 00:50:57,440
Speaker 1: top of her, and I just dipped my head. And

930
00:50:57,480 --> 00:50:59,600
Speaker 1: I mean, the whole time, I'm thinking she's she's about

931
00:50:59,600 --> 00:51:01,880
Speaker 1: to shoot, she's about to shoot, she's about to shoot,

932
00:51:01,920 --> 00:51:04,240
Speaker 1: and this goes on. It feels like, you know, forever.

933
00:51:04,320 --> 00:51:06,640
Speaker 1: It feels like I'm laying there for an hour, and

934
00:51:06,719 --> 00:51:10,400
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, as soon as she shot, I

935
00:51:10,520 --> 00:51:14,279
Speaker 1: jumped up and one of the birds was flying off,

936
00:51:14,719 --> 00:51:17,200
Speaker 1: and the other one had his head up and he

937
00:51:17,239 --> 00:51:20,160
Speaker 1: was just turning his head one eyeball turn another, one

938
00:51:20,200 --> 00:51:22,680
Speaker 1: eyeball turn another. I just trying to figure out what's

939
00:51:22,680 --> 00:51:26,399
Speaker 1: going on. And I started screaming, reload, reload, reload, because

940
00:51:26,440 --> 00:51:29,200
Speaker 1: she's shooting this old single shot shotgun and she ain't

941
00:51:29,239 --> 00:51:31,319
Speaker 1: got but one shot. And she's looking at me like,

942
00:51:31,360 --> 00:51:34,319
Speaker 1: oh no, what in the world did I do? And

943
00:51:34,840 --> 00:51:37,600
Speaker 1: next thing you know, that bird putch cackles. He's out

944
00:51:37,600 --> 00:51:39,879
Speaker 1: of there, set some wings and you know, just pair

945
00:51:39,880 --> 00:51:43,799
Speaker 1: of glider on across the mountain. What had happened was

946
00:51:43,840 --> 00:51:47,120
Speaker 1: when that bird come down, she got so excited at

947
00:51:47,160 --> 00:51:49,560
Speaker 1: looking at that turkey that she got off the gun.

948
00:51:50,400 --> 00:51:54,120
Speaker 1: And when that happens, the tendency is you're gonna adjust

949
00:51:54,160 --> 00:51:57,080
Speaker 1: the bead and nine times out of ten you're gonna

950
00:51:57,080 --> 00:52:01,279
Speaker 1: shoot high. It's like men, a buddy was hunting one

951
00:52:01,320 --> 00:52:03,880
Speaker 1: time and I missed and I missed on a bird,

952
00:52:03,920 --> 00:52:06,879
Speaker 1: and I told him, I said, I think I shot high,

953
00:52:06,920 --> 00:52:09,560
Speaker 1: and him, being a lot older and a lot more experienced,

954
00:52:09,600 --> 00:52:11,720
Speaker 1: he told me, he said, David, in all my years,

955
00:52:11,760 --> 00:52:14,200
Speaker 1: I ain't ever seen nobody shoot the feet off one.

956
00:52:14,719 --> 00:52:18,840
Speaker 1: And his point was that you inevitably shoot high. And

957
00:52:18,960 --> 00:52:20,960
Speaker 1: that's what had happened there, was that she got off

958
00:52:21,000 --> 00:52:24,720
Speaker 1: the gun and she shot high. So she's just absolutely

959
00:52:24,840 --> 00:52:30,000
Speaker 1: heartbroken and and it winds up being the last chance

960
00:52:30,040 --> 00:52:33,160
Speaker 1: she gets to hunt that year, and so this literally

961
00:52:33,520 --> 00:52:36,759
Speaker 1: eats her up for like a year, and she's just

962
00:52:36,800 --> 00:52:42,160
Speaker 1: wanting her next shot. Jump forward that next year and

963
00:52:42,200 --> 00:52:46,080
Speaker 1: wearing that very same pasture. Kind of the same situation.

964
00:52:46,560 --> 00:52:49,479
Speaker 1: Didn't get on any birds early. It's starting to get

965
00:52:49,520 --> 00:52:52,360
Speaker 1: mid day, it's almost quit in time, and all of

966
00:52:52,440 --> 00:52:56,080
Speaker 1: a sudden one fires up. Just ah, and we're like

967
00:52:56,239 --> 00:52:59,920
Speaker 1: midway in the pasture. The bird is coming, the birds

968
00:53:00,200 --> 00:53:03,399
Speaker 1: coming from the bottom of the pasture up. We don't

969
00:53:03,440 --> 00:53:06,520
Speaker 1: have a setup, we don't have time. And I just

970
00:53:06,560 --> 00:53:09,960
Speaker 1: see this old scraggly locust that's got briars and everything

971
00:53:09,960 --> 00:53:11,640
Speaker 1: all around it, and I thought, I'm gonna put her

972
00:53:11,680 --> 00:53:15,200
Speaker 1: in that. And I went just over the lip in

973
00:53:15,239 --> 00:53:18,120
Speaker 1: this pasture and just I didn't have anywhere to get.

974
00:53:18,200 --> 00:53:21,320
Speaker 1: I just laid down on the ground. We start calling

975
00:53:21,320 --> 00:53:24,720
Speaker 1: to these birds and their answering. I can't see anything

976
00:53:24,760 --> 00:53:27,919
Speaker 1: that's going on down there, you know. I can't see

977
00:53:27,920 --> 00:53:30,560
Speaker 1: the turkeys, I can't see her, I can't see anything.

978
00:53:31,360 --> 00:53:34,640
Speaker 1: And all of a sudden, I heard this boom, and

979
00:53:34,760 --> 00:53:38,359
Speaker 1: once again I jump up and it's the same situation.

980
00:53:38,440 --> 00:53:41,480
Speaker 1: There's a bird taking off, and there's another bird standing

981
00:53:41,520 --> 00:53:43,400
Speaker 1: over there with his head up and he's turning his

982
00:53:43,480 --> 00:53:48,640
Speaker 1: eye looking one way, looking to turn wood, and I'm screaming, reload, reload, reload,

983
00:53:49,120 --> 00:53:52,360
Speaker 1: and Ashley turns around and she looks at me and

984
00:53:52,440 --> 00:53:55,359
Speaker 1: she's just like, what are you talking about. I said,

985
00:53:55,400 --> 00:53:58,560
Speaker 1: you missed, and she said I didn't miss And I

986
00:53:58,680 --> 00:54:00,680
Speaker 1: look and there's a bird fly up and down there.

987
00:54:01,200 --> 00:54:03,719
Speaker 1: And what had happened was there was four birds come

988
00:54:03,760 --> 00:54:05,359
Speaker 1: in and I didn't see none of them, and I

989
00:54:05,360 --> 00:54:09,080
Speaker 1: thought she'd missed again, but she'd finally killed her first turkey.

990
00:54:12,120 --> 00:54:14,279
Speaker 1: One of the reasons that story sticks out to me

991
00:54:14,520 --> 00:54:17,080
Speaker 1: is just it was one of the proudest moments I'd

992
00:54:17,080 --> 00:54:20,399
Speaker 1: ever seen in her, and it was because of how

993
00:54:20,440 --> 00:54:22,640
Speaker 1: hard she worked to get it. You know, she'd hunted

994
00:54:22,640 --> 00:54:26,799
Speaker 1: three seasons and you know, two seasons before she got

995
00:54:26,800 --> 00:54:30,080
Speaker 1: her first shot, three seasons before she finally killed her

996
00:54:30,080 --> 00:54:32,959
Speaker 1: first bird, you know. And I just remember that old

997
00:54:33,000 --> 00:54:36,879
Speaker 1: Tom Kelly line where Tom said he said, we pay

998
00:54:37,000 --> 00:54:40,960
Speaker 1: for every turkey we kill, and the coin that we

999
00:54:41,000 --> 00:54:50,360
Speaker 1: pay with is time. That was a good story, David.

1000
00:54:50,800 --> 00:54:53,440
Speaker 1: Did she ever forgive you, though, for thinking that she

1001
00:54:53,560 --> 00:55:00,120
Speaker 1: missed again? Turkey stories are unique, complex and give it's

1002
00:55:00,160 --> 00:55:03,799
Speaker 1: the opportunity to reflect on what actually happens in the

1003
00:55:03,840 --> 00:55:07,160
Speaker 1: spring woods. I find a lot of clarity in sharing

1004
00:55:07,239 --> 00:55:11,040
Speaker 1: my stories with people. We're living these moments as powerful

1005
00:55:11,120 --> 00:55:15,360
Speaker 1: for both the storyteller and the listener. Telling and listening

1006
00:55:15,360 --> 00:55:20,280
Speaker 1: to stories isn't a periphery human activity, but it's core

1007
00:55:20,840 --> 00:55:24,920
Speaker 1: and having a friend that will attentively listen, empathize, get excited,

1008
00:55:25,080 --> 00:55:28,680
Speaker 1: be let down, and relive the moment with you is

1009
00:55:28,760 --> 00:55:32,319
Speaker 1: incredibly important. That's why we love people, it's why we

1010
00:55:32,400 --> 00:55:36,080
Speaker 1: have friends, it's why we have family, and it's essential

1011
00:55:36,160 --> 00:55:39,719
Speaker 1: to having a healthy whole life. I think this year

1012
00:55:39,760 --> 00:55:42,520
Speaker 1: I'm going to focus on listening more closely to other

1013
00:55:42,600 --> 00:55:46,360
Speaker 1: people's stories, and maybe if I do that, they'll listen

1014
00:55:46,440 --> 00:55:49,840
Speaker 1: to mine and we'll all be able to triangulate the

1015
00:55:49,960 --> 00:55:54,799
Speaker 1: data and we'll be some turkey hunting suckers. Man. I

1016
00:55:54,840 --> 00:55:58,600
Speaker 1: hope you all have a great spring turkey season in

1017
00:55:58,640 --> 00:56:01,799
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three. Let's do some stuff for turkeys. Let's

1018
00:56:01,840 --> 00:56:05,080
Speaker 1: do some control burns, trap some predators, and make some

1019
00:56:05,160 --> 00:56:08,400
Speaker 1: timber stand improvements to help those gobblers as we know

1020
00:56:08,520 --> 00:56:11,480
Speaker 1: some of them are struggling. Hey, have a great spring.

1021
00:56:12,280 --> 00:56:14,880
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening to Bear Grides. I

1022
00:56:15,000 --> 00:56:17,840
Speaker 1: look forward to talking with all the folks on the

1023
00:56:17,880 --> 00:56:22,320
Speaker 1: Render next week.