WEBVTT - Ep. 202: Turkey Stories - Shot in the Face and Three-Wheelers (Part 2) 0:00:05.559 --> 0:00:08.280 I could see them spinning full struck, and as I 0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:12.280 raised up and went to shoot them, turkeys is boom 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:14.200 and everything got dark. 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:19.560 We've got eight Turkey storytellers stacked like Cordwood on our 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:22.239 final Turkey Stories episode of twenty twenty four. 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:23.680 They hail from. 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:29.400 Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Arkansas. The Southeastern Conference in Collegiate 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:33.880 Sports has an interesting tagline stating it just means more 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:37.720 down here. There are passionate and incredible turkey hunters all 0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:41.400 over this great country. But I've got to say that 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:46.160 SEC tagline fits turkey hunting like a three piece custom suit. 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:48.480 It sure means a lot down here. 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:53.080 On this episode, we've got three wheeler rex people getting shot, 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:56.360 folks flying around in jets, a turkey walking with a 0:00:56.400 --> 0:01:00.920 forked stick, and even a voodoo gobbler lead out. 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:02.400 That you're gonna want to miss this one. 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:05.600 And Hey, I'll be on the Meat Eater Live Tour 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:08.520 starting in April twenty third, going all the way through 0:01:08.560 --> 0:01:12.560 May fifth. Me and Steve Vanella, Yannis cal all the guys. 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:18.240 We're gonna be hitting Mesa, Arizona, San Diego, Anaheim, and Sacramento, California. 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:24.280 Salt Lake City, Utah, Boise, Idaho, Missoula, Montana, Spokane, Washington, Portland, Oregon, 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:29.280 and Tacoma, Washington. You can buy tickets for those shows now. 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:32.440 I hope to see you there. And at some point 0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:33.679 we're gonna come to the South. 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:36.959 So stand by, and I've got my gun like this 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:40.200 right here, and I go to leaning in about that 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:50.240 time I just stumped over. 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:55.560 My name is Clay Nukem, and this is the Bear 0:01:55.640 --> 0:02:00.560 Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:04.320 for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:07.040 story of Americans who lived their. 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:08.480 Lives close to the land. 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:14.880 Presented by FHF Gear, American made, purpose built hunting and 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:18.400 fishing gear that's designed to be as rugged as the 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:29.040 place as we explore. Just this last week, I was 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:32.680 in Mississippi turkey hunting with my friend Lake Pickle. We 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:36.079 were within here in distance of four gobblers at daylight, 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:38.880 one of them during near in field goal range. 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:42.279 As a clasp of pine limb in the windless, cold. 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:45.880 Twilight, they gobbled good on the roost, but as the 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:50.120 dark forest became like a dimly lit room and gradually 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:53.240 brightened to the point of being able to discern between 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:57.520 tree species, They quit almost as if they talked it 0:02:57.560 --> 0:03:01.200 over the evening before. When their dinosaur toes hit the ground, 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:06.160 they went silent, tight beaked, despite the pleading yelp marks 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:09.440 that Lake was leaving on their feathers. At nine am, 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:12.680 we left and we went to a new property and 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:16.360 made a big loop, yelping from time to time in 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:20.480 the mid morning, all the while listening. Most of the 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:24.320 hope for our morning was gone until at ten forty 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:27.919 five we heard the arrogant gobble of a tom following 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:33.320 the sharp staccato of a pilated woodpecker. We closed the 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:37.080 distance with no more than seventy five quick footsteps when 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:40.960 Lake's posture changed and he stuck out his chest and 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:45.160 from deep within erupted the most beautiful, spine tingling, four 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:52.200 note barred owl hoot I've ever heard made. I did 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:54.880 not know if a barred owl had landed on his shoulder, 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:58.760 or if on the inside he was one. But after 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:01.760 the trill of the final note, a gobble erupted so 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:05.240 close it shook our souls, and we melted to the 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:09.160 ground like may apples in June. Within seconds, we heard 0:04:09.280 --> 0:04:14.240 drumming and soon I saw his shiny black chest feathers 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:18.840 and his red head moving towards us. I resolve melted 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:23.920 like wax as Lake whispered shuit. But what he couldn't 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:28.360 see is that some limbs, briers, and grass stood between 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:32.440 us with like separated lovers. He was closing the distance 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:37.160 after having a near mental breakdown, rotating my shotgun a 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:41.159 full forty five degrees, I squeezed the trigger as he 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:46.159 walked away after tucking his wing, and the woods erupted in. 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:47.520 Flailing wing beats. 0:04:48.839 --> 0:04:52.080 Lake Pickle is not a small man, but he outran 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:54.320 me to that turkey and snatched him off the pine 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:57.480 straw like he was recovering a fumble. We'd done it 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:02.120 in all my outdoor pursuit suits. The feeling of calling 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:07.080 in killing a spring gobbler is indescribable. And that's why 0:05:07.160 --> 0:05:13.120 this week we're celebrating the wild turkey. We're gonna come 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:16.040 in hot with our first storyteller. You may have heard 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:19.040 of him. They call him yacht Yawk, but his name 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:21.800 is David Ellis and he's from West Point, Mississippi. 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:24.279 This is about a. 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:27.560 Wild hunt that he had in Missouri with his good 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:31.400 buddy po Daddy. Pay attention because this story takes some 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:33.640 quick twists and turns. 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:35.000 Here's yat yacht. 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:50.800 So the most I don't know if people say it 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:53.039 was scary, the most war out, but me and my 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:55.640 buddy went up to Missouri. I'd have been up here 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:57.680 about three times trying to kill him in that national forest. 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:00.640 And uh, I always wanted to be this guy named 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:03.479 Eddie Salter. You know, Eddie Salter was the guy that 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:06.880 you watched on TV. You saw him on the Saturday 0:06:06.880 --> 0:06:10.120 mornings and he had that call sign when he killed 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:11.880 a turkey and he went over and got picked it up. 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:16.160 He goes, you know, and that embedded in my head, 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:18.279 you know, all of all these years, and I was like, 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:20.560 I said, I want to meet Eddie Salter one day. 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:22.800 And so anyway, me and my buddy PO Daddy, we 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:25.640 caught his name's Paul, nicknames PO Daddy. And he wasn't poor. 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:26.560 He's just really cheap. 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:26.800 You know. 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:29.279 We we get a hotel with one bed to save 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:33.200 ten dollars, you know. So we went up there and 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:34.800 I'd have been up there about three times trying to 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:36.840 kill them. The mountains I call them mountains to me. 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:40.120 You know, they steep hills. Finally I ended up with 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:43.440 a guy that had four thousand acres one block of 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:46.320 lamb and through a friend of a friend, he said, 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:49.920 just come on, I'm loaded with turkeys. Well the first day, man, 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:52.320 we got in there, and them hills was just as 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:55.440 bad as over at them. But they had plenty of birds. 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:57.479 You would mess up or a bird leave you over here. 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:01.960 He'd hammer over here when you just go to another one, 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:04.080 you know. We finally one day we just split up, like, man, 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:06.320 you got birds over here. I got birds over here. 0:07:06.880 --> 0:07:09.840 But them mountains was just wearing us out, them hills 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:12.360 and valleys. And they call them ridge runners for a reason. 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:14.080 They just run up down the ridge were trying to 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:14.640 run over them. 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:15.560 You know, we ain't. 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:17.760 We wasn't smart enough to figure it out, you you know. 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:23.440 So about three days of more thunderstorms, them more ridges 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:25.360 was wearing me down. I mean one ridge took us 0:07:25.360 --> 0:07:27.120 five stops to get to the top hug one day. 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:30.520 And so the last day I told po Dad, I said, 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:32.920 you know what I'm done with this. I said, I'm 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:35.240 going back to what I used to do and know 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:37.000 how I know how to kill turkeys, because you know 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:39.440 how This is when you hunt with somebody. You just 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:42.040 play it differently. You don't move like maybe you should 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:44.120 because you got two people. You don't call like maybe 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:46.560 you should, or not call like you shouldn't. You just 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:47.800 play it different. And I told them, I said this 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:50.440 last day, I said, I'm tired of these thunderstorms. I'm 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:52.520 tired of these hills. I said, when them turkeys hit 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:53.720 the ground to day, I said, I ain't gonna have 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:55.360 these boots on, had to running shoes. I'm gonna be 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:58.200 like you, same boat. I said, when it's go times, 0:07:58.240 --> 0:07:58.600 go time. 0:07:58.640 --> 0:07:58.840 I said. 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:01.040 When they hit the ridge running, they gonna run down it. 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:02.520 I said, I'm gonna be on the other side. I said, 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:04.160 I'm gonna pop up. And I said I'm gonna bust him. 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:06.680 I said, We're going home. He said, we'll go get 0:08:06.720 --> 0:08:10.239 them some So right at daylight, themb old ile started 0:08:10.280 --> 0:08:20.800 getting to going. I said, all right, Poe Daddy, I said, 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:22.280 you just stay right here. I said, I'll be back 0:08:22.320 --> 0:08:25.520 in just to see. They just kept on as it 0:08:25.600 --> 0:08:34.800 got more and more daylight. At that time, they hit 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:36.120 the side of that ridge and I hit the other 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:37.600 side of that ridge, and I was running down there 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:39.760 with that shotgun, and they were just hammering all the way. 0:08:41.200 --> 0:08:42.640 They knew whe they was going, and I knew where 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:43.680 they was going, and all they need to do was 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:45.240 pop on the other side of the ridge. And as 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:46.600 I run and run and run. As I got to 0:08:46.640 --> 0:08:49.160 the edge of that ridge, they pitched up in flu. 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:51.880 They ain't pitched up in flu the whole time, They've 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:54.080 been walking all week, and today they pitched up in flu. 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:56.360 And I knew the ridge we was on because we 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:58.439 had stopped five times the day before. And that thing, 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:01.520 I said, you know what, I ain't giving up. I 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:03.920 shot down in that valley and I started coming all 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:05.400 the way up, and they were still hammering on the 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:07.760 next ridge, and it just kept driving me, driving me, 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:09.440 and I pulled myself to the top and I got up. 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:11.000 I could feel the sweat just running off of him. 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:12.640 I was hot, I had a pull over on, I 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:14.959 got a hood I'm always wearing a hoodie. I was sweating, 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:17.079 and they were just over there, just hammering, running away. 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:18.559 I got on the other side of that ridge and 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:20.760 I took off, and as I got closer, I could 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:23.840 see them spinning full struck, and I seen an old 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:26.440 pine top in that song on was just brown. So 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:28.280 I slid up under that pine top. I knew I 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:31.120 was gonna be about forty yards and as I raised 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:34.200 up and went to shoot them turkeys, it was boom 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:40.240 and everything got dark, and I knew I didn't pull 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:44.240 the trigger. I didn't think I did, but I felt blinded. 0:09:44.320 --> 0:09:46.920 I felt the pain. I could feel the sweat, and 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:49.280 it's a little bit of blood just run down to 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:49.720 my lip. 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:50.560 I could taste it. 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:52.800 I have a lot of nose bleed, so I knew 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:57.000 what the blood tasted like. And as I sat there, thinking, Lord, 0:09:57.440 --> 0:10:01.120 am I dead? Did I die? And about that time 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:06.480 I heard out and I took my face mask and 0:10:06.520 --> 0:10:08.920 the pine straws all stubble in my face, and I 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:12.599 pulled it down and I looked and I said, that 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:15.400 said it is softer. Edi Sautera doesn't shot me in 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:20.199 the face. So I laid there and as that guy 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:24.640 walked over there and he picked up both turkeys. And 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:26.360 I don't think you could shoot two turkeys in the 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:30.760 state of missis Missouri at the time, but he did. Now, 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:32.920 this wasn't Eddy Softer, but that was in my mind 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:37.320 and enabled it. All I heard was the HOODI and 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:41.560 as I laid there, I was thinking, was I trustpassing? 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:44.760 Was I not trustpassing? And as a guy took his 0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:47.000 turkeys off, he picked him up by the heads where 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:48.360 I'm from, picked him up by the feet, throw the 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:51.520 movers shoulder, and as he walked off down through the valley, 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:53.800 I got up and wiped the sweat and rest the 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:56.319 blood off my face and I leamped back down there 0:10:56.360 --> 0:10:58.079 till my buddy Poe Daddy. It took a little bit, 0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:00.160 and as I got up there my buddy Poe Dad, 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:03.800 he said, he looked at me, and well, did you 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:07.400 get him? I said, no, I got shot. That's what 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:11.960 I got. You ain't say nothing to him, say something 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:15.000 to him. I didn't know if I was actually trespassing time, 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:18.440 but all I could think of was if I am truspassing, 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:20.880 not only did I get shot, I may have to 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:24.800 pay a thousand dollars for I wanted Finn to get shot. 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:29.679 I am paying a thousand dollars. I said, we're going home, son. 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:34.880 But in the end, I was not trustpassing, and I 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:38.240 hadn't crossed no fences. But in my mind I never 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:41.840 thought that he was truspassing, so we called. You know, 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:45.080 I just thought i'd automatically obviously got so zoned in 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:48.600 on a turkey that I just lost why I was anyway, 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:51.000 we called landowner and come to find out, we find 0:11:51.040 --> 0:11:53.480 out who actually killed him, and they took the you know, 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:55.640 denr took care of it. But he was a fellow 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:57.839 that lived next door to that four thousand acres that 0:11:58.000 --> 0:12:02.040 nobody ever turkey hunted, and verywell could have been you know, 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:04.000 I could have lost my life. A lot of things 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:06.480 could have happened. God did not know he shot me. 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:09.800 So he's probably thirty or forty year yards on the 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:11.679 other side of those turkeys, and he shot both of them. 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:14.640 Between the two turkeys and the tree top. Saved me 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:15.920 from probably losing my eyes. 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:16.160 Sigh. 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:19.960 I had about eight good stings in the face, you know, 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:22.480 where the blood was coming out. So if it would 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:25.600 have been for him killing both turkeys and that tree top, 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:27.120 they didn't tell how many I would have took. 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:37.280 Wow, that was incredibly scary, and David tells it so 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:41.319 funny it's hard not to chuckle. But the actual trespasser 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:44.880 did not know at the time that he'd shot David, 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:46.960 who had permission to be there David did. 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:49.199 David never heard what. 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:53.040 Happened to the illegal turkey hunter. That's a wild story, 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:56.160 and thank god it wasn't more serious for David. I 0:12:56.160 --> 0:12:58.840 bet that was a long ride back to Mississippi with 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:02.240 no gobbler in the truck. David has a podcast and 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:06.240 a YouTube channel titled in his signature yacht brand. And 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:09.840 I've told you before, these Mississippi turkey hunters are just 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:16.000 made different. Our next storyteller is also made different. It's 0:13:16.040 --> 0:13:20.520 none other than my friend Andy Brown from Western Arkansas. 0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:24.120 He needs no introduction. He's a Bear Grease regular. 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:27.920 I'd never heard this story, but it involves a coat 0:13:27.960 --> 0:13:31.840 and tie and a major mishap at the moment of truth. 0:13:33.440 --> 0:13:34.080 Here's Andy. 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:37.920 Anyway, Wayne, One time he calls me and I had 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:40.439 just went to work with the place I work at now, 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:43.959 and this was in nineteen ninety. He calls me, he said, 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:45.480 we'll tell me getting off and I said, I'll be 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:46.719 off at five o'clock. He said, you want to go 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:49.319 try to roost a turkey and I said, sure, I'll 0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:51.320 go with you. And I'll never forget this. I had 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:54.440 a pair of black slacks on white shirt with a 0:13:54.480 --> 0:13:59.199 black tie William. He made us wear ties from Labor 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:01.440 Day to Memorial Day, so we always had to wear 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:03.520 a tie. So that's that was our tire, you know. 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:06.320 Of course I was decked out, you know. And so 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:08.440 we drive out the board camp and we go in 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:11.000 there to a spot and cross the creek and pull 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:12.880 them ountain there. And he had a four wheel drive 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:16.880 Chevrolet pickup that took us thousands of miles tark getting. 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:18.960 But anyway, we pull in there and he said, do 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:21.920 you want my jacket, camouflage jacket. He said, why don't 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:24.680 you take that sixteen gage? He had another shotgun too. 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:26.920 I said, wait, ain't gonna need that. I said, I'm 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:29.320 just going to walk out here east where I could 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:30.880 hear good. He said, well, I'll go west out here, 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:32.240 and I said, I'm gonna gout here east. So I 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:36.000 go out there, and of course by getting down there 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:38.400 after five o'clock the sun's starting to go down then. 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:40.880 But I had those slacks on and I didn't want 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:43.200 to sit down on the ground and those slacks. And 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:45.320 I looked and there was a little piece of plyboard. 0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:48.120 I guess a storm had blowed in there, about sixteen 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:51.080 inches wide. And I took that plyboard, and I just 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:52.880 set it down by a tree there and sit down 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:56.360 on it. I did wear his camouflage jacket, but I 0:14:56.400 --> 0:14:58.880 didn't take the gun. So I had black pants, white shirt, 0:14:58.880 --> 0:15:01.120 camouflage jacket. The black I didn't have it button. I 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:03.600 just sitting there, and you know, so I sit there 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:05.560 and sit there, and of course you know, if you're 0:15:06.080 --> 0:15:08.880 gobbler turkeys lots of times will not gobble till you 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:10.920 think it's too late to gobble. And that's when day 0:15:10.920 --> 0:15:13.680 of gobble. It's it's after the twilight everything, when you 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:16.080 think that it's they're not going to do it. But anyway, 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:18.600 I was sitting there and it's starting to get dark. 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:23.840 All of a sudden I heard him coming, and I knew, 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:26.960 there's there's no doubt when I know you've heard this, 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:28.720 But when a gobbler turkey is on a mission, it 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:31.720 sounds just like a person walking. It's just crunch, crunch, 0:15:32.080 --> 0:15:33.920 And I could hear him coming from a long ways. 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:36.760 It was dry, and I look, here come my big grascal, 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:41.280 right right to me. And he just walks up there 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:43.840 at about twenty steps of me. He just walks up 0:15:43.920 --> 0:15:46.840 the mountain there, right up on top about thirty yards 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:49.760 from me, flies up a tree right on top and 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:52.160 there I sat. So I had to wait till it 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:55.760 got completely dark. So when I drug back into the 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:57.920 truck and said where you in, I said, well, I 0:15:57.920 --> 0:15:59.640 told you about the story, I said, but man, in 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:02.480 the morning, I said, we gonna get this dude, because 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:05.600 he's gonna go back just exactly like he come in there. 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:07.520 You know, he's put his hens to bed. And I said, 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:09.560 he's gonna go back the other way. So the next morning, 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:13.960 we get up extremely early. We go in park, we 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:16.280 go around the south side of the mountain, hit an 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:19.480 old road, get over on the north side. We're gonna 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:22.040 we're gonna get set up, you know. And so we 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:23.800 walk a little ways, and walk a litle ways, and 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:26.080 we look at it and I said, this don't I said, 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:28.000 let's go a little further. So we we go a 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:30.680 little further and we get out there and and I'm 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:33.280 out there, got my pocket knife and I'm cutting I'm 0:16:33.280 --> 0:16:36.040 cutting limbs, building the blinds, you know, and get in 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:37.880 where we can hide, you know. And I get all 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:41.720 that fixed and I sit out there way he's right 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:44.400 there with it. It starts a little bit. I mean, 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:46.080 we could have tuck a nap, it was so early. 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:48.800 But anyway, it starts getting daylight, and I look out 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:51.000 there and I thought, what is that right up? I 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:54.040 can see something light covered and I look out there 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:59.120 and there's that piece of plyboard where I mean, we 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:03.360 are setting under that turkey, you know, And I thought, oh, no, 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:05.960 about that time he gobbles just blows her hats off 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:09.280 right there. And when we did, he just pitches off 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:12.000 on the south side of the mountain. He didn't pitch 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:15.000 back off the way he'd come in and went right 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:17.840 east there he went gobbling, and he went right back 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:20.439 around there to what we call Bible gap. Anyway, I 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:22.520 told man, I said, come on, let's let's go try 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:25.640 to kill that dude. We go back around, we come 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:27.480 into the gap, and the time we get into the gap, 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:29.760 he's kind of off on the south side off that on. 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:33.560 It's pretty opening there. He's down there with some hens. Anyway, 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:35.720 we got in there and got stashed and I put 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:37.600 in on him and he went to goblin. I mean 0:17:37.760 --> 0:17:40.280 that he was doing it. And I looked off down 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:43.000 there and here he come. Now he just here, he came, 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:45.040 just kept it coming, kept it coming. And I could 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:46.960 have killed him at thirty yards right in front of me, 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:50.360 but he was getting to my left and just right 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:52.200 there there was a game trail come up a lake, 0:17:54.920 --> 0:17:57.119 and I don't know why I didn't shoot him down there, 0:17:57.119 --> 0:17:58.720 but anyway, I'm just gonna let him keep it coming. 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:01.199 You know, he'd come right on up he hit that 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:03.800 game trail. This is the way it works. There was 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:06.160 one another one in big bull pines there and all 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:08.640 he's got to do when he walked in behind that 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:11.440 pine tree, I just moved my gun to the left 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:13.360 of it. I had to. I was facing this way, 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:16.159 but I had to turn my gun and there's nothing. 0:18:16.200 --> 0:18:18.480 It's just like this this floor here on both sides. 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:20.639 There's not even a huckleberry bush. I mean, he's in 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:24.280 behind the tree at fifteen yards. All he's got to 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:26.919 do is just and he just walks right in. You know, 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:28.560 he's in a walk in about that. When he gets 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:31.920 behind that tree, it just stops. It's called patience. The 0:18:31.960 --> 0:18:34.160 guy should have. You should have a little patience because 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:37.400 there's really no way this turkey can get away hardly, 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:42.359 you know. But I'm kind of you know, my body 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:45.040 is this way and I've got my gun like this 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:48.919 right here, and I go to leaning to see if 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:52.200 I get, you know, leaning over like that. And about 0:18:52.280 --> 0:18:59.719 that time I just tumped over. I just stumped over, 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:02.240 and that old turkey running his head up there. Of 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:04.760 course I'm laying on the ground like cat. And but 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:07.400 the problem was I shot him too low, I mean, 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:12.280 and I chup up and I run to get him. 0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:14.520 In course, he got his legs under me and got 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:16.520 his wings on him, and he flew right out through 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:18.440 a little old notch in the mountain. And as far 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:19.639 as I know, he's still going. 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:25.040 Now, that was a good story, Andy, and I figure 0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:28.239 that turkey is still flying. A fella could take a 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:31.240 few notes on how to kill a turkey from Andy Brown, 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:34.520 but also on how to tell a turkey story. The 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:38.440 perfect story is just the right mix of details, humor, passion, 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:44.440 and know how. Thanks Andy. Our next storyteller hails from 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:48.080 the Smoky Mountains of southern Appalachia and Green County, Tennessee. 0:19:48.760 --> 0:19:52.399 His name is Clifford Loying. The first turkey you ever 0:19:52.480 --> 0:19:55.640 killed in the nineteen seventies was the first turkey ever 0:19:55.840 --> 0:20:00.200 checked in Green County. He calls this the story worry 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:03.359 a big Red, a big red, and hain't a turkey. 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:09.280 Clifford Lowing, I live here basically all my life, except 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:13.080 in the military for a while, and work construction for 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:15.919 a couple of years out west around Colorado and around. 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:20.680 I'll tell you one about the big Red. My nephew 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:25.640 had got a big red handas three wheeler. I rode 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:27.360 it around my house or in the yard a time 0:20:27.440 --> 0:20:30.199 or two, so all I ever wrote it. And I 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:32.840 was working construction at the time, worked at Dold of 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:35.320 Jarvis up for I was working for Seeing's email right, 0:20:35.440 --> 0:20:38.160 working construction and talking to a boy and he said, 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:40.120 you've been turkey hunting rode it lately? 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:42.560 And I said no, I said, hadn't been up here 0:20:42.560 --> 0:20:43.240