Speaker 1: Welcome to This Country Life. I'm your host, Brent Rieves
Speaker 1: from coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living.
Speaker 2: I want you to stay.
Speaker 1: A while as I share my stories and the country
Speaker 1: skills that will help you beat the system. This Country
Speaker 1: Life is proudly presented as part of Meat Eaters Podcast Network,
Speaker 1: bringing you the best outdoor podcast.
Speaker 2: The airways have to offer.
Speaker 1: All right, friends, pull you up a chair or drop
Speaker 1: that tailgate. I think I got a thing or two
Speaker 1: to teach you when it all comes together. Seldom to
Speaker 1: things work out just the way you want them to,
Speaker 1: and having them continue to stack up at every turn
Speaker 1: is almost unheard of, at least in my case. Opening
Speaker 1: a week at Turkey Season in Missouri twenty twenty four
Speaker 1: would prove to be one of those rare occasions. I'm
Speaker 1: going to tell you all about it, but first I'm
Speaker 1: going to tell you a story I asked, and boy
Speaker 1: did y'all answer. My partner in crime, Mariva Hanson, who
Speaker 1: edits and publishes this podcast every week, and I have
Speaker 1: gotten a great response from folks telling their own stories
Speaker 1: to be considered for sharing here. I'm going to tell
Speaker 1: one today, just so y'all know I wasn't kidnaped about
Speaker 1: doing it also before we get started. Congratulations to Mike
Speaker 1: Davidson up there in Connersville, Indiana, who was getting a
Speaker 1: case Mini Trapper pocket knife from my personal collection. Mike
Speaker 1: was the first person to submit the Google Maps photo
Speaker 1: of me and Tim in Kansas back in twenty fourteen
Speaker 1: that I challenged folks to find in last week's podcast. Now,
Speaker 1: Mike had just enough time to listen to it after
Speaker 1: it was published, before he found the picture and sent
Speaker 1: in the screenshot. When I had the idea and started
Speaker 1: looking at myself, it took me forty five minutes to
Speaker 1: find it.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: I called Mike on the phone and I told him
Speaker 1: he'd won, and I gave him the option to have
Speaker 1: a brand new steal in the box case knife or
Speaker 1: one that I toted. Mike surprised me when he laughed
Speaker 1: and said, I've probably got one hundred case knives here
Speaker 1: in my collection. I want one that you've carried. Well,
Speaker 1: that's pretty cool. And what's even better, Mike's trading me
Speaker 1: one of his that he's carried. I can tell you
Speaker 1: one thing. The one that Mike sends me ain't going nowhere.
Speaker 1: That's mine. Forever. What a blessing this job is.
Speaker 2: Now. This story comes.
Speaker 1: From Jake Miller up in north central Ohio. Thanks to
Speaker 1: Jake for sending this in. In Jake's words and my
Speaker 1: voice here it is. For as long as I can remember,
Speaker 1: I have always had a need to be outdoors doing something, hunting, fishing, working.
Speaker 1: I one hundred percent oh that to one man, my grandfather,
Speaker 1: Richard S. Miller, also known as Shotgun. If you bring
Speaker 1: that name up around my area in Ohio, most likely
Speaker 1: someone will know who you're talking about. My grandpa was
Speaker 1: an avid deer and turkey hunter. He also enjoyed hunting
Speaker 1: morels in the spring and jensen in the fall. He
Speaker 1: loved to fish too, and from the time I was
Speaker 1: old enough and responsible enough to tope my own shotgun,
Speaker 1: an old single barrel twenty gage at the age of nine,
Speaker 1: he was right there with me. He was there with
Speaker 1: me for my first deer, my first turkey, my first squirrel,
Speaker 1: first morell, even when I caught my first fish.
Speaker 2: He was there.
Speaker 1: To say that man was my best friend would be
Speaker 1: an understatement. During the late winter of my sophomore year
Speaker 1: of high school, he became very sick. Hospital stage the
Speaker 1: whole nine yards, and I'd be lying if I said
Speaker 1: I wasn't scared we were going to lose him. I'd
Speaker 1: being in his eighties, it scared me. I spent as
Speaker 1: much time with him as my grandma as I could,
Speaker 1: and as winter turned into spring, he pulled.
Speaker 2: Out of it. He was too tough to let that
Speaker 2: take him. Now.
Speaker 1: I tell him he better be ready to go by
Speaker 1: late April for the start of turkey season. He was
Speaker 1: still unsure if he's being good enough help to get out.
Speaker 1: Starting in early April, I took over his role of
Speaker 1: scouting for turkeys. I'd go listen before school or on
Speaker 1: the weekends. I'd give him a daily report on what
Speaker 1: I'd heard and seen, and he would always ask me,
Speaker 1: did you get a couple tied.
Speaker 2: Up for us?
Speaker 1: Were early spring rolled into late April start of the season.
Speaker 1: I went down to their house to check on my grandpa,
Speaker 1: see if Grandma needed anything done around the house, And
Speaker 1: when I walked through the door, I saw him sitting
Speaker 1: at the kitchen table getting this shotgun ready to go
Speaker 1: for opening day. I can't begin to explain how happy
Speaker 1: I was that he'd be going out after we'd been
Speaker 1: so unsure that he was going to be up for it.
Speaker 1: We e's got our different spots with plenty of time
Speaker 1: left before daylight on opening day, and it was a
Speaker 1: picture perfect spring morning in the woods, and before long
Speaker 1: we had three gobblers fired off all around us. After
Speaker 1: twenty minutes of goblin, like their lives depended on it,
Speaker 1: I could tell that at least two tims had flown
Speaker 1: down over by him. Fifteen minutes later, I heard the
Speaker 1: sound of his old Baretta twelve gage boom. I jumped
Speaker 1: up and ran as fast as I could, and there
Speaker 1: he was, the man himself, standing on.
Speaker 2: The head of one of those long bear.
Speaker 1: From the smile he had that morning, I can tell
Speaker 1: he was happy to be out there too, and I
Speaker 1: hope I always remember that hunt. We got to hunt
Speaker 1: a couple more seasons together after that spring morning. My
Speaker 1: Grandpa passed away in July twenty twelve, and I missed
Speaker 1: him every day. Spring turkey hunting and the Ohio gun
Speaker 1: deer season still doesn't seem right without him. I wish
Speaker 1: I had a little more time, Like you mentioned in
Speaker 1: the episode two O seven, The Gift of Time. That
Speaker 1: was just one of many stories I have of him.
Speaker 2: And I together.
Speaker 1: I'd have to say it's the one that I think
Speaker 1: about around the opening day.
Speaker 2: A turkey season every year.
Speaker 1: He's sitting at the base of an old white oak
Speaker 1: tree writing this. Now, I haven't heard a turkey gobbled
Speaker 1: this morning, so I might as well go look for
Speaker 1: some mushroom. Well north central ohioan Jack Miller, grandson of
Speaker 1: mister Richard Shotgun Miller. I appreciate you sharing that wonderful
Speaker 1: story with me and allowing me to share it everyone else.
Speaker 1: We're going to do these from time to time, so
Speaker 1: if you send one in, just hang on.
Speaker 2: Maybe we'll use yours when the time is right.
Speaker 1: But according to Jake Miller, that's just how that happened,
Speaker 1: when it all comes together. Just last week, I went
Speaker 1: to my second favorite place to turkey hunt. They showed
Speaker 1: me state of Missouri. Now my most favorite place to
Speaker 1: chase him is in the saline river bottoms of my
Speaker 1: ancestral home in Cleveland County, Arkansas, a county founded eight
Speaker 1: years following the end of the War between the States.
Speaker 1: It was originally named Dorsey County after Stephen W. Dorsey,
Speaker 1: a Vermont born carpetbag in United States senator that represented
Speaker 1: Arkansas during the period of reconstruction. Now, Dorset was a
Speaker 1: Mustang officer, having risen from the rank of private to
Speaker 1: colonel during the tumultuous time of America's greatest struggle. Following
Speaker 1: the war, he was a successful businessman, working for and
Speaker 1: eventually becoming president of a tool manufacturing company in Ohio.
Speaker 1: He was soon afterward dame president of the Arkansas Railway
Speaker 1: Company and relocated to the natural state, taking up residents
Speaker 1: in eastern Arkansas along the Mississippi River in Helena. Then,
Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy three, he was elected to the United
Speaker 1: States Senate, and shortly thereafter a county named in his
Speaker 1: honor was formed. My family had been there for decades
Speaker 1: prior to Dorsey's arrival. In as far as I know,
Speaker 1: a joker never made a track in the county that
Speaker 1: was named after him. So how did Dorsey County become
Speaker 1: Cleveland County? Apparently? Senator Dorsey and some of his pals
Speaker 1: were indicted and charged with defrauding the Post Office out
Speaker 1: of four hundred and twelve thousand dollars, which is the
Speaker 1: equivalent of over eleven million today.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: He was eventually found not guilty, but the tarnish to
Speaker 1: his reputation was more than the good folks of the
Speaker 1: day could bear. So twelve years later they renamed the
Speaker 1: county Cleveland in honor of the newly elected President Grover
Speaker 1: Cleveland in eighteen eighty five. What's that little bit of
Speaker 1: history of trivia got to do with turkey hunting in Missouri.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you not one thing. I just thought it
Speaker 1: was cool and wanted to share. The dude got canceled
Speaker 1: before canceling was cool. Anyway, last week I was in
Speaker 1: my old stomping grounds of central Missouri on the eve
Speaker 1: of what would be my most successful two days of
Speaker 1: turkey hunting anywhere, if we're measuring the totality of the
Speaker 1: hunt like producing video content for you folks to see
Speaker 1: later on and calling up turkeys for my friends. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm the first one to say, and have said it
Speaker 1: here recently, that success is measured in a lot of ways,
Speaker 1: and y'all know that already. But I'm trying to avoid
Speaker 1: the Internet police who'd have me arrested for saying I
Speaker 1: had two great days of hunting because I had three
Speaker 1: hunts in a row where I watched the turkey get smashed.
Speaker 1: It was already successful because of where I was, who
Speaker 1: I was with, and what I was doing. That's the biscuit.
Speaker 1: The turkeys were just the gravy. Now, with that said,
Speaker 1: I was about to witness enough gravy to float a
Speaker 1: john boat. I stood on my friend Toby's back porch
Speaker 1: after suppering unsuccessfully tried to see or hear a turkey
Speaker 1: going to roost. I've been coming up here for more
Speaker 1: years than I care to remember. It didn't really matter
Speaker 1: that I didn't see or hear anything. I knew where
Speaker 1: I was going. The next morning, and thirty minutes before daylight,
Speaker 1: I was standing where I had stood a jillion times before,
Speaker 1: waiting on gobbling time and preparing myself to second guess
Speaker 1: every move I was going to make over the next
Speaker 1: couple of hours, just like always. I'll admit that I
Speaker 1: do not lack self confidence. That has ever been a weakness.
Speaker 1: But turkey hunting is such a dynamic activity at times
Speaker 1: that the slightest air in one way or the other
Speaker 1: can have you scratching your noggin on what you did
Speaker 1: wrong this time to not kill a turkey again.
Speaker 2: Then there are hunts like this one.
Speaker 1: My good friend and workmate Isaac Neil was with me
Speaker 1: filming this hunt. It wasn't even close to gobling time,
Speaker 1: or so I thought, as I stood there, drinking my
Speaker 1: gas station coffee in the dark and whispering to Isaac
Speaker 1: that I thought we'd hear the first gobble of the
Speaker 1: season in this direction. While I was talking, I saw
Speaker 1: the whites of Isaac's eyes grow big. At the same time,
Speaker 1: I heard what I thought was a dog in the distance.
Speaker 1: I said, was that a turkey? Isaac said yes, it was.
Speaker 1: I asked him if he was sure, and he told
Speaker 1: me yep. And it was right in the direction of
Speaker 1: where I expected to hear one, but not nearly that early.
Speaker 1: I figured it wouldn't be for a few more minutes.
Speaker 1: For confirmation, I owed bound two turkeys gone, one right
Speaker 1: where Isaac had pointed, and another one to the left,
Speaker 1: but a lot closer. Now he had a juvenile sound,
Speaker 1: and I was confident that one was a jake. We
Speaker 1: opted for the grown turkey, but held fast to our
Speaker 1: listening spot. I knew where both of those turkeys were
Speaker 1: from hunting that ground for so many years. I had
Speaker 1: the advantage of the knowledge of the terrain and how
Speaker 1: the turkeys in that place used the landscape, but that's
Speaker 1: only an advantage that goes so far roosted ain't roasted,
Speaker 1: And knowing where a turkey is in relation to shooting
Speaker 1: him is about as easy as knowing where the moon
Speaker 1: is the flying up there to walking around on it.
Speaker 1: It's better than not hearing one, but it really only
Speaker 1: confirms his existence. Time would tell on how it all
Speaker 1: played out, Leo Toldstoy. The Russian novelists who penned Warren
Speaker 1: Peace wrote the two greatest warriors are patience in time.
Speaker 1: The context in which he used it was referencing how
Speaker 1: to maneuver your army against that of your enemy, or
Speaker 1: so the experts say. I think that dude was a
Speaker 1: turkey hunter because of all the items a hunter has
Speaker 1: at his disposal, those two things will kill one before
Speaker 1: cat can look it's behind. I knew the lay of
Speaker 1: the land, I knew exactly where those turkeys were, and
Speaker 1: I didn't get in any hurry. I wasn't going to
Speaker 1: set up on that jake, so I acted like he
Speaker 1: wasn't even there as I slipped past where he was roosted,
Speaker 1: and formulating my plan in my head how I was
Speaker 1: going to get set up on that our turkey as
Speaker 1: we slipped slowly toward the edge of the field. I
Speaker 1: was going to use to make getting to him faster,
Speaker 1: quieter and going through the woods. Here's where I knowing
Speaker 1: the ground and not getting in a hurry paid off.
Speaker 1: I know the turkeys sometimes roosed around the edge or
Speaker 1: close to the edge of that field, so before I
Speaker 1: ran any of them off by jumping the gun heading
Speaker 1: toward that initial turkey we heard, I ailed again. Now
Speaker 1: bam bam too gabbled in the east, which was right
Speaker 1: down the right side of that field we were fixing
Speaker 1: the step into. They were less than two hundred yards.
Speaker 1: The initial turkey we heard that morning was twice that
Speaker 1: far to the west. We had chosen wisely by not
Speaker 1: rushing toward the first one, and back in the day
Speaker 1: when I heard one, it was make a bee line
Speaker 1: straight to him as quick as you could and get
Speaker 1: set up before he had time to fly down or
Speaker 1: someone else had time to get set up on it.
Speaker 1: In the days before least and where I grew up,
Speaker 1: Timber Company Land might as well have been public wildlife
Speaker 1: management area. Ground hunting was really the only thing that
Speaker 1: folks had DIBs on turkey is, for the most part
Speaker 1: where anybody's game. But this wasn't back in the day.
Speaker 1: This was right now, and right now. I'd waited and
Speaker 1: been patient, and instead of hurriedly trying to cover three
Speaker 1: hundred yards crossing the creek and finding a spot to
Speaker 1: get myself and Isaac set up on turkey number one,
Speaker 1: we tiptoed twenty five yards and sat down under a
Speaker 1: big cedar tree that I had sat under and killed
Speaker 1: a turkey a few years ago, and listen to Turkey's
Speaker 1: number three and four. My first thought was to go
Speaker 1: a little further east, just a little further to the right,
Speaker 1: down the edge of that field. It was getting light
Speaker 1: enough to see now, and I was eyeball on a
Speaker 1: gum tree about thirty more yards closer to the corner
Speaker 1: of that field where I'd seen turkeys walk into that
Speaker 1: into that field many times before. Something told me I'd
Speaker 1: gone far enough, so the old killing cedar tree would
Speaker 1: have to do alan before walking into that field was
Speaker 1: correct decision numero uno. Sitting down under that seater and
Speaker 1: not going any further would be solidified as correct decision
Speaker 1: number two. When multiple hens started yeping directly behind that
Speaker 1: gum tree that almost moved down to before deciding that
Speaker 1: I'd gone far enough. I have no doubt I would
Speaker 1: have scared him off the rooster, and who knows what
Speaker 1: would have happened had that been the case. It may
Speaker 1: have had no effect on the gobblers, but it could have. Regardless,
Speaker 1: we didn't go too far and they didn't spook. The
Speaker 1: gobblers answered my tree yups just like they did the
Speaker 1: actual hens. And the only decision I'd made that day
Speaker 1: up to that point that was suspect was not bringing
Speaker 1: my jake decoy. I brought only the hen, and had
Speaker 1: I not brought the hen, I may not have gotten
Speaker 1: the opportunity that I was about to get now. I
Speaker 1: set her up twenty five yards north of us, which
Speaker 1: was straight out in front of me to the northeast
Speaker 1: to my right. Isaac took up the spot over my
Speaker 1: left shoulder. We were hid good. Fly down time came
Speaker 1: and five or six hens sailed into that field and
Speaker 1: started feeding our way. They were fifty yards away and
Speaker 1: slowly moving the northwest. The gobblers were on the ground
Speaker 1: now and hadn't entered the field, but with every gobble
Speaker 1: they were getting closer and closer. I yeped on a
Speaker 1: glass pot call, and they both answered me from the
Speaker 1: edge of the field. We were tucked inside the edge
Speaker 1: of the woods, so neither of us could see the
Speaker 1: gobblers when they entered, but I knew they were getting
Speaker 1: closer by the sound of the drumming that was getting louder.
Speaker 1: I could hear it plain as day. Eventually I caught
Speaker 1: a glimpse of them through the BlackBerry briars on the
Speaker 1: edge of the field. As they they made their way
Speaker 1: towards where we sat. One of them was in full
Speaker 1: strut and the other one was a half step behind,
Speaker 1: trying to trying to look like he didn't care what
Speaker 1: was going on. The second one tried to go into
Speaker 1: strut a couple of times, but it looked like you.
Speaker 2: Thought better of it.
Speaker 1: I assumed they had already worked it out between them
Speaker 1: as to which one was running the show. The live
Speaker 1: hens were directly in front of me now in the
Speaker 1: middle of the field, about eighty yards away, and the gobblers,
Speaker 1: while still moving painfully slow, had begun to veer off
Speaker 1: to the north, just kind of splitting the difference between
Speaker 1: our decoy that Dave Swift had worked so hard on
Speaker 1: to make look real, and the live hens that were
Speaker 1: paying zero attention to a couple eligible bachelors that had
Speaker 1: rolled into the mix. Now here's where I second guessed
Speaker 1: my decision not to bring the jake decoy, and the
Speaker 1: reason I immediately thought it was a mistake. The jake I
Speaker 1: heard that was the second turkey that morning hadn't made
Speaker 1: a peep since the two birds of the East started
Speaker 1: telling folks how the cows at the cabbage. Now there
Speaker 1: wasn't a jake among any of the hens out in
Speaker 1: front of me. And while turkeys probably don't have the
Speaker 1: power of reason, they do know that there is safety
Speaker 1: in numbers. A half a dozen walking, talking, feeding girl
Speaker 1: turkeys are more enticing than one lone hen decoy.
Speaker 2: Regardless of how good she looks.
Speaker 1: Now, had I brought my jake decoy and placed him
Speaker 1: near that hen, I felt confident that Strutter would have
Speaker 1: come in hot looking to issue that youngster a headache
Speaker 1: while adding one more hen to his beavy of beauties.
Speaker 1: So when I could see that they had started getting
Speaker 1: further away with each baby step they took, I yelped
Speaker 1: with my mouth call, causing that Strutter to run his
Speaker 1: head out in Gobble, and before he got to the
Speaker 1: letter Ean Gobble, I sent him a jaw full and
Speaker 1: that was the end of that. Now I know that
Speaker 1: second gobbler, who was well out of my shotgun pattern,
Speaker 1: had to be wondering what had just happened. Isaac, and
Speaker 1: I didn't move a muscle. I didn't want to spook
Speaker 1: or any the other turkeys out of that field. But
Speaker 1: I got to laughing to myself watching that gobbler. I
Speaker 1: imagine him looking at that dead turkey, thinking about the
Speaker 1: month of butt woven's he'd been getting from him. Now
Speaker 1: they'd come into this target rich environment, and he wasn't
Speaker 1: letting him show off for any of the women folk,
Speaker 1: making him walk a step behind and making him be quiet.
Speaker 1: I imagine he was thinking, I wish this strutton bully
Speaker 1: would drop dead.
Speaker 2: Then boom he did.
Speaker 1: What an empiring moment it must have been for it.
Speaker 1: I'm sick of Frank. I wish he'd died. Thank Frank's dead.
Speaker 1: I bet he was like that gum. I gotta be
Speaker 1: careful with this.
Speaker 2: Anyway.
Speaker 1: They all eventually walked off, except for Frank. Of course,
Speaker 1: none of them any wiser as to what had happened.
Speaker 1: Now we'd see that dude again in less than twenty
Speaker 1: four hours. But like I sometimes say, that's a story
Speaker 1: for another day, like next week, next Friday, I'm going
Speaker 1: to tell you about the rest of that day and
Speaker 1: the morning of the next one. It was an awesome
Speaker 1: twenty four hours with some really good folks. I'm finishing
Speaker 1: up part one at a hotel in South Haven, and Mississippi.
Speaker 1: My daughter Bailey and her competition dance team from Priscilla's
Speaker 1: School of Dance are cutting a rug over in West Memphis.
Speaker 1: We got to get ready for the final struggle this afternoon.
Speaker 1: My granddaughter Piper had a great showing today at her
Speaker 1: four age cooking contest, and we'll be heading to the
Speaker 1: district event next Looks like lots of my folks had
Speaker 1: it all coming together for him this week. I hope
Speaker 1: y'all did too. I know I've seen a lot of
Speaker 1: grinning faces with turkeys from all over the country. I
Speaker 1: will have already rolled back north towards Missouri in an
Speaker 1: attempt to fill my other turkey tag. And who knows,
Speaker 1: maybe by the time you hear this, I'll have another
Speaker 1: paragraph or two to add the next week's offering. Man
Speaker 1: it's good when it all comes together. Now, don't forget.
Speaker 1: You can submit a story for me to tell on here,
Speaker 1: and if you do, be sure to include the who, what, when,
Speaker 1: where and why and send it to my TCL story
Speaker 1: at the medeater dot com. Now, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for listening and until next week. This is Brent Reeves
Speaker 1: signing off.
Speaker 2: Y'all be careful,