Speaker 1: My name is Clay Nukeleman. This is a production of
Speaker 1: the Bear Grease podcast called the Bear Grease Render, where
Speaker 1: we render down, dive deeper, and look behind the scenes
Speaker 1: of the actual Bear Grease podcast, presented by f HF Gear,
Speaker 1: American Maid, purpose built hunting and fishing gear that's designed
Speaker 1: to be as rugged as the place. As we explore. Well,
Speaker 1: we've got an eclectic group of turkey hunters here from
Speaker 1: my hometown of Mina, Arkansas. And did anybody think it
Speaker 1: was funny when koy House, a storyteller on our Last
Speaker 1: Story Turkey Story podcast, said Steve my grandpa. Everybody knows Steve.
Speaker 1: Steve Phillips is here. Coy House is Grandpa. Everybody knows Steve.
Speaker 1: Everybody knows everybody in the world. Steve Phillips is here.
Speaker 1: Koy House to my left, coy you did a good job, man,
Speaker 1: Thank you. Didn't y'all think he did a good job? Man?
Speaker 1: I think you're the youngest feature guest on the Bear
Speaker 1: Grease podcast because you're a feature guest. If you're if
Speaker 1: you're on the actual bear Grease pot you know. So
Speaker 1: this is the render for people who maybe have not
Speaker 1: listened to Bear Grease before Bear Grease podcast is documentary
Speaker 1: style podcast where we do these kind of in depth stories.
Speaker 1: The last one that we're gonna talk about today, it
Speaker 1: was a was a stories podcast. We had eight different
Speaker 1: storytellers and Coi was one of them. Nineteen years old. Man, Yes, sir,
Speaker 1: you did good. Thank you, you did good. That man's
Speaker 1: taught me just about everything right there. Yep, I guess
Speaker 1: I better give him credit for it. Yeah. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: to Cooy's left is a longtime friend of mine, Joe Lyles,
Speaker 1: who is now a retired for service law enforcement agent.
Speaker 1: That's great. The only reason you're here is because you're retired.
Speaker 1: I am. I'm retired now and retired from United States
Speaker 1: for Service as a full time law enforcement officer. We're
Speaker 1: gonna come back to you. He introduced. Everybody sounds good,
Speaker 1: Joe Lyles, Steve Phillips, and then my dad, Gary Believer Nukam.
Speaker 1: Good to have you, Dad, Good to be here. Dad's
Speaker 1: got a story on the next podcast. So we're gonna
Speaker 1: we're doing two stories podcasts. Two Dad's left is Andy Brown.
Speaker 1: Andy always good to have you, good to be here
Speaker 1: man for real, and he's a hero on the Beargreas podcast.
Speaker 1: Everybody I talked to, I mean people not from Arkansas,
Speaker 1: people from wherever. Ronnella, Steve Ronella, He's like Andy brown
Speaker 1: Man from the from the Louis Delle Edwards stuff, to
Speaker 1: all the stories. So it's always good, always good to
Speaker 1: have Andy. But um, Joe, you're you're How long were
Speaker 1: you in law enforcement for the for Service with the
Speaker 1: Forest Service? I started in September of two thousand and
Speaker 1: I retired at the end of this year, so I
Speaker 1: had just a little bit over twenty two years. And
Speaker 1: you were a Arkansas Game and Fish game warden for
Speaker 1: a period of time. I was for three and a
Speaker 1: half years. And before that, I started under Sheriff Mike
Speaker 1: Ogglesby in nineteen ninety two reserve part time, worked a
Speaker 1: little bit with the CDPD, and then went to the
Speaker 1: Arkansas Game and Fish and from there I went to
Speaker 1: the US for Service. But the other career before that,
Speaker 1: I was as an aircraft mechanic for several years, Okay,
Speaker 1: but I always knew that I wanted to be in
Speaker 1: law enforcement, so that's where I went from there and
Speaker 1: a lifelong turkey hunter since nineteen eighty three. That's when
Speaker 1: I killed my first Turkey in the very early eighties. Yeah. Yeah, Now,
Speaker 1: if I recall on the Louis Delle and Charlie Edwards podcast,
Speaker 1: your name came up because you were involved. You didn't
Speaker 1: I think I said that you were the one who
Speaker 1: gave the ticket to Louisdale for not having a license,
Speaker 1: But I was wrong. I was there at that time, yes,
Speaker 1: and very much. I was right there by them, and
Speaker 1: Terry Luxford was actually the one who was very lud
Speaker 1: who was at the time you were gaming fish. I
Speaker 1: was with the Arkansas Game of Fish at the time.
Speaker 1: So tell that story real quick or just kind of
Speaker 1: just a short version of what happened, because that's where
Speaker 1: your name came up on Bargharas before. Joe Lyles. You know,
Speaker 1: we were over east to their camp and we pulled
Speaker 1: up just talking to them, and then we got through
Speaker 1: talking a little bit and said, well, we've got to
Speaker 1: see license, and Louisdale just you know, he came out
Speaker 1: and he didn't have it, and then he got to
Speaker 1: blame him Bertha. He said that didn't buy his license,
Speaker 1: so that's what it was. His wife. Yeah, he got
Speaker 1: the blaming his wife, and so Terry Terry ended up
Speaker 1: righting the ticket. But that's that's the story in it said, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was just it started off as a casual contact
Speaker 1: and then Bertha got blamed for it. One of one
Speaker 1: of the few tickets that Louis Delle Edwards ever got.
Speaker 1: How many tickets have you given? Steve Phillips, Oh well,
Speaker 1: I'm sure I'll be called out on a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff here zero. Joe and I go way back, and
Speaker 1: he's kind of like, what's what's happened in Vegas stays
Speaker 1: in Vegas. So that's that's that's our you know, how
Speaker 1: we are? You know? I mean Joe? One time during
Speaker 1: deer season, I was over in my side beside and
Speaker 1: I had been over there deer hunting, coming back over
Speaker 1: from Twomle. I met Joe. Here he was and he
Speaker 1: pulled over and he wrote his window down. He said,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? I said, I've been hunting weird.
Speaker 1: He said, is that gun loaded? And I said, well, hey,
Speaker 1: expect me to kill an ain't it in in the story?
Speaker 1: I knew you, just don't Joe. I met you one
Speaker 1: time in the field. I remember that. No, I remember
Speaker 1: you telling me that. But you know, unless something really
Speaker 1: stands there I mean, you're doing every day. You meet
Speaker 1: so many people that you know, unless even people that
Speaker 1: you've you know, written violation notices too. If something doesn't
Speaker 1: stand out, you just don't remember, you know, you write
Speaker 1: so many of them. But yeah, you know, go on
Speaker 1: with your story. Well there's there. It's not a great story.
Speaker 1: I was out. I was out, I don't want to
Speaker 1: say where. It was in National Forest and i'd been
Speaker 1: baiting bears and it was in August probably it was
Speaker 1: early on in baiting bears, and y'all had a roadblock.
Speaker 1: Came around the corner and they were just a big
Speaker 1: four service roadblock, and you know, two or three trucks
Speaker 1: and kind of a truck across the road, it felt like.
Speaker 1: And I pulled up and uh, and you were the
Speaker 1: guy that checked me. And he just said, you know,
Speaker 1: you recognize me. Then you're like, what are you doing
Speaker 1: well bating bears? And he checked my I think you
Speaker 1: checked my registration and stuff. It wasn't he wasn't hutting season.
Speaker 1: I didn't have any guns. But anyway, yep, I have
Speaker 1: a Joe story. Yeah, oh great, here we go another one.
Speaker 1: And I know for one day he called me at
Speaker 1: the office, and he said, any I've got a picture
Speaker 1: I want to show you, and I said, okay, bring
Speaker 1: it to the office. So him and Jimmy Martin Shaw
Speaker 1: up at our office and he's got a who's that
Speaker 1: another game warden? Huh, he's gonna date but ten picture
Speaker 1: and he said, they come into my office and he said,
Speaker 1: shows it to me. And he says, who's that who's
Speaker 1: that gun? That picture right there? I said, and what
Speaker 1: we've got. We've got a guy walking in front. We've
Speaker 1: got a guy carrying a gun behind him. And uh,
Speaker 1: I said, I have no idea. I said, he ain't
Speaker 1: very big. And he said look at him and I said,
Speaker 1: I said, I really don't know. He said look at
Speaker 1: his hand and he finger missing. But he said, but
Speaker 1: that's not you, and I said, no, that's not me.
Speaker 1: He said, we know who it is, we know the story.
Speaker 1: But anyway, they brought that to my office and showed
Speaker 1: me that. Yeah. I've never kicked him around about that,
Speaker 1: but I can't hear on live this podcast they thought
Speaker 1: it might have been me. Really, so somebody trespassed people
Speaker 1: don't have one of those? Yes, and he's missing? Is
Speaker 1: I think is actually an um no? Not No, let's
Speaker 1: move we'll talk about that one. That's that's a good one.
Speaker 1: That that is a good one. Um well, uh, I
Speaker 1: went on the reason I'm dressed the way I am.
Speaker 1: I went on a nine mile mule ride today in
Speaker 1: National Forest and didn't see a liquid turkey sign, found
Speaker 1: a shed horn. But I'm hoping we'll have a good,
Speaker 1: you know, a decent turkey season for Arkansas. You know,
Speaker 1: they say we've lost sixty percent of our birds from
Speaker 1: our peak, which probably would have been in the nineties,
Speaker 1: early two thousands maybe, but maybe more than that in
Speaker 1: some places. I think probably these guys could all attests
Speaker 1: to the fact talking about looking for turkey sign. Guys,
Speaker 1: I can remember whenever leafing in the woods was turned
Speaker 1: over back in the eighties, you know, and even up
Speaker 1: into the nineties. But I mean the woods turkeys made
Speaker 1: a lot of sign and you know, you didn't have
Speaker 1: to hear turkey used to go turkey hunting and you
Speaker 1: just went and found side. That's what I looked for,
Speaker 1: was just scratching. I believe, like you said, it looked
Speaker 1: like a garden tiller. Took a tiller and just want
Speaker 1: to just roll the leaves and one time I was
Speaker 1: with my uncle. He is actually during muzzleloading season. Anyway,
Speaker 1: we was in there north of in the in Loss.
Speaker 1: Was in there to what we call Short's Place, and
Speaker 1: Uncle Larry got in in the first low notch and
Speaker 1: I went on the top of the mountain and walked
Speaker 1: east out the top of the mountain. And I can
Speaker 1: remember getting out on the east end of that thing.
Speaker 1: It's real briary and on top. But I got over
Speaker 1: the north side and I walked over to the north side.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, as far as you could see, there
Speaker 1: was turkeys eating devil horses. They was the devil horses.
Speaker 1: The ground was just working alive with them. Now, what's
Speaker 1: a walking stovil horse? Okay? Anyway, they would just walk
Speaker 1: up and just pick those things off the bushes on them. Lolope.
Speaker 1: But the whole mountain, I have no doubt there was
Speaker 1: one hundred turkeys right there that I was looking at.
Speaker 1: I mean, for one hundred and fifty yards, it wasn't
Speaker 1: nothing but solid turkeys from the top of the mountain
Speaker 1: to the bottom of the mountain. Unbelievable. What year was that.
Speaker 1: That would have been about eighty eighty one. Somewhere in there.
Speaker 1: I think you and Mitch win and there one time
Speaker 1: with didn't you take Bill Norman and Bill Norman Bill
Speaker 1: Norman Luers And because Mitch and I were in there,
Speaker 1: that would have been nineteen ninety March of nineteen nine.
Speaker 1: I think we heard eighteen gobblers. That's still to this
Speaker 1: day the most I've ever heard one day. I want
Speaker 1: to say his eighteen, which still talks about that. It
Speaker 1: was they were everywhere. Yeah, and you know from years
Speaker 1: of patrol and they're not there. You know, I would
Speaker 1: go months and not see one. You know, they're not here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're just not here. You know, when they say sixty
Speaker 1: percent have disappeared, I think that's I think that is light.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, as many as we had and
Speaker 1: you lose sixty percent, still Corty would still be really
Speaker 1: good hunting. I would say, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's
Speaker 1: a state, that's a statewide you know, which different places
Speaker 1: would would be different. You know, there's still counties in
Speaker 1: the central Ozarks that have pretty decent turkey hunting. I
Speaker 1: mean you can go up there and those guys they
Speaker 1: hear us talking and they're kind of like, what's a
Speaker 1: big deal? But here, Yeah, you're right, it's probably way
Speaker 1: more than that, but it really is. You know a
Speaker 1: lot of people have heard me talk about my grandfather,
Speaker 1: Gary's dad, Lewin, who was a bird hunter, a quail hunter.
Speaker 1: You know, the last twenty five years of his life,
Speaker 1: all I heard him do was lament that we didn't
Speaker 1: have a quail anymore. And it's it really is a
Speaker 1: bummer because turkey hunting really kind of builds a culture
Speaker 1: in an area, especially if it's a good turkey hunting.
Speaker 1: I mean, everybody's a turkey hunter and their kids are
Speaker 1: turkey hunters, and it's it's it's fun to go and
Speaker 1: and boy, when they're not here, people aren't turkey hunters.
Speaker 1: I mean, you just people just kind of I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm talking about myself. It's like it's hard to get
Speaker 1: up to h It's it's hard to get fired up
Speaker 1: to go when they're just not there, you know. And
Speaker 1: it and like my kids have not had the exposure
Speaker 1: to turkey hunting that I had because we just didn't
Speaker 1: we just didn't have turkeys, you know. But anyway, that's
Speaker 1: that's not it's a it's a bummer to have to
Speaker 1: talk about that here. But it's kind of the reality
Speaker 1: of where we're at. But we're gonna talk about the good,
Speaker 1: the good side of turkey hunting, which is it's a
Speaker 1: lot of fun. Steve. Dad was telling me that you
Speaker 1: told him about his story. So you listened to Did
Speaker 1: you listen? It was awesome? Yeah? Which which story was
Speaker 1: your favorite? It's what I told Gary what related to me,
Speaker 1: And I don't know that there were several of them.
Speaker 1: That was my favorite, but the one about where the
Speaker 1: guy flicked the cigarette in his pocket and caught him
Speaker 1: on fire. Yeah, and burned him. You know, I don't smoke,
Speaker 1: so that didn't happen, but I can tell you Andy
Speaker 1: Brown and I we decided to go hunt and when
Speaker 1: we'd heard some turkeys a couple of days before, so
Speaker 1: we got up bright and early and we went in
Speaker 1: and parked and we had to pull up this I'm
Speaker 1: telling you, it takes you forty five minutes to get
Speaker 1: up it. I mean it's straight up. So we got
Speaker 1: there double early that morning and we got out and
Speaker 1: had a little flashlight and a little hat lights on.
Speaker 1: And I always, if I had a dollar forever mile
Speaker 1: that I followed him in the woods. Over the years.
Speaker 1: You know, I'd be a rich man. And so we
Speaker 1: started up that hill and we're, well, you know, we're
Speaker 1: both in really good shape and we're going up that
Speaker 1: thing and it'll get your breath. And all of a
Speaker 1: sudden or andy, he gets up there and he takes
Speaker 1: a step and he slides back about two steps, and
Speaker 1: I thought, what in the world happened? And he said,
Speaker 1: what was that? He turned his hat light on. We
Speaker 1: didn't have a hat light on at the time. We
Speaker 1: were just kind of going by the moon. He turned
Speaker 1: that light on and looked and there was the biggest
Speaker 1: pile of bear scat that was smoking. It was fresh.
Speaker 1: I mean, he stepped in it and slid back down
Speaker 1: the mountain early. And so he said, he's right here somewhere. Anyway,
Speaker 1: we're both buggered up, you know, going up this saying, look,
Speaker 1: we didn't check it up to there. And we get
Speaker 1: set in and we set up and we give a call.
Speaker 1: Old Turkey answers us down in the bottom. I said, boy,
Speaker 1: we're in the chips right here. So we put in
Speaker 1: on them and they were gobbling their heads off, just
Speaker 1: gobbling and governing. Well, they came and as they came
Speaker 1: to us, instead of coming up that leg to us.
Speaker 1: They turned and they went around us to our left,
Speaker 1: and him and I are sitting side by side, and
Speaker 1: we have to just watch those turkeys. There's two big gobblers.
Speaker 1: They just go buy us right up over the top
Speaker 1: and off down and they go, well, we let them
Speaker 1: get out there, and we walk right up on top
Speaker 1: and we give a little bit and we call and
Speaker 1: they gobble off down in the bottom. And I told Andy,
Speaker 1: I said, come on, let's go. He said, steep, we
Speaker 1: can't eat them. Turkeys are way down there. Well, he'll
Speaker 1: tell you used to when I first started tury hunting.
Speaker 1: If I could hear one, there wasn't a turkey too
Speaker 1: far to go to. If he was two miles, I
Speaker 1: was going to him. And I said, well, I'm going
Speaker 1: to him. He said, I'm gonna step up here on top.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna go to him. So I headed off
Speaker 1: down the mountain. It took me about teacher lets the
Speaker 1: young grasshoppers go out on his own. Yeah, So off
Speaker 1: down through there I go, and I get down. Finally
Speaker 1: I catch up to that turkey and both of them.
Speaker 1: I catch up to them, and I set up on him.
Speaker 1: I call them and when I do they just cut
Speaker 1: me off. And what I didn't realize is when I
Speaker 1: had set down, I sat down in a big old
Speaker 1: ant pile and those big black ants, and here I'm
Speaker 1: looking about sixty five seventy yards down there, and here
Speaker 1: comes these two turkeys and full struck coming goblin. I've
Speaker 1: got my gun up on my knee. I'm sitting in
Speaker 1: an ant pile. All of a sudden, I start feeling
Speaker 1: ants in my pants. I feel ants come up my shirt,
Speaker 1: answer coming out through my top of my shirt and
Speaker 1: my head net. They're running all over my head and
Speaker 1: my face, and I'm locked in on that turkey. When
Speaker 1: he gets up there close enough that I think I
Speaker 1: can kill him, I shoot him, and I do kill him,
Speaker 1: but I immediately he goes to flopping. I dropped down
Speaker 1: and strip all of my clothes off because I'm trying
Speaker 1: to get rid of the answer. And to this day,
Speaker 1: that's probably the biggest turry. He had eleven and a
Speaker 1: half inch beard and weighed twenty two pounds. M I
Speaker 1: walk out, light, are you Andy? Tail? That was the
Speaker 1: biggest turry, and the other one flew and flew right
Speaker 1: in there towards Andy, which he didn't get on him,
Speaker 1: you know. But I had that turkey on my shoulder
Speaker 1: and I'm coming up through there and he alls me
Speaker 1: up there and I looked. He said, you get him.
Speaker 1: I said no, He said, you're lying. You did to you? So, yeah,
Speaker 1: but that was my biggest thing. Had to strip down
Speaker 1: right there on the side. Yeah. Yeah, boy, have you
Speaker 1: heard that story before? Heard? I think I've We've almost
Speaker 1: covered every single turkey that he's killed. Why don't you
Speaker 1: tell me the second story that you told me about
Speaker 1: taking your little brother? Will you tell me that story? Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: of course. Yeah. So my little brother Rider, Um, he's
Speaker 1: on my dad's side. He he wanted to go. It
Speaker 1: was youth opening one of the youth season. He wanted
Speaker 1: to go turkey hunting. And we have this private spot
Speaker 1: that we had picked out and we had went and
Speaker 1: roosted one the evening before gobbled his head off. I said,
Speaker 1: this will be chip shot. He's up here on this ridge.
Speaker 1: We'll get up here and we'll kill us turkey. Well,
Speaker 1: long story short, we got up there and I set
Speaker 1: him up. Turkey Gobble was good. We got up there
Speaker 1: just right on the break of that ridge. He was
Speaker 1: just on the other side and now, how is your
Speaker 1: little brother. At the time, he would have been I'm
Speaker 1: wanting to say eleven eleven, at the time eleven twelve,
Speaker 1: he's he's fourteen now, so it'd have been two or three,
Speaker 1: two or three years ago. Um and a turkey gobbled,
Speaker 1: he gobbled. I didn't call him. I said, just get ready.
Speaker 1: It's he's gonna fly down. He's probably gonna land about
Speaker 1: right here on top of this ridge. I said, just
Speaker 1: get ready about that time, and turkey's quick go on.
Speaker 1: He wouldn't go, wouldn't say a pete, wouldn't say a word. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean nothing. We sat there for another hour, nothing
Speaker 1: I heard him. I seen him actually fly down and
Speaker 1: pitch off into the field. But once that happened, he,
Speaker 1: I mean he left. He had had some hens with him.
Speaker 1: So I said, let's let's go up to another spot.
Speaker 1: This spot national forest around it. There's a private I
Speaker 1: have permission to hunt, but national forts wraps around it.
Speaker 1: And mean him been hunted for two years for some reason.
Speaker 1: That was a hot spot. And there how mean we
Speaker 1: here eight nine ten and just a little hundred yards
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean, I mean it was a little pocket.
Speaker 1: It was awesome so anyway, so we went in there
Speaker 1: and drove back international for US and I said, by
Speaker 1: the time is ten thirty, And I said, writer, I said,
Speaker 1: if we getn't one to gobble, I said, we got him, son,
Speaker 1: I said, and by this time he's the hens have
Speaker 1: done left him. I said, we've got him. I get
Speaker 1: out of the truck and I grabbed the old slate
Speaker 1: call and I just out. He just cussed me off
Speaker 1: right there, and I said, let's go. Look I get excited.
Speaker 1: I mean, he can tell you. If Paula can tell you,
Speaker 1: there's just something I don't if I ever lose the excitement,
Speaker 1: I better quit hunting, because it's just something that east
Speaker 1: me up. So we could drive on down and we
Speaker 1: get out of the truck and we walk down the road.
Speaker 1: We get in there and I called nothing, and I
Speaker 1: called nothing. I said, we're gonna dig in. We're just
Speaker 1: gonna dig in. We didn't have nothing else to do
Speaker 1: that day. I said, we're gonna wait him out. So
Speaker 1: we dug in. We sat there for I mean, it
Speaker 1: felt like half a century, and we're just kind of
Speaker 1: talking back and forth, kind of goofing around, you know,
Speaker 1: and and all of a sudden that turkey gobbles. I
Speaker 1: mean we're sitting just off on a on a little break,
Speaker 1: there's a little road. It kind of goes like, yes,
Speaker 1: they're gonna makes humps a little like that, just off
Speaker 1: the break at Turkey gobbles. I mean, you're not when
Speaker 1: you're least expecting it like that. It about scares the
Speaker 1: pe wad out of you. So I said, get my lap,
Speaker 1: getting my lap, So he gets in my labor. Look
Speaker 1: that up. So he gets in my lap and I
Speaker 1: just turned my head and I just real soft, and
Speaker 1: he just cuts me off right there. Let me hear
Speaker 1: your gobble again. He's got a good goble. I say,
Speaker 1: get I said, get ready. I said, he's gonna come
Speaker 1: right down your gun barrel. And I said, when I
Speaker 1: say shoot, you shoot him. Let turkey come and hit
Speaker 1: at sucker. Put on a show. I mean he out there,
Speaker 1: he danced around, he drum, he spit, and he gobble
Speaker 1: right at us. And then he drum and he he
Speaker 1: crossed underneath a deadlog and come up. And I told writers,
Speaker 1: as soon as he passes his tree, I said, shoot him. Well,
Speaker 1: little did I know. I guess I was shaking a
Speaker 1: lot more than he was, and he was in my lap.
Speaker 1: So I was doing the whole number of shaking. You
Speaker 1: were shaking him, Oh, I was shaking him. I guess
Speaker 1: something terrible. And he shot that bird and I knew
Speaker 1: he shot him low because that bird flopped. And then
Speaker 1: he started to kind of get up, and I threw
Speaker 1: him out of my lap and I took off running,
Speaker 1: and that by that time I got almost to the turkey.
Speaker 1: That turkey got him, got underneath the self, he got
Speaker 1: his feet underneath him, and off with the races we went.
Speaker 1: And I took off running, and he's yelling, do you
Speaker 1: want me to bring you the gun? And I said
Speaker 1: not yet, And I was running down the mountain as
Speaker 1: fast as I could. At Turkey's doing this, and I'm
Speaker 1: doing this with him. Well, I leap and I grab
Speaker 1: a hold of his tail feathers and I pull all
Speaker 1: of them out. I mean, he didn't have a single
Speaker 1: tail fan. I grabbed a hold of the turkey, and
Speaker 1: of course, you know, and I ring, you know, stepped
Speaker 1: on him and held him up, and he come run
Speaker 1: down them out and said, I was trying to get
Speaker 1: you up to you. I was trying to bring the gun.
Speaker 1: I said, don't worry, Bud, I said, we got him.
Speaker 1: I said, we got him, But I said, you ain't
Speaker 1: gonna have no tell father. But that was his first turkey,
Speaker 1: and that was that was a great moment to be
Speaker 1: able to share with him. That's great, man, Dad. Which
Speaker 1: which story on that series did you stood out to you?
Speaker 1: They were all excellent, I mean every stink in one
Speaker 1: of them. But I got to think, and the tie
Speaker 1: goes to the runner. But this sit in baseball, is it?
Speaker 1: So whatever you want? So I said, the tie goes
Speaker 1: to the kid man. I liked Coy's story, yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean really, the fire on, I mean, all of them
Speaker 1: were just unbelievable stories. So I just go with Ki's
Speaker 1: because he was He's such a baby, look at him,
Speaker 1: just a little beat. He gay, played football, play college football.
Speaker 1: Look yeah, you like Hank Berdine's story too, Oh I did?
Speaker 1: I love those Mississippi guys and oh Roy, I love
Speaker 1: I love the way he talks. Oh yeah, man, you
Speaker 1: know he'd go I can't even repeat how he talks.
Speaker 1: But it was just it just made the story. You know,
Speaker 1: he had this turkey, did I mean, what would he
Speaker 1: say instead of take it to the fixed Turkey. Hey
Speaker 1: Roy Clark. Roy Clark is well. We just did a
Speaker 1: big film about him that came up this week on
Speaker 1: the Mediator YouTube channel, A whole film that he was
Speaker 1: kind of the star of. He really is a relic
Speaker 1: and that's a great descriptor of what he is. A
Speaker 1: relic of Appalachian culture. And he has the strongest best
Speaker 1: accent for that East Tennessee that I've ever heard. He
Speaker 1: I love that guy, and uh, he's a y'all wouldn't
Speaker 1: know much about him. I said it on the podcast,
Speaker 1: But he's a he's as good a bear hunter. I
Speaker 1: mean those guys have killed I mean Roy Clark. I
Speaker 1: don't even want to say how many bears I believe
Speaker 1: he's killed. I mean it'd blow your mind legally, I
Speaker 1: mean they but he's a bear hunter. But he didn't
Speaker 1: even talk about turkey hunting. But I was at his
Speaker 1: house one day. I said, you know, he had turkey
Speaker 1: beards and stuff around. You know, I knew he's a
Speaker 1: turkey hunter. Was like, how'd you do last year? I mean,
Speaker 1: this is when he's in his seventies, And he said, oh,
Speaker 1: I killed five last year. He killed three in Tennessee
Speaker 1: in two, and he from his house you can see
Speaker 1: North Carolina. So the North Carolina border is just like
Speaker 1: a mile from his house, you kind of see off
Speaker 1: down the mountains. But yeah, just I like just hearing
Speaker 1: him talk. It's funny. Yeah, And like I said in
Speaker 1: that podcast, when you're talking about stories, people kind of
Speaker 1: expose different parts of their life, like like Coy did
Speaker 1: when he said that his grandparents led him drive to
Speaker 1: the to the to the place when he was fourteen.
Speaker 1: I like that. And then Roy Clark said, yeah, then
Speaker 1: my boys come up through there and they was a
Speaker 1: drinking and I know one of them could tell the truth,
Speaker 1: and I knew one of them was pretty truthful. I
Speaker 1: thinks what he said. Yeah, And you know, it's just
Speaker 1: it's just funny the details that that that you know,
Speaker 1: some people would put in there. But then that was
Speaker 1: a heck of a hunt. You know, they hunted that
Speaker 1: white turkey for for for you know, for two weeks
Speaker 1: on public land. Did you see that turkey when you
Speaker 1: were at his house. Oh yeah, it's beautiful. It really
Speaker 1: is a beautiful turkey. I put a picture of it
Speaker 1: on my Instagram. Yeah, it was a beautiful turkey. But yeah,
Speaker 1: Roy Clark, he's just fun to hear talk. And then
Speaker 1: Hank Birdine, the guy from Mississippi, see the guy that
Speaker 1: he shot the gobble, He shot the gobble. He said
Speaker 1: he left his window down. You heard me comment out
Speaker 1: he say, left his window down so that his wife
Speaker 1: would snuggle up next to him. And so you can
Speaker 1: hear those turkeys gobbling. Morning said, get out now. Hank
Speaker 1: Hank is ah, he's ah. I wasn't joking when I
Speaker 1: said that. He is like an ambassador for Mississippi. He's
Speaker 1: a big writer. He's written several books all about the
Speaker 1: South and those guys. So he's from He's from a
Speaker 1: suburb of Greenville, Mississippi. Okay, in Greenville, Mississippi. It's on
Speaker 1: the Mississippi River is where he said. In the At
Speaker 1: some point in the last hundred years there were more
Speaker 1: writers per capita in Greenville, Mississippi than anywhere in the country.
Speaker 1: There were a lot of Southern writers that came out
Speaker 1: of Mississippi. And it's kind of a it's kind of
Speaker 1: unique being around because Hanks the writer, h Robert Hittneil Junior,
Speaker 1: the guy that told about the Flaming Turkey. He's a
Speaker 1: he's written fifteen books. Um, they just think different than
Speaker 1: a lot of the guys I've been around. It was
Speaker 1: interesting and he had all these writing buddies lined up.
Speaker 1: A couple of them couldn't come, but uh, but they
Speaker 1: they they have choreographed stories that they tell, like Robert
Speaker 1: hitting Hill Junior. He's eighty one, and I mean, you
Speaker 1: know he's told that story his whole life. But I
Speaker 1: mean they just kind of they just kind of have
Speaker 1: the way, you know, the way they tell that story.
Speaker 1: And Hank tells stories like that too. But now I
Speaker 1: like those stories. You know that bird, I'm thinking he
Speaker 1: said that bird, can't you know he shoots he shoots
Speaker 1: the bird. Somebody shoots the birthday miss. The bird comes
Speaker 1: back the next week and and he's he's doing this
Speaker 1: shaking his head like he's goblin. But he's like God's man.
Speaker 1: The last time I gob hold, I mean, everybody's shooting
Speaker 1: at me. So he wanted a gobbling shaking his old head. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what a story. Old Hank almost as good as coys.
Speaker 1: And this is old Grandpa. All right, hey, and you
Speaker 1: know you know I started Did you notice I started
Speaker 1: the podcast with Andy's story? Yeah? I did that on purpose. Man,
Speaker 1: I gotta gotta get him hooked to get him coming in. Man,
Speaker 1: we'll see. Hey, one thing, Steve don't even remember. You know,
Speaker 1: he's getting old enough to wear his brains getting a
Speaker 1: little soft. But the first time he ever turkey hunted,
Speaker 1: I took him, okay, and within two weeks, telling you
Speaker 1: it was in two weeks, he was a better turkey
Speaker 1: hunter than I was. And remember it. He don't remember that,
Speaker 1: you know, we would we would scout deer together, and
Speaker 1: when turkey season rolled around, I said, hey, man, let's go.
Speaker 1: He didn't know anything about it. He didn't know anything
Speaker 1: about it. So I took him. Of course I taught
Speaker 1: him a lot more than Andy did. But so anyway,
Speaker 1: he don't even remember it. But Clay Baby was the
Speaker 1: same way. I mean, here as stupid little kid running
Speaker 1: around school. He didn't know anything, he even know what
Speaker 1: a turkey looks like. Well, I take him out and
Speaker 1: get some goblin, and why take him to my little
Speaker 1: private area. And I swear, within two weeks, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: I'm you think I'm kidding. Within two weeks he can
Speaker 1: call better than me. He's already killing birds on his own.
Speaker 1: Steve with the same way, man. I mean, I'm like going,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of like a ned and the third first reader.
Speaker 1: I think they used to say, you know, but you
Speaker 1: know they learned real quick. When you remember going hunting
Speaker 1: with him? Do you know we went deer scouting? We
Speaker 1: I can't remember. I can't remember us try hunt. Is
Speaker 1: that a little goofy looking gun you had, if you
Speaker 1: had that tennis ball or something? Yeah? What was that?
Speaker 1: Clay NERF football? Yeah, he's got it. He's got a
Speaker 1: little short, twenty something inch barrel gun. Is that legal?
Speaker 1: I don't know anymore? Short? He had a he had
Speaker 1: a Nerf football, NERF ball taped and CAMEO taped to
Speaker 1: the back of it, so it butt of it's about,
Speaker 1: you know, four or five inches further than so you
Speaker 1: gotta put it way out here and then bring it
Speaker 1: into your shoulder. But it I don't shoot it. I
Speaker 1: shot at one time and about broke my fat Think
Speaker 1: you'll kick you really bad. Oh man, it's a hoot
Speaker 1: to shoot. Man, I've told you, I've told you guys
Speaker 1: the story before. But I went to a little rock
Speaker 1: to buy a gun. I don't know why a little rock,
Speaker 1: but that's where I was headed and uh. I walked
Speaker 1: into first Bucks and Ducks right around Benton and I
Speaker 1: walked in, and I wanted a five hundred Mossburg or
Speaker 1: a eight seventy and uh. The guy said yeah. He said,
Speaker 1: I got a turkey gun right here, and he pulled
Speaker 1: that little it's like a New England arms came pretty
Speaker 1: little gun, plastic stock, fore arm, pick it up. I
Speaker 1: mean it weighs nothing, and you know you can shove
Speaker 1: a three and a half inch magnum in sucker. And
Speaker 1: so I said, hey, that's the gun. I won't he
Speaker 1: said the guy it's used. The guy took it shot
Speaker 1: at one time, brought it back to I mean, you
Speaker 1: can't shoot that gun. I said, that's what I want.
Speaker 1: That's the gun I want. So I bought it, brought
Speaker 1: it home. We pulled up right out here. Clay come
Speaker 1: running out of the house. Did you get a gun?
Speaker 1: I said yeah. And Judy and I had to go
Speaker 1: to a chamber banquet or something, and he said, can
Speaker 1: I go shoot that, daddy? And I said, yeah, I
Speaker 1: take it. Well. I came home and his whole face,
Speaker 1: you know, was shot of you know, that hit him
Speaker 1: in the face the lip almost killed him. And true story.
Speaker 1: I don't like shooting it more people. I used to
Speaker 1: take it out with guys just for the entertainment. But
Speaker 1: he and that's something a city slicker dot. He has
Speaker 1: lost his mind, Zach Nuker. My remember when he shot
Speaker 1: at the thing almost came over his head. But it's
Speaker 1: you know, you put it over your shoulder. You don't
Speaker 1: know you have it. You only shoot a couple of
Speaker 1: times a year. You'd only want to shoot it a
Speaker 1: couple of times a year. When I got that gun
Speaker 1: sided in, you I had to have it worked. I
Speaker 1: took it to the little rocket at gunsmith do a
Speaker 1: lot of work on it, and he got it where
Speaker 1: it shot real good and put a red dot scope
Speaker 1: on it. And to get it sided in it took.
Speaker 1: You know, I had to shoot fifteen twenty times, and
Speaker 1: that finger right there. I thought I was going to
Speaker 1: have to amputate it. You know, that gun come back? Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so he put a moleskin all on the track. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well I put a jersey glove on and taped a
Speaker 1: cigarette but right there on it. So I just got
Speaker 1: a charge out of shooting it. But I finally got
Speaker 1: it side it in, and it's a good turkey gun.
Speaker 1: You still have it now? Oh yeah, yeah, there, Joe.
Speaker 1: To any of those stories stand out to you, definitely
Speaker 1: the one where the boy killed his first turkey there
Speaker 1: at the end. Yes, that's the one. And because I
Speaker 1: can really relate to that, like we talked about before,
Speaker 1: that was probably my most memorable hunt. My youngest daughter
Speaker 1: would have been Emily would have been seventy thirteen years old,
Speaker 1: and that would have been twenty seventeen. We went. We
Speaker 1: went to Kansas and you know, you watch the weather
Speaker 1: up there because what it's done there is gonna be
Speaker 1: so much different than here. So we strike out. We're
Speaker 1: going to Kansas and the weather's bad going up there,
Speaker 1: but we knew that it's going to clear off that afternoon,
Speaker 1: but it was gonna come later. And so we meet,
Speaker 1: you know, my buddy up there and where we go.
Speaker 1: He's at the bowling alley, so he's bowling, you know,
Speaker 1: his bowling league. And he said, man, y'all know where
Speaker 1: to go. Just go on out there. So we've got
Speaker 1: a couple of farms right there we can hunt. So
Speaker 1: here we go is in an alfalfa field. And this
Speaker 1: one place we hunted, it's it's a big trash pipe.
Speaker 1: You know, I guess everybody around there on that piece
Speaker 1: of private just dumps are trash right there. Well, okay,
Speaker 1: you know we're gonna set up right here, and this
Speaker 1: is the afternoon. So we get to setting and just
Speaker 1: calling and and nothing, you know, but we know there's
Speaker 1: turkeys there because there's at that time, and even Kansas
Speaker 1: Kansas numbers are even lower from where we go because
Speaker 1: where we hunt now there's only one bird limit, but
Speaker 1: you could kill two there at the time. So we
Speaker 1: set up and kind of like Cooy says, we just
Speaker 1: we get dug in. We set him behind some cedar
Speaker 1: trees and cut a few limbs off and get our
Speaker 1: decoys out there. Call for a couple hours, nothing just nothing.
Speaker 1: So we thought, well, it's it's getting laid, so let's
Speaker 1: go on in. We'll get this something deep. We'll come
Speaker 1: back in the morning. We wake up that morning. Weather's awful.
Speaker 1: You know, It's just what you thought it was not
Speaker 1: going to be. It's awful. So we're kind of depressed.
Speaker 1: But we thought, you know, we'll know where we're gonna go.
Speaker 1: So we just went on out there anyway. But where
Speaker 1: we went and the ground was horribly hard. So that
Speaker 1: night we went to Walmart and bought some boat seats,
Speaker 1: you know, weird colors all they had then I think
Speaker 1: I still haven't one of them black and white, and
Speaker 1: but that's what we went out there and set on.
Speaker 1: So we're sitting there and it's getting daylight. Then we
Speaker 1: ain't hurt anything. And I'd be thinking if the turkey
Speaker 1: didn't gobble right above us, I mean, we could you
Speaker 1: once it got light enough, you could see that turkey.
Speaker 1: And if we had just set there that evening. He
Speaker 1: came in there looking for that hen that evening. So
Speaker 1: we were sitting there and it, you know, it finally
Speaker 1: got light enough and he's just gobbling ever breath. I
Speaker 1: thought she's gonna get this turkey. So by that time,
Speaker 1: he hops off, pitches off right out in front of us,
Speaker 1: and she could never get on that turkey, never could
Speaker 1: And she finally shot at that turkey, misses it, you know,
Speaker 1: shoot some limbs off, and I'm like, god, Lee, that
Speaker 1: was close. And so we were kind of depressed and
Speaker 1: the weather's getting bad. It's still bad, you know, blowing rain,
Speaker 1: and I called my buddy, he's with a sheriff's office
Speaker 1: up there and he's a man. Just I know there's
Speaker 1: turkeys there, and we were talking about going to a
Speaker 1: couple of different places. Got off the phone with him
Speaker 1: taking the turkey didn't go, and we were real we
Speaker 1: were kind of out and open build then, so we
Speaker 1: eased a little bit closer to you know, it's a
Speaker 1: drainage up there. They got drains and stuff. It's just
Speaker 1: a lot different country. So about that time, two of
Speaker 1: them got to go up and you know, here we go.
Speaker 1: So we backed off again, just right as against this
Speaker 1: little creek drainage and got to call in a little bit. Boy,
Speaker 1: here they come. So I set her down in front
Speaker 1: of me, and these turkeys come right in there clothes
Speaker 1: and at this time I say, she's young and but
Speaker 1: and I had her shoot my little banel em too,
Speaker 1: that little twelve gage. It didn't kick a lot. And
Speaker 1: so she got in there and she got right in
Speaker 1: my lap, and these turkeys came right down thirty yards office.
Speaker 1: I said, you shoot that first one you can. So
Speaker 1: she shoots that thing and it just folds up, and
Speaker 1: I'm Michael, holy cow, she got it. And then that
Speaker 1: other one ran off and they give it didn't start
Speaker 1: just looking at that one. So I started making some
Speaker 1: fighting purrs and it came right back and she killed
Speaker 1: that turkey. So we went from just a low moment
Speaker 1: until she killed two of them. Oh that's great, man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And that was twenty seventeen. We've been back every year
Speaker 1: since and except for the year of COVID, and she's
Speaker 1: killed turkeys one more time then we've left. Some years
Speaker 1: up there we didn't kill anything, but you know, that's
Speaker 1: my turkey hunter, and she she still goes with me,
Speaker 1: and she's gonna go this year. Is going back to Kansas.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'll go to Kansas since you know my
Speaker 1: turkey hunting buddy Greg Burns, which y'all knowing well, one
Speaker 1: of the best turkey hunters that I know, you know,
Speaker 1: and you know, I don't think Greg's gonna go with
Speaker 1: me this year, but you know, we're gonna go back.
Speaker 1: And we talked about going to Oklahoma. You know, we've
Speaker 1: got a couple of spots in Oklahoma. We go and
Speaker 1: you'll see I've hunted in South Dakota, Nebraska. Uh and
Speaker 1: South Dakota is beautiful too, you know. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: Clay and I went to Mississippi with Greg and the
Speaker 1: pharmacy up there, Terry. Yeah, and uh, we had you know,
Speaker 1: we had a lot of fun in Mississippi. One of
Speaker 1: the best turkey hunters I know. Yeah, yeah, And he's
Speaker 1: really good, extremely knowledgeable man. You can ask him anything
Speaker 1: and he knows a little bit about everything. And truly
Speaker 1: does you know, not like Quincy says, is that the truth? No,
Speaker 1: that's the truths Yeah, yeah, he knows a little bit
Speaker 1: about everything. The Garvin Gibbons story at the end of
Speaker 1: that podcast I had to include. I mean that guy
Speaker 1: he uh, he's killed twenty three elk with a bow
Speaker 1: before his accident, you know, at all those That was
Speaker 1: what I enjoyed his just because of that, um the
Speaker 1: thank you killed twenty three UK in twenty four years.
Speaker 1: In fact, I think maybe and I'm not I don't
Speaker 1: know this for sure, but he had a brother. I
Speaker 1: I think it worked with the same company I did,
Speaker 1: and he had told me the story about his brother
Speaker 1: getting hurt in the Teresa and accident. Had had that conversation.
Speaker 1: But I think the thing that intrigued me about it
Speaker 1: the most was the fact when he talked about how
Speaker 1: he's had to learn to get to a blind and
Speaker 1: have patience. And he's been killing more turkeys that way
Speaker 1: than he was ever was running in gun. Well. And
Speaker 1: the thing of it is, and I don't think you
Speaker 1: would disagree with this, is there was a time with
Speaker 1: turkey that you could run a gun. But I think
Speaker 1: the patience still now is just like it was back
Speaker 1: when I started hunting. I had an uncle that would
Speaker 1: go get in a blind. He didn't go anywhere. He
Speaker 1: said it in the blind and called ever twenty five minutes.
Speaker 1: And his theory was if they answer me, they'll be
Speaker 1: over here after a while. And he killed lots of
Speaker 1: turkeys that way. And I think it's trend did back
Speaker 1: that way. You know, turkeys they know the patent, don't
Speaker 1: ever called. It's out there. I mean, people, you know
Speaker 1: you gotta do something different. I mean, of course, like
Speaker 1: with me, I don't. I don't turkey, not that much anymore.
Speaker 1: But I just know I have killed a turkey the
Speaker 1: last two out of three years. But it was because
Speaker 1: he's two. We need to go fishing. But anyway, that's
Speaker 1: that's the reason I went. But but the trend I
Speaker 1: think is too to call a little and have patience.
Speaker 1: I think in his story was that he learned that
Speaker 1: that way. Yeah, and I think that was really neat.
Speaker 1: That's a good that's a good observation to think that
Speaker 1: we're kind of getting back into that with the lower
Speaker 1: turkey numbers. Sure, you can't just pop along the ridge
Speaker 1: and tall you find one that's hot, might have to
Speaker 1: sit on him for a while. And sometimes you think
Speaker 1: how many You look back, like after even I listened
Speaker 1: to that and tell that story and everything, and I
Speaker 1: look back and I think how many turkeys could I
Speaker 1: have actually killed if I just would have just sat
Speaker 1: there and and been patient. You know, one might start
Speaker 1: gobbling lay over here and you take off after him.
Speaker 1: But I mean, just think if I'd just sat there,
Speaker 1: you know. So I really that you know, that story
Speaker 1: kind of at home with me too. And and also
Speaker 1: you know with his deal is you never know when
Speaker 1: your last thing right hunt can be. You never know
Speaker 1: what can happen. Anything can happen. I mean, you can
Speaker 1: be out there and and it just like just like that,
Speaker 1: and it can be over with just like her. If
Speaker 1: we just sat there that afternoon, that turkey came in there,
Speaker 1: that any roosted back there, And I want to add
Speaker 1: to that, I went back two weeks later and killed
Speaker 1: that turkey. And after she had killed those I when
Speaker 1: the regular season came in, I came back and killed
Speaker 1: that turkey, you know, And I was up with Greg
Speaker 1: at that time. I didn't have the patience to do that.
Speaker 1: And I knew, you know, I really knew better. But
Speaker 1: I'm just not geared to be a good deer hunter
Speaker 1: or turkey hunter. But I know one day at an
Speaker 1: area that was just like you said, and he just
Speaker 1: I mean tilled up the whole side of a mountain
Speaker 1: and wasn't a big mountain, but it was still on
Speaker 1: a mountain. And I called and I couldn't believe. I
Speaker 1: couldn't get anything to gobble, man, nothing's goblin. And so
Speaker 1: I you know, I piddled around there till about nine
Speaker 1: o'clock or so, and uh, finally I just thought, well,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call and just be patient, and I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna sit here, but I'm gonna cheat a little bit.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take a nap. And so I stretched out
Speaker 1: on the side of a hill. Man. I was so
Speaker 1: I went to sleep, man, I was sound to see
Speaker 1: if you called a bunch, yeah, I called a bunch
Speaker 1: and went to sleep. Boy. I mean, I hear footsteps
Speaker 1: all around me, man, and I opened one eye and
Speaker 1: there's two big old gobblers there. Mean they're not from
Speaker 1: here to that red chest. They're looking to me like going,
Speaker 1: it's a big old ancre and there name. So I tried.
Speaker 1: You know, I had my gun, but you know I was.
Speaker 1: I was ready to shoot, but I couldn't get on
Speaker 1: the mood anyway. M But patience is really going. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I bet, I bet, I bet all of us would
Speaker 1: have killed, especially with lower numbers more turkeys if you
Speaker 1: just if you sat there for two or three hours. Um. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna spoil Andy's story. You're on the next
Speaker 1: one too. Andy, tell them about a turkey that did
Speaker 1: something unique. Mo's story about that turkey flying across the valley.
Speaker 1: Have you ever had one to do that, Steve, fly
Speaker 1: in real far that you could see come in, Oh,
Speaker 1: come in to you. Yeah? It most so, most chef.
Speaker 1: One of Mo's stories was he had he was calling
Speaker 1: in the evening and had a bird fly across a
Speaker 1: big canyon and roost and he came back in the
Speaker 1: next morning and killed it. Uh. Now have you had
Speaker 1: you Now you tell a story about a flying turkey.
Speaker 1: Don't tell that one because they're gonna hear that later.
Speaker 1: But have you ever seen one fly to you across
Speaker 1: the big valley? I went I want one morning and
Speaker 1: I don't know remember if I told you this story
Speaker 1: or not. But anyway, I had went by myself one morning,
Speaker 1: which I don't I've never liked to hunt by myself.
Speaker 1: I always like some it's it's fun to share, you know.
Speaker 1: But anyway, I went in one morning, pulled top the
Speaker 1: mountain and become a huge rain the night before, and man,
Speaker 1: them a water hollers would just it just sound like
Speaker 1: Niagara Falls. And but when I got right in on
Speaker 1: top of the mountain, it was I mean I was
Speaker 1: up there double early, early early, and just about the
Speaker 1: time I got up there, right out across the water
Speaker 1: holl or north of me, over there on the top
Speaker 1: of the little knob, one put in and all the
Speaker 1: goblin he'd done over there, And there wasn't no going
Speaker 1: to him because backside of the mountain I'm own, it's
Speaker 1: just straight off right into a water holler. You got
Speaker 1: to cross the holler and it was just a disaster.
Speaker 1: And I thought, you know what, I don't like to
Speaker 1: call a turkey on rust, but I'm gonna let him
Speaker 1: know I'm here. Now. This is early, I'm talking early, okay.
Speaker 1: And so I stood there and he got be four
Speaker 1: or five times. He was gobbling away from me, and
Speaker 1: finally I just call real loud to him. And when
Speaker 1: I did, you could tell he turned on the limb.
Speaker 1: He started gobbling right at me, and I thought, you
Speaker 1: know that rascal. I mean, he's a long ways over there.
Speaker 1: I said that dude might pitch out and come over here.
Speaker 1: So I just backed up her against the big pine
Speaker 1: trees a little saddle in the mountain there, and I
Speaker 1: kind of got my gun up on my knee, and
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's not even close. I didn't think
Speaker 1: to fly down, and all of a sudden I just
Speaker 1: heard of it's right out there, I said, just like
Speaker 1: someone dropped one out of a hell. Like I said,
Speaker 1: I said that, uh, I sound like that dude just
Speaker 1: live right out there. And he was kind of my
Speaker 1: I had my gun this way and it was kind
Speaker 1: to my left, and about the time, the best I
Speaker 1: could describe it, I just seen the white cap, you know,
Speaker 1: on his head. He just come right up over the
Speaker 1: top of them the mountain there, and I said, dang,
Speaker 1: that's that dang turkey. I mean it is early early,
Speaker 1: and so it's just wide open. There ain't nothing between
Speaker 1: me and him. But huckleberry bushes down through there, you know.
Speaker 1: And there's a little tree about I don't know, three
Speaker 1: or four inches in diameter down there. And when he
Speaker 1: when he when he walked in und the tree, I
Speaker 1: moved my gun. Well, I did, you know how they'll
Speaker 1: do he'd give me one of these back. But you
Speaker 1: know he'd stepped in, and you know he wasn't he
Speaker 1: stepped out looked like that, and about that time he did,
Speaker 1: he just blew out there like a quail. Really, he
Speaker 1: made a bad mistake, though I unwound hemmy with oh, well,
Speaker 1: don't let me back up what he did that. I
Speaker 1: just shot that tree. He's nearly halving two down there.
Speaker 1: I bet i'd never put a pelted him. He'd just
Speaker 1: boiled up what he did. I hit him with a
Speaker 1: whole load what he would out there. But he was
Speaker 1: and I know there was people in that country when
Speaker 1: uh I had a boy shot that off the rust,
Speaker 1: but I did, dovid, I just want him on the ground.
Speaker 1: But he was a big wow, but he flew. I'm
Speaker 1: sure he fell a quarter to me across the hallard
Speaker 1: right there. Hey, you guys are really good turkey hunters.
Speaker 1: What's the closest y'all have had a gobbler come to you?
Speaker 1: You know? I told the story here one time about
Speaker 1: having one right here. You know what I mean. Have
Speaker 1: y'all had him? How close have you had him? I've
Speaker 1: had him. I had one Steve kill one morning that close.
Speaker 1: Remember that was Steve was gobbler right in my right,
Speaker 1: in his right in my ear. I couldn't shoot him.
Speaker 1: I had to let him walk around. He walked up
Speaker 1: I could get Oldie by black this. He just comes right.
Speaker 1: He was supposed to come up a leg to him.
Speaker 1: He was supposed to come up a leg to me.
Speaker 1: And he's sitting up there calling, and there's a blowdown tree.
Speaker 1: And he walked on the wrong side of that blow down,
Speaker 1: big old tree. And I had to sit there and
Speaker 1: watch the turkey out of the left of my eye.
Speaker 1: He walked right up that tree, right up to Andy
Speaker 1: gobbled and blowed his head off right in his face.
Speaker 1: But he made the mistake. He turned and he come
Speaker 1: down my side of the tree and I killed. I
Speaker 1: have got video, Gary, I've got video of a turkey
Speaker 1: gobbling when he steps on my boot. I'm laid down flat,
Speaker 1: got my video camera, and I had already called his
Speaker 1: turkey up once and I went around on another mountain
Speaker 1: and he caught him up again, and he gobbled and
Speaker 1: he flicks his on my gobbled right about from here
Speaker 1: to Andy's knee. I found it the other day going
Speaker 1: through videos, and I said here, I showed it to him.
Speaker 1: I'm laid down and that turkey's wings hit my boot
Speaker 1: when he walks out, and he walks about from here
Speaker 1: to Gary's side beside there, and I call him again
Speaker 1: and he gobbles and he gobbles off the mountain. And
Speaker 1: that's another story the old Kendra Marshall, y'all know, heard
Speaker 1: when she was When she was she was probably about fourteen.
Speaker 1: Kevin had to work opening day of youth season, and
Speaker 1: so I took her and Steve, I'd remember you took
Speaker 1: baby John Barton. And there was a whole water of
Speaker 1: us out there. You know. Anyway, Kender never killed a
Speaker 1: turkey before. And uh, anyway, we got in there, and
Speaker 1: I mean we got in on there was there was
Speaker 1: a whole water. And I had a single barrel. I said,
Speaker 1: got a single barl itthicis twenty gage. And I had
Speaker 1: Kendra setting right here. And anyway, we got set up
Speaker 1: and there was three big gobblers and I I called them,
Speaker 1: and here they come. I mean they just they just
Speaker 1: hear they. I mean, they were just coming. And Kendra
Speaker 1: was of course, you know, I mean she was all excited.
Speaker 1: I was too, and I'm not kidding you. They were.
Speaker 1: It was kind of straight off. And when they popped
Speaker 1: up right there, they wasn't no fathom, Joe. I mean,
Speaker 1: they wasn't ten foot ten twelve foot. And I said,
Speaker 1: I said, shoot, it doesn't shoot that dude. Kendra, of course,
Speaker 1: of what, you know, shot what she this slick missed it.
Speaker 1: I mean she never cut a feather out of it.
Speaker 1: And they just blew up whatever was single. It's a
Speaker 1: single shot. And anyway, Kender had long face, and you know,
Speaker 1: I was, I was just sick far and I said,
Speaker 1: I said, just let's just coover jets. I said, they
Speaker 1: kind of blowed out in differrection directions. I said, let's
Speaker 1: just sit around a while. I said, him, dus liable
Speaker 1: start gobbling again. So anyway, to make a long story short,
Speaker 1: we set there about thirty minutes and in a minute,
Speaker 1: right off down the mountain there one gobble and hum,
Speaker 1: I said, I told Kendray, I said that AND's in
Speaker 1: trouble right there. And so we got down there and
Speaker 1: I got her dug in there and and uh, I
Speaker 1: called him and shet man here he come, just doing anything.
Speaker 1: And he come up there and he got up heard
Speaker 1: about thirty steps and I mean she killed him dead
Speaker 1: or in the markle down there. You know, that dude
Speaker 1: went the plopping and she goes, what do I do now,
Speaker 1: I said, jump back to get him, you know, seeing
Speaker 1: down there on top of old Turkey. But anyway, I
Speaker 1: mean I've had him close, but that's about as close
Speaker 1: as I mean, of course, but she was. It was.
Speaker 1: It was pretty awesome. One of my other grandsons, Aaron Ferguson,
Speaker 1: I called his first one up for him. We went
Speaker 1: out to their place out there and had went to
Speaker 1: morning before on Sat. We went on Saturday youth hunt
Speaker 1: and got after Turkey had set up a blind. They
Speaker 1: gobbled got hens with it and couldn't do anything with it.
Speaker 1: So I told him, I said, we'll go back in
Speaker 1: the morning. I know exactly what he's gonna do. So
Speaker 1: we got out there double early, and Aaron and I
Speaker 1: went across this little old cut. They got out there
Speaker 1: and pulled in on his leg. And there's a road
Speaker 1: up and then there's a skitter trail that runs down. Well,
Speaker 1: there's a big old oak tree, I mean a great, old,
Speaker 1: big oak tree. I set him on the one side
Speaker 1: there where the skitter trail comes down, and I just
Speaker 1: got on the side of the big oak and I called.
Speaker 1: When I called him, he flew off and he gobbled
Speaker 1: up in the main road. Or every time he says goble,
Speaker 1: I want you to gobble it. So I called him.
Speaker 1: He gobbled two three times in a little bit. I
Speaker 1: told Aaron, I said, now look, I'm gonna call him.
Speaker 1: Hens up first, they're gonna come down that skit trail.
Speaker 1: And I said, just let him walk by. And I said,
Speaker 1: when you see that gobbler, I said, he's gonna be
Speaker 1: bad close. He's gonna be ten steps or closer. Well,
Speaker 1: what I didn't realize when I sit airing up there
Speaker 1: was a little mound to dirt. He's sitting against that
Speaker 1: oak tree. But there was a little mound to dirt
Speaker 1: about three foot from him that was up. So that
Speaker 1: turkey he comes down through there and he gets the
Speaker 1: hens come. There was four of them, single file, and
Speaker 1: I'm watching him. I'm sitting there and I'm looking. I said,
Speaker 1: there goes one. He's right behind him. I could see
Speaker 1: he's fanned out and he's coming. And that turkey comes
Speaker 1: right in there and he gets right there and I
Speaker 1: hit that slate, called this a little bit, And he's
Speaker 1: only about twenty yards right there, and he gobbles indirectly.
Speaker 1: He starts turning. He's coming right to it, and I'm
Speaker 1: sitting there, like Andy is. I'm going shoot him shooting,
Speaker 1: Oh god, shoot him. I closed my eyes, you know,
Speaker 1: I closed my eyes. He's bad close. He steps up
Speaker 1: on that dirt mound and he's about three foot from
Speaker 1: that end of that gun barrel, and he shoots him
Speaker 1: and blows his head off, kills him dead as a
Speaker 1: micro right there. I get up and the turkey don't
Speaker 1: even flop. I mean, said, what are you waiting on?
Speaker 1: He said, Paula, I couldn't see nothing but that fan
Speaker 1: until he stepped right up on that deal look right,
Speaker 1: and he said, he almost scared He almost scared me
Speaker 1: to death, the old shy because he scared down. He
Speaker 1: couldn't see nothing but the fan. But the turkey stepped
Speaker 1: up on the dirt, maun and he's like, I mean,
Speaker 1: he's the gun barrel is right there, and he sticks
Speaker 1: his head up and he he took his whole head off.
Speaker 1: Usually that kind they miss they missed, but he was
Speaker 1: so close and had that gun barrel. It's the first one.
Speaker 1: I mean, he cleaned shot his head off. Wow, of that,
Speaker 1: I thought you were gonna say. All I could see
Speaker 1: was his head. Like, I didn't shoot because all I
Speaker 1: could see was he seen his head. Didn't need their
Speaker 1: turn you with no head, Clay. You remember when you
Speaker 1: were a kid, you first right when you first learned
Speaker 1: how to hunt, you started hunting with some of your
Speaker 1: buddies pretty close to here, you know, ten miles or so.
Speaker 1: And uh, you came in one morning saying that this
Speaker 1: bird came off the roosts, sounded like a helicopter. Yeah, yeh,
Speaker 1: did y'all kill it? Bird? You remember, No, we never did.
Speaker 1: Now that that was the first time. It was when
Speaker 1: I first started hunting by myself. And so you know,
Speaker 1: when you start hunting by yourself, you start noticing stuff
Speaker 1: you never noticed before, because when you're being guided, you
Speaker 1: you know your mentor is interpreting the world for you, you
Speaker 1: you know. But when you start hunting by yourself, you
Speaker 1: kind of start noticing stuff. And now we set up
Speaker 1: way too close. We heard a bird. Goblin set up
Speaker 1: way too close, and but we're in there way before daylight,
Speaker 1: and so we were set up good. But we didn't
Speaker 1: know this gobbler had a bunch of hens with it,
Speaker 1: and we heard. I wouldn't have known it, but I heard.
Speaker 1: I heard several turkeys fly down, and you know, I
Speaker 1: just maybe it's one of the first times I'd ever
Speaker 1: been that close and heard turkeys fly down, and so
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, that's what a turkey sounds like
Speaker 1: when it flies down. And then the gobbler flew down,
Speaker 1: and it was like, yeah, I told it, it sounds
Speaker 1: like a helicopter landing in the woods out there in
Speaker 1: the turkey hit the ground and went the other way.
Speaker 1: And we never even really were in the in the
Speaker 1: workings for that turkey. But uh yeah, yeah. So I
Speaker 1: had a guy I used to work with he come down.
Speaker 1: I invited him down one time. We were living on
Speaker 1: north of town at the time, so back in the
Speaker 1: mid eighties. No, that's not true, because it would have
Speaker 1: been probably nineteen, probably ninety or ninety one probably. Anyway,
Speaker 1: he come down from up at up around Ozark Hunt
Speaker 1: with me and spent the night. We got up next
Speaker 1: morning and it was it was lightning and thundering and
Speaker 1: trying to rain. Just a bad, bad morning, you know.
Speaker 1: But we wasn't gonna get a chance to go anymore.
Speaker 1: So we went out out west, pulled the end of
Speaker 1: the mountain, walked all the way into the low gap
Speaker 1: in the mountain, and uh, when he got Goblin time,
Speaker 1: it was kind of foggy. No, there was nothing Goblin nowhere.
Speaker 1: So I told Conrad, I said, let's walk out here
Speaker 1: east and I said, we'll just kind of set around
Speaker 1: a while. I'll see what happens. And anyway, we got
Speaker 1: out there and we sit out we sit out side beside,
Speaker 1: and I told him, I said, I'm gonna call a
Speaker 1: little bit and see if I get one to answer.
Speaker 1: So I called north. Nothing called again, and about that
Speaker 1: time you saw about him flying into you, there was
Speaker 1: three big jakes just lit just like we're sitting right here.
Speaker 1: I mean they just lit all around, I mean within
Speaker 1: five yards, I mean just three of them walking around, clucking,
Speaker 1: you know, like it. And I was gonna Conrade shoot
Speaker 1: shoot him, you know. Anyway, to make a long story short,
Speaker 1: I wound up killing a turkey, you know, instead of him.
Speaker 1: He wouldn't shoot, he couldn't get on them. So anyway, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm down. He thought I was a great little boy
Speaker 1: a tree. Well, guys, we've uh, we've told some good stories.
Speaker 1: I appreciate everybody coming. Anybody, anybody got any closing thoughts here?
Speaker 1: Just one thought from the guy used to hunt with
Speaker 1: Greg Burns. You'll always remember the ones you missed or
Speaker 1: you didn't kill just as much. That's exactly right, probably more.
Speaker 1: And that's what he said. He said, you will remember
Speaker 1: them more than the ones you kill. I think the
Speaker 1: last podcast, well, all the talking I've done, it was turkeys.
Speaker 1: We didn't kill any. And that's the truth. You'll remember
Speaker 1: the ones that you did not get. I think Greg
Speaker 1: ran into Ben rogers Lee, he did. He told me that,
Speaker 1: and I think Ben told him the story about her
Speaker 1: almost sitting on a rattlesnake that morning. Door yeah, and
Speaker 1: over west, Yeah, yeah, but yeah, keep the wild place
Speaker 1: as well. Keep the wild places wild. Corey. You are
Speaker 1: you hunting anywhere or other than Arkansas this year? Uh?
Speaker 1: I don't think we're going anywhere this year, Paul. Paul
Speaker 1: is not taking you somewhere. I looked at it. We
Speaker 1: went to Nebraska two years ago and then we got
Speaker 1: a plan. We're gonna go to Florida and we're gonna
Speaker 1: try and kind of work on our our grand Slam. Okay,
Speaker 1: so that's our that's our years. Yes, that's me and
Speaker 1: him's goal is to do that together. And we're gonna start.
Speaker 1: We're gonna go to Florida and and I gotta place
Speaker 1: in Mississippi weekend hunt. So we're probably gonna stop on
Speaker 1: our way back the Mississippi. I'll tell you Nebraska, and
Speaker 1: then I went to Arizona. That was one of the
Speaker 1: I went up in hunting the Indian Nations, you know
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago and are something and I'll
Speaker 1: tell you what it was sleeting that that was quite
Speaker 1: the memory right there. You know, that night we slept
Speaker 1: my tent up there, couldn't hardly breathe. You know, the
Speaker 1: altitude was so dad gum air than We had forty
Speaker 1: mile hour winds and it was thirty two degrees, you know,
Speaker 1: in that tent flaps flapping, but we heard eighteen different
Speaker 1: gobblers wow, and the guys with he killed one and
Speaker 1: I killed one about nine o'clock. So killed them quick,
Speaker 1: killed him quick, and you know, we come back to camp.
Speaker 1: We had to drive like three miles. We could see
Speaker 1: Colorado from where we were up on top of that
Speaker 1: mountain and to get phone service. And we come back
Speaker 1: and it was it was about one o'clock and it
Speaker 1: was supposed to be even worse. And we're sitting there
Speaker 1: and I told him, I said, we were gonna take
Speaker 1: a nap, you know, and disrest. And I I said, John,
Speaker 1: is there any reason we're not leaving here? We're gonna
Speaker 1: get up in the morning. It's gonna be thirty degrees
Speaker 1: twenty eight degrees and wind blowing. And he said, you know,
Speaker 1: you're right. We packed up and went to Gallot in
Speaker 1: New Mexico. We got out of there. Uh oh, hey,
Speaker 1: we got to end with a poacher story. Joe, did
Speaker 1: you ever catch any turkey poachers? And now that wasn't
Speaker 1: your general job, That wasn't that wasn't your boys. You know,
Speaker 1: I've I've got a couple of real good ones. It's
Speaker 1: just you know, now I can kind of I can
Speaker 1: talk about those. You know, this is a long time ago,
Speaker 1: this would have been, and this is what we needed.
Speaker 1: This is the kind of energy we needed. A good
Speaker 1: poaching story. This is the late nineties. I would say
Speaker 1: probably about nineteen ninety eight. We were in county north
Speaker 1: of US and at that time I was working with
Speaker 1: the Poor Service Leo and he's since retired from there,
Speaker 1: and we got an information of a bait side. So
Speaker 1: me and my partner, we've found this bait site. So
Speaker 1: we knew where it was at. We had real good information.
Speaker 1: But the problem is is you had to walk pretty
Speaker 1: good ways into it. And so we've made plans. You know,
Speaker 1: we knew this guy wasn't coming in there really anytime early.
Speaker 1: So the day that we decided we were going to
Speaker 1: go in there and you know and catch this guy,
Speaker 1: you know, it was season at this time. So we
Speaker 1: rode in there. I rode with the Fourth Service Elio
Speaker 1: and the undercover vehicle. We get two miles from it,
Speaker 1: the vehicle breaks down. I'm thinking, your government vehicle. It
Speaker 1: breaks down. I'm thinking great, So here we go. He's
Speaker 1: coming in there. So I'm walking. I take out walking,
Speaker 1: and I get probably within I don't know, quarter to
Speaker 1: a half a mile, and I can hear a vehicle coming.
Speaker 1: So at this time I take off running, and you know,
Speaker 1: and I've got my shotgun. Where are you running? I'm
Speaker 1: running down a road towards it. Yeah, I'm running towards
Speaker 1: this vehicle because I knew it was but there was
Speaker 1: still enough distance that I knew he was coming. We
Speaker 1: knew which way you come from, and he was coming
Speaker 1: into that bayside. So I'm taking off running and he
Speaker 1: beats me to it. So I just back off a
Speaker 1: little bit, and I yes, he beat me to it,
Speaker 1: got his truck parked and gets off down into his baitside,
Speaker 1: and I just pulled back a little bit, and I thought,
Speaker 1: I'm a giving time to get in there and get
Speaker 1: good and set up. So probably, I don't know, maybe
Speaker 1: ten or fifteen minutes, I hear the freaking gun go off.
Speaker 1: I hear a shotgun go off. So here I take
Speaker 1: off in there, running to him, and whenever he sees me,
Speaker 1: he sees me like I can't believe this. The Turkey's
Speaker 1: setting there, flopping his guns leaned up against a tree,
Speaker 1: and he looks around and he just takes off running.
Speaker 1: And I mean he just left. He just took off
Speaker 1: running and red handed, and the turkey and the turkeys
Speaker 1: setting up there, flopping corn everywhere, feathers flying everywhere. Here's
Speaker 1: his gun leaned up against the tree, and he's gone.
Speaker 1: You know, you couldn't have caught him if you hadn't
Speaker 1: wanted to. And this is mine. Oh truck's here, Oh god, yeah,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, it gets good. Yeah, yeah, we're not done yet.
Speaker 1: So I thought, well, what am I gonna do? So
Speaker 1: I'm a hollerrating, so I knew who it was. I said, well,
Speaker 1: you know, that's that's fine. We know who you are.
Speaker 1: I've got your gun and your truck. You say this,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, yeah, yeah, because I know he's not out there,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe a one hundred and fifty yards, but
Speaker 1: you couldn't caught him. I've done went two miles and
Speaker 1: then ran in there. That I'm not a heck, I
Speaker 1: m out of air by then. So yeah, so I've
Speaker 1: got his gun and I've got the turkey. We come
Speaker 1: out of the woods to the truck and by this time,
Speaker 1: the wrecker comes and picks our truck up, and I
Speaker 1: holler at him on the radio, so it's we'll come
Speaker 1: on down here. I said, drop our truck there and
Speaker 1: load his up. So we loaded his truck up on
Speaker 1: the record and hauled it to town, and I had
Speaker 1: the shotgun the turkey, and then we impounded his truck.
Speaker 1: So we get up to the jail, and so, well,
Speaker 1: just leave him in the woods. Oh yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't know where he is. Yeah, and I can
Speaker 1: think of another story up there where you loved a
Speaker 1: turkey hunt a guy hit the woods and call him
Speaker 1: the next day. But that's a different story. And so,
Speaker 1: and we knew he's gonna come up there, and we
Speaker 1: figured he's going to report his truck stolen. You know,
Speaker 1: that's the big thing when people flee, Well you know
Speaker 1: someone stolen. I mean, do you put a warrant out
Speaker 1: for their rest? And I'm not at that time. You know,
Speaker 1: we knew, we knew who his family was, we knew,
Speaker 1: we knew all about it. Did you have to take
Speaker 1: any pictures or anything? But like when you had the turkey,
Speaker 1: had the gun, Oh yeah, we had all documented everything.
Speaker 1: And he came up there to the jail. You know,
Speaker 1: we figured he was gonna report his truck stolen, and
Speaker 1: I said, why did you run from that? Was I
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna give you any other just walked in. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because we knew he turned himself in. Well, yeah, because
Speaker 1: he's wanting his stuff back. He wants his gun and
Speaker 1: he wants his truck. And then his first question, which
Speaker 1: you didn't get that, and so my first question was,
Speaker 1: you know, not anything else, but why did you run
Speaker 1: from me? And then he said, I don't know, you
Speaker 1: didn't come up with some excuse. So then I knew
Speaker 1: he had him, you know, because he didn't deny it then.
Speaker 1: So he was caught then. Yeah, So later we went
Speaker 1: through court and you know, he was found guilty and
Speaker 1: I think he actually played the case is what and
Speaker 1: what would have happened to that guy? Do you remember
Speaker 1: that guy at that time? You know he would lose
Speaker 1: his I don't remember you know exactly what that there
Speaker 1: you go, I don't really remember what the case, you know,
Speaker 1: adjudicated ass but you know now he would probably I
Speaker 1: don't know what baton turkeys is now as far as
Speaker 1: you know, the violation on that as far as points
Speaker 1: but you know, I don't know what tear it is
Speaker 1: or even And it got to where I didn't work
Speaker 1: a lot of game and fish stuff. We worked more
Speaker 1: my latter years, you know, just in last year we
Speaker 1: worked more recreation. You know, I've seen the transition from
Speaker 1: a lot of different stuff to worked heavy narcotics and
Speaker 1: right into here. You know, you work more side by
Speaker 1: side recreation, which stuff you know, lots of alcohol. But
Speaker 1: you know, I've seen the transition from where you was
Speaker 1: fighting a lot of narcotics to where a lot of
Speaker 1: it's legal. Now you've seen a complete shift. But there's
Speaker 1: tons of stories. You know, if you want to do
Speaker 1: the story, I can talk about a lot of them.
Speaker 1: Now you know I can't. And before you want to
Speaker 1: tell us the story about you were saying you had
Speaker 1: one that you came to mind that somewhere close um
Speaker 1: which as far as well you just when you were talking,
Speaker 1: you looked at Dandy and said, hey, I remember a
Speaker 1: story somewhere over by you. I'm the one that you
Speaker 1: might not remember. It was out west of town. I'd
Speaker 1: went out there scouting turkeys and heard twelve or fifteen turkeys,
Speaker 1: like three or four days before season, and I went
Speaker 1: out there two mornings in a row listening, and Joe
Speaker 1: came in there the one morning when I was there
Speaker 1: and he said, hasty we do in I said, well,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be in here in the morning. Opening day.
Speaker 1: I said, there's turkeys in here, and he said, no,
Speaker 1: don't come in here and them. I do remember that one.
Speaker 1: He said, that guy's baiting them. And I said, oh, really,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be kidding me. There's turkeys there. He said,
Speaker 1: that's one of their governments. He said, don't come in
Speaker 1: here any more. He said, wait ten days and then
Speaker 1: come back. And so I said, okay. When he caught
Speaker 1: that guy, we got some information on that one. I was.
Speaker 1: I was with the Fourth Service then and a couple
Speaker 1: of people called me and said they found that bait.
Speaker 1: So me and another game, the fish officer, we went
Speaker 1: in there and we found it, and we came in
Speaker 1: there the next day and kind of like you said,
Speaker 1: we got in there really really early, and you know
Speaker 1: which one we're talking about on this, and we looked
Speaker 1: this thing over and we thought, you know, he's got
Speaker 1: to come up from this way, and so we just
Speaker 1: get set up there and sure enough, you know, turkeys
Speaker 1: go to Goblin, and what happens. He comes in the
Speaker 1: opposite way and I heard something, turned around, looked at
Speaker 1: him and he's looking right at me, you know, and
Speaker 1: he just and I knew who it was at that time.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm sitting there with a rifle. He probably
Speaker 1: thinks you're a turkey. He thought we were a turkey hunter,
Speaker 1: you know, and I'm sitting there with a rifle, you know.
Speaker 1: And once I, you know, anwunce who we are and everything,
Speaker 1: He's like, well, you know, I don't know what we know.
Speaker 1: I don't know nothing, you know, the basically, I didn't
Speaker 1: know nothing. And then I get consent to search his pouch.
Speaker 1: You know, it seems like, no, he's his backpack. Oh,
Speaker 1: I don't know nothing, And he gives me consent to
Speaker 1: search it, and I pull out the top of a
Speaker 1: corn sack and then it just he just it goes
Speaker 1: downhill from there. So yeah, and then we asked where
Speaker 1: he was staying. So we end up going on the
Speaker 1: west side over there talking to his father, and by
Speaker 1: that time, when we pulled up to camp, his father
Speaker 1: pulls up on it on side by side. It was
Speaker 1: an ATV at the time, and a turkey on the back.
Speaker 1: You know. It was just you know, and I'm sure
Speaker 1: they'll hear this. It was just up. It was just
Speaker 1: a hunch, and we said, we know you're baiting the turkeys,
Speaker 1: and you're just gonna have to take us to where
Speaker 1: you killed that one. He stucks his head and he says,
Speaker 1: okay you when he took us right to where his bait.
Speaker 1: And that's another storm. We called the record. We impounded
Speaker 1: both of those side by sides and everything, and there
Speaker 1: were ATVs. But it was just a hunch because we
Speaker 1: knew it. He had done been baiting turkeys, so we
Speaker 1: knew that one had to be killed over and he
Speaker 1: just came in and just said, I knew you did it.
Speaker 1: Take me to it. That's like a good parenting trick
Speaker 1: when your kid did something, you just hit him hard
Speaker 1: and they can sixth sense that since sense, especially in
Speaker 1: law enforcement. You cut them open and see corn in
Speaker 1: their belly, it might be a hit. Let me ask
Speaker 1: you this. Joe, years years and years ago, Uh, a
Speaker 1: friend of mine and I were hunting West Town here
Speaker 1: in a pretty popular area. A lot of roads go
Speaker 1: back in there, and we found a site I don't
Speaker 1: remember us calling the game warm because it's probably old,
Speaker 1: but feathers everywhere. I mean, it looked like a hundred
Speaker 1: turkeys have been processed in there. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe fifty, but I mean it just had you know,
Speaker 1: it was like at the back of this camp or something.
Speaker 1: I think I remember that, Yeah, you remember, because I
Speaker 1: think I think it was. Yeah, it was. It was
Speaker 1: in the eighties, yeah, and it was it was like
Speaker 1: a culvisac where there had been a camp. Well I
Speaker 1: don't know about that. This was off in the woods.
Speaker 1: Now we might have come to a culvisack, but y'all
Speaker 1: know where I'm probably talking about. You know, there's a
Speaker 1: big chicken farm there and you go over a hill
Speaker 1: and I mean it's just pick trails everywhere, and back
Speaker 1: in there, not very far from the main road, one
Speaker 1: of those main roads. It just looked like, you know,
Speaker 1: pretty substantial guy was with me, you know when he's
Speaker 1: pretty good turkey hunter, and he couldn't figure it out.
Speaker 1: It just looked like, you know, at least twenty five
Speaker 1: thirty turkeys been butchered there, maybe a hundred. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was just crazy. So I don't know why we
Speaker 1: didn't call. He might have called a game ward and
Speaker 1: I can't remember. But anyway, have you ever seen a
Speaker 1: sight like that where not that much? You know. I
Speaker 1: interviewed a turkey poacher one time, and we knew he
Speaker 1: was a very early turkey hunter. And he said his
Speaker 1: favorite time to go he could get his wife to
Speaker 1: dropping off. He wouldn't leave the house at ten o'clock
Speaker 1: in the morning. He said, if I can kill one,
Speaker 1: if I hear it, I'll kill it. If I can
Speaker 1: get a turkey to gobble, oh yeah, there you go. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And he said, I'll kill it. And that's how he
Speaker 1: done it. He hunted in the middle of the day.
Speaker 1: You know, because I wished i'd have known him that
Speaker 1: years ago. I would never have gotten up, you know,
Speaker 1: out forget chance killing. Oh yeah, and no one's out there.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. That was a great, great ending car podcast.
Speaker 1: Thanks guys, really appreciate everybody being here.