Speaker 1: Welcome to Cutting the Distance podcast. I'm here with my
Speaker 1: good buddy, Chris Parrish. Chris is not only one of
Speaker 1: the greatest turkey colors of all time, but even more
Speaker 1: impressive than me. He's a great guy, a great father,
Speaker 1: in a dang good turkey hunter. I can't wait to
Speaker 1: jump into talking about everything to do with calling turkeys
Speaker 1: with Chris. He's been a little bit of my mentor,
Speaker 1: I would say, on the turkey call side, but we've
Speaker 1: really just kind of got to know each other eight
Speaker 1: or nine years ago and really just kind of hit
Speaker 1: it off. And I've been able to hunt with Chris
Speaker 1: a little bit, talk about Western hunting, turkey hunting, deer hunting.
Speaker 1: But in this podcast, it's gonna be all about calling turkeys.
Speaker 1: You know, his preferred calls, his approach to calling turkeys,
Speaker 1: his favorite time of day to call turkey's favorite time
Speaker 1: of year to call turkey, and we're just gonna jump
Speaker 1: into all that. So um, welcome Chris, Hey, Thanks, thanks
Speaker 1: for having me gay soon. As I mentioned, one of
Speaker 1: the a one of the better turkey callers. You know,
Speaker 1: anybody can run a call, but to go out and
Speaker 1: put that ability to use, I think it's more important
Speaker 1: to be a good turkey hunter than it is to
Speaker 1: be a good turkey caller. On our trip to Kansas
Speaker 1: last year, I think I remember you right. You had
Speaker 1: said that was your FOD or somewhere right around there.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, actually four hundred and one. Uh. But you know,
Speaker 1: I've been doing it a long time. I won't give
Speaker 1: away age here. Yeah. Yeah, and you know some of
Speaker 1: those things that it's cool to keep track of, but
Speaker 1: I can tell being out in the field with you
Speaker 1: like that number is. It's not as important to you
Speaker 1: as the experience and and the time that you're having
Speaker 1: out there, but it is cool to just kind of know.
Speaker 1: You would never bring that number up, so I brought
Speaker 1: it up for you, um, just to let people know
Speaker 1: just how accomplished you are, not only as a caller
Speaker 1: but as a hunter. It was It was cool to
Speaker 1: get to see you do your thing last year in Kansas.
Speaker 1: You know, I've I've grew up watching your turkey call
Speaker 1: and on the stage and getting to hear how good
Speaker 1: you were about. To see you out in the field
Speaker 1: and put it to use was even even more important.
Speaker 1: You came from from the days when a guy could
Speaker 1: make a living off of being a good turkey color.
Speaker 1: You know, back when turkey calling was a big, big thing. Um,
Speaker 1: you talked about, you know, being able to go out
Speaker 1: on a weekend to go to a turkey calling contest
Speaker 1: and it wasn't anything to bring home, you know, three
Speaker 1: to five thousand dollars you know for winning that turkey
Speaker 1: calling contest. Um. I remember, you know, back in the day,
Speaker 1: you were one of the first, you know, hunting callers
Speaker 1: to appear on you not only the Letterman Show, you
Speaker 1: were on the Stern Show. Um. And it used to
Speaker 1: be a big, big deal, um to be uh, you know,
Speaker 1: a good turkey color. I think it's it's still a
Speaker 1: big deal, but it's not. Um, it doesn't seem to
Speaker 1: be as big as it was back when when you
Speaker 1: were winning all those competitions. No, it's it's definitely changed
Speaker 1: over the years. Uh, you know, Uh, YouTube and several
Speaker 1: other things have made it a lot easier to become
Speaker 1: a good caller. Back in the day, we used to
Speaker 1: go to contest actually to learn and learn off of
Speaker 1: those that you know, we're we're predecessors of ours and uh, um,
Speaker 1: I think now with YouTube and in all the different channels,
Speaker 1: that people can go through. It just makes it a
Speaker 1: lot easier to become a good caller, and it becomes
Speaker 1: and you can become a better hunter as well, because
Speaker 1: you know, you're learning a lot about tactics and tricks
Speaker 1: and things that people have been using for the last
Speaker 1: twenty five or thirty years. Yeah, yeah, I really appreciate
Speaker 1: having your Chriss. Should be a good show. Um, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna dive into a lot of these questions I've asked
Speaker 1: you before, but we're gonna dive into all the listeners
Speaker 1: can can kind of dive into the the Turkey calling
Speaker 1: brain of Chris Parrish. And I want to take a
Speaker 1: second to um congratulate you personally. UM, I think in
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks you're gonna be inducted into the
Speaker 1: National Wild Turkey Federation's Hall of Fame. So, uh, you know, congratulations.
Speaker 1: It's a an awesome, awesome, uh you know award, and uh,
Speaker 1: it couldn't be happier for you. Not sure whether it's
Speaker 1: deserved or I'm just getting old enough. Yeah, they figured
Speaker 1: they better throw and throw you in. Why they still
Speaker 1: got time and you can enjoy it. But no, I
Speaker 1: mean we didn't jump in I'm not gonna jump into
Speaker 1: all the you know, the Grand National championships, the team championships,
Speaker 1: but I'm just gonna put this out there that you know,
Speaker 1: you're you're one of the more decorated Turkey colors of
Speaker 1: all time. And you deserve it both from a calling standpoint,
Speaker 1: what you did for the calling industry, both as your
Speaker 1: own company, and what you did with Night and Hale,
Speaker 1: what you did on the stage. So it's well deserved, Chris,
Speaker 1: and and like I said, it couldn't be it couldn't
Speaker 1: be happier for you. Thank you. So we're gonna jump in.
Speaker 1: We've got a couple of questions, um, from social It's
Speaker 1: kind of funny, mean you were actually talking about this
Speaker 1: a little bit this morning. Um. You know, it's kind
Speaker 1: of the ideal the ideal way to to to condition
Speaker 1: our our plot calls versus like maybe what's good enough
Speaker 1: for everybody out there. So there's a lot of different surfaces,
Speaker 1: you know in our lineup, we've got slate, we've got aluminum,
Speaker 1: we've got a crystal, we've got a glass surface. Like,
Speaker 1: in your opinion, what is the ideal way to condition
Speaker 1: those calls? And you know, you get really technical because
Speaker 1: you've called and like friction calling championships and stuff where
Speaker 1: you're trying to do really you know, fine calls with
Speaker 1: like key keys on the edges, you know, doing stuff
Speaker 1: that we're probably not going to be doing out in
Speaker 1: the woods as we're as we're trying to call turkeys in.
Speaker 1: But what's your ideal way to let's just go through,
Speaker 1: like give me your ideal way to condition to slate,
Speaker 1: your ideal way to condition aluminum, and then your ideal
Speaker 1: way to condition like a crystaler glass surface for you know,
Speaker 1: for ultimate use as far as any strike you're gonna
Speaker 1: throw out a long long use out in the field,
Speaker 1: something that's not gonna you know, need conditioning over and over.
Speaker 1: Well on a slate surface, I prefer to use something
Speaker 1: like Scotch Bright Um. You know, slate will wear it
Speaker 1: stands really easy. So using sand paper on slate, you
Speaker 1: wind up one cutting too many big grooves in the
Speaker 1: slate and to you wear the surface down so it
Speaker 1: gets thinner and thinner. Where scots Bright just barely takes
Speaker 1: that surface off and uh gives it a good conditioning
Speaker 1: and your striker runs easily on there. And you always
Speaker 1: want to sand regardless of the surface. You always want
Speaker 1: to remember you want to sand in one direction, and
Speaker 1: then you want to bring that striker across that surface.
Speaker 1: That's what creates that grit or that grab of that striker.
Speaker 1: Um with aluminum, it's either a stone or like a
Speaker 1: piece of hunter grid sad paper. That's a good way
Speaker 1: to start it. And then a lot of times I'll
Speaker 1: go to using Scotch bright just to just to kind
Speaker 1: of keep it buffed, because once aluminum has some of
Speaker 1: its grooves in it, it generally will stay really good
Speaker 1: for quite a long time. It's actually a pretty easy
Speaker 1: surface to condition. And crystal you definitely are any kind
Speaker 1: of glass surface, you definitely want to use a stone
Speaker 1: on that, and again just always going in one direction
Speaker 1: and bringing your striker across that. But stone works really good. Uh.
Speaker 1: Oftentimes after I stone it, I will take a little
Speaker 1: piece of Scotch Bright just to knock some of the
Speaker 1: dust off of it, to make sure I get all
Speaker 1: the dust off because that stuff will build up on
Speaker 1: your striker for sure. For sure. And then why we're
Speaker 1: on that. You brought up a good point. Um. Something
Speaker 1: I want to throw in is, you know, conditioning strikers
Speaker 1: me personally. Um, you know, you can rotate it a
Speaker 1: few times. You do get that one little slick spot
Speaker 1: kind of your you know, right on that radius where
Speaker 1: you're you're playing that well, I usually just hit it
Speaker 1: with a Scotch Bright. Do you do anything different, Chris Um?
Speaker 1: You know, you just kind of twisted and Scotch bright
Speaker 1: makes you don't put any you know, high or lower
Speaker 1: flat spots in it. Just give it a little twist
Speaker 1: and it is usually good to go um, you know,
Speaker 1: for for quite a bit longer. But do you need
Speaker 1: to do anything different on your strikers. No, I always
Speaker 1: try to condition them with a little piece of Scotch bright. Um.
Speaker 1: A lot of times you'll see people buff them with
Speaker 1: a piece of sandpaper. And to your point, what happens
Speaker 1: when you do that is you'll create a lot of
Speaker 1: times you'll get a valley on one side or the
Speaker 1: other of the radius, and then you'll get a skip
Speaker 1: in the call. And and sometimes people don't realize that.
Speaker 1: But if you could, you know, take a uh something
Speaker 1: where you could see that really good, you'll see that
Speaker 1: you can you can take the the perfect radius out
Speaker 1: of that striker. If you don't watch what you're doing so, Yes,
Speaker 1: Scotch Bright, is is the way to go? Yeah, ye,
Speaker 1: Scotch Bright. And then I used to sit there and
Speaker 1: just rotate it back and forth, but I think just
Speaker 1: twisting it all one direction is better. That way, you're
Speaker 1: not getting those high points or anything developed into that
Speaker 1: you know radius that that needs to be fairly uniform.
Speaker 1: The next question, Chris, somebody only has a small chunk
Speaker 1: of ground to hunt, it holds a few birds. How
Speaker 1: much pressure is to my you know, for for Elk,
Speaker 1: I've got it pretty set. Like I know, if I
Speaker 1: put this much pressure on, they're gonna be the next
Speaker 1: value over. If I put additional pressure on, they may
Speaker 1: be a mile over. But when we go into two birds,
Speaker 1: you know, turkey hunters, they put a lot of pressure
Speaker 1: on the birds, but it is too much pressure too much?
Speaker 1: Are you gonna make those birds unhuntable? Kind of? What's
Speaker 1: that balance of being aggressive enough but not pushing the
Speaker 1: birds onto a different piece of property or making them
Speaker 1: so you're just not ever gonna be able to call
Speaker 1: them in when you do get your chance. Well, there's
Speaker 1: a fine line there, and we can talk about this
Speaker 1: for a long period of time, but you know, I'll
Speaker 1: use a prime example of my backyard, and you've been here, Jason.
Speaker 1: I've got twenty three acres, so I don't have a
Speaker 1: lot of timber here. I don't have a lot to
Speaker 1: hold the turkeys. And the turkeys go up and down
Speaker 1: the creek quite a bit. They don't necessarily roost here
Speaker 1: every day, so you kind of got a hit and
Speaker 1: miss with it as far as where they're roosting. And
Speaker 1: if they're roosting too far away, there's not much you
Speaker 1: can do about it. You're gonna fly down with hands
Speaker 1: and move off, and you know they may be three
Speaker 1: or four dred yards off the property. But when I
Speaker 1: look at pressuring a turkey, UM, hunt them smart. Um.
Speaker 1: If you know they're roosting on you, like for the
Speaker 1: night before you've roosted the turkeys, or they're gobbling in
Speaker 1: the tree the evening before, you kind of have a
Speaker 1: good idea where you need to set up. You slip
Speaker 1: in there, You get in there way before daylight, sit
Speaker 1: down on the turkeys, try to work them a little bit.
Speaker 1: If they're not doing much, and they move off and
Speaker 1: they move off the property, leave it alone and just
Speaker 1: hold your ground and set around a little bit and
Speaker 1: see what's going on. I I prefer to because of
Speaker 1: the lack of turkeys in certain areas, I prefer not
Speaker 1: to put a ton of pressure on them when it
Speaker 1: comes to small pieces of property. UM. A lot of
Speaker 1: times I'll skip days of hunting just to make sure
Speaker 1: I don't push them off this property. I want to
Speaker 1: make sure that they stay here or stay around close
Speaker 1: where I still have, you know, a couple of extra
Speaker 1: days I might be able to hunt them and work
Speaker 1: one of them. I don't think that you can actually
Speaker 1: overcall to a turkey when it comes to like pushing
Speaker 1: them off a piece of property with your calling. I
Speaker 1: think what happens is is more than anything, is you
Speaker 1: pressure the hens. The hens don't want to be around you.
Speaker 1: They walk the turkeys off, Um, they get done breeding
Speaker 1: the hens for that morning. A lot of times they're
Speaker 1: coming back looking for you. So I don't necessarily think
Speaker 1: it's the calling part of it. It's the human presence
Speaker 1: on a consistent, consistent basis, or the taking the chances
Speaker 1: of bumping those turkeys with your human presence, you know,
Speaker 1: by going in and out, moving all the time on
Speaker 1: a on a small piece of property. So you know,
Speaker 1: I would just say hunt it wisely. If you get
Speaker 1: the chance to roost the turkey the night before, that's
Speaker 1: a great way to do it. Or if you're going
Speaker 1: into the piece of property, Yeah, it's say, uh later
Speaker 1: morning or midday type of hunt and you're not exactly
Speaker 1: sure where the turkeys are. Uh, slip in real carefully
Speaker 1: and check on the edges and see if you can
Speaker 1: get a turkey to gobble before you ever get in
Speaker 1: there and give his presents away, because oftentimes you know
Speaker 1: they're strutting with hens or they're just milling around, and
Speaker 1: you walk in there without you know, getting a location,
Speaker 1: you wind up bumping the turkey physically, and then when
Speaker 1: that happens, he may be a couple of days where
Speaker 1: he returns. Yea, And we have a fairly similar example.
Speaker 1: I didn't, I wasn't locked on a small chunk of ground.
Speaker 1: But here in western Washington where we had you know,
Speaker 1: just a few easterns, that was literally, you know, maybe
Speaker 1: the only bird you were going to get to hunt
Speaker 1: all year, because there just weren't very many of them.
Speaker 1: The numbers are so low where that was one thing
Speaker 1: we had to battle with all the time. You know,
Speaker 1: you wanted to keep chasing them and pushing him. But
Speaker 1: if you push them out of the area, who knows
Speaker 1: where you're going to find him again, and you might
Speaker 1: just not hunt a bird the rest of the year.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it was that it's a balance of you
Speaker 1: still want to get in him and and we didn't.
Speaker 1: We didn't make our move or push him hard until
Speaker 1: it felt like, you know, everything was in our favorite,
Speaker 1: like he's responding to all of our calls, he's moving
Speaker 1: in our direction. Then we'd keep the pressure on him.
Speaker 1: But a lot of times if he moved off or
Speaker 1: we didn't really know where it went, we would just
Speaker 1: have to back out. And it kind of makes for
Speaker 1: you know, not his action packed turkey hunting, but if
Speaker 1: you ultimately wanted to kill that bird, that's what we
Speaker 1: had to do. Well, that's definitely the thing is is,
Speaker 1: you know, if you want to be successful, you got
Speaker 1: to change it up a little bit. And I cut
Speaker 1: my teeth and grew up hunting public land where I'm
Speaker 1: dealing with not just my pressure, but all kinds of
Speaker 1: outside pressure, and you never know. Every day was like
Speaker 1: a box of chocolates. You're gonna get something different from
Speaker 1: the turkeys, but I always learned early on, sit down,
Speaker 1: be patient, waited out, see what happens. And it's surprising
Speaker 1: how many times you come out of there successful and
Speaker 1: nobody else is killing turkeys because you're you're using the
Speaker 1: little patient hat track. Well, I appreciate hoping me answer
Speaker 1: some of the questions we got, and then let's jump
Speaker 1: into the questions I have for you, Chris. Um, And
Speaker 1: a lot of this is kind of carry over from
Speaker 1: what I know from elk hunting, but I really want
Speaker 1: to pick your brain. Um. You know, we we said
Speaker 1: everything was gonna be about calling, but I want to
Speaker 1: start with the setup and then go into the calling
Speaker 1: because in in my world of of elk the setup
Speaker 1: is so important. Um, and you know too, before you
Speaker 1: ever begin. So once you locate a bird, Chris, kind
Speaker 1: of what goes through your head, like is there a
Speaker 1: decision tree? Like well, that bird hit me right back,
Speaker 1: that birds in this location, that birds, you know, time
Speaker 1: of day, is the bird gonna be moving to a
Speaker 1: certain spot? Like what goes through your head to figure
Speaker 1: out like where we need to get to? And I
Speaker 1: know there's a lot of factors we can't you know,
Speaker 1: put into a question, but kind of what are some
Speaker 1: of the things that you think about before you go
Speaker 1: to get ready to set up. Well, I'll start off
Speaker 1: just talking about turkeys on the roost um because most
Speaker 1: of us are hunting them early in the morning. So
Speaker 1: you know, when I have a turkey roosted, my number
Speaker 1: one thing getting in there in the dark is to
Speaker 1: get as as close as I can as possible. I
Speaker 1: like to get sixty seventy yards of the turkey if
Speaker 1: if possible. Um No, I don't want to get any
Speaker 1: less than a hundred yards from the turkey if I
Speaker 1: can uh to eliminate some of the factors. One, you know,
Speaker 1: hands a lot of times are roosted in and around hens,
Speaker 1: and maybe I'll be the first hand that he hears
Speaker 1: that morning, and he will decide he wants to come
Speaker 1: to me. And a lot of times you can bring
Speaker 1: those hand to you that morning right off the roost
Speaker 1: and he'll follow as well. So there's that factor of
Speaker 1: early morning hunting. If I'm going into a turkey in
Speaker 1: a morning hunt and I don't have him roosted, they're
Speaker 1: already gobbling on the roost. Obviously, terrain and the amount
Speaker 1: of cover that we have is going to dictate how
Speaker 1: close I can get to that turkey. But again, I'll
Speaker 1: push my luck a lot and try to get as
Speaker 1: close as I can. I want to cut that distance
Speaker 1: down and make it easy for him and easy for
Speaker 1: the other turkeys that he may be around to come
Speaker 1: to me, and make it more inviting for him. Um,
Speaker 1: middle of the day, you know a lot of times
Speaker 1: you're you're trying to strike a turkey. You know, we've
Speaker 1: hunted together there in Kansas, and sometimes you're walking and
Speaker 1: calling and trying to strike a turkey and the birds
Speaker 1: just aren't doing much. But if I have one hit me,
Speaker 1: you know a couple of things that I do is
Speaker 1: I like to assess the area. So if a turkey gobbles,
Speaker 1: let's say a turkey gobbles two dred yards away, well,
Speaker 1: if I can get closer, I'm obviously going to get closer.
Speaker 1: I want to get as close as I possibly can,
Speaker 1: But if terrain doesn't allow me, sometimes you just have
Speaker 1: to set up where you set up. The first thing
Speaker 1: I'm gonna look for is is it easy for the
Speaker 1: turkey to get to me? But is it also easy
Speaker 1: for the turkey to see my location from a great distance?
Speaker 1: So I want to do one or two things here.
Speaker 1: I want to try to figure out how to set
Speaker 1: up and eliminate that turkey from being able to see
Speaker 1: a hundred yards to me, so that he thinks that
Speaker 1: he hands further away, and he comes in closer and
Speaker 1: keeps coming closer to see if he can get a
Speaker 1: visual on that hend and it's really open terrain. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna shut the calling down a little bit.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna call to him a lot. I just
Speaker 1: want to get him interested in coming and just give
Speaker 1: him enough to keep him coming to me. If it's
Speaker 1: a situation where it's uh, really really thick, really really nasty,
Speaker 1: and I feel like the turkey is gonna be slightly uncomfortable,
Speaker 1: I may back up and go around and try to
Speaker 1: get in a position where I think that turkey is
Speaker 1: gonna feel more comfortable coming into You know, they're just
Speaker 1: like people, um, And I use this as an example.
Speaker 1: I don't necessarily like walking in places where I think
Speaker 1: I'm gonna poke my eye out in the dark, So
Speaker 1: that's why I use a head lamp light. So a turkey,
Speaker 1: you know, he's not walking around the dark, but he's
Speaker 1: coming through that thick stuff. They're not necessarily as comfortable
Speaker 1: as they are where there are places they can see
Speaker 1: and they can and you know it's just easier for
Speaker 1: them to to assess the situation. Um. They're also looking
Speaker 1: for danger the whole time they're coming in. You know,
Speaker 1: there's something always trying to eat them or get to them.
Speaker 1: So you know, keeping that in mind. Oftentimes you strike
Speaker 1: a turkey sometimes and they're like right over the ridge
Speaker 1: from you. And I'm sure you dealt with this a
Speaker 1: bunch of the mountains, Jason, And you know a lot
Speaker 1: of times we we have a situation where we want
Speaker 1: to just like PLoP down right there and get our
Speaker 1: gun up or or whatever we're hunting with and and
Speaker 1: try to call the turkey from there. Sometimes you need
Speaker 1: to look at that and go, well, you know this
Speaker 1: is not really The turkey is gonna be in my
Speaker 1: face before I can do anything, and if he comes
Speaker 1: in right or left, I might get caught. So learning
Speaker 1: to back up a little bit from your setup and
Speaker 1: and give yourself a little bit of room, uh, and
Speaker 1: at a place where you can visually see the turkey
Speaker 1: coming in and where you can actually move a little
Speaker 1: bit more um to get yourself in position as that
Speaker 1: bird's coming in, so that you're you're on the turkey
Speaker 1: when he gets there. Yep. And also don't look to
Speaker 1: get into like a ton of cover. Um. Sometimes people
Speaker 1: get themselves so tied down to cover that they can't
Speaker 1: even move their gun. You know, if the turkey circles
Speaker 1: to the left or circles to the right, they can't
Speaker 1: hardly turn to get their gun on the turkey. You know,
Speaker 1: get a good backdrop of a big tree. Try not
Speaker 1: to have a bunch of stuff out in front of
Speaker 1: you to you know that that keeps you from moving
Speaker 1: from one side or the other. Um. You know, you
Speaker 1: don't have to absolutely hot the turkey. We don't have
Speaker 1: to build a blind against the tree every time we
Speaker 1: set up on a turkey, you know. And another thing
Speaker 1: is is don't set up when you got the sun
Speaker 1: directly beating on you. That some big mistake a lot
Speaker 1: of people make. They'll set up and the sun's just
Speaker 1: glinting off of their you know, if they're wearing glasses
Speaker 1: or their gun barrel or anything else. And you know,
Speaker 1: that's kind of a dead give away. Turkey walks in
Speaker 1: and best camel in the world's not gonna hide you
Speaker 1: want to shot him? Yeah, for sure, and that kind
Speaker 1: of uh, last year on my My Burden in Kansas,
Speaker 1: you know, we kind of got we didn't take the
Speaker 1: time to set up. I don't know if we half
Speaker 1: heartedly just thought maybe there wasn't gonna be a bird there.
Speaker 1: But remember we set up. It was so flat there
Speaker 1: in Kansas that we kind of set up skyline a
Speaker 1: little bit even though there wasn't much rise, and you know,
Speaker 1: we were able to kind of stay out of that
Speaker 1: bird's way until he got to the decoy. And then
Speaker 1: you know, instantly when he got to that decoy, he
Speaker 1: I think we all agreed that he kind of picked
Speaker 1: us off probably on that horizon, you know, and we
Speaker 1: had a pretty good set up. But it's the same
Speaker 1: thing we we encounter a lot here in the West
Speaker 1: turkey hunting. As we you know a little more mountainous,
Speaker 1: a little more ridges a lot of times, what's going
Speaker 1: through my head and let's go set up on the
Speaker 1: ridge top because that way I don't have to pull
Speaker 1: him up and own um. But when we set up
Speaker 1: on that ridge top, you've just you know, you just
Speaker 1: started playing the turkey hunting game on level expert, because
Speaker 1: you're now basically skyline to any direction or turkey comes from.
Speaker 1: Any little bit of movement is gonna just you know,
Speaker 1: stick out like a sore thumb. And and so that's
Speaker 1: one of the things when setting up is you know,
Speaker 1: make sure you have a big tree as your backdrop,
Speaker 1: or make sure you have some brush behind you, because
Speaker 1: you know, any of us that have did this, you
Speaker 1: know long enough, knows like there their eyesight is just
Speaker 1: you know, tremendous, and you can't get away with a
Speaker 1: whole lot no, And and on your hunt, Jason, to
Speaker 1: your point, Uh, that decoy was the thing that sealed
Speaker 1: the deal, you know. I mean there was a little
Speaker 1: bit of a little bit of call in to mak
Speaker 1: him break and go ahead and come and convince him.
Speaker 1: But without that single hind decoy that that game was
Speaker 1: probably over before it got started. Real good. Yeah, just
Speaker 1: a prime example of how decoys can play a role
Speaker 1: in open terrain especially for sure. For sure, And one
Speaker 1: thing we all thought is my bird was you know,
Speaker 1: even for being a more mature bird, he was super hesitant.
Speaker 1: So you know, were there other big birds out there
Speaker 1: that were affecting just how callab he was It's almost
Speaker 1: like he approached very gingerly. Um, he didn't want, you know,
Speaker 1: to him to pop out of the brush and whip
Speaker 1: him again. So, um, that was one thing we noticed.
Speaker 1: And calling that bird, we were we had to be
Speaker 1: very very patient with him because he wasn't gonna put
Speaker 1: up with a ton of calling. Um, which is you
Speaker 1: know you adjusted once you've seen that, and we you
Speaker 1: know you just adjusted your calling to that style. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I might add to um, that was one time that uh,
Speaker 1: though they've came in very handy oftentimes, always carry your
Speaker 1: binoculars because when I started to work that bird, when
Speaker 1: he locked up, I couldn't I couldn't visually see him
Speaker 1: with my eyes. So I was using the binoculars to
Speaker 1: look at the Dirk's screen on his camera to see
Speaker 1: what the bird was doing and how he reacted to
Speaker 1: my call, so so that I could knew how to
Speaker 1: work the turkey, which you know that might might be
Speaker 1: cheating in some respects, but it worked, you know. And
Speaker 1: and and he finally he finally broke when I started
Speaker 1: clucking and pern to him and soft talking to him,
Speaker 1: and uh decided he wanted to go ahead. That was
Speaker 1: the convincer, you know, and you never know what's gonna
Speaker 1: work and what's not gonna work. But the big thing
Speaker 1: is is you always want to have a big basket
Speaker 1: of tricks and different things that you can do to uh,
Speaker 1: to convince the turkey, and you know, switching up calls,
Speaker 1: making sure you've got a couple of calls that that
Speaker 1: have some different sounds. You know, obviously we didn't have
Speaker 1: but one hind decoy, but that doesn't mean there wasn't
Speaker 1: a hand back over and on the other side behind
Speaker 1: me in that field that was doing some calling. So
Speaker 1: you know, all those things come into play. Well. That
Speaker 1: that little story there from the Kansas trip was a
Speaker 1: good segue into is Chris Parrish's calling system or your approach? Um?
Speaker 1: Are you feeding off of every bird's personality his aggressiveness?
Speaker 1: Are you going you know, do you or do you
Speaker 1: have a checklist Let's say one through five. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: sit down, I'm gonna do a little bit of you know,
Speaker 1: purrin and yelping and kind of you know, build to
Speaker 1: cutting or when you you know, and I can't lay
Speaker 1: everything out here for you, Chris, but but in general, like,
Speaker 1: what's your approach to calling birds, And I know the
Speaker 1: situation has a lot to do with it, but if
Speaker 1: you can kind of lay that out for us, I'll
Speaker 1: go through two scenarios here real quick. Um. One would
Speaker 1: be a scenario. Let's just say you do not have
Speaker 1: a bird located. You're gonna go in and do some
Speaker 1: blind calling. And what I mean by blind calling is
Speaker 1: you don't see a bird, you haven't heard of turkey,
Speaker 1: but you know turkey's frequent up specific area, kind of
Speaker 1: like what we did on your Kansas hunt. You know
Speaker 1: that bird didn't answer anything until after we set up,
Speaker 1: and we kind of set down to do some blind
Speaker 1: calling and see if anything would come into that little
Speaker 1: food plot area. At that point, what I'll do is
Speaker 1: I'll always start off soft, always soft, cluck in some
Speaker 1: soft yelping, just just some soft stuff to just feel
Speaker 1: the thing out and see if I can get a
Speaker 1: turkey to react to it. And after I've called that
Speaker 1: first little sequence, let's just say, I do you know
Speaker 1: some two or three small series of five six notes,
Speaker 1: soft yelping, some clucking. I'll just shut up and just
Speaker 1: give it five or six or seven minutes and just
Speaker 1: see what happens. Something might push walk out. Maybe he
Speaker 1: decides after not me not calling for four or five minutes,
Speaker 1: he decides to gobble and let me know that he's
Speaker 1: in the area. Uh. And then at that point I
Speaker 1: will always let the turkey dictate how I called to him. Now,
Speaker 1: whether I call hard to him or soft to him,
Speaker 1: all depends on how he answers me. If that turkey
Speaker 1: is cutting my calls and and gobbling hard, and they
Speaker 1: have personalities, and I'll push this back a little bit
Speaker 1: on you, Elk answer the same way. You know, you
Speaker 1: can tell when it elk is really smoking, when he
Speaker 1: really answers hard to you and bugles hard to you, uh,
Speaker 1: compared to a half hearted bugle turkey's gobble In the
Speaker 1: same way you'll get a turkey. You'll hit him with
Speaker 1: a call and heal gobble and it's like he vibrates
Speaker 1: the hat on your head. Or the next time he
Speaker 1: gobbles and it's just like he's answering you, telling you
Speaker 1: I'm over here. So whichever way I read that is
Speaker 1: kind of gonna dictate how I go ahead and call
Speaker 1: to that turkey. Now, that doesn't mean I'm gonna jump
Speaker 1: in on him and start yelping and cutting and really
Speaker 1: calling to him hard, because if I don't need to,
Speaker 1: there's no reason to do that. If he's gonna answer
Speaker 1: soft calls and come, that's all I'm gonna give him
Speaker 1: soft calls and come. But now if he kind of
Speaker 1: holds his ground, I might juice it up a little
Speaker 1: bit and and start hitting him with some excited yelping,
Speaker 1: a little bit of cutting to try to to try
Speaker 1: to app him up a little bit and see if
Speaker 1: I can make him break and go ahead and come
Speaker 1: a little bit. I really don't have a set pattern.
Speaker 1: I I generally just let the turkey dictate how I'm
Speaker 1: gonna call to him, and let the situation dictate. If
Speaker 1: he's got hens and you saw this last year with
Speaker 1: Dirk and Ice hunt. Uh, sometimes they're you're just not
Speaker 1: even gonna get the hints to break and come no
Speaker 1: matter what you do. Yeah, they'll call back to you
Speaker 1: a lot of times and walk off. And with that
Speaker 1: you just gotta, uh, you know, rearrange how you're gonna
Speaker 1: hunt those turkeys. But you let the turkeys dictate. I
Speaker 1: think I think letting the turkeys dictate how you called
Speaker 1: to him is always the best case scenario because you
Speaker 1: can get a read on them, and after you've hunted
Speaker 1: them for a little bit, you'll understand, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of what I'm talking about, how they answer you, how
Speaker 1: they react to your calls, and how you need to
Speaker 1: you know, move and and adjust your calling to what
Speaker 1: they're doing. But um, I don't ever have a set pattern,
Speaker 1: but I always carry a multiple of calls because you
Speaker 1: never know what the turkey's gonna answer. One minute, he's
Speaker 1: answering a mouth call and he stops. Then you pick
Speaker 1: up a slate call and you hit him, and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, he likes that pitch and tone, he
Speaker 1: changes his attitude and here he comes. Yep, exactly, very
Speaker 1: very similar to um, you know ELK calling, or you
Speaker 1: kind of have your progressions, like you kind of start
Speaker 1: at the lowest, the lowest threat level and then slowly
Speaker 1: work up, you know, so pers and klucks, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe some soft helps and and it seems like the
Speaker 1: same thing we want to do with ELK, even though
Speaker 1: we may be big a little bit more is you
Speaker 1: you kind of want to call that turkey in with
Speaker 1: the least amount of aggressive calling and then and then
Speaker 1: work up from there. So yeah, yeah, real similar to
Speaker 1: our approach, you know, with with elk And then one
Speaker 1: thing I want to ask you, Chris specifically, because it
Speaker 1: seems like any any turkey hunter that that's been doing
Speaker 1: it for a while or anybody has much experience, is
Speaker 1: you know, what's your approach to dealing with hung up birds?
Speaker 1: You know that that big hang up, that bird you know,
Speaker 1: maybe pays attention to you for a little bit, gets
Speaker 1: to you know, a hundred and fifty yards somewhere where
Speaker 1: you can't see him. Maybe you can hear him gobbling
Speaker 1: at one location for a while. Can you give the
Speaker 1: listeners kind of what your your approach to hang ups is?
Speaker 1: We we've tried to be really aggressive, Like if you
Speaker 1: feel like he's you know, come to a certain location
Speaker 1: and then faded, we'll get up and be very aggressive,
Speaker 1: try to get to that location and see if we
Speaker 1: can get him to come back to that location since
Speaker 1: he was comfortable there before. You know, whether it's in
Speaker 1: like a strut zone, but that's kind of been our approach.
Speaker 1: Whether we're doing it right, I don't know, but um,
Speaker 1: let's hear what you have. You know, what's what's in
Speaker 1: your bag of tricks for hang ups? I don't know
Speaker 1: if there's a writer or wrong on any of it,
Speaker 1: and and you're gonna you're gonna hit and miss regardless.
Speaker 1: It's a wild, wild turkey. He's gonna do some things
Speaker 1: that you have no idea what he's thinking. He don't
Speaker 1: know what he's thinking half the time. I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: of it. But I approach it similar to what you're
Speaker 1: you're talking about. UM. You know, if I can't see
Speaker 1: the turkey and he's been gobbling, or if he's still
Speaker 1: answering me, um, generally, my first indication is he's probably
Speaker 1: got hands with him. There's a good good chance he's
Speaker 1: got hands with him. That's the reason why he's not
Speaker 1: breaking and coming. Um. Or you're dealing with a four
Speaker 1: or five year old turkey that just knows how the
Speaker 1: game's played, and he's gonna wait and see if that
Speaker 1: hand will come to him. The first thing that I'll
Speaker 1: do most of the time, as I will shut up
Speaker 1: on the turkey for a little while and let him
Speaker 1: think about it. I'll start off and try to call
Speaker 1: to him and get him gobblin pretty strong and and
Speaker 1: kind of try to see if I can make him,
Speaker 1: you know, get him to that fever pitch if he
Speaker 1: doesn't break, and I shut up on him and he
Speaker 1: still doesn't break, and they say after five, six, seven minutes,
Speaker 1: and I hit him with a call and he gobbles again.
Speaker 1: He's in the same spot. I'm gonna look the terrain
Speaker 1: over real carefully, and I'm gonna make a move. May
Speaker 1: move right, they move left. I may move right at him.
Speaker 1: I may try to get up and make a big
Speaker 1: circle and getting a different location. Sometimes just changing locations
Speaker 1: and sometimes by fifty two yards can make all the
Speaker 1: difference in the world. All of a sudden, Now you
Speaker 1: become alive, hen because you're not sitting in the same
Speaker 1: place for the last hour. And a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't realize that, but you know, if you're sitting there
Speaker 1: calling in the same spot, now, is he's sitting out
Speaker 1: there thinking, oh, well, that's a human being. No, he's not.
Speaker 1: He didn't have a clue, but he does know if
Speaker 1: that he is consistently calling all the time in the
Speaker 1: same spot, she should be coming to him. That's how
Speaker 1: the game has played. And so he realizes that that's
Speaker 1: not what you know is not natural. It's not natural.
Speaker 1: So I'll make a move on that Turkey I'll try
Speaker 1: to get in a different position and see what happens
Speaker 1: there if if he does fade off, say, for example,
Speaker 1: he gets in behind some hens and he's moving with
Speaker 1: some hens, especially if he keeps gobbling and he's going
Speaker 1: in a certain direction, I'll try to make a great, big,
Speaker 1: wide circle and get in front of that and just
Speaker 1: kind of figure out how they're moving, and then maybe
Speaker 1: lightly called to try to keep them coming that way.
Speaker 1: Now I have seen the hens turn around and go
Speaker 1: right back to where they were, just because they don't
Speaker 1: want to deal with you. If you call to him
Speaker 1: and you're gonna you're gonna fight that battle. At that point,
Speaker 1: I'm probably gonna play the waiting game and just see
Speaker 1: if those hens will leave him at nine or ten
Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning if it's a morning hunt. Um.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the hens are with them all day and you
Speaker 1: just have to you know, you just have to keep
Speaker 1: working around and working around until you finally get in position.
Speaker 1: And sometimes it's just not gonna happen. Sometimes you're just
Speaker 1: gonna be unsuccessful and chalk it up and try to
Speaker 1: do something different. Another thing that I have done that
Speaker 1: is probably a last resort overall is if I can
Speaker 1: get in there close enough and get a visual, and
Speaker 1: I know that every single time, those hens are walking
Speaker 1: him off. A lot of times I'll try to go
Speaker 1: in there and actually split them up. I'll go in
Speaker 1: there and and run try to run the hens off.
Speaker 1: I'll split the gobbler away from the hens are just
Speaker 1: spook them in every direction. I know this sounds totally crazy,
Speaker 1: and people look at it like, wow, man, what are
Speaker 1: you doing. Well, I can tell you something if you've
Speaker 1: got especially if you have all day to hunt. Now
Speaker 1: in Missouri, we don't have that, so I tend to
Speaker 1: be a little more conservative here in Missouri where I live.
Speaker 1: But in areas where I can hunt all day and
Speaker 1: it's say ten o'clock in the morning, eleven o'clock and
Speaker 1: those turkeys are hanging out, a lot of times, I'll
Speaker 1: go in there and bust them up. And you go
Speaker 1: back there an hour later and he's standing over in
Speaker 1: the corner goblin trying to relocate his hands. You sneak
Speaker 1: in there and give him one little yell, and a
Speaker 1: lot of times he'll run over the top of it. Again.
Speaker 1: It's a last resort, but I have had it worked
Speaker 1: multiple times, so I guess what I'm getting at in
Speaker 1: a nutshell is, don't be afraid to try a lot
Speaker 1: of different things. Don't be afraid to move on them.
Speaker 1: You know, your tactic about moving up and setting up
Speaker 1: where they were, it's a great tactic to use. I've
Speaker 1: have called him right back to those areas before, just
Speaker 1: because they do feel comfortable with it. But try it
Speaker 1: all and you're gonna find that every turkey is going
Speaker 1: to do something different. No two turkeys are gonna act
Speaker 1: the like. So that's that's the fun part of turkey
Speaker 1: hunting too. It's always a chess gig. Yeah, there's some
Speaker 1: great tips and some you know, great things to try.
Speaker 1: So the question we get all the time, and of
Speaker 1: course we get to run a call fairly well compared
Speaker 1: to most. Um. Everybody wants to sound like Chris Parrish
Speaker 1: or you know, Jason Phelips or guys that are are
Speaker 1: good on a diaphragm. In your opinion, how important is
Speaker 1: it to be a great caller? And by that I
Speaker 1: mean like you make the prettiest sounds and the most
Speaker 1: accurate sounds versus you know, how important is it to
Speaker 1: know how to turkey hunt well? I think and I'm
Speaker 1: always gonna say I think being a better woodsman is
Speaker 1: is going to be far more successful for a guy
Speaker 1: than being a better caller. But I think there's a
Speaker 1: combination of especially this day and age where we have
Speaker 1: probably about as many turkey counters as we've ever had.
Speaker 1: We've got a lot of turkeys. But I think calling
Speaker 1: is overrated when it comes to like sounding perfect, because
Speaker 1: if you listen to a hand, sometimes there's nothing that
Speaker 1: sounds worse than a than alive hand. So the most
Speaker 1: important part of calling, to me is understanding how to
Speaker 1: call in a particular situation, and then calling with the
Speaker 1: right rhythms and putting your sequences together. And and I'll
Speaker 1: use this for an example. I remember turkey hunting in
Speaker 1: Arkansas many years ago with a fellow that's a great caller,
Speaker 1: and I love him to death, But he called to
Speaker 1: this turkey with a repetitive style of calling, meaning that
Speaker 1: there was four or five clucks and seven yelps. Turkey
Speaker 1: would gobble, and he would four or five clucks and
Speaker 1: seven yelps, and he would do it exactly the same
Speaker 1: every time, and eventually the turkey shut up, and uh,
Speaker 1: I whispered and said don't call to the turkey for
Speaker 1: a little while, give it about ten minutes. So when
Speaker 1: ten minutes to twelve minutes whatever it was was up,
Speaker 1: I made one one note, yelled, I went one time,
Speaker 1: the turkey gobbled, never said of what another word, and
Speaker 1: strutted right to us. Prime example of one changing up
Speaker 1: the sound of your call because it was a different
Speaker 1: sounding call, and then being more natural with your calling. Um,
Speaker 1: I just think being natural with it is the key
Speaker 1: is calling with broken rhythms, with uh more natural qualities
Speaker 1: to the call as far as your your rhythms and
Speaker 1: and how you present the call, and and not being
Speaker 1: uh fake with your calling so to speak, or you're
Speaker 1: doing it repetitively the same way over and over and
Speaker 1: over again. And I think that that probably is a
Speaker 1: better key in calling. But if I had to say
Speaker 1: one thing, learn the turkey and learn what the turkeys
Speaker 1: are doing in the area that you're hunting and you're
Speaker 1: calling will always be second to that. Now, that's one
Speaker 1: thing I noticed, um hunting with you, Chris, and you know,
Speaker 1: I try to do the same thing, is is do
Speaker 1: what the real turkeys do? You know? And we get
Speaker 1: to listen to a lot of guys just start cutting
Speaker 1: on a mouth diaphragm and it's just you know, never
Speaker 1: ending her. You know, a fly down cackle that's just
Speaker 1: loud and and you know, out in the woods you
Speaker 1: might hear like three little quick yelps or like, you know,
Speaker 1: just a couple of little quick cuts or cuts, and
Speaker 1: you know the guy out there trying to mimic what
Speaker 1: they see. And you know some professional caller do on
Speaker 1: the stage. They're out there, you know, nineteen hard cuts
Speaker 1: in a row and then right into a seventeen note yelp,
Speaker 1: and you know, whatever it may be. But I think
Speaker 1: sometimes just being subtle and natural and fitting in with
Speaker 1: the natural turkeys in your area is going to lead
Speaker 1: to a lot better success than just going out there
Speaker 1: and just you know, no matter how good you are,
Speaker 1: just cranking on that call and just kind of be
Speaker 1: in the loudmouth hin that that doesn't fit in. Well, yes,
Speaker 1: And you know, to your point, I think, uh, understanding
Speaker 1: and listening to real turkeys. You know, that's the great
Speaker 1: thing about YouTube and other things. You can get on
Speaker 1: there and listen to these turkeys and listen to how
Speaker 1: they you know, when you hear you watch a hen
Speaker 1: walking through the woods and she'll be walking along and
Speaker 1: she'll you know, she's cluck and she and you hear
Speaker 1: that that note that I did on the end of
Speaker 1: that little series of yelps and did with my voice,
Speaker 1: which is not great, But that's like a questioning yelp.
Speaker 1: She's arch and she's looking for another turkey, whether it
Speaker 1: be an other hand, whether it be a gobbler. But
Speaker 1: learning how to put that kind of question mark and
Speaker 1: searching and and uh um emotion into your calling. That
Speaker 1: emotion is no different than you and I talking. You know,
Speaker 1: if we're uh if we were l cutting together and
Speaker 1: you popped over ridge and saw three eight six by
Speaker 1: six and and I happen to be carrying the bow,
Speaker 1: You're probably gonna look around at me and go, come on,
Speaker 1: come on, come on, let's get up here and get
Speaker 1: on this on this elp, and I'm gonna be running
Speaker 1: and jogging. But if we're just easing through there and
Speaker 1: we're nothing's going on, our emotions are going to be lower.
Speaker 1: So understanding how to put emotion in your calling is
Speaker 1: very critical because you know, I always use this analogy
Speaker 1: when I do a seminar. If my wife asked me
Speaker 1: the first time to take the trash out, she's gonna
Speaker 1: ask me fairly nice. The third time she asked me
Speaker 1: to take the trash out is probably gonna be a
Speaker 1: little more vocal, a little bit, a little bit more radical. So,
Speaker 1: you know, keeping that in mind, kind of approach your
Speaker 1: calling style to that because it seems to have worked
Speaker 1: for me for forty five years, not giving my age away.
Speaker 1: But uh, now we're gonna have a little bit of
Speaker 1: fun with this. Um, We're gonna put you on the spot.
Speaker 1: If you could only go into the Turkey Woods with
Speaker 1: one call, and on that one call, you could only
Speaker 1: produce one sounds. Let's say you can make a yelper,
Speaker 1: a cluck, or a per um. What are you going with.
Speaker 1: I'm probably gonna go with a mouth call just because
Speaker 1: that's my go to thing. Um, and I'm going to
Speaker 1: probably stick with just yelping. I'm gonna I'm just gonna yell,
Speaker 1: and the call of my choice is generally a combo
Speaker 1: cutter bat wing style call. That's that's my you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, we've got them in the met eator line,
Speaker 1: got him in your line and my signature line, and
Speaker 1: all of them run fantastic and that's that's what I'm
Speaker 1: gonna run and and I'm generally gonna I would generally
Speaker 1: use a mouth call. I use all of them, but
Speaker 1: if I was stuck with one, that would be the
Speaker 1: one thing out, and I would stick to yelping only
Speaker 1: because that's just the backbone and the bread and butter
Speaker 1: of turkey calling. And that's what you hear more hens do,
Speaker 1: especially is yell. Yeah, the same thing with me. Everybody asks,
Speaker 1: you know, what do I need to know to be
Speaker 1: able to call turkeys in? And I said, well, everything
Speaker 1: will help, but if you could only bring one in, like,
Speaker 1: you know, get a good diaphragm that you're you're confident in,
Speaker 1: and then that you know, anywhere from a four to
Speaker 1: a nine note yelper, you know, it's just adding more
Speaker 1: on and transitioning out is kind of the answer that
Speaker 1: we go with. And then you can build off of that.
Speaker 1: If you can yelp, I'm almost positive you can cluck.
Speaker 1: You know, purring is gonna take some a lot of practice,
Speaker 1: and then you know, being able yeah, being able to
Speaker 1: cut and put those together is gonna take a little
Speaker 1: more skill, but you know, being able to cluck and
Speaker 1: yelp Um, you know, learn that as far as going
Speaker 1: out in the woods and be confident in it. And
Speaker 1: then like you said, I like a combo cut Um,
Speaker 1: once you get some experience, you know, it almost gives
Speaker 1: you two calls and one you can play to the
Speaker 1: raspy side, which is decide that the latex is is overhanging,
Speaker 1: or you can go to that clear cut side and
Speaker 1: clean up your call. So it gives you a little versatility. Um,
Speaker 1: And that one calls is why I think that combo
Speaker 1: cut is is so popular and versatile for most I
Speaker 1: would agree. Now I'm gonna put you on the spot
Speaker 1: if you could give, you know, one or two short
Speaker 1: tips to you know, all the turkey unders out there
Speaker 1: that maybe aren't finding success and aren't able to put
Speaker 1: it together a year after year, Like what are just
Speaker 1: what are the two random tips from from Chris Parish.
Speaker 1: Number one tip is scalt try to find the time
Speaker 1: to get out and scout. Locate your turkeys, locate the
Speaker 1: areas that they frequent. Um. You know, it's kind of
Speaker 1: like killing a big white tail buck. You can't shoot
Speaker 1: one where they don't live. You can't kill a turkey
Speaker 1: where they don't want to be uh in general, So
Speaker 1: do your scouting, put some put some footwork in and
Speaker 1: figure out what's going on. And oftentimes you'll find that
Speaker 1: you'll see a lot of turkeys in the fall of
Speaker 1: the year, and those turkeys aren't there in the spring,
Speaker 1: so you'll have to move around and try to find
Speaker 1: where you know where they frequent in the spring. But
Speaker 1: find your turkeys, locate them, figure out what they're doing,
Speaker 1: spend some time in the morning in the afternoons kind
Speaker 1: of figuring out that what they're doing and how they're
Speaker 1: using that terrain and how they're using that area, and
Speaker 1: that will help you greatly learn how to one where
Speaker 1: you need to set up, where you need to start at,
Speaker 1: you know what time of day you need to be
Speaker 1: in certain locations that that eliminates a lot of the
Speaker 1: the problem factors, and and secondly, set up closer to
Speaker 1: the turkey if at all possible. That's the number one
Speaker 1: biggest mistake I find of all turkey hunters make, including
Speaker 1: those that have hunted for a long time. They hear
Speaker 1: turkey gobble, and they hastily go in and set up,
Speaker 1: and they're not set up where that turkey really wants
Speaker 1: to be or there so far away that there's so
Speaker 1: many things that can happen between the time the turkey
Speaker 1: would get to you. Uh, and when he's coming in,
Speaker 1: can sneak in never say a word. All of a
Speaker 1: sudden the turkey shuts up and leaves. So get as
Speaker 1: close as you possibly can to that turkey before you
Speaker 1: set up. If the terrain will allow it, always try
Speaker 1: to break that hundred to a hundred and twenty five
Speaker 1: yard mark and get in there tight on that turkey.
Speaker 1: That would be the two number one, number two tips
Speaker 1: that I could give that I think would improve anyone's success. Perfect. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I like both of those tips, Chris, And uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I think it can definitely help. Um. You know, it's
Speaker 1: at aggressive play, people really not wanting to get in tight. Um.
Speaker 1: We've seen it, you know on the Olk side. We've
Speaker 1: seen it on the Turkey side. Once we started pushing
Speaker 1: that envelope and um, you know, all right, let's not
Speaker 1: set up a hundred eight yards away, let's set up
Speaker 1: a hundred yards away, using that terrain and that vegetation
Speaker 1: to our advantage and being a little more aggressive. Um,
Speaker 1: it was amazing how many birds we started calling into
Speaker 1: our laps. Versus you know, just getting the getting the
Speaker 1: old gobble and walk away. And then it seems like
Speaker 1: we spend the rest of the day chasing because we
Speaker 1: would never be aggressive enough to get to that, you know,
Speaker 1: that that bubble where we could get him to turn. Ye,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of a lot of different factors, Jason,
Speaker 1: you know there's I mean, terrain is gonna dictate a
Speaker 1: lot of things. Um time of year, early spring, there's
Speaker 1: not any vegetation. It's hard to move, but there's always
Speaker 1: roles and little things and places that you can you know,
Speaker 1: that will allow you to try to, you know, move
Speaker 1: a little bit closer. And again it just it will
Speaker 1: it will eliminate a lot of problems if you if
Speaker 1: you learn to hunt that way. Yep, yep, I agree,
Speaker 1: I agree. Well, thanks a lot, Christopher, coming on. We
Speaker 1: really appreciate your sharing all your knowledge and you know,
Speaker 1: experience in the Turkey Woods with all of us, especially
Speaker 1: when it comes to calling and it's about go time.
Speaker 1: Most seasons have started now around the West, and if
Speaker 1: they haven't started, their their openers are right around the corners.
Speaker 1: So hopefully everybody can use some of these tips and
Speaker 1: tactics to help them be you know, a a little more
Speaker 1: successful this year, or at least get a little more
Speaker 1: action by being in tighten um, you know, doing some
Speaker 1: of the stuff you explained here. Well, I enjoyed being
Speaker 1: on and I thank you for taking the time to
Speaker 1: have me on here. And uh you know, I've always
Speaker 1: got time to talk Turkey no matter what the schedule is. Prayer.
Speaker 1: We appreciate that about you, Chris, And uh yeah, I
Speaker 1: think looking forward to joining back up with you and
Speaker 1: Randy this year in Kansas and see if we can't
Speaker 1: do it again. Oh absolutely, I think we'll have just
Speaker 1: as most success or more. They had a good hatch
Speaker 1: last year. And I think we'll have a lot of
Speaker 1: goblin two year olds. And uh you know that that
Speaker 1: to me is what's fun. I like to listen to
Speaker 1: him goblin, m m