Speaker 1: Welcome to Cutting the Distance today. I'm live from the field.
Speaker 1: I'm joined with John Wyke of Northwest s Purchasers. He
Speaker 1: served thirty five years in the military and military aviation work.
Speaker 1: He's originally from the Northwest Hardwoods of Connecticut, where he
Speaker 1: started hunting at the age of ten. He moved to
Speaker 1: Washington about twenty eight years ago. From there, he started
Speaker 1: hunting turkeys shortly after and he's never looked back. To
Speaker 1: describe the way John hunt's turkeys, He's a mountain turkey
Speaker 1: hunter who would rather sit at home and watch TV
Speaker 1: than hunt turkey's out of a blind. He has a
Speaker 1: running gun style, chasing and setting up on goblin birds,
Speaker 1: and that's his only style. Today's episode, I want to
Speaker 1: give a quick recap on the Kansas turkey hunt as
Speaker 1: well as the hunt we're on right now here in Washington.
Speaker 1: So welcome to the show. John's hey, it's good to
Speaker 1: be here.
Speaker 2: Jason.
Speaker 1: We're two weeks in the season, and are you tired
Speaker 1: of it yet? Oh?
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, no, right, how can you get tired of
Speaker 2: doing this?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a it's a it's been fun. I get
Speaker 1: tired during the season. It's long days. This morning we
Speaker 1: got up at what three forty five, I think to
Speaker 1: try to get past the bird, and yeah, you go
Speaker 1: to bed at ten. But uh, long long days. So
Speaker 1: we're we're physically tired, but I'm not tired of tricky
Speaker 1: hunting yet. Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, try not to be anyway.
Speaker 1: Yep. So we're gonna start this episode, like every episode
Speaker 1: of Cutting the Distance, we are going to take questions
Speaker 1: from our listeners. If you have questions you'd like to
Speaker 1: submit to myself or guests, email them to us at
Speaker 1: CTD at phelpsgame Calls dot com. I have to laugh
Speaker 1: at this question before I get ready to give it
Speaker 1: to you, because we've we've both got this question on
Speaker 1: this hunt. As we're hunting, people are messaging us this,
Speaker 1: do you have a spot for me to hunt? Oh?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's a question I never hear. Never. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we don't hear any of that too much, y'.
Speaker 1: So, uh, because because we all know that that's all
Speaker 1: that matters when it comes to killing the tricky right.
Speaker 1: If you have the right spot, then everything else is
Speaker 1: going to be a gimme.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it's golden. You just pick the right spot
Speaker 3: in the woods. You're gonna kill birds. It's it's really easy.
Speaker 1: So let's let's elaborate on that question a little bit.
Speaker 1: And rather than give them spots, how would you prepare
Speaker 1: somebody to go investigate, look, find e scout whatever it
Speaker 1: may be good hunting spots you know here in Washington,
Speaker 1: and I know you hunt Idaho, Montana other places, like
Speaker 1: what's a what's a good recipe for figuring out where
Speaker 1: to hunt?
Speaker 3: Well, first thing for us always, you know, we jump
Speaker 3: right on on X and then mix on X with
Speaker 3: Google Earth at the same time, and we're looking for
Speaker 3: you know, state land that has a lot of variation
Speaker 3: in it. We like the higher elevations. Our birds tend
Speaker 3: to move up pretty quick. They'll follow the snow line.
Speaker 3: They'll chase it right up to whatever elevation and you
Speaker 3: want to go up to Not that you can't find
Speaker 3: them down low as well, but you know, we just
Speaker 3: we like prefer to hunt the upper stuff, so we
Speaker 3: find the birds up there as they're chasing up the snow.
Speaker 3: But yeah, you get on on X and start looking
Speaker 3: at Timberland. You got all kinds of different timberlinds out here.
Speaker 3: You can get into some i EP stuff as well,
Speaker 3: and it's just pretty easy to find. If you're using
Speaker 3: on X, it's going to identify it for you, and
Speaker 3: then mix it up with Google Earth at the same
Speaker 3: time and say, you know, are there farmlands and aren't
Speaker 3: that far away that the birds probably wintered in and
Speaker 3: known After that as stuff starts greening up and some
Speaker 3: of the lower shrubs start leafing out, the hands are
Speaker 3: going to start nesting and you're going to find the birds.
Speaker 3: It's not that complicated if you're able to look yep.
Speaker 1: And that's one thing you touched on there a little
Speaker 1: bit is a relationship to ag. One thing I love
Speaker 1: about the birds we've been hunting the last couple of
Speaker 1: days is they have no real like, no real requirement
Speaker 1: to go back down there, right I. One thing I
Speaker 1: don't like is hunting a bird that would rather run
Speaker 1: down to a field or run down to you know
Speaker 1: where he'd been getting you know, chicken scratch all winter.
Speaker 1: These birds are mountain birds, but you still have to
Speaker 1: look at that ag or those farms to figure out
Speaker 1: like where they came from this winter, and they're going
Speaker 1: to be in you know, somewhat close relationship to those yeah.
Speaker 2: Just some degree.
Speaker 3: I mean, granted, there are some places we've gone to
Speaker 3: where it's so deep and dark and there's no egg anywhere,
Speaker 3: there's no fields, there's no people. I mean, I can
Speaker 3: think of some places that we've crawled into just to
Speaker 3: el Khunt and in the middle of nowhere, you're looking
Speaker 3: at your on actually like where do these birds live?
Speaker 3: And there they are staring at you.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 3: So it's not the ones you really want to hunt, probably,
Speaker 3: but yeah, yeah they're there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you had we were hunting the spot last night
Speaker 1: and you had made mention that you have a buddy
Speaker 1: that lives there, and you know at the time when
Speaker 1: he says the birds leave, yeah, his his yard. They're
Speaker 1: now up in the mountains. So it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: and then maybe that's why Washington's doing so well right now,
Speaker 1: is because we do have a lot of ag winter
Speaker 1: ag that supports those birds, and so our populations are
Speaker 1: staying real high, even though we did lose I think
Speaker 1: a few hens this year with the winter.
Speaker 2: I think so too.
Speaker 3: I mean, we had a really cold winter, but on
Speaker 3: top of that, we had powder, and powder is just
Speaker 3: not something that happens out here. You talk to the biologist,
Speaker 3: they say that's one of the reasons that we have
Speaker 3: such great popular relations is that we have snow that
Speaker 3: the birds can stand on top of walk around and
Speaker 3: still get a lot of feed. But this year we
Speaker 3: had cold right up front, and we had powder for
Speaker 3: a long time, and the hens they were pushing through it.
Speaker 3: And people even gave reports where like, man, we're watching
Speaker 3: these hens struggle just to move through the snow and
Speaker 3: find food unfortunately.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so just quick recap, get on on X,
Speaker 1: figure out where you can hunt. Find an area that's
Speaker 1: somewhat adjacent to ag and you're most like, especially in Washington,
Speaker 1: you're gonna find birds. Yeah, and we're gonna get into
Speaker 1: it a little bit later, and it's like, just let
Speaker 1: your boots, you know, burn up some boot leather and
Speaker 1: go figure it out.
Speaker 3: Absolutely carry lots of water with you.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I have question number two, which we've lived a
Speaker 1: little bit here already. In the first couple of days
Speaker 1: of this hunt, birds are gobbling really hard on the roost.
Speaker 1: They fly down and goble a little bit. They'll gobble
Speaker 1: up my calls, but about thirty minutes later they haven't
Speaker 1: committed to my setup or my calling, and they've completely
Speaker 1: shut up. What should I do or why is that happening?
Speaker 1: You know? And the question was what should I do?
Speaker 1: But I think more importantly is why is that happening?
Speaker 1: And what can you do to take you know, you
Speaker 1: really can't take advantage of it, but what can you
Speaker 1: do to maybe turn that into a positive or what
Speaker 1: do you do with that information to maybe get that turkey?
Speaker 1: You know, and you know later that day or the
Speaker 1: following morning.
Speaker 3: Right, Well, first thing is take note as to what
Speaker 3: their pattern was when they did it, because you know,
Speaker 3: maybe you're not going to be successful today, but you're
Speaker 3: creating a setup for understanding them better in their movements,
Speaker 3: so you can put that in your pocket and come
Speaker 3: back in the next time and get in front of
Speaker 3: them rather than behind them. And a lot of the
Speaker 3: birds are just going to be hand up because we're
Speaker 3: we're like two weeks behind still in our season. Honestly,
Speaker 3: some friends I know found a couple of nests. I
Speaker 3: found one too, with one egg in it only, and
Speaker 3: that was just a few days ago. So you know,
Speaker 3: with this weather we had and the snow just leaving
Speaker 3: the wood still, things just greening up, we're just behind.
Speaker 3: So they're going to be pretty hand up still. Which
Speaker 3: is not normal so much right now. That's that's one
Speaker 3: of the biggest reasons they're moving away from me because
Speaker 3: they're following a hand. They're gobbling. Say, yeah, come join us,
Speaker 3: we're heading this way. Yep, we have it in mind
Speaker 3: where we want to be. You're not there.
Speaker 1: Yep. We're going to get into the nine am spark
Speaker 1: or whatever that we do, and we can use some
Speaker 1: of this information. We've did it already. The oh they're
Speaker 1: gobbling there, but let's let's keep in mind where we
Speaker 1: last heard them, like where that ideal spot for them
Speaker 1: to be was, because we are early in the in
Speaker 1: the nesting season. But that hen's eventually going to break
Speaker 1: off around eight thirty nine, go lay that egg, absolutely,
Speaker 1: and he's going to probably reverse that trail back to
Speaker 1: where you started on it that morning. So I mean,
Speaker 1: it's great to start on a bird because it's obvious
Speaker 1: they want to be in that area. They're comfortable there,
Speaker 1: there's what they need there. But yeah, I think a
Speaker 1: lot of people get discouraged. The bird stops goblin by
Speaker 1: shoots around here is getting lights so early six thirty seven,
Speaker 1: and they're like, I'm going to go in for breakfast,
Speaker 1: you know, and it's the better hunting is still ahead. Yeah, absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 1: Sit down and take a nap if you need to. Yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah yeah. Go to what you think is the best
Speaker 1: looking you know, where you've seen the most droppings, where
Speaker 1: you know that they're feeding on the greenest grasses of
Speaker 1: the greenish shrubs, and hang out and take a nap
Speaker 1: and wait for them to come back. So one thing
Speaker 1: we get asked a lot, me personally, is, you know,
Speaker 1: we make an alcochol, we make a crow call, we
Speaker 1: use a woodpecker call, we use you know, different locators.
Speaker 1: The question we got is when and how should I
Speaker 1: use the different locators, and so all that you kind
Speaker 1: of kind of roll into that. You know, me personally,
Speaker 1: you've seen what I've used. It's an alcohol, use a
Speaker 1: crow call, we use a woodpecker. But kind of give
Speaker 1: us a little a little bit of how and when
Speaker 1: those should be used. I don't think you should be
Speaker 1: blown on an alcohol in the middle of the day,
Speaker 1: and I don't think you should be cranking on a
Speaker 1: woodpecker call, you know, before first light. So absolutely, so
Speaker 1: give us a little bit of you know, how you
Speaker 1: think they should be used and what typically works the best.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I mean we experienced that in the last
Speaker 3: couple of days hunting together too. You know, early morning obviously,
Speaker 3: get into an alcol and just to get a lowcate
Speaker 3: hater on them, and they're usually going to gobble back
Speaker 3: pretty good. So you know, practice that up, you know,
Speaker 3: make it realistic. You want some realism, but obviously noise
Speaker 3: is what it's all about. And that works really good.
Speaker 3: And then we move into the day a little bit
Speaker 3: and Jason proved really well, how we'll get the woodpecker
Speaker 3: call worked, and they were really answering that really well,
Speaker 3: that was a great call.
Speaker 2: I love that call.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And then crow, in my opinions, real similar to
Speaker 1: that woodpecker, like, don't use it. I mean, crows start
Speaker 1: calling early in the morning, but they're already doing the
Speaker 1: work for you. Yeah. I feel like a crow is
Speaker 1: more of that same thing, you know, a couple hours
Speaker 1: after daylight through the middle of the day, and then
Speaker 1: you know, start to tone it down towards the towards later.
Speaker 1: And a little quick side story. Yesterday the first morning, me,
Speaker 1: you and Simone, we're hunting together. We we were hiking
Speaker 1: up we hadn't really heard we heard a few birds
Speaker 1: off in the distance. Yeah, and the bird we thought
Speaker 1: was there just isn't there. And we I won't say
Speaker 1: we get frustrated. You're just a little like scratching our
Speaker 1: heads and.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're only six miles into you at that point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're in mixed company. So you're like, I don't
Speaker 1: really know if you want me to use my alcohol.
Speaker 1: But we kind of all agreed, like, yeah, I go
Speaker 1: nothing you can hurt with the owl. And we blew
Speaker 1: on that thing, and he was what seventy yards up
Speaker 1: the hill on a tree. Right then we're able to
Speaker 1: set up and he did his thing, and then so
Speaker 1: we thought we had that bird today did where he
Speaker 1: had went, same thing. We got a little nervous, like
Speaker 1: every bird on every other ridge top mountain draw was
Speaker 1: gobbling up there. You know, we were hearing, we were
Speaker 1: pointing different directions. We got a bird there, we got
Speaker 1: a big sound, and bird over there, we got a
Speaker 1: jake over there, and our bird never gobbled. And we
Speaker 1: were starting to debate, well, we got birds hammering to
Speaker 1: our left, and we got a ridge there, we can
Speaker 1: get behind it and slip in, and same thing. We're like, well,
Speaker 1: there's nothing to lose if you blow on the alcohol again.
Speaker 1: Blew on it this morning and he finally answered twenty
Speaker 1: reddits after. You know, so it's early morning. You know,
Speaker 1: use those alcohols. But but locators are important because, in
Speaker 1: my opinion there we weren't close enough for a tree
Speaker 1: yelp to be heard. He may have heard it, but
Speaker 1: it's like the alcohol, there's no real harm that can
Speaker 1: be done, and it kind of let it. Maybe it
Speaker 1: actually worked against us because we stayed at that tree
Speaker 1: for another half an hour. He got got around us.
Speaker 1: But yeah, use your locators. You know a lot of
Speaker 1: I used to be similar, you know, go out and
Speaker 1: only use my hint calls. But there are times we've
Speaker 1: seen it here where a hint call doesn't work in
Speaker 1: the hammer at that woodpecker, and it's just that that
Speaker 1: shot gobble aspect that I think, you know, it doesn't
Speaker 1: hurt if they're not answering a hint call followed up
Speaker 1: with a woodpecker, or if you think you're getting in close.
Speaker 1: We did it a few times here like well, we
Speaker 1: don't really want a turkey call again, like let's hit
Speaker 1: him with the woodpecker. See if we're you know, if
Speaker 1: we're in a spot to set up. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I in my mind I maybe overthink it. I always wonder,
Speaker 1: like our turkey smart enough to know that there's a
Speaker 1: woodpecker and a turkey hint call him from the same spot.
Speaker 1: But I don't know. I don't know if they're that
Speaker 1: smart we actually just put them on top of each other.
Speaker 2: We don't know.
Speaker 3: I mean, I've definitely used locator calls, not a lot, honestly,
Speaker 3: but definitely if I'm trying to get into an area
Speaker 3: that I don't know really well exactly where he is
Speaker 3: at that time, and I just want to get his
Speaker 3: location so I can maneuver to it in an area
Speaker 3: to create a setup and then pull him in. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean, you definitely want to have one you're going to.
Speaker 1: Use and then not necessarily located call. We'll talk about
Speaker 1: a little bit later. Box calls specifically on this hunt,
Speaker 1: whether it's pressured birds, whether it's something different, has has
Speaker 1: been working really well when maybe our you know, neither
Speaker 1: of our mouth calls might be working, right, you hit
Speaker 1: that box call and it's just something about it. So
Speaker 1: we're going to jump into that a little bit more
Speaker 1: when we when we get into part of the Washington recap.
Speaker 1: So once again, if you have a question for me
Speaker 1: or my guests and you want to submit them to us,
Speaker 1: send us a social message, email us at ct D
Speaker 1: at Phelps game Calls dot com. We'll do our best
Speaker 1: to get him here on the show. So now we're
Speaker 1: going to jump into our discussion. The discuss I want
Speaker 1: to ask John some questions, So I'm gonna start out
Speaker 1: with the question. I think I already know your answer.
Speaker 1: But we always talk about patterning birds as maybe being
Speaker 1: and knowing your birds in that area and what they
Speaker 1: like to do is maybe more important than your ability
Speaker 1: to call or you know, understand turkey. So if you
Speaker 1: had to take one or the other, a pattern bird
Speaker 1: that you've watched for three days do its thing, but
Speaker 1: you'd have to leave your calls in the truck or
Speaker 1: a brand new area, but you could take your calls.
Speaker 1: Which one are you picking?
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, this is about actually killing a bird.
Speaker 1: Or just what you personal probably for you. And then
Speaker 1: I'm gonna switch a question up here and asking in
Speaker 1: a different context.
Speaker 2: Okay, personally for me, I want my calls.
Speaker 1: So so once again, this is just and we've we've
Speaker 1: talked lots on this hunt as we walk up and
Speaker 1: down the roads. I believe it's because you're out here
Speaker 1: for a certain reason, right, you want to work the bird.
Speaker 1: You want to get them to gobbles. So if you
Speaker 1: left your calls here, you know, once again you're back
Speaker 1: basically blind hunting. We mentioned earlier you'd rather not hunt.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is not my choice.
Speaker 3: I mean I want to I want to go out
Speaker 3: here and play play turkey chess, and I can only
Speaker 3: do that with the calls. And I'd rather walk away
Speaker 3: from a bird that's just in a pattern, doesn't want
Speaker 3: to talk, and go find a bird that does want
Speaker 3: to talk.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, there is though, after getting your butt kicked
Speaker 1: for a day or two, that you're about to the
Speaker 1: point where it's like, all right, I'm willing to sit
Speaker 1: on this bird and just out of spite at this point, But.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there are those birds.
Speaker 3: There are those times just getting your butt, the birds
Speaker 3: that you start giving names to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, all right, So let's switch that question around.
Speaker 1: Let's say you're a newer hunter and your main concern
Speaker 1: was just killing a bird. Would you change your answer?
Speaker 1: Would you take that pattern bird overcalling?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Definitely, you know, I think back to the earlier days
Speaker 3: of learning all of this.
Speaker 2: You wanted to fill that tag.
Speaker 3: I mean that that's a that's a big pull for
Speaker 3: every new turkey hunter, especially you know, they put the
Speaker 3: money and they bought the license, they got the tag,
Speaker 3: and they want to fill that tag. So that makes sense.
Speaker 3: So definitely, if you can pattern a bird, you know
Speaker 3: what he's gonna do. You've watched them, dude, a few times.
Speaker 3: They really do get hooked into a pattern within reason.
Speaker 3: And so yeah, in that case, I'm going to go
Speaker 3: sit on that pattern and take that bird fill that tag.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 3: I figured that was going to be your answer, and
Speaker 3: that's the honest answer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we're going to talk. Remind me to talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about patterns and then what what your
Speaker 1: opinion versus what we've seen out here. When you add
Speaker 1: some hint calling to your their pattern, it disrupts it
Speaker 1: a little bit. Even though we want to call, we
Speaker 1: want to do this, I feel that calling in a
Speaker 1: spot where maybe the hin doesn't want to take her
Speaker 1: tom by or there. You know, they didn't hear your
Speaker 1: hint there last night like we I think there's also
Speaker 1: a little bit of chance to bug her up the
Speaker 1: setup just from calling. So we've we've looked at each
Speaker 1: other multiple times like should we just stay quiet and
Speaker 1: let the birds do? You know? It's like trying at
Speaker 1: least until it gets closer more committed. So remind me
Speaker 1: to pick back up on that one when we get
Speaker 1: to the gap. So as we're walking down the roads,
Speaker 1: as we're you know, let's say we locate a bird
Speaker 1: on this hunt. Many times we have said this, don't
Speaker 1: do what a typical hunter would do, Like we're there's
Speaker 1: a bird there, and you know we see boot tracks
Speaker 1: as we're on public ground here, there's other people hunting this.
Speaker 1: You know, some some birds are pressured. Some birds you
Speaker 1: can walk and get to a spot where maybe they
Speaker 1: haven't heard as much. But we we've said that, don't
Speaker 1: do what a typical hunter would do. So you look
Speaker 1: at a bird, it's like, oh, the easiest path of
Speaker 1: resistance to walk down the road, get there and call
Speaker 1: where we've we've mentioned this, and I believe it's important
Speaker 1: to not necessarily overthink it, but just put some thought
Speaker 1: into it. Like this, these turkeys aren't dumb. They've they've
Speaker 1: been called to from this road or that spot. They've
Speaker 1: they've heard it all. What do you in your opinion?
Speaker 1: What do you what are we doing? We've talked about
Speaker 1: like fading away with our calling, we bushwhacked to my bird,
Speaker 1: you know some of this stuff, Like, yeah, what are
Speaker 1: some things people can can think about as they're out
Speaker 1: there and do a little bit different, Like don't be
Speaker 1: afraid to hit the bridge. Like, let's just elaborate on that,
Speaker 1: because there is so much stereotypical calling from roads, you know,
Speaker 1: setting up on bends.
Speaker 2: In the roads right right?
Speaker 1: You know, how do we break that that habit and
Speaker 1: make ourselves a little more successful?
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I mean depending on how much pressure is
Speaker 3: in an area, that can be hard to figure out.
Speaker 3: Sometimes it takes a little while. So you're gonna have
Speaker 3: to figure out what's going on in the area that
Speaker 3: you're hunting. And then as far as pressured birds are concerned,
Speaker 3: it is important. I found they get conditioned. They get
Speaker 3: conditioned by us. You know, what are all the hunters doing?
Speaker 3: Are they calling from the same spot? Are they using
Speaker 3: the same calls all the time? And that's why it's
Speaker 3: important to keep a bunch of different calls. Yeah, I
Speaker 3: love mouth calls, but I know, dummy, I keep other
Speaker 3: calls with me too, and sometimes you get to try
Speaker 3: different ones and move to a different spot. We've already
Speaker 3: seen that happen ourselves. Another great tactic, you know, when
Speaker 3: it comes to that type of scenarios, if you're hunting
Speaker 3: with a partner, especially, get the bird interested but he's
Speaker 3: holding up, or he's actually moving away, but he's still
Speaker 3: talking to you, then you can take the other caller
Speaker 3: and have him start walking away from you the shooter
Speaker 3: and just pull that bird in. I mean, and it
Speaker 3: works great. We've done it numerous times.
Speaker 1: Yep. Yeah, that bird only wants to if he's with hims,
Speaker 1: only go come back so far, or.
Speaker 2: He just doesn't believe it.
Speaker 3: Maybe so he's like, oh, she's walking away, maybe I
Speaker 3: can walk over there safely now and take a look,
Speaker 3: you know, is she really real?
Speaker 2: And then he's in front of the shooter.
Speaker 1: Or even the loan toms just aren't comfortable leaving their
Speaker 1: you know, their area where they've got good visibility or
Speaker 1: a lot of this area we're hunting. There might be
Speaker 1: a road system and some of the ridges are very clean,
Speaker 1: but then they may not want to be they might
Speaker 1: not be willing to go through the jack straw, just
Speaker 1: the garbage either and so you're not gonna get him
Speaker 1: to cut that right, you know. So we ran into
Speaker 1: a little bit of vegetation really cause and you know,
Speaker 1: some some impediment on the on their travel paths. And
Speaker 1: then same thing. I don't necessarily we had got that
Speaker 1: bird this morning going we thought, oh, he's gonna come
Speaker 1: down the road. So we did what a typical hunter
Speaker 1: would do. We ran down to the edge of the road
Speaker 1: and squawked on our hen call and the next time
Speaker 1: we heard him gobble. He was literally walking down the creek,
Speaker 1: which we never thought he would do. And so it's
Speaker 1: just one of those things like is that one of
Speaker 1: those times where we did what we thought was right,
Speaker 1: but that's what every other hund would do, Like, oh,
Speaker 1: we're gonna go set up on the side of the
Speaker 1: road and then that whether it is or not, it's
Speaker 1: just one of those things that goes through my mind
Speaker 1: as I rethought this morning, like we did exactly what
Speaker 1: a hunter would do. Did that affected or maybe not?
Speaker 1: Maybe he was gonna get drug down there by hint anyways,
Speaker 1: but it always makes you think, could we have multiple
Speaker 1: times even this morning, like we've and yesterday we would
Speaker 1: try to get like one move ahead of the turkey
Speaker 1: right right. Yeah, I'm The more we do this and
Speaker 1: the more it keeps like we should we need to
Speaker 1: almost be like we need to guess like two or
Speaker 1: three moves ahead right to get us some more because
Speaker 1: it seems like we're always playing like, oh that makes sense,
Speaker 1: we think we can, but then they beat you there
Speaker 1: or they do something different. It's like, well, shoot, we
Speaker 1: knew that that second or third you know that second
Speaker 1: or third idea, like they were going to a Look,
Speaker 1: we should have just went there versus trying to cut
Speaker 1: them off in the middle or right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And that's another good thing for having on X.
Speaker 1: Yeah, trying to Yeah, we were in an area today
Speaker 1: we didn't really know the clean way through, and we
Speaker 1: had those three or four different birds gobbling and finally
Speaker 1: we oh, shoot, there's an open ridge in here. We
Speaker 1: got in there and it was the most beautiful turkey
Speaker 1: ridge ever had everything they need.
Speaker 3: He never would have known there if you didn't flip
Speaker 3: on X and you're like, look, this is open in there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we got in there. I want to live here.
Speaker 1: Yeaice it was, and it was literally the only way
Speaker 1: we could get through this area without you know, just
Speaker 1: you know, bushwhacking horribly.
Speaker 3: So, but now you know where they were set up
Speaker 3: and where they were gobbling from in the morning. You
Speaker 3: know they're fly down area, and you know the pattern
Speaker 3: to get out of there.
Speaker 1: So yeah, now the hard part will be setting up
Speaker 1: in there in the morning and not touching a call. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like we say, sometimes you can get in there and
Speaker 1: buger them up. I think. I I'm very very confident,
Speaker 1: you know, we we always joke as we sit down
Speaker 1: on our setups. This morning we had to go to
Speaker 1: a three percenter Yeah at one point, and that's why
Speaker 1: I'm sitting here. You know, mid afternoon, I would go
Speaker 1: into that spot with an eighty percent chance of killing
Speaker 1: the bird there.
Speaker 3: Yeah seriously, Yeah, this morning we're like thirty percent chance
Speaker 3: of this being successful. Yeah, turned to zero.
Speaker 1: But that's okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean they're And
Speaker 1: the reason you need to ask this question is we
Speaker 1: walked our road to some today, just trying to explore
Speaker 1: the area, and we've seen two dead birds, you know,
Speaker 1: two somebody had breasted them out and taken the legs,
Speaker 1: you know, basically cleaned up birds and it's like, man,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of birds getting killed near Yeah.
Speaker 3: We didn't realize how much pressure was in here until
Speaker 3: we started finding the carcasses.
Speaker 2: I'm like, no, wonder.
Speaker 1: This is happening.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and is now we know we got to change
Speaker 2: their tactics.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, one predator, i mean, one was so fresh
Speaker 1: a predator hadn't even got to the other one been
Speaker 1: picked on a little bit, but both real, real, yeah,
Speaker 1: fresh kills. So yeah, don't do what a turcula would do.
Speaker 1: And then that doesn't I mean you have to take
Speaker 1: that with the grain of salt, like there are things
Speaker 1: that are just the right move but don't typically do
Speaker 1: the same thing. You know, we talk about seven to
Speaker 1: nine note yelps. I'm gonna get into the culling a
Speaker 1: little bit. Yeah you hear what, Yeah yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: You know, somebody's just gonna do their normal yelp. Yeah.
Speaker 1: You listen to me and you call it's like two loud,
Speaker 1: one quiet, three, you know, and throw a bubble cluck
Speaker 1: in there, and it's like and if you listen to
Speaker 1: real hens, that's what they're doing.
Speaker 3: They're yeah, they're raising their tone up and down, facing
Speaker 3: one direction, turning and facing the other direction, versus monotone
Speaker 3: with a straight note.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And these turkeys, I mean, I don't want to
Speaker 1: give them too much credit. They're not the smartest bird
Speaker 1: on the planet, but they're also not dumb. They're there,
Speaker 1: they get conditioned their turkeys. They're doing what turkeys are doing.
Speaker 1: So calling different. You know, we're not afraid to purr,
Speaker 1: We're not afraid to cluck, you know, bubble cluck, mix
Speaker 1: it up. Yeah, just sound like a realistic can. And
Speaker 1: there's times where and we also escalate our calls. I
Speaker 1: think we start with a low volume and then nothing answers,
Speaker 1: and then our second set of yelps and clocks will
Speaker 1: be a little louder. It's just you don't typically hear
Speaker 1: a hint out here, just yeah, yeah, got jack. You know,
Speaker 1: she's just just not doing that. And I think ninety
Speaker 1: five percent the hunters that come out here that's how
Speaker 1: they call. Yeah, so yeah, all right, we're gonna diverge
Speaker 1: off of that. Don't do it a typical turkey hunter
Speaker 1: would do. But it's important to think about out there,
Speaker 1: like can I get this bird to work somewhere besides
Speaker 1: down this road where he's been called you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's just changing the game a little bit or by
Speaker 1: little decisions. Can I get you know, can I call
Speaker 1: them up a ridge versus a road? All of that.
Speaker 1: Let's talk a little bit about the style of turkey
Speaker 1: hunting we're doing here. You know, a typical day in
Speaker 1: the Turkey woods, you know, for most might be a
Speaker 1: couple of miles, maybe a couple setups to get on
Speaker 1: some hot birds and you're done. This is these sort
Speaker 1: of you know, Miriam's Rios type hunts. They're completely opposite.
Speaker 1: Like we've talked about it multiple times. You might as
Speaker 1: well be hunting elk or you know, mountain meal deer
Speaker 1: or whatever. Yesterday when we killed, well we both killed
Speaker 1: our a bird. Yesterday we got back and I pulled
Speaker 1: out the iPhone. You know, it's like twelve plus miles, yea,
Speaker 1: a hundred foot of elevation gain. Like we're we're working
Speaker 1: our tail off. And I think a little a little
Speaker 1: bit of it relates back to pressure in area.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, these they've moved further out of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And the birds that you there are birds. There's
Speaker 1: no denying there. Birds from here to mile marker one
Speaker 1: and a half in this area. There there are birds there,
Speaker 1: but you can tell when you call to them that
Speaker 1: they've been worked or they've heard a.
Speaker 3: Call before, they've worked hard versus.
Speaker 1: I joked yesterday you should never see a mile marker
Speaker 1: more than three, why you're a turkey hunting. But we
Speaker 1: started to see those mile markers deep in there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you get in there, and now those turkeys maybe have
Speaker 1: only heard a handful of calls from guys, or maybe
Speaker 1: haven't got bumped, and they start to react like they should,
Speaker 1: like a tom without a hen. You know, yesterday this
Speaker 1: this chunk that we are hunting. Now we literally touched
Speaker 1: all four corners of aside from one big peak on
Speaker 1: the opposite side. But we could hear up there. We
Speaker 1: put in work and and.
Speaker 3: Oh it was hardcore. I mean yeah, we were digging
Speaker 3: deep to get out there. But and we knew what
Speaker 3: Reggie was on and we're looking at our round X
Speaker 3: as well. Man, we're gonna have to crash through thick,
Speaker 3: thick timber just to avoid being seen on a point
Speaker 3: and play the game all the way over to the
Speaker 3: other ridge. And we knew we're gonna it's going to
Speaker 3: be a twelve mile day, But we're going to get
Speaker 3: near that bird, yep.
Speaker 1: And I mean there were decisions made throughout yesterday where
Speaker 1: we could have taken we I'm almost don't want to
Speaker 1: admit it, and I think I still think it was
Speaker 1: a wild turkey. But he was a domesticated wild turkey.
Speaker 1: I have some sorts he was. He was just very
Speaker 1: comfortable living off the edge of this public So we
Speaker 1: got drugged down there and we hiked up maybe a
Speaker 1: couple hundred feet, hit a road system. We could have
Speaker 1: just easy taken that road system back towards the truck
Speaker 1: or two in a different area, we elected to go.
Speaker 1: We got to a beautiful basin. We knew it was
Speaker 1: gonna suck because we had to walk up through a
Speaker 1: fairly steep clear cut, but it gave us the ability
Speaker 1: to sound check an entire canyon amazing looking Turkey country,
Speaker 1: and when we finally did get to the top, we
Speaker 1: were able to locate my bird in a different bird.
Speaker 1: And if we hadn't have put in that extra effort,
Speaker 1: we wouldn't have had that opportunity.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and he heard that sound too. I mean he
Speaker 3: heard it from an area that another hundred probably would
Speaker 3: never be on it as well. Yeah, so as that
Speaker 3: sound got close to him, it created realism.
Speaker 1: Yep. And we'll talk a little bit more about once
Speaker 1: we located that bird. Kind of our approach, and it
Speaker 1: ties back into the don't do what hunters would do either,
Speaker 1: the way we had to approach him just to guarantee
Speaker 1: that he hasn't you know, seen or heard something that
Speaker 1: he didn't like. So, yeah, a lot of miles. It's
Speaker 1: it's in an effort. I feel like you can control
Speaker 1: the outcome a little better when you're putting in that
Speaker 1: many miles finding birds that haven't been messed versus if
Speaker 1: you're always leaving it to chance trying to hunt these
Speaker 1: pressured birds. They're doing sporadic turkey things. You know. We
Speaker 1: talked about like how smart can something be with that
Speaker 1: little pea brain of theirs. But they and I don't
Speaker 1: know if they're smart or if they're just have an uncanny
Speaker 1: ability to do what just random thing they need to
Speaker 1: do not to get killed.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're very instinctive. You know, they've dealt with enough pressure.
Speaker 3: They figured some things out.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 3: Educated birds.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I'm gonna diverge a little bit from our
Speaker 1: conversation just give a quick update on our Kansas. I'm
Speaker 1: sure you'll have some stuff to interject with the way
Speaker 1: that the things were going so out there in eastern Kansas.
Speaker 1: You know, we're hunting easterns. We'd been hunting early May.
Speaker 1: Typically that's typically when you start to get your hands
Speaker 1: with full nests. They're not near as interested in feet
Speaker 1: in as long you're like, all right, money, you know,
Speaker 1: we've got loan toms, and so we were always told
Speaker 1: that they're more callable early. So we decided to go
Speaker 1: there April twenty, April twentieth. We fly out there to Kansas,
Speaker 1: and everything is is a little bit late, and so
Speaker 1: or it actually seems to be a little early in Kansas.
Speaker 1: Whatever it is that those toms are completely handed up
Speaker 1: all day long, like they there were some toms we'd
Speaker 1: see that would still have hans out in the field
Speaker 1: with them at one or two o'clock, which I don't
Speaker 1: It may be extremely late, like they haven't even started
Speaker 1: laying their first egg. But I almost can't believe that,
Speaker 1: you know, April twentieth by then, especially being that far south.
Speaker 1: But or she had just went later egg nested for
Speaker 1: a little bit and then popped right back up a
Speaker 1: little bit earlier. But we could not call those birds
Speaker 1: off very easily. Do you have any And I've always
Speaker 1: said Easterns are more stubborn, They're more difficult, They're more
Speaker 1: hard headed. When they fly down. They don't mind if
Speaker 1: they live in the bottoms. They don't care if they
Speaker 1: ever gobble at you the rest of the time, you know,
Speaker 1: goblet of the roost a little bit, but.
Speaker 3: Way more frustrating. I mean, it requires a lot more finesse.
Speaker 3: You know, a lot of different type tact calling than
Speaker 3: what we do out here. Our birds out here don't
Speaker 3: really want to hear a lot of cutting, whereas you
Speaker 3: know Easterns they do.
Speaker 1: They want to hear it excited. Yeah, yeah, And that's
Speaker 1: sometimes the only time we could get them to do
Speaker 1: and get a call or get anything out of them.
Speaker 1: But they were very, very content just doing what they
Speaker 1: wanted to do and not dealing with you at all.
Speaker 1: As a hunter. They had their you know, seven eight
Speaker 1: ten hens, all with an eyes sight. They were all
Speaker 1: roosted together every night. You know, they roost a little
Speaker 1: more I would say typical in a typical spot every
Speaker 1: night there, and they knew all their hens showed up.
Speaker 1: We sat close to a roos tree one night, all
Speaker 1: the hen show up. Tom's being I don't know why
Speaker 1: they didn't fold their hands out. They come in from
Speaker 1: a completely different direction, but they all meet at the
Speaker 1: same rooster. It's just very difficult to hunt.
Speaker 3: A lot more tactics of crawling, a lot of moving
Speaker 3: and trying to sneak in and get in the right positions.
Speaker 3: There's there's so much more you got to put into it. Easterns.
Speaker 1: And just like you had mentioned earlier, you don't like
Speaker 1: to sit in the blind, and I don't necessarily. We
Speaker 1: all know when we go to Kansas, if we just
Speaker 1: sit in a spot, we will kill a bird. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, they're very very patternable. But we don't like
Speaker 1: to hunt that way. So what they do is they
Speaker 1: get us running ridge to ridge with gobbles and then
Speaker 1: they would be on the opposite ridge by the time
Speaker 1: you got and you're just like, it's almost like you
Speaker 1: have to sit still to kill them. But who wants
Speaker 1: to hunt them that way? Yeah? Some birds?
Speaker 3: That's you have no choice. If that's the kind of
Speaker 3: air you're gonna hunt in, I mean, you got you
Speaker 3: gotta do.
Speaker 1: Yep. I was uh. I was able to kill my
Speaker 1: bird on the first morning there. We didn't really roost.
Speaker 1: We don't roost those birds in Kansas like we do,
Speaker 1: and I guess you don't roost here a whole lot.
Speaker 1: I usually roost pretty you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, No, I don't do much of that. We just
Speaker 3: go out and listen in the morning and get in tight.
Speaker 1: Yeah, which is awesome because every morning's kind of a
Speaker 1: new morning. I've always liked just that excitement, Like no,
Speaker 1: when I'm seventy one hundred yards on a bird and
Speaker 1: I liked I always like to look at and like, oh,
Speaker 1: he's gonna pitch here, and like guess, and I guess
Speaker 1: ninety percent wrong, But I still like that game. But
Speaker 1: there I was able to We went out listen. We
Speaker 1: had a couple of different birds. We had one close,
Speaker 1: and so we didn't He didn't only gobbled once. Early
Speaker 1: we had to go set up in the dark, and sure,
Speaker 1: sure enough, as it started to get daylight, he was
Speaker 1: sixty yards away in a tree. We had already set
Speaker 1: our hen out there, not in the right spot for
Speaker 1: what we wanted, and three jakes fly down first. I'm like, oh, no,
Speaker 1: he's just holding up up there like maybe he doesn't
Speaker 1: want to fly down because of these jakes. He doesn't
Speaker 1: want to get bullied around. So we sit there for
Speaker 1: twenty minutes. We're just gobbling up there in the tree.
Speaker 1: And we sit there for forty minutes after the jakes
Speaker 1: have flown down, gobbling in the tree, and at about
Speaker 1: I'm guessing fifty fifty five minute mark, and these jakes
Speaker 1: are just at full strut under his tree. So it
Speaker 1: almost looks like they're waiting for him to come down
Speaker 1: and they're gonna whip his butt. You know, we had
Speaker 1: that hen decoy. I don't know exactly what's going through
Speaker 1: their head, but so they were just puffed up under
Speaker 1: his tree for fifty minutes, fifty.
Speaker 2: Yards from shutting in the tree basically.
Speaker 1: So all of a sudden, two hens fly down and
Speaker 1: hit the jakes. We're like, oh boy, it's about ready
Speaker 1: to happen. And what I think happened is why we
Speaker 1: were setting our decoys up, and I was being a
Speaker 1: dummy because I didn't think that that bird was that close.
Speaker 1: I had like a spidercum land and I was trying
Speaker 1: to like move my gun barrel around and loaded my shells,
Speaker 1: and I think he just got nervous like he wasn't.
Speaker 1: We didn't spook him enough that he just flew out it,
Speaker 1: you know, and just fly away. But we knew something,
Speaker 1: and I think even his hens knew something, even though
Speaker 1: they were even deeper than the Jakes. And those hens
Speaker 1: flew down and I was keep my eyes on her.
Speaker 1: They flew into the jakes, and then you could see
Speaker 1: they kind of like, did the scurry walk away from us?
Speaker 1: Dead away from us.
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh boy, they just knew someone.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that bird it's the ground. I let him
Speaker 1: take about two steps and clear everything. I'm like, I
Speaker 1: know what's going to happen. And so was shot that bird.
Speaker 1: So I you know, if it wasn't for an hour
Speaker 1: of him hanging up in a tree, you I wouldn't
Speaker 1: have huntred for very long. But we were able to
Speaker 1: get that one killed. And then we actually we went
Speaker 1: and did a cold sit on a on a field
Speaker 1: where we know two big birds had been frequenting and
Speaker 1: we only been we only been set up for half
Speaker 1: an hour. Set it just to Dave Dave Smith decoy
Speaker 1: a hand out there maybe forty yards from us, a
Speaker 1: little bit further, but we wanted him to pull our
Speaker 1: attention off of the edge, and all of a sudden
Speaker 1: and they're coming, two big giant birds, like old old birds,
Speaker 1: big old paint brushes.
Speaker 3: On him, and the sire.
Speaker 1: To be able to get him coming to decoys. But
Speaker 1: then the bird, the non strutter, he came over and
Speaker 1: started to mess with the big bird, and he did
Speaker 1: it at the wrong time. He needed to do it,
Speaker 1: like ten yards later, because as soon as they started
Speaker 1: to tussle up and wrap next and kind of messed
Speaker 1: with each other, they just went straight to our left
Speaker 1: at sixty yards and a little too far to shoot,
Speaker 1: and so we had to let that bird go. They
Speaker 1: were active in the morning, but you needed once again,
Speaker 1: you really needed to be in the way where they
Speaker 1: wanted to go. Later in that hunt, we got some
Speaker 1: really good action. A tom actually pulled off of his hens,
Speaker 1: came into us, but once again saw something that decoy
Speaker 1: he didn't necessarily like and exited at about fifty yards
Speaker 1: and just not quite The guy I was hunting with
Speaker 1: wasn't quite comfortable shooting there. But yeah, we don't need
Speaker 1: to tell the whole entire hunt, but it was just
Speaker 1: one of those things where Easterns are stubborn, and I'm
Speaker 1: starting to really unlike them, especially now that you know,
Speaker 1: I only had a two day break and was able
Speaker 1: to come out here and hunt Mariam's I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: this is way better for the most part. You know
Speaker 1: the answer. They're more huntable. You can, you know, get
Speaker 1: back on him at three o'clock in the afternoon and
Speaker 1: they'll stip, you know, typically start gobbling.
Speaker 2: Again, versus we have to train you enjoy being in
Speaker 2: two Yeah.
Speaker 1: And those birds in Kansas, they would just gobble half
Speaker 1: hour in the morning, half hat night. That was all
Speaker 1: you're getting out of them all day. So real, real frustrating.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna jump more into a Washington focus. Now
Speaker 1: let's do a little update here. First thing we need
Speaker 1: to mention is it is hot. Yes, it is hot.
Speaker 1: We we're hitting what mid eighties.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're only a couple of days into this high
Speaker 3: pressure and it's had its effect for sure.
Speaker 1: Yep. And give us a little of your I'll call
Speaker 1: it your opinion, but it's also probably pretty factual. Since
Speaker 1: you've been out here doing this enough, you talk about
Speaker 1: like three days in a row is what you like
Speaker 1: to see, no matter what it is. But it needs
Speaker 1: to be three days and then maybe not this hot.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean, I've experienced this so many different times over
Speaker 3: the years. It's not even funny and it's realistic to me.
Speaker 3: So we'll call it my science if you want. But
Speaker 3: anytime we've seen a pressure drop or pressure change, whether
Speaker 3: it's going into a high pressure or a low pressure,
Speaker 3: if it's extreme like this is. You know, we just
Speaker 3: went from fifties to low sixties at the most, and
Speaker 3: then we jumped straight into this high pressure of upper
Speaker 3: seventies and hitting eighties. And what I've always experienced when
Speaker 3: that happens, whether it's either direction, you know, it usually
Speaker 3: takes a good three days minimum before things really get
Speaker 3: back to normal and birds start becoming extremely workable. You
Speaker 3: can still kill a bird. Obviously we did it, but
Speaker 3: it took a lot of work. It took more work
Speaker 3: than it normally does. Now we've been trying to tell Jason,
Speaker 3: this is not normal, this is not what we normally
Speaker 3: experience it.
Speaker 2: It's got to get better.
Speaker 3: And what I found, it's always about a three day mark,
Speaker 3: and that's just way. Whether it's bad weather, you can'
Speaker 3: three days boom, doesn't matter. If it's still bad as
Speaker 3: long as you slipt into it for three days or so.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's and we'll roll into that a little bit
Speaker 1: not what I'm used to, So I hunt a different
Speaker 1: area typically, I haven't been in this area, and I'm
Speaker 1: a little I'm a little shocked at how much contrast
Speaker 1: there is to my normal spot and in the way.
Speaker 1: So I still think this is pretty dang good hunting.
Speaker 1: These guys are telling me this is nothing like it
Speaker 1: normally is. So I'm excited to see if maybe this
Speaker 1: high pressure holds for a couple more days and we
Speaker 1: can experience that, you know, third and fourth day, even
Speaker 1: the fifth day before we head out a camp, and
Speaker 1: see if those birds really turn it on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I hope. So we're hoping too.
Speaker 1: On this hunt. The nine ams and this is we've
Speaker 1: always talked about this. If you listened to almost any
Speaker 1: Cutting the Distance podcast, you know we always joke about
Speaker 1: the old timers saying, you you young guns, young guys
Speaker 1: can go go hunt those birds off the roofs and
Speaker 1: I'll go kill them. At nine o'clock. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna eat breakfast. So nine AM and the three paid
Speaker 1: the three pm kind of the spark, you know, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's the time to be out there. It really is.
Speaker 1: Get on those critters. And the nine am to me
Speaker 1: makes a lot of sense. You know, hens are gonna
Speaker 1: go lay on their nest, go lay their eggs, and
Speaker 1: those toms find themselves lonely.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The three pm spark is a little bit more interesting
Speaker 1: to me. It's like, I don't know if it's a
Speaker 1: temperature thing. If it's a the sun's getting low enough. Finally,
Speaker 1: like why three pm? Because I'm not going to lie
Speaker 1: Like my sweatometer says that three pm is still damn hot.
Speaker 1: It's the hottest it's been all day at three pm,
Speaker 1: and these birds are starting to fire off at three
Speaker 1: three point thirty.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, the other good thing about when you have this
Speaker 3: kind of a high pressure is we can kind of
Speaker 3: predict they're not going to go sit in it. So
Speaker 3: look we did yesterday, we moved to a different area.
Speaker 3: I knew that area is going to be a little
Speaker 3: bit cooler in general. But that three o'clock timeframe has
Speaker 3: just been golden for a lot of years that I
Speaker 3: can always think of it. Birds are usually out and
Speaker 3: they've spent their day eating, and now it's heading towards
Speaker 3: their thought process, in my opinion, is you know, we're
Speaker 3: going to be start starting to gather up, and a
Speaker 3: lot of times you're just going to see Tom's out
Speaker 3: there by themselves and they've lost their hands for most
Speaker 3: of the day, but they want to gather back up
Speaker 3: with them so they can you know, have their way
Speaker 3: first thing in the morning. And if you're a hen
Speaker 3: that's kind of starting to talk around that time of day,
Speaker 3: you're probably looking to gather up with them.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 3: And so then were't have to come in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've had great hunts. Well, I killed my bird
Speaker 1: about nine am years was a little later than three
Speaker 1: m But we got on a bird and worked the
Speaker 1: bird yesterday for hour and a half. Yeah, probably yesterday,
Speaker 1: right at three o'clock, I think, I yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: think I got picked off. You know. It was it
Speaker 1: was some up and down cliffy country, you know, a
Speaker 1: little bit steep elevations, and it was I think we
Speaker 1: just got caught guessing he was a little bit further,
Speaker 1: but we still worked him for a bit and then yeah,
Speaker 1: I was able to get into a different bird later.
Speaker 1: So pressuring pressured birds here, you start to realize whether
Speaker 1: you know, I know you're good. I think I'm pretty
Speaker 1: good hit this thing. But we were starting to realize,
Speaker 1: like pressuring pressured birds, no matter how good you are,
Speaker 1: we're running into some struggles, right. They don't want to
Speaker 1: play the game. They don't want to turn around. We
Speaker 1: watched a couple of birds through the binos come down
Speaker 1: a uh you know, by themselves, one really big bird.
Speaker 1: It looked like maybe at a jake with them in tow.
Speaker 1: They didn't gobble at all. Coming back nine o'clock, we
Speaker 1: we did some calling. They did gobble once I take.
Speaker 2: The one back on their own. We didn't evene.
Speaker 1: Yeah, as far away from one of my calls on
Speaker 1: either side as it could get, just for sure literally
Speaker 1: just gobbled on his own. But it's just weird. We
Speaker 1: were we were I wouldn't say were in their zone,
Speaker 1: but we were with an earshot where two birds without
Speaker 1: a hen should answer any any hint call and nothing.
Speaker 1: And and we tried resetting up, we went to multiple
Speaker 1: different spots, just could not get a peep out of
Speaker 1: them talk And so we've talked about it about this afternoon,
Speaker 1: like we just need to go find a spot where
Speaker 1: maybe somebody hasn't talked to a bird yet or a
Speaker 1: bird that want you know, very very few people have
Speaker 1: talked to. So, yeah, we're we're dealing with some pressured
Speaker 1: birds here. Turkey hunting is very popular, and uh it's
Speaker 1: it's you know, for for good reason. There's it's there's
Speaker 1: some really really good turkey hunting here, but uh, there's
Speaker 1: there's also a lot of hunters.
Speaker 3: We've seen quite a few boots on the road. That's
Speaker 3: a good indicator. You got pressure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, pressure. So we're dealing with that. And our way
Speaker 1: to deal with that is we said, put a lot
Speaker 1: of boot you know, boot in and try to get
Speaker 1: to some birds or think a little bit outside the box, like,
Speaker 1: you know, are there short little hikes that maybe don't
Speaker 1: have good access or you know, little chunks you can
Speaker 1: get into on ag edge, whatever it may be, like,
Speaker 1: try to find that little you know, diamond in the Reugh.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll look for the easy roads in look for
Speaker 3: the stuff that's gonna take effort that yep, a lot
Speaker 3: of people don't want to put that effort into it.
Speaker 1: Let's talk a little bit. We we kind of started
Speaker 1: going down that path about you know, we worked our
Speaker 1: tail off to even locate my bird but then in
Speaker 1: my in my mind, the approach to my bird was
Speaker 1: a little bit different than what most people would have,
Speaker 1: you know, do, and it goes back to don't do
Speaker 1: what a typical hunter would do. So we were climbing
Speaker 1: up a very steep, real good looking ridge. Turkeys had
Speaker 1: been on that ridge, real grassy. Get to the top
Speaker 1: located bird across the canyon, the big canyon. We were
Speaker 1: climbing up. All right, he's there, gobbled a couple times.
Speaker 2: He was just on the ridge we were on too.
Speaker 1: He's been moving, yeah, and so we know we know
Speaker 1: where he's at. We get up, we climb. Someone said,
Speaker 1: there's a road up there another fifty yards. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: get to the road, and at that very point, it
Speaker 1: would have been very easy to walk that road directly
Speaker 1: to his gobble.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, yeah, it would have been the fastest, easy.
Speaker 1: And like most people would have got there and been like, oh,
Speaker 1: this road leads right to the ridge that he's on.
Speaker 1: You know, the only problem was you get down there
Speaker 1: about four five hundred yards and you're going to be
Speaker 1: completely exposed to the ridge that he was on, and
Speaker 1: if he looks out there sees you anything's up, or
Speaker 1: if you try to call to him and like, really
Speaker 1: get his eyes over to that road anywhere in between. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the gigs up. You're not going to call a burden
Speaker 1: that's seen you.
Speaker 2: He might gobble, but he's probably not gonna come.
Speaker 1: He's not going to come in. So we look at
Speaker 1: it and we're like, oh man, we got to climb
Speaker 1: the next little knob and the next little knob, and
Speaker 1: we got to stay rolled over so he can't see
Speaker 1: us or hear us. And then we get to the
Speaker 1: end and once again, it would have been very easy
Speaker 1: to just track and hit the road just a little
Speaker 1: bit further back, but yeah, we had to. You know,
Speaker 1: it was put your hoods on everything, and it was
Speaker 1: one of those just dry sticks snapping and crunching and cracking. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but we did it on just enough, I think on
Speaker 1: the backside that you know, it wasn't right in his face,
Speaker 1: and we we took the absolute hardest route to get there.
Speaker 1: But the nice thing was when we finally did hit
Speaker 1: the road, we knew we were behind his ridge, we
Speaker 1: were out of his eyesight, we were out of everything,
Speaker 1: and we got to that point without screwing it up
Speaker 1: exactly where we could have screwed it up real bad.
Speaker 3: And he heard our call on that other ridge yep,
Speaker 3: and then he never saw anybody else, and the next
Speaker 3: time he heard our call it was closer to him.
Speaker 1: So it was just I don't like, I don't want
Speaker 1: to necessarily say we did something that not everybody else
Speaker 1: would do. But I think a lot of people would
Speaker 1: have just walked that road. And so it's just going
Speaker 1: that extra step making sure that you don't screw up
Speaker 1: the you know, the opportunity that you have and keep
Speaker 1: it intact right. It's yeah, if you if you blow
Speaker 1: it up early, then you might as well not even
Speaker 1: walk over there. So keep it in tack.
Speaker 2: I mean, look how many miles we put into it.
Speaker 3: I mean it's like, do we want to give up
Speaker 3: going the best possible route after all these miles.
Speaker 2: No, let's give it every ounce we got ye paid.
Speaker 1: Off, so we'll follow that up. So we get there.
Speaker 1: He gobbles to the woodpecker call. We didn't we were.
Speaker 1: It was that's one of those times where not blowing
Speaker 1: a turkey calls like one of the few good times,
Speaker 1: Like we want to ye a little bit of that
Speaker 1: shock and awe. You don't want to necessarily disclose your location,
Speaker 1: because he doesn't know there's a hin here right now.
Speaker 1: We would pick her call from the road answers, some
Speaker 1: of them has been there, so he we didn't have
Speaker 1: to look at on X or anything. We just know
Speaker 1: go down there. We got on his ridge, get set up,
Speaker 1: and we're going to talk a little bit about certain
Speaker 1: calls here on the box call on your bird, but
Speaker 1: on this bird. I think I yelped a little bit
Speaker 1: on my my mouth call and I'm like, huh nothing,
Speaker 1: nothing well John, and John starts the olp, and sometimes
Speaker 1: I think he does this just so he can say
Speaker 1: a bird answered, maybe not you, but no, we we
Speaker 1: call a little bit. We call a little bit different,
Speaker 1: different pitches different, I mean, and the bird hammers back
Speaker 1: at him. I'm like, all right, I'm not calling for
Speaker 1: my bird, own bird in you know. It's like I
Speaker 1: didn't want to, but it's like I'm just done calling it.
Speaker 2: We want to kill this bird.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we set up at a tree,
Speaker 1: we get all set up, we put the we didn't
Speaker 1: have to, so we get all set up. Someone drops back.
Speaker 1: So we were at a weird spot where this ridge
Speaker 1: line trail split. So we set up.
Speaker 2: This is sharp ridge too. There was a lot of room.
Speaker 2: Now this is a.
Speaker 1: Great segue into my next point, but we might as
Speaker 1: well rolled in. We set up at an angle, right yeah,
Speaker 1: This bird was not gonna walk a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of people, even myself. The first your instinct is
Speaker 1: to set up right here because you can see down
Speaker 1: the ridge. But guess what, when that turkey gets visible
Speaker 1: and you can see it, it can see you, and
Speaker 1: there's a lot of chance for stuff to go wrong.
Speaker 2: After he's gonna pick.
Speaker 1: He's gonna pick something out. So we've set up at
Speaker 1: an angle. Set up at an angle that gives you
Speaker 1: the ability to shoot both trails, both angles, and keep
Speaker 1: his eyes off of you.
Speaker 2: Right yeah.
Speaker 3: We want to try to get that ninety degree angle
Speaker 3: if we can possibly somehow. If you're using the decoy,
Speaker 3: it's even better. And you know, putting that decoy out
Speaker 3: where if he's gonna see it, he's also shootable at
Speaker 3: the same time, but just don't have him coming straight
Speaker 3: into you with his eyes.
Speaker 1: And one thing we've did with the decoy the first
Speaker 1: the first evening and then this morning we brought one
Speaker 1: is set that decoy up so that you don't believe
Speaker 1: you're gonna be in it's its line of sight when
Speaker 1: it does see it, because if you're behind it, the
Speaker 1: idea of the decoy is to take his eyes away
Speaker 1: from you, right. But I've seen a lot of people
Speaker 1: set up where they're like straight line with their decoy
Speaker 1: where they expect that bird to come. It's like, no,
Speaker 1: set that thing off at a forty five degree to
Speaker 1: your left from where you think the bird's gonna come,
Speaker 1: and let it see the decoy before it sees you.
Speaker 1: That way. Is he comes around, it gives you a
Speaker 1: chance to move your gun whatever it may be. But yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: don't don't set that bird up.
Speaker 2: Line up.
Speaker 3: But that's that's a good point. Don't line up with it,
Speaker 3: and that does happen. I've had people send me a text, man,
Speaker 3: I just made a classic mistake. I lined up right
Speaker 3: behind the deep Yeah busted.
Speaker 1: So it's instinctive though a little bit right, And if
Speaker 1: you don't think about it, you're like, well, the bird's
Speaker 1: coming this way, I want this decoy towards him. And
Speaker 1: then you go straight behind it and you're just in line.
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of people get picked off,
Speaker 1: and you know a lot of or a lot of
Speaker 1: people say like, oh, I didn't you know, like I
Speaker 1: just told the story. I didn't like my decoy. It's well,
Speaker 1: maybe didn't like seeing the you know, your face behind it,
Speaker 1: or the shine of your gun. You never know what.
Speaker 1: So back to my spur. We get set up, Smoe
Speaker 1: set up behind us. You're set up to my right.
Speaker 1: I think you yellped a couple more times, and he
Speaker 1: gobbles twice from down low and uh, me and you
Speaker 1: were kind of besting at the tree, like wow, we
Speaker 1: don't want to have to keep pulling gobbles out of him,
Speaker 1: and you know, you're you don't want to have to
Speaker 1: force everything. And I think we just get done finishing
Speaker 1: up that conversation. And and he's right, He's he's in.
Speaker 1: You can tell there's no more timber between him and us.
Speaker 2: He cut the distance in half that.
Speaker 1: You were like, all right, he's here. So I clicked
Speaker 1: my safe and uh, we're waiting. Then I can see
Speaker 1: he comes. I could see his head bobbing from the right.
Speaker 1: We can hear him spinning drip yeah, sin, yeah, I
Speaker 1: forgot yeah. We I I evidently assume everybody's deaf when
Speaker 1: we're calling birds. And I'm like John, you hear him spinning, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I hear him spinning. I just thought you might not
Speaker 1: get loud. So he shows up, and we were hoping
Speaker 1: he comes a little bit like straight down my barrel
Speaker 1: like at twelve o'clock, which we just said we don't
Speaker 1: want to do, but this is pretty.
Speaker 2: Much we wanted to see him. His head come up
Speaker 2: going towards it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but he comes up more like at my two
Speaker 1: o'clock and works towards my twelve o'clock right, and I
Speaker 1: see his head bobbing about three steps, and then he
Speaker 1: gets to a spot and anybody a ton of turkey's
Speaker 1: on if you just read their their mannerisms, and his
Speaker 1: head goes blink straight up, turn to the left towards us,
Speaker 1: and pow yep, And he was about thirty yards and
Speaker 1: I knew he killed him. And then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I hear John say, I don't know if I could
Speaker 1: see him very well, and I'm like, oh, dang it,
Speaker 1: because I I just soon because I had such a
Speaker 1: good view that. But anyways, it was it was a
Speaker 1: great hunt.
Speaker 2: It was a good setup.
Speaker 3: We did everything right, you know, and we didn't overcall him.
Speaker 3: He did what a bird's supposed to do with everybody
Speaker 3: hopes and yeah, I mean for filming wise, I was
Speaker 3: on your right. If i'd been on your left, that
Speaker 3: I would have seen him perfectly like you. But I mean,
Speaker 3: we're still going to see him through the shrub. He
Speaker 3: stopped right behind that shrub and stuck his head O.
Speaker 1: Yeah, great hunt. We couldn't have killed him at a
Speaker 1: higher elevation. Yeah, the tippy top peak of the whole place.
Speaker 3: But it was cool furthest away highest top yep.
Speaker 1: That we Yeah, we talked about setting up at an
Speaker 1: angle which I really wanted to cover, which simple did
Speaker 1: a lot on this, And then last night on Your
Speaker 1: Bird we jumped in an area we've already mentioned. It
Speaker 1: was cooler, little flatter. We needed a little break after
Speaker 1: getting my maps, my bird all the way back to camp.
Speaker 1: I do want to don't call me a wop, but
Speaker 1: I just want to say, packing a twenty ish pound
Speaker 1: bird for four miles on a on a shoulder sling,
Speaker 1: it becomes very uncomfortable.
Speaker 2: Sure it does.
Speaker 1: That's my complaint of the day. I'll take it every day.
Speaker 1: I'd rather take that that complaining. But so we get
Speaker 1: your bird located after you knew there was kind of
Speaker 1: a little honey hole at the back end of this
Speaker 1: public piece. We get back there, we got some birds
Speaker 1: answering way down, like we're not going to make a
Speaker 1: plan on them this late, and we just get to
Speaker 1: the edge and we get hit by two birds.
Speaker 2: One just said too, wouldn't it be nice we could
Speaker 2: kill a bird with this view? And I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 2: that's it was. It was beautiful, that's the goal.
Speaker 1: We get hit by two birds to one of John's
Speaker 1: and so remember this little point. John yelps with a
Speaker 1: mouth call and we get a bird to answer straight
Speaker 1: ahead and probably at nine o'clock to our left, and
Speaker 1: just to set the scene, they're probably over a forty
Speaker 1: five degree slope, like very steep. Yeah, it was very
Speaker 1: very steep off the edge. And so we get set
Speaker 1: up real quick and get everything ready and I didn't
Speaker 1: have the greatest setup, and you guys kind of just
Speaker 1: kneeled behind an old root wad that it fell over.
Speaker 1: We may do. We thought it would be if those
Speaker 1: birds can came in on a string, it would have
Speaker 1: just been close shooting. We would have been able to
Speaker 1: kill him when they showed up. Yeah, I believe the
Speaker 1: bird that was straight ahead of us actually starts to
Speaker 1: work to the right, but we cannot get this dang
Speaker 1: bird to answer.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he answered once to my original call. We knew,
Speaker 3: and we had two of him because one was a
Speaker 3: little left, one was a little right. Yep, And he
Speaker 3: answered me that one time, and that was pretty much it.
Speaker 2: But we knew he was there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And so we're set up and John's yelping on
Speaker 1: his mouth call and I can kind of see the frustration.
Speaker 1: You just shake your head. You're like, now they're dang
Speaker 1: hind up bird or just a bird doesn't want to
Speaker 1: play the game, and you kind of I'm always hesitanting
Speaker 1: and I wouldn't have necessarily did this anyways, but you
Speaker 1: look at me and kind of pointed my box call,
Speaker 1: get your box call out like that. What so here
Speaker 1: me being real nervous, I'm like, I'm just all just
Speaker 1: call real quiet, just real light pressure. And I probably
Speaker 1: I just did a real short, not a long, maybe
Speaker 1: five yelps, pretty soft, and yeah, they hammered, like cut
Speaker 1: the end of it off, and I'm that worked.
Speaker 2: They're almost going away, yeah, until you did that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then it pulls him up. It pulled him
Speaker 1: up to our elevation. But now these birds were quite
Speaker 1: a bit to our right. But we had a real
Speaker 1: good like on the rim of this drop off, was
Speaker 1: was real clean. We're sitting there and I accidentally kind
Speaker 1: of squawked my box a little. You know, you're trying
Speaker 1: to keep that thing box quiet, and you look at
Speaker 1: me and shake your head, yeah, like go ahead and
Speaker 1: do it. And that wasn't I didn't mean to ask you,
Speaker 1: but I kind of in around about.
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm not whatever, it's gonna work.
Speaker 1: Hits the box again and so swipe it again, same thing,
Speaker 1: and then I think we'd be quiet. We we went
Speaker 1: pretty quiet there because he's real close at.
Speaker 2: That yeah, at that point, and then.
Speaker 1: We start to see three birds, and and you had
Speaker 1: made uh I'm either I heard you whisper to me
Speaker 1: or something like they're going to see you before they
Speaker 1: see me. And I'm like, so now I'm like tucked
Speaker 1: way into my tree. I got like half fly hanging out.
Speaker 1: But I do see three birds come in.
Speaker 3: I'm looking at the angle that we're set up. We're
Speaker 3: set up at a good angle over us for filming,
Speaker 3: and I look over at you and I'm like, dang,
Speaker 3: he's yeah.
Speaker 1: Because the way I took the birds, if they would
Speaker 1: have came in straighted to our left, I would have
Speaker 1: never been picked. But they came to our right, which
Speaker 1: now like exposed me way before that.
Speaker 2: You get way before I, soom get exposed.
Speaker 1: So we're sitting there and I start to see the
Speaker 1: first bird come out, and I'm like, I don't see
Speaker 1: a beard, but I And at that point it was
Speaker 1: real sunny and shady and the sun was kind of
Speaker 1: setting weird, and I'm like, jake. I thought it was
Speaker 1: a jake, right, And then I see two birds come by,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, whoa. I one had a really big,
Speaker 1: you know, beard, and then the other one came by
Speaker 1: and it looked really good. I'm all right, we got
Speaker 1: two toms and a jake is what I thought the
Speaker 1: whole time. Well, then they sit there and mess around
Speaker 1: on that top for a bit, and that hen turns
Speaker 1: towards like you know, they had heard a box call
Speaker 1: five minutes ago, but she turns directly towards us. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and takes off sprinting.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Right, oh boy.
Speaker 1: And there was a little dip between us about fifty
Speaker 1: yards out a pretty good brushy dip and then he
Speaker 1: got back up to that green grass and when she
Speaker 1: took off, both those toms took off down to the brush.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, man, I hope they don't turn left
Speaker 1: in that little crick draw and get out of here.
Speaker 1: I don't know why they're running. Are they scared? Are
Speaker 1: they running towards us? Like? What's going on? You know?
Speaker 1: I can start seeing heads bob over. Oh, here they come.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And it's like forty yard max to the minute
Speaker 3: they were showing up and get better after that.
Speaker 1: And uh, first bird goes through, I'm like, oh, let
Speaker 1: the jake go. And then the second bird I can
Speaker 1: see and I'm like, it looks like the real, you know,
Speaker 1: the good one. And I can hear. I could hear
Speaker 1: you before that tell some among something about which bird
Speaker 1: you were gonna shoot, but I couldn't hear. I can
Speaker 1: hear you guys chatting, and uh, the bird I was watching,
Speaker 1: I'm like, what's taking John so long?
Speaker 2: Why is he not shooting with the big rope?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm like, that bird's just sitting there and uh,
Speaker 1: maybe something's in his way. You know. I don't got
Speaker 1: your perspective and uh, pow, and the bird I was
Speaker 1: watching flew off. I'm like, what, John, There's no way
Speaker 1: John missed. And Simona, even off camera, said I think
Speaker 1: you missed bad.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's like he said, So I'm like, oh, man,
Speaker 3: you missed. I'm like, I didn't miss anything.
Speaker 1: We walked out there and there was some miscommunication. You
Speaker 1: had shot the bird in the back, which typically is
Speaker 1: the biggest uh tends to be for me, and and
Speaker 1: he got that bird in the middle to kind of
Speaker 1: come out of strut a little bit. And so there's
Speaker 1: you know, your bird was an old bird three years
Speaker 1: plus but great bird. Yeah, great bird, just uh, you know,
Speaker 1: he was a brawler, all tore up. But that was
Speaker 1: what I want to I told the story there a
Speaker 1: little bit, but really wanted to go back to Most
Speaker 1: people use box calls for locating birds windy days, high ridges,
Speaker 1: big country, and uh in that instance, I we've talked
Speaker 1: about the bird. I called him my wife or in
Speaker 1: for my wife, and click attap only would answer box call.
Speaker 1: I had to literally box call the thing into our
Speaker 1: lap and not necessarily box calls. But don't be afraid
Speaker 1: to try something different, try your you know, your crystal,
Speaker 1: your crystal pop call, Try your slate pot call, Try
Speaker 1: a different striker, try a box call. Try you know,
Speaker 1: if you have a diaphragm that you think is way
Speaker 1: too raspy and and not high enough pitch, try that
Speaker 1: and then go try your high pitched one. Yes, I've
Speaker 1: learned from hunting with Eric brought now hunting with you.
Speaker 1: Hunt with all of these guys that call different Chris Parrish.
Speaker 1: There are times where the way Chris Parish, which is surprising,
Speaker 1: you know, the way he calls, isn't what the want
Speaker 1: to hear that day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's a phenomenal call.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I like it. He can do whatever he
Speaker 1: wants with a call. But yet that bird wanted, you know,
Speaker 1: somebody else's old raspy call, and that's a little slower
Speaker 1: cadence and a little louder, and it's just it's one
Speaker 1: of those things where just hit him with a lot
Speaker 1: and see if you've got something in your toolbox or
Speaker 1: your arsenal that's going to get him fired. That's right,
Speaker 1: something different.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was not shy to saying, hey, Jason, get
Speaker 2: the BAX call.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, which I'm always has that there's you know,
Speaker 1: everybody's rando a box call those but some of you
Speaker 1: and you guys out there. One thing bad about a
Speaker 1: box call is it's the absolute maximum movement in order
Speaker 1: to get a turkey sound outs fact. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: diaphragms very little movement. Pop call, like I really only
Speaker 1: have to make a quarter inch circle with my fingers,
Speaker 1: but a box call, I'm having to move a paddle
Speaker 1: at least three inches minimum, and so there's a lot
Speaker 1: of movement. So I always get a little hesitant. But
Speaker 1: you either got to take the the little bit of
Speaker 1: risk that you might get saw versus the chance that
Speaker 1: none of your other calls are working right now on
Speaker 1: this bird.
Speaker 2: Yeah you're about to lose him.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, So it's it's pulling out all the stops
Speaker 1: and yeah yeah, that was That was one thing that
Speaker 1: like it reiterated what I learned back and click attack,
Speaker 1: you know ten years ago my wife's bird is like,
Speaker 1: there are times where a box call needs to be
Speaker 1: oh yeah, be used, and and it can be.
Speaker 3: A very box calls because it's really hard to beat
Speaker 3: a lot of times. I mean it wishould one with
Speaker 3: a good drop and you know, of course Jason was
Speaker 3: using a Phelps box call that kind of helped.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that uh that that box is sounded really good
Speaker 1: and we it They backed it up again this morning,
Speaker 1: and it maybe goes back to a little bit is
Speaker 1: don't be like all the other hunters. Yea, we use
Speaker 1: that box call more this morning, and you were just
Speaker 1: because it was something different. I bet you not everybody's
Speaker 1: throwing a box call at these birds and apparently once
Speaker 1: again the same as last night. I think it worked
Speaker 1: better getting birds to answer when we were like searching
Speaker 1: for that gobble or working down a ridge versus our
Speaker 1: mouth calling. So it's just you know, don't I guess
Speaker 1: the moral stories, don't be afraid to try something, you know,
Speaker 1: all the calls in your.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you may have a call you love to use,
Speaker 3: and it may always work in the past, but yeah,
Speaker 3: if a bird's not tune in into it and he's
Speaker 3: just not answering, pull out the next one, move on
Speaker 3: and keep trying.
Speaker 1: All right, So I'm gonna I'm gonna end up with
Speaker 1: a everybody's gonna stereotype me is like the guy that's
Speaker 1: definitely afraid of ticks. But I think you might have me.
Speaker 1: That's what we're gonna close on this. I I put
Speaker 1: a post on there on social media about promethrone and
Speaker 1: got I probably haven't got more questions on a specific topic.
Speaker 2: And I'll tell you right now, I'm holding one in
Speaker 2: my hand. I'm waiting for this to get you. I
Speaker 2: could get rid of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, as I was getting all the podcast stuff set up,
Speaker 1: you pulled one off of my leg and we are
Speaker 1: to set the stage here. We're literally in a dirt
Speaker 1: camping spot.
Speaker 2: There's no hass, nothing near but dirt.
Speaker 1: You went to toss your carcass last night, YEA had
Speaker 1: six on the outside of your pants, and just I
Speaker 1: shouldn't have said it because it probably made you more nervous.
Speaker 1: But I'm like, man, if you have six on the outside,
Speaker 1: image and then you trying to fall asleep. All I
Speaker 1: could hear was John over there yelling about ticks in
Speaker 1: his tent.
Speaker 2: I was like that, drop my pants now.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I was plucking them off for like I don't even
Speaker 3: know thirty minutes. They were everywhere on my legs, and
Speaker 3: I was like, you gotta be kidding me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And you said you've never I've always gotten the
Speaker 1: ticks bat over here, But you said you've never experienced
Speaker 1: something like we've had the last couple of days.
Speaker 3: I've been walking through brush and always cutting the distance
Speaker 3: through all kinds of junk, and I've you know, yeah,
Speaker 3: randomly I'll get a tick, I mean with the permeter
Speaker 3: and it's you watch them climb a little ways and
Speaker 3: just fall off. But I'll tell you what, this is
Speaker 3: a whole new game right here. And we're just sitting
Speaker 3: on dirt and there constantly we're looking down like up
Speaker 3: here comes another one walking up my legs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been so I'll just I'm gonna just do
Speaker 1: a quick recap on you know. Some of the people
Speaker 1: like where do you get it? What do you use?
Speaker 1: The two brands that I use and I use them
Speaker 1: interchangeably is repel or Sawyer. And I like to use
Speaker 1: the aerosol. I don't like to use the spray or
Speaker 1: like a squirt bottle. You know, I use squirt bottle.
Speaker 1: So I just used the aerosol. It's I think it
Speaker 1: usually comes and mix it like a half percent. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I'm I'm not here to give any advice, like
Speaker 1: there is some you know, promethrone is a poison, so
Speaker 1: do all your own due the euligence, like make sure
Speaker 1: you do not put it on your Skin's right. It
Speaker 1: needs to be put on your clothes and it needs
Speaker 1: to be allowed to dry.
Speaker 2: Yeah, your socks too, up socks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And one thing I would just recommend. I know
Speaker 1: you guys aren't hunting gaters, but like, I think I'm
Speaker 1: faring a little bit better. You and smell have had
Speaker 1: a few more on you know, get inside your pants.
Speaker 1: Like the gators are hot when it's eighty five, but
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm just avoiding dealing with them up my
Speaker 1: pants right now.
Speaker 3: You are, I'll give you that. I can't stand it
Speaker 3: when it's this hot and wearing gaters all the time.
Speaker 3: But yeah, and I'm definitely picking more ticks off the
Speaker 3: inside of my.
Speaker 1: You are you? Oh?
Speaker 3: I got to tick crowl up my boot right now.
Speaker 3: I'm telling you we're recording. I know I have one
Speaker 3: inside my pants on my leg right now. I'm holding
Speaker 3: it with my hands because I'm talking through a microphone
Speaker 3: with the other one.
Speaker 1: All right, well, I that No, we're on day two
Speaker 1: a day four of our washing the hunt. I appreciate
Speaker 1: having you on, John balth and knowledge when it comes
Speaker 1: to turkeys and uh, I want to I want to
Speaker 1: recognize you do a lot with the veterans, a lot
Speaker 1: with the youth. Can't thank you enough for for what
Speaker 1: you do for people that want to get out and
Speaker 1: experience an awesome Turkey hunt.
Speaker 3: So really by giving back, you know, we have a
Speaker 3: good time doing ourselves, but you get to a point
Speaker 3: where you just want to get back, and that that's
Speaker 3: important for all of us. So take a kid out,
Speaker 3: take a veteran out, take somebody out that's never hunted.
Speaker 3: Do whatever you gotta do to spread the sport.
Speaker 2: We need everybody out there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we appreciate it. Thanks for having Thanks for hunting
Speaker 1: with me this week. It's been been a blast. We're
Speaker 1: not even close to being done yet, so we're going
Speaker 1: to thank If you want to find out more about John,
Speaker 1: follow him on Instagram Northwest fur Chasers. The guy spends
Speaker 1: a ton of time out in the Turkey woods and
Speaker 1: knows this stuff. Thanks Sean and a