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Speaker 1: M you see that glass deal right there? Yes, Mr

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Speaker 1: Will is pointing out a big glass milk jug, probably

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Speaker 1: two foot tall. It's full of turkey feats jog of

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Speaker 1: some sort, and they're tag every once a while, I'd

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Speaker 1: go and I just remember hunts, you know, because forget

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Speaker 1: a lot of I'll jog your memory. On this episode

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Speaker 1: of the Bear Grease Podcast, we're doing something we've never done.

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Speaker 1: We've assembled an eccentric flock of turkey hunters to tell

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Speaker 1: their single favorite turkey hunting story. We'll hear from the

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Speaker 1: likes of Steve and Ronella Janice could tell us and

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Speaker 1: Will Primos, but we'll also hear from some backwoodsman who

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Speaker 1: you ain't seen on the TV, who've influenced me in

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Speaker 1: a significant way. Stories are an important part of the

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Speaker 1: human experience. The oral stories of those we respect shape

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Speaker 1: our lives. On this episode, we're going to let stories

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Speaker 1: do what's stories do. And you're not gonna want to

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Speaker 1: miss this one. And he said, I called this old

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Speaker 1: big gobbler. And he said, but when that dude come in,

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Speaker 1: he said, he come in on the other side of

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Speaker 1: the log. He said, well, I just richerd that log.

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Speaker 1: He should I grabbed him and he said the log

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Speaker 1: was something I couldn't reach over to get him on

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Speaker 1: the other side. And guy said, my god, Doc, what

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Speaker 1: you do He said, Well, I did the only thing

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Speaker 1: I could do. He said, I turned him loose and

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Speaker 1: called him around the other side. My name is Clay

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Speaker 1: Nukelem and this is the Bear Grease Podcast, where we'll

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Speaker 1: explore things forgotten but relevant, search for insight and unlikely places,

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Speaker 1: and where we'll tell the story of Americans who lived

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Speaker 1: their lives close to the land. Presented by f HF Gear,

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Speaker 1: American made purpose built hunting and fishing gear that's designed

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Speaker 1: to be as rugged as the places we explore. Oral

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Speaker 1: stories have always been important for humans. They operate using

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Speaker 1: the supernatural technology that replays a moment that's been overran

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Speaker 1: by time. The telling of the story a lots of

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Speaker 1: a second life, resuscitating it to transcend time and geography

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Speaker 1: in the mind of another human. You can't tell a

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Speaker 1: story to a dog or a horse and expect them

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Speaker 1: to get much out of it. But that's what makes

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Speaker 1: us special. The words of others shape imagery in our minds,

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Speaker 1: and in many ways it's better than actually being there.

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Speaker 1: The storyteller has rendered out the impurities and the valuable details.

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Speaker 1: Information and the takeaway of the experience is delivered to

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Speaker 1: the listener in a neat, tidy package. That is, if

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Speaker 1: the person an efficient storyteller, and stories always indicate the

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Speaker 1: values of the teller. I'm always looking for where someone

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Speaker 1: puts emphasis and shows what's important to them, because it

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Speaker 1: will show you something about their insides. Well, that was

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Speaker 1: a fancy way to say that. If you like a

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Speaker 1: good turkey hunting story, you're gonna love this podcast. Turkey

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Speaker 1: stories are different than any other kind of story because

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Speaker 1: there's always lots of action, hand gestures, ups and downs,

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Speaker 1: and turkey sounds being replicated. Told by the right person

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Speaker 1: at the right time and the right company of people.

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Speaker 1: They're hard to beat. I don't recall a better lineup

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Speaker 1: of turkey hunters and storytellers than in this year podcast.

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Speaker 1: We got them stacked like turkey beards and the cigar box.

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Speaker 1: I'd like to invite you to sit back and enjoy

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Speaker 1: a campfire with some people from my world. Every one

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Speaker 1: of them I respect in a unique way, but they've

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Speaker 1: all got one thing in common. They live for hunting

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Speaker 1: wild turkeys. This first story is told by none other

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Speaker 1: than Janice, who tell us of meat Eater. Since time immemorial,

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Speaker 1: the South has been the cultural epicenter of turkey hunting,

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Speaker 1: but the burgeoning gobbler populations of the West are spawning

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Speaker 1: some great Western turkey hunters, and Janice is one of them.

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Speaker 1: The man can flat cover some ground and chases some

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Speaker 1: turkeys hard. By my request, here's Jonnice's most memorable turkey hunt,

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Speaker 1: and his emphasis might surprise you, Clay. Here's my hunting story.

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Speaker 1: My turkey hunting story isn't necessarily a story about me.

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Speaker 1: It's it's more about my wife and where I got

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Speaker 1: to see her experience through. A turkey hunt takes place

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Speaker 1: in Montana about seven years ago, and we're gone out.

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Speaker 1: We had just moved to Montana and it was our

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Speaker 1: first spring turkey hunting in Montana. I found a spot

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Speaker 1: on a map that looked good. We drove in there,

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Speaker 1: set up a camp, started hunting. I went out first

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Speaker 1: one day, she stayed back with the kids. I might

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Speaker 1: even gotten a gobbler the first day. Um, it was good.

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Speaker 1: And so when I got back, I said, you should

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Speaker 1: go out for an afternoon and just see what you

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Speaker 1: can do. And she'd maybe been out a couple of

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Speaker 1: days with me, but very very early in her turkey

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Speaker 1: hunting career, little to no experience. I sent her out

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Speaker 1: with a slate pot call in a peg, some basic camouflage,

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Speaker 1: and she was looking at it more like I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: go out and get away from kids in life and

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Speaker 1: the craziness and just go out and enjoy the forest

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Speaker 1: and the outdoors for a few hours. This is maybe

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Speaker 1: two o'clock in the afternoon. She walks out of camp.

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Speaker 1: So the girls and I we go and hike a

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Speaker 1: little mountain nearby with glass. We go pick flower hours,

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Speaker 1: come back to camp. Maybe it's four now Mom's not

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Speaker 1: back yet. We go to leave camp as a pond nearby.

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Speaker 1: We go to the pond, try to catch some frogs,

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Speaker 1: look at turtles, throw rocks in the water. Come back

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Speaker 1: to camp. No Mom. Make dinner, kind of postpony eating dinner, waiting,

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Speaker 1: no Mom. We eat dinner, still no Mom. Starting to

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Speaker 1: get dark now this is probably May in Montana, so

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Speaker 1: the days are long. It doesn't actually get dark until

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Speaker 1: probably close to nine pm. So she's been gone six

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Speaker 1: seven hours now, and soon enough the kids are tired.

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Speaker 1: So I put them to bed. Eventually, it's like getting dusky.

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Speaker 1: I have a beer. Still no mom, no wife. Eventually,

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Speaker 1: I'm like, well, I'm gonna go to bed. She must

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Speaker 1: have gone out for a really long hike and she's

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Speaker 1: just really enjoying herself, so I'm not too worried about it.

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Speaker 1: I'm just gonna lay down next to the kids in

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Speaker 1: the tent, close my eyes. It gets really dusky, and

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Speaker 1: I'm just fading into some sleep. When all of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: that TenTen door zips open and I hear, like, oh

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Speaker 1: my gosh, they was there. I was, and I was

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Speaker 1: calling and he was calling back. Was that you calling?

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Speaker 1: I was calling? And then he was calling, and then

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Speaker 1: I think I spooked him. But then I went around

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Speaker 1: the hill and then I called some more and he

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Speaker 1: called back, and I was making these sounds and I

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Speaker 1: was doing this and he was calling in. I'm like

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Speaker 1: just waking up, and I'm like, ohoa, whoa what? Who?

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Speaker 1: Who are you? What have you done with my wife?

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Speaker 1: What is going on here right now? And she experienced

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Speaker 1: not only one, but gotten to work two different gobblers

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Speaker 1: in her whatever seven eight hours that she had spent

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Speaker 1: out there roaming the hills of Montana looking for Merriam's turkeys,

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Speaker 1: and twice had gotten to experience like the joy that

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Speaker 1: we all find in turkey hunting that I especially love,

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Speaker 1: and that's like the communication with that gobbler, with that bird,

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Speaker 1: and it just bit her so hard, like I hadn't

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Speaker 1: seen my wife so excited about a certain thing in

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Speaker 1: who knows how long, probably since the kids were born.

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Speaker 1: But she was so fired up, just like what, asking

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Speaker 1: all the questions, what did I do wrong? I should

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Speaker 1: have done this? And then she's hyper analyzing it and

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Speaker 1: just the excitement of it all, and um, of course

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Speaker 1: I'm just like kind of coming out of just almost

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Speaker 1: being asleep, and it was all hard to comprehend for

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Speaker 1: me at the moment. But in the end we saw

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Speaker 1: stout that she had been working a bird that had

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Speaker 1: actually roosted and it was on a nearby rich from camp.

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Speaker 1: It was only maybe three or four yards away, and

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Speaker 1: she said, well, I thought he was there. I think

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Speaker 1: he had roosted, and I figured I should just back

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Speaker 1: out and then come back to camp, which is the

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Speaker 1: right thing to do. But when she came out to

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Speaker 1: the road that we used to access the hunting zone,

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Speaker 1: so she says, I backed out of there, but I

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Speaker 1: left a pile of flowers in the road, and if

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Speaker 1: you take a left at that pile of flowers, you

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Speaker 1: go down the ridge, you'll run into this gobbler. So

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Speaker 1: next morning, I get up nice and early, walk down

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Speaker 1: the road. I see a pile of fresh but wilted

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Speaker 1: from being sitting out there overnight air leaf, balsam root,

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Speaker 1: bright yellow. You could, even in the dark, you could

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Speaker 1: see him from fifty six yards away the pile of flowers.

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Speaker 1: I take a left, don't go too far, sit down,

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Speaker 1: and as it cracks flight, I can hear the gobbler

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Speaker 1: start to gobble in the tree, and uh, there was

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Speaker 1: a classic hunt that morning. I worked him for probably

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Speaker 1: whatever in the tree for twenty minutes, and then on

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Speaker 1: the ground for another minutes until he finally committed and

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Speaker 1: came over the hill and I shot him. That's a

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Speaker 1: story and how my wife got hooked on turkey hunting

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Speaker 1: and hooked on communicating with turkeys. Will never forget being

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Speaker 1: woken up by a excited, energized, near forty year old

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Speaker 1: woman after communicating with a couple of gobblers in Montana.

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Speaker 1: Good one, and you'll have to wait till the end

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Speaker 1: of the podcast to hear the story of his main sidekicks.

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Speaker 1: Steve Runella, the next storyteller, is one of the best

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Speaker 1: Ozark turkey hunters I know. His name is Mo Shepherd,

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Speaker 1: and his family homesteaded in the Ozarks in the mid

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Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds. There's even a mountain named after him. Some

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Speaker 1: people are just turkey hunters, and Mo is one of them.

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Speaker 1: I hope you've got some rain gear because we're about

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Speaker 1: to get wet. Well, it's been a rough spring. I

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Speaker 1: hunted hard every day I was able to, and it

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Speaker 1: come down to the last two days of season. I

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Speaker 1: hadn't hunted in four or five days, and I decided

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Speaker 1: to go back up to my mom and dad's old

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Speaker 1: place in the mountains. Anyway, I got up there that

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Speaker 1: night before spent the night with him. It started storming

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Speaker 1: during the night, bad storms, just lighting and thundering, pouring

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Speaker 1: down rain. I had my alarms set. I got up,

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Speaker 1: and when I woke up it was still this thunder

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Speaker 1: and lightning and pouring down rain. I just shut my

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Speaker 1: alarm off. I thought, I'm gonna go back to sleep

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Speaker 1: a while, no worry that. I thought that, and the

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Speaker 1: door opened on the bedroom. By sleeping in, my dad

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Speaker 1: walks in. He says, what you're doing still in bed?

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Speaker 1: I said, well, it's stormy. He said, you can't kill

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Speaker 1: a turkey lander in bed. He said, you've hunted all

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Speaker 1: the season. Said you just well get up and go.

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Speaker 1: So I got up, got my stuff together and headed out.

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Speaker 1: Got to the place I was gonna go, and it

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Speaker 1: was still raining and thundering. I sent in the truck

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Speaker 1: for a little bit. I thought, well, I'm already out here.

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Speaker 1: I just well get out and get wet. Turkey's gonna

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Speaker 1: make a living too. And I started rounding old logging

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Speaker 1: road and it was just breaking light, and I thought, well,

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Speaker 1: I don't know if anything gon goble this morning or

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Speaker 1: not in this storm and like this, and it was thundering.

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Speaker 1: Usually they're goblet thunder and stuff, and I hadn't heard

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Speaker 1: a goble or anything. But I got the spot where

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Speaker 1: I liked the hunt. Right there there was a little

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Speaker 1: spot where two three ridges broke down off the big ridge.

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Speaker 1: Thought I'm gonna get right here and I'm on al

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Speaker 1: who al hoo did and the turkey answered me. I thought, well,

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Speaker 1: that's cool. There's the least one god were left in

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Speaker 1: here right at the end of the season. So I uh.

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Speaker 1: I got up there and got up on the hillside

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Speaker 1: and got set up and made a few soft calls.

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Speaker 1: The turkey answered me, and I just waited and I

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Speaker 1: waited and I waited, and I never did hear him

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Speaker 1: fly down. A lot of times, you don't. I was

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Speaker 1: pretty close to him. I don't noticed how close, but

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Speaker 1: I was closing, and I thought I could him fly down.

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Speaker 1: I never heard him fly down, and it was getting

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Speaker 1: pretty good light, and I thought, well, i'll call again.

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Speaker 1: I made a few soft calls. I didn't hear anything,

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Speaker 1: but I looked, and I can see a tail fan

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Speaker 1: up on the hill by me. I was in some

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Speaker 1: pine country, they're up here in those arcs. And I

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Speaker 1: got my gun up and ready, and he finally gobbled

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Speaker 1: at me a time or two, and then I seemed

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Speaker 1: making his way around towards me. And it was still

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Speaker 1: this whole time, it was just raining down, pouring down,

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Speaker 1: rain and thunder and lightning, and then he kind of vanished,

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Speaker 1: and I thought, well, he's probably had enough of this rain,

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Speaker 1: you know. And I sat there a little bit. I thought, well,

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Speaker 1: I wanna I'm gonna give you a few more calls. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: I made a few more calls. Somewhere or another, he

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Speaker 1: had circled around and he was back on the other

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Speaker 1: side of I mean, I caught movement and seen him

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Speaker 1: and he was in range of me then and my gun,

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Speaker 1: My Shotgod, and he started strutting in that rain, and

235
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Speaker 1: he come right in. And when he got in good

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Speaker 1: range of me, I just clucked at him real out,

237
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Speaker 1: and he stuck his head up and I pulled the trigger.

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Speaker 1: And I had a down turkey on the next last

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Speaker 1: day of season, and I hadn't had no luck all season. Well,

240
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Speaker 1: I got the turkey and I headed out and I

241
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Speaker 1: went home, or back to my mom and dad's. And uh,

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Speaker 1: that's a that's good, said, that's a good deal you

243
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Speaker 1: went this morning. I said, well, Dad, I wouldn't win

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Speaker 1: if you hadn't got me up, because I sure didn't

245
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Speaker 1: want to get in this weather. He said, well, it's

246
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Speaker 1: one more day. Are you gonna go to mar And

247
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Speaker 1: I said, well, I probably will. He said where you

248
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Speaker 1: gonna go? I said, I don't know. I said, I

249
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Speaker 1: thought I heard one another one goblin there this morning

250
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Speaker 1: while I was working this one. But I said, I'm

251
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Speaker 1: not sure because it was so noisy from the rain

252
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Speaker 1: and everything. Well, I went to bed that night, woke

253
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Speaker 1: up next morning to the same scenario. It was storming

254
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Speaker 1: and raining, thunder and lightening again, and I thought, man,

255
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Speaker 1: I don't know if I want to do this two

256
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Speaker 1: days in a row. About the time the door swung

257
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Speaker 1: open my dad. He said, better get up, he said,

258
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Speaker 1: if you're gonna get after another turkey, And so I

259
00:13:47,920 --> 00:13:49,800
Speaker 1: got up. He said where you gonna go? And I said,

260
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Speaker 1: I don't know. He said, why don't you go back

261
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Speaker 1: in there where you killed that when heristy? He said,

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Speaker 1: you said you thought you heard nothing. I saill, I

263
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Speaker 1: don't know if I heard one or not. He said,

264
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Speaker 1: well you said you thought you did. That's better than

265
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Speaker 1: the other place you've been listening to him. So I

266
00:14:00,440 --> 00:14:03,640
Speaker 1: drove back over the same spot, and believe us or not,

267
00:14:03,880 --> 00:14:06,280
Speaker 1: I walked around that old road. Hadn't heard a bird gobble.

268
00:14:06,360 --> 00:14:09,319
Speaker 1: It was raining hard, thundering. In I got the exact

269
00:14:09,320 --> 00:14:12,080
Speaker 1: same spot where I heard that one the morning before.

270
00:14:12,480 --> 00:14:14,520
Speaker 1: I alhoo did and another one gobble. He couldn't have

271
00:14:14,520 --> 00:14:16,920
Speaker 1: been fifty yards where the one was the morning before.

272
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Speaker 1: On that same little ridge up above the old road

273
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Speaker 1: I'd walked in on and nearly identical scenario. He didn't

274
00:14:23,040 --> 00:14:25,360
Speaker 1: go well, but a couple of times I got set up.

275
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Speaker 1: I didn't hear him fly down. One thing was when

276
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Speaker 1: he finally got fired up, he started gobbling. He gobbled

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Speaker 1: quite a bit, and thirty minutes of working maybe less

278
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Speaker 1: than that, he didn't come strutting, and he just comes

279
00:14:36,160 --> 00:14:37,920
Speaker 1: slipping in like they do sometime, just to ease and

280
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Speaker 1: a long and I finally seen him, and he got

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00:14:39,480 --> 00:14:41,640
Speaker 1: within about twenty five yards and before I could even

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Speaker 1: get a shot at him, And when he got in

283
00:14:43,280 --> 00:14:45,680
Speaker 1: the open, I pulled down my shot and took that

284
00:14:45,720 --> 00:14:48,080
Speaker 1: turkey got him, and that was too big, and they

285
00:14:48,120 --> 00:14:49,920
Speaker 1: were both big tims. I still got one of the

286
00:14:50,560 --> 00:14:52,400
Speaker 1: the last night kill. I still got his tail fan

287
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Speaker 1: and beard mounted in my house that I fixed myself.

288
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Speaker 1: That was probably twenty five or thirty years ago. I

289
00:14:57,960 --> 00:14:59,800
Speaker 1: guess it's been thirty year ago because my dad passed

290
00:14:59,800 --> 00:15:04,240
Speaker 1: away the next year after that. Most stories shows the

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Speaker 1: wisdom of age held by his father, encouraging a young

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Speaker 1: man to stay persistent, and you can take the values

293
00:15:11,080 --> 00:15:13,880
Speaker 1: of that story to the bank. Most of the time.

294
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Speaker 1: What makes a great hunter great is simply that he

295
00:15:17,680 --> 00:15:23,240
Speaker 1: showed up more than others. If you don't recognize the

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Speaker 1: voice of this next storyteller, you've been living under a

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Speaker 1: buzzard roost. This is Wilber Primost telling about his favorite

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Speaker 1: gobbler hunt. So something that's interesting. You see that glass

299
00:15:36,880 --> 00:15:38,880
Speaker 1: deal right there. Yes, I don't know what year I

300
00:15:38,920 --> 00:15:41,360
Speaker 1: quit putting them in there, but those are feating beers

301
00:15:41,480 --> 00:15:44,400
Speaker 1: and there is an aluminum tag. It's actually a tag

302
00:15:44,440 --> 00:15:46,600
Speaker 1: for a rose bush where you could imprint on the

303
00:15:46,640 --> 00:15:49,440
Speaker 1: metal and will never fade away. And their tag. Mr

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00:15:49,480 --> 00:15:52,120
Speaker 1: will is pointing that a big glass looks like a

305
00:15:52,240 --> 00:15:55,080
Speaker 1: big glass milk jug, probably two foot Talllet's full of

306
00:15:55,120 --> 00:15:59,440
Speaker 1: turkey feet jug of some sort. So I would every

307
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Speaker 1: watch while I go, and I just remember hunts, you know,

308
00:16:01,680 --> 00:16:05,120
Speaker 1: because you forget a lot of they'll jog your memory. Oh,

309
00:16:05,240 --> 00:16:08,680
Speaker 1: I was down in Capai County, Mississippi, and I got there.

310
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Speaker 1: This is a man who's got eighteen thousand acres, got

311
00:16:12,160 --> 00:16:15,280
Speaker 1: very successful industrialists, was one of my mentors in life.

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Speaker 1: And I pull up to his big house. He's there

313
00:16:17,640 --> 00:16:19,840
Speaker 1: having a little bit of coffee. He goes, where are

314
00:16:19,880 --> 00:16:22,800
Speaker 1: you gonna go hunting this morning? Will that sad? Mr Hood,

315
00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:24,760
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go wherever you tell me, he goes, I

316
00:16:24,880 --> 00:16:27,000
Speaker 1: know that, but I wanted to know where you think

317
00:16:27,040 --> 00:16:28,440
Speaker 1: you might want to go as a kno, I want

318
00:16:28,440 --> 00:16:29,760
Speaker 1: to go where you And let me tell you what.

319
00:16:29,800 --> 00:16:31,920
Speaker 1: There's a turkey up on the top of Moss Hill

320
00:16:32,240 --> 00:16:34,600
Speaker 1: and we can't kill him and you can have him.

321
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Speaker 1: Oh my god, anytime you give somebody a turkey, you're

322
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Speaker 1: the name. His name was Mr Moss because he lived

323
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Speaker 1: on Mass Hill. Here we go, so I said, well,

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00:16:42,200 --> 00:16:44,200
Speaker 1: tell me about it. He said, well, you know that hill.

325
00:16:44,280 --> 00:16:46,600
Speaker 1: I got gravel on that hill because you can't hardly

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Speaker 1: get up it without some traction. It's real, real steep,

327
00:16:49,320 --> 00:16:51,320
Speaker 1: he said. We're driving up are the top of that hill.

328
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Speaker 1: We get up on the top and we wait to

329
00:16:52,920 --> 00:16:57,080
Speaker 1: leave gobbles and usually gobbles two ridges over right below you. Okay,

330
00:16:57,320 --> 00:16:59,720
Speaker 1: he said, but he won't come. I said, okay. If

331
00:16:59,760 --> 00:17:02,400
Speaker 1: I'm driving over that spot, and I'm thinking, how am

332
00:17:02,400 --> 00:17:05,280
Speaker 1: I gonna hunt this turkey? And by myself. This is

333
00:17:05,480 --> 00:17:08,879
Speaker 1: before the days of strict video truth series, before the

334
00:17:08,920 --> 00:17:12,280
Speaker 1: Truth series, And I went, I'm on park a hundred

335
00:17:12,359 --> 00:17:14,680
Speaker 1: yards from the foot of that hill where the gravel starts,

336
00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:17,320
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna walk up at hill. I started walking

337
00:17:17,400 --> 00:17:19,919
Speaker 1: and the gravel was loud under my feet, so I

338
00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:22,120
Speaker 1: moved over to the edge and there was so much

339
00:17:22,640 --> 00:17:24,879
Speaker 1: but oak trees, and there's all hardwood, and they were louds.

340
00:17:24,960 --> 00:17:27,360
Speaker 1: I'm trying to go real slow and trying to be careful.

341
00:17:27,440 --> 00:17:28,919
Speaker 1: I get up to the top of the hill and

342
00:17:28,960 --> 00:17:31,920
Speaker 1: I wait, and that turkey gobbles right where Mr. Hood

343
00:17:31,920 --> 00:17:33,879
Speaker 1: said he was gonna be. And I ain't no way.

344
00:17:33,920 --> 00:17:36,280
Speaker 1: I can't get that turkey. All him leaves are dry.

345
00:17:36,600 --> 00:17:38,840
Speaker 1: He ain't gonna come over here. I came up with

346
00:17:38,840 --> 00:17:41,639
Speaker 1: a little planning, so I'm gonna get light. I let

347
00:17:41,720 --> 00:17:43,480
Speaker 1: it get light enough that I could see the walk.

348
00:17:43,840 --> 00:17:47,879
Speaker 1: He's gobbling steady, and so I started walking to him.

349
00:17:48,640 --> 00:17:54,000
Speaker 1: I scratching the leaves. He started gobbling non stop. He

350
00:17:54,080 --> 00:18:00,680
Speaker 1: was hearing it. And I back up and scratch a

351
00:18:00,720 --> 00:18:03,480
Speaker 1: little bit. Oh, and I'd go. So I got to

352
00:18:03,720 --> 00:18:06,280
Speaker 1: that second reage. He's right over that second one, and

353
00:18:06,280 --> 00:18:08,600
Speaker 1: I'm on the side, and I put my gun right there,

354
00:18:08,640 --> 00:18:10,560
Speaker 1: thinking he's gonna flat in and walk up if he

355
00:18:10,640 --> 00:18:12,359
Speaker 1: does come. And I sat down and I'd reached my

356
00:18:12,400 --> 00:18:14,760
Speaker 1: hand out scratching and leave. Ain't said a word, ain't yet.

357
00:18:14,880 --> 00:18:16,920
Speaker 1: One time I had my guns in there. All of

358
00:18:16,960 --> 00:18:20,960
Speaker 1: a sudden I heard big, huge wings. He lit in

359
00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:24,320
Speaker 1: a hickory tree about fifteen feet off the ground on

360
00:18:24,320 --> 00:18:27,080
Speaker 1: my left side, on the side of the hill that

361
00:18:27,119 --> 00:18:31,879
Speaker 1: I'm sitting on, and hammered it. And you're looking right

362
00:18:31,920 --> 00:18:33,760
Speaker 1: down at me. And I got my gun pointed right here,

363
00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:36,240
Speaker 1: so he's to my left, you know. And I got

364
00:18:36,240 --> 00:18:38,359
Speaker 1: my eyes cocked like that, you know, so I'm gonna

365
00:18:38,359 --> 00:18:41,960
Speaker 1: buy it. I cannot move. He gobbles again. He jumps

366
00:18:41,960 --> 00:18:45,120
Speaker 1: off that limb and lands right below that tree. He's

367
00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:48,600
Speaker 1: thirty yards from when he did that. I got it boom,

368
00:18:48,640 --> 00:18:52,560
Speaker 1: and that was in the Mr Ball. It was incredible.

369
00:18:52,720 --> 00:18:56,000
Speaker 1: I felt like I was in a gun match on

370
00:18:56,040 --> 00:18:58,960
Speaker 1: the tree, you know. I had to draw fast and

371
00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:01,760
Speaker 1: I had yeah to shoot before he did. That was

372
00:19:01,800 --> 00:19:05,880
Speaker 1: a wonderful, rewarding hunt. Yeah, and you talk about your

373
00:19:05,960 --> 00:19:08,720
Speaker 1: chest puffed up. Walk back to Mr Hood's house him

374
00:19:08,920 --> 00:19:11,159
Speaker 1: and wait on Mr Hood to show up and go

375
00:19:11,240 --> 00:19:13,520
Speaker 1: I got him. Oh my god. I was riding that,

376
00:19:13,840 --> 00:19:16,199
Speaker 1: Oh man, you could ride that was putting on a

377
00:19:16,240 --> 00:19:19,000
Speaker 1: clinic for hunting the pressure turkey, wasn't it. I guess

378
00:19:19,040 --> 00:19:21,680
Speaker 1: doing doing things have worked another day, But it worked that.

379
00:19:22,119 --> 00:19:24,159
Speaker 1: I'll be done. Didn't call him one time, And I

380
00:19:24,240 --> 00:19:26,760
Speaker 1: learned the scratching in the leaves because one day I

381
00:19:26,880 --> 00:19:29,359
Speaker 1: was walking in the leaves and I stepped in a

382
00:19:29,440 --> 00:19:32,960
Speaker 1: really loud spot talk and a turkey gobble, and immediately

383
00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:36,240
Speaker 1: hit me. He ain't just gobble, he's gobbling at me

384
00:19:36,560 --> 00:19:39,400
Speaker 1: walking to the league, Yeah, he thinks. And I stood

385
00:19:39,400 --> 00:19:42,480
Speaker 1: there in that one position, standing up, scratching with my foot,

386
00:19:42,520 --> 00:19:44,720
Speaker 1: and I almost killed that trick. I'll be done. I

387
00:19:44,720 --> 00:19:47,080
Speaker 1: can probably find Mr Moss's beard and feet in that

388
00:19:47,480 --> 00:19:52,960
Speaker 1: old right there. Will's voice, accent and passion just draw

389
00:19:53,119 --> 00:19:56,199
Speaker 1: you in. His story was chocked full of insight and

390
00:19:56,359 --> 00:19:59,840
Speaker 1: tactics that a young Wilbur learned long before he became

391
00:19:59,880 --> 00:20:02,960
Speaker 1: a legend in the turkey hunting world. But one thing

392
00:20:03,040 --> 00:20:05,320
Speaker 1: you can always count on from him is that he

393
00:20:05,440 --> 00:20:10,880
Speaker 1: delivers the excitement. You won't have heard of this next

394
00:20:10,920 --> 00:20:15,000
Speaker 1: storyteller unless you're from the same town I'm from. Andy

395
00:20:15,040 --> 00:20:17,719
Speaker 1: Brown is a name that has bounced around stories in

396
00:20:17,720 --> 00:20:20,960
Speaker 1: my county my whole life. He's as good a turkey

397
00:20:21,040 --> 00:20:24,399
Speaker 1: hunter as has ever walked these hills. Most people that

398
00:20:24,440 --> 00:20:28,160
Speaker 1: are involved in outdoor media, if they're being honest, will

399
00:20:28,200 --> 00:20:31,399
Speaker 1: admit that the vast majority of the best hunters have

400
00:20:31,640 --> 00:20:34,560
Speaker 1: never been anywhere near a camera. And those are the

401
00:20:34,640 --> 00:20:39,080
Speaker 1: kind of guys I like. Andy's son, Scott is about

402
00:20:39,160 --> 00:20:42,680
Speaker 1: my age and we've been longtime close friends. We'll hear

403
00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:47,360
Speaker 1: from Scott later, but not before Andy tells about his

404
00:20:47,560 --> 00:20:51,480
Speaker 1: first hunt in nineteen seventy one and then Scott's first

405
00:20:51,560 --> 00:20:59,520
Speaker 1: hunt in the early nineteen nineties. Here's Andy, So, growing up,

406
00:20:59,840 --> 00:21:02,280
Speaker 1: my father, he liked to hunt, he liked he was

407
00:21:02,560 --> 00:21:05,280
Speaker 1: he liked to run dogs, and and uh, he wasn't

408
00:21:05,280 --> 00:21:07,240
Speaker 1: a still hunter, and he wasn't a turkey hunter. And

409
00:21:07,280 --> 00:21:10,119
Speaker 1: he wasn't he wasn't a coon hunter when when I

410
00:21:10,160 --> 00:21:12,040
Speaker 1: was growing up. But I was fortunate and I had

411
00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:15,760
Speaker 1: a I had a uncle and uncle Laurie that took

412
00:21:15,800 --> 00:21:18,280
Speaker 1: a interest in me. And uh, anyway, he was all

413
00:21:18,320 --> 00:21:21,879
Speaker 1: of the above. He'd be trapped. He he coon hunted,

414
00:21:21,920 --> 00:21:24,160
Speaker 1: and and he was one of the first turkey hunters

415
00:21:24,440 --> 00:21:26,439
Speaker 1: to kill a turkey in Pocunty. I think in nineteen

416
00:21:26,480 --> 00:21:29,320
Speaker 1: sixty six. He was one on the list. But anyway,

417
00:21:29,520 --> 00:21:31,879
Speaker 1: I was fortunate enough to be able to spend a

418
00:21:31,920 --> 00:21:34,600
Speaker 1: lot of time with him, and and uh listened to

419
00:21:34,680 --> 00:21:37,280
Speaker 1: his stories. Of course as a kid, your bug eyed,

420
00:21:37,400 --> 00:21:39,480
Speaker 1: and uh he could tell a big story. He could

421
00:21:39,480 --> 00:21:41,679
Speaker 1: get a big chaw red man and a in a

422
00:21:41,720 --> 00:21:44,159
Speaker 1: peach cannon and he'd ran back and he'd tell a story.

423
00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:48,040
Speaker 1: And uh, he took me on my first turkey hunt,

424
00:21:48,200 --> 00:21:52,120
Speaker 1: and I think Clay was the spring of nineteen seventy one.

425
00:21:52,880 --> 00:21:55,560
Speaker 1: Up until that time, all I had heard was stories

426
00:21:56,040 --> 00:21:58,240
Speaker 1: how about how smart they were. And you know, Uncle

427
00:21:58,280 --> 00:22:00,879
Speaker 1: Auris still back in those days, was u uh the

428
00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:02,840
Speaker 1: best thing you could do once you call a turkey

429
00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:04,520
Speaker 1: is just get up and sit around on the back

430
00:22:04,560 --> 00:22:07,560
Speaker 1: side of the tree, because he's gonna come in behind you,

431
00:22:07,560 --> 00:22:10,359
Speaker 1: you know, and you can't move, you know, you don't,

432
00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:13,520
Speaker 1: you know, you've got to be still. And but anyway,

433
00:22:13,600 --> 00:22:16,000
Speaker 1: the first turkey hunt we went on was what we

434
00:22:16,080 --> 00:22:18,960
Speaker 1: called two mile Motorway. And we got over there, I

435
00:22:19,040 --> 00:22:22,399
Speaker 1: mean it was double early and and dark dark, and

436
00:22:22,440 --> 00:22:25,200
Speaker 1: had a little litle flashlight and and we got out

437
00:22:25,240 --> 00:22:28,760
Speaker 1: and we walked we walked back east or south there

438
00:22:28,800 --> 00:22:31,120
Speaker 1: to be south up the high line and we got

439
00:22:31,160 --> 00:22:32,920
Speaker 1: in there, and we put a little mountain there and

440
00:22:32,960 --> 00:22:34,520
Speaker 1: we got out on top of it, and I'll never

441
00:22:34,600 --> 00:22:37,000
Speaker 1: forget him saying to me, he said, when it starts

442
00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:39,600
Speaker 1: getting daylight, there's gonna be one gobble right here. And

443
00:22:39,640 --> 00:22:41,919
Speaker 1: I've never heard a turkey gobble in my life. And

444
00:22:41,960 --> 00:22:46,160
Speaker 1: so the anticipation was just unbelievable. And sure enough, when

445
00:22:46,160 --> 00:22:48,119
Speaker 1: it started getting just a little bit light back in

446
00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:51,120
Speaker 1: the east, just right straight across the horror, there's an old,

447
00:22:51,160 --> 00:22:53,879
Speaker 1: bigger gobble right out on top. And of course I

448
00:22:53,880 --> 00:22:55,199
Speaker 1: didn't know what to do. He said, well, we're just

449
00:22:55,200 --> 00:22:56,960
Speaker 1: gonna sit here till he flies down and see what

450
00:22:57,000 --> 00:22:59,080
Speaker 1: he does. And so he taught me a little bit

451
00:22:59,160 --> 00:23:01,960
Speaker 1: there about turkey. And he didn't like to call a

452
00:23:01,960 --> 00:23:04,520
Speaker 1: turkey on the roost until he pitched down. And that's

453
00:23:04,520 --> 00:23:06,440
Speaker 1: the way I hunted all my life. I mean not

454
00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:08,359
Speaker 1: to say that I never called one on the roost,

455
00:23:08,520 --> 00:23:10,760
Speaker 1: but I wanted him to fly down before I really

456
00:23:10,800 --> 00:23:14,120
Speaker 1: got excited with him. But anyway, the turkey flies down,

457
00:23:14,160 --> 00:23:16,720
Speaker 1: and and uh, we go down there, and he gets

458
00:23:16,720 --> 00:23:19,399
Speaker 1: some y'all set up, and and at that time I

459
00:23:19,440 --> 00:23:24,320
Speaker 1: had a eleven hundred Rimington automatic modified barrel shotgun shooting

460
00:23:24,359 --> 00:23:27,919
Speaker 1: super X shells. Number six is and I'll never forget

461
00:23:28,040 --> 00:23:30,439
Speaker 1: sitting there. And he says, now, I'm gonna get right

462
00:23:30,520 --> 00:23:32,920
Speaker 1: up behind you on the ridge here, and I'm gonna call.

463
00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:35,720
Speaker 1: And he made his own calls. He had a little

464
00:23:35,760 --> 00:23:38,360
Speaker 1: old uh he hollowed it out. He was a carpenter

465
00:23:38,520 --> 00:23:40,240
Speaker 1: and had a little bridge on it and a little

466
00:23:40,280 --> 00:23:43,480
Speaker 1: striker that he struck. He yipped with and I saw

467
00:23:43,560 --> 00:23:47,360
Speaker 1: he did. He was a three up guy and shut up.

468
00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:51,040
Speaker 1: But Turkey gobbled he calls a turkey. And he'd always

469
00:23:51,040 --> 00:23:53,040
Speaker 1: told me he sitting Now when they quit goblin, you

470
00:23:53,080 --> 00:23:55,680
Speaker 1: need to get the looking for him. I sat there.

471
00:23:56,240 --> 00:24:02,199
Speaker 1: I was afraid to even breathe. I'm mean, the anticipation was.

472
00:24:02,520 --> 00:24:06,239
Speaker 1: I can't even describe how the excitement was for me

473
00:24:06,320 --> 00:24:09,280
Speaker 1: to just sit there. And I sat there, and I

474
00:24:09,359 --> 00:24:12,680
Speaker 1: sat there, and I must have sat there for twenty minutes.

475
00:24:12,720 --> 00:24:15,000
Speaker 1: Of course, Uncle Aurie never said another word on the call.

476
00:24:15,320 --> 00:24:17,920
Speaker 1: And in a little bit about a hundred fifty yards

477
00:24:18,160 --> 00:24:21,679
Speaker 1: west of us, Turkey gobblers, he says, come on, we

478
00:24:21,760 --> 00:24:23,320
Speaker 1: get up and we leave, and so we go down

479
00:24:23,359 --> 00:24:25,120
Speaker 1: and we set up on this one. He calls him

480
00:24:25,280 --> 00:24:28,240
Speaker 1: turkey shuts up. Anyway, we sat there and sat there,

481
00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:29,960
Speaker 1: and sat there and sat there. In about that time,

482
00:24:30,080 --> 00:24:33,399
Speaker 1: the turkey that we've been we've been after start with gobbles.

483
00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:35,719
Speaker 1: Right back where we're at, there was two gobblers. And

484
00:24:36,400 --> 00:24:38,159
Speaker 1: but I said, I said all that to say this,

485
00:24:38,480 --> 00:24:41,440
Speaker 1: which I'm gonna get into my story about Scott's first

486
00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:46,000
Speaker 1: turkey hunting. That did something to me as a thirteen

487
00:24:46,119 --> 00:24:50,919
Speaker 1: year old boy. That obsessed me with turkey hunting, and

488
00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:56,000
Speaker 1: I spent I neglected, uh well, in the springtime, I

489
00:24:56,119 --> 00:24:59,000
Speaker 1: neglected my family because I spent thirty days before season

490
00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:01,840
Speaker 1: of scouting. I mean I was after him. I mean

491
00:25:01,880 --> 00:25:04,240
Speaker 1: I that I lived and breathe. That's everything I wanted

492
00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:07,080
Speaker 1: to do in life. And so with Scott growing up,

493
00:25:07,400 --> 00:25:09,879
Speaker 1: I was a little concerned because, like I said, I

494
00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:12,360
Speaker 1: didn't make it. I didn't make it fun for him

495
00:25:12,359 --> 00:25:15,080
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways. But his first turkey hunt,

496
00:25:15,480 --> 00:25:17,879
Speaker 1: we took off and it was probably I don't know,

497
00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:20,119
Speaker 1: half three quarters of miles to the top of the mountain.

498
00:25:20,400 --> 00:25:22,080
Speaker 1: So we pulled it on the top and what we

499
00:25:22,119 --> 00:25:24,840
Speaker 1: call the low gap, and there was a fine, fine morning,

500
00:25:25,160 --> 00:25:28,159
Speaker 1: nothing I mean got daylight. No turkey's goblin. And so

501
00:25:28,520 --> 00:25:30,760
Speaker 1: we fell off the north side and went down through

502
00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:33,080
Speaker 1: a divide into a little low with I don't know you,

503
00:25:33,200 --> 00:25:36,400
Speaker 1: just a little high ridge that lays uh north in there,

504
00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:38,840
Speaker 1: and and all of a sudden, a turkey gobbles behind us,

505
00:25:38,840 --> 00:25:40,360
Speaker 1: back up on the mountain the way we come off,

506
00:25:40,600 --> 00:25:42,680
Speaker 1: and I said, look here, I said, we're gonna get

507
00:25:42,680 --> 00:25:46,480
Speaker 1: that dude, you know, so we we uh anyway, I

508
00:25:46,560 --> 00:25:49,280
Speaker 1: got Scott set up, and of course, you know, looking

509
00:25:49,320 --> 00:25:51,280
Speaker 1: back on the way I did it, I did it wrong.

510
00:25:51,320 --> 00:25:52,719
Speaker 1: I didn't put him. You know, I should have had

511
00:25:52,760 --> 00:25:54,720
Speaker 1: him between my legs where I could talk to him.

512
00:25:54,880 --> 00:25:57,800
Speaker 1: But I had always tooke up Scott. I said, Scott,

513
00:25:58,040 --> 00:25:59,800
Speaker 1: trying not to shoot one walk And I said, but

514
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:01,800
Speaker 1: I was. When they're walking. I said, there's a lot

515
00:26:01,800 --> 00:26:04,040
Speaker 1: of air around those dudes. And I said, you know,

516
00:26:04,160 --> 00:26:07,760
Speaker 1: wait till they stop. Anyway, I got Scott set up,

517
00:26:07,760 --> 00:26:09,920
Speaker 1: and I told, turkey's right there, gobbling one gobbles out

518
00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:12,280
Speaker 1: west of us out there. I called him. He gobbles

519
00:26:12,359 --> 00:26:14,359
Speaker 1: right back, and then this all of a sudden, here

520
00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:19,680
Speaker 1: he kept, you know, just drumming every every crunch, snap crunch,

521
00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:23,600
Speaker 1: snap crunch, And I look up and here that dude

522
00:26:23,600 --> 00:26:26,800
Speaker 1: comes right down. He's gunning barrel. I mean just right.

523
00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:29,040
Speaker 1: Scott's got is g gonn up and he's coming right down.

524
00:26:29,080 --> 00:26:32,320
Speaker 1: He's gunning barrel right. He just kept coming and I'm

525
00:26:32,320 --> 00:26:35,040
Speaker 1: going shoot, he's got shoot him. And he just kept

526
00:26:35,160 --> 00:26:37,360
Speaker 1: coming and kept coming, and finally he gets out there

527
00:26:37,359 --> 00:26:39,560
Speaker 1: about fifteen steps and he just turns and he just

528
00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:43,440
Speaker 1: walks off in the r get up and I go

529
00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:45,560
Speaker 1: out there and I said, wine, world one you shooting

530
00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:47,479
Speaker 1: that turkey? You know? I mean, I'm I'm double being

531
00:26:47,520 --> 00:26:50,600
Speaker 1: out of shape about that, you though, And he says, well, Dad,

532
00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:54,200
Speaker 1: you told me not one walking walking right to you,

533
00:26:54,200 --> 00:26:57,520
Speaker 1: you know. And I said, that's okay. This one gobbles

534
00:26:57,560 --> 00:27:00,480
Speaker 1: over here. And so we just immediately I said, come on,

535
00:27:00,520 --> 00:27:02,119
Speaker 1: we'll go kill that. When we just went and we

536
00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:03,840
Speaker 1: went west of him, pull the top of the mountain,

537
00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:05,840
Speaker 1: got in above him, and there was a big old

538
00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:08,399
Speaker 1: log laid down on right up on top where it

539
00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:10,600
Speaker 1: topped out there, and there was a limb kind of

540
00:27:10,640 --> 00:27:13,560
Speaker 1: went out like this, and I put Scott right between

541
00:27:13,560 --> 00:27:16,639
Speaker 1: the log and the limb and the big Steve Holler

542
00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:19,160
Speaker 1: and I just got over behind the log. I called

543
00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:21,159
Speaker 1: it old gobbler man. He just he just broke me

544
00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:23,679
Speaker 1: off down there. And here he comes to scrunch snap

545
00:27:23,680 --> 00:27:25,760
Speaker 1: of that ridge. Well, Scott's got his gun like this

546
00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:28,760
Speaker 1: right here. Well when he comes up, he comes up

547
00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:31,760
Speaker 1: out of the holler right here. Well Scott just throws

548
00:27:31,800 --> 00:27:36,400
Speaker 1: that gun up over that hill. Anyway, that one flies off,

549
00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:39,240
Speaker 1: And so I ripped him pretty good like that, and

550
00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:42,719
Speaker 1: he's got his lip pooched out pretty good. And you know,

551
00:27:42,800 --> 00:27:45,720
Speaker 1: I've doubled bent out of shape because he, you know, moved.

552
00:27:46,320 --> 00:27:48,320
Speaker 1: You can't do the two big gobblers. You know. To

553
00:27:48,359 --> 00:27:51,520
Speaker 1: make a long story short, we never fired a shot

554
00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:56,800
Speaker 1: that morning. So so we go back to camp. And anyway,

555
00:27:56,880 --> 00:27:58,959
Speaker 1: so we get up the next morning and we go

556
00:27:59,080 --> 00:28:01,640
Speaker 1: south to camp down in the ridges, and we get

557
00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:04,080
Speaker 1: down there and we get on some gobbers down there,

558
00:28:04,119 --> 00:28:06,800
Speaker 1: and and he's got that eight seventy and I've got

559
00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:09,760
Speaker 1: him on a leg just kind of out from me there,

560
00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:12,520
Speaker 1: and I called him a old turkeys in here. They

561
00:28:12,560 --> 00:28:15,240
Speaker 1: come right up that ridge and about the time I'm

562
00:28:15,240 --> 00:28:17,160
Speaker 1: gonna say get it, let him get a little closer,

563
00:28:17,400 --> 00:28:19,960
Speaker 1: cur wam, and he kills the first one. Anyway, he

564
00:28:20,040 --> 00:28:22,040
Speaker 1: killed his first turkey and I've got a I've got

565
00:28:22,040 --> 00:28:24,000
Speaker 1: a picture of that, and he was proud of it.

566
00:28:24,040 --> 00:28:27,000
Speaker 1: And he was certainly not even more proud than I was.

567
00:28:27,160 --> 00:28:31,320
Speaker 1: But it's kind of neat to have kids that, uh,

568
00:28:31,560 --> 00:28:33,359
Speaker 1: you know, they've turned out. Scott's the next on turkey

569
00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:34,560
Speaker 1: in and I think he's one of the best there

570
00:28:34,640 --> 00:28:37,320
Speaker 1: is in this country. He's he's he's very good at

571
00:28:37,359 --> 00:28:39,480
Speaker 1: what he does. And I would like to think I

572
00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:41,560
Speaker 1: have a little bit of that. But I was not

573
00:28:41,720 --> 00:28:47,400
Speaker 1: easy on him as a father. And he has one

574
00:28:47,520 --> 00:28:50,640
Speaker 1: more story to tell. And I bet you're gonna like

575
00:28:50,760 --> 00:28:54,360
Speaker 1: this one. Does the frequency of this one sound familiar?

576
00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:58,240
Speaker 1: And and just one more little story. I had God

577
00:28:58,360 --> 00:29:01,360
Speaker 1: tell me one time. And he talked about a renowned

578
00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:04,720
Speaker 1: turkey hunter down to South Louisiana called Doc Robern. He

579
00:29:04,760 --> 00:29:06,960
Speaker 1: said he was he was well known, He's supposed to

580
00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:08,960
Speaker 1: be the best turkey hunter there was in that country.

581
00:29:08,960 --> 00:29:11,239
Speaker 1: And he said, I sat in the coffee shop one

582
00:29:11,280 --> 00:29:13,360
Speaker 1: morning and says, old Doc walks in there in turkey

583
00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:16,160
Speaker 1: said he said, Doc, He said, how did you do this? More?

584
00:29:16,240 --> 00:29:18,240
Speaker 1: He's a man I killed the big in this morning,

585
00:29:18,280 --> 00:29:21,280
Speaker 1: he said, he said, Well, tell me the story. He said,

586
00:29:21,280 --> 00:29:22,840
Speaker 1: that's what I live for, He said, tell me what

587
00:29:22,920 --> 00:29:25,480
Speaker 1: happened this morning? He said, well, he said, you ain't

588
00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:28,520
Speaker 1: gonna believe this, But he said, as I was out there,

589
00:29:28,760 --> 00:29:32,160
Speaker 1: he said, laying by a log, he said, and he said,

590
00:29:32,160 --> 00:29:34,480
Speaker 1: I called this old big gobbler and he said he

591
00:29:34,560 --> 00:29:37,160
Speaker 1: dis answered me right back, and he said, he said,

592
00:29:37,160 --> 00:29:39,040
Speaker 1: but when that dude come in, he said, he come

593
00:29:39,080 --> 00:29:42,400
Speaker 1: in on the other side of the log. He said,

594
00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:44,680
Speaker 1: my god, Doc, what happened? He said, Well, he just

595
00:29:44,760 --> 00:29:46,720
Speaker 1: walked right on the other side of the log, and

596
00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:49,320
Speaker 1: he said I could look under that log and I

597
00:29:49,320 --> 00:29:53,320
Speaker 1: could see him standing there by me. He said, Doc,

598
00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:55,560
Speaker 1: what you do? He said, well, like this ritcher that log,

599
00:29:55,640 --> 00:29:58,320
Speaker 1: and he said, I grabbed him and he said he

600
00:29:58,360 --> 00:30:00,280
Speaker 1: was too big. He said, I was trying to him

601
00:30:00,320 --> 00:30:02,600
Speaker 1: under the log. He said, I couldn't get him under there.

602
00:30:02,640 --> 00:30:05,520
Speaker 1: He's too big. And he said the log was some big.

603
00:30:05,560 --> 00:30:07,800
Speaker 1: I couldn't reach over to get him on the other side.

604
00:30:07,840 --> 00:30:10,240
Speaker 1: And guy said, my god, Doc, what you do? He said,

605
00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:13,360
Speaker 1: will I did the only thing I could do. He said,

606
00:30:13,360 --> 00:30:15,720
Speaker 1: I turned him loose and called him around the other side.

607
00:30:22,040 --> 00:30:25,640
Speaker 1: That's a turkey huttter right there. That's a turkey gettor

608
00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:33,960
Speaker 1: right there. This is my good buddy, Brent Reeves. He's

609
00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:37,280
Speaker 1: a lifelong turkey hunter, and a good one at that.

610
00:30:37,640 --> 00:30:41,480
Speaker 1: This story involves some family, the Saline River bottoms, a

611
00:30:41,560 --> 00:30:47,800
Speaker 1: tough turkey, and some mosquitoes. Now this story happened over

612
00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:50,840
Speaker 1: twenty five years ago, but it was turkey season, was

613
00:30:50,880 --> 00:30:53,240
Speaker 1: going into the second week of turkey season. I'd already

614
00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:56,960
Speaker 1: killed one, but my brother hadn't. And we always did

615
00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:00,880
Speaker 1: everything together. We were goose hunted, we squirrel hunted, we

616
00:31:01,120 --> 00:31:04,760
Speaker 1: duck hunted, any kind of hunting, fishing, whatever we always

617
00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:08,760
Speaker 1: did together, except turkey hunting. Turkey hunting was it was

618
00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:12,400
Speaker 1: understood that every man was on his own. But we're

619
00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:14,960
Speaker 1: getting into two weeks in the season and he calls

620
00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:17,560
Speaker 1: one night and asked me what I'm doing. The next

621
00:31:17,600 --> 00:31:20,040
Speaker 1: morning and said, what, it's still turkey season, naming I'm

622
00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:22,200
Speaker 1: turkey hunting. He said, look, I need you to help

623
00:31:22,240 --> 00:31:24,760
Speaker 1: me do something. And I thought, oh my gosh, he

624
00:31:24,920 --> 00:31:27,520
Speaker 1: wants me to help him work on something. It's turkey season.

625
00:31:27,680 --> 00:31:30,560
Speaker 1: I guess apparently he's given up. But whatever it is,

626
00:31:30,640 --> 00:31:33,040
Speaker 1: he's my brother, so I'm gonna help him. I said, well,

627
00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:34,440
Speaker 1: what is it? And he says, I want you to

628
00:31:34,480 --> 00:31:38,160
Speaker 1: come help me kill this turkey. I'm like, what turkey?

629
00:31:38,520 --> 00:31:40,800
Speaker 1: He said. Look, I'm gonna be honest. I've been hunting

630
00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:44,440
Speaker 1: this turkey every day for eleven days in a row.

631
00:31:45,520 --> 00:31:48,160
Speaker 1: In eleven days in the row, I have zigged when

632
00:31:48,200 --> 00:31:51,040
Speaker 1: I should have zagged. He's done everything in the world

633
00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:53,120
Speaker 1: opposite of what he did the day before. If I

634
00:31:53,160 --> 00:31:55,320
Speaker 1: set up on the north side of him, he flies

635
00:31:55,360 --> 00:31:57,600
Speaker 1: down to the south. For two days in a row,

636
00:31:57,680 --> 00:31:59,520
Speaker 1: he'll do that. On the third day I set up

637
00:31:59,520 --> 00:32:01,720
Speaker 1: on the south side, He'll fly down to the north.

638
00:32:02,080 --> 00:32:04,560
Speaker 1: He's doing everything. He's reading my mind. And the only

639
00:32:04,560 --> 00:32:06,120
Speaker 1: way I think I can kill him as if we

640
00:32:06,160 --> 00:32:10,120
Speaker 1: tag team him. Will you help me? Well, yes, yes,

641
00:32:10,240 --> 00:32:12,360
Speaker 1: I will help you. And all the time and in

642
00:32:12,440 --> 00:32:14,880
Speaker 1: my mind I'm thinking I'm gonna kill that turkey. So

643
00:32:15,560 --> 00:32:19,200
Speaker 1: the next morning I get to his house well before daylight.

644
00:32:19,480 --> 00:32:21,880
Speaker 1: He's got breakfast ready, and we sat and we have

645
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:25,040
Speaker 1: breakfast and we drink coffee, and we discussed on how

646
00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:27,160
Speaker 1: we're gonna attack this turkey. And he tells me then

647
00:32:27,160 --> 00:32:30,040
Speaker 1: where he's at down the river bottoms. So with breakfast

648
00:32:30,080 --> 00:32:32,800
Speaker 1: at we uh we load up in his truck and

649
00:32:32,920 --> 00:32:35,080
Speaker 1: down the road we go. Now where this is at

650
00:32:35,280 --> 00:32:38,080
Speaker 1: is in the Sleen River bottoms in Cleveland County. There's

651
00:32:38,120 --> 00:32:41,120
Speaker 1: a boat ramp there that's named after my father. My

652
00:32:41,240 --> 00:32:46,280
Speaker 1: family's connection with that area and that hunting ground is

653
00:32:46,960 --> 00:32:50,200
Speaker 1: go dates back to when our family helped settle that

654
00:32:50,280 --> 00:32:52,960
Speaker 1: part of Arkansas before the Civil War. So it's we

655
00:32:53,200 --> 00:32:55,440
Speaker 1: to say that we've got a connection to that place

656
00:32:55,520 --> 00:32:59,840
Speaker 1: down there is is a very huge understatement. But anyway,

657
00:32:59,840 --> 00:33:01,960
Speaker 1: we get down there, we park on the side of

658
00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:04,000
Speaker 1: the road, the gravel road, and there's an old dim

659
00:33:04,040 --> 00:33:06,360
Speaker 1: logging road that goes up into the woods. And that's

660
00:33:06,360 --> 00:33:09,040
Speaker 1: where he's been here in this turkey gobblin every morning

661
00:33:09,160 --> 00:33:11,520
Speaker 1: two or three days before the season it started, so

662
00:33:11,800 --> 00:33:15,360
Speaker 1: actually about fifteen days in a row this turkey has gobbled,

663
00:33:15,720 --> 00:33:19,600
Speaker 1: Tim said, from the same tree, almost on the same

664
00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:24,040
Speaker 1: couple of acres. Anyway, so morning number twelve, we're sitting there,

665
00:33:24,480 --> 00:33:29,160
Speaker 1: birds start chirping a little bit. It gets goblin time. Nothing,

666
00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:34,640
Speaker 1: it gets on past first goblin time, nothing, nothing, no

667
00:33:34,760 --> 00:33:38,800
Speaker 1: turkeys anywhere. It gets past fly down time. Nothing, not

668
00:33:38,960 --> 00:33:41,000
Speaker 1: a peat. So he said, well, let's go down the

669
00:33:41,080 --> 00:33:43,840
Speaker 1: road to another spot. Let's make a big loop up

670
00:33:43,880 --> 00:33:45,840
Speaker 1: through the woods. Let's see if we can strike up

671
00:33:45,840 --> 00:33:48,160
Speaker 1: a gobbler. So that's what we do. We drive about

672
00:33:48,200 --> 00:33:49,880
Speaker 1: half mile down the road, we get out of the

673
00:33:49,880 --> 00:33:53,280
Speaker 1: truck and we start walking. We make a huge loop

674
00:33:53,360 --> 00:33:55,920
Speaker 1: up through the bottoms, up through the river bottoms, and

675
00:33:55,960 --> 00:33:59,040
Speaker 1: we never find or here a turkey. We find lots

676
00:33:59,040 --> 00:34:01,760
Speaker 1: of fresh sign but we don't do any good. So

677
00:34:01,840 --> 00:34:04,640
Speaker 1: it's now it's after ten when we get back to

678
00:34:04,680 --> 00:34:07,800
Speaker 1: the truck and we're we're just defeated. I just knew

679
00:34:07,840 --> 00:34:09,920
Speaker 1: I was gonna be the good luck charm for that,

680
00:34:09,960 --> 00:34:12,239
Speaker 1: but also I was kind of aggravated that I had

681
00:34:12,239 --> 00:34:15,520
Speaker 1: wasted my morning to kill my second turkey down there

682
00:34:15,719 --> 00:34:18,400
Speaker 1: helping my brother in his feudal attempt with this turkey

683
00:34:18,440 --> 00:34:21,319
Speaker 1: that was obviously smarter than both of us. So on

684
00:34:21,360 --> 00:34:22,960
Speaker 1: the way out, he says, you know, I'm gonna pull

685
00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:25,600
Speaker 1: back in and see if I can uh make this

686
00:34:25,640 --> 00:34:29,040
Speaker 1: turkey gobblin old hickory nut, old tough one. So he

687
00:34:29,120 --> 00:34:31,440
Speaker 1: pulls over on the side of the road there. I

688
00:34:31,560 --> 00:34:35,400
Speaker 1: just cracked my window to listen because it's it's dinner time.

689
00:34:35,760 --> 00:34:38,080
Speaker 1: And for those of you that don't know, down here

690
00:34:38,120 --> 00:34:40,879
Speaker 1: we eat breakfast, and then we eat dinner at noon,

691
00:34:41,040 --> 00:34:43,080
Speaker 1: and then we eat supper. So now you know the

692
00:34:43,120 --> 00:34:45,400
Speaker 1: time of the day I'm talking about. So he walks

693
00:34:45,400 --> 00:34:47,760
Speaker 1: in front of this truck. He's got an old box

694
00:34:47,800 --> 00:34:50,279
Speaker 1: call in his hand, and and he doesn't get to

695
00:34:50,360 --> 00:34:53,560
Speaker 1: the third yelp on that box when that turkey gobbled

696
00:34:53,560 --> 00:34:55,719
Speaker 1: out there, and he couldn't have been more than a

697
00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:59,480
Speaker 1: hundred yards. It was so loud in the truck that

698
00:34:59,520 --> 00:35:01,640
Speaker 1: I thought he could see it. So we were so close.

699
00:35:02,120 --> 00:35:06,000
Speaker 1: And the look of astonishment and amazement and surprise and

700
00:35:06,120 --> 00:35:09,200
Speaker 1: fear on my brother's face when he turned and looked

701
00:35:09,200 --> 00:35:11,880
Speaker 1: at me sitting in the cabin of the truck was

702
00:35:11,920 --> 00:35:14,720
Speaker 1: a look I'll never forget. So I eased the door open,

703
00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:17,960
Speaker 1: grabbed my call, and up the road. I mean, we

704
00:35:18,040 --> 00:35:20,960
Speaker 1: are tiptoeing up this road. It's a little dim road

705
00:35:20,960 --> 00:35:23,440
Speaker 1: to get away from the truck, just far enough and

706
00:35:23,480 --> 00:35:27,120
Speaker 1: at an angle that you can't see the truck that

707
00:35:27,280 --> 00:35:29,520
Speaker 1: that's parked there on the gravel. So we get just

708
00:35:29,640 --> 00:35:31,919
Speaker 1: out of side of that truck and we sat down.

709
00:35:32,120 --> 00:35:35,760
Speaker 1: And our plan had been for him to sit close

710
00:35:35,960 --> 00:35:38,520
Speaker 1: and me to sit behind him, or at a different angle,

711
00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:41,440
Speaker 1: and maybe I could we could get the turkey working

712
00:35:41,760 --> 00:35:43,759
Speaker 1: and then I could take over the calling and he

713
00:35:43,800 --> 00:35:46,279
Speaker 1: would come on end to investigating, and Tim would be

714
00:35:46,320 --> 00:35:47,920
Speaker 1: close to him, and he had dropped the hammer on.

715
00:35:48,680 --> 00:35:52,640
Speaker 1: But this morning, since we had no time to prep

716
00:35:52,920 --> 00:35:55,600
Speaker 1: no no time to get where we initially plan to do.

717
00:35:55,840 --> 00:35:57,960
Speaker 1: When we sat down, we sat down beside each other.

718
00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:01,040
Speaker 1: He is his shoulders touching my show older. Now we're

719
00:36:01,080 --> 00:36:04,120
Speaker 1: staring out and through this the bottom, and it's it's

720
00:36:04,120 --> 00:36:07,080
Speaker 1: a hardwood bottom, but there's there's some undergrowth in there,

721
00:36:07,080 --> 00:36:09,920
Speaker 1: and there's some briar bushes, and there's a few small

722
00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:12,359
Speaker 1: trees and the leaves have put out pretty good. So

723
00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:16,040
Speaker 1: it's while it's open, there still is places where you

724
00:36:16,080 --> 00:36:18,040
Speaker 1: could actually move. A turkey could walk through there and

725
00:36:18,080 --> 00:36:20,640
Speaker 1: you wouldn't be able to see him. So my brother

726
00:36:21,280 --> 00:36:24,359
Speaker 1: sticks his mouth, calling his mouth, he makes lot up

727
00:36:24,360 --> 00:36:27,400
Speaker 1: in the turkey gobbles. I mean, he's just wow. I

728
00:36:27,480 --> 00:36:31,040
Speaker 1: mean it's right there. And I look and my brother says,

729
00:36:31,200 --> 00:36:33,439
Speaker 1: he whispers to me, can you see him? I said, yeah,

730
00:36:33,680 --> 00:36:36,400
Speaker 1: I can see his fan. He said, don't shoot him.

731
00:36:36,600 --> 00:36:39,560
Speaker 1: I said, okay, I want I need to mention that.

732
00:36:39,840 --> 00:36:43,600
Speaker 1: When we sat down there, the mosquitoes were so thick

733
00:36:44,120 --> 00:36:46,239
Speaker 1: and in the grass on the edge of that road,

734
00:36:46,320 --> 00:36:48,399
Speaker 1: and it sounds like a covered quail. When we sat down,

735
00:36:48,400 --> 00:36:53,240
Speaker 1: it was just a constant buzzing until that turkey gobbled.

736
00:36:53,480 --> 00:36:56,080
Speaker 1: And when he did that, all our attention was directed

737
00:36:56,120 --> 00:36:59,560
Speaker 1: towards him, and I forgot about the mosquito. So I'm

738
00:36:59,560 --> 00:37:01,960
Speaker 1: looking at him and I said, can you see him? No,

739
00:37:02,120 --> 00:37:04,399
Speaker 1: I can't see him. I said, what I can see him?

740
00:37:04,640 --> 00:37:07,360
Speaker 1: Tim said, don't shoot him. I said, okay, I won't shoot.

741
00:37:07,840 --> 00:37:10,720
Speaker 1: Where's he? I said, he's straight down my gun barrel.

742
00:37:10,880 --> 00:37:14,279
Speaker 1: I'm looking at it. Can you see him? He says, no, No,

743
00:37:14,400 --> 00:37:16,839
Speaker 1: I can't see him. Please don't shoot him. I said,

744
00:37:16,840 --> 00:37:19,600
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna shoot. Turkey goes behind some bushes, said

745
00:37:19,600 --> 00:37:22,000
Speaker 1: I can't see him, and here my brother go make

746
00:37:22,080 --> 00:37:25,680
Speaker 1: a soft moment. He just went m I thought that

747
00:37:25,880 --> 00:37:28,600
Speaker 1: he's scared. This turkey's gonna get away. About the time

748
00:37:28,640 --> 00:37:30,680
Speaker 1: the turkey walks out behind that bush and he's coming

749
00:37:30,719 --> 00:37:33,719
Speaker 1: towards us. Now, this turkey is fifty yards and he's

750
00:37:33,719 --> 00:37:36,439
Speaker 1: getting close to the gun range for sure, but he's

751
00:37:36,440 --> 00:37:39,880
Speaker 1: walking towards us, and he's not scared. And the goal

752
00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:42,440
Speaker 1: for this mission is for my brother to kill this turkey.

753
00:37:42,880 --> 00:37:44,919
Speaker 1: I said, I can see him. He said, please don't

754
00:37:44,960 --> 00:37:48,319
Speaker 1: kill him. I'm like, okay, I won't kill him. I

755
00:37:48,320 --> 00:37:50,560
Speaker 1: thought he was fixing a cry. But the turkey makes

756
00:37:50,600 --> 00:37:53,000
Speaker 1: two or three more steps, goes into full stred. I said,

757
00:37:53,040 --> 00:37:55,600
Speaker 1: can you see him? He said no, please don't kill him.

758
00:37:55,640 --> 00:37:57,279
Speaker 1: I said, I'm not going to kill him. Then my

759
00:37:57,280 --> 00:38:01,880
Speaker 1: brother went and I and here he's grunting, he's straining,

760
00:38:02,239 --> 00:38:05,040
Speaker 1: and I don't have any idea what what the problem is.

761
00:38:05,080 --> 00:38:07,920
Speaker 1: But I can't look over at him to see him,

762
00:38:07,920 --> 00:38:10,759
Speaker 1: because the turkey is within forty yards now, and there's

763
00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:13,120
Speaker 1: no way that he wouldn't see either one of us moved.

764
00:38:13,600 --> 00:38:16,680
Speaker 1: My brother keeps making that sound. I thought maybe he

765
00:38:16,719 --> 00:38:18,960
Speaker 1: was having a stroke. I didn't know what was going on.

766
00:38:19,440 --> 00:38:22,279
Speaker 1: But finally he says, I see him. I said, you

767
00:38:22,520 --> 00:38:25,319
Speaker 1: can you kill him? And boom, his shotgun goes off.

768
00:38:25,680 --> 00:38:29,000
Speaker 1: Old turkey rolls over and commences the flopping. We get

769
00:38:29,080 --> 00:38:31,440
Speaker 1: up and run out there and we're he's got his

770
00:38:31,440 --> 00:38:34,000
Speaker 1: foot on his neck and we're high fiving and hugging

771
00:38:34,080 --> 00:38:37,319
Speaker 1: and talking about all the things that culminated in that

772
00:38:37,480 --> 00:38:41,400
Speaker 1: hard morning to hunting that finally we're we're victorious and

773
00:38:41,480 --> 00:38:43,719
Speaker 1: standing there looking at that turkey on the ground, A

774
00:38:43,719 --> 00:38:46,840
Speaker 1: big turkey too, And I said, hey, that racket that

775
00:38:46,920 --> 00:38:50,040
Speaker 1: you was making, What in the world was that? He said, huh,

776
00:38:50,200 --> 00:38:52,440
Speaker 1: I said, while we were sitting there beside one another,

777
00:38:52,760 --> 00:38:55,280
Speaker 1: you kept talking and then he was grunting or straining

778
00:38:55,840 --> 00:38:58,440
Speaker 1: or something. They just I didn't what was going on.

779
00:38:58,800 --> 00:39:01,759
Speaker 1: He said, Oh, man, remember moskeeters back there. I'm like, yeah,

780
00:39:01,840 --> 00:39:04,240
Speaker 1: I do, I sure do. It was at this point

781
00:39:04,880 --> 00:39:08,680
Speaker 1: my brother described how multitude of mosquitoes had taken roost

782
00:39:08,719 --> 00:39:12,160
Speaker 1: in his nether regions and proceeded to give him a

783
00:39:12,400 --> 00:39:16,600
Speaker 1: very painful one way blood transfusion. He said it was

784
00:39:16,760 --> 00:39:19,720
Speaker 1: almost to the point where he couldn't keep the wagonhage.

785
00:39:20,480 --> 00:39:24,319
Speaker 1: Anyway he did, We prevailed, and we got the turkey.

786
00:39:25,239 --> 00:39:31,600
Speaker 1: Ha another regions. For a cornbread connoisseur, this was pretty diplomatic.

787
00:39:32,040 --> 00:39:35,279
Speaker 1: You ever considered working for the United Nations? Pretty boy

788
00:39:35,400 --> 00:39:40,359
Speaker 1: reeves switching gears. This next story is one of my

789
00:39:40,480 --> 00:39:45,160
Speaker 1: personal favorites. It involves a tough public gland gobbler and

790
00:39:45,280 --> 00:39:50,160
Speaker 1: some lightning. I'll be telling this story. It was late

791
00:39:50,239 --> 00:39:55,120
Speaker 1: April and I've been hearing a couple of birds roosting

792
00:39:55,280 --> 00:39:58,960
Speaker 1: on a big pine ridge across a big holler from

793
00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:01,960
Speaker 1: where I was hunt. I decided that I would look

794
00:40:01,960 --> 00:40:04,440
Speaker 1: on a map, which I didn't have on x back

795
00:40:04,480 --> 00:40:06,560
Speaker 1: in those days, looked out a map, figured out how

796
00:40:06,560 --> 00:40:09,120
Speaker 1: to drive around there closer than I went in the

797
00:40:09,160 --> 00:40:12,320
Speaker 1: next afternoon, and I took my son Bear John nucom

798
00:40:12,440 --> 00:40:14,319
Speaker 1: with me and it was gonna be one of his

799
00:40:14,480 --> 00:40:17,399
Speaker 1: first kind of real turkey hunts where we had a gun,

800
00:40:17,560 --> 00:40:20,480
Speaker 1: we're actually on birds. I took him out of school

801
00:40:20,600 --> 00:40:23,560
Speaker 1: and we went over there. My plan was to just

802
00:40:23,640 --> 00:40:26,160
Speaker 1: get within you know, a hundred yards where I felt

803
00:40:26,160 --> 00:40:29,160
Speaker 1: like they were roosting, set up and just call lightly

804
00:40:29,200 --> 00:40:31,399
Speaker 1: all afternoon and just see if we call on him. Well,

805
00:40:31,440 --> 00:40:33,839
Speaker 1: we get over there, set up the blind. I yelled

806
00:40:34,040 --> 00:40:37,360
Speaker 1: Tira to cackle a little bit, and I go to

807
00:40:37,400 --> 00:40:40,319
Speaker 1: sleep and Bears sitting there and I kind of had

808
00:40:40,400 --> 00:40:43,560
Speaker 1: him scratching on a slate, call and he's having a

809
00:40:43,560 --> 00:40:45,680
Speaker 1: good time. Got him some snacks and drinks and stuff,

810
00:40:45,719 --> 00:40:48,920
Speaker 1: and I'm dead asleep after probably thirty minutes, and we've

811
00:40:48,960 --> 00:40:51,480
Speaker 1: got probably two and a half three hours before dark,

812
00:40:51,960 --> 00:40:55,320
Speaker 1: and directly I Bear starts poking, and he says, Daddy,

813
00:40:55,360 --> 00:40:58,239
Speaker 1: I heard a turkey gobble. And I didn't really know

814
00:40:58,480 --> 00:41:01,840
Speaker 1: how much he knew what a turkey sounded like. And

815
00:41:01,880 --> 00:41:04,680
Speaker 1: so I said, did you really which direction? He pointed

816
00:41:04,760 --> 00:41:06,839
Speaker 1: right the direction you know, he thought it came from,

817
00:41:06,840 --> 00:41:11,360
Speaker 1: and directly, sure enough, our turkey gobbles is just probably

818
00:41:11,360 --> 00:41:13,680
Speaker 1: within a hundred fifty yards. I call a little bit

819
00:41:13,719 --> 00:41:16,560
Speaker 1: of answers. I call a little bit of answers. And basically,

820
00:41:16,560 --> 00:41:19,320
Speaker 1: we spend the whole afternoon working this bird from the blind,

821
00:41:19,760 --> 00:41:22,960
Speaker 1: and it came in just almost within gun range. We

822
00:41:23,120 --> 00:41:25,760
Speaker 1: never did fully see it while it was on the ground,

823
00:41:26,080 --> 00:41:28,120
Speaker 1: and it gets dark on us, and this birds probably

824
00:41:28,120 --> 00:41:32,799
Speaker 1: gobbled fifty times. But Bear sees the turkey fly up

825
00:41:32,840 --> 00:41:35,280
Speaker 1: into a big old pine tree and he says, Daddy,

826
00:41:35,320 --> 00:41:37,640
Speaker 1: I just saw that turkey flying to that tree, and

827
00:41:37,680 --> 00:41:39,760
Speaker 1: I didn't see it. And then I said, which tree?

828
00:41:40,120 --> 00:41:42,400
Speaker 1: And he points out the tree and describes to me

829
00:41:42,440 --> 00:41:44,680
Speaker 1: where the tree is, and you know, I believe him,

830
00:41:44,920 --> 00:41:49,239
Speaker 1: and I know the tree this turkey is in, which

831
00:41:49,320 --> 00:41:52,239
Speaker 1: is a pretty rare thing in turkey hunting. So we

832
00:41:52,360 --> 00:41:55,320
Speaker 1: go home that night and the next morning I decide

833
00:41:55,360 --> 00:41:57,600
Speaker 1: that I'm gonna go in and it's late in the season,

834
00:41:57,600 --> 00:42:00,640
Speaker 1: and these birds are tough, man, they just don't respond

835
00:42:00,680 --> 00:42:03,800
Speaker 1: to calls. They've been highly pressured. And I knew that

836
00:42:03,920 --> 00:42:06,359
Speaker 1: to kill this turkey number one, I wasn't gonna call

837
00:42:06,600 --> 00:42:09,279
Speaker 1: much at all, if any, And I knew I had

838
00:42:09,320 --> 00:42:12,520
Speaker 1: to be very close to that tree, and so I

839
00:42:12,560 --> 00:42:15,000
Speaker 1: had a game plan. I was gonna get in there

840
00:42:15,280 --> 00:42:19,800
Speaker 1: a minimum of two, probably three hours before the crack

841
00:42:19,840 --> 00:42:23,440
Speaker 1: of dawn. The woods were dry, man, it was crunchy,

842
00:42:23,520 --> 00:42:26,239
Speaker 1: crackly dry, and there was no way that I was

843
00:42:26,280 --> 00:42:29,200
Speaker 1: gonna slip up real close to this roost tree without

844
00:42:29,200 --> 00:42:31,560
Speaker 1: spooking this turkey. So my idea was to get in

845
00:42:31,600 --> 00:42:33,759
Speaker 1: there super early, and I was gonna get within about

846
00:42:33,800 --> 00:42:36,520
Speaker 1: two yards of the tree. I was gonna take my

847
00:42:36,600 --> 00:42:40,799
Speaker 1: boots off, and I had some little booty inserts, like

848
00:42:40,880 --> 00:42:44,480
Speaker 1: in an insulated boot, and I was gonna put those

849
00:42:44,560 --> 00:42:48,400
Speaker 1: over my sock feet so that I could walk essentially barefoot.

850
00:42:48,840 --> 00:42:52,680
Speaker 1: And I was gonna take two hours and get basically

851
00:42:52,680 --> 00:42:57,560
Speaker 1: within shotgun range of that roost tree. And I was

852
00:42:57,600 --> 00:42:59,759
Speaker 1: just gonna walk because a turkey, you know, they're they're

853
00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:01,880
Speaker 1: up in a tree at night and they're hearing deer walk.

854
00:43:02,000 --> 00:43:06,080
Speaker 1: They're here, and possums walked by there, hearing skunks walked by,

855
00:43:06,120 --> 00:43:09,240
Speaker 1: so they're used to stuff walking, but not the cadence

856
00:43:09,280 --> 00:43:11,959
Speaker 1: of a man. So I was just gonna creep in there,

857
00:43:12,239 --> 00:43:14,200
Speaker 1: and I was gonna be within shotgun range of that

858
00:43:14,239 --> 00:43:17,960
Speaker 1: tree at daylight. Well, I wake up that morning that

859
00:43:18,040 --> 00:43:21,640
Speaker 1: it is a fine April morning for killing a turkey.

860
00:43:21,920 --> 00:43:25,480
Speaker 1: No wind, you can see the stars, everything's beautiful. There's

861
00:43:25,560 --> 00:43:29,560
Speaker 1: no forecasted rain whatsoever. I drive out there is about

862
00:43:29,560 --> 00:43:31,640
Speaker 1: an hour from my house. I pull up, I walk

863
00:43:31,719 --> 00:43:33,759
Speaker 1: all the way back in their long ways back in there,

864
00:43:34,040 --> 00:43:36,359
Speaker 1: and I pull over the mountain to where I'm kind

865
00:43:36,360 --> 00:43:40,320
Speaker 1: of in this turkey's domain, and I hear him gobble.

866
00:43:40,880 --> 00:43:43,360
Speaker 1: I mean, it's probably two and a half hours before daylight,

867
00:43:43,440 --> 00:43:48,359
Speaker 1: and I hear that sucker gobble in the dark, and

868
00:43:48,400 --> 00:43:50,160
Speaker 1: it just kind of shocked me. But that you know,

869
00:43:50,200 --> 00:43:52,840
Speaker 1: it's like, okay, well good, I'm gonna know just where

870
00:43:52,840 --> 00:43:55,120
Speaker 1: this tree yet. I'm just gonna walk right to him.

871
00:43:55,160 --> 00:43:58,000
Speaker 1: And I go to taking my boots off, and I

872
00:43:58,120 --> 00:44:00,520
Speaker 1: see just kind of like a flash of light from

873
00:44:00,560 --> 00:44:02,840
Speaker 1: a long ways off that just kind of makes me

874
00:44:02,920 --> 00:44:04,360
Speaker 1: jerk my head up and I look again, and I

875
00:44:04,400 --> 00:44:07,319
Speaker 1: see another flash, and I go, Man, that's lightning. But

876
00:44:07,360 --> 00:44:11,080
Speaker 1: it was so far away that I couldn't hear the thunder. Well,

877
00:44:11,160 --> 00:44:14,000
Speaker 1: I pull up my phone and I was able to

878
00:44:14,040 --> 00:44:17,000
Speaker 1: get self coverage, and I pulled up weather dot Com,

879
00:44:17,080 --> 00:44:21,000
Speaker 1: and man on the Arkansas radar map, there was not

880
00:44:21,320 --> 00:44:26,680
Speaker 1: a single cloud in the entire state of Arkansas except four.

881
00:44:27,280 --> 00:44:30,520
Speaker 1: A few miles west of where I was at, there

882
00:44:30,600 --> 00:44:34,879
Speaker 1: was a thunderhead, bright red thunder head about as big

883
00:44:34,920 --> 00:44:37,600
Speaker 1: as the end of a pen, showing up on that

884
00:44:37,719 --> 00:44:39,640
Speaker 1: radar and you kind of zoom in and it's just

885
00:44:39,680 --> 00:44:42,040
Speaker 1: a single thunder head and it is a couple of

886
00:44:42,040 --> 00:44:44,439
Speaker 1: miles from me, and man by the time I pulled

887
00:44:44,480 --> 00:44:46,920
Speaker 1: it up, I saw more lightning, and all of a

888
00:44:46,920 --> 00:44:51,320
Speaker 1: sudden I heard the thunder and Turkey gobbles at the thunder.

889
00:44:51,400 --> 00:44:53,399
Speaker 1: He was here in the thunder and I couldn't even

890
00:44:53,400 --> 00:44:56,560
Speaker 1: hear it. Well, it's closer, and I just go, I'll

891
00:44:56,600 --> 00:44:59,920
Speaker 1: be darn, here comes up. Here comes a thunderhead. Well,

892
00:45:00,280 --> 00:45:02,440
Speaker 1: I don't sit there very long, and I started seeing

893
00:45:02,440 --> 00:45:06,320
Speaker 1: the trees sway, and I start hearing the wind blow

894
00:45:06,400 --> 00:45:09,960
Speaker 1: a little bit, and directly I see lightning and thunder

895
00:45:10,080 --> 00:45:13,640
Speaker 1: real quick. I'm up on a high knob. Man, it

896
00:45:13,719 --> 00:45:18,520
Speaker 1: was no time before that thunderstorm was on top of me.

897
00:45:18,640 --> 00:45:21,560
Speaker 1: And the way I described it is that it engulfed

898
00:45:21,840 --> 00:45:25,520
Speaker 1: that mountain. Wind started to blow, trees started to shake,

899
00:45:26,080 --> 00:45:30,240
Speaker 1: rain started to pound the ground, Lightning started to crack.

900
00:45:30,840 --> 00:45:34,960
Speaker 1: And what did I do? Man? I put my boots

901
00:45:35,000 --> 00:45:38,240
Speaker 1: back on and I took off and almost a run

902
00:45:38,920 --> 00:45:43,160
Speaker 1: straight for that turkey. I thought, holy cow, what an

903
00:45:43,160 --> 00:45:46,879
Speaker 1: incredible cover to get close to this turkey. And as

904
00:45:46,920 --> 00:45:49,160
Speaker 1: I moving through the woods, I'm carrying my shotgun on

905
00:45:49,239 --> 00:45:53,720
Speaker 1: my right hand, and a bolt of lightning strike so close.

906
00:45:54,160 --> 00:45:59,319
Speaker 1: I literally threw the shotgun and laid face first on

907
00:45:59,400 --> 00:46:02,480
Speaker 1: the ground and was just praying that I didn't get

908
00:46:02,520 --> 00:46:05,080
Speaker 1: struck by lightning. I laid on the ground, and I

909
00:46:05,160 --> 00:46:08,680
Speaker 1: promise you I threw that shotgun and laid there and

910
00:46:08,840 --> 00:46:11,799
Speaker 1: tell the bulk of that storm passed by me. And

911
00:46:11,840 --> 00:46:14,000
Speaker 1: you know how a thunderstorm is. You know that the

912
00:46:14,000 --> 00:46:17,000
Speaker 1: peak of it passes and then it's still raining behind it,

913
00:46:17,200 --> 00:46:19,319
Speaker 1: and it's a little bit less. Well, as soon as

914
00:46:19,320 --> 00:46:21,920
Speaker 1: the peak passed and the thunder the lightning was kind

915
00:46:21,920 --> 00:46:24,640
Speaker 1: of away from me, I went and found my shotgun,

916
00:46:25,280 --> 00:46:28,920
Speaker 1: and man, I just walked right up. It's still black dark,

917
00:46:29,040 --> 00:46:33,160
Speaker 1: it's still two hours before daylight. And I just walked

918
00:46:33,320 --> 00:46:35,680
Speaker 1: right up to where I believe that turkey is and

919
00:46:35,719 --> 00:46:38,240
Speaker 1: get set up. And I am soaking wet, my gut

920
00:46:38,320 --> 00:46:41,959
Speaker 1: is wet, but man, I am in the game. Well,

921
00:46:42,800 --> 00:46:48,040
Speaker 1: daylight comes, birds start chirping, crows start crowing, and that

922
00:46:48,120 --> 00:46:50,280
Speaker 1: turkey is there. I know it. I heard him gobling

923
00:46:50,400 --> 00:46:53,720
Speaker 1: before the thunderstorm. That he does not say a word.

924
00:46:54,040 --> 00:46:57,799
Speaker 1: He doesn't say a word. Fly down time comes and

925
00:46:57,880 --> 00:47:00,480
Speaker 1: I'm not I don't dare yelp at this urkey very

926
00:47:00,560 --> 00:47:02,879
Speaker 1: much at all. But I put my diaphragm call in

927
00:47:03,000 --> 00:47:08,720
Speaker 1: and I did a a cluck and probably a three

928
00:47:08,760 --> 00:47:11,719
Speaker 1: note yelp, and I put the call up. I was

929
00:47:11,880 --> 00:47:16,000
Speaker 1: done in directly. Man I just I knew I was

930
00:47:16,040 --> 00:47:17,919
Speaker 1: so close to I would see this turkey fly down.

931
00:47:18,280 --> 00:47:21,879
Speaker 1: I never saw the turkey fly down. Just right at

932
00:47:21,920 --> 00:47:25,800
Speaker 1: about fly down time, I see that sucker as wet

933
00:47:25,880 --> 00:47:28,400
Speaker 1: as a Labrador retriever that just jumped out of a

934
00:47:28,520 --> 00:47:32,040
Speaker 1: river from retrieving a Mallard duck. He comes walking up

935
00:47:32,040 --> 00:47:35,360
Speaker 1: the hill, big old beard, just swinging, and he was

936
00:47:35,440 --> 00:47:38,000
Speaker 1: kind of skirting around me going up the mountain, and

937
00:47:38,080 --> 00:47:40,719
Speaker 1: I kind of wheeled to my right just a little bit,

938
00:47:40,840 --> 00:47:43,359
Speaker 1: never gobbled, and man, he raised up his old neck

939
00:47:43,440 --> 00:47:48,719
Speaker 1: and boom, killed that turkey. Man, I've rarely been so

940
00:47:48,920 --> 00:47:50,880
Speaker 1: proud of a turkey. And I went and got him,

941
00:47:50,880 --> 00:47:53,360
Speaker 1: and it was just a big gobbler, and I hiped

942
00:47:53,440 --> 00:47:55,319
Speaker 1: him out of there, put him in the truck, and

943
00:47:55,360 --> 00:47:57,960
Speaker 1: I took him to Bear John's school and I got

944
00:47:58,080 --> 00:47:59,759
Speaker 1: him out of school, and a bunch of the kids

945
00:47:59,800 --> 00:48:03,400
Speaker 1: from class came out. And I killed what I called

946
00:48:03,840 --> 00:48:06,200
Speaker 1: the lightning bird. But I never would have done it

947
00:48:06,280 --> 00:48:09,200
Speaker 1: without Bear's help of telling me right where that sucker

948
00:48:09,320 --> 00:48:14,960
Speaker 1: was roosted. I'll never forget the old lightning bird. This

949
00:48:15,120 --> 00:48:18,840
Speaker 1: next story, though, it is from my dad, Gary Newcom.

950
00:48:19,560 --> 00:48:22,360
Speaker 1: It's important to know going into this that when he

951
00:48:22,480 --> 00:48:26,400
Speaker 1: killed this bird, very few people were using bows to

952
00:48:26,520 --> 00:48:30,880
Speaker 1: kill spring turkeys, and if they were, they were using blinds,

953
00:48:31,320 --> 00:48:34,600
Speaker 1: which is something that he didn't want to do. Here's

954
00:48:34,640 --> 00:48:40,840
Speaker 1: old Gary Believer Newcomb. Well, you know, years ago what

955
00:48:41,080 --> 00:48:43,680
Speaker 1: I don't know what ten fifteen, I had that black

956
00:48:43,840 --> 00:48:47,520
Speaker 1: Max Matthews bow. I'm pretty sure you had your old

957
00:48:47,520 --> 00:48:51,200
Speaker 1: green truck. You were in high school, and uh, back

958
00:48:51,239 --> 00:48:53,880
Speaker 1: then we had quite a few turkeys, and I killed.

959
00:48:54,360 --> 00:48:57,160
Speaker 1: I'd usually kill a turkey just about every year, and

960
00:48:57,200 --> 00:48:59,799
Speaker 1: then i'd bow hunt, bow hunt for turkeys, bow hunt

961
00:48:59,800 --> 00:49:03,279
Speaker 1: for turkey. So I went out and UH had my

962
00:49:03,320 --> 00:49:06,400
Speaker 1: bowl in that morning. Nothing was gobbling. It just looked

963
00:49:06,440 --> 00:49:09,040
Speaker 1: like a dead morning. And so I went in an

964
00:49:09,080 --> 00:49:11,800
Speaker 1: area that I knew how it was quite a few turkeys,

965
00:49:12,480 --> 00:49:15,560
Speaker 1: and UH started climbing a mountain. Got kind of tired,

966
00:49:15,600 --> 00:49:17,839
Speaker 1: and I thought, well, this looks pretty good right here.

967
00:49:17,880 --> 00:49:20,600
Speaker 1: I think I'll just sit down, take a break, and

968
00:49:20,800 --> 00:49:23,880
Speaker 1: uh actually set up, you know, I mean not blinds

969
00:49:23,960 --> 00:49:25,719
Speaker 1: or anything, but just set on the ground in a

970
00:49:25,719 --> 00:49:28,279
Speaker 1: place where I could actually shoot. And so I'm sitting

971
00:49:28,280 --> 00:49:29,920
Speaker 1: there on the side of this mountain, up against a

972
00:49:29,960 --> 00:49:33,239
Speaker 1: good tree, which gave me a little camo, had some

973
00:49:33,320 --> 00:49:36,280
Speaker 1: brush out around me, and so I just I'd call,

974
00:49:37,160 --> 00:49:40,799
Speaker 1: just normal calling, I'd call, and UH sit there, and

975
00:49:40,840 --> 00:49:45,319
Speaker 1: you know, fifteen minutes later, it was real dry, and

976
00:49:45,400 --> 00:49:49,160
Speaker 1: I heard what sounded to me like two turkeys, and

977
00:49:49,280 --> 00:49:51,680
Speaker 1: one of them sounded like a big turkey. So in

978
00:49:51,719 --> 00:49:54,040
Speaker 1: my mind, I had a I had a I had

979
00:49:54,040 --> 00:49:57,680
Speaker 1: a gobbler, big gobbler of Jake coming in. They came

980
00:49:57,719 --> 00:50:01,640
Speaker 1: in about twenty yards above me, and they just kept walking,

981
00:50:01,960 --> 00:50:04,839
Speaker 1: you know. They they walked to the west. You know,

982
00:50:05,080 --> 00:50:08,520
Speaker 1: I'm kind of looking to the north, and uh, they

983
00:50:08,560 --> 00:50:11,040
Speaker 1: did it just by the textbook. That was what was

984
00:50:11,120 --> 00:50:13,760
Speaker 1: so interesting to me. I mean, it's like I figured

985
00:50:13,760 --> 00:50:16,560
Speaker 1: this old gobberl was probably a professor. He was teaching

986
00:50:16,600 --> 00:50:20,160
Speaker 1: these young guys what to do. Don't come downhill to

987
00:50:20,239 --> 00:50:23,800
Speaker 1: a call, You'll get shot. So they they go down,

988
00:50:24,440 --> 00:50:27,040
Speaker 1: you know, out of sight. I never did see them.

989
00:50:27,080 --> 00:50:29,920
Speaker 1: I could just hear them, and and they dropped down

990
00:50:29,960 --> 00:50:33,680
Speaker 1: to my level. And then the big gobbler just came in.

991
00:50:33,960 --> 00:50:36,160
Speaker 1: The other bird didn't come. I don't know what the

992
00:50:36,200 --> 00:50:39,800
Speaker 1: deal was. So I had my bowl ready, had everything

993
00:50:39,840 --> 00:50:42,400
Speaker 1: ready to shoot, but the birds coming straight at me,

994
00:50:42,440 --> 00:50:44,320
Speaker 1: so I don't get a shot. Well, there's a log

995
00:50:45,000 --> 00:50:49,840
Speaker 1: on the ground, you know, eighteen inches tall or so foot,

996
00:50:50,160 --> 00:50:53,880
Speaker 1: and it ran about ten fifteen feet running down the mountain,

997
00:50:54,320 --> 00:50:56,239
Speaker 1: and there was a brush at one end, but there

998
00:50:56,280 --> 00:50:58,839
Speaker 1: was an opening at the at the top side up here.

999
00:50:59,320 --> 00:51:02,600
Speaker 1: So I'm sitting there and I mean, this bird put

1000
00:51:02,600 --> 00:51:06,719
Speaker 1: on a show like I've seen very few times, and

1001
00:51:06,800 --> 00:51:09,719
Speaker 1: he came in and he got the strutton, but when

1002
00:51:09,760 --> 00:51:12,440
Speaker 1: he got to that log, he wouldn't cross it, just

1003
00:51:12,520 --> 00:51:16,080
Speaker 1: like the textbooks. So he started going up and down

1004
00:51:16,120 --> 00:51:19,040
Speaker 1: that log, and I noticed as he on the log. No, no,

1005
00:51:19,200 --> 00:51:21,400
Speaker 1: he's not on the log. When you repeated it to

1006
00:51:21,480 --> 00:51:23,560
Speaker 1: me the other day, you said on the log, he

1007
00:51:23,560 --> 00:51:25,919
Speaker 1: wouldn't on the log. He he he wouldn't come over the log.

1008
00:51:26,360 --> 00:51:28,560
Speaker 1: He was on the other side of the log, and

1009
00:51:28,360 --> 00:51:31,400
Speaker 1: he and he would he would strut up, which I

1010
00:51:31,440 --> 00:51:33,520
Speaker 1: didn't have a shot because he's looking at me. Then

1011
00:51:33,520 --> 00:51:36,360
Speaker 1: he had turned and he had strut down. And so

1012
00:51:36,480 --> 00:51:39,440
Speaker 1: when he when he made his turn and started down,

1013
00:51:39,960 --> 00:51:42,680
Speaker 1: I had a shot. And so I watched him do

1014
00:51:42,800 --> 00:51:45,360
Speaker 1: this two or three times, and I mean he's close.

1015
00:51:45,480 --> 00:51:49,400
Speaker 1: I mean he's ten fifteen feet away. So once I

1016
00:51:49,440 --> 00:51:53,520
Speaker 1: saw his pattern, then then as soon as he came

1017
00:51:53,840 --> 00:51:56,640
Speaker 1: up and he made his turn and I'm like this,

1018
00:51:56,840 --> 00:52:00,480
Speaker 1: I'm full draw. And then once he started down that log,

1019
00:52:00,600 --> 00:52:02,800
Speaker 1: I just shot his head off almost, you know, I

1020
00:52:02,840 --> 00:52:06,120
Speaker 1: mean it was pretty simple. And so once I shot him,

1021
00:52:06,120 --> 00:52:08,160
Speaker 1: I shot him right at the base of the neck.

1022
00:52:09,280 --> 00:52:11,799
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, when you're when you're shooting with

1023
00:52:11,840 --> 00:52:14,480
Speaker 1: a bow, it's pretty hard to kill them unless you

1024
00:52:14,560 --> 00:52:16,960
Speaker 1: hit him just in the right spot on the wings

1025
00:52:17,040 --> 00:52:19,400
Speaker 1: or take the head off or something. And I was

1026
00:52:19,440 --> 00:52:23,520
Speaker 1: shooting the big jackhammers. One reason the hunt was special.

1027
00:52:23,600 --> 00:52:25,640
Speaker 1: I mean, I've got like all hunters, and I had

1028
00:52:25,680 --> 00:52:29,799
Speaker 1: a lot of turkey kills that were really special. But

1029
00:52:29,880 --> 00:52:32,920
Speaker 1: and the only reason this was so special was that

1030
00:52:32,960 --> 00:52:35,880
Speaker 1: the bird put on a big show. He was real close.

1031
00:52:36,360 --> 00:52:40,839
Speaker 1: But also nobody was killing birds with a boat. Now.

1032
00:52:41,120 --> 00:52:43,960
Speaker 1: When I was off at a big bow shop, I

1033
00:52:44,080 --> 00:52:48,120
Speaker 1: ran into one guy that killed him pretty regularly. And

1034
00:52:48,200 --> 00:52:50,960
Speaker 1: one thing he told me, and that's I used that

1035
00:52:51,200 --> 00:52:55,000
Speaker 1: a lot. He told me that that if you'll cackle

1036
00:52:55,800 --> 00:52:58,400
Speaker 1: real hard, they can be looking right at you and

1037
00:52:58,719 --> 00:53:01,120
Speaker 1: you can kill them. So I didn't want to blind.

1038
00:53:01,200 --> 00:53:03,120
Speaker 1: I knew the blind would work better, but if I

1039
00:53:03,200 --> 00:53:05,839
Speaker 1: couldn't kill them just looking at him straight in the eyes,

1040
00:53:05,880 --> 00:53:07,800
Speaker 1: I didn't want. I didn't want to kill one day

1041
00:53:07,600 --> 00:53:11,920
Speaker 1: an so I never took anything. There were times when

1042
00:53:12,000 --> 00:53:16,520
Speaker 1: I might throw some camo cover out around if it

1043
00:53:16,640 --> 00:53:19,839
Speaker 1: was really out in the open, but almost never, I just,

1044
00:53:20,000 --> 00:53:21,880
Speaker 1: you know, I just like to sit in the woods

1045
00:53:21,880 --> 00:53:23,920
Speaker 1: and see if I could get them in close. So

1046
00:53:24,000 --> 00:53:29,560
Speaker 1: there were guys doing it, but not around here. Scott

1047
00:53:29,600 --> 00:53:32,080
Speaker 1: Brown is just a few years older than me. We

1048
00:53:32,120 --> 00:53:34,759
Speaker 1: grew up in the same town and I've always looked

1049
00:53:34,840 --> 00:53:37,439
Speaker 1: up to him as a deer and turkey hunter. When

1050
00:53:37,440 --> 00:53:40,400
Speaker 1: I was in my early twenties, I'd spend hours listening

1051
00:53:40,400 --> 00:53:43,640
Speaker 1: to Scott tell turkey and deer stories and describe in

1052
00:53:43,840 --> 00:53:48,120
Speaker 1: detail how game used mountain terrain. I've never forgot what

1053
00:53:48,160 --> 00:53:52,040
Speaker 1: he taught me. Here is one of Scott's favorite stories.

1054
00:53:53,360 --> 00:53:55,640
Speaker 1: My friend of mine, Randy Steph, had called me and

1055
00:53:55,680 --> 00:53:57,120
Speaker 1: some man we ought to tell what we ought to

1056
00:53:57,160 --> 00:53:59,440
Speaker 1: do on Wednesday, and we're off, I said, turkey in

1057
00:53:59,760 --> 00:54:01,439
Speaker 1: I well, I guess we could do that. I said,

1058
00:54:01,440 --> 00:54:03,239
Speaker 1: I don't know where we go. I hadn't been out,

1059
00:54:03,280 --> 00:54:05,400
Speaker 1: and you know, i'd I'd be going in the blind,

1060
00:54:05,520 --> 00:54:07,719
Speaker 1: but go to a place that's pretty familiar with and

1061
00:54:07,760 --> 00:54:10,000
Speaker 1: we probably find a bird. He says. Man, I'm game

1062
00:54:10,080 --> 00:54:13,520
Speaker 1: for whatever. So drove in here west of town kind

1063
00:54:13,520 --> 00:54:15,600
Speaker 1: of access this mountain that I like to hunt from

1064
00:54:15,600 --> 00:54:17,640
Speaker 1: the south side. You know, we got in here extra

1065
00:54:17,719 --> 00:54:20,880
Speaker 1: early because it's a it's a good thirty minute pull

1066
00:54:21,000 --> 00:54:22,880
Speaker 1: from the time you get out of the truck to

1067
00:54:22,920 --> 00:54:25,160
Speaker 1: the top of the mountain probably, So we pulled it

1068
00:54:25,239 --> 00:54:27,560
Speaker 1: on on on top and there was kind of a

1069
00:54:27,560 --> 00:54:29,839
Speaker 1: big gap in there, and we sat around in there

1070
00:54:29,960 --> 00:54:33,240
Speaker 1: till daylight, and there was a turkey that started gobbling

1071
00:54:33,280 --> 00:54:35,640
Speaker 1: on the south side of the mountain across a big

1072
00:54:35,719 --> 00:54:39,400
Speaker 1: holla out there. Within the first couple of hours of daylight,

1073
00:54:39,480 --> 00:54:42,560
Speaker 1: Scott and Randy moving on a bird that was a

1074
00:54:42,640 --> 00:54:46,520
Speaker 1: long ways away. He was gobbling every breath, but by

1075
00:54:46,600 --> 00:54:49,600
Speaker 1: the time they made it to him, so did someone else,

1076
00:54:49,920 --> 00:54:54,080
Speaker 1: and the bird got spooked. The boys were pretty down.

1077
00:54:54,920 --> 00:54:57,759
Speaker 1: I think we're both a little bit disappointed that that

1078
00:54:57,840 --> 00:55:00,839
Speaker 1: didn't work out. So decided we're gonn to work our

1079
00:55:00,880 --> 00:55:03,280
Speaker 1: way back. So we pulled back up kind of headed

1080
00:55:03,320 --> 00:55:05,719
Speaker 1: east and I told Brandy, we said, let's walk up

1081
00:55:05,719 --> 00:55:07,480
Speaker 1: this ridge and we'll get out in this divide up

1082
00:55:07,520 --> 00:55:09,760
Speaker 1: hair is a really good place and we'll spend some time.

1083
00:55:10,120 --> 00:55:12,279
Speaker 1: So he pulled this big ridge just one of those

1084
00:55:12,320 --> 00:55:14,759
Speaker 1: places when you walk into it you just know, you know,

1085
00:55:15,000 --> 00:55:18,279
Speaker 1: it's just a beautiful place. Everything ties together right there.

1086
00:55:18,440 --> 00:55:20,040
Speaker 1: I walked in there. I said, Randy, you might not

1087
00:55:20,080 --> 00:55:21,600
Speaker 1: know what you're looking at right here, but I said,

1088
00:55:21,680 --> 00:55:24,480
Speaker 1: I know of half a dozen big gobblers have been

1089
00:55:24,560 --> 00:55:26,919
Speaker 1: killed right here in this divide in my lifetime. I mean,

1090
00:55:27,400 --> 00:55:30,080
Speaker 1: this is the spot. We sit around there about five

1091
00:55:30,160 --> 00:55:32,799
Speaker 1: minutes probably, and I decided I was gonna call. And

1092
00:55:32,800 --> 00:55:35,319
Speaker 1: when I called, a turkey dis gobbled above us on

1093
00:55:35,360 --> 00:55:39,000
Speaker 1: the mountain, just just like like it's supposed to happen.

1094
00:55:39,560 --> 00:55:43,040
Speaker 1: And when he gobbled, Randy looked at me and I said, Randy,

1095
00:55:43,239 --> 00:55:46,200
Speaker 1: we're about to kill this turkey. And he said, all right,

1096
00:55:46,239 --> 00:55:47,200
Speaker 1: where do you What do we need to do? And

1097
00:55:47,239 --> 00:55:48,719
Speaker 1: I said, just get right out there, but that big

1098
00:55:48,760 --> 00:55:51,399
Speaker 1: pine tree face your gun towards the mountain, right there

1099
00:55:51,400 --> 00:55:53,520
Speaker 1: in those open woods, and I said, were we are

1100
00:55:53,600 --> 00:55:56,600
Speaker 1: where that turkey wants to be? Anyway, in a minute,

1101
00:55:56,760 --> 00:55:58,640
Speaker 1: the turkey hadn't seen anything, so I'm gonna call him

1102
00:55:58,640 --> 00:56:00,719
Speaker 1: one more time. See where he's at. When I called

1103
00:56:00,760 --> 00:56:03,879
Speaker 1: that time, that turkey gobbled, and I mean we should

1104
00:56:03,880 --> 00:56:05,959
Speaker 1: have been looking at him, you know, he's just right there.

1105
00:56:06,520 --> 00:56:11,000
Speaker 1: And about that time I looked past Randy looking towards

1106
00:56:11,000 --> 00:56:12,640
Speaker 1: the foot of the mountain, and I see the bird

1107
00:56:13,040 --> 00:56:15,680
Speaker 1: fan out. And when I saw the fan come up,

1108
00:56:15,719 --> 00:56:18,200
Speaker 1: I saw Randy kind of get down on his shotgun.

1109
00:56:18,280 --> 00:56:20,760
Speaker 1: And it's a pretty good ways it's fifty sixty yards

1110
00:56:20,840 --> 00:56:24,040
Speaker 1: through the woods to where this turkey's fanned out. Well,

1111
00:56:24,280 --> 00:56:26,920
Speaker 1: I'm looking at a bird over fifty yards away probably,

1112
00:56:26,960 --> 00:56:32,480
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, I hear I mean bad close.

1113
00:56:33,080 --> 00:56:34,799
Speaker 1: I don't even have my shotgun up. I gota laid

1114
00:56:34,840 --> 00:56:37,359
Speaker 1: across my lap, you know, just kind of kick back

1115
00:56:37,360 --> 00:56:41,400
Speaker 1: to watch the show. Anyway. I said, Randy, did you

1116
00:56:41,440 --> 00:56:43,120
Speaker 1: hear that? And Randy never said a word. He just

1117
00:56:43,320 --> 00:56:45,560
Speaker 1: because the whole time he's looking at what he believes

1118
00:56:45,560 --> 00:56:47,960
Speaker 1: as the turkey that we're trying to kill here, and

1119
00:56:48,000 --> 00:56:50,400
Speaker 1: so am I. And about that time, just again just

1120
00:56:52,160 --> 00:56:56,120
Speaker 1: just close, really close, and I can't I can't find

1121
00:56:56,120 --> 00:56:58,680
Speaker 1: this turkey. And I'm thinking, there's no way that turkey.

1122
00:56:58,719 --> 00:57:01,080
Speaker 1: I'm looking at the one I'm here. There's a big

1123
00:57:01,080 --> 00:57:03,600
Speaker 1: old bull pine tree. I'm when I'm talking, one of

1124
00:57:03,640 --> 00:57:08,319
Speaker 1: them huge pines, about ten steps in front of Randy.

1125
00:57:08,560 --> 00:57:12,680
Speaker 1: So this big gobbler just steps out behind this bullpine

1126
00:57:12,680 --> 00:57:15,800
Speaker 1: tree in about ten yards from Randy's gunn barrel. What

1127
00:57:15,920 --> 00:57:18,720
Speaker 1: had happened? He came in to us right behind that

1128
00:57:18,760 --> 00:57:21,360
Speaker 1: pine tree the whole time, and we just just never

1129
00:57:21,400 --> 00:57:23,640
Speaker 1: saw him. And he steps out front this pine tree

1130
00:57:23,720 --> 00:57:26,400
Speaker 1: he's just right on top of us. Of course, I panic.

1131
00:57:26,400 --> 00:57:29,200
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there with my shotgun laid across my lap,

1132
00:57:29,360 --> 00:57:32,000
Speaker 1: wishing I had it on my knee because Randy's out

1133
00:57:32,000 --> 00:57:34,840
Speaker 1: of position. He's aiming at these other turkeys. The turkey

1134
00:57:34,880 --> 00:57:37,520
Speaker 1: comes up hard to his right. Anyway, the turkey just

1135
00:57:37,600 --> 00:57:39,880
Speaker 1: kind of just kind of walks out behind that pine,

1136
00:57:39,920 --> 00:57:42,480
Speaker 1: and the walks behind another big pine. And when he does,

1137
00:57:42,640 --> 00:57:46,160
Speaker 1: Randy's able to He did, he did perfect. He just

1138
00:57:46,240 --> 00:57:48,560
Speaker 1: stayed still until the turkey got behind the next pine

1139
00:57:48,720 --> 00:57:50,960
Speaker 1: and he just swung the barrel over, got it up

1140
00:57:50,960 --> 00:57:53,200
Speaker 1: on his knee. Turkey walks out from behind the pine,

1141
00:57:53,280 --> 00:57:57,200
Speaker 1: hasn't seen any of that go down, and Randy just bam,

1142
00:57:57,400 --> 00:58:00,440
Speaker 1: he shoots, and when he shoots, he just kills the

1143
00:58:00,480 --> 00:58:04,760
Speaker 1: turkey stone dead, which rarely ever happens. Right, So you

1144
00:58:04,760 --> 00:58:07,680
Speaker 1: shoot probably nine of turkeys. You shoot flop for a

1145
00:58:07,720 --> 00:58:09,760
Speaker 1: little bit after you shoot him. He pulled the cord

1146
00:58:09,800 --> 00:58:11,760
Speaker 1: on this thing. Look when he shoots, the thing just

1147
00:58:11,840 --> 00:58:14,480
Speaker 1: falls over stone dead. Of course, there's a big commotion,

1148
00:58:14,520 --> 00:58:16,640
Speaker 1: and these other turkeys blow up and fly off and

1149
00:58:16,640 --> 00:58:18,560
Speaker 1: all this other stuff, and so Raine's kind of standing there.

1150
00:58:18,640 --> 00:58:20,440
Speaker 1: He goes tell you just had to look on his face.

1151
00:58:20,480 --> 00:58:23,920
Speaker 1: He said, I don't know how I missed that turkey. Randy,

1152
00:58:23,960 --> 00:58:25,800
Speaker 1: you didn't miss that turkey. He's like, I didn't. I

1153
00:58:25,840 --> 00:58:28,080
Speaker 1: was like, no, that thing. He's laying stone dead right there.

1154
00:58:28,760 --> 00:58:31,040
Speaker 1: He's like, oh, man, He's like, because I thought i'd missed.

1155
00:58:31,040 --> 00:58:32,760
Speaker 1: When I shot, he was nowhere to be found. I

1156
00:58:32,760 --> 00:58:35,360
Speaker 1: thought he was just gone, you know. I'm like, no, man,

1157
00:58:35,400 --> 00:58:37,800
Speaker 1: he's laying right there. You killed him, you know. So anyway,

1158
00:58:37,800 --> 00:58:39,440
Speaker 1: we jump up and go out there, and I mean,

1159
00:58:39,440 --> 00:58:41,240
Speaker 1: he's killed a dandy. I mean it's a you know,

1160
00:58:41,360 --> 00:58:44,960
Speaker 1: close to a twenty pound turkey, had good beard and

1161
00:58:45,040 --> 00:58:47,080
Speaker 1: spurs and all that. And he's like, what do you

1162
00:58:47,120 --> 00:58:49,080
Speaker 1: wanna do down? I said, let's pull back up on

1163
00:58:49,120 --> 00:58:51,760
Speaker 1: the mountain where we started out this morning. So we

1164
00:58:51,880 --> 00:58:54,120
Speaker 1: pulled back up and on the main mountain, walked out

1165
00:58:54,160 --> 00:58:56,200
Speaker 1: across what we called a big gap. It kind of

1166
00:58:56,240 --> 00:58:58,200
Speaker 1: got back around in there. We got in there and

1167
00:58:58,200 --> 00:59:00,600
Speaker 1: I said, Randy, that turkey this morning, it was about

1168
00:59:00,640 --> 00:59:02,880
Speaker 1: halfway down this leg. I want to call right here

1169
00:59:02,960 --> 00:59:05,880
Speaker 1: and let's just see what happens. And man, I put

1170
00:59:05,920 --> 00:59:08,400
Speaker 1: my calm my mouth. I called one time that turkey

1171
00:59:08,520 --> 00:59:11,920
Speaker 1: just gobbled big right below us. This is about eleven

1172
00:59:11,960 --> 00:59:14,120
Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning, and I really wanting to gobble

1173
00:59:14,160 --> 00:59:15,960
Speaker 1: again without me calling him, so I'm just kind of

1174
00:59:15,960 --> 00:59:19,320
Speaker 1: sitting there waiting on the gobble. Well, he gobbled, but

1175
00:59:19,400 --> 00:59:22,040
Speaker 1: when he did he was half the distance. In fact,

1176
00:59:22,200 --> 00:59:24,880
Speaker 1: he wasn't much out of sight from us, and so

1177
00:59:25,440 --> 00:59:28,360
Speaker 1: we just had to take what we had right there. Randy,

1178
00:59:28,440 --> 00:59:30,760
Speaker 1: sit down right there. I sat down, I got my

1179
00:59:30,840 --> 00:59:33,480
Speaker 1: gun up, and by the time I got my gun up,

1180
00:59:33,520 --> 00:59:35,840
Speaker 1: I reached down and grabbed my face mask, which was

1181
00:59:35,880 --> 00:59:37,440
Speaker 1: down around my neck, and I pulled it up over

1182
00:59:37,480 --> 00:59:40,800
Speaker 1: my face. And when I pulled that face mask over

1183
00:59:40,840 --> 00:59:42,959
Speaker 1: my face and put my hand back down on my gun,

1184
00:59:43,160 --> 00:59:45,480
Speaker 1: I looked and can see that turkey coming the whole time.

1185
00:59:45,480 --> 00:59:47,920
Speaker 1: He's instruct Randy immediate is like I seen him, and

1186
00:59:48,040 --> 00:59:49,480
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, I've caught him right here. He's

1187
00:59:49,480 --> 00:59:51,680
Speaker 1: coming round with the leg to us. He just keeps

1188
00:59:51,720 --> 00:59:54,040
Speaker 1: coming up. The leg to us, just keeps coming, just

1189
00:59:54,120 --> 00:59:57,240
Speaker 1: keeps coming. Anyway. It kind of starts around to my left,

1190
00:59:57,240 --> 00:59:58,480
Speaker 1: which is be kind of the east of me there,

1191
00:59:58,520 --> 01:00:00,320
Speaker 1: starts around to my left a little bit. The whole

1192
01:00:00,360 --> 01:00:02,400
Speaker 1: time his turkeys and struck like he has not dropped

1193
01:00:02,400 --> 01:00:04,080
Speaker 1: out of strut even to take a step. I mean,

1194
01:00:04,080 --> 01:00:06,800
Speaker 1: he's just coming the whole time strut. He's drumming good.

1195
01:00:06,960 --> 01:00:09,080
Speaker 1: I mean the whole he's doing everything you want a

1196
01:00:09,080 --> 01:00:11,520
Speaker 1: turkey to do. You know. He finally gets down here below.

1197
01:00:11,520 --> 01:00:15,240
Speaker 1: It's probably about forty yards, maybe a little bit more gobbles. Look,

1198
01:00:15,280 --> 01:00:17,439
Speaker 1: try to add his kind of gobbles. All I'm really

1199
01:00:17,440 --> 01:00:19,200
Speaker 1: waiting on at this point is for him to get

1200
01:00:19,200 --> 01:00:21,520
Speaker 1: out of strut. Anyway. He swings around there, swings around,

1201
01:00:21,520 --> 01:00:23,000
Speaker 1: and he just won't drop out of strut, and he's

1202
01:00:23,000 --> 01:00:25,080
Speaker 1: about to get around to my left heart enough that

1203
01:00:25,120 --> 01:00:27,600
Speaker 1: I'm I'm not gonna be able to swing around anymore.

1204
01:00:27,640 --> 01:00:29,520
Speaker 1: So finally he walked out there and open, and I

1205
01:00:29,560 --> 01:00:31,440
Speaker 1: just cut at him a little bit. And when I

1206
01:00:31,480 --> 01:00:33,520
Speaker 1: cut out him through his head up big, just like

1207
01:00:33,640 --> 01:00:36,240
Speaker 1: you want. I shot him at about thirty yards, you know,

1208
01:00:36,760 --> 01:00:41,160
Speaker 1: pulled the double. There can't be a better feeling than

1209
01:00:41,280 --> 01:00:44,840
Speaker 1: walking out of the spring hardwoods with two big gobblers.

1210
01:00:45,600 --> 01:00:49,080
Speaker 1: Our last story is told by a young author and

1211
01:00:49,160 --> 01:00:53,800
Speaker 1: aspiring media personality named Steve ronnella of Meat Eater. He

1212
01:00:53,920 --> 01:00:57,360
Speaker 1: just recently published a book called outdoor kids in an

1213
01:00:57,360 --> 01:01:00,840
Speaker 1: inside world. You might want to check it out. You

1214
01:01:00,920 --> 01:01:03,760
Speaker 1: might be surprised to to know that turkey hunting is

1215
01:01:03,840 --> 01:01:08,080
Speaker 1: probably Steve's favorite animal to hunt, and he's chased after

1216
01:01:08,120 --> 01:01:12,040
Speaker 1: a lot of them. Steve always has some insight and

1217
01:01:12,080 --> 01:01:17,800
Speaker 1: a good story. Here's Steve. Now. I like UH books,

1218
01:01:18,240 --> 01:01:22,760
Speaker 1: like films, I like to cook. But when it comes

1219
01:01:22,800 --> 01:01:26,880
Speaker 1: to UH, you know, physical disciplines, right, Like I'm only

1220
01:01:26,920 --> 01:01:29,280
Speaker 1: interested in one thing. I'm interested in hunting and fishing

1221
01:01:29,280 --> 01:01:31,520
Speaker 1: and trapping three things. But I imagine I'm all sort

1222
01:01:31,560 --> 01:01:35,520
Speaker 1: of bundled together as a single entity. Anyhow. I have kids,

1223
01:01:35,640 --> 01:01:37,560
Speaker 1: and so I put a lot of pressure on my

1224
01:01:37,640 --> 01:01:41,520
Speaker 1: kids to do what I like to do. Like I

1225
01:01:41,600 --> 01:01:44,400
Speaker 1: want to take them to do what I like to

1226
01:01:44,440 --> 01:01:50,160
Speaker 1: do because I am my best as a parent when

1227
01:01:50,200 --> 01:01:53,960
Speaker 1: I'm in an arena that that resonates with me and

1228
01:01:54,000 --> 01:01:59,800
Speaker 1: brings passion. I want them to see like discipline, passion, drive,

1229
01:02:00,200 --> 01:02:03,240
Speaker 1: like manifested to the things we do. I don't care

1230
01:02:03,520 --> 01:02:05,720
Speaker 1: if like if someone told me, like in terms of

1231
01:02:05,760 --> 01:02:07,680
Speaker 1: my daughter, hung and tell a story about if someone

1232
01:02:07,720 --> 01:02:11,280
Speaker 1: told me that when my daughter is twenty, she's gonna

1233
01:02:11,320 --> 01:02:16,400
Speaker 1: like move to l a and open a smoothie shop. Right,

1234
01:02:16,520 --> 01:02:19,000
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be liked. I'd be like, okay, good, I'm

1235
01:02:19,000 --> 01:02:22,800
Speaker 1: glad she'll go there and do that. Knowing the stuff

1236
01:02:22,880 --> 01:02:25,200
Speaker 1: she knows from the time she spent with her old

1237
01:02:25,200 --> 01:02:28,200
Speaker 1: man out hunting and fishing. I'm glad I armed her

1238
01:02:28,320 --> 01:02:31,760
Speaker 1: with those experiences. Right. So it's not like a means

1239
01:02:31,800 --> 01:02:33,480
Speaker 1: to an end. It's sort of an end in itself.

1240
01:02:34,440 --> 01:02:36,360
Speaker 1: In the state where I live, a kid's gotta be

1241
01:02:36,400 --> 01:02:40,920
Speaker 1: ten start hunting turkeys. Other than Montana, right, there's other states,

1242
01:02:41,400 --> 01:02:43,600
Speaker 1: a bunch of them in fact, But this particular one

1243
01:02:43,600 --> 01:02:45,840
Speaker 1: has story has to do with Wisconsin, where they don't

1244
01:02:45,880 --> 01:02:48,680
Speaker 1: have that age requirement. As long as they're worth their

1245
01:02:48,720 --> 01:02:52,680
Speaker 1: mentor a licensed mentor, right, they hunt whatever age it's.

1246
01:02:52,880 --> 01:02:55,360
Speaker 1: It's it's as it should be, and it's up to

1247
01:02:55,400 --> 01:02:57,840
Speaker 1: the family to decide when it's appropriate for a kid

1248
01:02:57,840 --> 01:03:01,000
Speaker 1: to hunt. So when my daughter got to be eight

1249
01:03:01,160 --> 01:03:05,840
Speaker 1: years old, this is last spring, I packed her up

1250
01:03:06,160 --> 01:03:09,120
Speaker 1: and took her out to Wisconsin for the youth turkey season.

1251
01:03:10,160 --> 01:03:13,080
Speaker 1: In preparation for this, I'm pounding in her head that

1252
01:03:13,200 --> 01:03:15,640
Speaker 1: she's gonna shoot a turkey, like we're gonna call in

1253
01:03:15,720 --> 01:03:17,760
Speaker 1: a turkey she's gonna shoot the turkey in the head.

1254
01:03:18,280 --> 01:03:20,800
Speaker 1: And I get her a little break open four ten shotgun,

1255
01:03:21,840 --> 01:03:28,200
Speaker 1: and we loaded with the stuff called federal ts s

1256
01:03:28,360 --> 01:03:31,480
Speaker 1: right like Tongusten super shot. Right. It makes it that

1257
01:03:31,520 --> 01:03:34,120
Speaker 1: you can shoot it four ten but really deal death

1258
01:03:34,200 --> 01:03:39,920
Speaker 1: on turkeys with such a small caliber, if you will, shotgun.

1259
01:03:41,160 --> 01:03:43,600
Speaker 1: To make it easier for her to aim, I put

1260
01:03:43,640 --> 01:03:47,200
Speaker 1: a red dot site on it, so we start shooting

1261
01:03:47,200 --> 01:03:50,440
Speaker 1: at targets to look like turkeys, and I load her

1262
01:03:50,560 --> 01:03:52,880
Speaker 1: up with game load, like a load that doesn't kick

1263
01:03:52,960 --> 01:03:55,920
Speaker 1: that strong, not that very a very powerful load, right,

1264
01:03:56,840 --> 01:04:00,440
Speaker 1: so she doesn't learn to flinch from the re coil

1265
01:04:00,680 --> 01:04:04,160
Speaker 1: and the noise. And we just train her up on that,

1266
01:04:04,360 --> 01:04:07,600
Speaker 1: aiming this little break open shotgun with a red dot

1267
01:04:07,680 --> 01:04:11,800
Speaker 1: site at turkey targets. And I'm like pounding in her head,

1268
01:04:11,880 --> 01:04:15,320
Speaker 1: like you know, you gotta aim for the waddles, right,

1269
01:04:15,400 --> 01:04:17,480
Speaker 1: aim for the waddles, aimed for the wattles. And I

1270
01:04:17,560 --> 01:04:19,840
Speaker 1: make it in her head that the measure of success

1271
01:04:20,040 --> 01:04:24,120
Speaker 1: as a turkey hunter is whether or not you aimed

1272
01:04:24,160 --> 01:04:27,320
Speaker 1: for the wattles and shot the turkey in the head.

1273
01:04:28,360 --> 01:04:32,520
Speaker 1: And I even told her everything else, everything else, I'm

1274
01:04:32,560 --> 01:04:37,240
Speaker 1: gonna be heavily involved. But when it comes to that,

1275
01:04:37,240 --> 01:04:42,080
Speaker 1: that's your job, right. So we go out and youth

1276
01:04:42,080 --> 01:04:44,160
Speaker 1: turkey seasons come early in the year, and you know

1277
01:04:44,320 --> 01:04:46,040
Speaker 1: it could be like a snow blizzard, right because it's

1278
01:04:46,040 --> 01:04:49,080
Speaker 1: in April. But we go out and it's just glorious weather.

1279
01:04:49,880 --> 01:04:52,920
Speaker 1: And uh, we go out and has some encounters, and

1280
01:04:52,920 --> 01:04:55,000
Speaker 1: then it gets to be late in the afternoon and

1281
01:04:55,120 --> 01:04:57,959
Speaker 1: there's a couple of gobblers just ripping up on this

1282
01:04:58,360 --> 01:05:03,080
Speaker 1: ridge line at my buddy Dugs place. So imagine you've

1283
01:05:03,080 --> 01:05:08,360
Speaker 1: got like a gentle uh Wisconsin driftless area valley floor.

1284
01:05:08,680 --> 01:05:12,080
Speaker 1: There's a creek running through the bottom. On either side

1285
01:05:12,080 --> 01:05:15,520
Speaker 1: of this brushy creek bed, you've got corn fields and

1286
01:05:15,560 --> 01:05:18,440
Speaker 1: then the corn fields kinda at the edge of the

1287
01:05:18,440 --> 01:05:22,560
Speaker 1: corn fields, and then you enter mixed forest, hardwoods, pines,

1288
01:05:23,040 --> 01:05:27,360
Speaker 1: a lot of briars, grape vine um, multi flora rose. Right,

1289
01:05:28,080 --> 01:05:31,320
Speaker 1: we hear these gobblers ripping up on this ridgeline and

1290
01:05:31,480 --> 01:05:34,200
Speaker 1: we go greasing up to the edge of the corn

1291
01:05:34,280 --> 01:05:37,520
Speaker 1: field to where we can get some cover, leaning on

1292
01:05:37,640 --> 01:05:41,439
Speaker 1: this pine tree, and there's one gobbler in particular going

1293
01:05:41,640 --> 01:05:45,960
Speaker 1: hammering up there. I put a hen decoy and then

1294
01:05:46,080 --> 01:05:48,840
Speaker 1: Rosie and I back up about twenty yards from that

1295
01:05:48,920 --> 01:05:53,080
Speaker 1: hen decoy and we lean against this big white pine

1296
01:05:54,160 --> 01:05:56,640
Speaker 1: and we're facing the decoy and the birds are goblin.

1297
01:05:56,720 --> 01:05:58,160
Speaker 1: What's now to our left? We just had to put

1298
01:05:58,160 --> 01:06:00,160
Speaker 1: the decoy the clear like like the only clear kind

1299
01:06:00,160 --> 01:06:03,680
Speaker 1: of shooting land we had. And this gobbler strutting up

1300
01:06:03,680 --> 01:06:09,320
Speaker 1: and down the ridge top just hammering. And after a

1301
01:06:09,320 --> 01:06:12,760
Speaker 1: while it hammers its way down to where it's it's

1302
01:06:12,800 --> 01:06:16,200
Speaker 1: not to our left anymore, but it's like way behind us,

1303
01:06:16,200 --> 01:06:21,040
Speaker 1: to our left, and then it starts coming. And eventually

1304
01:06:21,280 --> 01:06:24,960
Speaker 1: I'm looking out my peripheral vision and I can I

1305
01:06:24,960 --> 01:06:31,080
Speaker 1: can like sense and see this gobbler goblin and also drumming,

1306
01:06:31,840 --> 01:06:35,760
Speaker 1: and he's like like right off to my side, man.

1307
01:06:35,840 --> 01:06:38,760
Speaker 1: And I'm just telling my daughter, who's facing towards the decoy.

1308
01:06:39,640 --> 01:06:44,600
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Rosie, do not move. I'm like, Rosie, do

1309
01:06:44,680 --> 01:06:47,760
Speaker 1: not say a word, don't talk, don't talk, don't move,

1310
01:06:47,960 --> 01:06:50,440
Speaker 1: don't move, do not talk. Right, And I'm just pounding

1311
01:06:50,520 --> 01:06:52,000
Speaker 1: us in their head because this birds come and come

1312
01:06:52,000 --> 01:06:54,520
Speaker 1: and come and coming, and this thing passes us by,

1313
01:06:54,640 --> 01:06:56,240
Speaker 1: like I think I could have reached out and grabbed

1314
01:06:56,240 --> 01:06:58,920
Speaker 1: its neck. But then it's got to pass us by,

1315
01:06:58,960 --> 01:07:02,520
Speaker 1: but then walk twenty yards before she's going to become

1316
01:07:02,560 --> 01:07:06,360
Speaker 1: aware of its presence, right, And you know, I could

1317
01:07:06,360 --> 01:07:08,560
Speaker 1: have just swung around and shot it, but I'm trying

1318
01:07:08,560 --> 01:07:12,360
Speaker 1: to like get a good shot opportunity for so the

1319
01:07:12,400 --> 01:07:14,680
Speaker 1: bird comes to get this too. That Rosemary is like

1320
01:07:14,720 --> 01:07:17,440
Speaker 1: shorter than I am, and she's in my lab, so

1321
01:07:17,600 --> 01:07:20,600
Speaker 1: my view at my eye line is different than her

1322
01:07:20,720 --> 01:07:22,880
Speaker 1: view from her eye line. My eye line is like

1323
01:07:22,920 --> 01:07:26,680
Speaker 1: crystal clear out to the decoy. Her eyeline, unbeknownst to me,

1324
01:07:26,760 --> 01:07:29,200
Speaker 1: is just a bunch of sticks. But this is her

1325
01:07:29,240 --> 01:07:32,280
Speaker 1: first like real close encounter shooting at a gobler, so

1326
01:07:32,320 --> 01:07:34,520
Speaker 1: she doesn't even know to mention it to me. Well,

1327
01:07:34,520 --> 01:07:37,080
Speaker 1: this gobler passes me by and it gets to the decoy,

1328
01:07:37,320 --> 01:07:40,160
Speaker 1: and this thing is like trying to assault the decoy. Right,

1329
01:07:40,280 --> 01:07:45,400
Speaker 1: he's fooled. And I'm telling Rosemary, I'm waiting for the

1330
01:07:45,440 --> 01:07:47,560
Speaker 1: gobbler to get in like the right position where it's

1331
01:07:47,600 --> 01:07:55,560
Speaker 1: holding still. I'm like, shoot, shoot, shoot, and damn she shoots.

1332
01:07:57,640 --> 01:08:00,360
Speaker 1: And Norman want alone shoots at a turkey, expect turkey

1333
01:08:00,400 --> 01:08:04,120
Speaker 1: just to pile up, right, This turkey doesn't This turkey

1334
01:08:04,400 --> 01:08:10,480
Speaker 1: kind of spins and then lifts off, flying and it

1335
01:08:10,640 --> 01:08:16,559
Speaker 1: flies across the cornfield we're in, flies over the brushy creek,

1336
01:08:17,479 --> 01:08:20,240
Speaker 1: flies across the other corn field on the other side

1337
01:08:20,240 --> 01:08:25,679
Speaker 1: of the creek, and burrows into the nastiest briar patch

1338
01:08:25,840 --> 01:08:28,679
Speaker 1: you've ever seen, to the point where it burrows into

1339
01:08:28,720 --> 01:08:33,599
Speaker 1: that briar patch and basically imprisons itself in the briar patch,

1340
01:08:33,760 --> 01:08:35,960
Speaker 1: like it couldn't leave if it wanted to leave out

1341
01:08:35,960 --> 01:08:39,200
Speaker 1: of the briar patch. So I grabbed her we go

1342
01:08:39,320 --> 01:08:42,120
Speaker 1: running down across the creek up the other side. I

1343
01:08:42,160 --> 01:08:44,880
Speaker 1: am shoots the turkey again, and rather than it being

1344
01:08:44,920 --> 01:08:49,200
Speaker 1: like a triumphant moment for her, she is just disappointed

1345
01:08:49,200 --> 01:08:53,000
Speaker 1: in herself because that first shot, she hid it in

1346
01:08:53,080 --> 01:08:56,519
Speaker 1: the leg, and she said, once we got to analyze them,

1347
01:08:56,520 --> 01:08:59,599
Speaker 1: what happened. She said, I couldn't see his head and

1348
01:08:59,680 --> 01:09:02,840
Speaker 1: you had to shoot, so I had to shoot and

1349
01:09:02,840 --> 01:09:04,920
Speaker 1: the only part, that's the only part I could see.

1350
01:09:05,880 --> 01:09:08,120
Speaker 1: And I said, well, why didn't you say that you

1351
01:09:08,120 --> 01:09:11,200
Speaker 1: couldn't see its head? And she said, you told me

1352
01:09:11,840 --> 01:09:18,120
Speaker 1: not to say anything. So I felt pretty bad. And

1353
01:09:18,120 --> 01:09:19,960
Speaker 1: then I felt like I was trying to move the

1354
01:09:20,000 --> 01:09:23,680
Speaker 1: goal post, so to speak. I had so focused on

1355
01:09:23,800 --> 01:09:26,519
Speaker 1: marksmanship and hit in the head. Then, even though she

1356
01:09:26,640 --> 01:09:28,680
Speaker 1: got the turkey, which was like the result we were

1357
01:09:28,720 --> 01:09:32,599
Speaker 1: actually after, in her head, it was somehow like her

1358
01:09:32,640 --> 01:09:35,960
Speaker 1: first hunt was a failure because I hadn't said our

1359
01:09:36,000 --> 01:09:39,280
Speaker 1: goal is getting a turkey. I had said, your job

1360
01:09:39,439 --> 01:09:44,599
Speaker 1: is shooting that turkey in the head. Advanced ahead of year.

1361
01:09:45,160 --> 01:09:48,559
Speaker 1: Next few turkey season, we get a bird comes in

1362
01:09:49,479 --> 01:09:55,519
Speaker 1: and bam, head shot. Bird just piles up in her head.

1363
01:09:55,560 --> 01:09:56,800
Speaker 1: If you went and asked you, if you went and

1364
01:09:56,800 --> 01:10:00,080
Speaker 1: interviewed her right now, she would tell you the that

1365
01:10:00,240 --> 01:10:03,160
Speaker 1: was my first turkey anybody, But what about the other turkey?

1366
01:10:03,200 --> 01:10:06,000
Speaker 1: You got? No? Because I didn't hit it in the head.

1367
01:10:07,000 --> 01:10:09,679
Speaker 1: And I had asked her this year after we hunted,

1368
01:10:09,720 --> 01:10:11,400
Speaker 1: I said, you need to write a thank you note

1369
01:10:11,920 --> 01:10:15,840
Speaker 1: to the landowner where we hunted and write him a

1370
01:10:15,920 --> 01:10:18,160
Speaker 1: letter and thank you for letting him hunt. And she

1371
01:10:18,200 --> 01:10:21,080
Speaker 1: writes her letter, and I read her letter, and she's

1372
01:10:21,120 --> 01:10:23,640
Speaker 1: like all this stuff like as your property and all that,

1373
01:10:24,240 --> 01:10:27,559
Speaker 1: and she gets to the end and a paraphrase a

1374
01:10:27,560 --> 01:10:29,519
Speaker 1: part of this and directly quote her the other part.

1375
01:10:30,200 --> 01:10:35,080
Speaker 1: She basically says, if you really stop and think about it. Uh,

1376
01:10:35,280 --> 01:10:40,000
Speaker 1: this is technically my second turkey. But the last line

1377
01:10:40,000 --> 01:10:43,920
Speaker 1: in her note verbatim is but this is the first

1378
01:10:43,960 --> 01:10:59,360
Speaker 1: one I nailed. For the first few seconds that I

1379
01:10:59,439 --> 01:11:03,080
Speaker 1: see a guyler's red head bobbing through the timber coming

1380
01:11:03,120 --> 01:11:07,040
Speaker 1: to my call, after I've only heard him gobble, I

1381
01:11:07,080 --> 01:11:11,320
Speaker 1: am mesmerized to the point of emotional trauma. I continued

1382
01:11:11,400 --> 01:11:14,000
Speaker 1: to be amazed at how it feels like a gobbler

1383
01:11:14,040 --> 01:11:18,160
Speaker 1: can look into your soul, scrutinizing every square inch of

1384
01:11:18,200 --> 01:11:21,320
Speaker 1: your beam. It feels like he can hear your thoughts.

1385
01:11:21,880 --> 01:11:25,360
Speaker 1: For a moment, you're completely out of control. It doesn't

1386
01:11:25,360 --> 01:11:28,439
Speaker 1: even make rational sense. But it's at this moment we

1387
01:11:28,520 --> 01:11:33,120
Speaker 1: connect to and flow inside of something. Primal chemicals are

1388
01:11:33,160 --> 01:11:37,040
Speaker 1: released in the body, no less addictive than crack, and

1389
01:11:37,080 --> 01:11:41,679
Speaker 1: then the spirit, which science can't track, flames to red

1390
01:11:41,760 --> 01:11:45,480
Speaker 1: hot interaction with a wild place that's such an incredible

1391
01:11:45,560 --> 01:11:51,040
Speaker 1: time of year, the spring is surely something special. The moment, however,

1392
01:11:51,280 --> 01:11:56,280
Speaker 1: is ephemeral. It doesn't last long. It either quickly evaporates

1393
01:11:56,360 --> 01:11:59,920
Speaker 1: as the turkey slides into the timber after a soft put.

1394
01:12:00,400 --> 01:12:03,720
Speaker 1: But now and then the plan comes together and the

1395
01:12:03,760 --> 01:12:06,760
Speaker 1: big gobbler steps into range and you get to take

1396
01:12:06,840 --> 01:12:09,800
Speaker 1: him home after the blast of a shotgun or the

1397
01:12:09,840 --> 01:12:13,000
Speaker 1: release of an arrow. This happened so few times in

1398
01:12:13,120 --> 01:12:17,040
Speaker 1: one's lifetime that most of us keep detailed counts of

1399
01:12:17,080 --> 01:12:20,960
Speaker 1: its occurrence. We notch knife handles, keep the beard and

1400
01:12:21,000 --> 01:12:24,760
Speaker 1: spurs of turkeys, we collect their tail. Fans, think about that,

1401
01:12:24,840 --> 01:12:27,120
Speaker 1: how many things do you actually keep count of in

1402
01:12:27,160 --> 01:12:30,840
Speaker 1: your life? Like we said in the last podcast, turkeys,

1403
01:12:31,120 --> 01:12:33,840
Speaker 1: especially in the Southeast, are in a tougher spot than

1404
01:12:33,880 --> 01:12:35,920
Speaker 1: they've been in a while, and we're gonna have to

1405
01:12:35,960 --> 01:12:40,120
Speaker 1: work hard to protect and improve habitat and be cooperative

1406
01:12:40,160 --> 01:12:43,320
Speaker 1: with our state game agencies as they begin to manage

1407
01:12:43,360 --> 01:12:48,959
Speaker 1: turkeys in a new era. Opportunity is key to igniting passion,

1408
01:12:49,400 --> 01:12:52,759
Speaker 1: and passion is the gateway to getting humans excited about

1409
01:12:52,760 --> 01:12:55,880
Speaker 1: protecting wildlife. It's a fine balance between a lot of

1410
01:12:56,000 --> 01:13:01,160
Speaker 1: opportunity to hunters protecting the resource in the in whatever

1411
01:13:01,200 --> 01:13:03,960
Speaker 1: we have to do will be worth it to see

1412
01:13:04,000 --> 01:13:08,360
Speaker 1: that big red headed gobbler strutton through the timber in

1413
01:13:08,400 --> 01:13:16,960
Speaker 1: the April's yet to come. Long live the goblin turkey. Hey,

1414
01:13:16,960 --> 01:13:20,160
Speaker 1: thanks so much for listening to bear Grease. Do me

1415
01:13:20,200 --> 01:13:24,040
Speaker 1: a favor, leave us a review on iTunes, and tell

1416
01:13:24,280 --> 01:13:28,160
Speaker 1: the worst turkey collar that you know about this podcast,

1417
01:13:28,439 --> 01:13:31,840
Speaker 1: and tell somebody about bar Grease this week. I hope

1418
01:13:31,880 --> 01:13:34,840
Speaker 1: you finish out your turkey season strong and we'll see

1419
01:13:34,880 --> 01:13:37,240
Speaker 1: you next week on The Bear Grease Render