Speaker 1: My name is Clay and Nukam and this is a
Speaker 1: production of the bear Grease podcast called The bear Grease Render,
Speaker 1: where we render down, dive deeper, and look behind the
Speaker 1: scenes of the actual bear Grease podcast presented by f
Speaker 1: HF Gear, American made purpose built hunting and fishing gear
Speaker 1: that's designed to be as rugged as the places we explore. Okay, guys,
Speaker 1: I'd like to read you all a little something here. Okay.
Speaker 1: In the spring, these woods are flooded in waves by
Speaker 1: legions of hunters that are cut from a different cloth,
Speaker 1: a breed born into an obsession otherwise never seen For
Speaker 1: those sacred few weeks of the year, their state of
Speaker 1: minds shifts seemingly overnight, carry themselves differently. They become difficult
Speaker 1: to get in touch with and eventually speak only when
Speaker 1: spoken to. Jobs are lost, relationships fade, and health becomes
Speaker 1: an afterthought within the eyes of a turkey hunter. Beneath
Speaker 1: the stains of bloodshot that grow with every passing day,
Speaker 1: there is an inevitable restlessness building by the hour. Some
Speaker 1: are admired, some are hated. Neither of them care. They
Speaker 1: know the cost of this lifestyle are to be paid
Speaker 1: up front or due time and time again, and are
Speaker 1: exchanged for a single chance. But to them, to us,
Speaker 1: it's worth it. People know a real turkey hunter when
Speaker 1: they see one, and the book goes on, this is uh,
Speaker 1: that was He's got a way with words. That was
Speaker 1: the first couple paragraphs of of of a book I've
Speaker 1: got in my hand to hear called the Ballad of
Speaker 1: a Turkey Hunter. Hunter. You guys know Hunter, Yeah, we
Speaker 1: both know him. He's a friend. Mississippi guy. Yeah, young guy,
Speaker 1: I am Mississippi or something. Our age, yeah, he's he's
Speaker 1: right around our age. Yeah yeah, our age yea. And
Speaker 1: Jordan's forty three, man, hey, yeah, he's our age. How
Speaker 1: old are you, guys? I'm thirty three, okay, thirty one.
Speaker 1: I got a decade on you. Yeah. Man. So before
Speaker 1: this started, I was, well, let me introduce my guests.
Speaker 1: Got Lake Pickle, the famed, one and only, one and
Speaker 1: only Lake Pickle. It's great to have you, man. Slightly overstated,
Speaker 1: but yeah, yeah, he can't be the only person named that.
Speaker 1: And yeah, have you met another Lake Pickle? I've met
Speaker 1: another Lake I've met in my lifetime. I've met three
Speaker 1: other individuals named Lake, but never met another Lake Pickle.
Speaker 1: Would you have met the other guy's named Lake if
Speaker 1: your name wasn't Lake? One of them? Yes, The other
Speaker 1: two were like, Hey, you got to meet this other
Speaker 1: person named Lake, And I was like, that's fair. Not
Speaker 1: too many dads named you Lake because after he was
Speaker 1: a bass fisherman. He was, he was and is an
Speaker 1: obsessed bass fisherman, and that's where the name Lake came from. Okay,
Speaker 1: my wife just yesterday said that she thinks Lake Pickle
Speaker 1: is the most unique name she's ever heard. Will I
Speaker 1: mean probably, I think I haven't met another one. I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I've told you this, but when
Speaker 1: we came down last year to meet you, I just
Speaker 1: assumed it was your Instagram name, And then when I
Speaker 1: met you in first I was like, oh that's he's Yeah,
Speaker 1: he took on his handle as his real name. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there was a there was a guy. Um oh you
Speaker 1: got answered? Answered, Hey, will that jer hanging from strap?
Speaker 1: Did you? Uh? He was well a little bit of both.
Speaker 1: He was hanging by that leather strap. Everybody, Will primost
Speaker 1: is just called Lake Pickle. Tell Will he's on the
Speaker 1: Bear Grease podcast. Will You're currently on the Bear Grease podcast.
Speaker 1: We were recording and you called, so I answered, good,
Speaker 1: you can do that podcast. Okay, how could you have
Speaker 1: a podcast and Mississippi start any better than this? Will
Speaker 1: Primo show up in the midst of the podcast? Should
Speaker 1: we just shut it down down? Yeah? We're done this day,
Speaker 1: This is done. This day just keeps getting better. Why
Speaker 1: oh man? We so Lake Pickle, which we most people
Speaker 1: know like from the years that he worked at Primos,
Speaker 1: and we'll talk about that a little bit later. Now
Speaker 1: you work for on X, I do. Yeah, it's been
Speaker 1: about a year. Yeah, because the first time you and
Speaker 1: I went Turkey on was right when I started that
Speaker 1: transition to on X. Yeah, so that's great. To your
Speaker 1: right is Isaac Neil Bear Grease, assistant to the regional producer,
Speaker 1: Isaac Neil. Good to have you, Isaac, glad to be here. Yeah. Man,
Speaker 1: we've had a heck of a twenty four hours. We
Speaker 1: have not even twenty four hours. We have we have
Speaker 1: we have, so you're right, Jordan bliss it, yes, sir?
Speaker 1: How you doing? Man? Man, I'm wonderful. I couldn't be
Speaker 1: any better today. Actually, yeah, I mean I'm assuming people
Speaker 1: kind of get the gist of what's going on after
Speaker 1: Whal's conversation. Yeah, yeah, Now, Jordan, I would have known
Speaker 1: you from Primos two, which you don't work at premos
Speaker 1: now you tell tell me what you're doing now pretty
Speaker 1: much just doing real estate and I also help people
Speaker 1: get healthy, so to doing two things at once. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but you you met Lake and that's where we would
Speaker 1: have I would have known your face and voices from
Speaker 1: some of the premos, like and I worked together at
Speaker 1: Promos for six years doing a true series there and
Speaker 1: traveled all over the place and this became best of
Speaker 1: buddies and and what's the name of the realty company
Speaker 1: Open Season Properties, and that that factors into where we
Speaker 1: are right now, right is kind of why. I mean,
Speaker 1: while we have access to haunt this place. So what
Speaker 1: we do is we specialize in like recreation tracks, like developing,
Speaker 1: you name it. I mean, everything to do with the
Speaker 1: hunting land. We pretty much do it. And uh, like
Speaker 1: the place we're on right now is part of our
Speaker 1: brokerage and it's eventually going to be, you know, up
Speaker 1: for sale for somebody else looking for a recreation place
Speaker 1: Clay unless unless say what, let's go in four ways
Speaker 1: after this morning more in a couple millions claim squatters rights.
Speaker 1: Can you describe the room that we're in right now,
Speaker 1: clay or the building where the So this this house
Speaker 1: that we're staying in is on the National Historic Register
Speaker 1: yea of historic Places. Yep, there's the site. There's a
Speaker 1: little plaque out there. And uh, so the house was
Speaker 1: built eighteen seventy, that's what it is say as established now.
Speaker 1: The actual house may have been built for that before
Speaker 1: they I don't know exactly the whole history on it us. No,
Speaker 1: it's been here for a minute. Yeah, it's an old
Speaker 1: but beautiful, well taken care of house. This room that
Speaker 1: we're in is is it's all wood, all dark wood.
Speaker 1: I feel like it's probably pine that's been stained. It
Speaker 1: could be wrong, but it has very immaculate trim work,
Speaker 1: very unique immaculate trim work, even on the ceilings. And
Speaker 1: uh there's a there's an old fireplace. It's almost like
Speaker 1: a gingerbread house. Not that girly, but like that ornate. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's just woodwork everywhere. Yeah, and a big big bookshelf,
Speaker 1: Duck Decoy's Dear old Guns. Yes, it's a great Turkey camp.
Speaker 1: This was the man room, you know, this is in
Speaker 1: my mind. I imagined I can envision somebody sitting over
Speaker 1: on that couch smoking us a go are talking about yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: We were out here last week and we had never
Speaker 1: been inside this thing, and we were starting to put
Speaker 1: this hunt together for you to come down here. And
Speaker 1: I was like, Jordan, is that house even livable? He's like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, ain't been inside. We walk inside and
Speaker 1: we see this big wooden room and all this stuff
Speaker 1: on the wall, and then there's a painting of a
Speaker 1: bear and her cubs running out of a cabin. And
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, clayol like this place just fine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: oh it's it's incredible. And then that picture right there
Speaker 1: behind you got what's that too? Grizzly he's looking at
Speaker 1: a hunter's fisher fisherman okay out fly fishing. He's being
Speaker 1: wall There's some there's some classic art in this place too.
Speaker 1: Really is it's pretty unique? All all across the board,
Speaker 1: to place, the ground, the house, all of it. Okay,
Speaker 1: I got a question. I'll start with you Lake and
Speaker 1: then I'll come back to you, Jordan. All of all
Speaker 1: the years working at Premost, traveling with Will and all
Speaker 1: the guys, what's what is? If you had one story
Speaker 1: to tell that would be most memorable story of traveling
Speaker 1: and hunting, let's just say with Will. Okay, what would
Speaker 1: it be? So this just the one that popped right
Speaker 1: in my head. It was my first spring at Premos.
Speaker 1: And when I started at Premos, I started like right
Speaker 1: at the beginning. So it was elk and deer season
Speaker 1: and waterfowl season first, and I was actually I started
Speaker 1: as like contract work, and I didn't know if I
Speaker 1: was gonna They were kind of keeping me on as
Speaker 1: a trial basis and like my whole goal because what
Speaker 1: kind of hooked me into watching Will and being a
Speaker 1: Premos fan growing up with spring turkeys, that was like everything,
Speaker 1: And so I was like, man, I hope they just
Speaker 1: liked me enough to keep me through at least one spring.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to do one spring with Premos. And
Speaker 1: so you know, I made it through deer season and
Speaker 1: into January and they, the executive producer, John Gibson at
Speaker 1: the time, called me, was like, Hey, we'd love to
Speaker 1: use you through spring if you're interested. I was like, yeup.
Speaker 1: And so the end of spring, I really hadn't got
Speaker 1: to hunt with Will that much. At all, and they
Speaker 1: put together this hunt right around the first of maye
Speaker 1: in New Mexico. There's gonna be me, Wilbur and Brad Ferris,
Speaker 1: if I remember correctly, And I got so excited because
Speaker 1: I remember watching from being like a you know, a
Speaker 1: kid growing up in central Mississippi. I would watch these
Speaker 1: videos of Will hunting these big, just majestic mountains and
Speaker 1: these big white fan Merriam turkeys, and it just was
Speaker 1: like it seemed just like almost fantasy like to me,
Speaker 1: like something that wasn't attainable. And they scheduled this trip
Speaker 1: and next thing I know, I'm in a truck with
Speaker 1: Wilbur and Brad. We're driving out there, and we go
Speaker 1: out there the first morning and we get in some
Speaker 1: turkeys and I'm just hearing these Merriams. I mean, we
Speaker 1: all know how Mariam sounding. Those mountains just oh blah
Speaker 1: blahlah blah, just echoing the cross and I'm just completely
Speaker 1: lost in the moment. And I think it was the
Speaker 1: second day that we ended up killing one, but it
Speaker 1: was I'm gonna say early afternoon, probably like two o'clock
Speaker 1: we spotted this turkey he was in and uh, he
Speaker 1: was actually in an old like a like a wildfire
Speaker 1: had come through that place from a strike of lightning,
Speaker 1: and so he was in that old burn and we
Speaker 1: circle around, we'd get up above him yelp, and the
Speaker 1: turkey gobbles immediately and we scramble and we sit down
Speaker 1: and classic Wilbur's he's shooting like this old side by
Speaker 1: side shotgun with hammers on it, you know, just Wilbur
Speaker 1: loves his old school stuff. But the turkey answers and
Speaker 1: immediately immediately starts coming. And I just see this white
Speaker 1: fan break and there's this big, beautiful mountains behind him
Speaker 1: in the background, and I just remember being just completely
Speaker 1: lost in the moment. Turkey comes in, gets to twenty yards,
Speaker 1: Wilbur shoots him, and he goes out there, he gets
Speaker 1: the turkey, and he's, you know, standing there looking at
Speaker 1: Will and Brad and I'm video and and I just
Speaker 1: remember just having this surreal moment of like, how in
Speaker 1: the world did I end up here? You know, how
Speaker 1: did I end up in mountains with Will Primos and
Speaker 1: Brad Ferris. I just felt like I didn't I didn't
Speaker 1: know how I got there. I didn't feel like I
Speaker 1: deserved to be there. It was just all these mix
Speaker 1: of emotions and we get through video and and I'll
Speaker 1: I'll never forget it. We're standing no I hear record,
Speaker 1: No no, no, no, no, no no, It's is a little
Speaker 1: bit more I guess, uh, heart string pulling than that.
Speaker 1: We're staying like we're standing there and and we're done
Speaker 1: filming everything, and Will says, wait a minute, and I
Speaker 1: was like, what he said, We're gonna give thanks before
Speaker 1: we leave right here. So Wilber laid that turkey down.
Speaker 1: Me and Brad and Will stood in the circle, took
Speaker 1: our hats off and prayed right there. And as I'm
Speaker 1: not I'm not not emotional, but I'm not necessarily an
Speaker 1: emotional person. But I don't know, it's just like I
Speaker 1: got just welled up because I just the moment was
Speaker 1: too much for me, you know. But he sat there,
Speaker 1: it was like, we gotta give thanks, and he said
Speaker 1: a prayer and then back down the mountain we went,
Speaker 1: that's awesome. That's awesome. And that wasn't on film, No,
Speaker 1: it was not. I mean, that wasn't That wasn't an act. No,
Speaker 1: that was just Will being Will Will being Will. Yeah. Man, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's a good one. That's a good one, Jordan,
Speaker 1: what about you? Most memorable thing, man, I'm open for
Speaker 1: like a train wreck story. No, I mean this one
Speaker 1: was so good. This was this was enough like meat
Speaker 1: on the bone sentiment, a heart felt, like spiritual son.
Speaker 1: The first thing that came to my mind was a
Speaker 1: turkey hunt. Wheel Or we had a county south of here,
Speaker 1: probably forty five minutes south where we're at right now,
Speaker 1: and uh will call me. It was a week day.
Speaker 1: He called me afternoon before because he knew I'd been
Speaker 1: chasing some turkeys out there on the National Force. He's like, hey,
Speaker 1: if you got time in the morning, gonna go with
Speaker 1: me and we'll try to film a hunt. I got
Speaker 1: permission to hunt his place over here in Madison County. Like, hey, yeah,
Speaker 1: let's go. And uh it was my first spring. That
Speaker 1: was my second spring at promos and uh, man, I
Speaker 1: hadn't got to actually sit and hunt with Wheel, just
Speaker 1: like one on one. Usually a group deal, three or
Speaker 1: four of us going and like this this was it
Speaker 1: was pressure like trying to video, but at the same time,
Speaker 1: it wasn't like we were two states away and trying
Speaker 1: to under under like a deadline. And we get out
Speaker 1: there that morning, and he had been hunting these turkeys
Speaker 1: a couple of days by himself, and he was like, man,
Speaker 1: I think I got him somewhat figured out. We all
Speaker 1: to try to video it, and we get in here
Speaker 1: is just beautiful hardwood and big old growth pine stand.
Speaker 1: I mean, lake's been on the place and this is gorgeous.
Speaker 1: Timor on me, it looks like a park. And we'll
Speaker 1: get in there that morning, and didn't here the turkeys
Speaker 1: where he thought they'd be. So we just go to start,
Speaker 1: you know, walking around and prospecting a little bit, and
Speaker 1: finally get about a quarter a mile half mile where
Speaker 1: he thought they should be, and we yelp and one
Speaker 1: answers us, all right, well we get closer to him
Speaker 1: and get in a spot where we think we can
Speaker 1: yelp him up without him seeing us. We didn't have
Speaker 1: any decoys particular morning, so we were just like us
Speaker 1: in the turkey, right and uh, this turkey man. It
Speaker 1: went on for two hours. He was standing in his ground,
Speaker 1: we were standing ours. We did him silent treatment on him,
Speaker 1: got aggressive with him, yelping, and he never would break
Speaker 1: and finally uh he uh, we just said, okay, we're
Speaker 1: gonna go quiet for thirty minutes, which is hard for
Speaker 1: me and Will because we're like yelping, especially yes and uh.
Speaker 1: Every time he reached down there, he told me, he's like, hey,
Speaker 1: don't let me yelp. And he told me to look
Speaker 1: at my clock on my phone, like, okay, it's I
Speaker 1: don't remember what time was this, so it's like it's
Speaker 1: like nine o'clock, I said. He said, look at time,
Speaker 1: what time is it? I was like, it's you know,
Speaker 1: nine o'clock. All right, we aren't you up until nine thirty.
Speaker 1: And uh, anyway, this it worked if Gobbler finally like
Speaker 1: cut some distance on us and gobbled, and after that
Speaker 1: we answered him and he got fired up and started coming.
Speaker 1: Then he went quiet on us. And it's just like
Speaker 1: that anticipation part of it. And we're looking up this
Speaker 1: ridge expecting him to come down his finger to us
Speaker 1: and he can shoot the top of it if he
Speaker 1: comes over. It looks down so to kind of paint
Speaker 1: a picture of what the scenario is, and there's another finger,
Speaker 1: Like we're sitting on side of a bowl. There's another
Speaker 1: finger comes down to our left and we're sitting there.
Speaker 1: I mean, wheels, guy's going up We're both like, just
Speaker 1: scanning everywhere, just expecting this thing to pop up any second,
Speaker 1: and to our left, we're here. It was a gobbler
Speaker 1: yelping and he comes running down his heel yelping at
Speaker 1: us instead of gobbling. The first time I'd ever seen that.
Speaker 1: I've heard about it, but usually expect the gobbler to
Speaker 1: fire off and be goblin. But he's yelping looking for
Speaker 1: the hen. And anyway, Turkey comes down there and Wilbur
Speaker 1: shoots him, and the excitement that I got to witness
Speaker 1: that morning in the Passion, there's a we used the
Speaker 1: quote that he had that morning and so many videos
Speaker 1: since then. It's a sound bite, and I don't remember
Speaker 1: exactly how it went, but if you've listened to any
Speaker 1: of the truth Open Ends on the YouTube channel that
Speaker 1: you've heard, we'll talk about what he said that morning.
Speaker 1: But the biggest thing that stood out to me and
Speaker 1: well forever be remembered is he, uh, after he said
Speaker 1: thanks the Lord for it happened in that morning, he
Speaker 1: was like, man, I sure do love this, and I
Speaker 1: was like, I do too, will Bred and we just
Speaker 1: sat there and talked about that turkey for thirty minutes afterwards.
Speaker 1: And this one of those deals growing up in the South.
Speaker 1: I mean, Will promos might as well be Elvis to
Speaker 1: a turkey hunter, you know. Yeah, sitting there with him
Speaker 1: talking about that hunt, and that's one of those deals
Speaker 1: I'll never forget, just like I've made it. Yeah, my
Speaker 1: dreams have came true right here. Yeah, got to yelp
Speaker 1: at a turkey wheel and we killed him and just
Speaker 1: celebrated it. Yeah, So that was one of stuck out
Speaker 1: to me. It is something to see with Wilburt like it,
Speaker 1: because I mean, think about how much he's turkey hunted
Speaker 1: since he starts, especially since he started doing the video
Speaker 1: stuff and Jordan like nothing about what Jordan said was embellish.
Speaker 1: There's been times we'll be hunting around here and we'd
Speaker 1: be going all day, walk however many miles and we
Speaker 1: finally hear a turkey and Wilburt just turns into a
Speaker 1: different human being, just gets giddy. He just gets so excited.
Speaker 1: And it's to see someone like that just get that
Speaker 1: fired up. It's contagious. Yeah. Yeah, well, you know the
Speaker 1: thing about and I've not spent a lot of time
Speaker 1: around Will, but I did get to hunt with him.
Speaker 1: Last spring with you Lake, and everybody's always wondering, Well,
Speaker 1: I wondered what he's like off camera? You know, people
Speaker 1: ask that about people that they know from media some way,
Speaker 1: and they're like, well, but what's he like when nobody's around?
Speaker 1: And Will Primos? I like, Will Primos better off camera
Speaker 1: than on camera. I mean, he's just a passionate, genuine,
Speaker 1: caring guy that just just is not We talked about
Speaker 1: this last night. Is not concerned with fame, like it really.
Speaker 1: You hear people say stuff like that and you're kind
Speaker 1: of like, really, but I saw it. I have a
Speaker 1: couple of stories that it's like he was he was
Speaker 1: not interested in being famous, and uh, and that's why.
Speaker 1: That's why he's so authentic. But he he is uniquely
Speaker 1: passionate about life and not just about turkeys. That's what
Speaker 1: I saw behind the scenes with Will Primos's He's a
Speaker 1: he's a passionate businessman. He's he's passionate about just anything
Speaker 1: he's doing, hyper passionate about it. Isaac, what's your favorite
Speaker 1: Will Primo's story? Well, I have very few of them. No.
Speaker 1: We we came down and recorded that podcast with him
Speaker 1: last year, and that was just about the only interaction
Speaker 1: I've had other than I saw him this year at
Speaker 1: NWTF and he was making tracks. Well, he made an
Speaker 1: impression on me and you when we were here for
Speaker 1: that podcast, we talked about him the whole ELM. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that guy. He just has such a galvanizing personality, like
Speaker 1: you just want to be on his team and pull
Speaker 1: the pull in the same direction as him. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's truly remarkable. And these guys have told us both
Speaker 1: this morning and how how much Will has helped them
Speaker 1: to to Will's detriment, like he's not He's not just
Speaker 1: trying to get a bunch of people, yeah, doing stuff
Speaker 1: that He's been one of those people that come into
Speaker 1: your life and just a positive influence. It wants to
Speaker 1: help you, genuinely wants you to win. Yeah, this is
Speaker 1: a like super short story about Will, but it's a
Speaker 1: like a just to chose his character now he only
Speaker 1: had one Oh yeah, he calls me one morning during
Speaker 1: the summer night hunting season. He calls me on Saturday
Speaker 1: and he says, Hey, I guess some stuff going on
Speaker 1: at going on the house. Can you come help me?
Speaker 1: And this was not abnormal as like sure, yes, all right,
Speaker 1: there knock on his door, expecting we're doing something in
Speaker 1: his garden or in his barn, and he's just he says, hey,
Speaker 1: come inside. I'm like okay. He says, you want any coffee.
Speaker 1: I'm like, uh sure, And he's like, all right, go
Speaker 1: in my office, just sit down. At this point, I'm like,
Speaker 1: what are we doing? You know about? Yeah? Am I? Am?
Speaker 1: I good? Like? Am I in trouble? But I go
Speaker 1: in there, his office, him sitting there, his coffee. He
Speaker 1: walks in, He sits down the chair across from me,
Speaker 1: and he says, hey, man, he's at the office this week,
Speaker 1: and I could tell something was bothering you. I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's work, I don't know if it's personal.
Speaker 1: But me and you, we're gonna sit in here. We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about it till we figure it out because
Speaker 1: I don't like seeing you that way. It's just wilbur
Speaker 1: m Wow, So what happened? We want the deets? Man? Man,
Speaker 1: I'm kidding. No, that's that's that's a great story. It's
Speaker 1: pretty Yeah, that's a pretty remarkable experience to have with
Speaker 1: a boss. Yeah, yeah, it really is. It really is. Well,
Speaker 1: so we're right in the middle of every year on
Speaker 1: Bear Grease. At this time year we focus on turkeys,
Speaker 1: and so we've now had two Turkey Stories podcasts, and
Speaker 1: I love those because you just get to hear I
Speaker 1: love hearing people tell stories, people that are passionate about
Speaker 1: what they're doing, that are really knowledgeable, and because you you,
Speaker 1: everybody that tells the story is gonna do something different.
Speaker 1: The way they the way they saw things happen, the
Speaker 1: way what they emphasize, what they don't emphasize is always
Speaker 1: so interesting to me. But now you listen to that
Speaker 1: first one, was there a story that stood out to
Speaker 1: you on that one? Or you just thought it was
Speaker 1: funny or you thought it was good. Probably the guy
Speaker 1: was I can't remember the man's name, but he was
Speaker 1: telling the story about the turkey coming in and he
Speaker 1: crawled up on the knoll and all he could see
Speaker 1: was the top of his fan. That. I like that.
Speaker 1: And then they he has a video, he said he
Speaker 1: had a video of a turkey goblin in his food
Speaker 1: was touching his boot. Oh okay, that was in the
Speaker 1: render that Steve Phillips. Yeah, he was hunting with his
Speaker 1: with a with a maybe his grandson. Yeah, he was
Speaker 1: up above and he could see this turkey so good,
Speaker 1: but there's a little mound of dirt and his little
Speaker 1: boy couldn't see the turkey. All he could see the
Speaker 1: top of the fans. So when he shoots, you know,
Speaker 1: Steve said the turkey was like just like six or
Speaker 1: seven feet and it was a different turkey that stepped
Speaker 1: on his foot. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I need to
Speaker 1: get that video from him. That's I was hoping that.
Speaker 1: When I heard that, I was like, man, I hope
Speaker 1: they got that video. Yeah, yeah, probably you're right. The
Speaker 1: one on the actual Turkey Stories podcast, the one where
Speaker 1: the he was listening to his granddad and he kept
Speaker 1: calling his grand That was cool. Yeah, his granddad is Steve,
Speaker 1: the guy who well that was Yeah, it's all the same,
Speaker 1: all the same vein there. Yeah. But well let's tell
Speaker 1: let's tell our story. So we came down here, Isaac
Speaker 1: and I came down kind of last minute deal and
Speaker 1: we were gonna hunt two days in Mississippi, but it
Speaker 1: turns out we only needed one. When you got need,
Speaker 1: we only needed a couple of hours. Yeah. So it's uh,
Speaker 1: today is March thirtieth, yep, last day in March, and
Speaker 1: uh they're thirty one days in March. Yeah, today the
Speaker 1: thirty first, Yeah, tomorrow is hang, I got a consultant today.
Speaker 1: It's the thirtieth to a couple of days till April first.
Speaker 1: Mississippi is very green right now, very much. Turkeys are
Speaker 1: really starting to gobble good. I think I sat in
Speaker 1: a good patch of poison ivy this morning, probably did
Speaker 1: a little bit about the spring man. This came early
Speaker 1: our spring. It started greening up here in February, which
Speaker 1: is apt normal usually right now it's starting. I like, oh,
Speaker 1: trees are starting blossom and we're having a little small
Speaker 1: small leaves on them, and they're full full fold. Did
Speaker 1: we pass a field with corn sprouting in it yesterday? Yeah,
Speaker 1: we passed the field yesterday with probably five or six
Speaker 1: inches tall. Yeah, it's morning that have been planning. They
Speaker 1: started playing corn this year. Like mid February. Everything feels
Speaker 1: in the woods. Everything feels about two weeks ahead. Okay
Speaker 1: for sure. I see up in in northwest Arkansas, I
Speaker 1: would say we're relatively on track. Like it is not
Speaker 1: leaf out yet. The red butt, the red buds have
Speaker 1: popped some of the faster blooming trees, the maples, and
Speaker 1: some of those have have are starting to put out leaves,
Speaker 1: but the oaks are holding tight, so it's still still
Speaker 1: about right up there. We're probably a little early, but
Speaker 1: it's it's set up. It's been a fantastic couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: So it's Missippi Open of Turkey stating usually it's kind
Speaker 1: of slow, you know, end up super bad, like hard
Speaker 1: to deal with. Turkeys don't gob a whole lot. But
Speaker 1: it's been lights out since open. You told me how
Speaker 1: many days you've hunted and how many turkeys you've seen
Speaker 1: killed this year? That's not normal? Okay, yeah, well will
Speaker 1: you tell me how many think this morning? It's either
Speaker 1: nineteen or twenty days. We started early marching are and
Speaker 1: I've been going on just about every day since then,
Speaker 1: and uh excluding the travel days, and uh yeah, it's
Speaker 1: been I think best I can remember. I've seen thirteen
Speaker 1: turkeys get shot at m since uh since marks the
Speaker 1: eighth or ninth, so it's been pretty stout. Like you,
Speaker 1: this is this would have been Dave. I think George
Speaker 1: has got a few days and a few turkeys on me.
Speaker 1: I think this is day fifteen or sixteen, and this
Speaker 1: is the eleventh turkey I've seen getting shot with that's incredible. Man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been a it's been a very good spring. Which
Speaker 1: one y'all wants to tell this story or you know,
Speaker 1: get it started? Uh? Well I get so it starts
Speaker 1: yesterday because I was out I came out here yesterday evening. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, prior, I was like, man, if I can
Speaker 1: get a roost gobble like find something the evening, awesome,
Speaker 1: you know I And granted I typically don't have the
Speaker 1: best of luck getting them to gobble on a limb
Speaker 1: in the evening, but I was going to be out here,
Speaker 1: so I was like, I might as well try. And
Speaker 1: Jordan was up on another piece of the property scouting around,
Speaker 1: and uh, I walked in about where we walked in
Speaker 1: this morning. And it was originally going to go up
Speaker 1: higher on the Why I call it a hill. You
Speaker 1: probably don't call it the hill people out there. It's
Speaker 1: not a hill. It's not even remotely what do you
Speaker 1: call it. I mean it would be a just a
Speaker 1: like a like a slight incline. Well, I was going
Speaker 1: to go up higher on the slight incline and I said, man,
Speaker 1: I better check make sure I don't bump anything. And
Speaker 1: I just out a single note and he gobbled and
Speaker 1: I was like, there's no way, And that ended up
Speaker 1: being not to to prep you know that the set
Speaker 1: of turkeys we set between this morning, it was the
Speaker 1: single turkey up the sliding, so only one of them.
Speaker 1: So this morning, well, where you were last night you'd
Speaker 1: heard one gobble on the roost, we sat in there
Speaker 1: this morning and I'm not trying to rush your story.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to I'm trying to make a connection between
Speaker 1: how many might gobble on the roosts versus how many
Speaker 1: are actually there? Right, Yeah, And I, Jordan, I talked
Speaker 1: about that because again we have hunted this property previously,
Speaker 1: and we knew there was a lot more than one
Speaker 1: just one time though, yes, but there was a lot
Speaker 1: of turkeys, and I was and so I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I heard one, answer me, but the chances are there's
Speaker 1: more than that in there. And then sure enough, like
Speaker 1: right when we got in there, we heard all of them.
Speaker 1: And what we had was one single gobbler over here,
Speaker 1: and then down by the drain there was three or
Speaker 1: four wadded together still and the game plan this morning
Speaker 1: was to try to get down by the creek and
Speaker 1: basically situate ourselves in between the two turkeys, thinking they
Speaker 1: would converge at some point. Yeah, yeah, was the original
Speaker 1: game play. Did they converge? They indeed did not Convergeiza,
Speaker 1: I'm glad you asked that. It would have been too
Speaker 1: easy if they did, you know. So we so we
Speaker 1: get out there, you know, right at gobbling time. We
Speaker 1: may not have heard us first. Gobble. Maybe maybe he
Speaker 1: got before we got there. I think it was a
Speaker 1: little when we walked outside and there was light in
Speaker 1: the sky. I was like, oh shoot, but it wasn't
Speaker 1: a big deal. We were there way before flydown time.
Speaker 1: Al maybe on the second owl we heard him. Gobble
Speaker 1: moved into probably one hundred and fifty yards of the turkey. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're kind of in between these two groups of turkeys,
Speaker 1: and and then what happened. We went to battle. Let's right,
Speaker 1: that's right. We started, I mean we started kind of. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when we thought it was like right on the verge
Speaker 1: of flight down time, we decided to let them know
Speaker 1: that we were there, you know, just yelp a little
Speaker 1: bit um and they were keen to answer us at first,
Speaker 1: but Jordan like, tell me if I'm wrong. The way
Speaker 1: of turkeys like pretty pretty quickly. I was like, if
Speaker 1: they're gonna come our direction, and it's not gonna be
Speaker 1: anytime quick, Like they were very obviously keen with whatever
Speaker 1: they had going on. Yeah, and from hunting in here
Speaker 1: last week, we pretty sure everybody's got hens over there,
Speaker 1: because it was a pile of hens in there last
Speaker 1: week when we hunted. And uh, my theory on the
Speaker 1: way when I started yelping and why I did it
Speaker 1: when I did it was hey, the first hand on
Speaker 1: the ground kind of what this many this much competition?
Speaker 1: You may get an early looker come in there, you know,
Speaker 1: thinking okay, I'm and go meet Betty over here earlier,
Speaker 1: and everybody else is so yeah, I saw I started yelping.
Speaker 1: I did a fly down, like multiple turkeys flying down
Speaker 1: and just trying to paint a picture of that. God,
Speaker 1: they're sitting up on the ridge. It's like, man, I
Speaker 1: didn't know them hens were down there last night, but
Speaker 1: apparently they are. I'm hearing them fly down, hearing them yell.
Speaker 1: And Jordan had a had a wing, like real real
Speaker 1: turn wing, or at least it was real turkey feathers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a gobbler. I actually cut it down so it
Speaker 1: doesn't make a big gobbler of promotion. That's that's small.
Speaker 1: So it sounds like yeah, so he and then did
Speaker 1: the fly down cackle. That was you that did that.
Speaker 1: We are well, Jordan and I, we've hunted together enough.
Speaker 1: It was like it was like a symphony. We kind
Speaker 1: of well, it's like we can be like we've just
Speaker 1: been spent so much time together in the woods, like
Speaker 1: we can be separated fifteen yards and just be looking
Speaker 1: at each other's eyes through our mask and kind of
Speaker 1: know what the other one's thinking. And so yeah, like
Speaker 1: he was flying down, I was, but again, like what
Speaker 1: George said, like trying to there's obviously a lot of
Speaker 1: excitement going on already because there's multiple turkeys, and it's
Speaker 1: like if you try to make it seem like there's
Speaker 1: you know, a couple of different hens flying down, then
Speaker 1: they may drift over. But that didn't happen. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: we sat there for probably thirty plus minutes really probably yeah,
Speaker 1: probably thirty maybe forty minutes, and a bird kind of
Speaker 1: acted like he was gonna come our way, but then
Speaker 1: just never just never materialized. We still heard these birds
Speaker 1: slower around. At one point yeah. The single Turkey show
Speaker 1: started showing some interest and we thought he may come
Speaker 1: come our direction, but he didn't. Didn't. Yeah, and then
Speaker 1: so we move. We we make a move across the creek, Jordan.
Speaker 1: When he gets across the creek, let's off a very aggressive,
Speaker 1: really good sounding out hoot. Let us hear your out?
Speaker 1: Will you out for us? And I don't want to
Speaker 1: break your speakers. Man, it doesn't it doesn't matter. Hold on,
Speaker 1: we'll get another one. He don't turn it down right now.
Speaker 1: I loved it. I love a good out hoot. Let's
Speaker 1: hear it one note or the whole? Who cooks for you? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: give it to us, give us the whole. There we go, beautiful.
Speaker 1: If you were from Mississippi, there's a real good chance
Speaker 1: that you're a good mouth out hooter. It's just the truth.
Speaker 1: That's this. That was I could not do it forever,
Speaker 1: and I kept trying and trying to trying because I
Speaker 1: felt like I was incompetent. If I couldn't do it,
Speaker 1: my voice Like you go around with these guys at
Speaker 1: our Turkey hunters, They're like, what you got that out
Speaker 1: hooter for? I want quick side note? You know who
Speaker 1: Paul Busky is no So Paul Busky is like a
Speaker 1: legendary turkey call or hunter from back in the eighties
Speaker 1: and nineties. He won all kinds of world championship yelping contest.
Speaker 1: And we're in Alabama. This has been nineteen years ago.
Speaker 1: I was filming him for a Mossy Oak show and
Speaker 1: I had this little hoot too, made by Primos, and
Speaker 1: we were hunting these turkeys and Paul won like hooting
Speaker 1: contest too, and I'll still rub this into his face
Speaker 1: every time I see him. We were doing the same
Speaker 1: and overworth this morning. Like turkeys would gobble at a
Speaker 1: hoot every once in a while and then they finally
Speaker 1: quit and Paul is getting aggravated. They won't want quick goblin.
Speaker 1: I was like, Paul, let me try this little hooter thing.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you. They answer it, and I mean it
Speaker 1: sounds terrible. It's like who and turkeys gobbled at it,
Speaker 1: and uh, He's like, you gotta learn how to do
Speaker 1: that with you avoid. I was like, Paul, they gobbled
Speaker 1: at it. Yeah, what where did the breakthrough come from?
Speaker 1: I just kept trying this cosseverance. I finally figured you
Speaker 1: were an adult. When he's learned to do it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was pretty much induld when I started on set
Speaker 1: out hooter. Well, I was pretty much an adult when
Speaker 1: I started turkey hunting period. Oh really Yeah, So I
Speaker 1: didn't grow up in a turkey hunting family or around
Speaker 1: the culture. I knew people that did it, but they
Speaker 1: weren't gonna take you. I mean, I keep it to
Speaker 1: their self, you know. And uh, I just started showing
Speaker 1: interest and it kind of self taught slash getting to
Speaker 1: go around with a lot of good people when I
Speaker 1: started in the film industry outdoors. That's that's what really
Speaker 1: about put fuel on my fire with turkey hunting is
Speaker 1: getting to go with really good turkey hunters. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: we the creek, you al one note al And they
Speaker 1: answered close or you know, within one hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: yards probably we'd kind of moved in on this bunch
Speaker 1: down by the creek. They answered, we sit down. We
Speaker 1: we feel like it's gonna be money. Um and uh,
Speaker 1: you know that situation was interesting to me because it's
Speaker 1: it's something you always have to deal with. But when
Speaker 1: you're setting up on a turkey, you're there's some things
Speaker 1: that are chosen for you and other things you get
Speaker 1: to choose. The thing chosen for you is where it happens.
Speaker 1: And in that situation, they were probably a little closer
Speaker 1: than we thought they were gonna be. And we couldn't
Speaker 1: go backwards because the creek was right behind us and
Speaker 1: we didn't want to try to call them across the creek.
Speaker 1: So I mean, it's like, we're gonna sit down right
Speaker 1: and you're gonna sit right here. Yeah, And so when
Speaker 1: we sat down, about thirty five yards out in front
Speaker 1: of me was a very big hardwood of some variety
Speaker 1: that that had fallen down, making a major obstacle. It
Speaker 1: had binds on it and brush growing up through it,
Speaker 1: and it was like probably twenty yards long of obstacle
Speaker 1: that I felt like it was for sure gonna make
Speaker 1: the turkeys if they came to us, go around the
Speaker 1: end of that thing. But I also knew Lake Pickle
Speaker 1: that if I anticipated them coming around the end of that,
Speaker 1: but they probably wouldn't. And it's and I was sitting
Speaker 1: there thinking what is this thing gonna do? Because it's
Speaker 1: so obvious that if this turkey's gonna show up, he's
Speaker 1: gonna be right there. And I was like, he's gonna
Speaker 1: do something like he's gonna jump up on that law
Speaker 1: gonna come, or he's gonna come through the cane thick,
Speaker 1: you know, the cane thicket on the creek right behind us,
Speaker 1: which is like turkeys don't do that. But when you're
Speaker 1: set up, you're thinking that's what I'm always thinking. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I think he's coming right there. He's not,
Speaker 1: even though he's gobbling that way, everything's pointing he's gonna
Speaker 1: come that way. And the bird at one point I
Speaker 1: felt like he came maybe thirty yards closer than he
Speaker 1: was originally, which when you're inside of like one hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty yards, that that amount of movement makes it
Speaker 1: that you can hear it. You know, it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: he's coming closer. And to me inside of turkey hunting,
Speaker 1: that is the most exciting part of it, probably even
Speaker 1: more than pulling the trigger. When a bird is in
Speaker 1: range and you're pulling the trigger, to me, it's like
Speaker 1: almost panic. It's not it's not necessarily fun, it's almost panic. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's stressful. It's a stressful to me. The excitement when
Speaker 1: my heart starts to pound and I get pumped is
Speaker 1: when I hear one and then you sit there for
Speaker 1: three or four minutes and c and then the next time,
Speaker 1: I mean, he's like you just know he's just about
Speaker 1: to be there, and you're scanning, scanning, scanning, and then
Speaker 1: when you're half deaf like me and you can't really
Speaker 1: tell which direction they're coming from, you're scanning from as
Speaker 1: far as you can see this way to as far
Speaker 1: as you can see that way without moving your head,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden you catch that flicker
Speaker 1: of movement, which is usually their head. I would say
Speaker 1: most of the time you see that, you see that,
Speaker 1: you see that head just kind of bopping around, and
Speaker 1: that's when I But but after that, to me, it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's like why am I even a turkey hunter? What
Speaker 1: I could have been at home sipping coffee with mister.
Speaker 1: It's like, why am I doing this? And then you know,
Speaker 1: hopefully it works out and you shoot it and it's fine.
Speaker 1: So which which way did he come? So the turkey
Speaker 1: didn't come any anyway through he didn't show up, but
Speaker 1: he came a little bit closer. Yeah, and then Jordan
Speaker 1: had a good move. I like, I learned stuff every
Speaker 1: time I'm hunting with good turkey hunters. I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: really paying attention to what someone else does and comparing
Speaker 1: it to what I would do, because in any situation,
Speaker 1: you have an instinct of what to do. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I'm aware of my instinct. But I knew, you know,
Speaker 1: these guys are I was gonna do? These guys where
Speaker 1: the masters? Well, what did you want to do? Well, Lake,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna tell you what I wanted to do.
Speaker 1: I just thought I didn't have much of a chance
Speaker 1: to think about it before Jordan said, Hey, we're gonna
Speaker 1: we're gonna circle way around these turkeys and come in
Speaker 1: from the complete other side. Well. The reason I ask is, like,
Speaker 1: the most common mistake that you see made often is
Speaker 1: like a turkey hunter just goes what you know, you
Speaker 1: gotta move, like, well, let's just go to them. You
Speaker 1: just no matter what the topography or the timber is, like,
Speaker 1: it's just the move is to make a move pretty
Speaker 1: much going right at them, Yeah, which sometimes can work,
Speaker 1: but you got some covers or something, yeah, or you know,
Speaker 1: even if you're aware that you can't get that close,
Speaker 1: you end up moving like fifty yards and you're essentially
Speaker 1: in the same position you were before you moved, and
Speaker 1: so you gotta do something to put the odds more
Speaker 1: in your favor. I would say that that is probably
Speaker 1: that is a really great hip for people. I think
Speaker 1: is is it's like you're you're trying to solve a problem.
Speaker 1: You come at it from this way, doesn't work. We'll
Speaker 1: come at it from a completely different way. See if
Speaker 1: it works. Go at it from this way, see if
Speaker 1: it works. So, in my mind, the way we were
Speaker 1: set up, like we'd been yelping a toast turkeys from
Speaker 1: that direction for an hour and a half. Yep, they
Speaker 1: have not moved closer to them. They still haven't broke.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, Okay, they obviously do not want to
Speaker 1: come this way. So whether you moved forty one hundred
Speaker 1: yards closer, they're not wanting to come that direction. So
Speaker 1: come in from another side. They're drifting, They're wanting to
Speaker 1: drift that way. It sounds like anyway, So just like
Speaker 1: I talked about earlier, if you get where they want
Speaker 1: to be, it's a whole lot easier to kill them. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so so we dropped way away from the turkeys,
Speaker 1: circled around so we didn't spook them because I think
Speaker 1: that's something that we do as well as you'll you'll
Speaker 1: spook birds while you're moving around on them, just thinking
Speaker 1: for sure that you're you're safe well. And another thing
Speaker 1: is it's like a you can it's easy to get
Speaker 1: complacent or lazy because we could have cut a lot
Speaker 1: more distance, a lot quicker had we made a less
Speaker 1: drastic move, Like the move that we made was excessive
Speaker 1: for the amount for the spot we need to get to.
Speaker 1: But we walked out on the other side of that
Speaker 1: ridge where we're like, there's no way of slight incline.
Speaker 1: We got up on the other side of that slight
Speaker 1: incline where there's no way in the world they were
Speaker 1: going to spot us, and then closed in. Yeah, which
Speaker 1: makes for more makes for more walking around, but I
Speaker 1: mean it's we made an exaggerated move to make sure
Speaker 1: we didn't bump the turkeys came in from the other side.
Speaker 1: And the one thing that was great about to set
Speaker 1: up this morning, which I like about that property is
Speaker 1: this there's a huge just cattle pasture that borders the
Speaker 1: whole what the west side of it, and so it's
Speaker 1: a big block of woods with a huge cattle pasture
Speaker 1: on one side, of it, and you know, they're going
Speaker 1: to use that cattle pasture, and we couldn't hunt that
Speaker 1: cattle pasture. That wasn't our land, so we could just
Speaker 1: hunt in the timber. And but you know, most likely
Speaker 1: those turkeys aren't gonna cross a half a mile through
Speaker 1: that open field and go somewhere else. If it had
Speaker 1: all been timber, if that had been a timbered if
Speaker 1: it had just been a boundary through a big, huge
Speaker 1: block of timber, I mean, they might have just kept drifting.
Speaker 1: But I felt like that field was kind of a
Speaker 1: a boundary of Yeah, man, they they I don't. The
Speaker 1: whole flock of turkeys are not just gonna vacate the
Speaker 1: woods unless you run them out of there. They'll call
Speaker 1: that home, you know. Yeah, yeah, um, as we made
Speaker 1: that approach, I would love an explanation of what happened. Uh,
Speaker 1: you guys heard them at one point, and I didn't
Speaker 1: hear them the next time. I heard them, but they
Speaker 1: sounded far off, and we were doing little increments where
Speaker 1: we'd stop, call listen, edge forward, and we were we
Speaker 1: were Alan and crow, and we weren't. We weren't yelping
Speaker 1: at them. We're just trying to get them to call
Speaker 1: their own. Yeah, because once we made the big move
Speaker 1: those turkey, he said that heard zero Ye opening from
Speaker 1: that direction at all, which is our benefit. Long as
Speaker 1: they'll start keep gobbling, I'd rather not yelp at him
Speaker 1: till you really said that treat absolutely, because the second
Speaker 1: you start hitting, you open, then you got to start thinking.
Speaker 1: Then you you don't have the luxury of all right,
Speaker 1: where's can we set up? They like, if they're gobbling
Speaker 1: out an hour or a crow, you're like, take all
Speaker 1: the time, you won't, you know, figure it out. So
Speaker 1: this factors into what I was wondering about. Is we
Speaker 1: hear him, and then we make a little bit of
Speaker 1: move and then they sound much closer. I say, a
Speaker 1: little foothill over slight closet. It's the slight incline. Okay,
Speaker 1: that explains everything. I think they had moved a little
Speaker 1: closer though, don't you touch? But no, really was that's
Speaker 1: just kind of going over that break. They stay within
Speaker 1: the same fifty yard circle for two hours. I'd say,
Speaker 1: were they were they in a like a creek bed
Speaker 1: or a depression or a bottom? Yeah, just just yep,
Speaker 1: just a hardbottle like one of those deep sighted money,
Speaker 1: I think sometimes too. To answer your question about how
Speaker 1: a turkey might sound closer, yeah, I mean Andy Brown
Speaker 1: said it the other day on the Render podcast. He said,
Speaker 1: I like it when people can pull out nuance from
Speaker 1: something that's like very not visible. And Andy said he
Speaker 1: was on this big ridge calling and there was a
Speaker 1: big holler in front of him, and on the other
Speaker 1: ridge a turkey was goblin. And he said he could
Speaker 1: tell it was goblin the opposite way of him, and
Speaker 1: and and he knew there was no way that this
Speaker 1: turkey was coming to him, and so he just took
Speaker 1: a chance and started getting fairly aggressive on the roost
Speaker 1: with this turkey. Yeah, which is something he wouldn't have done,
Speaker 1: but it was just a turkey that was out of play. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And he said he could tell that turkey turned around
Speaker 1: on the limb and started gobbling his direction just because
Speaker 1: it just got loud. Yeah, you know, just and and
Speaker 1: and then the turkey. I'm telling the story that he
Speaker 1: told on the riter. The turkey flies across that valley
Speaker 1: and lands like right in his lap kills. But no,
Speaker 1: so yeah, sometimes just a little less ye make this
Speaker 1: big long loop and I'm not hearing much, but I
Speaker 1: don't hear great anyway, and then at the very end
Speaker 1: it gets pretty exciting. And then at the very end
Speaker 1: it gets find a tree right now, there's a thicket
Speaker 1: right there. Go And it didn't it didn't slow down
Speaker 1: much from there. Yeah. Yeah, so we so we come
Speaker 1: totally from the opposite direction. Move in jordanals they answer,
Speaker 1: we know where they're at. And when they first gobbled,
Speaker 1: we actually backed up about twenty yards, got set up
Speaker 1: in a little thicket. I did notice that you guys
Speaker 1: are are pretty keen on final a lot of cover.
Speaker 1: You have to because it's it's like cover in shade,
Speaker 1: cover in shade is everything. Because that's why we backed up,
Speaker 1: because like everything in front of us, because we couldn't
Speaker 1: gain a whole lot of ground before we started getting
Speaker 1: too close without them spotting us. Yeah, and it's like
Speaker 1: everything immediately in front of us was highlighted in the sun.
Speaker 1: So as they turn around, look for something thick, look
Speaker 1: for something shady. Yeah, because you put you stack the
Speaker 1: odd like Turkey is Turkey in is a game of
Speaker 1: like putting small successes in your favor to finally get
Speaker 1: the grand result incremental gains. Yes, and my main thing
Speaker 1: you have to remember when you decide you're gonna yelp
Speaker 1: at a turkey is when he's coming. If he does
Speaker 1: decide to come, he's looking for that hen. So he
Speaker 1: is the more obstacles he asked to guess about where
Speaker 1: she's at, the better because they keeps him looking, keeps
Speaker 1: him moving step by a step closer and closer, because
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how many times and these big
Speaker 1: open bottoms now here turkey comes eighty yards and he
Speaker 1: doesn't calm a step closer because he can see everything.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, he's waiting if you want him to come
Speaker 1: looking yeah yeah. And that's also the reason you gotta
Speaker 1: be hyper still, hyper still. That's the reason why we
Speaker 1: had the luxury, because we had enough folks Jordan could
Speaker 1: drop back further so because I mean, because that like
Speaker 1: to Jordan's point, like the same reason if if if
Speaker 1: I was doing the primary yelping, if you noticed, like
Speaker 1: when we made that set, I didn't yelp one time
Speaker 1: because I was like, I don't they were close enough
Speaker 1: and we were on a good setup enough. It's like
Speaker 1: if I go to yelping, those turkeys are gonna be look,
Speaker 1: you know where where they at. Why why am I
Speaker 1: not seeing a hen out there? I can hear a
Speaker 1: hen right there, I can see right there. I'm out
Speaker 1: of here. That's why I was like Jordan, being seventy
Speaker 1: yards back is what we need because they'll come through us. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that far behind us, fifty ordy probably. But the reason
Speaker 1: it took me a manute to get set down. I
Speaker 1: looked at two or three different trees back there to
Speaker 1: sit by, And the one reason I picked the one
Speaker 1: I did is because it was stick right behind me
Speaker 1: and to my left. Also, that little foothill fell off,
Speaker 1: just fell off just enough for where I'm at a
Speaker 1: turkey's level, like not standing up. But if I'm a
Speaker 1: hen's height, I can't see but about forty yards. So
Speaker 1: a gobbler approaching well from a yelpen coming from he
Speaker 1: has to get to forty yards to be able to
Speaker 1: see where the yelpings coming from. Yeah, so that was
Speaker 1: kind of the reason I decided to sit behind y'all
Speaker 1: on a little bit over your left shoulder. If so,
Speaker 1: he'd had to be in gun range to see where
Speaker 1: I was yelping from. Man and it and so it
Speaker 1: ends up working great because the turkeys had gobbled at
Speaker 1: the at an owl. We get set up, and we
Speaker 1: get set up facing north right the fields on our
Speaker 1: left side. I'm twenty five yards from the field edge. Ye,
Speaker 1: I can see into the field, but you know, we're
Speaker 1: not thinking the feet the field is the worst case
Speaker 1: scenario here. We can't shoot over there because we can't
Speaker 1: shoot over there. And if a bird gets in that
Speaker 1: field and starts strutting to him that he thinks is
Speaker 1: in the woods and it's gonna come out to him,
Speaker 1: That's what I was thinking. You know, if he's out there,
Speaker 1: we're in trouble. Because we were I mean, we said it.
Speaker 1: We were walking up, like he said, we didn't think
Speaker 1: that they would get in that field and just leave.
Speaker 1: But you look at it and you're like, they're using
Speaker 1: that field at some point, Like turkeys are definitely using
Speaker 1: that feeling big about themselves in that field for sure.
Speaker 1: And so two times the turkey gobbles while we were
Speaker 1: setting down. I felt like he answered you, Jordan, and
Speaker 1: he was getting closer, but then he kind of you know,
Speaker 1: like they like they'll do the last one hundred yards.
Speaker 1: I would say, he didn't gobble even when you did
Speaker 1: yelp and so you know, every time that happens, you think, Okay,
Speaker 1: this this is the start of when this story fades
Speaker 1: into us not killing the turkey, or or this is
Speaker 1: the this is the beginning of the end in a
Speaker 1: good way, because you know, once they come into a
Speaker 1: certain times sometimes turkeys will just gobble their heads off
Speaker 1: all the way in. But then sometimes when they come in,
Speaker 1: they they after a certain point they're like, see he
Speaker 1: in my mind he had gobbled like we had, so
Speaker 1: we had the wad of turkey still, but there was
Speaker 1: very there was audibly one. At the time. I was like,
Speaker 1: one is broken off because one's gobbling significantly closer, and
Speaker 1: he was. He was answering Jordan differently and that, and
Speaker 1: when he went quiet, I started scanning like crazy because
Speaker 1: I'm like, he's something's happening, He's moving like something. I
Speaker 1: just constantly just scanning back and forth. Yeah, which in
Speaker 1: which I did. Finally, I it was the turkey that
Speaker 1: I saw, but I could not confirm that until you
Speaker 1: were like, I see him, you know, uh, in a
Speaker 1: spot where he didn't really need to be, but he
Speaker 1: was there. Yeah, So how do how do you how
Speaker 1: do you make the approach? Well, he goes into the
Speaker 1: field like the best case scenario. Yeah, exactly what you wanted. Well,
Speaker 1: when I so, I saw him, I mean twenty yards
Speaker 1: out into the field, coming towards us. But I immediately
Speaker 1: think this is done, or you know, he's gonna he's
Speaker 1: gonna come in to the edge of the field, gonna
Speaker 1: want us to come, want the hen to come to him.
Speaker 1: He's gonna be strutting out there and eventually and there's
Speaker 1: there's a very distinct boundary. We knew exactly where it was,
Speaker 1: we felt, I mean, it wasn't like a guess where
Speaker 1: the boundary line was. And uh. And he's walking I say,
Speaker 1: see the turkey, and I think he's gonna walk right
Speaker 1: on past us and uh. And when he gets even
Speaker 1: with us, Lake Pickle is right beside me and he
Speaker 1: starts moving around making racket back there and I and
Speaker 1: I go, don't move this. I can't. I can't see him.
Speaker 1: I just hear leaves moving. Lake is Lake is making
Speaker 1: hen noises with his hand. Scolded. Blake was talking about
Speaker 1: us hunting together so much and kind of being able
Speaker 1: to do things without talking, like he knew I was
Speaker 1: in a buying I couldn't yelp from where I was at,
Speaker 1: because the turkey would have definitely came up out of bound.
Speaker 1: It just it just takes Like again, Jordan and I
Speaker 1: are very fortunate to have spent as much time hunting
Speaker 1: spring turkeys as we have. And I just knew because
Speaker 1: you know, I caught a glimpse of him coming up
Speaker 1: that fence. And to describe how we were sitting, So
Speaker 1: if Clay's sitting on this tree and his gun is
Speaker 1: facing twelve o'clock, then I'm sitting on the same tree
Speaker 1: and I'm facing three o'clock. So I'm facing opposite the field,
Speaker 1: and I see what's happening. The turkey's walking that field
Speaker 1: edge and he's bee lining to where George's helping from.
Speaker 1: And at that point, if Jordan continues to yelp, it
Speaker 1: does us no good. That's why Jordan's in a buying
Speaker 1: It draws the past us. And so I said, I
Speaker 1: have to do something to bring his attention our way.
Speaker 1: And I didn't want to yell because he was too close,
Speaker 1: you know, as like if he if I yelped, I
Speaker 1: thought he would just foom and just zero right into us. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so I and I knew because of the way
Speaker 1: I was sitting. I had that giant tree between me
Speaker 1: and the turkey, and I could move, and so I
Speaker 1: just and rake the leaves, and Clay thinks, I don't
Speaker 1: know what good play. Just thought I was moving plays
Speaker 1: like stay still for some reason, well, because where I
Speaker 1: was at, I didn't think. I didn't know if you
Speaker 1: could see the turkey. And you know how it is
Speaker 1: when you're watching an animal and you're with another person
Speaker 1: and they don't see it, but you're like, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: he's looking right at us, man, Yeah, and lakes back there,
Speaker 1: and I just assumed you were talking to me on
Speaker 1: the way down here. I was talking to my buddy Drew,
Speaker 1: and we were just he was just, you know, giving
Speaker 1: me the giving me the pep talk of like he
Speaker 1: knows that I'm like the most fidgety guy. I can't
Speaker 1: sit still at all. And he's like, just sit still,
Speaker 1: just don't move, just don't do that. Yeah, And so
Speaker 1: I'm like this is running through my head and I'm
Speaker 1: like feeling pretty good, but also nervous because I'm in
Speaker 1: between you and the turkey, right it sort of yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm further south, but I'm closer to Turkey than you
Speaker 1: safe shot. But like I'm just leaned out here trying
Speaker 1: to be so still, and I hear don't move, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, I can't not move anymore, Like I'm already
Speaker 1: not moving. I'm so still right now, just not even aware. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it was me that was Yeah. I was willing
Speaker 1: doing the moving, and Buddy, it worked, it did. I
Speaker 1: had lost sight of the turkey when out like I knew,
Speaker 1: because I wanted to wait until I knew that tree
Speaker 1: blocked me. So right when he went behind that tree
Speaker 1: is when I raked, And did anybody see this happen?
Speaker 1: I actually think he was like like scratching his leg
Speaker 1: or something, just shuffled the leaves a little bit on accident,
Speaker 1: and now he's the hero of the story. Such a
Speaker 1: turkey Jedi. Its sounded like somebody going just gotta moving
Speaker 1: around back here. What's the phrase? It's not done if
Speaker 1: it works. But I heard I heard lake. Wait, he's
Speaker 1: facing towards us, he's walking her direction. I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: we may be into something. Yeah, well so yeah, so
Speaker 1: the turkey basically does a ninety degree turn. He's parallel
Speaker 1: on the edge of this field twenty yards into the field. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And when he gets dead even with us, and Lake
Speaker 1: starts moving around back there, the turkey just does a
Speaker 1: ninety degree turn and I think he sees he sees
Speaker 1: our single hend decoy sitting out there. You could see
Speaker 1: him just he just perked up periscoped and he saw
Speaker 1: it in the woods and and he just starts moving
Speaker 1: towards us. And so there's a barb wire fence. He's
Speaker 1: got a cross and I mean, as soon as he
Speaker 1: crosses that fence, he's one percent legal beagle, fair game
Speaker 1: for us to shoot. I can't really tell where that
Speaker 1: barbed wire fence is. I see these random pine treated posts,
Speaker 1: you know, randomly through there, but it's hard to see.
Speaker 1: And he's got fences like yeah, and he's got his
Speaker 1: head down most of the time. And like you like
Speaker 1: you think if a turkey crossing under fence and just
Speaker 1: be real obvious going from a field, crossing the fence,
Speaker 1: going into the woods, just the way he was moving.
Speaker 1: And I'm watching him and I'm hyper fixated on I
Speaker 1: cannot shoot that turkey on the other side of the fence,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, And and uh, and I whispered a
Speaker 1: Lake something like he's got a cross that fence. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and and you said, as soon as he crosses
Speaker 1: that fence, shooting, and uh, he crosses the fence and
Speaker 1: actually was like a solid twenty feet on our side
Speaker 1: of the fence. Yeah, because we let him come even
Speaker 1: further in. Well, and I still, honestly, Lake said, Clay,
Speaker 1: he's one hundred percent on our side of the fence.
Speaker 1: And I was looking at a some kind of a
Speaker 1: stob or something out there that looked like a fence
Speaker 1: post to me, and I was still just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: are we sure? And then I see barbed wire sparkling
Speaker 1: back behind them, and you know, I'm like, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: Lake says one hundred percent. Yeah, but I hesitated, And
Speaker 1: I mean the turkey was inside of twenty five yards.
Speaker 1: You know, I want to know what was going through
Speaker 1: my head while this is that? What's that when I
Speaker 1: seen the turkey because I was countably not on the
Speaker 1: fence rails, but I was close to the fence. Yeah,
Speaker 1: were else ten yards off of it and a brush pile,
Speaker 1: and uh, I see the turkey due the ninety and
Speaker 1: start coming towards y'all. I was like, I hope they
Speaker 1: see this thing. And then when he comes out of
Speaker 1: the fence and start keeps on walking like he's to
Speaker 1: my right. So he's like twenty yards inside to our property.
Speaker 1: At this point, I'm like, they ain't seen this day turkey.
Speaker 1: I was like, what I told Clay after is I
Speaker 1: was like, I watched him kind of dip, like suddenly
Speaker 1: go under the fence. But I was like, if he's
Speaker 1: gonna keep coming, I'm gonna make triple sure he's where
Speaker 1: he needs to be. And once he cats like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're good. While sitting there back, they bound to be
Speaker 1: looking out in front of you don't know that. Jordan
Speaker 1: starts going, there's a turkey. Turkey. Uh and you know,
Speaker 1: so the turkey's we didn't step it off, but I
Speaker 1: mean he was probably twenty three yards. I don't know
Speaker 1: he was close. He's close. Turkey goes down and uh
Speaker 1: and it was a big turkey eleven and a half
Speaker 1: inch beard yep. One of the spurs was I'm gonna
Speaker 1: call it an inch yeah, and it's a great Mississippi turkey.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, my first Mississippi long beard. I don't call
Speaker 1: much finer. And that these parts, yeah, big old, big
Speaker 1: old thick beard on that turkey. Yeah, which it was
Speaker 1: a heck of an experience. And what we thought, I mean,
Speaker 1: and who knows this is mine and Jordan's redneck math.
Speaker 1: But we were looking and we were like, man, I
Speaker 1: think because we could still like in the midst of
Speaker 1: all that we heard that way a turkey's gobble against
Speaker 1: still in the bottom. I think that was that single
Speaker 1: turkey that we that we heard off by himself when
Speaker 1: we broke day. That's that's the assumption. And he's just
Speaker 1: hanging around the outskirts that flock because and my other
Speaker 1: brothers in there have done probably knocked him out of it,
Speaker 1: and he's kind of hanging around trying to get the
Speaker 1: sloppy sloppy seconds on my outskirts. And what's that was?
Speaker 1: Was not tense? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, well it was
Speaker 1: a it was a it was a great hunt. It's
Speaker 1: a great one day in Mississippi. Yeah. One point. I
Speaker 1: mean you can't that's what you want, like as a
Speaker 1: turkey hunter, I mean, killing him off the roost is great.
Speaker 1: I take it every every time I get the opportunity.
Speaker 1: But to get on him at daylight and then have
Speaker 1: to maneuver two three times and him gobbling like that,
Speaker 1: and that's that's a turkey hunt. I mean it's everything. Yeah, well, um,
Speaker 1: anything any closing thoughts, like I am very happy because
Speaker 1: you came down here last spring with me and Wilbur
Speaker 1: and it we had like three days of monsoon weather
Speaker 1: and had to send you on without one, and so
Speaker 1: I was feeling the pressure a little bit, like, man,
Speaker 1: I want to get Clay a turkey. So I'm very
Speaker 1: very happy at how this panned out. Yeah, well, it
Speaker 1: was a ton of fun, Jordan. Closing thoughts. Man, I'm
Speaker 1: just glad to get to meet you all fine fellas,
Speaker 1: and I had a lot of fun this morning, and
Speaker 1: I hope to do it again one day. Yeah. Man,
Speaker 1: well I mean now that we're gonna buy this turkey
Speaker 1: camp yep, I guess come on, we'll just make it
Speaker 1: a yearly thing here at our turkey camp here. Yeah yeah, no, Isaac,
Speaker 1: good job man. People will be able to watch this soon. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we videoed it maybe even today. Shoot, future, this is
Speaker 1: the future, Clay, Like, when you're listening to this right now,
Speaker 1: you can go watch that most likely. No, we'll just
Speaker 1: say that so then yeah, it'll be it'll be on
Speaker 1: my Instagram. Yeah, something hold me accountable. It'll put the
Speaker 1: pressure on him. Yeah. Now for you, that's right, all right.
Speaker 1: I hope everybody has a great spring. Nah, get do
Speaker 1: a better outra than that. I hope everyone has a
Speaker 1: good spring. Always big, believe in yourself. That was it. Okay,
Speaker 1: keep the wild placed, keep the wild places wild, because
Speaker 1: that's where the turns.