Hunts On Outfitting Podcast
Stories! As hunters and outdoors people that seems to be a common thing we all have lots of. Join your amateur guide and host on this channel Ken as he gets tales from guys and gals. Chasing that trophy buck for years to an entertaining morning on the duck pond, comedian ones, to interesting that's what you are going to hear. Also along with some general hunting discussions from time to time but making sure to leave political talks out of it. Don't take this too serious as we sure don't! If you enjoy this at all or find it fun to listen to, we really appreciate if you would subscribe and leave a review. Thanks for. checking us out! We are also on fb as Hunts on outfitting, and instagram. We are on YouTube as Hunts on outfitting podcast.
Hunts On Outfitting Podcast
First Hunt Adventures: Navigating Turkey Season As Rookie Hunters
Turkey hunting delivers heart-pounding excitement and crushing frustration in equal measure, as four rookie hunters discovered during their first-ever season in New Brunswick, Canada. Drawing one of just 500 available tags feels like winning the lottery, but that's only the beginning of the adventure.
"They're stupid, but they're smart," becomes the group's mantra as they navigate the complexities of pursuing these wild birds with remarkable eyesight and hearing abilities. When Lane watches a turkey spot his movement from 400 yards away despite perfect camouflage, the challenge becomes crystal clear. These birds demand respect.
The podcast captures raw, authentic first-timer experiences - from sleeping through alarms on opening morning to the absolute thrill of a gobbling tom responding to calls. Lane and Brody's success comes unexpectedly when they're so focused on calling a distant turkey that they miss another bird sneaking in just 10 yards away. Meanwhile, Ken and Kyle's persistence pays off after multiple failed attempts and a steep learning curve with calling techniques.
The hunters detail their equipment choices, calling strategies, and decoy setups with candid assessments of what worked and what didn't. Their debates about jake versus hen decoys, mouth calls versus slate calls, and the best positioning strategies provide valuable insights for anyone planning their own turkey hunt.
Beyond the tactics, it's the emotional journey that resonates - the frustration of busted stalks, the comedy of rookie mistakes, and the pure adrenaline rush when birds finally respond to calls. The hunters' enthusiasm is contagious as they describe watching toms strut toward their decoys, creating moments of hunting magic they'll never forget.
Ready to test your skills against one of hunting's most challenging and interactive pursuits? Listen now to learn from our mistakes and successes, then share your own turkey hunting experiences with us on Facebook at Hunt Sun Outfitting or email huntsonoutfitting@gmail.com.
Check us out on Facebook and instagram Hunts On Outfitting, and also our YouTube page Hunts On Outfitting Podcast. Tell your hunting buddies about the podcast if you like it, Thanks!
this is hunt sun outfitting podcast. I'm your host and rookie guide, ken marr. I love everything hunting the outdoors and all things associated with it, from stories to how-tos. You'll find it here. Welcome to the podcast. All right, thanks for joining us on this podcast episode. We're happy to have you here and listening. If you want to reach out to us, you can on Facebook Hunts on Outfitting or by email, huntsonoutfitting at gmailcom gmailcom. So for a lot of places in Canada and the United States the New England states we just wrapped up our wrapping up turkey season, and sitting here with me today I've got some people that experienced that, some of my friends and we are going to talk and compare notes on all of our first turkey seasons. I've got Lane Lewis sitting next to me, who took Brody Garnett out hunting. You guys took each other.
Speaker 2:It was a group.
Speaker 1:It was a group yeah, and then across from me is Kyle Gillies, who I helped guide and I learned a lot myself because this is my first time guiding and Kyle, we had an adventure, yeah we did. We learned a lot, and I think this is your first podcast, kyle, that you haven't been on a trivia.
Speaker 3:it's always a trivia no, I did one the archery yes, that's right.
Speaker 1:Yep, you get your own mic and stuff. So that's good. Yeah, you did do the archery one. Um, so lane is, uh, the backbone of the city of monkton, new brunswick, canada. Works in the city. Brody is a paramedic here in New Brunswick, canada, kyle's a welder and I'm a fireman truck driver. Just so you guys get a little backstory on us, alright. So do you guys want to start our individual stories? Do you guys want to talk about the turkeys? What we learned I'll tell you. Remember Kyle didn't believe me. I was like telling Kyle Like yeah, no, they can fly really well, because they don't look it, but they can fly. And then we saw one take off. We're like holy shit, they can fly.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was kind of unfortunate when we watched it take off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know, but they, I had other circumstances, but they surprise you though.
Speaker 3:Yeah, sure.
Speaker 1:I knew that they could fly up to go, that you were with me the night before. I was looking and this one flew, Felt like from the middle of the field way up into this tree. I'm like, oh, that's pretty good. That's why I was like no, I'm telling you, Kyle, they can fly and they all right, I'm going to say it, they're frustrating bastards, honestly. So that's what I learned about them, Everything I was told about them. They're stupid, but they're smart. They're really quick. Their eyesight is as good as they say, and so is their hearing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was pretty good. I've never hunted turkeys before and I didn't really know anything about them at all, to be honest, but I just treated it as a hunt, as I would any hunt, and it went pretty good.
Speaker 1:Well, you guys did something a little different, you guys. So in New Brunswick, here you had to put it's a draw system. There's only 500 tags for the whole province. So Kyle got his for zone 22, and I know that his odds of that wildlife management zone 22, were 11.2% of getting it. Kyle's like I'm never lucky. I'm like, oh, this is pretty lucky. You guys put up in an area where there's higher numbers, but still they cross the whole province. I think it's 500 resident tags and then another 50 non-resident tags for the outfitters to get. It's not that many.
Speaker 2:No, there's not.
Speaker 1:So the population is starting to grow. So you guys put up what three hours from here, from where you live?
Speaker 2:Yeah, give or take Yep Up towards Woodstock.
Speaker 1:And then you guys well, I'll let you take it from here, but you guys still had to camp out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we tented out. It was pretty good. We only had two days to do it, had the bear hunt coming up, so didn't really expect to get the turkey tag, but you always apply for it anyways. This year, I guess, was the first year I applied up to zone 15, so when I got the tag, um didn't have much time so we only took two days. So we were going to go up there and camp for two days, figured we could do it. Well, I didn't know if we could do it because we've never done it before, but did you guys go out and scout some before?
Speaker 1:we went up sunday night you were in close contact with the farmer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we had a contact. Well, I didn't meet the guy until we got up there, but once we did meet him.
Speaker 1:He told you to get the hell off his land. Shout out to him he's a good guy. No, no, I'm the guy.
Speaker 2:Felt like an old friend, so yeah, there you go. Yeah, it was good. Thanks if he's listening.
Speaker 4:Camp on your land.
Speaker 2:Let us treat it like it was our own Shout out.
Speaker 2:Not too often you get a farmer who gives you a free range of everything. So it was pretty good. But yeah, we went up Sunday night and we scouted a bit and he pretty much just showed us all the land where the birds were. We didn't really roost any birds. We saw some going towards the roost but we never saw them go up into a roost. But there was only so much area for them to go. So we had an idea of where to set up in the morning, but we only had two mornings to really hunt. First morning went pretty good. We woke up late. It was daylight when we woke up.
Speaker 1:That is pretty good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great way to start out. Rushed in, set some decoys up. What are you using for decoys? Whatever was on sale, cabela's two weeks before the season.
Speaker 1:No, but you guys were using hens. Toms, jakes, it was two hens, okay.
Speaker 2:Because that's all they had left, Because of course, you procrastinate and you don't get anything Would you have gone with a tom or jake, you think, if they. Well, what I wanted was a was a jake and a hen. That had a nice set and that's what I was hoping for. But I guess the hens worked in the end. But, um, I didn't really know anything about turkey hunting, but so you guys slept in we slept in.
Speaker 4:Well, I thought brody said in his alarm he thought I did. I woke up, check my watch. It was 5 o'clock. We were supposed to get up at 4. So I yelled at him. I said we better get up because we're late, and grabbed our stuff and we went to the field. But we didn't want to set up where we originally planned on it because we thought if the birds were up or down off the roost they're going to see us set the decoys up. So we set down the field a little bit farther, just below the knoll, just to try to stay out of the eyesight, cause we always heard their eyesight's incredible.
Speaker 1:And Now you'd kind of been on a turkey hunt. Before right Lane you tagged along, but that was more of a just watching kind of learn, or was that like a shit luck hunt? The turkey season was really new here. The turkeys didn't know what was going on.
Speaker 4:A little of both. Yeah, I didn't do any of the calling or anything on that hunt, I was just tagging along.
Speaker 1:Was there much calling being done on that one?
Speaker 4:Or was it just set up in the right spot? I called a little bit, but not near as much as Brody and I did on this hunt.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right. So you guys Like Brody get off me.
Speaker 4:I didn't go off at all, I just happened to wake up.
Speaker 1:Oh okay, I froze Hunter's intuition, but now we're off, yeah.
Speaker 2:But we got set up. We have the decoys set up. It's kind of like rolling hills and when we were set up we had the decoys out. Start calling a bit, we can hear some gobbles.
Speaker 1:Some response coming from below us. You're hunting farmland.
Speaker 2:This is all field, yep, and we're set up in a in a tree line separating uh like a grass field from uh from like a dirt field. So, um, we could get some gobbles coming from the bottom. We could hear the birds start to work their way up, but obviously we can't see down cause there was so many rolling hills and, uh, they only worked up so far. We could hear them coming, coming, coming, and then they stopped responding.
Speaker 1:When you talked, they talked back.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it was pretty good this Tom every time.
Speaker 2:I'd chirp, he'd cut me right off and he'd gobble and you could hear him coming closer and I'm guessing he was probably about 80 yards away along the tree line, and then behind him you could hear the hens right chirping back and I'm like, and then I started getting aggressive with it, like well I'm an aggressive guy well, you can't call a real turkey and if anyone listening to this is wondering, we are hunting the eastern wild turkey I don't know much about turkeys but, um, I figured when that turkey came and he was looking for a hen, when he popped his head up over the hill and he didn't see the hen because we had it set up on the wrong side of the dip.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it. Just he just lost interest and went back to where he knew it was safe to see the other hands I think he was already around to that as well.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we had what five hens with on that morning it was.
Speaker 2:It ended up because uh, we because I took a look up through the field and went down to see if I could get a shot, because I had my bow that morning and there was two toms and five hens, so they were already henned up. It was tough to try to pull birds that are with other birds.
Speaker 1:I've been told that if a ton's with live hens to try to pull them off, them onto dummy ones. Basically it's hard. You have to bring the hens in somehow.
Speaker 4:You've got to get the hens going. As soon as I heard those hens squawking I knew it was over, and as soon as they did, those taunts stopped answering us.
Speaker 2:Okay, yep. So we just left them that morning. We figured take the pressure off them, let them relax, because they probably saw me poking my head up over the hill a little bit right. Yep, um. So we just left them and went looking through the day. But you can't find a turkey in the middle of the day, can you? They're out in the woods. They're out, but yeah, they're harder yeah yeah, so we didn't get much during the day, but I don't know do we haven't went and had a good nap.
Speaker 2:I we had a nap. Went for a walk.
Speaker 1:That's why you couldn't find anyone. We tried calling through the day. We didn't see anyone when we were sleeping.
Speaker 4:Went to some hardwood ridges, tried to see if we could get something Cruising around. Never got any response and we went to the same spot that night and we set up Same spot. We were and I get up I want to check the field behind us. Anyway, I seen them in the field that we were in the tree line dividing and they were 400 yards away and us moving in the tree line spooked them. Oh, yeah. I would have never guessed they were that far away.
Speaker 2:I would have never guessed Lane running through the tree line like a bull moose would scare off a turkey 400 yards away.
Speaker 1:It's crazy what they can see, I know, Wearing blaze orange. Now we have camo on Lane's, like I can't believe they saw me.
Speaker 4:Anyway, we just.
Speaker 1:They don't have ears that you can see, but they're there, they're there.
Speaker 4:They're there and we just we had our chairs and we just left them there. We put the decoys in behind the chairs. We're going to be here in the morning. We're going to leave these birds alone. We jumped in the truck and we're like maybe we can see some other birds put them to bed. We put a stalk on that later that night. What two more toms.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, I'm no turkey expert, like I said, but the one that we found it had to be a 40-pound tom. By the looks of it, when we were driving by, it was huge. But anyways we put the stock to it and, uh, we tried to cut it off, get turned walk down through the bottom of the field as it was working up the tree line and then, by the time we had got to the top I we have no idea where it went, but it didn't come towards us, and then it was too dark.
Speaker 2:We just called her a night, at that.
Speaker 1:That's quite a tall.
Speaker 2:No, but it wasn't a 40 pound, but it was a good size.
Speaker 3:It was like 50. When you're not used to them, they do look big. It was bigger than the one that I shot. I'm pretty sure it was a it was a big bird.
Speaker 2:I mean like you know the size of a Turkey driving through. You're like, oh, those are all big a dark spot and you think it's a bear. But when you actually see a bear you know it's a bear.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you don't have to like. You know it's a big bird. The turkeys definitely feel heavier, right, kyle, the longer you walk with them in your hand.
Speaker 4:How do they feel they're like? I don't know.
Speaker 1:When we first started, I thought it was like 20 pounds. I'm thinking it's 40 now too, you know yeah.
Speaker 4:Cause, but all right, boys. So the stock was busted. Yep, turkey, it's married to you, mm-hmm. So that was it for day one and Brody and the Bull Moose. Yeah, I was. I was content. After day one We've seen 14 birds total. It's pretty good and that's more than I ever would expected to see On TV. The pressure was on because we knew the next day was we were going home or the we had a bird or not.
Speaker 1:Brody at work.
Speaker 2:I had to go. What was I doing? I don't even remember.
Speaker 4:I had to go to work, you had to work. I took two days off.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:But you had your thin line hunt, spare guiding thing that was coming up.
Speaker 2:I had to keep the bait fired up and get ready for that, so it was a busy, busy week for me Sne Busy, busy, busy week for me Sneak peek into the next episode coming up, All right.
Speaker 4:So day two, day two, and we woke up on time. Okay, we did set an alarm, we learned.
Speaker 1:Yes, we didn't even go to bed. That's what we knew. We'd be up on time, didn't?
Speaker 2:even sleep no it was good you started bro.
Speaker 1:Well, what'd?
Speaker 2:we do. We went to the exact same spot.
Speaker 4:We were the day before we left the chairs and the decoys in the same spot, so we didn't have to carry them in.
Speaker 2:But I'll tell you, we moved the decoys to the top of the hill. So if those turkeys worked their way back up, they'd have something to see, because we figured If we didn't trick them the first time, we might trick them the second time Doing the exact same thing.
Speaker 4:And to start the hunt, I was supposed to be filming and I got halfway across the field, realized I forgot the camera in the truck. All three of them, yep. So I said you know what? Maybe that's a sign that I left the camera in the truck. So I'm just going to keep going.
Speaker 1:You have three cameras in the truck.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I left them all in the truck. Okay, One understandable.
Speaker 1:Two understandable too. Yeah, well, you know, that happens, but three I'm a hunter first, film guy.
Speaker 2:Second, we noticed you guys got a turkey also. He also wasn't hunting, yeah yeah. So you heard a hunter second, well yeah so we, we were set up in the same spot and, um, obviously we got in a little earlier that morning so we just kind of sat and let things play out. Where we were in the field, we could hear the same turkeys likely that we were talking to the morning before at the bottom of the field.
Speaker 2:I don't know whether they were in the roost or down. We never heard them come down, but we could hear them gobbling. And then there was the turkeys that we saw the day before in the afternoon. We could hear him roosting behind us in the field. Behind us he was gobbling, and then I guess some other hunters in the next field over above us. They had killed a tom that was with another tom. The day before the morning we heard of the gunshot.
Speaker 4:The first morning he was double bearded too, okay, cool.
Speaker 2:I guess he was a good bird, yes, but uh, so we could hear, I would assume, because it was all alone. We could hear that turkey goblin at the at the top of the field. So we just let them talk to each other for a little bit. Lane started easing into the call um you guys using uh yeah, talk about your calling because it sounded good just a a second.
Speaker 1:I'm going to hit record.
Speaker 4:I got a custom slate over glass pot call from River Edge Game Calls. Shout out, shout out. It is made with beautiful tiger wood. He said that was the call to get because I didn't know a single thing about them.
Speaker 1:Because he's all out of line wood.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I told him I wanted a good call and that's what he got for me, and after getting some videos sent to me from him on how to use it, I was playing around the yard.
Speaker 1:There's a little bit to it.
Speaker 4:There's a little bit to it, but I got it sounding pretty good All right, good guy, he gave us some mouth calls on the way down. Yeah, we met him on the way up. He gave us. Now, did you?
Speaker 1:guys use mouth calls. See, I practiced for about two months before, with mouth calls and Kyle, you said you're good.
Speaker 2:I had used. I practiced a couple years ago when I first started applying to turkeys. I bought some calls and started using mouth call then and it was just a cheap one. It came in a kit and you know you get okay with them, you think I don't know right, nobody taught me about youtube, so.
Speaker 2:But when I put one of his calls in, like it didn't take long and it was sounding pretty good, like when you, when you get a good call, compared to like a cheap oh yeah, yeah, you can, yeah, we're all the difference it really is. I like to play around.
Speaker 1:So I I gotta get one from kenneth. But I had the slate call from him which we did use part of it. That worked great. And then I also had, like you know, bone collector, one off amazon. But then I really liked the. Uh, the bow brooks power calls you, you can tell. Putting those into you can really feel. And then I learned to call. I got a good one too from uh, nature's voice games, west Virginia Shout out boys. That one helped me learn how to call because it was a double read and now I've got like the triples. But they said, don't start with the triples, it's a little more frustrating.
Speaker 4:I can't get it. I try, I can't do it.
Speaker 1:It's fun once you get going with it, I get going, you try to do it and I get going again. Well, you don't play with your tonsils Lane.
Speaker 4:Oh, I just can't. I've tried.
Speaker 1:Don't you tickle your tonsils on?
Speaker 2:the latex.
Speaker 1:Nope, that's weird.
Speaker 2:But as far as hunting goes, it is so much fun to sit there and call and have turkeys gobble back and respond.
Speaker 1:They call it a poor man's elk hunt. Yeah, it is cool.
Speaker 2:But the morning of the last day, I guess we hunted the second day, set up the same spot. We were getting the turkeys responding all around us. The ones at the bottom were kind of fired up again but they went quiet. But the one that was up above us, the way the field worked, the field that we were in went up probably 400 yards, maybe 300 yards, and then there was a tree line and the field kept going up maybe another 600 or 700 yards.
Speaker 2:And that turkey we could hear for quite a while he was gobbling, but over 45 minutes to an hour you could hear him getting closer and closer and I was watching the corner of the tree line just expecting him to walk out, and I probably watched it for half an hour and then, uh, finally, after calling him a little bit slowly bringing him in, um, I could just see his head start to bobble as he came around that corner and he was just, he was just kind of looking around, looking around, he wasn't doing much, just walking. And then I was trying to tell Lane, like, get on the call. He's looking for something out here, but we're also like what, 20 feet apart from?
Speaker 1:each other. Yeah, we weren't close to each other.
Speaker 4:We were facing like 45-degree angles.
Speaker 1:Or you didn't, lane's TikTok-ing and Brody's TikTok-ing.
Speaker 4:Looking in opposite directions, Like I'm looking the direction.
Speaker 1:I'm looking at my phone and Brody's looking at the turkey.
Speaker 4:I'm looking down where we had the birds coming from yesterday and he's looking the opposite direction, so I can't see. And he's trying to make these hand gestures and looking at me. I'm like what are you talking about?
Speaker 1:Are you having a stroke?
Speaker 2:Well, anyways, lane hits that slate and that turkey just starts to strut instantly Like he locked onto the hen decoys and he's just flexing up.
Speaker 1:I want a visual of that, your interpretation of it after the podcast.
Speaker 2:I'll give you one. Yeah, I don't want to turn you on too much, though, because it was a pretty good looking turkey. It starts strutting at the top of the field there and then he starts working his way down the tree line and we lose sight of him because of the hill and then just went silent on him and we figured I've, or I figured I don't know what lane was thinking he usually doesn't, but that turk. I figured it was going to follow the tree line right down, but it came up and crested the hill and started running down the field towards us.
Speaker 4:so I can't see the bird at this point.
Speaker 2:He goes down into a little dip because it's just rolling hills on that field, right.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I kind of scoot myself a little bit to set up a little bit better. I have my shotgun today because we only have two days, so I didn't want to blow it, unintended, yeah. So I scooted myself a little bit just to get lined up better for him. Yeah, and I had it set up so the minute he walked between my decoys I'd be able to kill him. Well, he came up, he was probably 40 yards away and came up out of the dip and he starts strutting towards us and he got maybe 30 yards and I couldn't even see him because I'm still looking at my phone.
Speaker 4:I have my shoulder too, like he's over my shoulder and I don't want to move because I always hear how good of eyesight they have. And I didn't want to move because I always hear how good of eyesight they have and I didn't want to see him move my hand to that call, because every time I'm calling he's cut.
Speaker 1:That is where the mouth calls come in handy.
Speaker 4:He's cutting me off, like we had this bird fired up, because every time I'm chirping he's cutting me off and he's full strutting and I did get a glimpse of him over my shoulder and I'm like, okay, like I knew he was coming. Every time he gobbled I'd chirp right back.
Speaker 1:He's cutting me off nonstop. It's almost annoying because you're calling, You're like, hey, come here. They're like I'm coming. Let me finish. It's half rude.
Speaker 2:Like I said, he came in, he was 40 yards. Once he got 30 yards, of course we're fixated on this bird. We're thinking it's going down. We're course we're fixated on this bird right because we're thinking it's going down, like we're so excited we watch this bird come 200 yards across the field. It's been taking them an hour to come in and then to our left we hear this like gobble. It sounded like it was right on top of us and I can't I can't move right, but lane can see, and that bird was like 10 yards to my left as soon as it gobbled I looked up and he's full strut 15 yards on the other side of Brody and I'm like big beard, good spurs.
Speaker 4:I'm like shoot, shoot him. He's right there. I didn't know how good of an opportunity we were going to have. So what had?
Speaker 2:happened was that we were so fixated on calling this bird in from the top of the field that the two toms that were at the bottom of the field the day before they had worked up the tree line towards us. We had no idea and I saw him. He was probably 10 yards away from me. I just turned a little bit and just shot him because I just saw a beard and I was like that's good enough for me, so killed that bird. We had no idea he was even there. So it was pretty fun. If it wasn't my first turkey, I probably would have let them fight a little bit. Yeah, because that would have been pretty cool. But you don't know. I figured that what had happened when that bird that was coming from the top of the field crested that hill and started running down the field towards us. You probably wanted to beat those two toms of the hens yeah that's probably what changed them from walking the tree line.
Speaker 4:So and we didn't even know. The second bird was there until he shot and I was heard. When you shoot a bird you gotta run after it. So we ran out into the field and we're yelling. We realized he wasn't going anywhere actually you see them.
Speaker 1:I guess you do see them almost always yeah, so we're yelling and jumping around. We're hugging.
Speaker 4:We're all pumped and there was a second Tom with it. We're like, yes, well, we didn't know he was there.
Speaker 2:I had no idea what was the bigger bird or what but I was happy, it was a good. Tom Nine-inch beard, three-quarter-inch spur.
Speaker 1:Not bad, not bad at all. I'll take it Absolutely First turkey hunt. You guys were in an area With a lot of turkeys too.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you that was probably the most exciting hunt I've ever been on. That was pretty good yeah.
Speaker 1:Alright, kyle, should we take it away? Where do we begin? The year was 2025, on a cold, crisp morning, no, kyle. I told Kyle to To apply for his turkey tag and Kyle was like I don't know, I'm not very lucky, but I will. And uh, you got it. And I was like all right, I said I'll guide you. Why am I qualified? I'm not, but I will try to get uh, qualified. So I did get the mouth calls and I was practicing. I was two, three months. I'm a truck driver, so I'm just going around like squawking at everybody all day, just giving them the weirdest looks it is yeah because they think you're completely out of your mind and I don't like to tell them any differently.
Speaker 1:No, but so, anyways, I keep the windows up most of the time Because it's weird in traffic. So the squawking way, and I got better at that, and with the slate, call, you know, scratchpot.
Speaker 2:A little harder when you're driving.
Speaker 1:That is. That's when I got pulled over, swerving a lot back there like, well, this takes two hands. No, um, I practiced that at home, um, and then, uh, I got a, uh, a hen and a jake decoy and a good set of binoculars and started scouting. And so the zone, the wildlife management zone that Kyle had his tag for not a lot of turkeys in it, really, there's pockets.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Small pockets. So we had this. I had two places scattered out. One was this farm where there's actually not too bad number of birds there, and like one night I went and saw four. A few nights later I saw 16 there. The night we were out and roosted them, we saw what Five, four, five.
Speaker 3:The night before, I think there was 14?. Oh yeah, that was the night we saw okay, yeah. And then we had intentions on setting up at the top of the hill.
Speaker 1:Yes, well, we'll back it up. So I had these two places scouted out.
Speaker 2:I don't want to cut you off, but it sounds like the zone you guys are in the. It sounds like the zone you guys are in the turkeys are kind of huddled together still, because everybody up where we were at the turkeys are in smaller groups. Now Everybody was talking about how they were all spread out over the zone.
Speaker 1:It's kind of a change. Yeah, it did seem like ours were kind of grouped up. They were, but we did have, didn't we have? A time we had a group of like four.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we did. Yeah, okay, I think that might have been the night before.
Speaker 1:That's what I thought was the night before. No, we can't have 14 the night before because we're all excited. We're like holy crap, like we're gonna be piled up in birds tomorrow yeah and then it's like think the afternoon of the first day we saw like four the first morning yes, oh yeah three or four, yeah, four, yeah, there's four yeah there's just turkeys everywhere, kind of not really um, that's a lot of land, though some
Speaker 1:moments there was and there wasn't, and so I had two places scouted out. One was this farm and, uh, the other place I'd scouted out, uh, it's about half an hour away. Sometimes I'd go there there's turkeys, sometimes there's nothing that wasn't promising no, not nearly as promising. So we, we set up there, we roosted the birds, uh, but one big tom, yeah, roosted him stuff, and then we're like, all right, we're gonna come back in the morning and yeah, that changed our plans kind of all together too, once we because there's this field and it was all surrounded by woods and we were going to set up at the top of the field because we figured the turkeys were going to go up there or come from there after they roosted.
Speaker 1:But they didn't. They roosted at a couple that we saw roosted at the bottom and um, so we're like all right, we'll set up there. So we got up early the next morning on time. Uh, kyle and I were like putting together these decoys and all that before bed that night. I was like, well, well, kyle, it's about midnight and we're getting up at 3.30. So I was like, yeah, I probably won't sleep much, I'll go home. I'm like all right. Then I end up, I don't know, doing something with the cows in the barn and all that. We didn't really sleep that night no no.
Speaker 1:So I put some Red Bull in my coffee and met Kyle there he drove behind me. No, I didn't run, I walked. So we got there early in the morning, we got all set up and I started calling, and then you could hear them fly down, though we were all set up camouflaged in, but we had the decoys up. I don't think they could see them. I didn't dare come out anymore because the sun was coming up fast.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, we could see him still, yeah, yeah, where he had roosted the night before I was calling and they responded back every time, and then we had crows. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean a lot of crows Felt like they spoiled the hunt.
Speaker 3:Kind of eh, Kyle and I looked at each other.
Speaker 1:There must have been at least 30 of them that just kept circling, yeah, and just calling the whole time and I was like what I looked at, kyle, and I'm like what Is?
Speaker 3:this a turkey call or a crow call? Yeah, I've never seen the likes of that before in my life.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:I know a lot of guys when they're looking for birds, they'll make a crow call. They'll use a crow call as a locator.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, there's about about 30 or 40 crow calls going off.
Speaker 2:No I said, one Did you ever consider shooting a crow?
Speaker 1:It crossed our mind. Kyle and I were looking at him like maybe I kept waving the gun up towards them.
Speaker 3:You ever try and shoot a crow. It's almost as if they can tell.
Speaker 2:They're a smart bird, they'll remember faces.
Speaker 1:I don't know if they could see us there and we were near a nest or something. They're pissed off.
Speaker 3:I don't know Well, Buddy had the gut pile.
Speaker 1:He had a gut pile near there.
Speaker 3:But I don't think that they would have been further.
Speaker 1:Because me and Kyle were around there. They were just upset that they spotted us or something. I don't know, but it was annoying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're a strange bird. Yeah it was weird.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so then that first morning so I was calling and then finally crows got out of there and then we just left the decoys there and we're like we're just going to go up here because we can still hear some calling, but they weren't coming in.
Speaker 3:Well, we had them, we spotted them, yes they started to come over.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right, I forgot about't.
Speaker 3:They were just kind of on the other side of a blind knoll.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's right.
Speaker 3:We kind of knew where they were at, but they just wouldn't make an appearance. And then after I don't know, how probably an hour.
Speaker 1:I would say yeah, I was like, let's make a move on them.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:We tried to put a stop on them.
Speaker 1:We like belly crawling up this little knoll right. And then communication error on my part as the guide and I didn't know what Kyle was doing. I'm like, all right, let's go, like get up there. And then, kyle, you're just surprised they were there, yeah. And then we were going to try to get up a bit closer and I couldn't believe they for once they were letting us, shocked as we were. They were shocked to see us and we were shocked to still see them there when we came up over this knoll. And then, anyways, stretched a shot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the bird was safe. We then I I showed come up see they. Uh, they can fly really well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's where we learned that they could fly quite well and pretty quick.
Speaker 2:I was impressed, yeah so yeah, they were safe.
Speaker 1:And then I'm like, all right, well, try again. So we went out that night and then we set up on the hill, right yeah. And then we had a great setup. And then I was like I don't see anything. I saw some Canada geese down there. We were sitting in this ground blind. We had the decoys out, but I think Well they'd be.
Speaker 3:yeah, maybe 400 yards, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I guess they're down the hill. They seem further, so I started calling and sure enough, they turned.
Speaker 3:Just like they were on a string.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I was calling. I'm like Kyle, this is it, like we're you know, get the stew ready because we're going to be putting a turkey into it. I'm just like reeling them in like the fishermen I'm not, but they're coming right in. I'm like we got them and then the farmer takes a dead cow from way down there and goes to put it into the gut pile. Then these bald eagles and everything come in and all that and the turkey's like boop and they're just what happened, kyle.
Speaker 3:Well, I think they went in the woods. They started to come up the knoll another blind knoll. They started up. We could see them from the bottom of the hill. They were coming straight towards us and we kind of figured they're going to come out either in front of us or just kind of like off to one side or the other. And they seemed like they just kind of went right around that knoll and went into the woods behind us.
Speaker 1:And that was that. And then we had a hen walking and purring, yeah, which was kind of cool.
Speaker 3:It almost seemed like she was like straight from the rest of the group she was trying to find yeah, yeah, yeah, getting like a low-key thing it was kind of neat to hear her going and stuff, and then that was that. Yeah, they fooled us that night for sure.
Speaker 1:And then so Kyle and stuff, so we didn't go out then. Then we only got out a few days later and I told kyle.
Speaker 1:I was like, well, I said we're gonna try this other spot and see. And then so we get out there and there we saw the farmers that we had permission his kid was out, uh, walking their dogs and everything. And I'm like, well, this doesn't look too promising so far. Um, and it was really windy and almost rainy not quite, it's, just wasn't raining that night, but it was it was windy, it was windy, it was a nice night, it was just windy.
Speaker 3:Oh, was it just okay?
Speaker 1:Maybe I'm thinking of a different. I'm thinking of the other night when I had with Caitlin Yep, so then, uh, yep, it was raining, then we got a, so then we go up. So I'm looking. I was like I don't know, I was not feeling too optimistic.
Speaker 3:No, I wasn't either. I was like, well, go up here. And then I figured what do we have to lose?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Three nights left.
Speaker 1:So I was told by some people to use the Jake decoy. I don't know they're saying use the Jakes. Okay, For me it makes sense, because it's a.
Speaker 4:Not even the hen. Not even the hen, just the Jake.
Speaker 1:So I was like okay.
Speaker 4:Now we were told the complete opposite up there.
Speaker 1:Well, we were second week of the season, Kyle.
Speaker 4:They were saying that it's so late into their breeding season. They've been fighting for weeks and a lot of toms. If they see the tom and the hen decoys, they're like it's not worth my time. I'm tired of this. But if they see just decoys, they're like it's not worth my time. I'm tired of this. But if they see just hens, they're like well, there's no competition to go in. Well, it makes sense.
Speaker 1:It does, but we're that's what I was told and it did work. So we were going up and I was like, well, I know they kind of come out here. We had to go up this big hill. And then Kyle's like well, can't we just set up down here? I'm like no, we got to walk to the top of this hill. I can hear Kyle cussing behind me.
Speaker 1:I was like no, I said I want to go up here, kyle, so we can see both sides from this hill really well, anyway, so I put out the Jake decoy there and I'm like I know I was not feeling optimistic.
Speaker 3:I think I was showing Kyle some stuff on my phone and all that, but we were hit in really well, though there's a really good setup actually, yeah, we were hit in really well.
Speaker 1:Kyle's like laying down on his stomach, prone like ready to friggin rumble. He's gonna like throw the gun to me and charge out of there and grab it. But I was like, no, no, kyle, you shoot it. We had a 12 gauge. Uh, what were you shooting, kyle? For shells? Because they worked. You get them from a guy at work, were they?
Speaker 3:they were, they're number four I think they were but it's a turkey load no, it wasn't a turkey load oh, it wasn't okay.
Speaker 1:I thought it wasn't no, it was just something they were.
Speaker 3:They were old shells that he had yeah but they were two ounce shot. I think they hit what they.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah okay because you bought turkey load. That's right yeah. And then you end up trying out these after Okay, yep. And so we're there and I'm calling I was calling with my mouth and scratching on the pot, nothing and we're just kind of like throwing rocks around, like I don't know, it's a waste of time.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, we never had an answer, or nothing.
Speaker 1:No, I didn't see anything.
Speaker 3:It was so windy too.
Speaker 1:And then, all of a sudden, I looked to my right, just up on the sill. I'm like Kyle.
Speaker 3:Kind of behind you, yeah, like you had your back to them, yeah, yeah, and I was like I see turkeys.
Speaker 1:He's like really I'm like, yeah, we were heading in so well. So, anyways, I was like calling with my mouth and scratching the pot and like they're coming.
Speaker 3:I was thinking two things.
Speaker 1:I'm like I hope they don't see us. I hope Kyle doesn't miss. I'm just like hoping. And then I was like Kyle. They are like flying towards us.
Speaker 3:They're coming.
Speaker 1:But they're not flying, but they can't, they're running. And then, anyways, they come right in and uh, we probably could have watched them fight the decoy or whatever, but kyle and I were just we almost should have, yeah, but we were, it was getting a little down to the wire and stuff, and we'd already realized these birds are smarter than we thought, because there's some other little hunts in there that after the first day you know.
Speaker 1:We got a little bit more, though, and you know, nothing to write home about, but realize they're smart, smart and Kyle shot flattened him. We're like holy shit, that was.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was a short hunt really.
Speaker 1:That was. But I said to Kyle when we got the bird I said if that had happened the first morning, I said would this feel like as gratifying or whatever? And Kyle's like, no, it wouldn't have like this.
Speaker 2:It feels good on the second morning. Okay, on the second morning.
Speaker 1:Okay, Anyway. So yeah, that was our turkey season. Learned a lot.
Speaker 2:It's fun. It is fun. I really hope I get a tag next year, but we'll see.
Speaker 1:I like the interacting with them.
Speaker 2:It's really slow, and then it's very high paced and it's frustrating though, too, you had them on a string. Why aren't you guys like come on, come here If you could go into the woods and rattle antlers and have eight bucks run in every time. It's so fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm not huge on staying still, but I can for that. But I get to call, I get to call.
Speaker 2:You're doing something, I'm doing something, you're occupied.
Speaker 1:Because the old A-double-D kicks in. But you know the turkey hunting it is. Yeah, it's fun, but they can. Yeah, they can see well and they can hear so well, yeah, it's surprising for not being able to see.
Speaker 2:ear on the damn thing, and yet they'll come in and fight a plastic bird in front of you. See, that's the dumb part, the tag still flapping on it, or whatever made in china. They're actually a lot, a lot bigger than I had expected, because I had never, I mean, been on a turkey hunt, or anything.
Speaker 1:No, no same, I've never tagged along or anything I don't call. Got that we? We did go out and we're just so excited I'm like I just want to grab it, just to like.
Speaker 2:You know it's possible we can get them, you know, because but now when I see pictures online and I see somebody holding up a turkey, I'm like like that's a huge turkey I wouldn't have known before. But now, like the turkey I shot was like probably your average adult, like nothing to like be too proud about.
Speaker 3:That was mine too, really, yeah, I mean I'm really proud of them shooting it. And it had a nice handle. It's not a trophy, and that's what everybody said. That's seen it too.
Speaker 2:They're like oh my god, that's huge. Eh like, no, actually it's not, it's not. Yeah, well, it is and it isn't. It's bigger than I thought they were, but it's like when I see other people's online now, I'm like that's a, that's a trophy compared to a dove I find them to be, uh yeah, they're way bigger than a hummingbird, for sure, oh yeah yeah I.
Speaker 1:I noticed that um kyle agreed with me, so yeah Did you eat any of it yet Not yet I haven't either.
Speaker 2:no.
Speaker 1:I don't know what to do with it. I'm waiting for Jacob Armstrong if he's listening to this, to help us. Oh, maybe he'll do a cooking show. Yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, army, if you're out there, I got some turkey for you to fry up, or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, jacob's been on before and talking about his cooking. He is really good at it too, and wild game is his specialty.
Speaker 3:So I've heard it's good. He's done them before too, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he has. Yeah, because he got a tag. He was going up with an outfitter up northern.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was 16.
Speaker 1:So it was good. I definitely plan on trying to turkey hunt every year, either here or in maine so yeah, that's fun.
Speaker 3:You still have a tag for maine, dude I do I.
Speaker 1:So I went down, uh, to maine with a friend of mine who's not a turkey hunter. He said he'd take me out turkey hunting but it's later in the season there. So, uh, we saw some hens and all that. And then, uh, he doesn't like sitting still or anything much more than I do. He's like you want to go run hounds exercise? I'm like, yeah, I do, so my tag's still good for the fall there. So they have a fall season in Maine. I guess that's no calling or anything, really, because they're not going to answer. It's just setting up where you think they're going to be eating. I'll give her a whirl. I got my tag. Yeah, so, boys, thanks for coming out.