Ep. 250 My 2026 Turkey Story- 35 Minutes To Call Him In

Today on the show I tell my 2026 turkey story and how it all played out in dramtic fashion last Thursday. I had only 35 minutes to call in a Tom, before having to go get my kids off a bus. At the last minute the Tom came in and some gametime decisions had to be made. Hope you enjoy and be sure to check out the video on YouTube!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Welcome to Shedding Light Hunting Stories Podcast, a show dedicated to the average Joe and his favorite hunting stories. I'm your host, Travis Williams, and I believe there's power in a good story. Life and faith lessons we can learn and apply to our lives. Thanks for joining us. Let's dive in. Well, hey everyone, welcome to the show. I hope that you are having a fantastic week. Hope life is treating you well. It is uh feeling like summer here in Southeast Ohio. We've had a couple days in the 90s, so uh I've kind of slid out of turkey mode, although I still might have a couple left in me. We'll see. We're getting down to the final, this is the final week of turkey season. And I thought I'd come on the show today and kind of do an episode here with just myself and tell you how things finally panned out here this past Thursday. I had a really uh fun and interesting turkey season. What I love about turkey season is it's it's so much different than deer, because deer, I start bow hunting you know September 30th and can go all the way through February. So there's um it's just a lot more opportunity spread out. Of course, this last year was a little bit different with deer hunting, but but turkey hunting, it's a whirlwind. Like it comes and it goes so fast. Uh, you're talking a month, and it's also a month whenever you're busy with a lot of things. You got graduation parties, you've got uh you know a lot of things happening in spring, all of a sudden you start having to mow your yard. Um uh kids have soccer, so a lot of things to navigate. And so this year uh coming into it, I was really looking forward to it. Before we jump into that, um do want to let you know that everything I'm about to talk about is on our YouTube channel. So if you would like to listen to this podcast and hear me kind of lay out what happens, uh you can definitely uh do that, uh, listen. But also, if you want to go over to YouTube, you can see the visualization. You can go over there and check out the latest video. Uh should come out about the same time as this podcast, and you'll be able to kind of see uh what I was able to capture on this particular hunt. I didn't do like a big season recap, so what you're gonna get through this podcast is me kind of laying out what led to the spot that I eventually got my turkey on and uh some other things as well. So try and uh make this interesting for you. I don't think I have any other like announcements or anything like that. Life's going well, things are good, so we're just gonna dive right in uh to this story. Um, going into this season, my main goals were to try and help my daughters get a turkey. Um it was gonna be my youngest Sayla's first year, and we've gone out uh we went out like the first uh Saturday, Sunday, probably three Saturday Sundays. Um that's all she's really got. And some of those Saturdays we had some soccer games, so we had to have shorter hunts. And um very first day I had her out there. She came with us whenever Ansley shot hers, which you if you go back two episodes, you'll hear that one, I think two. Um and that was really cool for her to be there on that one. Then she was up, and I called in a turkey to probably about 120 yards, but wouldn't close the distance the next day. Had some gobbles some other times, but honestly just could not get any turkeys in front of the girl. Um, we hit a few different blinds, called one up real close one time. Um, so I knew basically my season was gonna have to happen mostly Monday through Friday. Um I want to give you a disclaimer. I have a job, I work at a church, and so I have a lot of flexibility in my job. I don't have like set office hours, I have set things that I try and get done, people I try and meet with, discipleship, small groups, I lead worship. So I do a little bit of everything here at the church. I don't preach most Sundays. And so that gives me probably a lot more freedom than what the average person has. If you're working a nine to five or an eight to five or whatever it is, or swing shifts, you know, I know that for a lot of guys they're not gonna be able to do what I'm able to do. Um and so I try and keep that in mind. I try not to take advantage of that too much, although I will just say I probably do from time to time. Um so the way it typically works is on uh let's see here, Wednesdays and Fridays, my wife uh puts the kids on the bus. So she's able to go in a little bit later to her office, she works for the government, she's able to go in a little bit later, and uh so she puts the kids on the bus, goes into work, she gets off later. So that's just kind of the schedule that we landed on for whatever reason. So that means Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, I am up uh whenever it comes to putting the kids on the bus. My wife goes into work by 6 a.m. I get up, kids get on the bus at 6. I go down to the bus about 6.30, they get on about 6.45, and then I can go hunt on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. So I was trying to capitalize on my Wednesdays and my Fridays whenever I could be in the woods the whole time. And I'll just tell you that a lot of those it just didn't pan out. Either it was pouring down rain or something else was going on. So a lot of my hunts were just quick little hunts before work. Um just to give you a few uh or I guess a little bit of a background to the property. Um I had hunted the first probably two weeks and uh had a few different encounters. There was one where a bird gobbled and I closed the distance and he was just over the ridge, and I sat up and I just kind of sat down. I don't think he saw me unless he kept coming, and while I was setting up, I wasn't paying attention, but all of a sudden I heard nervous putting and got really close, probably within probably within 70 yards of that gobbler just over the hill, but I bumped him somehow and he took off and uh was able to chase him around again and get on him, but just couldn't couldn't close the distance. Unfortunately, he went silent. Um there was another hunt on the same property, and this was probably the worst experience, is uh um uh we went out with my buddy Nate and Trav and we went to this property and we saw um these jakes going across the field into these guys, these other guys were hunting it, we didn't know, so we were getting out of there, and we look across the field, and a pack of like five jakes go into these guys' decoys, and one of these guys shoots the Jake. So uh we thought, you know, that spot is the same spot Nate Godfrey killed one a few years ago. So uh I went back to that spot probably less than probably about a week or so ago, uh so a little bit later in the season, the guys had pulled their blind, they were out of there, so I sat down and called, and sure enough, a hen came across the field. She goes by me at like five yards, um, and uh it was pretty cool. And then like 10 minutes later, I hear her and then a gobbler behind her, and I'm able to call them and they come back. And I'm sitting on like a path, but I'm overlooking this field because that's where the hen had originally went off, and I stake my Jake and hen decoy out there, and I'm waiting, and all of a sudden he gobbles again, he's getting closer. I'm like, this is it, but he's kind of over my right hand shoulder, and I think, man, can't should I turn or should I just face the decoys? I'm like, I think I should just keep on the decoys. He'll see him and he'll come right in. Well, then I thought I heard some spitting, and then the hen starts going off directly behind me, so I can't turn, I can't move. And I feel like she's like maybe 30, 40 yards up in the woods. I turned on my uh main camera, turned on my 360 camera, which records all the way around, and uh I'm sitting there, I'm like, can't move, can't move. And she's calling, I'm calling back and forth. I'm trying to call her past me into the decoy set. I know that the Tom has to be back there somewhere, and she kind of eventually fades off. I'm able to turn around and I look, don't see her, and then eventually, like a few minutes later, I thought the hunt, I thought it was pretty well over, and I looked back and I saw two birds cross this path, and so I assumed it was two hens. A little bit later that afternoon, uh, since that didn't pan out, I pulled up my uh on X, or not my Onyx, I pulled up my 360 and was looking at the footage, and lo and behold, this Tom did come and he came 25 yards behind me, and while that hen started to go off, he just stood there in full strut and went back and forth directly behind me, and I never knew that he was there. Um had I seen him, there's not a whole lot I probably could have done. I don't know that I could have swung around without bumping him, but he did not make a sound after his last gobble and just stayed up there. He had two hens and he was trying to fan my decoy basically up to him was his game plan. And then he he veered off. So that was a bummer. Uh another hunt went to a completely different property and uh heard a bird gobble. Uh I just set up, or I didn't even set up, I was just calling as I was going, and a bird uh gobbled across this fence line, which I did not have permission on that fence line across it. So I set up and I call a hen right up to the fence and then a gobbler right up to the fence, but I don't have permission. Now my buddy Nate Godfrey, it's his in-laws. So I get on uh the phone and I text Nate like, hey, I got a bird five yards across the property line. Like I used Onyx to make sure like it was right where it was. And uh like Nate, can you is there any way is it okay if I shoot this bird? So he's like, Well, can you send me a map? And I'm like, Nate, I got a bird at 30 yards, man. I I can't, and I got one bar service, I can't send you the screenshot of where I'm at. And so I'm waiting, I'm waiting. I got some video of this turkey, and all of a sudden, Nate's like, yeah, yeah, I got it. Go ahead. You can kill it. I'm like, great. So I pull up, but by this point, though, enough time has elapsed so that Tom is out probably another 20 yards or beyond. So it's a little bit of a far shot. I have to shoot through the fence. I didn't think I could call him back up to the fence. I've already called the hen up twice, and she's kind of came by looking and not seeing what she wants. And so I tried the shot. It was a little too long, and he takes off running, and I take off running after him, and he's way out in front of me, and then he takes flight. And I was pretty sure I hit the turkey, um, but he was running really fast, not limping, and he he took flight. And so I went down and I spent an hour, over an hour, kind of searching every briar patch that I could, trying to get back on this this tom, seeing if it could find him, and I never found him. So all that to say, this season has been awesome, a lot of gobbles. I'm blessed to have that, but on the flip side, I've definitely been making some mistakes, bumping turkeys, not turning on them and getting in the direction that they're coming in, kind of hoping they'll come to my decoys, which nothing's coming to decoys other than Ansley's, um missing or making a bad shot, kind of trying to you know shoot too far. And so all of that's just kind of adding up. Jeremy came in for two days and we ran uh probably about 10 miles. You heard that in the last episode. Awesome hunts, but wasn't able to get him a turkey. So I'm starting to feel like I got about a week and a half left as of last week, and I'm starting to feel this unneeded pressure. It's supposed to just be fun, but I am putting this pressure on myself because I have this stupid streak. I have killed a turkey every year since 2021, and I've you know I've done pretty well even before that, but 2020 was my the last time I ate tag soup. And so really, really wanted to kill a turkey. So let's get to the property. Um one of the properties used to is basically a person's like front yard, um, and it's like a big long field out in their yard in the front yard, like 200 yards long. There used to be turkeys down in that all the time. The last two years you'd drive by there, and it'd be nothing to see two toms and some hens out there. Um used to set a uh a uh blind down in that bottom and try and get my daughters a turkey, and that almost worked a couple times. Um that has just always been a really good spot. This year it hasn't. And the landowner, I've called him and talked to him, and he's he's confirmed that they just aren't seeing the birds out in the front yard. In fact, a lot of people in this area have talked about not seeing the same amount. I still have because I have so many properties I can bounce around, I've I've still been able to get on quite a few gobbles. I'm I'm blessed, I just really am to have that opportunity. Um, but but I I have noticed a little bit of a decline, and some people have said the same thing. This property is, it goes up and is basically like a big old horseshoe. If you picture like the horseshoe kind of being like the ridge going all the way around it, and then I the middle part is like where this yard is. So I decided to go up and in and try and call, and I forgot how thick that is. It is just a thick, and that might be part of it. It is so grown up that you have to crawl on your hands and knees to get through parts of it. But the horseshoe part up on top is basically this access road that goes all the way around. It's an electric line gravel paid, you know, gravel uh access road. And I had forgotten that over on the other side of it, if you drop over the other hill, there's a path that leads down to a big field. And I had permission on that property at one time, I think not last year, but the year before. Sweet old lady owns that property, and um there's a big old fence, and I decided to go down. I said, well, I'll just call right here. I know I can't shoot across the fence, I didn't get permission on it, but I'm just gonna call. And I as soon as I start calling, some hens start going off. And I called in two hens, and I got to watch the two of these hens fight each other, and it was just awesome. I'm like, man, a Tom might come in, and I might be able to shoot one from right here across this fence, but I gotta get a hold of that lady. So I call her, it's like 7:30 in the morning, she doesn't answer, I leave a message and just say, Hey, you used to let me hunt, my name's so-and-so, and I would love to be able to uh hunt that again. And um, so those hens veer off, I don't hear a Tom. Later that afternoon, I get a call from her son who manages the property now, and um, and he says, Yeah, absolutely, if you would like to hunt it, there's another guy that hunts, but if if if his truck isn't at the barn, which is at the far end of the property, he's like, then then you're welcome to hunt it. So I went back over that afternoon and called, and I don't remember, I honestly don't remember on that hunt if I actually heard anything. I don't know if I did. Maybe another hen. But I went back over there probably three or four more times. Um went over there uh one time with Jeremy. And this field I thought, you know, uh I think I'd heard a gobble before, if I'm not mistaken, and he didn't come in, so that's what led me back there with Jeremy. Easy spot to get to. You can park up on top, right, go walk right out this access road, drop down over this little path, and then you're at this big old massive field. And so there's a little bit of like a finger field off to the left. So there's the big ridgetop field, there's like this little pocket that kind of goes down over. All around the fence is just covered in multifloros. It is thick, real thick. And so the gate you can actually crawl underneath of it. Um, it's real noisy, rusty gate. And so um Jeremy and I went over there and we decided there's a tree down to the left. I was like, let's slide over there to the left and we'll put the decoys out. So we slide over and we kind of look, don't see anything down the little pocket field down below us, and nothing out in the main field in front of us. So he goes, takes a decoy, comes back, we're talking about which side of the tree he needs to be on, and all of a sudden I look up and I say Tom. And right there is a Tom 70 yards away, just over the hill, that we didn't see. And so we just kind of slowly slide down into the weeds, and this time he doesn't putt, he doesn't get nervous, he just kind of slowly gets out of there. Like, not slowly, quickly, just kind of gets veers out of there. So we get down, we start calling, like, well, that's not good, we bumped one. We start calling, and you heard this in the last episode. I won't recap this entire thing, but this time he gobbles, but he is playing hard to get. He comes back in, comes over our left-hand shoulder. At one point he gobbles, probably five yards behind us. Lo and behold, there was a path behind us that we didn't know between us and the fence. And they can get underneath that Bob Bar fence and get on the other side. He goes up the path that we're in on. Jeremy tries to take the fan and go after him. We chase this bird, we end up bumping him. I'm like, great. So that did not pan out. We ended up coming back there, we called in a hen, she beat the snot out of Jeremy's decoy, it was awesome, but no uh the gobbler, he was there earlier than that, actually, on the other side of the hill to the right side. And I tried calling him in, he eventually went silent and wouldn't come in. So this Tom, and I think it's the same one the whole time, there's no way to know that, but he's just elusive and he is being tricky and he is not cooperating whatsoever. So I decided that I was gonna go back there again. Uh, I think it would have been probably maybe Monday of last week, I think is what it would have been, Monday or Tuesday. So I go over, I s I'm gonna go back down to the tree to the left where Jeremy and I set up. I go back there, I look, and I'm really looking to scan the woods, don't see anything. I go put out just a lone hen decoy, thinking that might work. I come back, I'm no sooner back to the tree, then all of a sudden a bird takes flight down below me. Don't know what it was. Don't know if it was a Tom, don't know if it was a Jake, a hen, but something takes flight. I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. So I sit down, start calling again, hen goes off. I think she's gonna come up by the gate and you know, maybe come underneath the gate. Jeremy and I experienced that too. We had a hen come right underneath the gate and pop up and go into his decoy. Uh so I'm looking up there, I kind of shift my weight, move, get comfortable, and all of a sudden I over my left hand shoulder a hen takes off. I bump another hen. So I'm like, where are these hens coming in at? So I decided to go up into the path and figure out where that path was. I hadn't figured out that there was a path yet. I go back there, I see there's a path, and then another hen takes flight. So I'm like, I am just bumping birds like it's my job. Like these turkeys are I just I'm like, I am definitely this place is played out. I probably won't come back here. I'm gonna at least give it some time. So that's what I did. So I regroup, I hunt some of those other places that I've already told you about, and I think I gave it, you know, two, maybe two, three days. Thursday rolls around, and that morning of last week, um, this would have been May the oh, I'm sorry, forgive me just a second. Not that it really matters, but yeah, May 14th. Um that morning I went out to a different property, got on some gobbles, thought it was gonna happen. I mean, they were just over the hill, maybe 50 yards, and I could not get them to come in. And I chased them around for like a couple hours before work. Like, I gotta go to work. I go into work and I I get my stuff done. I'm working hard, punching out, getting all my plans that I need, getting, you know, making sure I maximize my time in the office and meetings and other things. Had to go across town, pick up some stuff for a golf tournament I was running. And I look at my watch and I'm like, I'm already out and about, it's 1.30. I don't have to pick my kids up until I'm not at the bus, you know, bottom of my driveway till 3.05. So I get it in my head, I'm like, I've already got my camo and my gun in the truck. Maybe I could slide over that property again that I haven't been to in a while. And maybe, I mean, I start doing the math. I'm like doing advanced calculus in my mind, okay, right now it's 1.30. I can be up at the gate by 2 o'clock, and I could be calling probably by 2.10. And then I'd have to leave by 2.45. I'm like, but both a couple times whenever I've been there, he's been super close. I was like, you know what? I'm gonna try it. And so I rush over to the property, I throw on my camo shirt, throw on my leafy suit, my hat, grab the gun. I don't even bother changing my jeans, and I'm wearing like a pair of like hey dude, you know, boots. Um, you know, they're not hunting boots, just like slippers is what they kind of look like. I'm like, I'm not gonna take time to put on camo pants. Like, I gotta get to the spot, I gotta start calling. So I rock the access, walk the access road, I go down over this, you know, this path. The path's kind of grown up, got a lot of weeds on it. I go underneath the gate, I go out maybe 20 yards, stake the hen decoy, come back, and I'm I don't even have my back against a tree. I'm just set up into like the the brush. And I start calling pretty quickly. And I think I went through three sequences, started kind of light, build it up. I always try and get loud. I'm not afraid to be loud, that usually gets a shot gobble. And it took three. I went through three sequences, and the last one I was being about as loud as what I could, and I hear, oh, he gobbles, but he's about 200, maybe 250 yards away. Out in the field, like if I'm looking out in the field in front of me, he's off and down to the left. He's down in this holler. And I knew it was a ways off, and I'm like, oh man. I was like, do I have enough time to call him in? So I start calling, I start calling. He was not cutting me off, he would call occasionally, but just not all that often. So I finally went silent for a little while. I try and go silent for maybe five, ten minutes, and I keep on walking looking at my clock, and we're at like it's probably 2, you know, 15, whenever I first get a gobble, about 220, 225, and I'm like, okay, and then he sounds like he's getting closer. The last gobble, I'm like, ooh, okay, he might be coming. So I hit him with some aggressive calling, and then I shut up. I'm like, I'm just gonna shut up, and I'm just hoping that the next call, he's gonna be just over the ridge and he'll come in. That's what I'm hoping. And so I'm looking at my watch, about 240. I'm like, okay, we gotta do this now. And I call, he answers, but he's about a hundred yards further away, it sounds like back where he started. It doesn't sound like he's moved one inch from where he started. Now maybe he was faced the other way, I don't know. But so I'm like, so I'm frustrated. I say a few things to the camera indicating my frustration. Like, it's awesome to hear him gobble. I know that I'm blessed. Like my buddy Trav, he's hunting up near Cambridge, Ohio, and has hardly seen or heard a turkey up there this entire season. So I know, I know that I'm blessed. I I but at the same time, there's just been so many times in the past where I've been able to call him in. So I'm questioning my ability. I'm questioning like, do I am I calling too aggressively? Am I not calling? Calling. Should I shut up more? You know, what's and I'm like, I just don't know what's going on, and that bothers me. But it's the top clock is ticking. I got to get back to my house. It's going to take me about 15 minutes, 20 minutes to get back. And so I start walking up the path. Well, I will tell you, this next part was petty. But I'm like, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to call as I leave. And I'm going to make him think that that bird is leaving. Now, this is a tactic that if I had more time, I may have done anyway, just to try and pull him my way. I've done this many times, like go away 100 to 150 yards calling and then come back and sit down in the spot where you had first called. And a lot of times they come. That pulls them. But I in my mind, that's not what I'm doing because I don't have time to do that. I'm walking away calling, just hoping to tick him off, just because he wouldn't come in. I want him to feel like that hen is walking out of his life and he's going to wonder what happens. That's that's what's going through my head. I know it's childish, but that's what's in my head. I start walking away, and I get up to the path, and I'm almost up to the spot where the AP road is, the access road is, and I hear a hen go off behind me. And she's like really like mad, make a lot of noise. And then he gobbles, and all of a sudden, like I can hear, I'm like, that gobble sounded a lot closer, and it did not, it was not clear down in the holler. So I look back, I'm like, oh my gosh, I think he's out in the field. So I've got my camera in one hand, I've got my decoy in the other, I've got all this stuff. I just drop it. I have my cell phone, I have my shotgun, and I run back down over the hill. I run. And I get down over the hill, and all of a sudden I get to a point where it's starting to open up a little bit, and I can look across there and I see them. And so I hunker down and I'm able to get the video camera up. Video camera, my cell phone. So from this point on, it's cell phone. I'm using my iPhone to film. And way out at the far end, probably 200, 250 yards, this gobbler is in full strut. He has a hen with him, and then I'm watching him like, no way. And they're out there just kind of doing their thing. And then I think it was three jakes, it could have been two jakes and another hen, I'm not sure. But they come up out of the woods, and they're all just and the gobbler's just kind of following the hen, and then the hen turns toward the gate and she starts walking my way. I'm like, oh no. And I'm like looking at my it's about 247, 248. I'm like, I have got to go. I have got to go, but I can't leave this. They are coming. And so I text, I send a picture to my wife, I'm like, I got turkeys coming like right now. And she's like, Well, you gotta get the girls right. And I'm like, Yeah, and she's she's working, you know. I can't, even if she left right then, it would have been really hard for her to make it in time. So I'm like, oh man, I can't do wait a second. What about my neighbors? Now, if you know anything, I don't know if I've talked a lot about this, but over the last few years, we've really gotten to know our neighbors out on our road. I live out in the country, but we've had Congress Road neighbor nights, and we have had people over and invited them uh to our backyard, and we've really become close with our neighbors. Um, we take care of one another. We uh I will sometimes go over and feed my neighbors donkeys right across the road. He's watched our dog, fed our cats. And so I call one neighbor further down the road and she doesn't answer. I'm like, oh no, what am I gonna do? And at this point, I'm almost about ready to just pull the plug, say, you know, I'll have to come back and get him some other time. But then I'm like, wait a second, what about my neighbor right across the road? He is a turkey hunter. In fact, he always calls from his front porch and gets a turkey to gobble that's usually behind my property. Like he'll do that all spring long. He ended up killing a turkey a few weeks ago up on his hill. And so I'm like, maybe he's available. So I call him. I get on the phone, hey, I I got turkeys coming. And by this point, they are closing the distance. They are coming my way, no doubt about it. And I'm like, I got turkeys coming right now. Is there any way you could get my kids off the bus at 3.05? And he goes, Oh, now what's that now? I'm like, oh, okay. I got turkeys coming, right? So I try and get a little bit louder, but I don't want you know the turkeys to hear me. And I tell him the thing again, and he's like, Oh, you need me be you need me to get the kids off the bus at 3.05. I'm like, yeah, is there any way you can do that? I get I was like, I need five more minutes to kill a turkey. And he's like, Yeah, yeah, man, absolutely I'll do it. Kill him, go for it. I'm like, you're awesome, thank you. So I hang up. Well, at this point, my gun is just resting in my lap, and the from the time I got off the phone until I he gets off, until I hang up, they came to 70 yards. I had time to range it, and I pull up the range finder, uh, and you know, and I I think I even at some point call, I don't remember when I had called between the phone calls, or at some point I call, he gobbles, they're coming, and I range the spot out in the field at 70 yards, so I know where that's at. So I've got to get the gun up. I got the 12 gauge and I slowly raise it, and I'm trying to like I'm kind of tucked into some weeds, but I'm still I I should have been tucked in more. I kind of stayed in the middle of the path where it's it's not mowed, but it's trampled down. And so I gotta get this gun up. I got the red dot on, and then I'm gonna I I put my phone down like I'm not gonna film. I'm like, this is gonna be too hard to film. But I get the gun up, and then they're still coming, and I'm like, I think I got time to grab the phone. So I grab my phone, I shoot left-handed, I'm left-eye dominant. So I got the phone in my right hand and I slide it underneath the stock so I can kind of rest the gun on my forearm, and then I can still kind of film. It's shaky as all get out, but I'm able to zoom in on this turkey in full strut as he comes in across the field. He gobbles a few times, which is awesome. Well, at a certain point, the two, the three jakes, they all kind of they either go over to the right or to the left. They they kind of break. They're not gonna come underneath the fence. The hen, she is coming right to the fence. She is coming right up against it. And so I'm not sure if she's gonna go underneath of it or not, but I'm like, I've got to shoot him probably before he gets to this gate, is what it is, not a fence. And I'm like, because if he gets to the gate and he goes right or left, I've got nothing. And then he's gonna disappear in the malt furrows and I'm not gonna have a shot. Right now he's in the wide open. So that hen gets to the gate. The gobbler gets, he's basically looks in from my vantage point like he's sitting on top of the gate, and I'm like, I think this is it. And so at one point I almost like just pulled the shot. I was like, no, you are going to take your time and make sure you have it right where you need to. So I settle in, you know, and I get settled, I make sure I'm like, okay, I think I got the camera kind of on him in the general direction, and he starts veering to my right, like he's gonna go over the hill. And I got some trees that are gonna block my view if I don't take the shot. So I'm like, I guessed that he'd probably be about 60, maybe 50 or 60 yards. He comes out of strut, he lifts his head, I take a breath, put the red dot. I also knew that my gun was shooting high and to the right. Um I probably would have missed this shot had I not patterned my gun. Um after the miss, I came back and I was like, my gun is not shooting right. That miss where I hit the turkey, I think I hit the turkey a few weeks before this. Came back, patterned my gun, and I was messing with the red dot, trying to get it dialed, and I was having a hard time, but eventually I was like, just realized my gun is shooting high and to the right by about maybe three or four inches high and to the right. And so when this turkey sticks out his neck, I hold just a little low left and pull the trigger. Boom, gun goes off, smoke clears, and he just he just falls flat. He doesn't flop, he just drops in his tracks. And then I get on him. I take off running across there, I slide underneath the gate, you know, I get up on him, put my foot on his neck, and I mean, and it is he's down, he's he's out, and it's it. And it was just absolute pandemonium celebration after that. I record myself being pr pretty crazy like I normally am, but just like so crazy. I I I think what for me, I I people that watch my videos might not like how I react sometimes. Sometimes it is embarrassing to go back, like I lose it, and I think the level of me losing it is based off of the level of craziness of the hunt. And to me, this was a max 10, like calling my neighbor, trying to get this last minute bird to come in, making a 60-yard shot. I I mean, I just I don't cry or anything, but I'm just like pumped, absolutely pumped that this and it just feels so good to be done. Like I'm glad to be out and hunting. I love it, but it's like a week and a half that I've left, and you know, every morning I'm going out before work, you know, on my day off, I'm going the whole day, you know, and I'm going with buddies, trying to get them birds, and I'm just like, honestly, it's been a lot of turkey hunting. And I'm like I said, I don't want to complain. Awesome. Um, but at the same time, I was just relieved. I was like, thank you, Jesus, for this moment. Like, thank you for my neighbors that I've gotten to know. Like, and it's just been good, you know, to have that experience. I make it back almost in time for the bus. So I do a couple quick exit interviews, uh, was able to get that on film, get loaded back up. I make it onto my road as the bus passes me. So my kids were sitting there for probably, you know, my neighbor picked them up in a side-by-side, so they're all excited. I get up there and he wanted to see the bird, and I got a picture with him, got a picture with the kids. And it was just awesome. Just awesome, awesome experience. And just grateful because it's just like I knew, like I kept telling myself, it's just gonna take one moment. You just gotta find one Tom that wants to play. So, what I think helped me and gave me success on this hunt, I'll just tell you that right now. What I think gave me success was um my willingness to bounce around and try different spots. Um a few years ago I sent out letters, I got permission on some of these properties. I've also just called and got permission on some others. And if you just have one property to hunt, it's gonna be hard sometimes to pull stuff off. So for me, I've been bouncing around trying different places, and I knew one of them eventually should pay off. And that's what eventually happened. I just had to find the day that he was willing to come across the field, and you know, it also could have been me walking away, walking away, that whole walking away, calling as you leave kind of thing, that may have been enough to pull the hen up, and he was just following her across the field the whole way. So hard to say exactly, but just um pretty awesome moment. I think the thing that I I rest on, what I um think a lot about is whenever we do what the Bible tells us to do, when Jesus says, Love your neighbor as yourself. Um whenever I first heard somebody say, What if when Jesus said that he meant your actual neighbor? I felt convicted because I didn't know my neighbors. I lived out in the country. And so we went around and we started neighbor night. And the neighbor across the road has has not came to that yet. Um they're a little bit more private people. He likes to do his turkey hunting, and his wife is a sweet gal. Uh they're probably in there I don't want to put an age on it in case you ever listen to this, but they're a little bit older than us, and uh I'd say sixties. And um so you know, they've never came to a neighbor night yet. I've been able to just continue to to just be kind to them and and and vice versa, uh they've they've been very kind to us as well. Whenever Jesus tells us to love our neighbors, I don't think it's just your neighbors, obviously. I think he needs anybody that we come in contact with, but why not our neighbors? Why not start there, you know, to connect? And what you don't realize is like, okay, I'm gonna love my neighbors. But what you forget is that you get something out of it too sometimes. They might just love you back. And I I came back and I shook that man's hand, and I actually thought, hey, I don't know if you want this or not, but I'm gonna give you a hug. I gave him a hug, and he laughed, and we he wanted to see the bird, and he was oh yeah, it's a great turkey, and you know, it's just an older guy that loves a turkey hunt too. And it just was such an awesome moment, just a blessing. That doesn't happen. I mean, that was my last resort. I had nothing else. I would have had to come back on another day and hope for that bird to come across the field. So I guess my challenge, my thought for you is who's your neighbor? Who are you blessing? Who are you uh trying to create relationships with? Do you know your neighbors? Uh what does it look like for you to love them? Maybe a lot of times neighbors don't get along real well. What's it like to show some forgiveness and some grace and uh to be a good neighbor wherever God has placed you? A lot of times we think we chose the place where we live. But I believe God may have orchestrated that. God may have opened up the housing market for that location or wherever it is that you're at, and it wasn't just so that you could have a nice place to live. It's so that you could be a light in whatever community that you are in. So I'd encourage you in that uh because I'll just tell you for me, that whole process has been something that's been over the course of like uh what are we on now? I think uh about seven years of intentionally trying to neighbor and to love our neighbors, and um hey, it led to a turkey. So pretty cool uh experience. That's the turkey story. Uh got them cut up, gonna uh vacuum seal them this evening, and um yeah, just uh hey, if any of you have any recipes for turkey legs, I have tried them multiple ways, and I think people that say turkey legs are delicious, I think you're just lying. I really do. I've tried them four different ways. I cannot get those things to not be like dry tasting. I don't know. Like I use chicken stock and just they're just not great. I'm sorry. I I hate to offend, but if you got a recipe, send it over to me. Uh if you'd like to be on the show, uh send me a message. Sheddinglightod at gmail.com or Facebook, Instagram, go to Shedding Light Outdoors, send us a private message. Leave a comment over on Shedding Light Outdoors YouTube uh channel. You can check out that video that we just talked about, and uh would love uh for you to do that. Uh I guess I got about a week. Well, not a week, I got about four days left in turkey season. I might be taking uh Nate Godfrey out tomorrow. Let's see, he texted me. Uh he says he's not gonna be able to do tomorrow. So maybe Saturday with him. So I probably got about maybe one or two turkey hunts left with some friends trying to get them on one. And uh then that's a wrap. So started fishing last night. Uh looking forward to that. I started getting back in shape a little bit better. Turkey season, I was hiking a lot, so I didn't do my mountain tuff. I'm back to doing mountain tuff and uh getting ready for my uh September elk hunt. So good things to look forward to. Guys, I want to say thanks for listening to me ramble and tell this story. I enjoy telling my stories and uh enjoy sometimes going back and listening and remembering all the crazy things that happened. If you'd like to tell one of your stories or more than one of your stories, uh go ahead and reach out. We'd love to have you on the show. Hope that you have a fantastic week. Enjoy time this spring as it goes into summer with your family. And until next time, remember to shed the light.