Zach's Washington Turkey Slam Success And Turkey Trophy Tactics Course

A turkey slam sounds clean on paper. Real life rarely is. Zach joins us to tell the full Washington turkey slam story, from years of grinding with almost nothing to show for it, to finally stacking an Eastern, a Merriam’s, and a Rio Grande turkey in one season. We talk about the moment the strategy changed, why “trying harder” wasn’t the answer, and how mentorship turned scattered effort into a repeatable plan.

We get specific about turkey hunting tactics that translate across states but matter a lot in Washington: roosting birds, slipping in tight without overcalling, and setting up where thick, brushy cover forces close-range decisions. Zach shares how e-scouting helped him identify likely turkey habitat before burning a five-hour drive, and how access and pressure can make birds feel impossible when they’re living on the wrong side of a property line.

Then the slam stories hit: an Eastern that closes the final yards fast, Merriam’s that stay glued to hens, and a Rio hunt defined by wind, snow, truck camping, and the mental fight to keep going when things pile up. We also announce Alex’s new Blacktail Coach turkey hunting tactics classes and what he’s teaching, from calls and locator calls to decoy setups and species-specific habitat.

If you want to hunt turkeys with more clarity and less chaos, hit play, then subscribe, share this with a hunting buddy, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show.

Transcript

Copy

Welcome And Slam Setup

SPEAKER_02 0:09

Welcome back to the Blacktail Coach Podcast. I'm Aaron. And I'm Alex. So Alex is here as the co-host today because we're going to be doing success story with Zach, who has completed his Washington slam. So all three turkeys. And it just made sense to have Alex as our co-host here. So thanks for coming on, you guys. Yeah. We'll get going here and we're going to talk about that and talk about something new that Alex is going to be doing under the Blacktail coach umbrella next year that we're really excited about. But we'll wrap up with that. But first, we're going to talk about the success story of completing the Washington Slam. So, Zach, why don't you give us your background in turkey hunting?

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Yeah, so I didn't grow up with hunting. If you've heard the black tail podcast episode that we talked about when I got my first buck, I kind of go into that. But Turkey was the one thing that I always really interested was interested in. And I was 16 years old. I bought a mouth diaphragm for whatever reason. I did that, even though I wasn't hunting. And I came to Washington State and I'd been here for about 11 years. And I got into Turkey about eight years ago with one of my coworkers. And while I was out there, I was trying to learn them. We were struggling. I'm trying to kind of get on them and figure out how to get them to come in. And there's just a lot of experience gap that we had. And so he ended up moving to Minnesota, left me with this bug of like trying to get after Turkey. And now I'm like here by myself trying to figure all this out. But I like the experience of like the gobbling and interacting with the animals. And even if you don't get them, you just get a little bit closer, it was still fun. Like you you got something there, versus like

Zach’s Turkey Hunting Origin Story

SPEAKER_00 1:44

deer hunting sometimes can be very quiet and don't hear a whole lot all the time.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

And so I just liked the interaction and really wanted to do it. It was a harder sell to some degree and really try to get my buddy Chris to come out with me. And he came out with me a couple times and got his sons to come out with. And we got close, but there were still some things that we were just kind of like hitting gaps on. We just we could we couldn't figure out what we were doing wrong, whether we were going too early in the season or whatnot. Now I understand a lot, but yeah, that's kind of the synopsis of Turkey and Y Turkey.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

So how many years was it? Seven or eight? It's about seven or eight. Okay. And how what have you previous to this year? Yeah, so it would be 2026 that you completed your slam. So previous to this year, what had you harvested before?

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Two jakes. Two jakes. That was it. I've had a lot of close calls, but I was not able to call any others in beyond those two jakes.

SPEAKER_02 2:36

Okay, so you didn't get anything in 2025? No.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

Oh wait, no, 2025. I apologize. That's wrong. I got my first Tom with him in 2025. Prior to that, so 2025, I got a Merriam's, and then or I didn't get anything, and then I hadn't gotten anything the two years prior to that. Okay. So then then this year I got my slam.

SPEAKER_04 2:57

Okay. So basically, like Zach and I, we met through the blacktail coaching program.

SPEAKER_02 3:02

Yes, you were both in coaching.

SPEAKER_04 3:04

We were both in coaching, and Dave mentioned to the other people on the class that I hunt turkeys and whatnot. And Zach private emailed me. He's like, Hey, I've been hunting turkeys for what seven years or seven years at that time. Gotten two jakes, you know, unsuccessful the other six years. Are you able to to help me close some gaps and and whatnot? I was like, Yeah. And so he came on over, Zach told me how what he does to hunt turkeys, and I told him my playbook and just kind of try to help close some gaps for Zach. And then I told him, I was like, well, if you want, I was like, I can't guarantee I can hunt with you, but you can at least camp with us. And that way, you and your buddy Chris, if you guys, if something doesn't pan out or something happens, you can bring that back to camp. We can talk about it, and I can give you my best explanation on what happened and why it happened. Yep. Uh so long story short, Chris, which is Zach's buddy who's been hunting for turkeys for five years, shot his first Tom last year.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Yeah, we use a bunch of the experience and we were looking at a property that was feel free to hunt. And we went out to one of the properties in the evening. I think we left around like two or something from camp. And we were just sitting out there, and then all of a sudden I hear my buddy Chris like stand up and and then just a gun shot. And I was like, What the heck? No way, he just got one. He got he got his first bird, and he looked back at me at that moment and he goes, I get it now. I'm like, Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 4:22

And then same thing is like I got got my bird, which I ended up finishing my slam with that bird uh in 25. And then I was able to I had time to take Zach out hunting, and so we went.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

DJ had gotten birds too at that point, too, I think, right?

SPEAKER_04 4:35

That's correct. Yeah, I took DJ out too, which is Dave's son. He shot his first two birds, yeah. And then I took Zach out the next evening, yeah. And uh, we were able to call in a Tom for Zach, which is his first Tom.

SPEAKER_02 4:47

First Tom ever got okay, cool. So now with this relationship, I'm kind of interested in exploring this a bit a bit more. What was it that you were doing

The Big Fix Roosting And Patience

SPEAKER_02 4:59

wrong? Or maybe you had mistakes you were making, misconceptions, you know, however you want to phrase it, but what were you doing that once you hunted with Alex or talked to Alex that the light bulb went off or the understanding came?

SPEAKER_00 5:13

The biggest thing that we were mistaken on is we were trying to do a lot of spot and stock or get real close to them during the day or find something that wants to play. But a lot of time these turkey they shut up after like 10 o'clock. You'll find one or two that will play, and it does work when they're hot, they're hot. But we struggled to get that to work. And the biggest thing that stood out to me was like roosting the birds, knowing where they're at and getting within as close as you can to them the next day. So it's that was like the thing that clicked. That was like, I get it now. Like, we don't need to put a lot of pressure on them during the middle of the day if they're not interested.

SPEAKER_02 5:48

It's just set up in the right basically, it's creating the right ambush hunt.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Correct, being in the right spot and knowing the right spot. You're in an educated spot at that point. Yeah, you know, like what they're doing, where they've been feeding, and that's exactly how I got my jakes, but I didn't put two and two together the first time. I saw them there the night before, came back the next morning, and sat up in the same spot I saw them walking through the next day, and they ended up coming right to me. It took 45 minutes, but they came to me.

SPEAKER_02 6:12

Okay. Did you call them in those jakes? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

I called them in and they they beat up on my decoy and shot the first one. And when I shot the first one, the second one gobbled, and I was like, Well, I got two tags. Uh and then hand yelped at him and said, two at two at once. All right. Nice.

SPEAKER_02 6:27

Well, that was DJ too. His well, although he did it two birds, one shot.

SPEAKER_04 6:32

Yep, two birds, one shot.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

Yeah, so it would, yeah, you can't really that's quite the trophy for your your verse jerkies to get two of them with one shot. Anything else it as far as and I think we're gonna get more into talking about the eastern because that's the tough one. But any anything else, just the general yeah, you picked up that helped you with those hunts?

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Yeah, there are some things that I've definitely picked up from Alex, like helping me out that I've gotten a lot better at e-scouting and whatnot. I can almost, especially in the northeast of the state, I can pretty much pick out properties that are gonna have birds or probably hold them, or at least very close, uh based off of certain features that you're looking for or whatnot. I can let Alex go into that in his class and stuff more, but that helped a lot because when you live on the west side of the state, it's a long drive to go out there and scout for a couple days. Um you got work and kids and family and things.

SPEAKER_02 7:25

So yeah. Figuring out, I think for any species, figuring out that the locating aspect so that you're just not wasting your time wandering around in the woods is a big deal. So let's get into the story. And what order you got your eastern first, yeah, then you got your Merriam. Merriam, and then your Rio.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Yep, that's correct.

SPEAKER_02 7:45

Okay, so let's go in the order. Alex suggested we go in the order that you got them. So let's start with the Eastern.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

So the Eastern, I live on the west side of the state. Figured, you know, I had a close call the year before, or I got pretty close to them, and I had one out there gobbling,

Eastern Success On A Steep Road

SPEAKER_00 7:59

but I wasn't able to make it out until after the opening day. I had seen some out in a spot and heard them earlier. And so I decided I was gonna try to get out there like day one, and because maybe they'll be gobbling and they'll just be ready to go. And I got out to a couple of my spots and I had trail cameras out earlier uh and just wasn't really finding anything that really like lined up with what I needed and saw some hands and stuff, but went out anyways. I heard them goblin, but they were too far away. They were on property I couldn't hunt in a couple of spots, and then was uh putting a lot of boots on ground, trying to find more sign in other spots and kind of going to different areas and looking for them. I had found some sign previous year in a different location, and I was not wanting to climb that hill because we'll just be honest, it's it's a hill. And so I was like, I'm gonna save that one for the last day. But I had had some action over there in terms of like seeing sign and seeing enough that I was like, there's a Tom probably around here somewhere. I don't know exactly where he's at, but he's somewhere around here. And so it was probably my second to last day. I'd been out here for about three days. I've been hiked quite a bit, and I got up to the gate and I was like, I don't know if I want to hike this hill. Like it's I should have been already hiking it. I was kind of talking myself out of it to some degree, and then I was just kind of stopped and um was like, you know, you just gotta do it. Let's just do it, whatever what happens, happens. And so I hiked it as quickly as I could within reason. It's about a mile and a half to two miles up in the spot that I was going to. And I was walking up the road and kind of just taking things in and trying to like just be present in the moment and see a little porcupine walking in front of me. And I was like, Oh, that's kind of cool. I haven't seen a porcupine. And all of a sudden I hear a gobble off to my left. And I was like, All right, he's in the tree right now, still. It's not quite time yet. I'm gonna go see if I can get up here and around this this road. He can't see me where I'm at. There's a big uh row of trees in the way, so I'm gonna sneak up there as quickly as I can, set up my my decoy, and see if maybe I can call him in. So I go up to the end, I set up my decoy, and I set up against these ferns and stuff, but the ferns are four or five feet tall and they're pretty thick. Uh-huh. So I wait like 10 minutes. I hear him gobble once or twice a ways away. And I'm like, okay, I'm gonna try to call him and see if I can get him to like be interested. So I give a call, nothing, like five, five minutes or whatnot. Get a message from our buddy Jason, and he's like, Hey, you hear anything? And I'm like, just about to type no, and then all of a sudden I hear gobbling up the top, and I'm like, okay, I'm gonna peek my head up over the top of this fern because maybe he can't hear me. And I'm gonna call to him there and see if he and I got didn't even get three calls out, and he immediately gobbled and he hammered, and I was like, Oh, okay. So then I sat down and I'm like, now this could happen. I need to be ready. I don't know how long this is gonna take. And he runs maybe 50 to 100 yards at the top of this ridge, starts gobbling like three or four more times. I'm like, oh, okay, like he's interested. I'm not, I'm just staying quiet, not calling too often. And then I wait, I think probably five minutes in between, and then I called again, and then he closed the gap like 150 yards, and he's all of a sudden he's down within. I can't see him. He's on the other side of a tree on the road, but he's probably 15 yards from me. Oh, okay, close, very close. That was a loud gobble. I'm like, that is real close. And then I see his head pop out right after that from the weeds in front of me, and I'm just holding. He kind of looks my direction. Probably he's not a hundred percent sure, but he's like, eh, looks at the decoy, kind of looks my direction, walks like two more steps. And as soon as he cleared the weeds, I was like, done, let it rip. And he went down. Then there was a lot of crying, and I was like, No, how did this happen? I'm texting him, I'm texting everyone else, and I'm like, I got it for Eastern. And he's like, He's like, You got one down? I was like, Yeah, I got one down. I think you called me a little bit after, yeah. I called you. Yeah, then you're we were talking, and I'm all hyped up, obviously, because this is my first Eastern. Yeah, and I can't believe it just happened. Like, I figured this would take another year or two. And uh he's like, Can I tell you good news?

SPEAKER_04 11:53

And then Yeah, so uh called Zach and we're celebrating his Eastern. And I was like, Hey, I got some news, can I tell you? He's like, Absolutely. I was like, dude, I just got my Eastern too this morning. So we uh doubled up in different areas, but both got our Easterns on the same morning.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Within minutes of each other, like it was like maybe five to six minutes difference, and that's it.

SPEAKER_02 12:12

Okay, so you were right off a logging road, skidder road. Yeah, and in like big timber? There was big timber around, yeah. Okay, is that typically they like big timber? Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

Okay, yeah. And I had been out there the night before and tried to roost him, and I heard nothing. I remember texting Alex and being like, Man, I don't know if he's here. Like, because he did not talk at all. But next day I came out and he was right where I was out calling, coyote calling at night.

SPEAKER_04 12:40

Yeah, absolutely. Zach got a hold of me the night before, and he's like, Hey, I'm seeing quite a bit of sign in here. Don't know if it's worth it, don't know where to set up. And so I suggested, I was like, this is where I would set up. If he's in this area, you're gonna hear him from here. And so he went in there the next morning and heard him off the roost and was able to close the gap and call him in and get him.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

Yep, nice. I shot him at about eight yards. Oh wow, it was very close.

SPEAKER_04 13:06

A lot of these eastern hunts, just with the habitat we have around here, it's pretty brushy. A lot of them are pretty close range.

SPEAKER_02 13:13

When they yeah, when you can finally see them come in.

SPEAKER_04 13:15

Yep, like this year I shot mine at eight yards too, and then called in my buddy Jason in Eastern and same thing, like 10, 12 yards. Yep. And then Bo Brooks's turkey that we called in. He was probably 15. Yep. So you know, all pretty close shots for these birds just from the habitat we have here.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

Okay. And so when you were walking, it was walking up on that that skitter road.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

I was walking on a skitter road, yeah. But it was a steep climb up to where it was it was from zero foot elevation up to probably twelve hundred um in a mile and a half. So you're you're straight elevation the whole way. Yeah, there is no break. Uh so I was huffing and puffing, but I was there.

SPEAKER_02 13:57

I can see the the mental game there of like I I don't want to do that, I don't want to do that. Well, might as well go do that. So and then what's funny though is, and this is true with anything, like I just went out scouting. It's like I gotta go, I gotta go out scouting. I need to put some boots on the ground. Once I did, I was so happy that I did because of what I was seeing and kind of an area right next to an area that I'd hunted that I thought, oh, it's gonna be difficult to get down in there. It wasn't. I found a spot that was real easy to get down into this open area, and I'm like, this is gonna be great for this coming season. But yeah, it's always that I gotta go drive an hour, and I gotta okay, then I gotta go do this, and then I gotta go do this. And you can talk yourself out of a lot of hunts. Very easily out successful hunts.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

That's why it is a little easier when you have someone with you because you you don't talk yourself out of it as quickly when you got two of you. Yeah, but it's harder because you know everyone's got lives and you got things you gotta do.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

Yeah, understood. Okay, so Eastern, the tough one, got it out of the way, and then it's yeah. That's when that's when it Miriams and Rios start getting difficult, is when you've gotten the tough one out of the way, I suppose.

SPEAKER_00 15:08

Yeah, that's exactly what happened.

SPEAKER_02 15:09

Absolutely. So the next one was your Miriam. Let's hear that story.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

So we were out there, we went out camping again, same spot we did last year. I went to the same farm,

Merriam’s Birds Hens And Access

SPEAKER_00 15:20

but these toms and stuff were held up with hens. They did not want to come in. I knew right where they were roosting again. I had roosted them the night before and came in and I sat up in the a field within probably 150 yards of them. But they would they'd gobble at me, but they would not come in. They would they would go with the hens and you wouldn't hear from them for half the day, and then you hear them in the evening again. And those were pieces of property I couldn't hunt on, so there wasn't much I could do on there. So I started kind of driving around and trying to figure out where they were at and kind of where they were going to see if I could maybe get access to different properties or you know, if it went on public, and then I can go after it on public. But they just they weren't playing. I I spent two, maybe three days going after them. Took out Alex had brought out Chris Ryan.

SPEAKER_04 16:05

Ryan, yep.

SPEAKER_00 16:06

Brought out Ryan and I took Ryan one day and we went and tried to get on top of them early in the morning. There's a ridge that kind of curls up around the backside of the property, and I was trying to get up on top of them to see if maybe we could call them up the hill, and they ended up going the opposite direction. So we we couldn't get them to come in. And I think it was last day that I had at that time. I was talking to Alex. We were sitting around the fire and we're like trying to figure out what the best play was. And I had gotten permission to hunt another person's property across the street, so there was a chance they could come across and I could call them in um because they were sandwiched in between this other private property that we didn't have access to, but I hadn't seen them roosting there, they were roosting on another piece of property just next to it. So I asked Alex, I was like, you know, what about we go back to the piece of property that we hunted the year before and maybe give it a try? It's last ditch effort. I'll have to come back out again if I don't get this one. And so we went out and we sat up, I think, 60 yards apart. Does that sound right? Yeah, about 60 yards apart. So Ryan, myself, and Alex all sat up about 60 yards apart, and he knew where the turkey were already. He had bruised them the night before. So we didn't know where they were gonna go, had some decoys out in front of Ryan. Yeah, yeah, they were in front of Ryan. Hens started calling about 10-15 minutes before sun sunrise, and they flew off, and the hen veered about 50 yards to my right, and there was no one to my right. So I'm like, okay, I'm the only one that has a shot right now if the tom comes after her. Well, he flies about 55 or so right behind some pine trees that I can't take a shot at because they're about log pole size. And so I'm sitting here shifting while the hen is locked in on me now and trying to wait for him to open up, giving me a shot. He's strutting and spitting at the hen down the way. And I just sat there and held it as long as I could in the what felt like an eternity of the most uncomfortable position I could be in, trying to hold my gun steady. He just stepped out enough and I let it rip and he dropped, ran out, made sure got to the bird, and then I'm sitting there trying to be quiet in case there's more birds, so I don't I'm not yelling or anything. And Alex is over there.

SPEAKER_04 18:08

Yeah, I'm I'm sitting out of sight, and all I hear is a gunshot, and I'm already tagged out by this time, so I'm just calling. I'm not even hunting, you know. And uh, so I hear this gunshot, and I'm expecting to hear hollering and excitement. I don't hear nothing. I was like, oh man, it didn't happen or pan out. And I was like, wanted to get up to go see what happened, but then I don't want to spook anything in case they could still make a play on him. And yeah, eventually uh I heard heard Zach say something from a distance and you know he got him. Yeah, he got him.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

I I think I walked down towards him and I was like, bird down, because I was trying to again like be respectful in case Ryan, we had Ryan had a tag still, uh and I wanted to make sure that if there was another Tom in the area that we didn't blow them out.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

Turns out there wasn't that I mean we think we heard some more further down, but they were not close to us.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

Yeah, not anywhere uh close to us. So Miriam's this is up a cold area, right? Okay. Is it mostly public land up there that you're asking to hunt on, or is it a mix of is it a lot of public land too?

SPEAKER_00 19:06

So the birds are different, right? Like, I mean, sometimes they get hunted and they get pushed onto private, uh, and it gets hard to get to them. So you have to sometimes be willing to go and talk to people. Public does happen, but I feel like you got to be there kind of early and know which ones have birds ahead of time. Really scouting early is the could the way to get it, but it's a bit of a drive for people that are over on the west side. Like it's about a five and a half hour drive to come over and scout for a couple days or whatever, or weekend or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 19:32

So yeah, but there there is a mix, Aaron. Um, we do have permission on a couple private chunks, however, they've also been hunted before we get there too.

SPEAKER_02 19:40

So it's not like we're the first people to hunt these birds, but people who are just generally pretty generous with their property.

SPEAKER_04 19:47

Yeah, yep, yep.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

Just go hunt.

SPEAKER_04 19:48

Yep. So yeah, there we do have permission on a couple of private chunks, but we also hunt public land as well.

SPEAKER_02 19:54

Okay, okay. So actually, I was thinking about this. When you get your Eastern first, now Alex, you got your Eastern first this year as well? Second. Second, okay. Have you ever have you had any years where you've gotten your Eastern first before you've gotten uh any of the other birds?

SPEAKER_04 20:11

Yeah, probably four or five years ago now. Okay. Um I got my Eastern first.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

So what is that doing to your mindset of I just killed the hardest of these three? I could realistically get the slam. So what's what's going through your minds when in that situation? Are you trying to play it cool?

SPEAKER_00 20:32

What's what's going on here? Uh playing it cool, yeah. It's a lot of you're putting pressure on yourself for me at least. And then I've got Alex looking at me and going, Well, you got an Eastern, now you gotta do the slam. And I'm like, I know.

SPEAKER_04 20:43

Yeah, you got the hard one out of the way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:45

So and of course that ended up being the easiest one at that point in time. And it's not hard, it's very hard to find them and locate them, but the it just that particular setup ended up being easier because he came right to me. The other ones, not so much.

SPEAKER_04 20:57

Yeah, yeah. For me, like, yeah, like once I get my Eastern, you know, hunting's hunting, anything can happen. You know, we can definitely not get the slam after you get the Eastern. Like, yeah, there is that chance, but I've been turkey hunting long enough, I've played the game long enough. You put yourself in those situations to set yourself up for success, and it will pan out eventually.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:17

So like once I get my Eastern, you know, yeah, good chance that yeah, I'll complete the slam again.

SPEAKER_02 21:24

Nice. Okay, so let's wrap up your Rio. What part of the state were you hunting your Rio in?

SPEAKER_00 21:29

Southeast Washington. So, like the like Walla Walla Dayton areas. Oh, okay, okay.

Rio Hunt Snow Wind And Pressure

SPEAKER_00 21:34

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 21:35

A little further out there. Okay. A little further out there, yeah. So let's hear that story. Did you go out by yourself or went out by myself?

SPEAKER_00 21:41

Oh, okay. Uh so this one I drove out and I we had had permission to access a property up in kind of one of the mountains in an area. And I went out there and I was camping kind of in my truck just to be close to the turkey, so I didn't really have to like drive too far out of the city and whatnot initially. And I'll tell you what, the weather was gnarly. It was raining and windy the first day. Second day, it started snowing, and I think the third day it started to get a little bit better. Wind was not nearly as bad. But that second day, the interesting part was I had been hunting them hard for like the first two days in that wind and everything. And it's hard to hear them. And I'm sure it's hard for them to hear you. And I was calling to them, trying to get them to come in, couldn't get them to come in. Um, they weren't responding to me, they were responding to each other. I could hear them gobbling at each other, but they would not talk to me. And then I decided the next day when I looked at the weather that it was going to be snowing, I was like, I'm just gonna sleep in today. I'm gonna be a little lazy, and then I'll get up at like six or something instead of getting up at four. And I woke up to a Tom gobbling outside the back of my truck. I was sleeping under my tono cover in the back of my truck, and I'm like, what is going on? So like I wake up, smack my head on the on the tono cover, trying to push the tono cover up. He's running away. I'm out get trying to get my gun loaded and long johns and no boots on and running on the road to try to get over to the other side of the property where I can get a shot on him. And I'm going this one way and he's going the complete opposite. And I'm like, you know what? The snow's coming, and I can literally see it. I'm like, I'm gonna go back to the truck and get my get gear on, and then I'll see if I can get back on him, but I don't think I'm probably going to for the day. And then about 20 minutes in, it just started snowing enough that I was like, I'm gonna go down out of the mountains and then see if I can get on something down lower. And so I went and checked out some other spots, drove around, found a turkey on an orchard, and I went and talked to the owner, and he was like, Yeah, that's fine. I just try not to hit any of the equipment and whatnot. And I was like, totally fine. And so I went down there and I got on them, and I made the mistake of calling earlier. He didn't know I was there or he was being hunted, and I called a little too early. And so he came out about 60, 70 yards, and I was like, it's a little bit of a long shot in an orchard where like there's a lot of things that could get hit. But I'm like, I'd just rather not. So I didn't take the shot, I backed out and decided I was just gonna kind of move on to a different spot and went to a couple other places, drove up into the the blues and couldn't get on any turkey there. And then I was getting a little discouraged. It was a tough hunt, and then uh ended up getting a call from the landowner and he's like, Hey, like I got some mountain uh down in the farm down here. You want to come shoot one down here? And I was like, Yeah, let's do it. So it's tail end of the season, you know, it's not many weeks left. But Waz got the lay of the land from the owner and what the rules were, and he's like, you know, don't, you know, obviously don't shoot any of the animals, like the horses and the cows and stuff. And like he's like, but they're coming in and they're stealing grain and stuff, so we don't really want them around anyways. And I'm like, great. So I kind of I walked down a ways and I get down to the end of the horse pens, and this one of the hens clocks me. And so I just like, I'm not even gonna acknowledge her that she's there. I'm just gonna keep walking. So I just walked into this run-in where that where all the equipment was, and then walked around the corner, and there's a Tom, maybe a 70 or 80 yards from me. And so I'm like, I'm gonna walk in a little bit more because I want to clear all this equipment and make sure that I have a good shot. There's nothing around me outside that, and nothing behind him. So I'm in good shape if I can take if I can get a shot. So I I walk out and I go out and get up get about to 60 yards, and the hens start busting, and I'm like, I gotta stop because they're gonna run, and then he's gone. And so I stop and I aim and I pull the trigger, and these guns are pretty big. There's a three and a half inch shell, it has a bit of a kick. So when I get no longer disoriented and understand what's going on, all I see is a Tom flying away. And I'm like, did I miss that bird? Like, I've never missed one yet, and but it could happen. Like I, you know, 60 yards is still within my range, and so I almost didn't walk out into the pasture, but I was like, I'll just walk out there anyways. I walk out and it takes me almost till it's five, six feet away from him for me to see him because the grass is so high, but I see breastfeathers, and I'm like, oh man, this just happened. And he wasn't flopping or anything, so that's why I was like, I'm I must have missed him. Like normally they flop and got nothing until I could I grabbed him, and as soon as I grabbed him, then he started flopping. Oh, but ended up ended up getting him out there. Yeah, it's a little bit of a far shot, but those Rios, man, they can they can be quiet and they that was a difficult hunt.

SPEAKER_02 26:07

So the one that was that the one that flew off, or there's a different one.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

There's two there's another one that was already in the pen that I didn't know about. Okay. He came out and flew as soon as he heard the shot. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 26:18

How many days were you hunting your Rio, Zach? Four. Four days. Yeah. What was the biggest struggle during those four days?

SPEAKER_00 26:26

The mental game. It was tough. And it's not

The Mental Game And Support

SPEAKER_00 26:29

supposed to be like like sob story talking or anything, but like I ended up getting laid off the market the way it is. So like the mental game on top of that made it even worse. So there was a lot of a mental and emotion, but I was like determined to try to get it done, and just reaching out to Alex and to my friends and being like, and everyone was very supportive and being like, dude, you gotta finish it. You're there, just finish it. I'm like, Yeah, my wife was very supportive, and she was actually, I almost didn't go because I got laid off two days before the trip. And I was like, Well, this stinks, like, I'm not gonna go now. Like, I I should focus on trying to get a job right now. And she's like, Yeah, you gotta go. And my mother-in-law too. She's like, I'll pay for it if you have to what if we have to. And I'm like, fine. So I went out there. It was, it was I planned for about five days. It took every bit of it. I got all the way, I was there until the fifth day. I got the uh Rio on the end of the fourth day.

SPEAKER_04 27:14

Yeah, yeah. Zach was, you know, texting, calling, reaching out to me every night, and I'm just you know, trying to stay as positive as possible because I've been in those exact moments where I, you know, you want to throw in a towel, you want to give up, but you know, you just keep pushing through and it will pan out eventually. So it's just it's good to have those hunting buddies to you know help you stay positive, you know, and just stick with it, basically. Yeah, keep at it.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

Yeah, it's that that mental game was really tough on this one because not only because of those other features, but it's like the mountain birds that I was hunting are very challenging. They don't gobble a lot. I roosted them one night and got in there within a range. There's one of three directions they could have gone. They went the one direction that I didn't that they could go that I couldn't get to them at, and skirted me a hundred yards and just looked my direction the whole time. But so I could never get a shot on them, and then they disappeared for the rest of the day. So they I had them come over the hill, look at my decoy, and leave and go to the other side of the property. So I'd go and try to get to the other side of the property before they did, and they catch me uh setting up and they'd leave to go back to the other side of the property. So it was it was tough to get on them. Like, I don't know if they're heavily hunted or they're just educated birds and just understand, but like they didn't like the decoys, they didn't like calling, they stayed away from me. So I'm gonna get one at one point. That's my new goal is like I don't care what it's going to take, I am going to get one of those mountain birds just to say I did it, but they are not easy.

SPEAKER_04 28:34

No, they are tough to get, and uh, like you mentioned, not only are they tough to get, and you were, you know, it was just a struggle to call them in, and like you said, they were decoy shy and everything else, but you also had to hunt in the rain and the snow and the wind. Like these are all factors going against you as a turkey hunter.

SPEAKER_00 28:52

Yes, yeah. Yeah, while I'm sleeping in the back of my truck, so I'm not even like in a warm spot at the end of the night. Like I'm cold in there trying to warm up.

SPEAKER_02 28:59

I was thinking it's just that, and you get a cuddle up in the bed of a pickup with yourself. That's right. All night. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's I've slept in my vehicle often and out camping. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:14

It's not too bad when it's not winter. If it gets a little cold, it can get miserable.

SPEAKER_02 29:18

When it's raining, yeah. Yeah. Raining or cold. So long as you got a good pad underneath you to keep you warm. Yep. I've known people, oh, I'll just throw an air mattress out. Yeah, that's a bad idea. There's no insulation there.

SPEAKER_00 29:31

No. I luckily have a cot that's low profile. Okay. It's like a backcountry cot. Um, and then I have another very like self-inflating pad as well. So that helps with that. So like I wasn't cold at night, but it would take a little bit to warm up. Like you once you get in your sleeping bag, it always takes like an hour or so.

SPEAKER_02 29:47

Yeah, especially if you're chilled all day. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, hey, congratulations on that first slam. I'm sure probably the first of many. We'll see. Uh, because you have lots of hunting years left. So lots of opportunities coming up for you over the years and stuff. Yeah, this is great. But what's really great about this is we got to talk about how Alex mentored somebody through getting the Washington slam. And it's one thing when it's you're able to do it. So, like thinking about Dave,

New Turkey Hunting Classes Announced

SPEAKER_02 30:19

who's gotten big buck after big buck after big buck, and he's got a house full of mounts and antlers and all kinds of stuff, but being able to pass that along, which we got to see that at Hunter's Gathering with Alex and his teaching, all the guys there, all the participants at Hunter's Gathering on turkey hunting and getting your brain picked nonstop by everybody, including probably Trent and all the other teachers there. And so you've decided to at probably some of Dave and Osha's prompting as well, but you're going to start teaching classes. Yes, I am. Underneath the Blacktail Coach umbrella. So if you want to sign up for these classes, all you have to do is go to the blacktailcoach.com and Alex has a I believe you have a page or it's on there somewhere.

SPEAKER_04 31:13

Yeah, it's under, you know, you go on the Blacktail Coach website, you know, you click down the drop down, and there'll be a column there called like turkey hunting tactics. Okay. You click on that and it'll give you the the class options that I'm giving for the beginning of next year and the whole registration page.

SPEAKER_02 31:30

Yep, absolutely. Okay. So let's get into the specifics here. When, where, and what's the cost of these classes?

SPEAKER_04 31:37

Yeah, so I am doing two in-person classes and one online class next year in 2027 before turkey season. The two in-person classes are March 6th and March 27th, which are both Saturdays, and they are going to be in Woodland. And the cost is 325 per class. The online classes, I have them for Monday, March 8th, March 15th, and March 22nd. Same cost of 325.

SPEAKER_02 32:05

As online.

SPEAKER_04 32:05

Correct. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 32:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 32:07

Well, one class.

SPEAKER_02 32:08

One class, but three hours or three weeks.

SPEAKER_04 32:12

Three weeks, yes. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 32:13

Okay. And so all those are 325. Do you remember what the deposit is?

SPEAKER_04 32:17

That I do don't know.

SPEAKER_02 32:18

Okay. I think I believe the deposit is $100, and that holds you a spot for those classes.

SPEAKER_04 32:25

Yeah, after the hunters gathering and how that went, and like you said, Dave and Asha and then when I was helping out at both of the sportsman shows this last year, a lot of people were coming up to me at the booth asking if I would do individual turkey classes.

SPEAKER_02 32:38

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 32:39

So like between all of that and just meet just my love for teaching and mentoring and coaching people, I felt like this was right in line with what I love to do.

SPEAKER_02 32:47

Okay. So what's going to be included in the curriculum for the class?

SPEAKER_04 32:51

So basically I'm going to teach you my playbook on how I successfully harvest turkeys year after year. And these tactics, they work they work in every state. It's not just Washington. Like I'm, you know, I mostly hunt in just Washington. I have got Osceola in Florida, but these tactics work in every state no matter where you are. But basically, I'm just going to cover the turkey background in Washington, you know, all the different sounds turkeys make, different turkey calls that are out there, pros and cons to each of them, you know, when I use them, why I use them, how I make the sounds with different calls. I'm going to go over the locator calls that I use and same thing when I use them, why I use them, different decoys, decoy positions, setups, and what setups I use in different times of the seasons and the why behind. Okay. And then like we mentioned earlier, just locating turkeys and the habitat they like. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 33:43

Very important to know.

SPEAKER_04 33:44

Yeah. And that's and I'll go over that for Marians, Rios, and Easterns, just the different habitats they like and what I look for when I'm e scouting.

SPEAKER_01 33:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 33:52

And also boots on the ground.

SPEAKER_01 33:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:54

And then basically, you know, once you have all that knowledge together, then I teach you how to hunt them.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 34:00

And that's what I do, and I get turkeys year after year.

SPEAKER_02 34:03

Yes. Well, ten times of getting the slam and mentoring other people to get, you know, Zach getting the slam. And I'm sure you've got had other friends that you've helped get slams.

SPEAKER_04 34:13

Jason, he's top-notch turkey hunter too. So he's gotten the slam a lot of time. So we help each other out. He was struggling this year. He's he was hunting, I think like five days for Easterns and was struggling. And I was over on the east side hunting my Rios. But when I came back, I got my Eastern, and then I reached out to my buddy Jason and took him out and helped him get his Eastern for this year. But he got his slam this year. And like I said, I took Bo Brooks out.

SPEAKER_02 34:38

Uh you know, hey, yeah, Bo needed some help. Well, you know, he and he's he's I'm sure not too ashamed to admit it. He needed help and he got it.

SPEAKER_04 34:48

Oh, yeah. And he's an absolutely great turkey hunter.

SPEAKER_02 34:52

He's a phenomenal turkey hunter.

SPEAKER_04 34:53

He's very well known in the US for turkey hunting and and everything else. But you know, he's been after this bird for like 14 years and has never heard a gobbler, let alone see one. And yeah. So me and him were talking, you know, a couple months before season, and we were able to line out a couple days to hunt together and it panned out.

SPEAKER_02 35:12

Yeah, that's excellent. Because it's tough when you're because he lives Kentucky or Tennessee or Kentucky, yeah. Okay. And if all you have time to do is to come out and go hunting, and you don't get the chance to scout or do anything like that, that it does. It makes it tough no matter how what your skill level is. Oh, absolutely. And he's his skill level, I know, as I've come to know, even though I'm clueless to begin with, but he yeah, he's a very accomplished hunter. Oh, and so that you were able to help him out with doing that is pretty amazing.

SPEAKER_04 35:46

Yeah, and it's cool because like I said, we we were talking a couple months prior to season. He called me up when we were actually on our Merriam hunt up in Cayville, and he's like, Hey Alex, he's like, No pressure, but I'll be in the area next Tuesday and Wednesday, so two days. He's like, So if you wanna hunt Easterns together, let me know. So, of course, I had to think about it and called him back, and I was like, Let's make this happen.

SPEAKER_02 36:05

Yeah, let me think of a good excuse to call into work over oh, I broke my leg. Oh, maybe not. I don't know. I'll let you know after I'm back.

SPEAKER_04 36:14

Yeah, they're like, Alex, this is the same story three weeks in a row, and your leg's not broken.

SPEAKER_02 36:18

Wait a minute, your great aunt Lizzie died. Hasn't she died like seven times already? No, no, yeah. That's Aunt Linda. Oh, that was Aunt Linda the first six times. Yeah, okay. Well, anyway, if you're interested in learning Turkey, I can highly recommend this class because success speaks for itself. And not only Alex's stories that we've heard, but we've heard Zach now share his story. So go on the website, check it out. If you want to hear him and others, you could come to the hunters' gathering. You're gonna learn Turkey, black tail, the opportunity, turkey, blacktail, bear, elk. And we've just got a confirmation for mountain lion teacher and coyote bobcat. So lots of opportunity to learn over that four days. A lot of electives that we're doing. We've got Tom Rile coming out teaching calling and rattling, blacktails, John Nicholson will be out teaching trail cams. Yeah, there's gonna be a lot of talent there to uh to glean from. So come out, get signed up for classes. That'll be great. Zach, thanks for coming down and recording with us. Alex, thank you for hosting us at your place

Wrap Up And Listener Support

SPEAKER_02 37:29

to record. And if you could go on, like, subscribe, share, follow, do all of those things that really helps with pushing out the podcast to new listeners. That would be great. Leave a review, would really appreciate that. And we will talk to you next week.