EP21: Preseason Turkey Prep

 Welcome to The Last Flight Show — Episode 21

 Presented by Last Flight Calls N' Gear 

In this episode of the podcast, we cover our Verse of the Week, talk about some new products we’ve been working on, and take you along as we scout for turkeys and start preparing for the season ahead. Faith, business, and time in the outdoors all come together in this one. Whether you're here for the hunting content, the conversation, or the behind-the-scenes look at what we're building, we’re glad you’re here. Make sure to subscribe and follow along as we continue sharing the journey. 

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Website: lastflightgear.com 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Shopping. Monday.

SPEAKER_02 0:03

It's hot. Hot. Spicy.

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Spicy.

SPEAKER_02 0:07

Full of electricity.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

We got a little cutting into the lunch here, bud.

SPEAKER_02 0:21

What is going on, everybody? Thank you for tuning in to the Last Flight Show. I'm your host, Jake Klein. Joining me today is owner of Last Flight Calls, Matt Hicks. What is going on, buddy? Oh, not much. Glad to be back. Yeah, we um took a little bit of a break. We had some hunting season stuff going on and busy in the shop and all kinds of stuff that we were. All kinds of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

It's been a whirlwind of a past few months.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

It's been a thing for sure.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

A lot going on.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

But uh, yeah. Get back to it. We're gonna start back off with the verse of the week. Yep. Which we've still been putting out calls. So if you want a verse call, they go quick, but every week, every Monday, we drop those. And uh I kind of just do it weekly on whatever I'm thinking. Yeah. Whatever I'm feeling like I'm being told to do.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

Yeah. We haven't um haven't uploaded any podcasts, but definitely have kept the uh verse of the week alive.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

So in this week's verse of the week, we're gonna be in the book of Proverbs, um chapter 16, verse 9 is the verse that we got here, and it's a verse that has been really just coming up constantly, I just feel like in the last few weeks of just like you know, here it is, here it is. I just keep getting a sign of here it is. You know, somebody will call me, and that and it'll be about that verse. I'm just like, how you know what I mean? It's already in my head, like just weird stuff like that. So this is so cool. Um, but anyways, that verse reads A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. And that is a good one. Like that just let it sink in for a second. Moment of silence. Read it again. Moment of silence. A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs directs his steps. That's wild. So, as always, we always break that down into like three different parts, and just that first half, a man, a man's heart plans his way. And that's human planning, that's just us kind of, you know, even just as like a kid, you kind of you already plan out like what you want your future to be. Where you're gonna go to school, where you're gonna go to college, what do you want to be when you grow up? Just even just things like that. And there's nothing wrong with that. God actually gives us the planning, like the ability to plan ahead and pursue our desires. Like that is a gift from God. Um, you know, our dreams and goals and and all those things are part of being a human, you know, and that's you know, that's a gift from Him. And um, but then we get into the second part, but the Lord directs his steps. Even though we make plans, God ultimately determines the paths of our lives. Right. So though you made the plan to have a certain job, doors open and doors close all the time. You know, when those things happen, um, and it really helps when you're close with God because you can just kind of see the signs of things, you know what I mean? Like just like the seeing this verse of the week just pop up for me over and over, like almost daily or every other day, it would just be like there. I'll just be like, I don't like you know what I mean. Like you can't ignore some things, right? But and when you're in tune with more in tune with God, like you can really like you know, like you know, the veil's off, like you can see. Yeah, you know what I mean? So it helps to know when a door opens or closes or you know, something like that, like you know um it's from God or not, like you know what I mean. Yep. Because there are worldly things too that opens a door or closes it. Do you you know, do you stay put? Do you do you move? Do you delay? You know, what do you do with some of these opportunities? Um some are from God and some aren't. Um then we get into like I got the third part on here, and it's a balance between like effort and trust. So this first teaches us a balance between you know, our responsibility and surrendering. You know, we should plan to work, but you gotta remain humble enough and surrendered enough. You mean you should surrender all the way, but like to trust God to direct your path. Yeah. You know, um faith means moving forward with a plan while remaining open to God's guidance. So I could have the goal of you know, having a certain job or doing, you know, building this company up into the greatest thing ever, but if a door shuts on it or another one opens for another direction, you know, you really need to be in tune and pray about it and like really sit with it. And you know, one of the best ways that I like to think of things when it comes to was this from God or not? Was this just coincidence or was this from God? Yeah. I always sit and think like you got a fork in the road. Which which one points more towards Jesus? Right. That's a pretty easy identifier to which way you should probably go. Yep, yep. Because the Lord is not gonna direct you down a path that is terrible if he has a path over here that says He's like right here, come on, come on. Right, yeah. And you got that other path over here. It's like, but I wanted I wanted to go this way. This was my dream. He says, Nope, come this way. So you got a decision what you want to do. Yep. And you know, a buddy of mine called me this week and he got a new job, and his old boss was always pretty negative and hard on him, and um never wanted him to take off work and be with his family and things like that. And he felt led to go pursue another job, and he did, and and he didn't realize it till after he took the job. Um, you know, he always felt it was you know God's doing. Well, his new boss is completely like all in for Jesus. Oh, nice. Like it's a total 180, and he's not even used to that. Yeah. You know, he he said he called him up one day and was like, Man, when's spring break for the kids? And he's like, Oh, it's end of March or whatever. And he's like, Okay, you're taking time off for that, right? And he's like, No, I got work. And his boss is like, No, you need to go do that.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

And he lets him go home every night. Because he used to have to stay, you know, Monday through Friday, Friday out of town. And, you know, just so it's just like confirmation of like, all right, this was from God. Right. Yeah. And you get that with decisions. So say, say it might be gray or kind of blurry, like, I don't know. If you start going down the road and it's like, nah, this is kind of just pulling me away from from Jesus, it's kind of like let's back up and let's try the other way for a minute, if you can, you know what I mean? Um, but um, you know, like the world will tell you to follow your heart. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like follow your heart, do what's best for you, you know, all those types of things. But we got to be careful because I got some later on here in Proverbs in chapter 28, uh, and and specifically in verse 26, it says, He whose trusts his own heart is a fool, but whoever walks wisely will be delivered. So relying purely on your own feelings and instincts can definitely like lead you down a path of destruction. Yeah. It really can. And you know, wisdom comes from seeking God's direction, surrounding yourself with people to help you discern some of these paths that you you've got, these options that you've got, these opportunities. And you know, even in the book of Jeremiah, chapter 17, verse 9, it says, the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure, who can understand it? And our hearts and desires and emotions can mislead us. Right. And that's why we need you know, like God wants us to be still and just sit for a minute and just be patient, you know what I mean? And we just wait. And it but human nature, we're impatient. I want to go down that path right now because I can see what's on the reward that I have, possibly, you know what I mean? Yep. But what feels right to us and in our heart is not always right. Yeah. And that can definitely like lead you down a bad path. It could be a good path, right? But like we always say, it ain't the best path because it ain't Jesus. Yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah. It could be good, but it ain't the best. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

So and I like taking these verses and kind of putting them into life perspective of like my own life. And when I when I read this, uh a man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. I think about my early stages in video and photography, just media content. You know, my my dream growing up, you know, watching um The Truth by Primos and you know, uh Real Tree shows and things like that. Um, my dream was to be in the media side of the industry.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

And and I've always been one that preferred to be behind the camera, operating the camera, than the one to be on camera. Right. Um, and it has nothing to do with, you know, camera fright or anything like that. It's just there's always been something that has drawn me to a camera. And so early stages, I wanted to have my own show. I wanted to do things, you know, my way, and I wanted there to be a certain um output of that. Sure. And then shortly, I well, I guess I wouldn't say shortly, it was a couple years is when you and I had met.

SPEAKER_03 10:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:14

Um, and then now, you know, it's just I feel like the the the part of a man's heart plans his way, like mine was I'm going to be in video production, I'm going to be into photography. Um, but the Lord directs his steps, brought me here. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 10:35

Like, yeah, and it probably took like a lot of like conviction and a lot of like um and it took a lot of you to the responsibility just be like, you know, I'm done doing my own thing.

SPEAKER_02 10:47

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

And you know, because I you know, not I I just thought about this now, but like, you know, you you build like you the camouflage addiction, the high drive, the all the things, you know, is like like you were wanting to like I want to be the guy, but you can't like also do that in behind the camera, like all these things. You know, and that's cool and all, but if it's not like what you don't feel like you're like really being led to, yeah. Um, you know, it's like this is a lot like more Jesus. You know what I mean? This is what we were doing before with camo addiction and all that.

SPEAKER_02 11:23

This is the opportunity um that I not only the it's the opportunity I didn't know that I wanted. Does that make sense? Like Right, yeah. It's it's something that it's everything that I wanted to do in the industry. Everything. But it was it's just a different form, a different way of getting there. It's it's the Lord directing my steps. You know what I'm saying? Right.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Like you need to give up your get give up your own deal to finally like take hold of his deal.

SPEAKER_02 12:00

And then now like I couldn't imagine doing anything different, right? You know what I mean? Like just putting everything that I thought that I wanted in a I'm gonna say a company or whatever it might have been, and and being here and doing what I love to do for a company that I genuinely enjoy being a part of. Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

And that value, I mean, values you. I mean truly like whatever ounce of work you do, like, bro, you're getting you know what I mean. I want to pay you, I want to get you like, you know what I mean? Like it just want to take care of you, and not only on the money side, but also just doing this and the Jesus stuff, and like just trying to like just be accountable for each other, yeah, you know, and um you know, pursue some of those things together, you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

And the thing is, is like and it sounds weird, but it's like I don't have to worry about the marketing portion of it, right? I don't have to worry about the business portion so much, I don't have to worry about the online, the website, the this, that, and the other. You have to focus on what you want. My job is to run a camera, and that is phenomenal, and that's all I have to do. I mean, outside of this on talk, but talk a lot. Um, and then obviously shows and things like that. But it's something that um I genuinely don't take for granted. And I'm just like, you know, Matt had said, like, there's been times where I've tried to go my own way and do my own thing, and it's never worked out ever. And then I just always end up right here. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 13:41

And so now it's at the point to where you get in here, you get back into some of the brands that you were working with with, but on a better and higher level than before.

SPEAKER_02 13:52

And some of the stuff like that is just yeah, it's just the opportunities that will come your way. I guess this is what I'm saying. The opportunities that will come your way um when you stop trying to force something are amazing. There's just something that there's a lot of things that you can't handle. You won't be able to handle. You think you will, you'll you think that you'll know the right way. You'll you think that you have everything covered and in control, and then God throws a wrench in there and says, Nope, this is what you're meant to do, and I'm gonna lead you to this. I'm gonna let you try to go your own way and fail, but eventually I'm going to lead you where you need to be. Right. And here I am. And if a door keeps getting shut, sit and think about it.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

Yeah. Man, what am I missing? Yeah. Because you're probably missing something. Yep. All right. I think that wraps that one. All right.

SPEAKER_02 14:44

That's probably one of my favorite. That's probably one of my favorite verses that we've done.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Really, just because uh very powerful. So that's gonna be on a call this week. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do yet. Turkey call. Maybe I'm thinking about another pot call, but I don't know. Y'all can see Monday. I'm gonna build them today. Whatever it is, but we'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

All right. On this episode, uh, we're gonna go into breaking, but um, when we come back, we're gonna be talking about some upcoming events later on in the podcast. We've got some cool stuff coming up, but the main focus of this episode is gonna be preseason turkey prep. Um, and that's gonna be everything from what we're doing in the call shop, new things coming, scouting for turkeys, the camera gear, shows, all that good stuff. So sit tight, relax, and we'll be right back.

SPEAKER_01 15:49

And we're back.

SPEAKER_02 15:51

And we're back.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

About a five second intermission.

SPEAKER_02 15:56

I don't know who is like blowing. Oh, it's Brock. The the Brock Rolston. He said, No, he said it's back. Well, yeah. Uh shut up, Brock. Now you doing, buddy. Oh, Schilling texted me too.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

What uh oh geez.

SPEAKER_02 16:12

He's dead. He's dead. Everyone's like, what's going on? Why is this back? Shilling's like, who's the guest today? Do it TikTok live. All right, anyway, so like we talked about in the intro, um, this topic of this video is gonna be preseason turkey prep. Um and when it comes to being a call company, um, there's a lot more that goes into pre-season turkey prep than a lot of people understand and realize. Obviously, the other callmakers um or companies that are gonna listen or watch this are gonna kind of understand what it is that we're talking about. But those of you that you know that aren't um and that just take the calls and they go out and kill turkeys, um, this is kind of a backstory, and I guess like a how would you how how would you say it? Like a behind the scenes kind of a more understanding of it. Understanding of what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

Um, time and time again, I mean it's all the time. Somebody somebody new comes to the shop, they don't and they start seeing and looking around and watching us work, and it's like they have they had no like they got no idea what it actually entails. Yeah. You know, like and it's normal, you know, because as a consumer, or you know, you go to the store and it's just calls, you get on the website, it's just calls. Um, you're at a show, it's just calls, and you just subconsciously almost just forget about all the other work involved. Yes. And it's a lot, it is a lot. It doesn't allow time for much hunting. Um doesn't allow much time for a lot, really.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

I mean, and and we've posted reels in the past of like a like a quick little um call, you know, put together, I want to say, but those reels are like 10 seconds. Yep. You know what I mean? Realistically, it takes days and hours to to do that.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

Yeah, and you know, it's always, of course, the preseason, but then it's during season, and then really if you get towards the end of season, then you start getting you it starts letting up, of course, because everyone's bought their their things for the year pretty much. But you know, it's um it's very demanding, you know, being selling turkey calls, duck calls, like when it's time, when it's season, like it's it's busy season. Yeah, but you also are wanting to be out.

SPEAKER_02 18:44

And and really, I mean, the thing too is is we're not like a mass production shop. Like it's not like no, we don't we're we sell a good bill. We're hands-on with literally every call that leaves this shop, whether it be if you buy it at a show or if you buy it online, whatever it is, like that call has been in our hands and played before it even thinks about getting put in a box.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

So I mean, every every call, ever I mean, start to finish, everything on the website, every piece of marketing material goes right through that computer right over there. Yep. There is no marketing agencies helping us out. There's none of that. It's just right here, you know. So there's a lot of work on that side too that nobody sees. It ain't just building, you know, we gotta figure out how we're gonna sell these things.

SPEAKER_03 19:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

You know, and you gotta think about like coming out with new stuff, you know. Let's let's come out with something new, you know what I mean? Like, and speaking of new, let it rip. What is it? It's up there.

SPEAKER_02 19:55

It's up there. If you can see something that's up there, we're not gonna tell you what it is in this episode. I'm just kidding, we are.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

But so you know our cast acrylic pie calls come out with them last year, selling them this year, going really well. We got the OG right here. There you go. The OG. And, you know, obviously we were gonna get into wood because you know, play they play well, right? Um the acrylic's still our flagship. People are loving those things like a lot. Like they probably don't have the price high enough. Because they're just like, but that's okay, you know, it ain't about all that. But we're gonna come out with the wood ones, we're gonna do cherry, and we're gonna start with slate and crystal over glass, just like the acrylics. You know, and I'm just talking even further down the line, probably not this year, probably maybe the year after. Talking about ceramics and aluminum as well. Yep. Box calls, crow calls, alcohol, I mean, all the things. So we have a lot going on, a lot of prototyping um on top of already of what we do here. Which is just so there's a lot going on, but a lot of fun stuff, and um we want to be able to offer a wide variety of products so that you know it's kind of like a one-stop shop. Right. Yep. You can come in here, you can get your mouth calls, you can get your friction calls, you know what I mean, you can get your uh locator calls, you know what I mean? Like you can just come in here and do it all. You know, deck out your vest with last flight, you know what I mean? Yep.

SPEAKER_02 21:37

So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

That's always the goal, you know what I mean. So but we also want to do things in an appropriate timeline to where we're not just dumping product at you. Yeah. It's not like good stuff.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

You know, you don't give the new stuff time to to get out and I mean, ever every every new product um has its features and It's uh specific reasons for it being out there. And and we want to give you guys time to get that product and and run it, use it, things like that, and then um we'll upgrade from there just like anything else. You know, you buy a camera, uh, there's upgrades that come along with it.

SPEAKER_01 22:17

Um we don't want to rush anything that's not ready to be put out yet. Yeah, and that's that's the biggest thing. Um and we don't need to, like, yeah, we're good, like, you know, um we don't need to rush it. That's kind of one of the worst things that you can do is rush a product to market, you know, because if that thing fails, I've mean I've seen it in the hunt in your industry just this past year on some things where it's got got put out before it really even got into the field. Yep, that can be bad. Like you can totally tank a project with not only a project, but your reputation as a company. Right, yeah. And that is more important than that one project.

SPEAKER_02 22:52

Yeah, and that was a thing that you know the last last year at um at Indy uh was when we started really talking about it. Uh, we didn't have the calls for show until um we had a couple in Columbus, um, but it wasn't till Wisconsin that we had some calls that people could try out and things. Nothing was for sale yet.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

Um, but we didn't sell anything until right like the last week of turkey season. Yeah. Big part of that was you know, we we we got we took them to shows for demos, let people play them. Went to three different shows, just let people play them. And people, dude, they were wanting to buy them right there. He's like, I don't even care. I'm just you know what I mean. I don't care what it is. I'll give you 250 bucks for that right now. You know what I mean? Like there were several people like that's like, no, you know, we can't do that. Right. Like I still got two more ships. Yeah, and this is all I got. So well, and that's the thing. And I gave some to you and some other guys to run out in the field too. Yeah. You know, and yeah, it went well.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

Yeah, it went really well, actually. Um, and that's the thing though, like it's to the public and to the the people that are buying the calls, like um there's a lot more that goes into releasing a call to the public um than it just making a turkey sound, right? Like, so our calls are designed to last a long time. And it's when like Matt just pointed on, if we release something to the public to purchase, we want to make sure 110% that that product is ready to be released to the public to function the way that it's designed to function in the field. Um, and that's what we did, you know, last spring uh with the the OG call that I've got here is we really just wanted to put it through all of its faces um and make sure that um it was gonna perform like it should. And then so um when we went to Indy this year um was the first show that they've actually been out and available for purchase. And yeah, and we the number one thing we sold.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

It was crazy, and the most expensive item we had, but the number one selling item.

SPEAKER_02 25:07

Yes, and you and the thing is you look at the price tag and it's not what you're used to seeing out of a pot call. But the product is not what you're used to getting out of a pot call. Exactly. You know what I'm saying? Like a 100% cast acrylic. Okay, are you kidding me with a gold plated coin? Like that's 24 karat gold-plated coin.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

But the thing is, like, you can go and give that to your kid in 10 years. Yeah. And say, here you go, and it's still gonna be the same thing as day one. Yeah. If you break a surface, guess what? Send it back, put a new one in. The pot's still the same thing. Yeah, like you know, if you never broke the only thing that you could break, because it is literally glass and slate, right? Like that's the weak point on any call, you know, the rest is gonna last forever. And if you break something like that by rolling around, get a hold of us, and I can just pop a new one in. You know what I mean? Like it's literally um easy peasy. It's seamless, it's actually kind of cool, really. Yeah. So um yeah, and then with the new pots, we're gonna do cherry and I'm gonna do purple heart strikers. Purple heart. Purple heart. And probably moving forward, which I ain't told anybody this yet. Oh boy. Here we go. Is we're probably gonna go ahead and do waterproof strikers in every call now. Yeah. Moving forward. Um, but we also will sell our standalone strikers too, if you want a different, if you just want a different striker, different color, or uh different species of wood or whatever the case is, we will have be continually adding to our striker lineup as well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:55

So I was gonna read a point on that because we've been doing a little bit of testing with some of our other strikers that we have in the shop. And um there's some surprising ones that like are like, oh man. Well, that's just a thing that's you don't expect. That's the coolest part about being a callmaker is that you you get to try new things just to see what it does. And then sometimes you're like, Yeah, we're not doing that. Like, that's terrible. Yeah, right away. Sometimes you're like Yeah. And then sometimes you're just like look at each other, you're like I just hear what I heard. That just happened.

unknown 27:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:28

It's a totally different ballgame.

SPEAKER_01 27:29

Yeah, I got one that is like like they're a mini striker. It is literally like only two-thirds the size of our regular striker, and it sounds great on that cherry. I mean, it honestly it's right there with that purple heart, but like it sounds like so good.

SPEAKER_02 27:51

Yeah. And it's like a it's like a higher tone too. So it's like you have your on the same same call, you've got two different strikers making two different sounds, um, and it's just it's incredible.

SPEAKER_01 28:04

It's such a clean bottom, and it just rolls right over into like that raspy, deeper, you know, on the top end of that yelp. Like, and then it sounds like it sounds really good.

SPEAKER_02 28:15

Yeah. Well, what else is new? What else we got going on?

SPEAKER_01 28:20

Um got a couple shows coming up.

SPEAKER_02 28:21

Well, there was one thing that I thought you were gonna talk about, but maybe you're not now. I don't I don't know. Let me see the notes. You literally just had the striker to it.

SPEAKER_01 28:32

Oh, this guy? Yes. Oh, we're gonna do a we're gonna do a giveaway with these guys, Rack and Winco. Um check them out, check them out at rack and winco.com, but we're gonna do a giveaway with these guys. It actually has the verse of the week that we said today on this call, and this is just a custom acrylic pot, a little bit different shape and bevel on it. Um, no gold coin. I'm gonna end up putting a cross in here though, and uh we're gonna give one of these away with a black striker over on their page. Um, but we're gonna collab with them. So if you see it on mine as well, you know, that's it. But, anyways, Rack and Winco. These guys are super good dudes out of Georgia. Um, I went with them to Missouri this year, duck hunting, and um just just the most down some of the most down-to-earth people like that I've met, you know what I mean? So buddies from Georgia, out of Georgia, Rack and Winco, last flight giveaway. I look for it this week.

SPEAKER_02 29:34

So Yeah. Good deal. All right, moving on to the next, which is gonna be scouting, which is how about the shows? Well, we we'll we'll get to those. We'll get to those there toward the end here. Um producer. Um so we we talk about you know the loading up on the calls and and making those and how much time that takes. You know, we we for me as a turkey hunter, um, I start scouting um and getting eyes on birds in early March, like I've already started now. Um however, as a callmaker, you have to start preparing for this months in advance in preparation for the big rush of people that are getting their own turkey hunting gear ready, they're gonna be upgrading their call. So there's like a it's a tough balance uh between being a turkey hunter and a callmaker. Um, and the same kind of thing that you know Matt goes through all the time with waterfowl too, is that we would much rather be hunting or scouting, um, but we have work to do here in the shop. So it's it gets to the point to where the time crunch is there and everything's trying to get done at the same time. Um so when when it comes to me and I and my scouting for turkeys, um it's limited, but I'm lucky enough to know where my turkeys generally are. So I'm gonna go through a couple of my scouting procedures or tips. Um, let's say if you're somebody that just can't get off of work a lot, or um somebody like me that's got children that have multiple things going on, um, and you're just really on a time crunch on when you can get out and locate these birds. Um, and so last weekend I went out for the first time this year. Um, and what I really try to do is if I'm heading to a farm that I've never hunted before, I usually don't venture too far from the truck. And I'll go out there uh well before the sun rises, that way I can catch the first couple of gobbles. Because this time of year, you're not gonna get your woods lighting up kind of gobbling. I mean, you're gonna get a handful of gobbles and that's it. Um, and so if if I'm like I said, if I'm gonna be somewhere where um I've never hunted before, I don't generally know the roosting sites, then I'm gonna head in um really early and just to make sure I can get those first couple gobbles off of the roost. If the gobbles are far enough away, um I will push forward a little bit. I what I really want to try to do is just get eyes on the field that I feel like they're gonna be in in glass and just kind of figure out where they're moving and what's going on. There's still gonna be a little bit of change between now and opening day. Um, our opening day comes at the end of April, but there's gonna be a little bit of a change, but they're generally heading back to their their spring locations. The hens are gonna start getting back to where they want to nest and things like that. And um, I mean, I had probably the most incredible um scouting morning, first scouting morning of my turkey hunting career on uh Sunday this past weekend, and and there's a new uh video on YouTube um of that scouting trip. Um the hens were about as vocal as I've ever heard them. Um didn't hear any gobbles on camera uh just because, like I said, I didn't catch that first couple gobbles in the morning. I heard them from the truck, but I wasn't able to get anything on footage. But but the hens, um, the hens were were very vocal for me. Um I knew what trees they were in, how far away I could get, things like that. Um but as far as early season scouting and things like that, uh, I'm I'm really not trying to push in too far. Um I'm really trying to get cameras out too, um, just because, especially in the areas where um I can't see from the truck, or I have to walk a good ways to get to that way. I'm not pressuring anything. Um, I can put cameras out there, they can pretty much tell me what's going on in that backfield without me having to go back there.

SPEAKER_01 33:53

Um and I can like just because you're not hunting doesn't mean you're not pressuring. Oh, yeah, exactly. A bird here and you walk through that wood knowing it's off, yeah, is pressure.

SPEAKER_02 34:03

Yeah, and the worst and and the the last thing you want to do is pressure your birds before season even starts. You know what I mean? Especially this early, Jake. Like two months early. Yeah, so um, and then now that I've located those birds at that farm, um, I generally just want to make sure that they're that they're there. You know, we we go through so much here with flooding and weather and everything else, you know, it's not it's not uncommon for some of my farms to um to lose turkeys for a while because they just simply can't get there. You know, if the rivers are overflooded, like some of our fields get so flooded that the birds they can't even get to that one farm they roost across the river, don't they? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 34:45

And they fly down. When they fly down, they go across the river and into your property.

SPEAKER_02 34:50

Yeah. And actually that one uh in the video, that long that one long beard at there at the end, that's exactly what he did. He was roosted across the river. Um and the river's low enough to where he can he can cross it. And and he flew the river. Um but sometimes that whole field just floods, and it's just like I mean, yeah, they would have to they would have to fly like 500 yards to get out of get out of water. Turkeys obviously fly, but they know they're gonna go the other way. They're not they're no duck, they're not just gonna get up and fly to wherever they want to go. So but um, and then um this time of year, it's it's really easy to find your scratching your feeding areas just because there's not a lot of foliage. Um, and that's something that to keep in mind too when you are scouting, is that they're when they're up in a tree, even during the season, um, and you can't see them, but they can definitely see you walking across the wide open field. So take that into consideration. But the scratching right now, um, everything is so open. There's there's dry leaves all over the ground, unless of course it rains, but this is a good time to find the scratching areas, the feeding areas. Um, and then obviously another thing that I like to look for is dust bowls, things like that, um, which you can generally find on the edge of a field. Um a lot of times they'll have feathers in them if it's been dry enough. Um, and then the obvious one tracks. So bird poop. Yep, poop poop's a good one. Uh you gotta look for all the signs that they've been there. Yeah, if you can find a good roosting tree too, um a lot of times you'll find the the bottoms of them are full of droppings, and that's a good way to um to locate some roosting trees if you're not out there in the mornings listening for them. Um and sometimes the roosting trees are obvious, um, right? Like if if it's a single tree in the middle of a bunch of shrubs, like but sometimes when they're in the timber, um I've seen turkeys roost in in trees that I can look at and think that that's a roosting tree before I even see a turkey in it. But I've also seen them roost in trees where I'm like, there's no way. Like why out of all the trees in this area, why would they choose that one? Um, but but they can do what they want. Yeah, they can do what they want. Yeah. But uh, but yeah, that's that's pretty much um my early season tactics is to stay stay as far away as you can um and then uh um and try to push in when you're able to, as long as you've got eyes on the bird. Um but it gets um the closer we get to season um the less that I will push in anywhere. Um I find a lot of my scouting scouting missions right before the season starts, I guess, um, I don't leave the truck. So I'm I may walk 50 yards away from the truck just to to get to an opening area where I'm still covered in the timber, but I can hear them gobbling. Um and that's just my because of the work that I've done early season, like right now, as far as putting boots on the ground.

SPEAKER_01 37:52

You know where you know where to get to your glassing points. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 37:54

Yep. You know, watch them from a distance. Yeah, and if I'm gonna bump a turkey, if I'm gonna spook a turkey, I would rather do it now than do it a week before season or the weekend before season starts. So right now you got six weeks for it to rest. Yeah, yeah. And by that time, you know, as long as you're not doing it consistently, um, it there's always a chance that you're gonna bump turkeys. Like on this farm in that video, like had I not known that those trees that those hens were roosted in was a typical roosting area, um, I probably would have bumped those hens because I probably would have kept walking, um, which is okay this this time of year. Now, if you keep doing that, if you consistently are bumping turkeys off the roost early, there's a good chance those turkeys could find a different roosting area. But um but as it gets closer to season, you know, like now, like I said, I won't I won't push in anymore. I got my camera set. I've I've located their their roosting trees. Um as of right now, like I said, that could change, but generally they'll stay in that same roosting area. Um that's what they've done the last couple seasons. So but we've got a couple more farms that we need to go listen to. We was gonna actually gonna go out tomorrow, um, and that's all gonna depend on whether that sun decides to come out or not.

SPEAKER_01 39:06

Um supposed to be windy in the morning.

SPEAKER_02 39:09

I I don't think it's not supposed to be windy, it's just supposed to be cloudy. So um Matt's gonna if if we do get out, Matt's gonna bring the camera out, um, and then I'm gonna get some footage, he'll take some pictures, and we just kind of enjoy a gobbling morning. I think they'll still gobble, but it's just yeah, I don't know how much they're gonna gobble, you know what I'm saying? Right. So I've got a couple farms, like I said, that that I've got to go out and check on. Um I've I've been successful on those farms in the past. Um, one of which Bryson killed his first turkey on last year. Um one of them is um Ashley killed her first bird on a couple years ago. She's a seasoned veteran now. Uh-huh. Um, and then just kind of put eyes on turkeys or at least ears on turkeys. I got a lot of people that I want to try to get birds this year, so which is cool for me because like we talked about earlier, like I don't I'd rather be behind the camera than in front of the camera. So I would it's it's a good thing for me because I get to take sometimes new people that have never turkey hunted before, or people that are still fairly new to the turkey world. I get to take them, they get to kill their bird, I get to film everything, everybody's happy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:22

So I'm actually I was just talking to the guy at Rack and Winco, Daniel. He's wanting me to come down. He's got several thousand acres that he hunts over, and he's next to also National Uh Forest. Oh, yeah. It's like I I think he said like 25,000 acres. Yeah. And um says there's just it's loaded with turkeys. So he wants us to come down and potentially film some stuff, film and hunt and do some stuff.

SPEAKER_02 40:49

Yeah, I got um our youth coming up uh early next month, um, early April. Um, and then we'll hit um opening day, opening weekend around here that following week, and I head to North Carolina to kill a Carolina bird, and then come back here. And then right now the rest of the season is just being planned as of right now. So it's gonna be a fun and exciting season. Our goal uh for our YouTube is to load that thing up with um with a lot of action-packed hunts. Um I've been pretty successful the last couple of years at uh again uh getting plenty of footage, uh, which has been cool. I'm just really excited about it this year because it's all going to be through last flight. Like it's all gonna be through that. So now I just gotta worry about going out and filming turkeys being shot, and and there may be videos where turkeys don't get shot.

SPEAKER_01 41:49

I was gonna say, I want to like do something where real life stuff. Like I mean, I can do a lot more videos where I don't kill anything. Yeah. So like, but like, you know, you get an action-packed morning and you're kind of moving around. Yeah, you can kind of explain why you didn't seal the deal, like what happened. Right. Yeah. Did you get caught off guard? Did you get did you get um, you know, were you out of position on a bird that you thought was over here, but it really was back there? Yep. Type of thing that it roots in a different tree, like kind of those types of situations that we find ourselves in as hunters, yeah, that you don't see on YouTube. Those aren't on YouTube, it's always about the kill shot.

SPEAKER_02 42:25

Yeah, and I think that's what I'm most excited about is just that um we're we're just normal people. You know what I mean? We're we're normal dudes um that have been blessed with the opportunities that we have been, but um yeah, we're just guys out there with cameras and we're just enjoying it, you know what I mean? And and so it's gonna be so much more relatable um to what we're doing and and our goals and views on our channel moving forward. Um I'm I'm excited about it. It's gonna it's gonna be fun. Yeah, I'm excited for this year. Yeah. So all right, let's talk about um shows. We got some shows coming up.

SPEAKER_01 43:06

So we just had Indy two weeks ago. Yep. And then um next weekend we got Columbus, Ohio. That's the uh open season sportsman expo. That's Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So come see us. Columbus, Ohio. Um I actually have our booth number right here. What's the date? Like March 19th to 21.

SPEAKER_02 43:26

Speaking of trail camera, I just got a picture. Uh let me see here. I'm gonna get that. Um I think it's uh I should probably say the the the dates, right?

SPEAKER_01 43:37

Yeah, well I okay 20, 21, 22 is Columbus.

SPEAKER_02 43:42

Yeah, and then I've got the booth number here. Second, my camera's full of so that's a pretty pretty good show.

SPEAKER_01 43:49

I mean, it's only an hour and a half from here, so we're gonna go to we always go to this one. It's our home show pretty much. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:58

Oh, there it is. What you got? I almost passed it. Nope, that's not it. Okay. I did pass it. I literally just saw it. Can we play the Jeopardy music? There it is. Okay. So we are in booth 530 is. I think it's 530, and maybe does that sound right? That's what it's got our number on there.

SPEAKER_01 44:23

Yeah. You'll find us. Just go down the main aisle and we're gonna be there.

SPEAKER_02 44:27

Yeah, it's it's literally straight through. You walk through the main entrance and you walk straight. Um, and then as soon as you get into um all the vendors um that the that are out of the no-call zone, um, you'll see us right there.

SPEAKER_01 44:45

So yeah. And then um so Columbus this next weekend, and then we go to Wisconsin Dell's up there. It's in it's the same people, open seasons once again, and it's at the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dales, which is kind of fun because we hit up the water slides at each day. Water slides, but um so yeah, it's gonna be back-to-back shows, which is just it's a lot of work, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 45:11

That's another thing.

SPEAKER_01 45:12

Like we go I feel unprepared right now.

SPEAKER_02 45:15

Loaded up on calls like that. You feel unprepared? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 45:18

That's what I'm saying, dude.

SPEAKER_02 45:19

Not only do we have the big rush of people wanting calls before the season starts, but we also have scouting time that we have to put in. We also have shows, so you gotta think like we're making calls for the website and just to have in stock, but we're also making calls to take with us to these shows. And then when we have back-to-back shows like this, we lose that time. Like that week that we come back from Columbus until Thursday when we leave for Wisconsin. Like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday is gonna be crazy.

SPEAKER_00 45:53

It's gonna be it's gonna be insane.

SPEAKER_01 45:56

It's gonna be crazy. Yeah, because we're gonna have to be. We got Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then we're gonna have to get back on the road. Yeah. So it's like, you know, Sunday after the show in Columbus, we won't get back here till six o'clock at night. But like we just drop the trailer and go home because we don't really, you know, time away and stuff like that. Family, gotta go spend time there. And uh we just drop the trailer, head home, recoup. But then Monday it's just like you pull in the trailer apart, you know, figuring out you know, what do we need, what do we need. Then it's Tuesday, Wednesday trying to build, Tuesday trying to build, Wednesday trying to build, and then pack it up Wednesday night, and we're gonna you know leave early Thursday morning. Yeah. So it's just bang bang.

SPEAKER_02 46:39

And I don't really think that you that you recoup from a show until like Tuesday. Like dude, I don't even know. It takes like a week, like it's a lot. Um so it's just like work. Yes. But yeah, definitely stop by the booth, talk to us, um, hang out. Um, we got some new merchandise, got some new t-shirts that that um that we took to Indy that'll be at all the shows. Um new turkey coat.

SPEAKER_01 47:06

I forgot, I got another one. This one's for the kids, the little push buttons. Well, we'll have some of those available for some guys too. Little push buttons. Nice. Well, hey, why not? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 47:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:17

Get something for the kids. Perfect. So I already get got one to one of my buddies' kids this last week. So oh, really? Yep. Nice. Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_02 47:28

It is nice. Oh, what else we got on? All right, let's finish this thing out with uh with the Easter Easter calls.

SPEAKER_01 47:36

Easter release. Ooh. So, yeah, every year we do Easter calls, been doing them for the last two or three years. And they have been a hit. People love them. And kind of like uh, yeah, so we got those coming up. It's gonna be a jade call. Um, jade and gold.

unknown 47:52

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 47:52

It's kind of the theme this year. Yep. And uh I'm gonna put a verse on it this year. Um, usually we just put Easter and the date. Uh this year I'm gonna put a verse on it. And um just kind of like our verse of the week, but different. You know what I mean? It won't be part of that, it'll just be an Easter launch. But yeah, those have been going really well. People love those. Um so yeah, we're gonna keep them keep them running. So stay tuned for those. Yes, sir. So really excited about those.

SPEAKER_02 48:21

Yep. But all right, you got anything else before we wrap this thing up? I'm ready for lunch. I was about to say. Yeah, it was late.

SPEAKER_01 48:28

Some brunch. Good one to get back into. Happy to happy to, you know, get back behind the mic and kind of share what we got going on, you know, and yeah, bring the word to y'all, which is important to us. And um, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:43

I just realized that camera's not recording.

SPEAKER_01 48:46

Yeah, dude, the red lights on. Just kidding. Dude.

SPEAKER_02 48:50

Alright, guys, we appreciate you tuning tuning into this one, and we will see you on the next one.