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The Last Flight Show
EP22: Matt's First Osceola
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Welcome to The Last Flight Show — Episode 22
Presented by Last Flight Calls N' Gear
In this episode, we kick things off with our Verse of the Week and dive into what it’s been teaching us personally. We talk about how it’s impacted our lives, challenged our perspective, and how it can speak into your life as well. It’s a real, honest conversation about faith and applying it day to day.
From there, we shift into the woods and break down Matt’s first Osceola from his time down in Florida. The story behind the hunt, what went into it, and what made it one to remember.
We wrap things up by jumping ahead and giving you a short teaser from our trip to Georgia, sharing a glimpse of what’s coming and what we experienced along the way.
Faith, hunting, and real-life moments, this one’s got a little bit of everything.
LASTLFIGHTGEAR.COM
Alright.
SPEAKER_03Welcome back. Alright, you ready? Alright, here we go.
SPEAKER_02My teeth look really white in these lights.
SPEAKER_03Okay, I'm just not gonna look at you when I start this. Just look at the camera. The problem is is the camera is right next to you. So all I see is you. Stop. What is going on, everybody? Thank you for tuning in to The Last Flight Show. I'm your host, Jake Klein. Joining me as always is Last Flight Calls Owner Matt Hicks. I knew he was gonna do that. Oh I knew he was gonna do that.
SPEAKER_02Practicing it all pre-show.
SPEAKER_03If you guys could only see what happens before the video starts, it's just it's like a whole process that we have to go through.
SPEAKER_01Gotta get all of our totally dumb on here.
SPEAKER_03And if at any time that I am just start randomly laughing, it's because I'm I'm looking at the camera, and the camera is like where the TV monitor is, Matt is like right by the camera. So I'm trying to look at the camera and I see Matt. And he's just doing Matt things. So not bad. Alright, on this episode, uh, we are going to cover a really, really cool topic. Um, Matt has successfully completed something that I have wanted to do my entire life, and that is kill his first Osceola turkey. So there's a whole story behind everything between the time that he leaves, he gets there, post stuff, all that good stuff. So we're gonna break all of that down. It was a trip. Yeah, it looked like it. I I just I lived through Snapchat and whatever messages that I got. Team no sleep. Yeah. How long, how many, how many hours did you go the first night?
SPEAKER_02I count it was like 76 hours on and I slept six hours in the middle of that.
SPEAKER_03So six you slept six hours and seventy-six hours.
SPEAKER_02Something like that. Because I started the trip off with 40 hours of being up. Yeah. Because yeah, I woke up Tuesday at 7 a.m. Did what I needed to do Tuesday at home, didn't work all that stuff, normal day. Um finally got my bags packed at like 10 or 11 at night.
SPEAKER_03Not to mention we got back from Wisconsin that Sunday before. No, it was Monday. No, it was Sunday. Right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So we got back.
SPEAKER_02Sunday night at 2 a.m. two Sunday morning at 2 in the morning.
SPEAKER_032 a.m. Yeah. We got back from Wisconsin. So realistically, that was a trip too. Good lord. Oh, yeah. That's a whole story.
SPEAKER_02All right, let's get into the pre-show stuff. We got a good one coming. I forgot about the Wisconsin stuff, dude. Holy moly. What a nightmare. All right, verse of the week. Let's go. All right, first of the week this week is one that uh I really like. Hits home for me. It's a good reminder. It's Exodus 14, 14. And that reads, The Lord will fight for you. You only need to be still. Short and sweet. Simple. Yep. But very hard. Yeah. So as always, like to break it down into a few parts. Usually do three parts, but for this one, we're gonna do just the two halves of it. And the first half is the Lord will fight for you. So one thing that really hits me on this one is you know, no matter how many times you explain to somebody what you got going on, it just seems like it's missed. Something's missing. Like they don't get it, they're not hearing me. Like you just don't feel fulfilled on telling anybody. You know what I mean? And it could be your closest friend, it could even be a therapist or whoever, like just anybody. Like for me, it's always just felt like something's missing. Like I can't tell enough people, like I could tell who everybody, and it's just like it never sinks in. Like it doesn't fill me. Yeah. But there's like then nobody knows what's going on in your head other than one person, and that's God. And that's one thing I struggle with, everybody struggles with. It's human nature in us, but you know, he's the one that knows exactly what's going on. Why don't you talk to him about it? You know what I mean? Yep. What's your prayer life like? Are you talking to him about that stuff? Yep. And that's where you're gonna find, and it's so easy to say, that's where you're gonna find the most fulfillment. That's where you're gonna be fulfilled. And so many times we run to external sources, such as me telling you, leaning on you, or anybody, a friend. Mostly it's friends, you know what I mean. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it just doesn't I mean they could tell you all the right things, all the good stuff, yeah. All the things you need to be doing and focused on. Yeah. But in the end, you know, the Lord is who you need to be focused on because He will fight for you.
SPEAKER_03I mean, and you know, we're what happens to us a lot of times is out of our hands. And um, we were talking before we started the video um about a song that we really enjoy. Um, and it's by Phil Wickham, and it's called Battle Belongs. And if you've never heard that song, um I highly recommend as soon as you get done watching this video, go on to YouTube or Spotify or Apple Music, wherever it is that you listen to music or you're listening to this podcast, um, and and type in Battle Belongs, Phil Wickham. And that song in a nutshell is this verse to me. Um, you know, the the Lord will fight for you, and and then that, and then that song it talks about you know the the battle belongs to him, and and so yeah, go check that out. It's a it's a really good song. And if you and if you can see it live, that's a whole thing.
SPEAKER_02Me and Jake got to see it live last summer. Yeah, Phil Wickham and Brandon Lake, but there's power in numbers, and we got 15,000 people in the room singing that song. I mean, are any of the songs, dude? It's like yeah, it's like it's it's emotional, it's yeah, for sure. Pretty good. But a lot of these battles that we are fighting are more spiritual than people I think realize. I think it's the spiritual warfare in it all. Yeah, that's another thing, like you need to give it up to the Lord. Right. Um, so that kind of gets us into our second part where you only need to be still stop rushing to the end of something. Yeah, just be patient, let God work for you. Like the impatient part of people ruins a lot. Yeah. Because we're fearful of the unknown, we're fearful of you know, what's it gonna look like in a year or when I get to the end of this battle? Honestly, if you don't give it up to the Lord, you're gonna get to the end of that battle and you're gonna start a new one with something else. Yep. Because that's just the way life is. Yeah. We are gonna find something, we're gonna find something negative to fixate on. Um, it's just like the human nature of it all. And you get stuck in that cycle of, you know, yeah, you got through this thing, now it's the next thing. And then once you get through that, it's it's the next thing. And it's just like, when's it in? It's exhausting. Yeah. And real freedom doesn't come until you do give that to the Lord. Um but yeah, you just need to be still, pray, and this is also a testament of how much faith do you got. Right. Everybody speaks, I got faith in the Lord, faith this, faith that. But are you rushing to the end of something? Or are you praying about it and just letting it go? Right. What are you doing?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And the question is, is like, why are we rushing anyway?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, what's the point? You know what I mean? Like, I I had to do that. So on Tuesday, I finally was just like, you know what? I'm I'm done. Like because everything just feels like it's a freaking emergency. Yes.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Whether I'm eating lunch, working in the shop, um, going from point A to point B. It's just like we gotta we gotta go, go, go, go, go. Like stop, breathe, touch the grass. You know what I mean though? Stop treating everything like it's a stinking emergency. Yeah. Cause it ain't right. Me going from the house to the gym, it ain't gonna be an emergency. I'm gonna go around the block a few more times just to just cuz.
SPEAKER_03And I kind of think sometimes it's like sometimes we treat life. This is gonna sound if if you've if you've never filmed hunts before or photographed hunts or whatever, um, this is gonna not make very much sense to you. But for me, it's just like in life, why do we not take time to slow down and like you just said, feel the grass? Like, yeah, to me, it's just like when I'm when I'm filming, and this hit me in Georgia last weekend, but when I'm filming, I'm so worried about the cameras and the settings and the gear and making sure that we're getting certain shots and this, that, and the other. And then um, halfway through the day, we decided to sit down next to a tree and just relax. The cameras went down, like everything is just relaxed. And and you know, it's it's not very often that we as camera guys really just put everything away and then just enjoy the woods, you know what I mean? Like I was looking at things that I remember looking at when I was a kid, just like weird things like that that you just take for granted when you're trying to do too much. And in reality, you're you cannot control the outcome. You can't control the outcome of the hunt, we can't control whether or not the turkey's gonna walk into frame. Um, and in life, we can't control what other people or other things do, and so we shouldn't let that control our lives. We should just say, okay, you know what? I got no control over this, I'm done. It's all yours. You take care of it and feel the grass.
SPEAKER_02And a lot of times when we're in this chaos, and this I call it emergency mode, like you're just always on the go. You know, you sit there and you're like, Man, why isn't God hearing me? Why isn't he listening to me? Why isn't he doing this? Well, you got too much stinking noise in your mind to even hear what he does. Yeah, you ain't even listening, man. When you when you slow down, when you stop slow down, and you're still that's when you're gonna hear him.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_02And when, like I said on Tuesday, I just I took that time and I spent I I mowed the grass, I um sat out in the yard and just breathed in the air and soaked in the sun and just relaxed and chilled. Yeah. And I hadn't a ton of peace. And that's another reason why I like being in the woods. Yeah. And when we're in Georgia, we were so deep in there, you know, you get you don't have much cell service, you're forced off your phone, which is a good thing. Yep. Um, it's hard to get off that thing, and you can just relax, be still. You ain't got nothing to do but sit on that tree and and uh you know what I mean, wait for a bird. Yeah. But that gives your mind the time to relax. And that's why I love being out in the woods, but and that's why that's when you're going to hear God. Yeah. So when so, you know, you can pray, pray, pray, do all these things and but if your mind is just still chaos and you're not just taking a step back, you're not gonna hear what he has to tell you. Like he could be showing you something the whole stinking time, and you're just so fixated on the noise in your head, you totally miss it. Yeah, and you will 100% of the time. Yep. Until you just stop. Right. So that's one of my favorite verses.
SPEAKER_03Well, and I think like these verses too, like, you know, we get on here and we and we talk about the verses and things, and you know, this these are just as much for us as they are for anybody watching or listening. Like, there's a lot of times when we're doing these to where, you know, I didn't think about something before, and then after reading this verse and us talking about it, um, I can relate to it, and that's kind of what we wanted to do with this. Um, not not just for the listeners, obviously, but it's a way for us to really slow down and connect ourselves, and um it's just a really cool way of doing that.
SPEAKER_02And I mean, a lot of times I'm picking a verse that has been that I have come across during the week or whatever, or it just has been on my mind from a self-conviction standpoint, and I'm just gonna go ahead and bring it here to this table and talk about it because that helps me kind of help helps me kind of live that out.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, because it's just so hard to do. And if if I'm feeling a certain way about it, I know somebody listening to this is gonna get something out of it. Yeah, because we are all the same on the inside. We all struggle with some of the same things, anxiety, fears, the unknowns, the just life. Yeah, you know what I mean? Yep. So yeah. But yeah, that's one of my favorite verses. Exodus 14, 14. The Lord will fight for you. You only need to be still. Pretty simple. Yep. But hard to do.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So there's that. Love that one.
SPEAKER_03All right. Well, we are we're we're we're um like I said in the intro, we are going to be talking about Matt's Osceola. Um, but before we do that, we're gonna take a quick break. Um, on top of the of the Osceola, uh, we got some other things as far as like our use season comes in tomorrow. Um, so we'll touch on some of that if we have some time at the end. But I feel like this uh this osseola hunt is going to take up quite a bit of time, which is good because there's a lot of details and a lot of fun memories in this hunt um that um that that'll last forever. And that, I mean, realistically, guys like me that have always dreamed about doing it were just like living through you through your experience. So make sure it's a good one. But you got anything before we take this thing to break? Let's break it. All right. All right, don't go nowhere. We'll be right back. Welcome to the back. We are back. I'm not really sure of what just took place right there, but to clear the throat. We are oh boy. All right, so as I said in the intro, um, this episode, actually, we were gonna do um we're gonna do two different kinds of topics. Not really uh, I mean, we're gonna do a Georgia recap, but we decided uh pre-recording that that whole situation requires its own episode. So yeah, maybe we will um we'll see how this goes.
SPEAKER_02We get to the end of this, we're running dry. I might throw in some Joja.
SPEAKER_03Well, yeah. And because hopefully next week we're talking about um the youth weekend and the successful hunts on the youth weekend. Um, and then hopefully the week after that we're talking about successful hunts for us as adults. But you're going to you're going on a trip, right? It's not set in stone yet. Don't know.
SPEAKER_02It's pretty set in stone, I think.
SPEAKER_03Pretty set in stone.
SPEAKER_02Hopefully Kentucky. Yeah. Um like to figure something out in Indiana, but I got turned down four times yesterday. Oof. So all the birds I had found in Indiana, I got told no.
SPEAKER_03So it's uh it's back on the pitch. It's it's not funny, but it it's funny to me because Well, that whole thing. Go ahead, sorry. Like last week, Matt was like, Well, actually, we were coming, we were in Georgia, I think. We were either in Georgia or we were on our way home, one of the two, and Matt's like, man, I just I'm not finding any birds. I'm not seeing anything. And and he's driving around good good lane. Like I know, I know what in the area where he was what he was talking about, and and so this this week he just like found so many birds. I did actually dude. Yeah, and so I'm thinking it's a slam dunk. Like he he's finding birds, and he's gonna get one of these properties, and nah.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I was so close to home, I pulled into my neighbor's driveway to ask. And they said, We just sold it. I'm just like, you gotta be kidding me. So anyway, I'm trying to figure out who that was, but it's not updated at all anywhere. You know what I mean? So I don't I don't know.
SPEAKER_03Wonder if you can get on like the county page or something. I did, it's not. Oh. Either they lied to me or you know what I mean? They totally lied to you. They still own it, they just don't want to give you permission. And they didn't want to feel bad about telling me no.
SPEAKER_02Right, right, right. But okay, let's start off with uh let's start off with Columbus. Okay. Because this is where yeah, where we kind of left off from the last podcast, really. Oh yeah. Yeah, the Columbus show. Yeah. Which it's gonna be short-lived. It was just a long it's a long show. You know what I mean? Like um shows are long, but once we get home from Columbus on Sunday night, it's Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and on Thursday we're back on the road heading to Wisconsin.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Which which the drive up was smooth. Yes. Was it? Yes, it was. Okay, I thought so. I'm just trying to remember because it's like everywhere. I'm just trying to like. I'm having like bad idea. So we we did the show, which the show was good. We had a good time. Yeah. Had a heck of a place to stay on the lake. Yeah, that was a nice place. That was really cool. Yeah, that was a nice place. Um, but then on the way home, we're stinking. Mind you, we're seven and a half hours from home. Get on the highway for 30 minutes, and we're just vibing. Just vibing.
SPEAKER_03We got guys driving by us, filming us. Next thing you know, boom. Yeah, well, well, it was just like we we literally I could smell it now. Yeah, we literally just said, we just literally just sent out Snapchat that said, peace out, Wisconsin. And then 20 20 minutes, 25 minutes down the road, and I and I smell it too, and I'm just like, man, is that that is that that car in front of us? And then Matt's like looking at his dash, and he's like looking around. And by this time, we had somebody go through go right by us and they filmed us. And yeah, Brian did Brian was and he and Matt's like, no, that's us. That's us, dude. And I'm like, Is it is it getting like, is it getting hot? He's like, Yeah. It's heating up on it, dog. It's eating up. Next thing you know, Brian calls us. He's like, hey, there's a big wad of smoke coming out of my trailer.
SPEAKER_02He's like, dude, you guys are smoking. I'm like, and I could smell it, and I already knew because I could see my tip gauge just a desert board truck. And I'm just like, exit was right there, and I just darved across three lanes and went. Because we was like cruising, we was like going 90, 95, just we were hauling it, just cruising. And uh we get off the exit there and uh popped the hood, and there was just antifreeze going everywhere. Yes, this thing was just rolling the steam.
SPEAKER_03This dude walks up to us walking his dog, and he's like, Well, good luck, boys, and it walks away.
SPEAKER_02I was like, Thanks, dude. You did not need to come over here. Well, I seen a truck stop right. There was like this truck mechanic right there, part of the gas station. So I like I just wheeled over there and I was like, Man, you guys want to look at this at all? Like, nope. I'm like, okay. So I pop the hood, I get in there, I find I figure out which hose it was, and it was one of those special ones, special fittings that you got by the actual part. You can't just cut the hose and put another um hose stamp on it. Yeah, it's one of those factory jobs that you actually need the part, anyways. So I'm like, crap. So I'm on I'm on the internet looking for the part. I found one like 20 minutes away, so I called Brian. Well, he's still on the sneaking highway. So he had to turn around, go get the part, bring it to us. And once he got the part to us, I mean, we were back up and running like 10 minutes. Yeah, it was pretty quick then. Um, which this is a Sunday afternoon slash evening. Like we're getting into the evening. Yeah. And oh, we're just lucky, lucky and thankful we even found a part somewhere that was even close by.
SPEAKER_03Well, we're lucky it happened when it did. If it was gonna happen, we're lucky it happened when it did because we were getting close to closing time for a lot of those companies too.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, especially being on Sunday. Yeah. I had to buy, I had to buy some tools, I had to buy the part, but we got her fixed and made it home, and it's still um holding up Yeah, knock on wood, dog. And uh so that was a trip. Got home at 2 a.m. Sunday night, Monday wait, Saturday night, Monday morning. No, no, Sunday night, Monday morning at 2 a.m. Yep. Holy smokes. Yes. So then I'm heading to Florida this week. This next week here. Well, like two days, right? So I wake up and Tuesday at 7 a.m. I do my life, right? Gym, work, all the things, and I uh packed my bags that evening, that night, and by the time I got done doing all that packing, I had to pack my camera equipment like three times to get everything to fit. My camera bag was 42 pounds. So um, dude, I was freaking sweating trying to get all that stuff to fit in there. But anyways, got that done, and by then it was like 11:30, and I'm just like, man, there ain't no way because I gotta be up at like three. To drive to Columbus. It's an hour and a half and fly out at like whatever it was, six in the morning. I don't even remember what it what the flight was. And I'm just like, man, there's no way I'm sleeping. I'm anxious because I'm like, man, my truck just blew up a day and a half ago. I'm like, what's the chances on the way to the airport it's gonna you know what I mean? I'm just like thinking, again, I gotta be still. I look down at the verse. Yeah, get ready to say something. And uh so I was just like, you know what, I'm just gonna head over there. So I did, and I was I was only like an hour off of like when I needed to be there anyway. So I mean I ain't I might as well just go. What's the point in sleeping? So do that, get on the get on the plane. Um ended up having to check my camera bag because it was too much for the uh carry-on deal, uh, which was a little scary because it's just a soft-sided bag with and some zippers, so I was just like, man, I don't know about this. Yeah. Um, but it survived there and back. But um, yeah, get to Florida, and it's a two-hour drive from Orlando up towards Gainesville, or between Gainesville and the Gulf Coast, somewhere in that jungle of a mess. And um, yeah, just got there, hung out.
SPEAKER_03What were what were your expectations before going? Like, what were your expectations for the hunt?
SPEAKER_02Well, it's hard because Stinking Chris was like, bro, you gotta get here right now. We're all tagging out, like, you gotta get here. Like they all got there on Monday. Yeah. Like, dude, we're tagging out, you gotta get here. We're gonna have you one dead um Wednesday evening, like blah, blah, blah. As soon as you get here, we're going out, you know. I get there, and everyone's just chilling. I'm just thinking, like, because I was thinking amped up, like, we gotta go, go, go, go, go, right, because we gotta get out there. And everyone's just kind of chilling, and I'm just like, what is happening right now? I'm like, Chris, you have me rushing to get here. We've been sitting here for three hours on the couch. It's just like, well, what are we doing, dude? But went out that evening, and which the evening's gonna be way different than morning. It's a lot more quiet. Um, and we just we just never got on anything. Hunted a few different spots, and yeah, just never got on anything, which was expected. Right, yeah. I think. Um went out the next morning, Thursday morning. Um, and mind you, I'm leaving Thursday at like midnight to head back to Orlando to get on a plane for Friday morning to head back. Oh, yeah, yeah. So I got Thursday and that's it. Thursday morning, we go out and we're gonna hunt this older bird. Um we get over there, he gobbled once, and we weren't too far off the roost, maybe 150 yards. But this other bird that was like 500 yards away was just going off. I mean, like every 30 seconds, just going off, going off, going off. And we're we're just sitting there, we're just like, dude, I can't do this. Right. Let's go find that one. You know what I mean? So we we we we pulled out, went all the way around, walked like a mile. You know, as a crow flies, that bird was probably 500 yards, I don't know, across the swamp. But we had to make we had to backtrack, go all the way out and around. Um, ended up probably like a mile walk. It's not, I mean, all the way around that stuff. I bet it was about that. But get set up over there. Next thing you know, there's like we got birds in like all directions going off. So we're just like, all right, let's just sit here and see who maybe shows up first. Yeah. I got one out front, one to my right, left, behind me, back left, like and and they're pretty far out though. Yeah. So we're calling, doing our thing, and just waiting, right? And the bird out in front, right, which we thought was always the closest one, you could he was getting louder and louder. So we we thought he was moving in. Yeah. Well, about that time, some of the guys in camp, and I won't mention their names because they're they're they felt so bad about it, but come flying back in a side by side, stopped like a hundred yards beyond a decoy and was like, uh they're hunting back here. So they reversed it, and by and we were just like, well, that screwed up everything. And mind you, like, I gotta get it done this day. Right. The morning's the best time. Like, we just lost like two hours of time. Like, we just missed the two best hours. Right. And so we pull out of there, we jump into side by side, we run like a 15-minute drive around the back side of the block, and we um they got another property over there. And on that property, it had only been hunted, I think, like one time, and the guy missed a bird. So that was, you know, unpressured birds, which was good, a little bit easier than Georgia. Yeah. But uh, so we get over there and we we walk in there, we walk, I don't know, half mile back or so. Um, just a sand trail through the pines, and we get back in there, um and and we're calling like every oh, I don't know, 300 yards or something. We'll we'll call, do some hen yelp, and see if we can get anything to make gobble or do anything, right? Locate when we want to locate one. And um Heath, who was with us, he said, Man, I I guarantee you there's one out in that swamp right now. And I just I just know that there's one out there. Like, I'm just so confident in it. It's like, okay. And he knows that property like the back of his hand. So we go down the road and we're just like, he's like, Man, let's just set up here, let's just wait it out for an hour and see if we hear anything. Yeah. So we put the hen out, we put a strutter out, and we go back and sit, and like two minutes later, this hen pops out onto the path, and she walks right through the decoys, it comes right at us, and is like ten yards in front of us. And everybody just freezes. Chris don't even have his camera set up, uh, Heath don't even have his gloves on.
SPEAKER_03Like we just sat down, and everyone's just like that's always a nerve-wracking moment when a hen comes in like that because you know, she's gonna get close, you know. Yeah, she was like 10 yards. She was right. We weren't like camo.
SPEAKER_02We weren't like camoed up, like we cut off some palmettos and stuck them in around us and stuff after that. But um, yeah, we weren't even ready. And she had no idea we were there. We just froze. Like she didn't care. I think as long as you don't move, right, you're gonna be okay. Right. Um, and everybody, nobody moved, and she stayed in the decoys for 15 minutes. She walked back out towards the decoys, hung out there for like 15 minutes. And when she was like 10 yards from us, a gobbler went off in that swamp where he said he thought for sure there would be one. Like, oh, that's good. And he's going off, going off. She runs back out to the decoy.
SPEAKER_03How far was he at this point, do you think?
SPEAKER_02I would say like 500 yards. Okay. Okay. He was way out. Okay. And he started getting closer and closer and closer. Well, about that time, and I would just say maybe he's 150 yards out, maybe 100 yards out. He's pretty close. That hen walks off the path and into his direction. You're thinking, no good. This ain't good. Yeah. They're gonna hook it up. Yeah. And he went silent for eight minutes straight. Because I'm recording on my phone the whole time. I got my phone sitting there recording, uh, looking back at me recording. He went silent for like eight minutes. And all I could think about was like, dude, he he he met up with her and that's it. It's over. Yep. And again, like not two minutes later, boom, here he comes out onto the trail, sees the hen decoy, goes in the full strut. As soon as he walks out on the trail, he sees the strutter, drops tail, and he's pissed, charges the strutter, comes like 20 yards on a beeline for that strutter, goes the he didn't jump off the ground, but he sidestepped like he wanted to, and I think he got a little scared because the strutter did not flinch. Obviously. Yeah, as soon as he sidestepped and stopped, boom, shot him. But they say those osteolas are more aggressive than your easterns. Yeah. And so using the strutter works very well in closing that distance, yeah, making them come in. But yeah, shot him. First osseola. Yeah, that was a good experience. Did you figure out what kind of mount you're doing yet? I'm gonna just do a picture frame mount. Picture frame mount. But they said that he was probably a three-year-old bird. And um after talking to Alex, I was like, man, like they're all telling me to do full body, but I see all these other ones that are better. Yeah. Like they got some better hooks, better beards, like they just look like better birds. And he's like, Oh, for sure. He goes, he goes, Yours was a good bird, it was a three-year-old bird, but we can shoot you a four or five-year-old next year. He goes, We can do better. And I was like, Okay, well, good. I'm gonna think about doing this picture frame deal then. Yeah. And he goes, Yeah, you should do that. So that's what I'm he actually does them. So Oh yeah. I was like, well, because you can keep my bird then.
SPEAKER_03Do it. Yeah, yeah. So well, cool. Do you say how long that process normally takes to do those? Uh he didn't, but I mean, I'm sure it's an extensive process. Yeah, I don't it looks very you gotta glue every one of them feathers in it.
SPEAKER_02It looks very tedious. It's not something I would be down, that's for sure. I would my attention span. Holy moly. There's no way. There's no way.
SPEAKER_03So what what was the I mean, obviously you got there and you were expecting to go, but like what was life in camp? I know you weren't there very long, but like what is what is that situation like? I mean, was it what you expected it was gonna be? I mean, obviously you have no clue what what to expect, but I I know every once in a while like you get this like this idea of Turkey camp in your head, and even though you weren't there very long, I mean what what was it like for you?
SPEAKER_02I mean, I've been in several camps for waterfowl and stuff, um, never for Turkey yet, really, but um it was definitely the best group of guys I've I've ever like kind of as far as guides go, definitely the best that I've been around. Yeah, and we were down there with uh Whitetale Project Outfitters, look them up on Instagram. Um Alex is a legit dude and he's got a solid group of guys around him and um some solid guys running cameras too.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, those guys are legit. But um, yeah, it was it was honestly a really good experience because of that too. Yeah. Though I wasn't there but two days with them, it was uh those guys are just I don't know. I can't say enough good about them. It's just like I mean I've been on so many guided hunts, and be honest, I just never there's been a few I've enjoyed, but at the end of the day, it's like man, none of them have been that satisfying.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_02You know, I'd rather go out to North Dakota and freelance myself. Yeah. And because that's the I've never we've done good North Dakota, but we've we've done more bad than good, I would say, honestly. Like for what I'm used to, I guess. Right. Um, but what makes the trip like my most memorable trips um have been just because of the people and the experiences. Right. Whether you are hunting um or just outside the hunt, something happened at dinner, or your truck blew up on the way home, yeah, or just something like that. Yeah, that's what does it for me. Yeah, I want to go and kill birds. Don't get me wrong. I'm going there with the attempt to kill. Yeah. Not just to like have a good time with my buddies. If that was the case, we would just go somewhere in the summertime, you know what I mean? Yeah, go find a beach somewhere. Not freeze to death out of North Dakota. But um, yeah, that's what does it for me is just those are the things I remember the most are what happened, whether during the hunt, um, you know, like some of my Michigan hunting has not been the greatest, but holy smokes, we have a good time because it's just a group of guys and just the stupid stuff. Like, I don't know, it's hard to explain, but I think y'all know what I'm saying. But yeah, those guys are solid down there, and they're actually from Kentucky, so that leads me into my next trip. Yeah. So hopefully heading to Kentucky next week. Let's hope. So I'm excited about that.
SPEAKER_03So, okay, so the bird comes in, sidesteps, you decide that it's not going to live any longer. I don't wait around, dude.
SPEAKER_02If I got an opportunity to kill, trigger's being pulled.
SPEAKER_03We when we were in Georgia, I was I went like full cameraman, and I'm like, obviously, I'm wanting footage, right? I'm wanting something different than just the bird coming in, like that 15 seconds of the bird popping out of the trees and then coming in the decoy. And I'm I'm wanting to see it strutter on the decoys, I'm wanting to see it maybe gobble, maybe take out a decoy. And Matt just looks at me, he's like, That ain't the first chance I get, I'm killing him. I'm like, okay, buddy, you do you. Yeah, we ain't waiting around.
SPEAKER_02I ain't walking 28 miles to get one. Yes. Just spinning around the decoys. No, dude. That was insane. And I also thought that I also thought that bird, since he didn't jump and spur that decoy, I feel like he did get intimidated and his next move was to run off. To run off, yeah. It could be. Because he never went back into strut, nothing. He was still tail down. He to me, I felt like he was um had lost some confidence in that little charging deal. I I mean, I really did. Yeah. So I was just like, and again, that's just how I am. As soon as you stop and you're in range, good night.
SPEAKER_03Alright, so gun goes off, turkeys on the ground. What happens next? Take me through the process of, I mean, obviously the the happy cheers, whatever, but uh, I want to talk about the the post the post-harvest activities, like the the pictures, the videos, like what kind of a what kind of deal is that because it because a lot of people only see they just see the pictures, right? They see the pictures, they see the reel, they see all that kind of stuff, but they don't fully understand what kind of work and time goes into that after the harvest. Right, right.
SPEAKER_02And I ain't afraid to talk about it, but like so we were down there with Blocker, it was a Blocker trip in collaboration with these guys, and so I'm thankful for both those groups of guys for sure. Um Blocker's been great, hardcore waterfowl's been great, the whole company's been great. But um, so I was thankful for that. But yeah, so we're down there to get content, right? That's the name of the game, right? Um, to be able to sell your products, your outdoor products, right? Um, so after we shoot the bird and do all that, we um of course it was exciting. Yeah, adrenaline dump. Yeah, everyone's fired up. Yeah. Um I think y'all seen the video online, maybe. Maybe I didn't, I don't know. Anyways, I'll post it up if I didn't. I think I think it's definitely it's definitely in a reel, but I don't know if it's if the actual stand out, standalone. Yeah. But um, so we went back to camp for a few hours and just waited for the light to get right, really. And then we went back out and did our photos. And that's just that's just the way you do things, right? Um and man, that we we went out, it was me, Chris, um a couple of the tacticam guys, Alan and Bain, and those guys are legit. Um and in in a matter of two hours, dude, we had I mean, videos, pictures, all the things. Like it was it was legit. It was cool. And it helps too when I was the model this time, which was weird for me. Usually I am clicking the button. Yeah, yeah. This time they got me being the model, which when you have the background of clicking the button, you already know what the other dude's thinking. Right, yeah. Or you're thinking of other ideas that they may not, right? And so as the model, I'm positioning myself in a way that helps him, and he's in doing something that helps me, but it's all in sync because y'all already know, and I've been working with Chris for five, six years now, like we know what we're thinking, anyways. Right. And in a matter of two hours, dude, we got so much stuff, we hardly even said a word to one another. Right. It was just like I don't even know. Yeah, we was just dancing, yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah, so that was really cool, and we got we got some really cool stuff out of that.
SPEAKER_03And we are gonna do um in the coming episodes, we are going to do another um camera video um style of of podcast just because we've had a few people um at shows and things that have stopped us and and want us to go into more of a detail. But I think what we're really cool, especially since we're going into our turkey season here, um, I think it would be really cool to plan something for you know maybe four or five episodes from now. Um, and then when we do harvest birds, um, you know, have take the time to maybe have somebody else, even with a cell phone or something, take a picture of us taking a picture of someone in their harvest. And that way when we go through and we talk about the way that we did things and and setting everything up, then we have a picture that we can throw up on the screen to kind of give an idea of what we're talking about. Um, so that's something to to do these next couple weeks.
SPEAKER_02But yeah, I mean that was about Florida, and then just hung out, went to dinner that night, hung out in camp. We left at 11:30 to our drive back to Orlando, which holy moly, if you're ever going out of Orlando, you need that time for for a 6 a.m. flight because that place is a shipwreck. There's people, there's just so many people. It's insane. Yeah. So yeah, did all that, filled up on six dollar gas, which was insane. But um flew home and pretty much had my whole Friday. Yeah. Um enjoyed which I didn't enjoy nothing. I went, I got home, threw my bag in in the on the floor, and got in the bed and was I slept for like two hours and I was cooked. So, holy boy.
SPEAKER_03That was a trip. What an experience. You did something that a lot of people then back up for Georgia. Yeah. You did something that a lot of people dream about doing, you know, in your short turkey hunting, you know, yeah, life.
SPEAKER_02It was kind of a last minute thing, too. I didn't know I was going until two weeks before, maybe. Yeah. It's kind of just you get that phone call and it's like, yeah. Yeah. Here's when I can go. Is that working? Yeah. All right, let's do it. So, yeah, thankful for that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, buddy. Anything else you want to cover on that, huh?
SPEAKER_02I don't think so.
SPEAKER_03Nothing crazy happened. I don't think so. Okay. So yeah, we've got, um, I guess we'll just gotta go ahead and I don't know how long we've been recording. I guess I should probably start looking at that before we start. But we have our U season uh opens tomorrow. Um, and then I've got a I've got a five hour six-year-old boy who'll be seven in July. No, crap. Every six-year-old boy that will be seven in May, and I have a 12-year-old daughter who will be 13 in July. I think we can cut that out. No, I'm I'm gonna leave it. I'm gonna leave it. Yeah. But um, so anyway, we're we're pretty excited about I don't know what the weather doesn't look great for tomorrow morning. I think it's supposed to be thunderstorming. What's it say on there? 42. All right, we're getting close enough. Are we?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Should we lead into some more?
SPEAKER_03I mean, I don't care. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Talk about Georgia, something.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03You want to save it. Uh well, Georgia's gonna take more than 15 minutes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a whole story.
SPEAKER_02That's fine. Well, we got we got Georgia. Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan left. As of right now. When you're going to Indiana? It's right for 15 minutes, I might as well. So I got turned down yesterday like four stinking times, but I only went in like a mile into Indiana. Yeah. So now I gotta go a little further. I'm hoping like I can stay somewhat close.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But yeah, I'd like to, why not?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I'm right there. I just have obviously youth this weekend, our season the following here in Ohio, and then North Carolina the weekend after that. Well the week, end of week after that. Something like that.
SPEAKER_02So those are probably it for me, unless something else comes up, and I'm just like, sure.
SPEAKER_03You know, I was thinking about something on that on the Georgia hunt, um, not to get into the hunt, but just the lack of of gobbles that we heard. Um Dad and Zane went to North Carolina last year about the same time. And I mean, I I don't know if it's just southern birds or what it is, but they said that they didn't hear very many gobbles either. They saw but they saw birds. Yeah, they at least saw 'em. You know what I mean? That would help. We can't we can't really at least you know the birds are there. But um I almost wonder if if it was just too if it was just early, maybe they're not getting stupid, crazy gobbling until maybe next week. You know what I mean? You know what I'm saying? You just never know.
SPEAKER_01Off in Florida, I don't know.
SPEAKER_03I mean, well, that's true. But you're talking about a different species of bird.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, different, a little bit different.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, because I know a Marium will gobble at liter literally anything. So I don't know. I don't know how that I don't know how I don't know how all that differs, you know, from from Eastern's to Osceolas to Merriams to React.
SPEAKER_02And you got your pockets of different birds too, though.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And if I mean yeah, you just gotta get it in the pockets and whether or not you're hunting public or you're hunting private, if you're hunting a place where the birds are you know, they feel safe and they haven't really experienced any pressure versus birds that you know, we got guys walking on top of each other to get to. And so I mean I genuinely enjoyed the experience of Georgia. I mean it was gorgeous. Yeah. Uh I enjoyed it. You know, uh just a different different hunting, you know, for us, but as far as what we were able to see and experience, but we'll save it for next time. Yeah, yeah, we will.
SPEAKER_02So I think that's about it then.
SPEAKER_03I think so too. Yeah. Hopefully next week we're talking about two kids that had at least two kids that killed turkeys. Um, and then Well I might not be here. That's fine.
SPEAKER_02Might have the phone a friend.
SPEAKER_03I don't know. I'll bring Bryson in. There you go. That would be cool, though. I love Bryson talking on the podcast. Yeah, you should, dude. Dude, I don't know what he's gonna say. I don't know what's gonna come out of his mouth. Dude. He'll be like, skippity toilets. That's the best part. Just let him get him go. Just let him let him go. All right, guys. That is gonna do it for this episode. We appreciate you guys listening and watching. Um, don't forget to subscribe to the channel. Um, if you're listening to this on um Spotify or whatever, wherever it is that you listen to podcasts, um, head over to YouTube and um and just kind of watch the videos because one, you get to see the many facial expressions of Matt Hicks. Um, and then two, um, upcoming episodes, we're gonna start including some pictures, maybe some other videos, stuff like that. So, do you have anything else before we close this thing out? No. Nah. Good luck, y'all in the woods. Yep. If uh congratulations to those who have killed turkeys, um, and good luck to those of you that are going to kill turkeys. So we will put it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Like that, huh? Alright, guys, we're out of here.