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The Last Flight Show
EP23: Hoosier Dirt Memory
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Welcome to The Last Flight Show — Episode 23
Presented by Last Flight Calls N' Gear
This episode kicks off with our verse of the week before we dive into Matthew’s solo Indiana turkey hunt. What started as two straight days of frustration quickly turned into an even deeper low but just 30 minutes later... that’s when everything changes. Out of nowhere, it all comes together in a moment that ends with a longbeard on the ground.
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And we're back for another episode of The Last Flight Show. Ooh. Episode Ooh 203.
SPEAKER_03Starts now.
SPEAKER_01Should we just like completely get away from our intro and just use that? No. No. You can't. All right, you ready? No. Yeah. There we go. What is going on, everybody? Thank you for tuning in to the Last Flight Show. I'm your host, Jake Klein. Joining me as usual is owner of Last Flight Calls, Mr. Matt Hicks. What is going on, buddy? Not much.
SPEAKER_00Got a good story on this one, a good verse to go with it. Yeah. And uh got my first Indiana bird. Not only your first Indiana bird, your first solo bird. My first solo bird. I've always been with somebody. So to do this all on my own was uh screwed up a lot of things. But at the end of the day, we got it right. So that's all it is.
SPEAKER_01The thing is, is with turkeys, everybody screws up all the time.
SPEAKER_00Like it's yeah, I mean you gotta screw up to figure it out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean we can't all be like Brock Rolston, you know what I mean? No, I don't really know how he does it. Brock's Brock's gonna see this, he's gonna laugh.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he's pretty he's pretty legit on them turkey boys.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So yeah, so like Matt said, we have a really cool um episode this time. Um it's it's pretty cool for me to see um the evolvement of my turkey hunting. Your turkey hunting uh career here.
SPEAKER_00Um so um real proud of real proud of you, buddy. It's been uh it's been a lot to learn, but like I take pride in myself as a hunter and like doing well in you know with waterfowl, I've been doing that since I was seven, so I don't even know how many years it's like 25 years.
SPEAKER_01The coolest the coolest thing for me seeing is like when like you have these hunters that think that even if they've never done it before or they're they're not used to it, they they don't listen real well. Like they just feel like they got it all figured out, they got it all figured out receptive to anything, yeah, criticism or how to do things.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. But I'm always asking. Yeah. I'm always asking like what do I do next? Because I don't know.
SPEAKER_01And not just one person either. Like there's there's different Yeah, there's been a lot of people that tell me. Yeah, turkey hunters, they everybody has their own way of doing things, and at the end of the day, the goal is to kill a turkey, right? But then there's different ways of getting there. Um, and so to be able to retain that information, you know, from multiple sources um is only going to make you a better turkey hunter. So we're gonna get into that, but first um Matt is gonna take us through the verse of the week.
SPEAKER_00Yep. Verse of the week this week is first chronicles 1634, and that reads, Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his love endures forever. And uh this one was actually sent in from my buddy in Georgia, and he says, Every time he kills a bird, he he thinks of this. And um, that made me think about it when I was out turkey hunting. But we're gonna break this, and I'll explain that later, uh, when and why, but break this down into a couple different parts here, just uh as we always do. First part we'll talk about is give thanks to the Lord for He is good. And this is a direct call for us to always express gratitude to the Lord no matter what you're going through. And so many times when we're when we're crying out or praying to him, it's always fix this for me, do this for me, something like that versus you know what, like this really sucks, but you know, thank you, Lord, for giving me this life to live. Yeah, yep, and giving me these challenges even. Um, because like if you ask the Lord, you know, for patience, he's not just gonna just give you patience, right? He's gonna give you a test. Right, yeah. He's gonna give you the test to build patience. Yeah. And you know, so that's you know, it so no matter what, when you're in that test, you need to give thanks and and like truly like let that sink in, you know, because I've got some stuff, you know, I'm dealing with every day that you know it's so easy just to get on the negative side of things. Yeah, yeah. And when you sit back and look at it, it's like, you know what, life's not really that bad. Yeah. You know, thank you, Lord, for for the life that I do get to live. Because, you know, there's somebody always on the outside looking in, thinking, man, you got it, like, I would love to have that life. Like, how are you complaining? How are you finding the negative in that? Yeah, and that can go for anybody. Somebody looks at Jake's life and thinks the same thing. Somebody looks at your life and thinks the same thing, like, dude, why are you complaining? Yeah. But that's just the human in us. Yeah. But it's our job not to be that way and give thanks to the Lord for what we have in our lives as trials and errors and lessons.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And our responsibility to learn from those things and what God's trying to teach us.
SPEAKER_01And for the things and the traits that He has given us that make us who we are. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah. Because it's yeah, it's that's what builds you. And if if you truly do that, it's going to build your character in a positive way. I mean, how could it not? Right. You know, but it is just such a hard thing to do as well. But we'll jump to the second uh half of this verse, and uh his love endures forever. And that's something we need to remind ourselves when we're going through these lessons while we're giving thanks and and our what we're going through, um that his love is the same, it's constant. If you fall, if you fall down that mountain, like he's ready to pick you up and bring you back up, but you have got to make that decision. Right. Like, you know, you you can he isn't just going to um, like I said, just just give you what you need. Right. Like if that was the case, we all would be like, right, let's go, we're perfect. You know what I mean? But it's not that way at all. Yeah. And um, but that's one thing we we need to know is you know, one word that sticks out is endures forever, like endures forever. That means like for like stamina, right? It ain't going nowhere, it ain't changing. It's reliable. When when you're ready to receive it, it is there. Yeah. And again, all this is so hard, but um, that's good reassurance that God is there when when we're ready to receive that. Yeah. So, and you and you might fall off the wagon sometimes, but when you're ready to get back on, he's there with open arms, ready to take you in. Yep. And so that's the verse of the week, 1 Chronicles 16, 34. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love endures forever. Such a good one. And I'll circle back to this when I'm telling my uh Indiana story because I hit a moment out there where I was like, you know, you know what, this turkey hunt thing ain't going too well. But man, I'm just glad to be out here sitting in this fence row looking at nothing. Yeah. Ain't seeing a bird, looking at my fake turkey standing there. Now I'm just laying there on the ground for two hours. I'm just like, you know what? This ain't too bad. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, it's it's um, I mean, it's it's definitely an eye-opener um and a totally different feeling when you are just thankful for what he's given us, you know what I mean, as far as I mean, even this morning, you know, swatting mosquitoes that could carry you away, you know what I mean.
SPEAKER_00A gobbler that went the other way on you. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, it's like but at the end of the day, we're able to do this. Like I woke up this morning for another year of turkey hunting, you know what I mean? Yeah. And so give thanks for that. Yeah. It's awesome. 100%.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, verse of the week.
SPEAKER_01Yep. We are going to take a quick break. When we get back, um, we are gonna get into Matt's hunt and why his hunt correlates with this verse, um, and then get some uh some awesome actually a lot of what's gonna be told in your story, a lot of people can relate to hunters, you know, as far as um being persistent and just kind of maybe learning from your mistakes, and then also you know what I mean.
SPEAKER_00Like with a lot of failures, but man, we knocked it out the park at the end.
SPEAKER_01So I mean I I feel like we failed this morning. I I I just feel like that's part of turkey hunting. Like you did you you learn not not every bird's the same, you know. Most of the birds that are screaming coming in on a string or getting killed early, and then and then we have the ones that we have to work for, and then you have the those old stubborn ones or whatever. Extra thankful when you do squeeze a trigger on one. So definitely. All right, don't go nowhere, we will be right back.
SPEAKER_02Welcome to the last white last white clock.
SPEAKER_01We are back. Um, like we said in the intro, um Matt is going to tell his story on his Indiana bird. Um, on the last episode, we talked about Matt's osteola, and um it's pretty cool um really seeing how I mean you've done everything from the ground up as far as you you've put miles on the truck, you've you've knocked on numerous doors, you've been told no numerous times. Um and then I got one yes. Yeah, yeah. I made it count. Yeah, and that's that's a cool thing in itself, you know. I almost feel like you were meant to kill that bird, um, especially with I mean, obviously that they're gonna hear the story. Um so Matt, why don't you go ahead and start by let uh let's start from the the very bottom. Let's let's start from the ground. Two weeks ago? Yeah, like what's you what was your experience knocking on doors, scouting, like what was your process? I mean, outside of just putting miles on the truck and locating birds, yeah. You know, what was your I guess your mindset going into it? Because it had to have been kind of discouraging seeing the birds and then knocking on doors, and and I think but I think that's a lot of what the viewers and listeners are going through. I think they're kind of going through the same thing, so I think they can relate to this a lot.
SPEAKER_00And the big thing with all this is though the reason I wanted to do it like this is because this the reward at the end is just like so much greater. Right. And I really wanted to do it, you know, you know, scouting, trying to get permission, um, you know, just doing it all. And so so yeah, like two, three weeks ago I started scouting, hitting the road. And I'd go out every morning and every evening and sometimes in the afternoon. Yeah, and just I was just trying to look for birds in fields. Um obviously I can't get into a woods anywhere right now. Right. And so I'm just looking for birds out in the field. And I came across a spot and I seen like 15 out there, and it butted up to one of my buddies' properties that he hunted. And so I already kind of felt weird about that. Right. Um, because I like if if you're already in that block, I'm gonna go to the next one. Like, I just don't I don't care about fighting over the same birds, really. Right. Yeah. So I texted him, I was like, hey, just curious, is any you know anybody hunting this farm? And uh he goes, Yeah, someone's hunting. I was like, all right, that's fine. And so I I left that one, and I went like a week where I didn't see a single bird. And I'm just like, man, what am what am I missing? Am I in the wrong like areas? Like, and I know I know the the habitat, like I know where a turkey should be. Yeah, you know, your your creek bottoms, woods, opens up into fields, um, stuff like that. And we kind of have far and few between of that here. It's really patchy on where birds are where we're at. There's a lot of open farmland and small little woods here and there that aren't gonna hold a bird. Yeah, and so you got these select areas that do, and with the amount of hunters, too, um, we all get pushed into these spots, right? Right, yep. And so I went like a week where I didn't even see a bird, and I'm just like, man, I'm I was feeling pretty terrible. And finally I started seeing them. And so once I started seeing them, and I I would have birds crossing the road in front of me, I'm just like, okay. And I would just watch, see where they went. Right. I was like, all right, there's a bird in that woods frequenting that woods. I'm like, all right. So then I would start frequenting those areas where I was I seen those birds, right? And sometimes they didn't show themselves again, but most of the time they did. Yeah. Once I got locked in on kind of where they were in these areas, I locked in. Once I seen them twice, then I went and asked permission.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And so the one permission I asked was literally my neighbor. I pulled out of my driveway and looped right into his. And I was like, all right, this is a slam dunk. Yeah. You know what I mean? And it was only like five minutes from my house, the field, or in the woods and stuff. So I was like, all right, this is a slam dunk. This is nice, I'm close to home, whatever. Pull in the drive, get back here, and they're like, Oh no, we sold that farm, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, okay, that's fine. So I'm like, so I get on like auditor site and I'm doing the research of like who'd you sell it to? Because I'm gonna go ask them. It ain't changed yet because it was so recent. And I and I could have gone back and asked them who'd you sell it to, but yeah, I kind of hate bugging people too much at the same time, right? And um so I I let that one go, and I'm still hitting the road, hitting the road, and I finally see um another farm in the evening a few nights later, had like eight birds out in the field. And I was just like, sweet. The guy lived right there at the field. I pull in, and uh, you never know who you're gonna get to ask permission to, right? And this guy was just so kind of standoff, and he wouldn't even shake my hand. You know what I mean? I like reached my hand out, and he was just like, and I was just like, okay, well, this ain't good. And I was like, you know, I just there's some birds down there right now. I just want to see if I could come out and hunt this year, blah blah blah. Oh, I already got a guy, you know, whatever. I was okay, nope, that's fine, no big deal. Move on my way. And um, so then you know, I struck out several times in Ohio, and so I went over to Indiana because I want to kill an Indiana bird too. And I found a few more over there, and I like this guy could not figure out where he lived at. Like just couldn't figure it out. Like, he just was off the radar, and I'm just like I can't like he doesn't live at the field, it's just a field. Right. No houses, nothing. I'm just like, this guy's just yeah, off the radar. So I I uh struck out trying to locate that dude, and then that happened a couple times in Indiana and one time in Ohio. I couldn't figure out where these people lived. And like you'll have fields around here where somebody lives like three hours away or a different state.
SPEAKER_01Yep, yep.
SPEAKER_00And so when that happens, like I'll get on, I'll just get on Google and try to figure out their phone number, yeah, and I'll call them. And a lot of times they don't even answer. Right. But um, so yeah, that happened. And then I went to lunch with my cousin the one day, and I was like, Man, there's a farmer that we waterfowl hunt on, but we don't hunt any of these properties for waterfowl. But I was like, dude, these properties look good for turkey. Have you ever have you ever been out there? And he's like, No. And I was like, You think you know, would it be all right that I asked him, like, you think I could get out there? He's like, Well, let me call him real quick. Yeah. So my cousin called him, and you know, he was uh he said, Yeah, sure, I don't care. Have him come out today and I'll sign his slip. I was like, sweet. So I go over there, get my slip signed, and I head out there and start scouting that uh that property. It was 142 acre property, and uh I'm sitting out there scouting, and this was the opener of Indiana at this point. Like I'm kind of like pushed, you know, pushed back a lot.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, I would much rather be scouting it a week before. Right, yeah, yeah. But uh so I'm sitting out there scouting, and I'm just I I sat out there for like two hours and finally two male birds. I couldn't make out what they were because they were all the way across the field. I mean, you couldn't it was hard to make out in binoculars, yeah. But I could see him stretch his neck out and gobble. Oh, okay. And he was going off like every 30 seconds. And I could I could see it, and once I seen his neck in the binoculars, it was like a five-second delay before I could hear him faint, faint gobble, yeah. Yeah, and if you were in the truck, even with the window down, you couldn't hear it. Like you had to be out to hear it. Like it was just so faint. But I could see him gobbling, gobbling, gobbling. He never went in the strut, so I couldn't tell if it was a Tom Jake what it was. And he comes, he works his way across the field, and this property has I'll guess 40 acres of woods on it with it, and then the rest is farmland, 100-acre farm, um, farm fields. And so he worked his way across the field, and uh like 30 minutes later, another one popped out where he walked into the field. I was like, Okay, I got two birds here now, like this is looking good. And I was I was thinking jacked. I'm like, Yeah, we got this, like I'm ready to go. Like, yeah, everything was was seemingly falling into place. So I thought. This is where the story takes its turn, its first turn down the hill. So I'm watching these birds, they work up to the woods, and this field is so rolling, every time they'd go into a valley, like I would lose them. And and and mind you, at this point, there's they're 300 yards out, like it's just hard to see, like they're in whatever. He disappears. Well, they both hook linked up, they went back out in the middle of the field. I could see him. The one went back to where he came from, the far side of the field, but the other one worked up the valley. Yeah. And I was like, okay. Next thing I knew, I hear boom. And I'm thinking, man, that sounded loud, but it was it was a still evening. I was like, that could have been on the neighbors. Let's just hope that was on the neighbors. It wasn't on the neighbors. So as soon as I hear boom, I'm in my binoculars kind of looking around, and two guys stand up out of the field, and I'm like, You gotta be kidding me. So I called the farm and I was like, hey man, like uh, I just want to make sure, like, am I the only one supposed to be out here? He's like, Yeah, just you, man. That's it. I was like, Well, there's two guys out here and they just shot a bird. He goes, Really? I was like, Yeah. He's like, Well, let me make some phone calls and maybe I can figure out what's maybe going on. I was like, okay, that's fine. So I hung up the phone and I drove up to the guys. And um, mind you, if you ever run into this, don't don't just jump into conflict right away. And I just rolled up and I was like, Oh, you guys got a bird, nice, you know, nice bird, blah, blah, blah, talking to him and everything. And uh, he's like, Yeah, it's his first bird. I want to get him out this evening, try to get him his first bird. I was like, dude, congrats on the bird, like whatever. And I was just like, Yeah, I was just out. Then I let him know what I was doing. I'm just out here scouting. Steve gave me permission today. This is what we're doing, blah, blah, blah you know, this is what I'm doing. He's like, Oh, yeah, I've been hunting here for seven years and you know, whatever else. You know, there's a roost there, there's one over there, and I killed a lot of birds around the corner over there. He was just telling me all this. I was like, Okay, that's good to know, I guess. Yeah, kind of, you know, you want to be the only one out there, but yeah. I was like, okay. And he's like, Yeah, so and so said I could come out here this evening and and hunt. I was like, okay. So I left, and that I just left it at that, and I left and called the farmer. I said, Yeah, he said so-and-so said he could come out and hunt. He goes, Oh, okay, well, he works for me. If if that's what he said, then that's fine. I was like, okay. I was like, whatever, that's fine. And uh ended up getting the guy's phone number and stuff so we can communicate. So at this point, you don't really know what's gonna happen. Like you're I I asked him, I was like, Well, are you guys gonna be out in the morning at all or anything? He's like, No, we won't be out in the morning. I was like, Okay, well, I'm gonna come out here in the morning then. I just let him know, you know, just so that I didn't show up in the morning and I'm already here or he's already there, whatever, and we're running into problems. And so um, I was like, Well, I'm gonna hunt anyways, right? And so we go out, me and my cousin Eric go out the first morning, and I told my cousin, I was like, I don't want you bringing any calls or anything, bring a chair if you want. But I'm trying to do this like on my own, really. You know what I mean? And so he's like, Yep, that's fine. I just want to go out and sit. Right, yeah. He just wanted something to do, really. And uh, so we go out, we set up where where that guy told me he killed a lot of birds. And um, so we set up there and we're waiting. We don't hear a single anything, we don't hear nothing. And we saw one hen pop out, and she didn't even care about anything we were doing, and just went down the hill. We had a at that point we had a hen and a Jake um out there together for decoys. She went on down the hill and that was it. And then about 9 30, the farmer comes by with his planner. So we're running out there pulling her decoys, and at that point though, we were like needing an excuse to like something to get us out. It's like, all right, we're done, you know what I mean? Yeah. I don't even know if there's anything here anymore. You know, I got one mailbird. I don't know if it's a Jake, a Tom, or what it is, but he's somewhere. So the other property that butts up to this is a huge, I mean, huge woods. I was you know there's turkeys in there, but there's so much. Place for them to be. Right. Why do they need to be where I'm at? Right. And eventually they will work their ways around, but um, not hearing any gobbles, that's just like, man, whatever. So the farmer um we walked back to the truck and he pulls his tractor and he's like, Yeah, you guys, you know, if you wanted, you could go over here. I got a place over here you can hunt. I didn't mean I didn't know you guys were gonna be out here, blah blah. I was like, Oh, that's fine. You know, no big deal. But I was like, okay, so I got another place I can go check out. And so I went and grabbed lunch, came back out, went to the other property, and I was just gonna do like a little stalk and walk through the woods. And he and he told me he was like, There's been birds out there the last two days I was planting in that field. And I was like, okay, that's good. Um, good to know. And he's like, they were out there in the middle of the day. I was like, okay, well, the last few days were uh were a little bit cooler. This day was like 80 degrees and hot. Like those birds are gonna be tucked in a woods laying low during the afternoon. Yeah, and so I get in the woods over there, and um I text Brock, I was like, Man, how would you navigate this? Because like I'm I'm still new to just doing it all on my own. You know what I mean? Like, how would you go about this? So he wrote he wrote me a little plan. He's like, you know, walk every 100, 200 yards and and do some uh um cutting on your call, and maybe you'll strike up one midday or whatever. I was like, okay. So I walked every 200 yards, 200 yards, and did my cutting. I spent four hours on that loop in that woods, didn't hear a single thing, didn't see anything, found a shed. It's like Georgia all over again. That's what was going on in my mind. In your head.
SPEAKER_02I've been here before.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. But I you know, I hit a moment out there though, from where I was just like, man, this sucks for turkey hunt, and I'm sweating like a fool. But while I was in the middle of that four-hour loop, I had like a two-hour conversation with God, just me and him. Like there was nobody else out there but the wind. And it was I don't know, when you get those moments like that, that's you know, why you should go solo sometimes, you know, just to experience some of that stuff. I can't even describe that conversation, but um I don't know. It kind of feels like you're talking to yourself sometimes. You sound crazy, but like it was it was good, it was good dialogue. Yeah, but anyways, I get back up to the truck, it's like four o'clock, and I'm like, you know what, I'm just gonna go to the gym and go home at this point because I'm just like, it is so hot. I'm wasting my time out here, right? Whatever. And I was like, you know, but if I wait an hour around five o'clock, I'm I can go back out for the evening. And I was like, All right, I'm gonna do that. Because I don't give up easy. Yeah. Like I'm like, like I'm frustrated at this point. Like I want to get a bird, I want to be out there to get a bird, right? Like I don't want to leave that day without a bird. Right. I think that's my goal. So I go back out to the original spot and I sit in the west fence row, so the sun's coming down, I'm getting good shade. And I'm not lit up too. And I set up close to where those birds walked out the night before, thinking, maybe if they come out, you know, this is the path they're gonna take, and I'll be hopefully in play if a bird comes out. I mean, I laid there until about 5 30 till 8 30 and didn't see a thing. But you know, talking about this verse, you know, just give thanks to any when you're in any circumstance. Yeah. Like that, like I hit a moment where I was like, man, this sucks, but then I was laying in that fence row, looking at nothing, looking at my fake turkey standing out there doing nothing. And I was just like, you know, this ain't so bad. Yeah. I could be at work right now, which is always on my mind when you're self-employed, right? You feel like you always need to be working. But I was just like, man, this ain't too bad. You know, I didn't have really much to worry about. Like I was just still and at peace, just laying there. So yeah, I was like, it was about 8 20. It was just after sunset, and I was like, alright, I'm gonna pack it up and head out of here. So I walk out to my decoy, and I was just like, you know what, I'm gonna do an owl hoot just for the fun of it. You know, deep, I'm gonna try to like get deep into that woods with my with my sound. And I just do it with my voice, and I didn't I did my owl hoot with my voice, and I heard a gobble, like five it I'm just gonna say 500 yards deep into that other woods that I don't have permission for. And I couldn't believe it. There's there's life. I was like, there's a sign of life, and I was just like, Well, I guess I'll come back here tomorrow. So I I did another outhoot and he he he gobbled again. I was like, Alright, I heard like I heard it, you know what I mean? Like verification that I did hear a gobble. Because sometimes you just get to hearing things you feel like, especially when you're trying to hear it. Like if you're wanting to hear it so bad, you just hear it.
SPEAKER_01Is that a gobble or a woodpecker across the woods? Those give me all the time. Dude, it's just like uh so I don't think it's a turkey. If a turkey hunter tells you a woodpecker, don't make him think it's a gobble, he's lying to you.
SPEAKER_00Dude, especially when they're across the woods. It's like anyway, so I was like, that kind of lifted my spirits a bit, but I still was pretty low. Um went home, come back out the next morning. I set up in the same spot we set up the day before. And I got out there super early, and I got to my spot about 30 minutes before they would start gobbling on a limb. So it was it was probably like 545-ish. Yeah. And I'm in my spot ready to go.
SPEAKER_01Now are you in the same spot?
SPEAKER_00As the morning before. As the morning before, okay. Yep. And so I'm just sitting there and I'm I'm on Instagram just scrolling. And I heard what I'm like, was that a gobble? This was like 6'10 or something. Yeah. Was that a gobble? So I put my phone down and I'm just sitting there listening. Heard again, heard again, heard it again. Heard two of them. I got two different birds behind me on the woods that I can hunt. So I'm just like, okay, what do I do? This is where the story gets good. Yeah, I was just like, I don't know what to do with this because in the woods between me and them is a deep ravine, like 20 foot sides. Like, you wouldn't want to walk it, you know. And I was like, Yeah, they can fly across it, but they'd rather probably walk around. I don't know. Like, I don't know. I'm figuring this out, right? So usually I got someone telling me, like, hey, let's go over here and try this or do this. You know what I mean? With this, I had to think about it all on my own. And that's what makes this hunt so cool. Yeah. So I was just like, well, Brock always says just to charge them. So I'm just like, I guess I'm running in the woods. So I go down the field edge, go around this ravine, pop up on the other side in the woods.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I could just picture you guys spreading.
SPEAKER_00I was, dude, I was sweating. And when you get like 30 yards in the woods, there's a trail where they look like they used to drive pickup trucks and things. It was cleared out, it was a little grown, but it was cleared out, and you could tell like deer have been using it and animals, like it was a trail. And I'm just like, okay. So I get in there and I think what I'm thinking is I'm like 100 yards from these birds because they were getting loud. So I'm like, okay. So oh, let's back up a minute. When I was walking down the field edge to go into the woods, I did a little tree yelp. And I shouldn't have done that, and I'll tell you why in a minute. But because I I don't know why I did it. I just wanted them to maybe I don't know. I just wanted to hear the gobble. You wanna hear the gobble? Yeah, like it's like this most turkey hunters, yeah. Well, I I gotta hear it. Yeah, and so I did that like 40 yards from my spot after I left my seat out in the field. Well, I get in the woods, there's a path, and I think I'm like 100 yards away, like they're loud, and I'm just like, all right, they're up above me, they're gonna see me walking at some point. I was like, I just I'm close enough, let's just stay put. And I did like three sequences of tree yelps there when I was on the path. And I had looked behind me, I was like, all right, I got a few trees that I can pick from. So when I'm done calling, fall back to those trees, and those gobblers, those birds are gonna go right to where you're uh where you called. That's what I've been taught. And they did do that, but so at about 6 40, I did like a fly down cackle, and I start heading back to my spot and I hear the tree shake, and those gobblers got off the limb, flew across that ravine in the woods, and I'm pretty sure they still landed in the woods, but I'm thinking, like, oh, they're heading out to the field. My decoy's still out there. As soon as they see that, like, they're gonna be where I where I should have been the whole time. Yeah. So I'm like, crap. So I get out of the woods and I'm running down the field edge. Just, I mean, I'm hauling the mail. I make a I make a corner because there's like a um a spline of trees that come out into a peninsula and I'm rounding that, and those birds are standing, those two, those two birds are standing right where I called. Very first my very first tree elves. Yes, out in the field. They're standing, I mean, right there. And I was just like, crap. They seen me, I seen them, I hit the dirt, they go running into the woods. I was like, you gotta be freaking kidding me. So I just walk up to my seat, get up to my seat, and those birds are in the woods, and they start, they fired back up. And I don't think that like they were they got spooked, right? But they didn't know what was going on because it was literally like a two-second deal where they saw me. Because as soon as I hit the dirt, they were up on this hill and they couldn't see me at that point. And they were running in the woods, like they were getting out of there. But you know, and I would I did some yelping on my pot call, and um, they would fire off every time. Yeah, like they'd cut it off every time, but they were getting further and further and further away. And I'm like, well, these birds aren't gonna be back. Well, about the time I heard their gobbles kind of fading out, I hear another one strike up off to my right where I roosted that one the night before. And I was just like, Okay, like, is that the same birds or is this a new one? And I was like, Man, I feel like I overdid it on calling before on those other two. I'm just gonna treat this as a new bird. Yeah. And I'm just gonna give him I ended up giving him three yelp sequences to get them to come all the way to me. So I'm gonna guess he's 500 yards into this woods on the other property. I did my yelping like super loud on my call to the point where I almost was like, maybe I should use my box call. Yeah. And but I didn't, I stuck with my my pot call and I ran it real loud. I gave him like a four or five second yelp sequence and sounded off, like cut me off, and he and he's still just gobbling his head off. I let it go for like 10 minutes, and he's just gobbling his head off, like he's not moving. He's probably in the woods strutting around his roost or whatever, yeah. You know, and so I gave him another super loud yelp sequence. He cut me off, and at that point, then he would go quiet longer, and then he'd he'd fire back up and he was getting closer. So that told me with what I was taught, you know, if he goes quiet like that for three minutes, he's walking to you. Okay, you don't need to do nothing, you don't need to panic. I'm I want to panic and be like, I'm on my call all the time, like I gotta hear you all the way in. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_02Like, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And so I I let him come to me about 10 minutes later. I do I do another Yelp sequence a little a little quieter. Because at this point, I'm thinking he's probably only 150 yards from me. He's like he and he cut me off again. I was like, all right, he's got me. I don't need to do anything else. So I just put my call down, and like at that time, I had like eight deer. You have to see my Instagram post, like standing in front of me. They're sniffing my decoy.
SPEAKER_01And so I I like get up and I'm just like, which I'm surprised they didn't run when they smelled your decoy.
SPEAKER_00They did one time early on, the one smelled it and like jumped back because he because he touched it and it moved and he like jumped back and they ran a little bit and they came back. I waved them off because at this point they're all staring at me, and I was like, if this dude hits the field and y'all are staring at me, I don't I don't like that. Okay, I don't know if it will do anything, but I don't like it. It doesn't feel good being watched, you know? And uh so I scare them, they run like 50 yards down the hill and stop. I was like, oh no, they're gonna come back. All of a sudden they come back up the hill, and now they're really looking at me like, what was that? I'm just like, oh great. At this point, I know that bird's gotta be getting close to the field edge. And all of a sudden the deer just take off down the hill like like a coyote was after them. Out of sight, they ran. And I was like, okay. If that was a coyote, he would be running down the field edge or something, probably. And I was like, I bet that bird just hit the field. And so I'm thinking, like, I look over to my right, and there's all these branches and stuff, because I'm like, I'm like in the in in off the field edge, like five feet in the brush, and I and I see a white head pecking in the dirt. Like, okay, I can't tell, I can't tell what it is, I can't tell if it's a hen or what it is, I can't tell if it's a Jake, a Tom. I just know it's a turkey. But I'm like, it's gotta be him, right? And at that point, just a few seconds later, yeah. I think he's seen my hen decoy out there and popped in the strut. And at this point, all I can see is the top of his head and the top of his fan. And I noticed, I was like, I'm looking at the fan, I was like, okay, it's a full fan. Yeah. We got a Tom. I wanna but I want to see his beard. I just I want to see his beard just to be 100% like we got a good bird here. Yeah. And I can, I can only I can only swing like at a 45 degree angle because there's this honeysuckle bush. So I get in the position to where as soon as he crosses in front of me at the first point where I can take a shot, I'm pulling the trigger. So I do that, I I get my safety off quiet, and I'm ready. I'm locked in, ready. I'm not moving, I am still. Yeah. And he starts coming down the field edge, doing his little waddle dance and full strut the whole way, and he's only four cornrows in off the field edge. And I'm thinking, like, bro, go out towards my decoy. This is too close. You're gonna like see me before I'm ready to take a shot. Yeah. And I just was like, I didn't move. And he was getting closer, and he's like 15 yards, and he would like when he was waddling, sometimes he would like turn towards me, and we would be like eye to eye, and I'm just like, okay, dude, like I said, I don't like being watched.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I almost wonder, you know, thinking about that, um, I almost it's almost like they they go blind at some time, like when they're in such a strong strut. Oh, yeah, I think it's like because they forget about some things. Yes, 100%. Like, even if they did see you, or if he did see you or whatever right away, it's just like sometimes it's just that flip that flip and the switch in their head.
SPEAKER_00It's just like and and Eric kind of told me he was like, Turkeys aren't really that smart, they're just very weary.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they're not too smart, but they're very weary of their surroundings.
SPEAKER_01I think us as turkey hunters make things more difficult than what they actually are, too. Well, I did early on. I did. I think sometimes where it's just like, okay, yeah, that's a that's a Tom that's hard to kill. No, I I just think that we just make things make it harder than what it should be. Yeah, we do. I mean, there's definitely turkeys out there. Yeah, there's definitely turkeys out there that if they're call shy, like if they've been caught at before, like they will run from a call, like I've had birds like that before. But I think in a lot of situations that we just we just make it harder than what we should.
SPEAKER_00We do. I mean, you just overthink the situation and like I was saying, like I want to hear that bird every 30 seconds as he's coming to me, just so I know, you know. But you you can't do that, right? You know what I mean? Yep. Um so he's like 15 yards out, I can hear him spitting, and I'm just like, holy crap, this is cool, you know. And it was definitely the closest bird I've had to me. Yeah. And for it to be him, I was just like, holy crap. So he's he's coming around this honeysuckle and he gets about three quarters of the way through. I see his beard dragging, and I'm still like he's still like five foot from the end of my gun where I can take a shot. And so I'm just staying froze. But at that point, he knew something was up. Right. Because he was way, way too stinking close. And he he looked at me, dropped his fan, and I was like, okay, he knows he's suspicious, something's up, and but he wasn't spooked where he was running off. Right. But he he was getting ready to go back to where he came from, and luckily he turned out towards the field and not towards me. Right. And as soon as he turned out towards the field, I hurry up and swung my gun over about a foot at that point and was ready to shoot. I'm gonna shoot through this honeysuckle, I'm gonna shoot through this stuff, you know. He's close enough it ain't gonna matter. Right. Like we're gonna blow through all this crap with these apex number nines, you know what I mean? Like, and um so he he he was facing away from me. I swung on him, and as soon as he went back broadside, heading back to where he was gonna go, I just let it rip. The rest is history. He fell right there, and I probably about missed because if if I'd have hit him with the center of that pattern, you're probably thinking like a golf ball-size pattern, and he'd have blown his head right off. Yeah. But I hit him pretty good in the neck and uh he flopped around for a while, and yeah, dude, that was I went and counted the steps, it was five steps to get to that bird. I was just like, you gotta be freaking kidding me. Then I I bring the bird back to me and sit him in front of me, and I'm just sitting in my seat and I Snapchat Jake and Brock and everybody, and I'm just like, Well, I don't think these birds are coming. Yeah. And I flip the camera around, he's just laying there dead.
SPEAKER_01Well, it's funny because like um I still thought I could have Snapchat from you, a video, but uh 95% of the videos that I get from Matt, they're just aren't worth watching. No, they're just well, they're just they're they're hilarious, but they're just not relevant to anything. They're just just off the wall. Me being funny at random. So we were actually in the truck, and I don't remember where we were going. Um, but anyway, um, my wife had opened the Snapchat and she's like, Matt got a bird. I'm like, no way. No, we didn't. No way. So I opened my Snapchat and it's a Matt, and he's like, Well, I don't think these birds are here, they're not doing something. And I'm like looking over at Ash, like, what are you talking about? And the next thing I know, the camera goes down to a bird. Now I'm freaking out. So I call Matt right away. Yeah. Um, so okay, so being the photographer and um media person that you are. Okay, back up. What you okay, you squeeze the trigger. Um, it's it's everything has to come all the way around. So came full circle from the amount of hours and miles you put in the truck, the amount of dudes shoot a bird that I had a place at. Yes, the the doors knocking, the nose, the from the just a phone call from a a property that you hadn't scouted yet. Coming off the Georgia trip. Yep, just twenty-eight miles of walking. Yes, nothing. And then you see the you see a bird get killed there the night before. And then, or no, two nights before two days before. And then the next morning, nothing. No gobbles, just see a hen walk the field edge. And then you go back out the next mor or that the evening and you hear the gobbles, so now there's life. Like you you feel like you can do something. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00My uh yeah, like a roller coaster. Coming up. I'm feeling good. You know what it's like that part of the roller coaster where it's like yeah, and then the the chain snaps and you fall back down when you scare the two birds off.
SPEAKER_01That's what it felt like. And then to have it and you squeeze the trigger, you know you killed your bird. I mean, at that point, what is going through your head? Knowing that you just did all of that by yourself. And a good bird, too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I was just I couldn't believe it. Like I literally, I just couldn't, I was just like dumbfounded almost. Like I didn't even know. You know, it's weird because I was I'm used to going with somebody, even if I'm squeezing the trigger. And when that happens, you're celebrating high five and chest bumping, whatever y'all do, hugging and things. It was just me. Yeah. And so like it was kind of weird. Yeah. It was because I was not used to that. Right. But I mean, just the reward for that bird after all that effort that I put in on my own, the things that I screwed up, in a matter of 30 minutes, I was at the lowest I was at. Right. To then squeezing a trigger on a nice bird, it was just like that's turkey hunting, man. Holy smokes. Like it was, I mean, I was I was worked up like for three, four hours after pulling that trigger. I mean, like emotional, like worked up. Yeah. It was uh it meant more than any of the other birds that I've shot. You know, even shooting the Florida bird, Daceola, I mean, yeah, that's a great, that was a great bird. Like everybody wants to go shoot naceola, right? Yeah, not everybody can. You know, I was thankful for that, but it didn't mean as much because I didn't do the calling and I had two other people with me. Right. You know, so it was just like show up and pull the trigger in a sense.
SPEAKER_01And the things that transpired in that hunt or in in the series of that hunt, you know, your two hour conversation, you know, that kind of stuff, and then leading up. To squeezing the trigger and then everything coming full circle and the adrenaline dump and yeah.
SPEAKER_00I mean when I scared the two birds off, I literally got in my seat when they were walking off and almost out of hearing range. I almost was I literally was just like, man, I might as well just go home. Like I'm fed up with this, you know. And that's when the other bird fired off, and I was just like, okay, here we go. And it can change just that quick. Yeah, yeah. You know, it's funny because I was looking back at my videos, and five minutes before I squeezed the trigger, I was waving the deer off. Like it happens that quick.
SPEAKER_01And that's one of the videos that I got. So you have to understand why I didn't open my Snapchat right away because the the Snapchat I got before is of Matt literally waving at these deer, and I'm just like, what is this Joker doing out there? So I get another Snapchat and I'm like, I I'm not even gonna open this right now, I'll open it because it's something wild.
SPEAKER_02Turns out it was the one that I should have opened. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So holy smokes though. So I uh get a hold of my cousin Eric, and uh he's got a cabin down behind his place along a creek and stuff, so that's where we do all of our turkey bird or turkey photos when we shoot a bird close, you know, local. And it's a really sweet spot. You have to go check out my photos on Instagram, but um head over there and do all that and stuff. And um yeah, while I was there, we went down to the creek to do some photos down there. I was thinking I freaking went in the water. I slipped on a rock, busted my butt, screwed up my back, dunked the bird in the water. So if the photo shoot was over at that point. And honestly, it was limping.
SPEAKER_02It was like beautiful lighting, and it would have been perfect for it was for the pictures. It's beautiful down there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's it's well taken care of mode, and like sticks picked up, all the dead trees. Like it's just nice, you know. But yeah.
SPEAKER_01And a wet bird is not a pretty bird. And a wet bird.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, it was uh I mean, still thinking about it is like I don't know, it's still crazy, dude. Yeah, but yeah, for like three or four hours after that, I was like, I was still emotional. Like, I was like, I can't believe like that just happened. You know what I mean? Like holy crap. Yeah. So yeah. I mean, you talk about lows to highs multiple times in just two days is insane.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. There will be a lot of turkey hunts that you'll go on that you won't necessarily remember every scenario and every part of the hunt. Um, you know, obviously as your career continues, but I'll remember that one for a while. Hunt like that forever. That hunt you will remember forever. Yeah. Especially if you've screwed up your back permanently for the rest of your life.
SPEAKER_00Well, I got a herniated disc. And so when I fell in the fell in the the creek and landed on this rock, dude, I could I felt it immediately. I was like, crap. Because like if if I stay off of it and do good, it I'm alright for the most part. Yeah. But if I do something like that and I jar it and get it out of whack, yeah, I'm like I'm down right now. Like my back is hurting. But I want to go to the chiropractor Monday. Oh boy. But yeah, man, that was very cool. Yeah. Insane. Insane. But I'm looking to do a uh feathered frame mount. So if anybody listening to this knows anybody that does that and does a good job, yeah, hit me up because I'm looking. I put a thing out on my story and like only two people responded. When one person was just like, let me know who you find, because I'm looking too. And I'm like, okay. Right, yeah, yeah. Which I'll I'll let you know, but I obviously ain't found nobody yet. Yeah. So I ain't trying to drive like 12 hours to go to somebody. Right. You know. So but we'll see. So if you know anybody, let me know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, is there anything you want to you want to piggyback off of that hunt? What do you think? Where are we at? Oh we're at 47 minutes, dude. Yeah, buddy. That's crazy. So um hopefully uh next week, it's it's Saturday now. Uh we won't be able to record probably if as long as I can get to North Carolina and kill a bird Wednesday, Thursday, we'll come back Friday. So we'll probably still record on Saturday. If not, we'll have to figure something out for next week. Yeah. But hopefully, hopefully we don't have to talk about Georgia next week because unless we have something else to talk about, we're gonna be talking about Georgia and that experience. Um and the only thing that I'll say about that right now is that those of you that consistently hunt public and fill your tags on national forests and stuff like that, um, hats off to you because to those of us that are used to the driving around and finding private birds to hunt, it's a totally different ball game. Which and being able to roost them and know where they're at and their vocal. The experience was really cool. It was a good experience, it was pretty humbling. It was beautiful down there, you know. But when turkeys don't gobble, they're hard to hunt. And and I I deer hunt, but I don't necessarily enjoy deer hunting because I don't like to sit still for very long. Like I'm I I get too bored and I want to get up and go. And if birds aren't gobbling, it's kind of hard to do that.
SPEAKER_00So sitting me for me, sitting for an hour and I don't hear nothing, I'm yeah, see you later. I'm already ready.
SPEAKER_01Running through the woods.
SPEAKER_00I'm already packed up at that hour, ready to go somewhere else. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So hopefully we don't have to talk about that because um we either kill a bird tomorrow or take my nephew out in the morning, and hopefully he feels attacked. So that would be a cool conversation to have, or maybe we kill one in North Carolina, and that would be a cool story. So hopefully there. Yeah, hopefully, I mean, regardless, we'll have a story, but hopefully we're talking about killing a bird and not walking 27, 28 miles in national forest and for nothing. Not hearing it a thing.
SPEAKER_00A Jake gobble that got shot at. We did see it, we did see a that was interesting. I hit the deck, so I didn't know if I was getting shot at.
SPEAKER_01But that was such a cool scenario. Like it was not to go into too much detail because I don't want to take away from that podcast, but it was um they're burning a lot down there. So um it as the sun, it was almost weird because like at night, and I don't know why, but when it was dark, like we were in our spot at 4 30 in the morning, and you just you I I couldn't smell any of the smoke. However, as that when that sun came up, and I don't know if it's like raising from the ground, I don't know what it's doing. I think the cold air pushes the smoke down. It very well could. Yeah. Because it's like as soon as the sun started coming up, it got real smoky and hazy, and you could you could smell it, and then you have this Jake just come flying, literally flying through.
SPEAKER_00Flying through the woods, somebody's going boom, boom.
SPEAKER_01I'm just like you know, but yeah, that story's for another time. We're not gonna not gonna go into any more detail on that. But do you have anything to piggyback off of anything that you've talked about before we jump off here? Man, I don't think so.
SPEAKER_00Let's give thanks to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00No matter what you're going through.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Remember that.
SPEAKER_01For sure. All right, all right. All right, guys, we appreciate you tuning in this episode, and we will see you on the next one.