Mountain Turkey

Miles on truck tires. Miles in boots. Public land turkey hunting at its finest. Built by relentless effort, great people, and a team that never quits, DD is all about the grind, the respect for the animal, and the pursuit of the hunt. No shortcuts, no excuses, and no rock left unturned  just the best days we get to live.

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All right, everybody. Thanks for joining me on the Duck Dependent podcast. As usual, I'm fired up to be here. Episode 17, Mountain Turkeys. Guys, it was an awesome experience. I hopped over a few other states to go chase turkeys. It's been 20 years since I've done this. And I tell you what, the standard is there. Good, better, best. It was an awesome trip. Before I dive into that, guys, let's get to the partners. They make this thing go. Retay USA, guys. You've heard me talk about it before. The baddest inertia shotgun on planet Earth, and I put it to the test on this trip. They have so many new makes and models. The new Game Lander, Turkey Specific, is phenomenal. My all-time favorite is the Ace. So I put that to test. But guys, Ritay USA, check them out. My favorite. I believe one of the baddest inertia shotguns on planet Earth. Flight day ammunition, guys. Call me crazy, but I put it to the test on Turkey. Steel shot. You can save some money at checkout with DD 10. Guys, flight day ammunition from 28 to 12 and everything in between. Everything's premium. I trust them through Ducks and now through Turkey. Flight day ammunition. Save some money at checkout with DD10. Guys, Les Schwab tires. Always putting them to the test. I traveled across the entire West again. Back and forth. Boat trailer. In this case, just my truck. Guys, my favorite tire, the open range plus. I've used the back countries. Guys, they have good, better, best. That's their model. They're all over the West. I was in a city that had a brand new one. They're growing, guys. Les Schwab tires. They're going to be hard to beat. And then DuckDependent.shop. I have all kinds of new hats. Guys, I put them to the test. Hiking, mountain, um hiking, sweating in them, you name it. Put them to the test, guys. They're holding up. Absolutely thankful for this great product. DuckDependent.shop. They're amazing. Thank you for all the current customers and new customers. Very thankful for that. But I'm going to hop right into it, guys. Mountain turkeys. Okay, so like I said earlier, you know, it's been it's been 20 years since um I chased turkeys. And I've always been kind of been talking about with some buddies, and and uh you guys know my cousin Ryan. He's been doing it, and I've been talking back and forth, and he's been once in a while, you know, getting out. And so this year I go, you know what? It's time to get back at it. And what better way? I'm gonna hunt him in my backyard. Um, but I was like, you know what, let's get this, let's let's hop over a few states. And so I hit up an old but good buddy A Jet and I said, Hey man, are you turkey hunting this year? And he was kind of like, Yeah, I've been thinking about it. And uh we just had a great organic conversation and said, Hey, let's put something together. And I said, Well, I'll come up your way. And uh, man, you you know us, let's chase, it's gonna be a good time. Um, and so I kind of put that all together, and once again I reached out to my aunt and uncle looking for a place to stay, and I'll get into that later, and of course lined all that up, and so once we did that, guys, it was all in. You know, I got right to work. I put that retail haste and that flight to ammunition with a full choke to work as far as patterning. So I went to go um put some targets up at 40 yards, was kind of the range, guys. So I did a lot of the prep work, um, kind of tried to get savvy a little bit on turkey calls because it's been so long and there's so many different calls, the mouth calls, the box calls, the pot call. And so I knew that hunting with um AJ and my cousin Ryan, we're gonna have a variety of calls. So I just wanted to be able to contribute at least a little bit on that. So I ended up getting a pot call, and I'll talk about some of that stuff later. But anyway, so we lined up this hunt, and man, it was gonna be uh mountain turkeys, you know, and I'm no expert, so there's a lot of turkey hunters. If you're listening or duck hunters, you haven't. Um, you know, a lot of people hunt them in fields, um, maybe some lower land areas and and some ag stuff. Once again, not not the expert, but it we learned really fast um on how to chase these things. But we wanted to go up into the mountains in a little bit of the backcountry, so to speak. And so um I decided to hit the road. Um, I was in contact uh most of the last couple weeks with AJET and he was kind of scouting around. And on this on this one, guys, I'm just gonna talk about the three or four days of what we did and that journey and that good, better, best, and this phenomenal trip uh that took place. So I head up there day one. Um he's got some some property. His in-laws have has a small partial and it's kind of sandwiching between other partials and some public land behind it. And he was doing some scouting, and he goes, Look, we kind of put a plan together because the cool thing was is if you head to his in-laws' house, if that didn't work out, there was all public land in the mountains where we originally wanted to go, anyways. And so, opening day, we're fired up, man. I am excited. Like I said, I haven't done this in so long. The equipment's dialed in. I got a pretty awesome decoy, and we go set up. And guys, I just didn't realize some of that gobbling and that stuff can fire you up. But we set up kind of on this three-way corner. We had a great hide. And we're in there right before light, and they start sounding off. And we're like, okay, oh wow, this is this could go down like right now. Um, and you know, guys, if you're listening, your turkey hunters, your seasoned, you probably know, but they got louder and louder and louder, and then all of a sudden they shut off. And so we we kind of called a little bit back, they never responded, so then we got quiet. And guys, this is a uh a kind of a balancing act. And you know with duck, you know, you kind of read the birds because you can see them and stuff. Turkey, we couldn't actually see them, so we're trying to figure out what's too much calling or not enough calling, guys. And that and that's a balance just like anything else, whatever any other hunting. Um, but then they sounded off, and it sounded like they were kind of moving away, and we we kind of guessed, and they continued to get a little bit farther, so we ended up looking a little bit, and there were some open areas where they could possibly come out to feed, and we we we think they just gradually worked away from us to the public land, so to speak. And uh no excuses because we're we're gonna chase and we're relentless, it doesn't matter the conditions, but it was super windy and and rainy, and actually talk about it later. We got some snow. Um, but man, we stayed after, and I don't know if we sat too long, but guys, this is this was an amazing time because we're I'm learning on the fly here. We're kind of balancing it, and we're going, you know, having some great conversation about how do we execute this and make this happen. So uh we sat there for two or three hours and we kind of moved a little bit, not too far, and moved our decoys, and and they just really shut off. So what we did, we knew it was gonna be a grind. It's put it's we were bordering up public land, and I know this was kind of a private partial, but it was kind of unique because there was partials kind of all connected, and and there was a lot of activity going out that morning, you know, people uh just doing things there and in some of their house in the in the forest there. But uh we knew it was gonna be a grind, we knew it was gonna be an all-day thing. So um we didn't find success that morning, so we packed up and we went into the mountains. Um and guys, I tell you what, we got in some backcountry, and that first midday or mid-morning, excuse me, we hiked and hiked and hiked, and we scaled some, scaled some hillside, and I think um I don't think we're in the right area. The wind really picked up heavy on us, and so we said, all right, we gotta let's get back to the truck, let's regroup, and let's go check out another area, maybe a little lower land uh part of the forest. And so that's exactly what we did. So we went back, regrouped, and sure enough, we hit kind of that lower line uh timber, and we're on our way to go park at this area, and boom, there's a tom off to the left. So we bail off, hit reverse in the truck, go park at a different area, and just head off into the woods. And guys, I'm telling you what, I don't know if these things are smart or have that sense. They probably do because they're a wild animal, but we went and set up, put the decoy out. We had an amazing hide. I mean, just massive trees kind of in front of us and to our side, and so we felt really good. Um, we did some really, really soft calling, and no response, no response. We sat there for a long time. Um, and I think we thought we heard a hen, and so after sitting there calling, not calling, we said, all right, well, let's maybe keep moving up a little bit. And um, we're kind of hunting this flat, and to our left, there was really a big canyon, and so we thought, well, I don't know if they'd go down there or what, but um anyway, so we picked up, we kept moving forward a little bit. And I saw one, I think we bumped them maybe, but I saw what I think was a hen trailing off, and so I'm sitting there talking to AJet, and I'm like, all right, well, I think we bumped those, let's go to the next parking spot or let's keep moving the way up here in the forest. And so that's what we did. We regrouped, got back to the truck, and we went to the next spot. And guys, I kid you not, we parked. We looked at some lowland area, we said, hey, this could be pretty good. And I said, hey man, you you did some scouting, I'm gonna follow your lead, and and let's go do it. And guys, I'm not even kidding, 50, 60 yards from the truck. We were just starting to look like, oh, this could be some really nice area. We bumped two turkeys, and one of them was Tom, and we're like, dang. And so we kept on trying. We're like, well, let's let's walk in there a little bit and let's do a set anyways. Maybe maybe we can call them back. And uh man, once again, we got after it. Guys, it started to snow. Um, I don't know, no excuse at all. Hey, we're we're gonna chase regardless, but um it was a long day one. Um it was I think we pretty much hunted all day till the afternoon. And the cool thing is, is this whole week was kind of planned out. Um, you know, everyone's got obligations and everything, but you know, you you guys have heard me talk about it, but Unk's out scouting. Um, cousin Ryan had some obligations during the week, but he was going to join us on Saturday, and so I was there to just chase scout for everybody and and see what we can do. So on the next day was Thursday, um, I decided, well, we'll just go scout another area about two hours away. And so me and Unc got up, went and scouted in the morning, put that time in, didn't see anything really. Didn't see, we don't think we saw hunters in there, but there was there was one truck in there, so we couldn't tell, and we didn't want to go in anyways. If just in case that person was hunting, we didn't want to bump or ruin his hunt. And so then we kind of backed out of there, and I just got some equipment ready and and was working on my call, and I had to, you know, sand and get that that try to get that slate dialed in or the pot. And I never really did, and I'll talk about that later. But uh Thursday we went back out again in the afternoon and we're scouting, and guys, you guys know about this. It's that relentless pursuit. Um, you know, the the excitement of of all the prep work and and and the excitement of getting back together and having fun and and this hunt. Um, and you gotta ride that roller coaster, guys, because it's it was an all-high to you know, see your family again and your friends and hunt, and then you get into it in the thick of it, and these birds are just kind of one step ahead of you, one step ahead of you. And I joked about it on uh Instagram about this is a seven-game series, and uh can we win this series? And we found out early, man, or I did anyways, that these suckers are pretty smart, and when you're in their backyard and you're the away team, man, they're hard to get on. So um day one, worked our tail off, got close, got it was super exciting. Thursday, day two, scouted in the morning, scouted in the afternoon, kind of prepped for Friday. Um talking with AJT, we're like, hey, let's go, let's go try that area again where we ran into those toms that midday. Let's get right in there early. Um he was only able to hunt in the morning. I said, hey, that's okay, we'll get that morning, and then I'll get back after and start scouting in another area that that afternoon. And this would be Friday. So we got in there, and guys, I kid you not, we we parked and we didn't even get out of the truck, and they started sounding off. Right to the left and across the canyon to our right. So we ran in there, hide again was amazing. There was no way they were gonna see us. We were pretty low profile in these chairs, full camo. Uh once again, we had some wind, but they were sounding off, guys, and I don't know if you for me, I haven't turkey hunted in in all these years, so forgive me, but it sounds insane. Especially in the mountains through those canyons. But anyways, it was getting louder and louder and louder. And guys, once again, you could probably Monday morning quarterback and talk about the calling style, but we tried to keep it, I would say, medium to light. As long as they're making noise, we were kind of trying to respond a little bit and make some noise, and it got to the point where we should be seeing them, and they never showed, and then all of a sudden went silent and my heart just sunk. I was like, Oh my gosh. You know, we're looking at each other like these these turkeys, man, they are they are they're beating, they're kicking our butt these last couple days. So we never really got back on those birds, and so we went up again farther, a little bit deeper in the forest again, and it really ended up just being kind of a little bit walk and scout for that early morning and seeing what could we do to change this, or what what are we doing wrong? And is this turkey just paired up with one hen, or what's going on? So once again we self-reflect, we're like, hey, maybe it's our calling, you know, like you we all do. And I said, hey man, I think we're doing we're doing the right things. We've been on turkeys, we've been close. Man, these suckers are smart. We're these are different birds. Um we we notice and all kind of fast forward, but we we notice they get super vocal, and this might be everywhere, but they get super vocal and then they just shut off in the mountains for sure. And I'll talk about even some of the successes that we had. They were it they were silent. So um we kind of just walked around, scouting, finished that day. And then uh I went back to scouting. So I drove all the way back to my aunt uncle's, um, kind of regrouped, grabbed Unk, and we went and tried to scout kind of midday, and then we um noticed that there wasn't really any activity in this area. Like I said, it's about two hours away. So we we were putting in the miles and on the on the tires and on our boots, and so um looked around midday, nothing. Went back in the afternoon again, uh, kind of brought the bynos and looking around and and guys, we just I didn't see anything in that other area. And so I'm on the phone and Saturday's gonna be the be the big day. Cousin Ryan's coming in, so it's gonna be me, cousin Ryan, and AJet, and we're gonna get after it. And we kind of all talked and said, hey, we're gonna get there even earlier, and we're gonna chase all day to the after to late afternoon. And so um, to my good buddy A Jet's credit, he was kind of knows this area and he was kind of like, hey, there is some turkeys, I think, in this other area as well. We should go try that. Because let's go look at it. Um, I've seen him in there in the past because uh both of them have got turkeys the last three, four, five years. So they're on it, they've done it. And uh before I even go forward, so thankful that guys, it was a team effort, but I I found out real quick that they were super excited and wanted to get me on a bird, and so I'm so appreciative of that because for me, um, I'm all about the chase and the journey and getting after it and uh just kind of hunting with with good people and buddies and friends, and so that for me is kind of half the thing, but I'll talk about later on how excited and so pumped up that these guys were for me to get my turkey. I haven't got shot one in 20 years, so but anyway, so Saturday we knew it was the big day. And um so cousin running, he's he lives about an hour away, so he gets off work Friday night, and he comes back to Matt and Uncle's, which is his parents, and we're kind of getting set up, dialed in, and um I knew we're in for a hike because he's grabbing his like big game pack, and I was like, oh man, okay, we're gonna go back in the backcountry. Um got on page with HET and we said, hey guys, we're gonna get after it all day, and we're gonna keep hiking and walking and looking at every hill and every mountain. So, guys, that's what we did. Um, but once again, we've we've we ran into some um some turbulence and some some turkeys just we're just out of range. So we go and set up that last Saturday that was Saturday. Once again, we park, turkeys start sounding off. This time we're a little bit earlier, so we feel good. We can hear them over here to the left. We think they're in this canyon or they're roosted here, and so we go in, we set up probably about five, seven yards. Maybe I was probably about fifteen yards from my cousin Ryan. A jet was in the middle, I'm probably about maybe five yards from him, and we're waiting, and guys, once again, so loud, so intense. I didn't think it would get my blood, my heart pumping like that, but it did. And I quickly my heart sunk because as it gets light, we are in a there's a huge can canyon, a huge rock face in front of us, and the turkeys are in the trees on our level, and they must have uh come down from the roof our level on the other mountain. Here's the here's the fortunate part though. On my angle, I could see them funneling over this clearing and kind of to the next canyon, all of them. I saw like four or five, maybe even six, but I know I saw four uh toms for sure. And so what I learned, guys, is from the previous days, we did some longer sets, but if they're not in there, you know, it's hard to tell, but if they're not in there and you can't hear them, it it I think we you could sit too long. But the reality is, guys, you never know, and I'm gonna fast forward a little bit, is these these mountain turkeys, they just go silent and they'll just come in. And so it's hard to judge if they're you're sitting too long or not. Um there's just a whole nother layer of advantage that that they have when they're in this thick stuff because they don't want to be as vocal all the time. Now they were, uh maybe because it was the time of the year, but um they were really tough. And so once again, I was fortunate enough to see them where I think they were funneling. And I'm once again, we couldn't chase them straight up. They were way across the canyon. So we regrouped, and guys were putting the miles back on, and so we get back to the truck. AJ's like, hey, I think I know that road. We can maybe get down and cut them off. And so we we hustle and we drive and we go and we find a nice pull out to to park. Um, but guys, when we did that, we're gearing up, and I'm looking up at this mountain, and it's straight up right by the truck, and I'm like, oh boy. And uh we're kind of game planning, and we're like, well, should we kind of ease up this and go around? And we just kind of came to the consensus of like, let's just get this over with, let's go right up to it. There's a couple of clearings, we think they're funneling, and so if we're looking at the mountain, they're gonna they would be kind of kiddie quartering us to the left. And so we just all kind of came to an agreement, and that's really important, guys. I want to talk about that for hunting. It's so nice when you have um people that are willing to, you know, just work together and come to a consensus because a lot of times I've in the years past, you know, you hunt with some people that are like, nope, it's absolute, this is it, and you kind of go on on that call, and that's okay sometimes, but for me, it's kind of like let's just talk about it. And if we come to to your thought or or or what you want to do, that's fine, but at least let's let's just think about it out loud and and make sure this is the right plan. And so, guys, we did that really easy. Let's go scale it, let's get up there to that first clearing. And so we did that, but it was straight up in the rocks, it was it was pretty awesome. Um, like I said, I don't mind it. I do a lot of cardio and stuff, so it was amazing. Um, but we get up there and we find a clearing, and we think it could be the clearing that they came to when I first saw them on the other side of the mountain. Um, so we get there, we sound off, nothing. Once again, guys, not super worried about hearing or not hearing them sometimes in the mountains. I go back and forth with that, you know, just after three or four days in there, but we set up nothing for about 15, 20 minutes. And we go, all right, well let's just let's just keep working up there. And I love our approach. We were methodical, we were quiet, and we just kind of kept going through the trees, really quiet, to the next clearing, to the next clearing. And so we get to this point and we're like, I don't know, what where should we go? And and we just kinda all once again put our heads together and said, Hey, why don't we just keep caressing to our left through these trees and let's go look at this next clearing? And sure enough, guys, that's when things got wild. So we were working through the woods and we get to this next clearing, and it's almost like a dome. And then we can see the next hillside across from us, but it's almost like a dome. So you can't really see anything on the edges left or right, and you can't see anything like right over this b this it's just a rock with like mountain grass and mountain flowers and then There's a goalie in between us and then a hillside. So we're walking up that. Sure enough, we I see a Tom. I think me and cousin Ryan saw it, and they're like running at us. Now they're probably five, six hundred yards away, but we see them just running. And it's not because we were calling anything, it might have been just their path. And so we go flying into the tree. We did not have the best cover on this spot. Like I said, it was a huge open wildflower rock area, just just a just a dome of rocks. And so we dive into what all we have. And if you didn't know, I'm shooting a shotgun, the Retay Ace. A Jets got a shotgun, and my cousin Ryan brought his bow. And so we set up, he found some thicker trees and like a big log to sit in. And so he's he's on the left. There's just like mega stump. A Jets in the middle, and then I'm to the right. And guys, on my side, there was not a lot of cover. There was kind of this half broken tree. So I got in the prone position. So if those birds came in left at all, I wasn't going to be able to shoot. But I was okay with that because you know, whatever happens, happens. One of us will get a bird and we would be fired up anyway. So I kind of got in the prone, and I only had a little bit left and um a little, and then obviously to the right. But I and I also had this kind of tree right in my peripheral to my left, and I'll talk about that later. But anyway, so Cousin Ryan and AJET, they're ripping the call. Guys, they they did an amazing job. They're using mouth calls, and these turkeys were sounding off, so we're pumped, and then all of a sudden we can't see them anymore because they're running our way, and then guess what happens? They shut off. And we're sitting there 15, 20 minutes, and we're like, dang, they were just here. And guys, remember, I joked about it. We're in a series against these turkeys. I was already down, we were already down 02. We were getting our butt kicked for the last two and a half days. Couldn't find them, couldn't get close. And so we're like, all right, we just what do we what do we do? And so I I go back and we're talking, and we're like, should we keep pressing forward? What should we do? Should we should we wait? And uh the guys, this is the conversations you have. You guys know it when you hunt and all this, and so AJET's like, hey, well, why don't we just give it 10 minutes? And what was cool about that, guys, is that's the thing. We were all contributing and making calls because what I'm learning is that's the way to do it, man. Everybody has input, everyone has opinion, and you just flow with it. The reason we got to that spot is because we had a conversation and I was talking to the guys and talking to the team. I was saying, hey, I think we should just go up a little bit long farther, and they're like, you know what? I think you're right, let's go. So same thing. We were kind of like, well, should we leave? And and uh AJET to his credit, he says, Man, I think we should give it about five or ten minutes. And we go, okay, cool. But that's the thing. So we just said, Alright, let's do it. Sure enough, so I get back down, I'm in the prone, Ryan's to the left, he's about 15 yards to my left, AJ's in the middle. And sure enough, here they come. Guys, I spot them. Um, well, I'll say this when I finally spotted them, they were, oh my gosh, they were right there. But they came up to the left a little bit on cousin Ryan's side. And so I'll kind of fast forward to our discussions on what happened before I tell you, like, walk you through that scenario. But he goes, I didn't even have time to get my bow, and I was not gonna blow it for the team because they came right at me. And so he didn't even have a chance to draw to get to it at all. He just said, nope. So he decided to lay just on this log a little bit to the to the side, and they came right in on him, and then they funneled through the middle, kind of almost like shoot your lanes kind of a style. Then they funneled right to H and I kind of caught him on my peripheral. But remember, I'm on the prone position, and I have this log to my left, so I can't see, and I didn't want to move because I didn't want to be the guy either uh to bust him. Um, but they're right in front of us, and guys, it was chaos. Cousin Ryan's telling us, shoot, shoot, shoot, and I can only see like half of a turkey out of my left, to my left. And the reason we didn't shoot was because they told me later um AJT saw two huge mature toms behind him, and they kind of held up, and I'll get to that in a minute. But two big toms held up. There's two toms in front of us. I didn't know that because here's the crazy thing about this little dome I was talking about. Uh cousin Ryan all the way to the left could probably shoot middle left. A Jet can kind of shoot both because he was in the middle, but if they got to about the middle of between me and AJet, cousin Ryan couldn't see the turkeys. And if they were on between kind of towards Ryan's side, I couldn't see them anyways, because well, I wasn't going to move, and I had a log. And so they're right in front of us, and it was kind of chaotic, guys. We're like, shoot, shoot, shoot. And A Jet's looking at me and he's like, Are you ready? And I'm like, I go, I'm basically shaking my head, no, because I I without shaking my head, I was shaking my head probably in my mind, but I I said no. And we're whispering, and and he's and he's like, Okay, and then I then I think he sees the toms, the big toms, I'm doing parentheses, because I didn't never I never saw them. Um they were like 50-60 yards held up, and these two these two toms, like guys, I kid you not, my cousin Ryan got some amazing video. They were right on us. I mean, you want to talk about an encounter, they were probably 10 yards, maybe 10 steps in front of me, in the prone position when they finally came across my face. And so they they came across left to right, and they they go in front of us, and then I see one. Because once again, I'm not moving. I held, I was holding. And I have our decoy. That's another thing. When we were cresting that hill, we didn't even have a chance to put the decoy out. We wanted a little bit more out front of us, but they were running at us, and we didn't want to get busted. So I literally went to the right here, put the hand decoy out, and the we had a strutter jake out, and we just bailed back to the only brush we had on this entire clearing. And we just dove into it and left the decoy. Well, those jakes didn't really see that decoy. I think they were coming to uh the amazing calling that these guys were doing, and guys, my heart sunk. We didn't shoot initially right in front of us. We were kind of letting them do that thing, and uh fast forward AJET's like, hey, I was waiting for those big ones to come, and then we could maybe get multiple down. Well, just to my right, they were kind of cresting over the hill, and guys, my heart sunk. I at twenty-five yards I could see them. At 3035, they were gone because of this little this this dome I was calling it, this hillside. And guys, they got out of sight for like a second or two, but in that may maybe even f a little bit more than that, my heart sunk because of the show that they put on and just this grind we've been doing and hiking and working so hard for the week. My heart sunk. I don't know if I can't remember if somebody called or made a noise with their call or not. I don't know, I don't think we did, but for some reason they kind of circled back and then they caught the decoy to my right. And they just kind of both of them zoned in on it and were just not, you know, not so wary, and they just zoned in on this and I'm I'm yelling or not yelling, but I'm whispering, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot. And they start to move again like they're gonna go away, and this time I don't think they're coming back, and so um I rip a shot, man, I stoned it, and um it just went straight to the ground, and we went run AJT tried to get a shot on that other one, but man, that other one flew or tried to fly instantly, so uh it was a tough shot, but we knocked that one straight down, and man, guys, we were so pumped up, and and I just tell you, it was I I didn't think I'd be that pumped up on uh getting a turkey like that, but it was just a culmination of of that work and effort and the good, better, best. Guys, I was already on on just great vibes hanging with with the guys, and and we were laughing, and and when you're in the backcountry hiking like that, you're putting in all the work. And it was just so awesome to have everyone's willingness to get one. And I'll say this cousin Ryan and AJT were I'm thankful to have them on this trip and thankful to have them on that Saturday. Guys, they were so pumped up and fired up for me to get a turkey after 20 years, almost like as much as they would act if they got one. So that meant so much to me, guys. But man, we put that burden down, and uh we got my tag on it, and we were just kind of celebrating. And guys, we did that that hike all the way back to the truck. The day's not over. We kind of regrouped, got some water, got a few snacks, and yep, we looked right at that hill again and said, Let's do it again. And so we went to go chase one more time for the rest of the day, and we had one more crazy encounter. So we're hiking and we put even more miles. So we go past where we uh we go that same route, and right before we get to where we shot that turkey, guys, they sound off. So I don't know if they circle back to some of the same areas. Uh I want obviously I'm gonna keep learning and reading if I decide to go next year and try to uh be better. Um, but we hear them coming from like literally the area where we just shot like an hour ago. And we keep pressing, and then we hear one sound off again. So we just keep, we were literally the definition of run and gun. Kept moving, kept moving. Guys, once again, I live at almost a mile high. Um, so I felt like I was pretty in pretty good shape. But guys, we were hitting some rocks and some altitude there and some some rough terrain, and and man, it was just it was awesome, but it was definitely work. Um but these turkeys kept sounding off, so we kept moving. We were following them, following them. We did another set, and this turkey, I'm telling you what, was going off. And then he hung up, and so we were like, hey, let's just keep going at him. So, guys, we went as far as we could. There was a huge goalie in front of us, and he sounds off. Cousin Ryan, AJ drop their stuff, so I kind of put their stuff in a pile. I dive into the trees, so I'm just laying there. They start moving forward, and guys, they go about 15-20 minutes battle just back and forth with this turkey. Well, what we found out was there was a kind of a big uh goalie in between us, and he was probably level. We're talking we find this out later what we think. There was a huge valley or goalie in between us, but he was level with us, and there was like an access road, not like a truck road, but like almost like a forest service or like a side-by-side road that he was probably on. But I'm telling you what, guys, it's my hair stood up on the back of my neck. He it sounded like he was right there. They were calling back and forth. He was gobbling, getting aggressive, he was super hot. Uh Agent and Cousin Ryan were calling back. Um after talking to him afterwards, um, cousin Ryan, he's like, I thought he was coming right there. So he actually drew back a couple times getting ready. And AJ said he was ready, and then they never it never showed up and just shut off. And we're like, what is going on? Um and then about 15 minutes, this is about an hour now, we we try to go set up again. He starts making noise, and then we hear a hen below him. And that was it, guys. I think that hen took it, took him kind of down away from us. We tried to circle back and get on that road, like way above him, and just see if we could glass or to see him in there. Guys, we never heard him again. So these turkeys they are educated, but the highlight of it was is we actually got one. We worked our tail off, and I just want to talk about how thankful I am. So, and you guys know this, it's good, better, best. It was already leaning towards best uh or better, so to speak, because uh it was just an amazing time, and we grinded it uh to get this bird. And we worked so hard that I've talked about it before. I was okay with living with those results if I didn't get one and I was going home Sunday, and it's all good. You know, I could live with those results because we literally every anytime we had, we went and scouted, we went and looked, we hunted. And guys, this trip was amazing, you know. I and I talked about it, I put a post out on Instagram. But when you can call up your aunt and uncle, and they can, you know, you say, Hey, can I come stay at your house? You know, they're living life and doing their thing, and I'm just so thankful that you're like, Yeah, we got a room, you can you can rest and get your sleep and you know, get a hot shower. And guys, it was an amazing time. We we we broke bread, we laughed, we had a good time. You know, you recharge your batteries. It was so good to see AJT. You know, we hunted a little bit last year in duck season, but it's been a few years, and guys, it was just an awesome totality teamwork. We had, you know, AJT was driving every morning for us, so I was leaving from my aunt's to his house, and we'd hop in his truck and we'd go, and then cousin Ryan's willingness to drive, he drove another hour and a half from where he lives now back to his parents. And guys, it's just a teamwork, and I'm gonna keep saying it over and over again. These successes and these journeys, you can't do them alone. You can, I guess, technically, but it's not as fun, it's not as fulfilling, and it I believe it's super hard to be as successful as you are. And what better way to be success when you have some good good dudes, good people around you? So I want to give a big thanks to all of them. I I I I do mean that. It was an amazing time, and once again, these guys were as happy for me to get a turkey as if they got their own. And so I know they're gonna continue to chase, and I know they'll be getting theirs pretty soon here. Um, but I'm just so thankful for the mountain turkey trip this year. Um, couldn't have done it without all these people. Even the partners, flight day, retail USA, Les Schwab, guys. You know we can't get this done alone. And so, guys, with that, that's the mountain turkey journey, man. Um I think I want to do it again next year. Uh but but for right now, I'm so I'm so happy and so full with with excitement, and uh, and I feel truly blessed to have these experiences, and I'm able to go do this, and I have people that just aren't ready to quit with me, and so that means a lot. Um uh, but guys, before I close this out, I want to thank the partners again. They helped this thing go. Retay USA. Check them out. The Game Lander gun is an amazing turkey gun. My favorite's the Retay Ace. It's kind of the do-all gun. Flight day ammunition, guys. I shot steel shot. You know, I understand there's TSS and there's other stuff. I'm not saying anything's better than anything. What I'm saying is I wanted to prove to myself Retay Ace, 12 gauge, steel shot, full choke, uh smoked a turkey at probably 25 yards, an amazing experience. You can save some money at checkout with flight day ammo at DD 10, and then les Schwab tires, guys. Like I said, all over the West. I trust them. I drive thousands of miles all year, have had zero issues. I said once again, or I was saying earlier, I went to the city. They had a brand new leschwab. The guys are popping up everywhere. My favorite dual tire, open range plus, and then duckdependent.shop guys, we put the those hats to the test. We were sweating in these things, hiking all over, um, taking them off to put masks on, putting them in brush. Guys are holding up. Absolutely. Check it out, duckdependent.shop guys, and I'm so thankful for this one, and I'll catch you on the next one.