opening week of turkey season with Dylan Mann

The time of year we all look forward to is finally here and we sat down with Dylan Mann to wrap up opening week. We also talked about aa very special call brought back to life by Black Label Game Calls.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Welcome to West Alabama Woodsman Podcast. I'm Clint. I'm Jason. I'm Jake. Hope you enjoy watching.

SPEAKER_02 0:14

Out front, out front. Bigger. Bigger.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Yeah, that's where I'm going to do it. This looks like a random meal.

SPEAKER_04 0:30

I'm done with that. I'm too old for them things. Them things are hurting me. Three and a half? Yeah, I can't mess with them.

SPEAKER_03 0:36

I'll shoot them with my outgun. I'm still just, I guess, old school and hard-headed. I want every pellet I can get. Those right there will kill ten out of ten times. Oh yeah. 28 gauge.

SPEAKER_04 0:48

I kill a lot of turkeys with heavy shot.

SPEAKER_03 0:50

That's what I used to shoot. I love the heavy shot TSS.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

I've never shot them. I'd be a lot of man if I told you I did. I like them a lot. See, Dad, we used to always shoot five, six, and sevens. Mm-hmm. And heck, those are what, $5 a shell? I mean, they're very affordable. I remember it ain't.

SPEAKER_03 1:10

That shot is faster feet per second than a TSS.

SPEAKER_04 1:15

Those uh heavy 13s. I shot those. I remember those about $12 a box.

SPEAKER_03 1:21

I bought a box. We were messing around with the box.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

The handloads I'm shooting are $85 a box.

SPEAKER_03 1:27

We were messing around the pawn shop the other day, maybe brother work. Or tons of tons of power. And a box of Federal Grand Slams, a box of 10 for $27. I bought also. Yeah. So if it does get bad enough, I'll have plenty. I got a bunch of heavy shots. If you're getting a tight, I got a bunch of heavy shots.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

I think I got 12 boxes. I think I got seven boxes of tungsten hanging around. But we're going on a big trip out west for 10 days. I mean, we had five states, and all three of us shoot, you know. I think I got five.

SPEAKER_03 1:59

Jesus. Yeah. I was kind of scrambling trying to find a box of 12, 3.5, and couldn't. And finally found those rogues at Woods and Water. Well, then I go get my gun, uh, case out of the closet and all my stuff together, and I find a brand new box of Apex that I bought last year.

SPEAKER_04 2:21

I gotta give them a box of those.

SPEAKER_03 2:23

What, the Apex? I got one Federal that I've been holding on to. That's what I've been chambering.

SPEAKER_04 2:28

I found a box of Federals, too. I got some Federal. I usually get I'll find them on sale a lot all uh after season off.

SPEAKER_02 2:36

I got some Remingtons and I always shot Longbeard before I swapped to those hand loads.

SPEAKER_03 2:41

I'd like to try that new Winchester Longbeard XR TSS.

SPEAKER_02 2:47

Casey has them. They sell them in a box of 10.

SPEAKER_03 2:50

Has he shot them? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

Yeah, that's what I patterned his gun with.

SPEAKER_03 2:54

Patterned pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 2:55

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I got a picture of it.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

I mean, dude, I've heard they're bad to the bone. But I mean, I don't know. I had bad luck with Longbeard XRs before. I've shot two turkeys before and never killed them. Blood everywhere, it just didn't fly.

SPEAKER_04 3:08

I I haven't shot any Winchester, so those 20 gauge at 40 yards. Double X number sixes. Copper plated lead. That's the only Winchester I've I've shot. That's at 40? Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

That's dead every time.

SPEAKER_04 3:20

Like the Winchester Supremes or Super Supremes. That's what I shot. No, they had they had a black, they had the black ones too. They were the high velocity.

SPEAKER_03 3:28

That's what I got.

SPEAKER_04 3:29

They were a quarter inch, uh quarter ounce lighter, a little bit faster than the red shells. I always shot the red ones.

SPEAKER_03 3:37

Well, Dylan, man, how was your opening week of turkey season? Rough. Real rough. How about yourself? We was able to do it one time and then that was that was it. Um I had two birds in my face after that. One of them being a Jake. I mean, within eight steps, he was. Wide open.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

Man.

SPEAKER_03 4:00

And then the other one. You wanted to shoot him, didn't you? Hey, when he came around them briars and you walk around that tree, he was, he, he's lucky his beard stepped out before his head did. I don't sound about the kind of tree was already. When he came around that tree from a right and I seen that, I'm like. What a d like a flat tire.

SPEAKER_04 4:26

Man, he'd like, man, what the heck?

SPEAKER_01 4:28

Man, I got on a bird last year that did the same thing. It was Super Jake. I had no idea. He's gobbling like a man. It's whatever gob. Yeah. I made a big loop down this on this guy. I went down a massive ravine, got into a bottom, went around and got on the backside of this field from. I yelped twice. He cut me off both times. I was like, you know, this is it. Man, he hit the ground and things sticking out like that. Look like he had a little pin stuck out sticking out of his pocket. Well, I've told y'all about the one I hunted for three days straight.

SPEAKER_02 4:52

Turned out to be a super Jake. God, I was mad. I almost killed him. I was that mad.

SPEAKER_03 4:58

Yeah. I was on him. I mean, I was had the gun cheek, shouldered. And when he stepped out, I'm like, I get to look at he's so close, I'm like, this one, he sure ain't got no spurs, ain't got no beard rod. You know, I'm trying to justify. Trying to make him a two-year-old. A goblin.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

I've done that before. You've seen him in there and half struck and you still can't tell, and you're just like him on his boat fan up one time.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

It's like it's like one of them dams that stands out in the field forever that weighs like 40 pounds. The longer it stands there, the bigger it gets.

SPEAKER_04 5:30

The bigger it gets. Man, that that place that I had in Pekins County, I don't I don't hunt it much anymore. But for whatever reason, those turkeys, I don't know if they would, you know, they bred real early or or or or whatever, but and you know, start sitting early. But you you would I I actually killed uh uh Jake about I don't know it's three or four years ago. And he walked in there, he walked through them hardwoods and so on, he was pretty I mean he would but he was up and down those little drainages and he would and he would get closer and closer. He had a full fan and he had a full gobble, and he gobbled good. And he came up on that nearest knoll, and I shot him, and I walked over there, and I was like, hmm. No spurs, no beard. No spurs. I mean, they were there, but they were yeah, and I was like, you know, sometimes you can't see, you know, sorry, you know, I guess I should have looked for the beard, but I didn't. That was only like the second one, the second or third of mistakenly.

SPEAKER_03 6:30

Man, you can still justify him as a mature turkey man. I've killed a full fan.

SPEAKER_04 6:34

I had a full fan.

SPEAKER_03 6:35

I've I've killed I kept it. I'm about to say that's yeah, that's not a jig, I don't think.

SPEAKER_04 6:40

Yeah, I don't I don't know. But I did kill one last year. Yeah, I think I killed one last year that had no spurs.

SPEAKER_03 6:48

That's what I was about to tell you. No spurs.

SPEAKER_04 6:50

I mean, they had like a little bitty half of your fingernail on his leg. I mean, it was no bump or nothing. I was like, I've heard about it. I said, man, that's so cool.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

I've killed three like that in my life. I've killed one with no spurs. I've killed one that had one on the left leg, not one on the right, and then a year later I shot another one as vice versa. That was in the two-year span. I shot birds with missing spurs. I guess that's a genetic thing. I truly don't know how that goes.

SPEAKER_03 7:15

Reed killed one three years ago, had no spurs, had a funky looking middle toe, too. It was weird. But I killed one two years ago. I mean, he was gobbling with another bird. I mean, it was two of them there. I mean, full fan, you know, nine-inch beard, you know, whatever. And he had, like you said, had nothing. I mean, he was slick on the back.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:40

Like a hen's leg.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Yeah, about to say it didn't even look like it started to grow. There's a scale out where it's supposed where his spark was supposed to be at. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:46

Oh, I had a picture of that thing. I'll show it. It was like a big thing.

SPEAKER_03 7:49

I got some of that one too.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

He was, I don't know, I'm sure I just threw them feet away, but well, we struggled a little bit this week, but for the opening, what uh youth opener, we took a little kid named Ty Whitaker, him and his dad, they got in a turkey hunting about three years ago. And uh he's never seen a strutter. They've he's heard a ton gobboys, but seeing the property that they hunt, it's pretty I understand why he has the same one. It's rough out there. I mean, it's big mountain and it goes down to a big bench, then it drops back down a big bench, and all these benches is where their green fields are.

SPEAKER_04 8:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

So I mean, if you're going downhill, good luck. I wish you the best. Because if he's coming uphill, he's spotting you from every angle you can imagine, you know. Well, it butts up to the back of public land. So um the Forever Wildland is right off of uh Tabernacle. And we got in, set up, or I wouldn't even say set up. We sat down to see if we get a talk. Man, that is insane. See, that's what mine looked like. Yeah. Pretty cool. It is. I mean, it's pretty neat stuff there. But uh anyway, so we we just sat on the top of this big ravine. We got big draw here, and uh I don't even know what to call this. It looked like a gorge on our left side. And uh about 6 30, I heard the first gobble, and it was way off. I mean, it was bad enough. We were sitting there all contemplating if we actually heard one. Well, second time I heard it, and I didn't 100% there's a bird down there. So we took off down that massive hill, and uh we set up on one bench and nothing. We cruise down to the other, get on it, yelp off of it, nothing, and we still don't hear anything. Well, when you get down to the third bench, there's a big knoll that goes up, and that's where we're sitting at, and we couldn't hear anything. Man, we go over that knoll, they like to blew our hats off. We could never hear them. It's all that sound was going straight up straight up. Yeah. So when I heard them first, we're at the top of the mountain. That's the only reason we heard them is because we were above them. I mean, off the map, like off of R, we were right at 800 feet above the tops of the trees that they were roosted in. God gracious. So, I mean, to give you an idea of how high we were, I mean, we were on up there. Well, the birds were now they're at eye level, so we just kind of sit back in this little pine thicket and just wait. We hear them hit the ground and we try to make a big loop. And this is our first time hunting here, so we make a big whoops. So we drop off the left side of the hill, and I call this unnecessary walking, you know? And we go down just to meet the Sipsi River. And there's a big bend, and man, let me tell you, it looked like a tornado come through there. I don't know how those trees got laid down like that. There's no getting through it. I mean, it's stuck like that going through it, and he's just gobbling his head off. So we had to walk back up this massive mountain and go back around.

SPEAKER_02 10:38

I don't like to bend there just to watch you walk up that hill.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Buddy, with a camera, that is a long way around, let me tell you. Because Russell's camera is one of those big ones, man. Oh man, that's a long walk up there. Heck, I'd rather carry the gun, you want to be honest. Decoys, personally. I mean, Jesus. But uh, we got back to the top of the hill and we got him fire off and we sat there for a little bit because we couldn't get a pinpoint on him. Uh, where he was at, we're sitting in the road and road goes straight down into this bottom. And there's a big knoll that wraps around what he gobbles, of course, naturally, you know, where you can't hear him. So it was around the knoll. All we know is that he's to our left, where we don't know. Well, anyways, we waited about 10-15 minutes, and uh me and Brussels were talking back and forth, you know, just waiting our options, you know, because the last thing you want to do is get in this hardware bottom and he's standing there and it's over. Yeah. So, well, we went back and forth, and he said, you know, he gobbled far to our left, let's risk it. And, you know, yeah, let's do it. So we drop in there and we just get set up, uh, no decoys, no nothing like that. And uh we just sit down, listen. Crow comes over to top of us as we're walking in, and he goes to calling, and one strikes off about 150 yards from us. So we're just like, yeah, let's just hang tight for a little bit. So we sat down, yelped, he didn't answer. We yelped again, nothing. So we just kind of hunkered down for a minute. And uh, so this is the first time I've been this close to a turkey, you know, since last season. So you you know the little jitters, the little feelings you get. You think you hear a gobble, you think you hear drumming. And Russell, he could tell you a story a whole lot better. I think it was more funnier on his end than it would be coming out of my mouth. But I was sitting there and I was just like, man, I hear drumming. I just kept telling myself, you're crazy. You know, you ain't you don't hear it. And then I Russell peeks around the tree and he said, You hear drumming? And I said, I knew I was not crazy. And I was like, Yes, I hear it. And well, about five minutes passed, and then you hear it, it's plain as day now. So I told uh Ty, he was sitting behind me watching the road bed that was behind us, and I looked around at him and I said, Hey buddy, you comfortable? And he said, Yeah, and I said, Well, you're about to get uncomfortable. I said, Hand me your gun and crawl around this tree. And I said, It's gonna be loud, it's okay, just crawl around here. And he said, You see a turkey? I said, Not yet. And I said, Hand me your gun, come on. So he hands it over and I got the camera set up here, filming the bottom. So he hands me his gun and he crawls around and I get him set up, and man, it's a good thing that he moved that quick because Russell looked at me and he asked if he could move quick. And I said, Yeah, like y'all gotta do it now. So they look back around behind the tree, and by the time Russell, he was he's been laid down, like he's laying down facing the dirt. Because as soon as he gets to the tree, first hand steps out. And they're walking that water line from the flood that happened two weeks ago. Well, when it pushed back, the river's still kind of flooded out, but not awful. But they're walking that water line, and I see the first hen. And so I'm thinking, you know, dang, it's just a hen. Well, then you hear, you know, he just strikes up, you go, mmm. And I was like, okay, so he's behind them. Well, here comes two hens, here comes another two hens. So I start cheating the way that they're, you know, on the path they're walking, and I pick him out. All I see is his fan. And uh told Ty, his uh Chris got on his knees, he was in a rough spot, and I told him, I said, Hey, you gotta stay still, I see him. And then Ty said, You see him? And I said, Yes. I told him, Stay still, don't move. He's kind of just it's gonna take a minute. Patience is gonna kill here. So he ended up following those hands, and this is about five minutes after me and Ty last talked, and he gets in front of us. And I'm watching him the whole way, I'm shaking like a leaf, you know. It's got me tore up. And uh Ty kept asking, he said, What's that noise? And I said, drumming. He said, That's he said, or what'd he say? He said it sounds like two bricks falling. It was I forgot what he said. He said something with two bricks, but I said, Yeah, I said that's him drumming. And I said, Do you see him? And he said, No, sir. And I said, You don't see him? He said, No. And he started moving. I said, Don't move. So use your eyes. I said he's right down your gum barrel. And I mean, we were in the thicker part that opens up into a pretty hardwood. So I got to where he was sitting at. There's a big gum ball and some saplings, pine saples around it. I mean, yeah, it was kind of tough for him to see him at first. But after I told him that, it was 15, 20 seconds later, he goes, I see him. And he starts shaking instantly, you know. And man, that that warned me up. I think it tore me up more than it was tearing him up. Uh, I started shaking with him. And uh we watched that bird practically do his own pattern. We ended up getting in there close and whatever, whatever pattern they've been following, you know, for however long, you know, three weeks, four weeks. Well, we got to watch it firsthand. And uh he ended up strutting to our left, and I was on him the whole time with a camera. And I turned around and or I looked down at Ty and I said, Are you ready? And he said, Yeah. And I said, All right, well, get ready. Well, he steps out in the lane and starts strutting. And then you'll hear in the video, uh, you'll hear me say, Russell Call, Russell Call, and he's Jake Hilps. Dude picks his head up, and that's all she wrote. And you know, so the kid was tore up about it. But was that his first bird? That was his first time seeing a long beard like wild honey with the gun in his hands.

SPEAKER_04 15:52

So that is so cool.

SPEAKER_02 15:54

Yeah, I actually got a and you got it on video for him. That's even oh yeah, even the first one, man.

SPEAKER_04 16:00

I actually killed her turkey that's one. It was hard for me to which I shake bad anyway. It was hard for me to hold the camera. So I said, I can't even hold the camera still. The hold the phone still, you know, take pictures.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

You know, Chris, uh, Ty's dad, when he was sitting behind me, he said you see the turkey, and I held my hand up and it's just sitting here shaking. I'm like, oh yeah, I see you know. But that was him with his first long beard. That's awesome. Really good, good, good. Man, I'm talking about pretty too. That's awesome. Pretty good. So I'm gonna you'd dang near thought he was a uh Ossiola. Yeah. With them dark ones, you know. But where's the video at? Sorry, it's on a computer screen, but here y'all go.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

No, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

Dude, best feeling in the world. That's cool, man. So we had a lot of fun that morning, and then opening morning, just long stories. They still do me like that. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. If they still do you like that, that means you love it. I mean, how many people have you heard? I mean, especially, you know, people that we grew up listening to or watching, you know, Michael Waddell, the Primos guys, I mean, you name them. Every one of them has always said the statement in some video at some time, the day that it doesn't treat me like that, I'll quit.

SPEAKER_04 17:19

You know, you know, and it does everybody different. You know, you know, even my wife and she killed her turkey last Sunday morning. I said, Did you get nervous? No, not really. No, like, what's wrong with you? What? What the hell do you mean? Your woods whipped.

SPEAKER_03 17:37

What do you mean you didn't you didn't get nervous? You didn't get man, they cannot be a turkey anywhere around. You know, I'll go sit in the evenings. I'll I'll I'll ghost hunt one, deer hunting one. I enjoy doing that. And man, I'll I'll play something in my head. Like, uh, you know, like imagining him slipping over. And then I'll I'll get worked up and ain't nothing there.

SPEAKER_04 18:00

I just think about it. Yeah, just imagine he was like, ooh, I can see him coming from right there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

And then you're like, where is he? Man, if you could ask my wife, I said that on camera today, trying to get him to gobble again. I had it recording there. Ain't no telling how many times I said, man, he'd look pretty if he walked on the train. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:16

Yeah. Oh. That's why I got third guy killed yesterday morning. I was like, man, he would be so beautiful. Yeah, how that gets me. And he would just walk right through there. Well, you know how yesterday morning was. I mean, that's terrible. I walked outside and I was like, oh no. There's no way I could ever go back and get back into bed after I got up to go turkey hunting in turkey season. I've never done that. I was like, hey, there's no way. I would sleep in. Everybody was like, I didn't go hunting this one. How did he go? I was too tired. Too tired? What do you mean you're too tired to go turkey in? I don't understand that. I don't get it. But you know, I live, I walked yesterday morning, I was like, if there was ever a time to go back to bed, it would have been yesterday morning. But it was like I was telling Trevor, you know, I said, all you gotta do is go. Go. I don't give a damn if it's if it's raining or it's, you know, obviously you can't go and sit in the rain the whole entire time, but if you could, you know, just go. Just go hunting. No matter what the conditions are. I don't care. So I walked out here saying I was like, oh, conditions are terrible. So anyway, I got, you know, I you know, I gotta go. I gotta go. So I went and I got in there and then I got about halfway down there. I knew there'd been some gobbler tracks, and one of my buddies that hunts up there, he said, uh, he said, we saw a gobbler there at that gate the other day. I was like, okay, okay. And I was like, Lord, everybody and their brother would be watching him and he stopped and listening to him, you know. I thought, I might need to try to get rid of them or at least, you know, move on to the other county, you know, somebody, but anyway, I got uh I got down in there and you know, I wasn't really sure where they were. And I kept going and going, you know, and you gotta be careful on all that wind, because by the time you you get on one, you're gonna be right there on him, and that's exactly what happened. You know, but I got down in there, you know, and you, of course, I can't hear good anyway, and I have hearing aids, but you know, I thought I heard a turkey here, and I thought I heard a turkey there for you know, for sure. So I get a little closer and get a little closer, and I haven't called at this point, you know. I'm I've I owl and several times, and I don't I don't like to owl a lot, I just don't do that anymore. But you know, I owed a few times and you know, didn't hear anything. It got a little closer and got a little closer, and it goes all the way down to a pretty hardwood bottom and an SMZ. And and I sit there and I said, All right, that's what I can call now. So I get there close. So as soon as I cut, I yelped a couple of times and didn't hear anything. So I cut real light, and as soon as I did, turkey gobbled, and he was not very far. It's like, oh my god, so I dove over that little beach tree and sat there and a turkey gobbled a couple times. Well, this turkey gobbling and I heard another I I thought I heard another turkey. Like I said, the wind was terrible. And all those get everything's getting leaves now, so it's getting noisier. And I mean it was just a that sounded like it, that really sounded like a turkey. Yeah, this turkey gobbled a couple more times, and he wasn't coming, you know, and then a coat rock walks through, and I was like, Well, that's it. Let's this is done. I know he's done, but about ten minutes later, he actually gobbled again. I said, Okay, well, we still and this and like I still wasn't a hundred percent that that what I had been hearing was a turkey. So then a hawk comes over and he screams, and then I thought I heard that, and then that turkey gone. I said, that's another turkey. So this turkey, he's kind of working away. You know, he ain't he ain't really going very far, but you know, he's still right there in the vicinity, you know, he's still killable. And uh I call some more too. And this turkey over here, he's I can I said, all right, like 10 minutes later, I said, that's a turkey. And he's coming. So I go down in that bottom. You know, he's far enough away, I thought I ain't gonna spook him. So I get Turn to get on, get one of those off. I call them a lazy boy recliner oak tree. A perfect tree. Man, it was one of that tree. It thing was this big right now. It was in that wall, you know, in that body, in a wet bottom. So, you know, it had big old roots. You know, they started to come off.

SPEAKER_01 22:13

Man, perfect fit you perfect.

SPEAKER_04 22:15

Holy perfect. That was about that damn wide, you know. Anyway, I was sitting there and I'm like, ooh, this is cuffy, you know. And I was sitting there and I thought, I was sitting there the whole time, this turkey's coming. I said, you know, and I was like, that's a big old cutover out there. And I know what he's gonna do. I know he ain't gonna bail off in this bottom. And he didn't. So it's not a hundred yards. I could see, you know, he's gobbling, he's he's getting closer. I mean, he he's coming. You know, I'd I'd call, I'd called real soft to him, let him know where I was after I after I had seen him, I called real soft. And then the next time I saw him, he was 75 yards. Well, he's still in the edge of the cutover, and I was like, and there's a bank right here where I had just walked down. And there's a tripod sitting right there. Some guys that deer hunt there. And I was like, oh Lord, if he gets a and I knew what is I knew exactly what he was gonna do. I knew he wasn't gonna walk in them hardwoods. And he got 75 yards where he could see me and he did that. I said, come on, come on, come on, come on. He just kept right on walking. Oh Lord. So when he went behind that bank, I went, I turned as far as I could, you know, so I could still shoot. If he came down right here, come down right here. If he went over this way, I was gonna be messed up. I said, Ain't no way. He gobbles a couple times. Well, he he's getting closer. By this time, you know, he's I think he's pretty, I mean, he's well within range, you know. Last time he gobbled, well, the next time I saw I I hear and that fan comes up. All I can see was the back of his fan. I said, just walk down the hill, walk down the hill, because you know I'm pointed at him right here. So if he goes to the right anymore, I said, we don't have a problem. Well, what does he do? He goes to the right a little bit, you know, he stands there. He gobbles again. I mean, it's just I mean, that's right there in your face. And I, you know, I still can't see it. I can't see his head. And uh, there's two big poplar trees. There's a big one here and a big one that were kind of staggered. Well, what's he do? He goes to the right. And I was like, I can't, I I I can't do, I can't I can't go anymore. You can't move. You know, you can't move, you adjust, because you know then he's gonna he's gonna freak out. So, like a ninja, when he went by when he went behind them two poplar trees, I mean, I'm sitting there like this. I just go, swap sapling right there. I mean, all in one motion. I picked that gun up and put it on the other side of that sapling. And by the time I did that, and the time I got settled in, he walked, he walks out behind them two poplar trees and he goes, and I'm sitting there and I'm like, God, I've never done this before. And I was like, where's my sight at? And I was like, oh, that was there it is. Boom. Shot him left-handed. Shot him left-handed. That's the first turn I've ever shot left-handed. I've heard about it a lot. That's crazy. But it was like, you know, it was. Well, I was afraid. I was like, well, I mean, when it when it got lined up when when that when that I had to have a rifle sight over and under I shoot, because it shot bottom low and to the left. I know somebody else has got one too, and it shot low and to the left for whatever reason. But you know, I put rifle sights on it, you know, it shoots dead on. But I mean, as soon as it got settled in, I mean, I put it right there. And I mean, it was almost like, you know, you anytime, especially when you're bow hunting or ride hunt or whatever, if you take a half of a second more or a second more just to make sure everything's lined up quick, it's a hundred times better. Oh, yeah. You take it just to, I mean, I'm when I say extra time, I mean like a half a second more. And I made a little half a second more, and I even squeezed the trigger. So with my left hand. I don't know if I've ever done it.

unknown 25:48

Work.

SPEAKER_04 25:50

But it it it was that's crazy. It was good stuff. It was he was that was a beautiful, beautiful turkey. Well, they're all beautiful, but you know.

SPEAKER_01 26:00

I mean, heck with that wind and stuff too. I mean, the sun was shining yesterday, so I couldn't imagine that they're looking up at him. I mean, you know, that's by far my prettiest view. I tell people all the time, you know. Especially when you know, like them rough winners, too, like it's hard to get out of bed, like, you know, and then you walk outside and you're just like, man, I'm not gonna hear it anything. Yeah, yeah, you know how many times I said that and I was right? Yeah, and then yesterday morning was one of those.

SPEAKER_04 26:25

I was like, yeah, I was like, man, this is gonna be terrible. But it, you know, that's like I was telling Trevor after I got home, and I said this a while ago, I said, you know, people always ask you, you know, they're they always like, what's the best, what's the best days to go turkey on?

SPEAKER_03 26:39

Every day.

SPEAKER_04 26:40

Every day. If it's legal and it's in season and you alive, every day. I don't care if it's raining, windy, bluebird, you know, people are like, oh, they don't gobble a whole lot when it's cloudy. Baloney. Yeah, they do. I've probably heard less turkeys on bluebird days than I have on cloudy. You know, you just you just have to go.

SPEAKER_01 27:02

Was it last year or the year before? It was last year. Or no, it was year before. Yeah, because I I remember watching two birds gobble with 60 yards.

SPEAKER_04 27:11

That's the morning I went. Okay. It was 20 yards.

SPEAKER_02 27:15

Really? Yep. I missed it 20 yards two years ago opening days. It makes me sick. I never want a turkey at 20.

SPEAKER_04 27:22

I don't even want them at 25. Heck with the new tungsten.

SPEAKER_01 27:26

I mean, heck I was talking to a guy, a buddy of mine, last night at the uh turkey radio, and you know, I've always had I haven't done it yet. I did miss one last year this past spring in Maine. I missed one completely. He took he was at four yards. And for some reason in my head, instead of just putting it in his wing, and you know, like he's standing sideways to broadsided to me. So instead of just putting it right there in his wing, yeah, yeah. Oh, I'm shooting my head. I was like, you know, blow it up. Shooting for the head. I mean, I just am. Man, I'm shooting for the head. I did some research and stuff. My pattern was a little bigger than a quarter going by his head. I had a better chance of having a 22 and putting in the side of his head.

SPEAKER_04 28:07

I shot one, I got a video of the turkey that when I finished my grand slam in South Dakota last May. You got a video. You can see it. Yeah, I shoot the turkey in the front. I mean, I called to him one time. I mean, I was I'd set I'd sat there for like 10 minutes listening and watching. There was no more waiting. And I that turkey, I shot that turkey in his truck. And you you can see, you can see it go by the back of his head at like 23 yards. You can see I got you can put it in slow motion, and you can see the you can see the wad of the shot. And I mean it's it I mean it's like that. And it goes by the side of his head, and I know it went to the back of his head because it spun his head this way. Instead of laying it over. So I know it didn't get him with a full load. It hit him on the it hit him on the back side of the head and it spun his head around it.

SPEAKER_02 28:55

Gave him my haircut.

SPEAKER_04 28:56

Yeah, you can watch it in slow motion, it's cool, but it you I this and I I I used to not shoot tights, I shot a full choke for especially with tungsten for whatever since I started shooting it twelve, ten or twelve years ago. But you know, my wife bought me that little over and oner for my birthday last year, so I was like, all right, here we go back to a short gun and tight chokes. Oh, yeah. So that's what I'm and I'm I missed one with that gun last year. Then I got a good follow-up shot.

SPEAKER_01 29:26

Well, see, uh a lot of people, man, when it comes to TSS, they they really don't understand the power that that shell truly has. No, no, no, they do no they do not. Like the extra full, like everybody shoots it. Like I shoot one in mine, but my you look at your restrictions, learn your restrictions and stuff, you know. That's what I try to tell all my friends. Because I tell them, you know, but my Mossberg, I shoot a 690, they're like a 90. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I kill I shot one on accident. I was my I was way off. When he was coming in strutting in Florida, I said, you know, that's about 50. And I squeeze off. Well, I'll walk out there, get to him, and I got to the point where, you know, I was like, dang, that's about 50. And he was 20 yards past that. Yeah. I pull up my rangefinder to get to him, and I go back to the tree that I was sitting on, it was 71 yards, and that's with a 690, number nine APA. The first time I ever mine's a 665.

SPEAKER_04 30:19

The first time I ever shot tungsten was in Florida with my well my buddy Terry Gibson. He that's when he started, he had been shooting, somebody had been loading that tungsten for him for a couple of years. He said, I got some of these shells you need to shoot. And I was like, you know, look, man, I shoot heavy shot, I'm good. I don't, you know, I don't need anything. These things that he said, you might want to try these. I said, all right, whatever. So he brought something. I was shooting a 12 gauge at the time. And uh that that turkey came in there and he he said, he said, and he was getting a little squirrel and he was in that pasture, and Terry said, You better kill him. And I was like, it's too far. He said, he ain't too far. And I thought he was 50. Well, he wasn't 50. Well, I shot the turkey, and I walk out there, and he, you know, which everybody's like, Oh, he didn't flop a bit, you know. Oh no, you killed him, you know, but some of them flop, some of them don't. I don't can't ever on any know any rhyme or reason, whether they're 10 yards or 50 yards, whatever. They some of them flop, some of them don't, whatever. But I got out there to that turkey, he didn't flop. There was blood on the ground behind him. Oh, yeah. And that told me he got passed through through the head, and his wing was broken. And I stepped it off at 62 steps.

SPEAKER_01 31:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:27

I said, there's never a reason to shoot tons in IL-12 games.

SPEAKER_01 31:31

Oh man.

SPEAKER_04 31:32

That bird that is some deadly, deadly stuff.

SPEAKER_01 31:35

Man, I still wish I had a picture of that bird I shot in Florida. Uh, you know, I just thought it was just like any other shell when you shot them before. You know, you you shoot them at what 50 yards? What's the farther shot y'all taking with the shells before TSS? Like you shoot them at what, 50? They're still flopping pretty good.

SPEAKER_03 31:52

Oh, yeah, there wasn't none of that. Uh I'm shot in there and hanging out for a second because then you get to shot on the next one. No, you jumped up and you put your hands on it. Running. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:00

You better put your hands on it. See, I I shot one accidentally in Texas one time. It was probably 20 years ago. I shot one in Texas and I thought, oh, that turkey is 55 yards. I thought I can kill him. You know, that was back in my patterning days and shooting every shell, known to man, all that stuff. But and I shot that turkey when I got out and he was he was alive. He was very well, I knocked him down. When I got, I could move faster then than I can now. Oh, yeah. When that thing was up in a cedar tree, and we got cactus and cedar tree stickers all in me, and I grabbed that turkey, and I grabbed his head, and he was very much alive. That was it, that was like 64 steps. Man. See that one over there. I would knowingly do that, you know, and I haven't since then, you know. But you can kill him with tungsten very easily farther than that.

SPEAKER_01 32:47

Yeah, that one in Florida, like I said. I mean, that was a complete accident shooting one that far. I mean, you know, that was a misjudgment on me. He was in a big wide open pasture, I was just up against a pine tree, you know, looking through saplings. Complete misjudgment on me. But I get out there to him, and I like I said, I mean, he ain't moving. And I turn around and range found the tree, and I mean, he's picking up his wing. And then so I pick him up and you know, um end his life there. But man, I got to thinking that is just insane. And when I got back to the house, so the lodge that I was staying at is God, probably 800 yards across this pasture. Well, I just pick him up and go on, you know. I sat down with him, said my little prayer like I always do, and you know, thank God for saying it again and go on. And I get over there and I sit down in my chair, and I had a little dive bomb seat, a little khaki one that Ashman got me for Christmas. And I sat down, and when I got up, there's blood all over it. And I was thinking, man, you know, so I took my pants off in the bathroom, looked at them, and I was covered head to toe. I mean, I'm talking about from the top of my waist to my boot. It was fun.

SPEAKER_04 33:51

This thing definitely, definitely stuff. Yeah. And you know, they say you know, they talk about how hard it is. You know, I'll put some I'll put some of that, you know, something that I that I dug out of a turkey, you know. I put that stuff when I first started shooting in Florida. And usually you don't, you know, I know now when we eat them now, you don't, you don't, I I ain't never bit down on no tungsten. I don't want to. In a turkey bread. Cause it because it zips right through it, you know. Like that turkey. I made it, I know I made a good shot on a turkey yesterday morning, because when I cleaned him, there was there was nothing in the breasts. You know, of course, you know, sure it was that big, you know, when it went by, when it went in him. But, you know, you can take that stuff. We put I put some mode on an anvil and hit it with a hammer, and it'll dent that anvil. It won't do anything to the, it won't dismember or flatten the shot or anything. It was crazy.

SPEAKER_01 34:41

Yeah, so that's the pattern I meant to show y'all earlier. That is dead. That's mine at 45 yards. 45? That's 45. That is nasty. I can't shoot nothing like that. And so I put it on cardboard here, and there it is, the 690 Indian Creek, and I have all the specs and stuff in the shell that I was shooting. That is 507 pellets in the 10-inch circle at 42 yards. That's insane.

SPEAKER_04 35:03

Is that a three-inch shell?

SPEAKER_01 35:05

That is a three-inch shell. That's why I tell people all the time you shoot three and a half tungsten, man, that's just overkill. Yeah. That's just whooping you on the back end.

SPEAKER_04 35:13

If I didn't shoot automatic, I there's no way I would. Yeah. I've seen a lot of turkeys die with that tungsten. I thought that's some that's some bad stuff.

SPEAKER_03 35:21

Oh, yeah, and you know, a couple of my buddies. We uh we were talking about this the other day. Shooting a 20 versus a 12. And I've seen some people shooting with that 20, and he just, it's like he just lays down. Yeah, that's what I saw. I'll kill a lot of things. There ain't no flopping there. I mean, it's but I've seen more birds, I guess you could say flop after being shot with a 12 TSS versus a 20. It just hits him so dang hard, it just rolled him. I watched I watched Kyle shoot one the other day. He when he hit that bird, it rolled him. That's why he wasn't flopping off, it rolled him. He was shooting three and a half inch heavy shot.

SPEAKER_04 36:04

Oh God. Now that turkey yesterday morning, I saw you know, like I said, when I when I squeezed that trigger, you know, my my my I did I didn't flinch. I didn't, you know, when I squeezed, and when that when that gun went off, I saw his head fold back. I mean, it folded all the way back, and then he just fell right back over. Yeah, you fed him every pellet, innit?

unknown 36:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:25

That's how that one did. I killed the other one.

SPEAKER_04 36:26

All right, I I put it right there on it on his wattles, and all of his waddles right here were just they had little blood splotches all over them.

SPEAKER_01 36:34

Oh yeah. I mean, heck, the shell that I shoot, you know, the pattern and stuff I just showed y'all, like I'm a nerd when it comes to what I shoot, but I like to know what is coming out of my.

SPEAKER_04 36:42

I used to do that. I don't do that anymore with all these seven and eights and nine shots.

SPEAKER_01 36:46

Oh Lord, yeah. I mean, it's kind of pointless too, but I'm still at the point where I like to make the shells, you know. But like, you know, I'm the type of guy you open up my safe, and I have every shell in a ziplop bag labeled, pellets counted, everything. And TS or the uh Apex uh green leaves, it's nine and tens. There's a thousand and ninety-three pellets in it. That is lethal at 40. And I mean it goes on a thousand ninety-three. Yeah, like I said, that uh the cardboard picture I showed you of my pattern, there's five minutes.

SPEAKER_04 37:16

I didn't realize there was so many of that in there. That will be number nines, nines and tens.

SPEAKER_01 37:21

Oh lord, I I didn't realize there was that many. Man, that is a ton. That is. So, I mean, you know, and then with a tighter choke, I mean, man, you're throwing, you know, there's people out here with I forgot what build it was, a buddy of mine shoots, and I think it's crazy that he does it, but he is an excellent shot. And uh I've he's actually shot turkeys' heads. I'm talking about smooth off at 20 yards with it. But it's uh I know it's a six, sixty-five with uh, and he shoots seven and nines out of it. Apex seven and nines, man, he'd kill him at 80. I bet you he'd kill him at 90 with it. I mean, it is insane.

SPEAKER_04 37:59

I'm sure.

SPEAKER_01 38:00

I mean, when he goes out of state, you know, I'm old school and stuff, but I have a goal when I go out of state, and if he's around the 65 range, I'm squeezing.

SPEAKER_04 38:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:08

You know, I mean, I have a goal I want to hit, you know, all 49, just like a lot of people want to.

SPEAKER_04 38:13

That's what I'm working on now.

SPEAKER_01 38:14

Oh, yeah. I mean, it's fun. Don't get me wrong. I mean, like, we got a big trip this year, we're going back out west. Um if y'all saw my YouTube video that came out not too long ago, so Anthony, the my buddy from Massachusetts, lives up there. He's in Texas now, and he just got a he just got a Rio, so now he needs to marry him. So when we get land in Idaho, he is fresh on the gun. So I'm over the moon about that. But him and his wife are there, and they're one bird away from tagging out in Texas. That's awesome. Yeah, they've been there a total of 34 hours, I think.

SPEAKER_02 38:45

And they've already shot five.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

Yeah, his wife, she tagged out this morning.

SPEAKER_02 38:50

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 38:50

Yeah, I mean, man, they're they're tearing them up out there. I wish our birds were acting like that here.

SPEAKER_02 38:55

I don't know what's up with them. Since I killed that one, I haven't heard another gobble.

SPEAKER_04 39:02

I mean, I've heard gobbles. I mean, I've heard birds on fire. You're gonna tell us about that hunt. That was a pretty special hunt, though. Yeah, because of his dad's call.

SPEAKER_03 39:12

I've been it this week. It it sounds really good.

SPEAKER_02 39:15

It's a I was running late, like, to the point where I was almost running down the dirt road getting to where I listened to. I get in there, it's probably they've probably been gobbling. It's probably 640.

SPEAKER_03 39:31

Well, I heard the first one the other day at 615.

SPEAKER_02 39:33

And uh 608 opening day. Well, I hadn't heard anything early yet.

SPEAKER_01 39:37

Yeah, 608 and his partner fired off at 609 with him.

SPEAKER_02 39:41

I'm standing there and I owl hoop. And then behind me, owl, I said, Oh my lord. I don't hear anything like that. I said, that's what I'm talking about, baby. This is what I want. That's how the neighbor sound across the province. So I said, I said, All right, well, I'm going the direction there were three gobbles. And I get down there to where I think I'm probably 200 yards from them, and I owl hoop. I said, okay. And I hear them fly down, and they gobble when they hit the ground, and they were they pitched way the other way. I was like, well, crap. So I call a little bit, just and I'm talking maybe less than a hundred yards. I said, Oh shit. He had not gobbled yet. And I dove off on a big old uh pine tree, and I'm on this logging road, and uh I just scratched some leaves and he hammered. And when he did that, as soon as he got done gobbling, I heard and he stepped out on that logging road at like 90 yards, and he strutted all the way to me. Killed him at like 35 yards, and it was with that call that Black Label made after the call his dad made.

SPEAKER_01 41:10

Man, I can't tell people much about that call. Or he can't ask my opinion about it. Well, I want you to tell the process how it came back to the case. Man, but everybody called him Sandman for short. Where did he work at? PGP. Uh, before it was Energine in Alagasco in Brooklyn.

SPEAKER_04 41:29

Okay, I worked at Goodrich for years and years ago with a guy they called Sandman, but it wasn't him.

SPEAKER_01 41:33

Yeah, um, I know the one you're talking about. I worked at there at Goodrich as well. Okay. I did for shoot three years, I think. I worked there for four. Yeah, you had me beat. I wasn't gonna be long enough.

SPEAKER_02 41:45

Thank God I got out of that mud. I want you to talk about how y'all brought it back to life because I know it was a trial and error process that took a while.

SPEAKER_01 41:53

Yeah, and there ain't no weed too. And all the credit to Russell Andrews, man, he is he has overcome a whole lot. You know, he went down that spill where his dad got, you know, wrongfully murdered. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 42:04

I read all that kept up with that.

SPEAKER_01 42:05

Oh, yeah, and then he bounced right back. I mean, it's you know, being friends with him for the past couple of years, or I say a couple years, this is our fourth season together. And when me and him together, the ties was number 14. Me and him have never left the state of Alabama for four years. Me and him together had watched 14 die. Whether it's him on the gun, me on the gun, or a friend on the gun. And uh, you know, he's always an upbeat guy, and he wanted to do something special for dad. He didn't know dad long. Um, when he got her lease, I want to say it was a year and a half before dad passed. Maybe not quite that long, but him and dad got tight, and I mean real tight. And um he Russell always knew uh who my dad was because he used to fish with his grandfather, Cody Lewis. And you know, we made a call for him too, and we got another one that's gonna come out and it's gonna be a pot call, and man, it's bad to the bone, too. But um anyways, Russell um after dad passed, you know, we went down this big thing, and then Russell's dad died, and you know, it was it was rough. And man, when I tell you he bounced back, he bounced back, he came back a grand national champion, an Alabama State champion. I mean, he won call call contests at the call contest, and he started building his own calls, and he got man, he got the hang of it. You know, a lot of the calls that you see now is what he builds, and dude, they're they're insane. Well, he said he wanted to do a call for dad, and you know, I I was over the moon about it. I was all for it. And uh he said he wants to do a pot call, and I asked him and I said, I just well, you know, I want to put this in your ear for you. You know, dad wasn't much of a he didn't use much pot calls. Dad was old school. I mean, he was you know one of the first people to run around with a trumpet, you know, or wing bone, really, before trumpets got as big as they are now. But he had an old wing bone that he used to run around with run around with, and then uh his main call that he wanted to use is a legacy leading lady, and he cut it when he got it out of the pack, he'd cut it a certain way, and he'd buy 15 to 10. 20 of them at a time. He'd come and hand them to his friends. So of course he'd always give me about two or three. Um, but I sent a picture of it to Russell one night when we were talking about it. He said he's done he was okay with doing a mouth call. And I was like, okay. So I sent it to him one night and I explained it to him. And then I got a picture of Dad's and sent it to him. And he went to work. And he did a bunch of research. He played with the stretches. I mean, it was uh probably about a three-week process. And then another month goes by and he's you know, it's a struggle, but he's not telling me nothing. I mean, he's very optimistic, and that's just the type of guy he is. I get a phone call one day. I'm in uh I'm in Phoenix, Arizona. Get a phone call from him, and I'm in the hotel, we just got done working, and uh I talked to him and he goes straight into calling, and they gave me chills, and I told him it did, it sounded just like dad. And you know, I'm not the caller that my father was. I try to be, but I'm nowhere near to the man that he was. But uh David, it gave me chills through the phone. And I was like, man, there ain't no way you figured it out. And he said, I figured it out. Like, this is it, man. So I gave him the regular one, the last one dad built me, and he ran it identical. And we're just like, man, you know, he said, I'm gonna call it the same man. This is your dad's caller. And I was like, heck yeah, man. And that's cool. He sent me the first, uh, he sent me the first one, the second one, and the third one. And I got them at the house, and uh, after we got our packaging and stuff in, of course, uh, I put them up on uh I got a little stand at the house that I'm gonna make eventually, and it's just gonna be fans and stuff, beards, uh, you know, uh, like Buck Burns' house, you know, they got the big curio set, same thing, but it's gonna be, you know, whatever I kill with dad's call. Well, I tell everybody about it, and I we really didn't market it that well, but the support that I had from people, like friends that went and bought one was, man, it was very heartwarming to me. Like, so many people at the NWTF come up and they wanted to buy it just because it had dad's name on it. It sold out in Woods of Water in like three days. He had to go back and send more before we went to NWTF, and then I'm pretty sure they've sold out again since then. And dude, it's just been you know very overwhelming. Yeah. And then I like I got two videos a day I could show you like a buddy of mine, two of them. One killed one with it uh yesterday and the one day before yesterday. But like this is my buddy here, he killed one yesterday with it. This one B.

SPEAKER_03 46:34

This one for B stand there. Right here.

SPEAKER_01 46:41

That's awesome, man. And then it's been a hundred videos. People, uh the opener in Mississippi, I received 11 snapshots of people using that call. And I tell people all the time, like, you can't get my opinion on it, and I tell you why, because I grew up on it.

SPEAKER_04 46:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:57

I mean, the second I needed a call, I just ran a woods and water go legacy leading lady, brought it to dad. That evening I'd have a new call. Yeah, but I mean he tweaked it and stuff, but sending the pictures and stuff to Russell, he had an idea of what the cup was gonna be. That's the easy part. The stretch, that was a completely different ball game. But after he figured it out, man, he God, I can't remember how many he mass-produced, but it was a ton. And every one of them are runners, and so like I said, I I can't thank him enough for it because without him and Jackson being able to bring it to life, you know, I wouldn't be where I'm at now. Yeah. So, dude, this is all the thanks to them. But all I did was just send the pictures, you know. But Russell, like I said, he's came a long way with the call bill and stuff, and like his new gobble calls, God, I just wish I could do it. So bad.

SPEAKER_04 47:43

I ain't too good at that stuff, like.

SPEAKER_01 47:45

Yeah, well, you know, he says it's easy. He says it's like a feed call and a duck call. And I said, No, it's not. No, it's not. It's not. I promise it's not. Yeah, but man, well, after we released him and stuff, it it was like surreal. Like, you know, like he sent me a picture of it at Crimson Pride, and it's just like, man, it got me all terri, it got me emotional and stuff. But man, I tell people all the time, like, you knew dad, and you did. I I wish he would have, man. You'd have thought the world over. Oh, I'm sure. If I'm half the man he was, I promise you I lived a great life, you know. But uh man, that I'm getting a little emotional now about it, but man, it tore me up, you know. It's it's really cool to see what I thought was gone because I have three of his original calls. Like I said, it's a legacy leading lady. And I got three of them freshly cut, still sitting in my fridge right now. Wow. And you know, they will never be pulled out of a case. And then the only difference between them now and the way we have them is that it has a black label tag on it. That is the only difference, you know. So, like I said, I thank black label a whole lot, Russell a ton. I mean, you know, he's been my dog for four years. Yeah. I mean, heck, if when turkey season runs around for the first six, seven days, if you see Russell, I'm somewhere behind him. And if you see me, he's somewhere around to the. That's two big old boys coming through the woods.

SPEAKER_02 49:08

You're ain't lying. When I killed that turkey, I knew I had to take a video and send it to you. It was special. But I told you, I said, I don't care if I have to hunt all year with this call. I'm not hunting with anything else but that call until I kill one with it.

SPEAKER_01 49:22

Man, I still I just wish I could get close enough to a turkey. I ain't had one gobble with me since the opener, and it was with that call. But it's hard to play with a real thing because when he came by us, we got in on him. And like I said, they gobbled 608, 609, you know, early, real early. And they probably gobbled, shoot, till 1030. I mean, you would thought we're chasing them mid-April. I mean, they were burning the woods down. Well, they go to the back end and get close to the property line, and we get up with them. And we're probably about 150, no, we prefer than that, about 200 yards from the property line. And he's bowing this big SMZ. Thin pine's on our right, old cut over, or old cut over on our right, thin pines on our left. And uh, man, that SMZ's like that. I mean, it's packed fish. Yeah. And he's all in it, tearing it up. I mean, he gobbled. I if I had to guess, he gobbled 70 times. And the only thing he was answering was gobbling, ain't it? Man, I'm telling him. And the only thing that he would answer would be a Jake Yelp. And Russell was tearing him up with it. Well, every time he tried to get closer, I guess the hens or something would round him off, cut him off, I don't know. But he would end up being closer and then silence for five, ten minutes. And he'd fire off, he'd be however far he walked, that's the distance he walked back, you know? Well, finally we get into a point and it's a big funnel. He has no choice to come by us. Well, I'd be damned if he did not skirt us in that. And I'm toting the camera. Russell um has a gun, and Matt Stewart, he's uh director for the NWTF, he's with us. I'm the only one that has a shot on this bird. And I ain't got a gun. And I told Russell, I said, I see him, and he said, Where? And I said, to the right of your gun. And he said, Can I swing? And I said, Not yet. And then he's sitting there strutting for about a minute. And I said, Russell, can you shoot him? And he said, No. And I was like, Oh man. And I look over at Matt and bird, he spins, and I turned my head, look at Matt, and I said, Matt, do you see him? And he said, No. And I was like, Oh no. Like we were in a bind. Yeah. Well, five minutes passed and nobody could see him. Oh, it's only me looking at him. And then Russell asked, he said, where's he at? And I said, he's right behind us. And I said, Don't move. Like, you know, we're gonna kind of have to eat this one. Yeah. And he said, Can I hand you my gun? And I said, There's no shot. I mean, dude, it's 35 yards right here to my right. He was at 30 yards the whole time, and nobody could get a shot on him. Like I said, it was just, I was just so happened to get the look at the draw and sitting on a good tree. And I just, I'm when I say I could have shot him, I mean it's a pocket this big. But I mean, heck, that's all you need, you know, to get a clear shot.

SPEAKER_03 52:04

I shot one through the hole size of my pie plate one time. Do what? Sometimes that's sometimes when you get a shot. You better take it. I shot one through a hole that big. All I all I had was his head.

SPEAKER_02 52:15

If it makes you feel any better, Dylan, Jack Ballard has caught up nine long beards so far and has not pulled the trigger once. He's been able to get a shot on one, all of them within 40 yards.

SPEAKER_01 52:25

What did Jackson Marshall say the other day on this post? I forgot how many he's caught up. I want to say it was nine. Eight or nine turkeys they have within 25 yards in three days. We got on a boat this morning.

SPEAKER_03 52:35

When he gobbled, he was he's in the tree, he was 200 yards from us. And we're trying to decide, you know, how we're gonna attack this situation. We're gonna come in the wood behind him or go around the field on the other side of him, because he's down on the creek bottom. And uh, but it's not a big creek bottom, it ain't big at all. And so we was like, hell, just ease down there. Well then he once he hit the ground. He gobbled and hit the ground, I said, all right, let's make a move in there to him. And then he gobbled again, he was further the other way. We trying to just soft call to him, not to bump him too bad. Yeah. Well, he he he was on mission this morning. He wasn't paying no attention to us. He's going on, he had his little routine planned out this morning, I guess. And by the time we got down to the bottom, he was on the other side of that field, he gobbled. It's hard to get around a turn like that. So we he's down there to the other end of that field thinking, because on the other side of that field is a big hardwood bottom, but they hang out a lot. Um so we get on the edge of that field, we sit down, sitting there, ain't heard him, ain't heard nothing. Well, probably, I don't know, probably another 250. Past the end of that field is the dirt road. And right past that is Reed Woods. And that bird went, went, made his little loop through there, and Reed just happened to be sitting there, and he he said he stood up and just clucked one last time. He said that bird guy would ate him at 75 yards. Yeah. So he didn't even know he was there. He said he watched him coming there, hopped up on a log, did the whole dance dance up and down a log, strutting, coming there at 40 yards. Piao. No bird. He came out empty-handed though.

SPEAKER_04 54:22

Oh swinging a miss!

SPEAKER_03 54:24

Oh swinging a miss. I don't know if you've got a fun of somebody or missing. I've been fortunate to have been very successful in bringing a bird out of the woods when I pull the trigger, but I I won't say nothing if somebody says they missed, because it can happen to me.

SPEAKER_04 54:43

Don't do it.

SPEAKER_01 54:44

Man, I was on top of the moon. I haven't missed one in like three years, and then we go up to Vermont, I missed. I don't know how birds at 30 yards blowed up, I shoot, didn't clip a feather. I don't know where my power was. I I've done that so many times that I couldn't tell you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 55:00

How could I it drives me crazy? I had 500 pillows and I how did I not hit something? No, I'm gonna have a thousand and ninety pillows. You don't pull the trigger without knowing you're on. Yeah. How do you do it?

SPEAKER_03 55:10

I understand. Dude, I don't know. I think it's got something to do with the there's a shell somewhere that the wadden ain't riding in or it drives me crazy. I've done it. And then I just want to punch myself in all the face.

SPEAKER_01 55:23

I don't know. It's it See, the one I missed in Maine shortly after that, it was two days after that. The one I missed in Maine was 100% my fault. In my head, I was just like, just shoot him in the head. He's at four yards. That was a very dumb mistake. You were trying to like knock his head off. Dude, we missed Man, we got in some CRP, and I thought he was going to come down this power line. We're just on a big, big power line, and I thought he was just gonna work his way down it. Man, no, he comes in the CRP with us. And you know, this is like seven-year-old, eight-year-old CRP. I mean, the limbs are still at my back. Yeah, that's a good thing. You know, the limbs start that high off the ground. Man, he comes in there looking for us. And I asked my buddy, I said, can you shoot him? He said, Nope. And I said, Oh, I can. I shot and I turned around and looked at him. I said, No, I can't. Hey, I'm like you, man.

SPEAKER_03 56:13

If he gets that close, I'm shooting him in the beard.

SPEAKER_01 56:16

I mean, I'm I'm filling him up, I'm filling the red dot up the bottom. I'm not worried about eating that breast at that point. No, Lord, no, especially on public land, man. But you know, I don't know what you're doing.

SPEAKER_04 56:27

If you don't get that breast, man, you just get them legs, you gnaw on them legs a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 56:32

Like I said, though, I don't know what hit my head. I just looked at him and I was just like, oh yeah, I can make that shot. Man, it was I had a better rock phone to rock and killing him, you know. So I was like, damn. Reach it out and grabbing him. But that one of Vermont, man, I was on him. Great set. I mean, I've been on him for God five, six minutes, just waiting for him to get in range. And there's he just dipped down this valley, and when he came up over top of the hill, he was right there on me. I'm talking about standing on top of the ridge. That's word in your face. Yeah, his head wasn't sitting like this, you know, and here's the ground. It wasn't sitting like this. He was up here. I shot nothing. He just flew away. I get over there and dude. I don't even think he dropped a feather run away up the field.

SPEAKER_03 57:15

That's what that's what Ray said this morning. I'm like, man, you caught a bird went to you that I was on. He just happened to walk by you and you cut him. And now there's a good chance ain't nobody gonna kill him. Work him up, man. Oh man. Oh, and he got a show, too. Oh, he said it he said it was he said he ain't heard a bird in an hour, and then all of a sudden he's getting ready to slip out of there. And he just said, I decided to cluck one last time. That's the way it bees sometimes. He said he had he said he was laying down, had his gun on the log. He said, I was still. He said, I don't know how I missed it.

SPEAKER_01 57:52

Man, there ain't no telling. I think it's just the same thing like when you're bow hunting. But bow hunting, when you, you know, when you're in draw, you get tired. I just think it's the same thing. You have his beat on him and his focus for one arrow. Yeah. You got 500 or a thousand.

SPEAKER_03 58:08

Yeah, you get a shot killer. Yeah, a thousand pellets, and it only takes one to kill him.

SPEAKER_01 58:12

That's the only thing I can explain, though. You've been sitting there looking down through the red dot or down your sights. Looking at it for so long that you end up screws up in there. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 58:22

You try too hard to perfect the shot that you overcorrect something that you don't usually do.

SPEAKER_04 58:29

And you know, and and I it's got a lot to do with squeezing that trigger. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's like a rifle. I mean, you know, you got one at 20 yards, you got a pattern that big. You can jerk it off. Uh uh easy. Easy. I I obviously so, because I know I have done it and I don't know how many times.

SPEAKER_02 58:45

I've done it. Yeah, uh you do it, it hurts my feelings.

SPEAKER_03 58:48

You can't take long enough you're gonna go.

SPEAKER_04 58:52

I mean, it's the worst feeling in the world.

SPEAKER_02 58:55

Makes me want to cry. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 58:58

I will cry. I wanted to cry the other day. And then throw up. When that bird slipped in on me, or I say so he we knew he was there. He'd been gobbling. I seen him come. He finally got 30 yards, and there was those three trees between me and him. And I I I hear him walking. I'm like, he's right over the bottom of this flat right here, walking. So I'm just easing along with his footsteps. Waiting on him to pop out or pop his head up around that flat we're up on. I'm ready. I'm waiting and waiting, waiting. And then he starts walking back out. I hear him walking back that way. He's 30 yards. So easing back, easing back, easing back. Now you know, right here. He's not walking to the left. He's walking straight to me. Oh. He's walking straight to me. And then all of a sudden I see the head pop out right there on the left, and he's I mean 15 steps. He's right there. I'm like, oh no. Well, he popped his head out this way, and he turned. And as soon as he popped it out, he turned like, hey, what did that tell me right? Well, he did that, I was like, last ditch everything. And I did that number right there, and he I'm like, I know he just didn't see me do that a little bit. But I guess he did. I don't know. He was spooked. He was spooked before I he knew something like that.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:20

He knew he already knew something was right.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:22

Yeah, because he he was coming up here, and all of a sudden he was like, uh made him a loop.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:28

I have no doubt that that turkey had killed Jersey Moore. That was the last look that I was getting when I shot that turkey left handed. Oh yeah. When he looked at when he looked down in that bottom again and he didn't see nothing, he was about to turn right around and he would have been gone. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, he's about to hit the biggest.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:47

When they do this, tuck him gone. Once they put themselves in handcuffs, he can't. They'd like to put it in a new gear, son. Oh yeah. He's gonna go find somebody that is there, I promise you. But and I just wish we could be in front of one. This year, this season's been rough. But all my buddies, they're killing them, so I'm here for them, you know. Y'all keep doing it. I just want to hear another one go.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:08

Well, that ain't been real easy.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:09

You gotta roll out, don't you?

SPEAKER_04 1:01:11

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:11

All right. Let's wrap it up. Wrap it up. Got a burst.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:15

Well, Dylan, man, we enjoyed fantastic stories. We ought to have those, man. Yes. Great stories. That was a pleasure. Well, sir. Good beat you, man. Absolutely. Nice and we're gonna do it. Well, do you have a favorite Bible verse? Me?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:30

Yeah. I'll let you close it out with one.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:32

Let's see what I can scrounge up here. Uh a buddy of mine, y'all may know him, Dexter Roberts. Y'all ever heard of him? Mm-hmm. So I've got a chance to hunt with him over here uh and Fett a couple times and become a really good friend with him. That's F-E-T-T. Yep. No, F-E-T. They have a shirt. The locals they have a shirt, Fett. It's F-E-T. If you say Fayette, then I'm gonna get you.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:57

They know where that may end.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:58

We came back to Fed, Alabama. Yep. But uh this verse is Philippians 3.13, and there is uh, if y'all don't mind, I'm gonna read the whole thing. It's just a good little sermon that goes along with it. And uh Absolutely. So he sent me this the other day, and you know, a lot of people know I'm going through a lot of personal stuff right now, and this was something that kind of hit home for me, and you know, keep going, you know. But it's Philippians 3.13. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. With the sermon it is, he said, In life we often carry the weight of past mistakes and missed opportunities. These can hold us back, cloud our vision, and sap our energy. The verse reminds us to focus forward not on what lies behind, but on what lies ahead. This is powerful to call a personal development rooted deeply in Christian faith. Paul the apostle encourages believers to forget the past and press on toward the goal that has set that has been set for them. And uh it's a call to release regrets and to stop letting old failures define us. Faith teaches us that God's grace is new in every morning, no matter what addictions, what habits, or even what burdens we wrestle with. You are not stuck, and we are not stuck. And so it keeps going on. We are called to move forward to embrace the new life Christ offers, filled with purpose and hope. This passage challenges challenges us to live intentionally, focusing on our future that God has prepared rather than the past that we keep in our mind to hold us captive. And then uh so ask yourself, what past burden am I holding on to that is keeping me from the future God wants me to embrace? How can I take one step today toward the goal God has set for me? And remember, the journey of the faith and personal growth is ongoing. Let today be a fresh start, guided by hope and God's unending grace. That's a good one. So he sent me that the other day. A lot of truth to that, too. Oh Lord, yeah. Lord, yeah. I mean, especially when he talks about, you know, it can cloud your vision. I mean, you know, it does.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:17

When you're going through those tough times, it's hard to see past it sometimes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:21

And then, you know, other times when you do stuff wrong, it really sets with you. And I mean, it feels like your life just comes to you know a halt.

unknown 1:04:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:29

It's just always, you know, what I've always told a lot of my friends and stuff is just putting one foot in front of the other. You know, that's all it is. Don't go off your path. There's a goal from you somewhere. So just keep running, you know? Yep. But man, I can I can't thank y'all enough, guys. I had a blast. Thank you for coming, brother.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:46

Appreciate you, brother.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:47

Thank y'all for watching.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:50

That concludes our show today.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:52

Appreciate y'all listening. Go like and subscribe. TikTok, Instagram. See y'all next time.