"Come getcha some" with Tommy Willcox

Tommy talks about his fourth and 40 club and informs people on how to join the old south farm turkey rodeo

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to West Alabama Woodsman Podcast. I'm Clint. I'm Jason. I'm Jake. Hope you enjoy watching. Up front, up front. Bigger. Bigger.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Well, Tommy, how you doing today? I'm doing good, man. Thank you guys for having me.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Like I told you on the phone, man. I I watched a show when I was a kid, you know. Seemed like 20 years ago. Oh man, you're aging me, man. Well, I I remember Saturday mornings. My dad'd be in the kitchen or in the living room drinking coffee, and we'd be watching Tommy Wilcox at 8 o'clock.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Saturday mornings. I tell you, it's funny when I go to all these lodges now, I'm the oldest guy around. When I started my outdoor show, I was right in the middle. So every time we'd go to some outfitter or something, there'd be older people around, and I fit, you know, I was right in the middle and had had camera guys and all younger and all. Now when I go to an outfit, everybody's Mr. Tommy. And I'm like, oh man, just call me Tommy. Yeah, don't do all the time. But I'm the oldest guy there. So I mean, time flies, guys. It does.

SPEAKER_02 1:30

On the way, I was on the way over here and I was like, should I call him Mr. Will Collins? I don't want to be caught in time. He ain't much older than me.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

You gotta double check sometime. Yeah. Well, yeah, I know we've been talking about the 2026 Old South Farm Turkey Rodeo Crawfish Bowl. Right. And that's uh that's headed by you, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Right. I tell you, uh Bubba Dickinson, who they're owners of Nelson Glass in Birmingham, they're real good friends with Craneworks. So over the years, Craneworks has been a sponsor on my television show. And uh Bubba was trying to hit them up for some more money for the for the fourth down and 40 little club that I got that helps special needs kids and craneworks. So, well, look, why don't y'all get together and put together a turkey rodeo, and we'll pay for all the drinks, bear, food, and everything, and then y'all go out and hustle teams, and then y'all just take all that money together and put it, and then you take it, put it in your account, and use it for your fourth down and forty, you know, to take kids hunting and fishing who's got special needs. That's all that's how that came from Bubba and and and David there at Crane Work. So uh being a smart guy I am, I just said yes. I'll I'll be more than happy to try to put a little rodeo together and uh and I'm hoping right now we got about I got close to 10 teams, and I think they got three. We'd like for for it to be the first year, we'd love to get about 20 teams and then work on it, and and each year just try to grow it. And uh so right now anybody that's I guess Utah area, Aliceville, New York, uh, Livingston, uh Tuscaloosa, Hale County, you know, if if y'all want to come enjoy a great turkey rodeo and then eat crawfish, and we'd love to have you. We still have room for some teams. We're gonna have prizes. We're gonna give a thousand dollars to the winning team. Uh, and then we're also gonna do a big bird. Uh whoever kills the biggest bird is gonna get a, I think they're gonna do one like one of these championship wrestling belts and then give them, you know, like always some big bragging right there for a whole year. So uh so that's kind of where we're at with that. And uh what, we're about a week and uh a few days from it rocking and rolling. So we need to we need to try to hustle a few more teams and with any help y'all can give us getting the word out, we certainly would appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 4:39

Well, I'm gonna have to do that.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

It's only about three miles from my house.

SPEAKER_02 4:43

I probably will have to attend.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Yeah, I know me and my my buddy are doing it. Um just because I mean heck, it's right there. I know those guys at Nelson Glass, so I mean Yeah, they're good people, man.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

Bubba Dick is. They are, they are, he is a good guy. First class guy, man. I don't hang around too many idiots. You know, we don't either. I do have a a few guys that I tolerate, but for the most part, I'm too old, man, to be messing with people that just it's just you learn when you get older, you learn to pick and choose who you need to be hanging around. You've been dead before, and you you just don't want to go back to that. I don't need to stay out late anymore. No, I don't need any problems right now.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

Uh well uh I know you've talked about you for down at 40. How how did you get started doing that? You know, kind of what what all you do? I know you said special needs kids take a hunting and fishing, but right. Can you kind of go into a little more depth about that? All right.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

Uh I uh I've been blessed, let me just say that. Um I've I've had been fortunate to uh be involved in sports all my life and got to play at the highest levels and uh got to play for Coach Paul Bear Bryant, who was the man back in the day. I bet that was fantastic. And I was fortunate to be on great teams, and when you're on great teams, you get a lot of great individual honors. So uh I I made All American a couple times and all-century team at Alabama, and I mean I never dreamed of that, I never had goals for that. Um, you know, my dad went to two lanes, so I mean, as long as I got my college paid for, I figured I'd be doing okay, but uh come to Alabama and play on two national championship teams, that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 6:48

When you work hard, you you tend to achieve a level.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

That's true. And uh so I said later on in life, um I started my out I was in pharmaceuticals and on the side, I I used to take some of my doctors hunting and fishing, and I said, Man, you know what? One day I want to have a TV show and do do this on TV. So the time came where I had the opportunity and had some real good sponsors. And so I took an early retirement from pharmaceuticals, a good payout, and then just flipped it right on to um the outdoor show. And I I just started saying, man, you need to give back a little more, you know. I've been so blessed. I said, and and I I got to go on some hunts where they had some crippled kids and uh some were real young and then had some that were in their teens, and then we even had some that were adults, and I said, Man, the man upstairs just said, hey, that's what you you need to do. So being I played football all my life, I said, you know, the hardest thing in football is making a fourth down when there's long yardage, you know, or hell merry or something like that, you know. So it's so I came up with the the name fourth down and forty be because it's it's a hard uh play to make. And these kids every day are forcing a four, I mean, every day they're forced into a fourth and forty. And not only the kids themselves, the parents, I mean, some of them they gotta bathe them, feed them.

SPEAKER_03 8:40

It's like having another full-time job.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

Yeah, having another full-time job, and then they gotta do their own jobs, and then they gotta run them around, and then, you know, get them in the wheelchair, get them out the wheelchair. And I said, you know what? I want to be a part of that and and try to take these kids, whether it's with Down syndrome, spinal bifida, cancer, leukemia. Uh people now know that that's what I do on the side, and and I'll get, you know, four hunters to do a deer hunt with every year that have special needs. And uh and then we're gonna do a turkey this year. So we're getting a little bit, and then we do a big brim tournament every year at Swamp Whitetails in Brent, Alabama. And these kids, there's so many, you know, you throw a cricket on the line and they're gonna catch something. Oh yeah. Throw it in the water. And uh so we do that every year, and all everybody that I've done over the years, they all come back for this with the parents, yeah. And everybody's involved, and then we feed them lunch, and then and then we go. So uh fourth down and 40, that's that's what I do to give back since I've been so blessed, and uh that's the name of it. I think if everybody would give back, it would it would make this world a better place, you know.

SPEAKER_02 10:11

That 100%. But why I've been around those special needs my whole life. And uh my sister's daughter's special needs. And the thing about those kids, they have fantastic attitudes.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Oh, because they don't know any different. No. They don't know any different. No? I mean, and and I've taken kids that have a week to live, months to live, or a year to live, you know, and that's and then you got other ones that have spinal bifida or uh leukemia, non-Hodgkins, and all these other things. Um we've had some that's been in accidents and the quadriplegics. We'll have one that dot dove into a lake and broke his neck and it's quadriplegic, and these parents have to do everything. I mean, they can't just get in a car and go somewhere, you know. It's just so it's and they're so they're so appreciative, you know, and and a lot of these kids have ports in them, you know, where they just push that chemo in on. You know, and it's like uh but uh but I the uh I saw a quote one time that said that you can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone. So if if we all would help one person, then then a lot of truth to that uh uh would would make a big difference in this world.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Absolutely. I got to witness firsthand all that stuff at the the Veterans and Disabled Youth Hunt they had at that was you know held at uh Bubba's place this past punt season. We we had three um youth that we took hunting down at our place and two of 'em uh were brothers. And they had um MS. Like I said, their their parents have to get them in and out of the truck and they can't. Can you imagine? And then these these boys were twelve and fourteen years old. I mean, they weren't easy to move around. Right. And all they have was a regular pickup and wheelchairs, and it's like I I I I'm trying to do everything I can to help you, but I I mean they I don't know what I can do to help you. You kind of just feel sorry, helpless. You really don't know what kind what you feel. Right. You know, watching them do it. And then Sheldon, the other boys got the the track chair, which I think they the two boys the two brothers I was talking about, they did get a track chair at that event, which was which was awesome.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

Um but yeah, getting to see all that and you know, seeing one of them shoot a spike is like that's a big thing for them, right? Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

It's a real eye opener when you're around people like that.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

Yo, yeah, you don't really you don't realize how fortunate we are less we are, yeah. It it it really does kind of hit home.

SPEAKER_00 13:02

And that and that's why you you see that I call it fourth down and forty. Yeah, because it's so difficult. It's so difficult. And and uh I just I just uh you you just want to help people, man. And when you see these kids got cancer and they kill a deer and they're crying, tears are coming down their face, and it's not because they're hurting or it's because they're so happy. So it's tears of joy instead of tears of fear. And that's that's pretty cool. And that's what they're used to having.

SPEAKER_02 13:35

Right. Right. They they're used to they're used to having so much fear. Yeah. And to do something like that and somebody help them do that, they to kill just I mean, just to kill a deer. A deer that we see, you know, how many do we watch and don't ever shoot anything? Right. We don't want that. We don't want to shoot that deer. It's not old enough. Or, you know, I I'm not shooting a doe, or I'm uh you know, but these kids they don't man, they'd be happy that it don't matter what it is. A button buck. Hey, man, it'd be the happiest thing, the happiest day of their life.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

Because it could be the last one they kill.

SPEAKER_02 14:06

Right. That's right. You don't ever know, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

Well, turkey season's here. How's your turkey season been?

SPEAKER_00 14:17

So far, good. Uh got my grandboy on uh got Luke Duncan, Hunter's son, on on a bird, and got it all on film, uh Youth Day. And uh then I turned around once the season got up and I got one, and then I went to Florida last week and got pretty close to almost the biggest turkey I've ever killed, but it was the biggest osceola that this outfitter killed in two years. Really? Goodness. Three-quarter spur. Holly.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

My wife killed her first turkey two weeks ago in uh my buddy's place in central Florida. Awesome. I don't know how you kill your first turkey as an Osceola, but she did. First turkey she'd ever kill. Well, so she was she's adjusting anything.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

Yeah, she's gotta start working her way back west, man. Get her an Eastern, then a Rio, and then a Merriam, and then the uh the youngest boy.

SPEAKER_02 15:21

You know, he he's that's all he that's all he likes is a is a you know we didn't, he and I done gone on a Rio trip. We went on a I finished my Grand Slam last May in South Dakota and he went with me and he's killed a couple of Easterns here, so he's chomping us a bit for the for the Grand Slam. I feel like uh I feel like my wife will too, and we talked about last night about going to kill a Rio last night. So I'm gonna be in the books too, probably here in the next few years. Hey, if your wife wants to go, hey, I can go to the tune. Right. That's a win-win. I don't even have to ask to go on that trip.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

Forget about the beach.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

You can shoot first, baby. Oh Lord. That's a win-win for sure. Yeah. So you didn't already, so you knocked a turkey out in Alabama the first week, then.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:16

Well, well, not all of us have. I got one. Clint has seen one die. I saw one die. He saw, and he has had a few good hunts. I got sent shotgun and watched one die. But Jake killed one and I killed one Saturday morning, so.

SPEAKER_03 16:32

And then I watched one die today, which was Oh, yeah, you were on a good hunt this morning. Insane. 6 32. He was dead. Golly. It was it was something.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

That's that's one they perfect, man.

SPEAKER_02 16:44

That turkey I was on this morning. Well, I didn't know he was out. He had he has been there. And uh, you know, I kind of hunted. I went straight to him this morning when I knew he where he was, and then I left there and I said, Lord, so I just made a big circle and went back to the truck. I gotta go to work. So I said, I'll just hunt on the way out. So I got out in there and I blew a crow call and didn't hear nothing. I blew another crow call before I got to the greenfield. A turkey goblin. That's where I just left. I just he's over there where I just left for all. So I didn't kill him. I had to go to work, but he's there.

SPEAKER_00 17:19

That's how that's how it happens, man. Because he probably heard you yelping over there. And by the time they get to you, most people, if you know, well, you had to go to work, but most people just are not patient enough. You know, and if you'll just be patient and sit, you'll wind up killing that bird if it gobbles at you.

SPEAKER_02 17:38

He was he was he was there about a hundred yards away when I shot his buddy the other morning. So he might I heard that the other morning. Somebody sounded just like that guy. I better go back over there.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

Like, say if one ever cuts you off or gobbles back at you, I mean, I'm on one more one.

SPEAKER_02 18:00

You got a good hunt.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

Well, that's what that was happening to us on up in the morning. He cut us off at 755. Cut us off at 740, 745, 755, and never gobbled again. Wow. Killed him at 957. Yeah. He just slipped in there on. Sometimes it's a good one.

SPEAKER_02 18:19

Sometimes the quiet one gets you, man. I like those. I like because you if you if you kill a quiet one, you have you have completed something. You have to get it. Yeah, because you pulled on the guy when you wasn't expecting. You won the game.

SPEAKER_00 18:34

I heard a guy once tell me that said, now listen, when when you are calling a turkey and you're sitting there and you're waiting on him, so many times, right about that time, you say, Okay, I've had enough. I'm gonna get up and stay there. And they they go to get up, and boom, that turkey, they the turkey was 40, 50 yards out behind something and blown. So you he always says, when you think you've sat about as long as you can sit and you're ready to get up, 30 more minutes. Get them about 20 more minutes, and he says, just look at your watch.

SPEAKER_02 19:11

A lot of truth to that. And uh again, there's a lot of truth to that.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

Because I bet you every one of us have gotten up and he was right around the corner.

SPEAKER_02 19:17

Right around the corner.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

That's right. Or if you got up five minutes earlier than you said you were gonna get up.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

And it's if I say 10 o'clock, I'm 10 15.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

Yeah. I'm a 30-minute man. It's a good rule, man. I'm gonna be there 15 more. I'm gonna be there. I gotta go 30.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

If I call, I mean, if I call at all, I'm giving it a minimum of 30 minutes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

I mean especially maybe even an hour. These turkeys, especially these turkeys here, these West Alabama turkeys, they just bad. They just, they just terrible.

SPEAKER_03 19:51

Especially if you get off on that. They're terrible. But they're so much more rewarding when you get on.

SPEAKER_02 19:56

Yes, they are rewarding. You know, that's like, I know we've done podcasts and I'll, you know, I've told all the same stories all the same. But, you know, it's like when I was when I was, you know, mid-20s, you know, my buddy, you know, he would been, he was going on a lot of out-of-state hunts. You know, he was turkey hunting. He said, Hey, you want to go to Texas? I said, Well, why would we go to Texas? We're going turkey hunting. Well, we got we kill turkeys here, man. I know there's a lot of them out there. So, but I mean the hunts are fun, but they're they're not killing a Rio or a Merriam. I won't even throw the osceola in there. It's not as rewarding as killing one of these. And a lot of people say, we know, oh, well, you know, those Merriam hunts are tough. Well, I think it's because of some of the terrain. Yeah. I don't think it's because the the turkeys are necessarily like the ones we have here. I think it's just the terrain makes it difficult.

SPEAKER_00 20:48

I've never seen a Marion hunt that was That was difficult. No, they just And you need that for your ego, doesn't it? You go off the thing And I'm a pretty good caller. And then you come back east and you go, man, I ain't that good.

SPEAKER_02 21:04

I'm terrible, man. I know, you know, and there's a lot I ain't gonna lie, there's been a few years in Alabama that I towed at a dry sack. Yeah. And you know, and I got the I got a terrible job for for turkey hun. I I just do. When it's warm, they're gonna want to make asphalt. They just uh they ain't many rain days, and we did get rained out today, but I don't think it even hardly rained, you know, enough what they thought was gonna happen. But you know, when it gets warm, they wanna they want to lay asphalt. And I, you know, we usually start early and sometimes we stay late. Yeah. But I don't get to turkey hunt near as much as I want as I want to.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

I don't think well I do, but because that's kind of what I do for a living, but but uh I think everybody would love to be able to hunt turkeys more than they Oh, I was they could, you know. I wish I could hunt all forty five.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

I was sitting at work last night. About eight o'clock last night, and I was thinking, when I get off at 6 30, I wish I could just go sit bee on a tree by 7 30. But I gotta go cut grass. That's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 22:13

Well, that's like me. My wife ran out there on me this evening. And we left work at like one o'clock today. So I knew I had to plant the garden. I was trying to get my, and I had some of it planted. You know, I had a little planter that I've been working with, and you know, that I bought a year ago. And she came out there hollering at me at 620. You've got a podcast, you got to get out of that garden. I was like, oh boy, I was almost finished.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

Oh Lord.

SPEAKER_00 22:37

Oh, how long you been doing your show? 22 years. 22 years. Wow. Yeah. And I've been like I said, I've I've been blessed, man, to get to do what you love to do. And then you get to play for Coach Bryant and get to play with all those great athletes out there. And then and that's that's what I want to hear about is playing for Coach Bryant.

SPEAKER_02 23:02

That's that's that's the elite. It's the best of the elite play football in Alabama. Best of the best. Especially for him. Right. Probably one of the greatest, if not the greatest, football coach, college football coach of all time. Yeah. Any coach of all time.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

As far as I'm concerned, he's the greatest. I agree with that. And as far as a lot of experts, you know, they they say he's the best just because of what they had to deal with and, you know, uh, the difficulty in that time frame. The different, you know. Now everything's about offense, you know. The offense gets uh all the rules that kind of go their way. You can't hit them too hard, you can't hit them in the head, you can't do this and you can't put some flags on person to play some flag football, but uh touch football. Good grief, man. But man, we everybody when I played, you were taught to lead with your face. Yep. Yeah. You know? Yep. Because you, you know, to see them. You gotta see them into the target.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

That's how you got an angle on somebody with leading with your head.

SPEAKER_00 24:13

That's how we were taught. Yeah. Yeah. They don't do that anymore. Now we can't hurt anybody, you know.

SPEAKER_02 24:20

Well, that's the point of playing it. I'm told every time I played, I tried to hurt somebody.

SPEAKER_03 24:24

My coach always told me when you hit somebody, you want to hurt them. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:28

It's a collision sport.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

Because you knew you were giving all you were giving 100% effort. Basketball's a context for it. That's right. Yeah. Football is a collision. Yeah. Oh. So yeah, pay for play for Paul Bear Bryant. That's that's pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

I mean, that's and we had a lot of he he was such a a good guy. He did a lot for a lot of people, man. He, you know, y'all probably know because you've probably seen it in books and stuff now, but you know, his he had some some teams where they played the opponent and had one guy get um paralyzed. And Coach Bryant didn't even go back on the plane with the players. He st he went to the whole the hotel hospital. And not only did he do that, he started a um a fundraiser type thing so that his kids could come to Alabama when when because I mean his his career was over over. Yeah. But it gave him and it gave his kids a chance to go to college. Now they didn't play ball or not, but I mean, think about that, man. That's that's his kids got to come to the University of Alabama for free because of Coach Bryant. Yeah. And then Coach Bryant also put together a I forgot what you call it, but he threw a bunch of money in a pot. Like a scholarship fund or something. Yeah. The Paul Bryant Scholarship Award. So every player that played for him, every player whose kids wanted to go to Alabama, they would give you money to go towards your schooling. Wow. Every player. That's that's pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 26:28

Yeah, that's outstanding. I mean, you know.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

Both my girls enjoyed uh and and depending how many kids, like right now, there's no it I'm I mean, I don't know if there's any all of us, I don't know if any of these guys that in their 60s are having kids, you know, to be able to. I doubt that very seriously. So and then what they they'll do is they'll roll that over back into the school uh thing.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

What year did you play at Alabama? Because I have a good I have a good friend of mine that's from Fairhope, and he's in his 60s, and he played for Coach Bryant also. 79 to 82.

SPEAKER_00 27:07

You know Bobby Smith? I do know Bobby. That is a Bobby. Bobby Smith tore his knee up.

SPEAKER_02 27:15

He's a very good friend of mine. Actually, what his Bobby's Bobby's best friend, Miles Covington. And I Miles is like my daddy. You know, my dad's been dead since I was nine years old. So I I've been knowing Miles for going on probably about 20 years, 15, 16 years now. And I've been hunting with Miles and Bobby probably for the last 12, 15 years, you know.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

The Bobby Smith I know was a D back defensive back, and he played strong safety. And when I was a freshman, he was either a junior or senior. He was a little older. He may have been a little bit older than you. And uh, but a good guy, very good guy, guy. Yeah, they really tore his knee up, and that kind of slowed him up, so that hurt him. Yeah. But um, small world, man, when you stop and think about, hey, I know this person, I know that person. And I've said this before on the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 28:13

Think about the people that you have met all because you went hunting. Yeah. I got some of my best friends that live in northeast Arkansas. I met these guys in the hotel lobby in Anchorage, Alaska. Y'all got camouflage on? Where y'all going? We're going duck hunting. Where y'all going duck hunting at St. Paul Island? Oh, this is where we're going. So, I mean, some of our like, some of the greatest friends. I'm actually going turkey hunting up there on their places. Uh, a couple of them have they got some bunch of ground up there. And uh, hey, why don't you come up here and go turkey hunting? Man, I don't want to mess with your turkeys, you know. What look, we're busy that time of year. His family owned, they own the cotton gin. One of them's a farmer, and two of them work for the gin. And you know, look, we're busy that time. If it's dry, we we ain't not gonna have time to go do anything. You come, you can stay at the duck cap, duck camp, and it's yours. Go. You can use a ranger or whatever you need to do. I we we don't care. So you are going? Yeah, three weeks. On the 20th. I got somebody hunting my place that time. I mean, but you can't more pen. Think about the people you met just just because you went hunting. Run. Just because you went hunting somewhere. And it had to be anywhere fancy, it don't have to be out of state or or anything. You know, that's that's why us three are together. Yeah. You know, because you know, Clint and I, we met several years ago, you know, we well, we sat up there at the watering hole and we talked about turkey hunting.

SPEAKER_00 29:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:45

Every time we saw each other, that's all we talked about. You know, so it's cool that, you know, you know, there's a lot, hunting's got a lot of things against it, you know, as far as the people, you know, the PETA stuff and all that. I ain't getting all that because I don't know anything about it, you know, but it but hunting, it's it's unbelievable the things. And it's not just hunting. I mean, it could be other stuff, you know, sports, any kind of sports, but there's been a lot of, I've been a lot of good people in my life. Just because of hunting. Right. Just because of hunting. Oh yeah. It's just wonderful. Wonderful friendships, family, you know, getting together, you know, it's just great all the way around.

SPEAKER_00 30:28

Well, if you like someone, you you love spending time with them, man, you know? And what better way to do it than in the woods or on the water and you're outdoors, you know, no matter what you're doing.

SPEAKER_01 30:39

Hunting, fishing, whatever. Yeah, I mean, that's kind of how we got started doing this.

SPEAKER_00 30:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

You know, we sit around and and talk like this all the time, just and I was like, man, let's let's just it It was kind of funny how this whole podcast thing started, and I'll just kind of tell you a little short story about it, but it was pretty much I finally had listened to a podcast after people had been like, man, you don't listen to a podcast when you cutting grass? Nothing like, no, I listen to the same old 80s country all day long, you know. So I finally listened to one that somebody told me about, I think it was a Cush Strickland one, fistful of dirt. I was like, man, that's pretty cool. And I listened to another one, I'm like, I think I could do that. Seems pretty pretty cut dry.

SPEAKER_00 31:16

Right.

SPEAKER_01 31:16

I called Jason, I said, You ever listen to a podcast? He said, No. What's a podcast? I kind of explained to him what it was. Not in 49 years.

SPEAKER_02 31:26

The 49 at the time.

SPEAKER_01 31:27

And uh I said, I said, let's do one. And the next thing we know, we was sitting in here, us three were sitting in here and film one filmed one day, just kind of messing around. And then next thing you know, we got Lyle Gilbert on here. Next thing we got somebody else, and next thing you know, we're kind of doing one every week with somebody. Right. You know? Yeah. And it's and we, you know, we finally, oh, the whole part of getting it posted on this website and Spotify and all that stuff is was a nightmare.

SPEAKER_03 31:56

It was terrible. It was awesome. It was terrible. Yeah. It took two weeks to figure out how to post the first podcast. It took us two weeks to figure it out. Now that might be because we're stupid. I ain't saying that's not true.

SPEAKER_01 32:13

Yeah, we're uh we're not very smart when it comes to technology. I agree with you on that now.

SPEAKER_02 32:21

I'm a little bit uh technologically in illiterate, unadvanced. I don't know if unadvanced is a word, but it's most definitely not on the top of my list because I do not know I'm not very good at it. And I had to, you know, like when we started this, you know, I didn't I didn't have uh Instagram, uh social media, and there may be another one or something, but I still hadn't got the whole grasp, the whole concept. So I've had to be a a little more I had to post a little more stuff on my social media. Some of the stuff on TikTok, you know, because my wife's like, did you put that on TikTok? No, I didn't. Have you been watching TikTok? No, I don't want to watch it.

SPEAKER_01 33:05

So I've had to do a little better. Well, I want to know a little more a little bit more about the the TV show. I know you had, you know, Nick Saban on there, and of course Hank Jr. on there. Red Akins was a big one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:17

Um I've been uh I've had, you know, once you do a few of those guys, you wind up, they know somebody that knows somebody that knows somebody goes down the line. Goes down the line, and then if you show them a good time and you're pretty professional with them, they'll spread the word. And but uh uh Pam Tillis, Mel Tillis. Oh, that's cool. And and old Mel, he'd say, Is that camera running? And I'd say, uh, yeah, he goes, Okay, I got a joke for you when you turn it off. And then he'd have some joke, nasty joke, he would tell and Pam would go, Daddy.

SPEAKER_02 33:57

You know, so uh but no Sammy Kershaw, he was he was Well, he's from Louisiana, yeah. My friends live. But that's not his name. They told me when I would at when I was I used to go down there and and uh we would we would shoot teal in the morning. I'd go down there in September. We'd go, we would uh hunt teal in the morning, and we'd go catch a limit of redfish in the morning. We go to those uh freshwater bays down there south of Gate on. We go across the intercoastal. Man, you talking about fun. Yeah, all we did was eat and shoot teal or ducks and catch redfish.

SPEAKER_00 34:33

I was trying to think what the cast and blast is what they call them. Yeah, yeah. Cast and blast. Or blast and cast, I ever want to do it.

SPEAKER_02 34:42

Man, that's so much fun. We go to those those guys are I don't all the guys that I've met for Louisiana were absolutely fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 34:52

Yeah, most of them are real nice people, and just don't cross them. Don't piss them off. No, that's right. I was trying to be a little bit better than they are good people. They give you the shirt off the back, they'll feed you, they'll do whatever, just don't steal from them or they will definitely they will definitely will feed you.

SPEAKER_02 35:16

Yeah. Because they they know how to cook.

SPEAKER_00 35:20

But getting back to the country musicians, I you know, y'all probably don't remember, but Kurt Gowdy back in the day when I was the uh I want to say it was maybe called the American Rifleman or something outdoors or something. And I used to watch it all the time that it had Ted Williams on it, Larry Zonka. He had all these professional uh football players and baseball players who were the greats in their, you know, in their sport. And I said, man, I'd like to do that with Alabama. So that's what I did that, and I started taking Kenny Stabler, who was my first. Cool. And then uh Bob Bumpire, and then it just grew and grew and grew and grew, and then the Alabama players led to some country musicians, and some country musicians led to uh SEC coaches, and then that led to gosh, who else I do? A lot of baseball greats. I did um Ray Knight, who was the 1986 World Series MVP, and he was married at the time uh to Nancy Lopez, who was the greatest woman golfer of all time.

SPEAKER_02 36:38

Yeah, I remember, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:39

So so after I did Ray, and we had such a good time, Ray said, You want to do my wife? And uh I said, Well, what does she like to do as force hunting and fishing? He goes, She'll shoot quail.

SPEAKER_02 36:52

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 36:52

So I took him to Cameron's and and Quail Reserve. Where is that? Is that in Oklahoma? Aliceville. Oh so I got to do Nancy Lopez. I mean, the greatest of all time, you know. And and then it just grew, and then uh I wound up uh let's see, I'm trying to think of some of the other people. Because the word would just spread and one thing allude to another. I finally got up with Hank. I always wanted to do Hank Williams. So now I've I've done Hank seven times. Yeah. We did a couple quail hunts, we did a couple deer hunts. Uh I tried to take him on a red fishing deal, but he didn't he didn't want to go. Uh and I tried to take him on a uh turkey deal. And he says, Man, I got enough, I got my own turkeys in Troy and up in Paris, Tennessee. You know, so he says, Man, I don't leave my place. I got all the turkeys I want. So he likes the turkey. So he likes the turkey. Oh, he loves the turkey gun. Yeah, that's his I think that's his favorite now. You know, you you grow out of deer. I know I did. I mean, there's only so many trophies you can put on your wife will let you stick on the wall. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_01 38:14

But there's a limited amount of two-year-old turkeys that you can kill. Oh man, so I gave up on those deer long, long time.

SPEAKER_00 38:22

I did too, man. And I just fell in love with these turkeys. And hey, if I if we can't kill enough of them around here, you go to Florida and go to Texas. And if you need your ego, you know, brought up a little higher, you'd go up to South Dakota and kill them. I need to show y'all a video. They were so dumb in South Dakota when we went. They were crossing this road. We couldn't hunt on that county road. So we're sitting in the car and they and they crossing a road. So I stick my head out the window and I go, roll tide. And they go, about four or five of them. You know? And then uh that's awesome. And then I said, Nick Saban! And then and uh I went on two or three more times, and I said, Boy, this is gonna be a fun trip. Oh yeah, oh yeah. Uh but I I'll I'll send you that video and you can share it with them.

SPEAKER_02 39:23

Yeah. I would I would love to see it. That is awesome. Yeah, they're not like that, they're not like the turkeys we have. No.

SPEAKER_01 39:32

You might get one to gobble if you slam the truck door. That's about as cool as one of them gobblers to get around here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:38

And you better not do too much stuff out of the way. Whatever kill them. Right. They don't put up with too much uh no too much uh mess around here.

SPEAKER_00 39:49

And they learn real quick. I mean, I tell I tell people all the time, there's two tips that I really stress is if you if you when you can finally start using decoys, if just say you use a goblin in uh two hands or a jake in two hands, and you go out there and you get these two or three birds come in and fighting and wanting a if you shoot shoot a bird out three out of that three, you shoot a bird. Next time you go to that place or around that area, don't be using a decoy. You better just put a single hen, or you better put a jake in a hen or something because they know, man. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:32

It's the brain's on my film for this. Only about that being.

SPEAKER_00 40:35

Yeah, I'm telling you, they can remember. So, yeah, that's that's uh it really helps. Uh, I think decoys do, but uh you got to just be careful in them because once you shoot, shoot a few off of it, uh they'll get educated real fast.

SPEAKER_01 40:54

Last time I walked up here, Ronnie got shot. I ain't falling.

SPEAKER_02 41:00

Yeah, I know that's right. And you know, I you know, I don't I don't I use decoys, but I I think I think you have to be more of a hunter when you're not using decoys. You better be looking. That's like that turkey I killed Saturday morning. I knew you need to you better be looking. Because if you ain't looking, I wouldn't have killed him. I done probably would have never known he was there, other than when he got there within 30 yards and was gobbling. But you know, you get them like that, they you you better you better be watching because he's if he don't see something, he he won't be too much longer, he can be leaving there.

SPEAKER_00 41:33

I guess it depends if if like on on our properties now, we're running a lot of cell cameras, so we kind of know what's coming around, what's what you got all through deer season, all through the start of turkey season. And um we don't have our land is not, we don't have like a lot of fields or a lot of places where cows can graze and and you can ride around and say, oh man, there's a turkey right there. Yeah. I'm gonna park, I'm gonna go slip around the backside and all. There's no spot and stop. Well you can't do that where the land that we have, so you you have to do it either walking old logging roads or looking for feathers on the ground or scratching, scratching, poo. Yep. Uh you gotta hunt. Yeah, you gotta hunt. And and if you can find an area that's pretty, it's got a lot of activity, then you can sit back and push some decoys out and go sit up against a big tree and see if you can call them in.

SPEAKER_01 42:40

Yep, but every 15-20 minutes.

SPEAKER_00 42:42

Yeah. I've hunted with Eddie Salter a bunch, and you know, that's what that's what he likes to do. He that I hunted with down at his place in Evergreen, and he'll he'll get on an electric golf cart, and they'll ride around and he'll go two, three hundred yards, stop, get out, start uh yelping and clucking and cackling, and if he don't hear nothing, back on the thing, keep ride going, and and we'll make a big, big circle when he when he hears one, boom, we're going to him. We'll get up about 150, 200 yards from him, and he'll take you to sit over there and you know he'll call them in. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 43:26

I bet he's called them any old man. Turkey man, anyway.

SPEAKER_03 43:29

There ain't no telling. Yeah. There is no telling how much. I bet I know he's been on spawn hunt.

SPEAKER_00 43:34

I know you've been on spawn hunts, too. I've been on a bunch of them. I've been very blessed.

SPEAKER_02 43:40

I've been very blessed to go on some good turkey hunts.

SPEAKER_00 43:42

But Ellie now, he travels everywhere, man. I mean, he he's got so many people that just want him to come call the turkey phone. And he said the the thing I hate the most is like when they come, when somebody grabs me and they go, hey man, you gotta come back. My house. I've been working this turkey for the last three years and I can't kill him. And I sure would like the way you call a few cupboards. I don't want the hard ones. You know, I like to go call the easy ones too. Yeah. I don't want to call that one that's been educated for the last three or four years.

SPEAKER_03 44:20

Give me that loud-mouth two-year-old. I like two-year-olds. A loud-mouthed two-year-old ready to die.

SPEAKER_02 44:27

I don't think, I don't think that one I killed Saturday was a two-year-old, but he was he was loud-mouthed. He he was loud-mouthed and he wanted to he wanted to come. And he wanted to ride in your truck. He did. I let him too. Well, he rode in the full runner that morning. I told my sent my wife a picture because she had had a little had a little accident at home last week. She's okay now. She cut her finger very, very bad, almost off with the pruners. But it was like a we thought we were going to go in the hospital with just a little stitch-up deal at the emergency care, and then they sent us to the emergency department. And I said, This is completely out of our league. Oh man. You got to go to the emergency department. She had an emergency surgery at like four o'clock that evening. And anyway, we ended up staying in the doggone hospital like three days. Yeah. So one of my best friends, Sean Simpson, we were he was texting me Friday evening. You know, Sean! Oh man, me and Sean, we've been best buddies since like sixth grade, four four elementary school. He said, I bet you won't tell ask Ashley if you can go hunting in the morning. So I stopped giggling. And she said, What are you laughing at? I said, Sean just asked me, he just said, I bet you won't ask Ashley if you go turkey hunting in the morning. And she said, I've already told you you could go. We've been in here almost three days. You can go hunting in the morning. So I think she was sick of me talking about turkey hunting in there. Because I stayed up there with you. She was in there like that's the morning you killed. My lips were poked up. That was the morning you killed too, wasn't it? Saturday morning. Yeah. And I I walked outside the hospital at 4 15 in North Port. I walked out and said, Oh no. This wind. It was blowing. I got here. I have hearing aids and I I already have trouble hearing with the hearing aids, especially, you know, distance, how far they are. But you know, I was like, all right, well, I got a chance to go, so I'm gonna go. And up, we end up going great, you know, ended up hearing turkeys in the wind and ended up killing one of them. So I had her car. Because I went to the house, threw everything on. So I said, well, I'll just take her car over there. And you know, when she tells me, you know, we thought we were gonna get out of the hospital, which we we did. So I said, I'll just leave from Ben Ebola, and I said, I'll run, you know, straight to straight to Northport and get her. Ended up killing a turkey, and I took a picture of it. I said, You ain't never had nothing like that in the full runner, have you? She said, No, I have not.

SPEAKER_01 46:56

Remember that two-door Tahoe I have? Yeah, yeah. I killed a bird one morning. It was one of those birds that last minute, last itch effort. I'm gonna try this spot. And I killed him when he got when he was 125 yards. I killed him five minutes later. I put him in the front seat. I would put him in the front seat. I let him ride in the front seat. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:15

Jack did that this morning. That one we killed this morning. He put it in the front seat and bungled it up and drove to work. Yep. I said, Why did you throw him in the in the back of the truck? He said, Gotta keep him safe.

SPEAKER_00 47:27

Man, when the police pulls you over, he's definitely gonna give you a breathalyzer.

SPEAKER_01 47:31

Oh, there ain't no doubt about that. I had stopped at Peric Robertson's barbecue and I pulled in there for something. I was calling somebody back, and there's a I was sitting there at my window down because of course my air conditioner didn't work. And this fella pulled up side and said, Do you have any luck this morning? I pulled a turkey up by the passenger seat and said, In the back of the Yeah, I had a pretty good morning. Yeah. He said, I heard a few. And he's like, You have a good one. Like I heard his feelings that I'd kill one and he didn't. Golly. Oh. Well, Tommy, you want to tell everybody about this one more time?

SPEAKER_00 48:03

How you can get in contact with you and uh it's called the uh Old South Farm Turkey Rodeo. And I don't know how you say it, Manchuay or Manchua. Manchaway.

SPEAKER_02 48:15

I've always heard it Manchaway, but some of those people down there call it Manchawa, but I'd never heard it called Manchawa. I've heard it manua.

SPEAKER_00 48:21

Yes, the Manchaway Four-way stop. Four-way stop. And uh everybody that signs a thing to sign up and all that, I'll send them a pin. Okay. Just so for GPS purposes, it'll take you right to Bubba's camphouse. But uh two-man teams, $250 per team, so that's $125 a piece. It's April 11th, you hunt your own place, your own land, your own hunting club, or go national forest and do whatever you want to do.

SPEAKER_02 48:54

Any stipulations? Can they hunt in Mississippi or can they hunt out?

SPEAKER_00 48:57

No, they hunt wherever they want. They just gotta be back by 2 o'clock. You gotta weigh in before 2 o'clock. Okay. Because if you get there at 2 01, it's out. Yeah. So we tell everybody uh that's what you gotta do. And uh I also am uh raffling off a hunt for the day after with Andy uh Eddie Salter. Oh we're gonna take him down to uh around Livingston, Alabama. A friend's letting me take Eddie down there, and uh depending, it's gonna be the high bit of wind. So if if somebody wanted to bid right now it's up to 2,500. Oh, right. And they get to hunt with Eddie on, and I'm gonna film it, then we'll put it on TV and put it on all the uh social media platforms. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 49:48

That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 49:49

You know, Eddie's not getting much younger, and so if you want to get something signed by him, or not that he's sick or near death, but you know, when you get up in your 70s, man, listen, you you know, you gotta Well, I just turned 50, and I tell you what, it it stuff's not it ain't like it used to be. No, it ain't.

SPEAKER_02 50:11

I mean just like five years ago.

SPEAKER_00 50:14

I know, man. Listen, man, when you go out and weed eat the yard and go sit down and can't get out the what you talking about.

SPEAKER_02 50:22

Or sit in the truck for 15 or 20 minutes and you get out and you gotta get warmed up to go in the store, you know.

SPEAKER_00 50:28

I'm gonna tell you this, hunt, and then y'all can do whatever y'all want to do after that, get up and leave or whatever. But you know, we always talk about what you think is the most important thing if you're gonna be uh a good turkey hunter, you know. I think it's woodsmanship, some people think it's calling, some people think it's shooting, some people think it's whatever. But uh I've always been a woodsmanship. You gotta find the birds, you got, you know, because the you can be the best caller in the world, but if you hunt what there's no turkeys, yeah, you you're not gonna kill nothing. So we were down hunting in Florida, hunting the osceolas this weekend. I'm 66. And about the the last three or four years, I have not been able. I've missed a turkey every year by trying to freehand it instead of propping it on the tree and all that. And I had a older guy said, dude, prop it when you can prop it. Do that, do not shoot free handed. I'm like, man, uh I feel like I can still do what I gotta do. So wound up bird thinking the bird's coming in this way, set up on it. He comes in this way, I'm free, I had to turn this way free-handed. Boom, miss. I've done it the last three years. So we we in Florida, and this is humbling, man, because I shake a little bit, you know, and and get excited. And and this guy was a world champion called a young guy, too. His name was uh uh Wallace, Hunter Wallace. He's out of Pennsylvania. And he goes, Man, you want to go run and gun with me this afternoon? I said, Man, yeah, why not? Usually we'll set up wherever they got birds, but I I never guide the guide. So he wanted the run and gun, so I said, Well, let's run and gun. He goes, I'll film you. I got my own little show. So I said, that'd be awesome. So uh we go in this this guy that's got about three, four hundred acres of cow raising cows and stuff, and they have access to this place, and we go in there, and all these cows are out there, and he's looking with his binoculars out there, and he's he goes, Man, there's four turkeys out there. And I'm thinking, how in the world are we gonna get to these freaking turkeys with all these, you know, we're gonna get a cow, you know, costume and put it on and stick out there. He goes, Well, listen, man, this guy feeds these cows every day, so we're gonna ride right through them. And you see those that point out there of trees, we're gonna go all the way around. I'm not gonna stop and we're gonna park around the backside. We're gonna come back to the woods, get on the point. I'm gonna set a decoy up and I'll call at him. I said, Well, let's go do it, man. So he says, Won't you sit by that tree right there? So I sit by the tree right there where he told me to sit, because I I listened to my guide, you know? And I could see him hand crawling out there, you know. I didn't know how far he went out there, and then he backs back in. Well, man, this guy could call now. He starts cutting and yelping and yuck up yuck up. I mean, just cutting and spitting and all kind of stuff, and bore them turkeys goblin. And he goes, 'You ready?' And I said, Yeah, I'm ready. He goes, Here they come. And so he calls them in. He had the decoy set 10 yards out. He said, I didn't want to put it out any further because they would see me. So I just put it where they would be able to see it. Oh, Lord. So now I I'm up against a tree, and he goes, Now, by the way, listen to what uh um the owner said. Don't get con Don't let them heads start intertwining, because if you shoot and you hit two, that's an extra three thousand dollars you gotta pay. So I'm thinking all this stuff, right? And there's four coming up and they're gobbling and they're he goes, Here they come, man, they had 50, they're at 40. He's giving me the rundown 30, 20, and then finally I can see him. I couldn't see him before because he was standing up. I was sitting down. And boom, they come in. Well, they get right at the decoy, and and just like they said, they slapping him, heads are going everywhere. And I've got a free hand now. Oh no. So I'm trying a free hand, and I'm excited, and those heads are intertwined, and I'm gonna pick him, and then one goes behind that, and I'm gonna pick that, and I said, Hell, I'm just gonna shoot the tallest one I see. The one whose head's taller than all of them. And man, the one on the left was, and I wheeled on him, and his head was way up, and I shot, and he goes straight up in the air. About 10, 15 foot, and come right back down, and all four of them run, start running off. And I'm like, what the heck happened, man? And I missed a 10 yards, and he he starts cutting again, yelping and cutting and cutting and cutting. He stops them at 45 yards. Okay, and he goes, They're still in gun range. And I said, I ain't sitting down. So I I I ease over it and I stand up, propped it on a tree, and boom, I uh again, I didn't I couldn't see beards or nothing like that. All I could see is the one that had the tallest head, and you know, at 45 you can you get a spread, so with that TSFs, and all you need is one to hit him. So boom, I shot he dropped.

SPEAKER_02 56:13

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 56:14

And boy, I just got a world champion call. We were talking the night before. He goes, How many years you've been doing us? It's 22 years. We're talking about all the turkeys and all this kind of stuff, and and I miss him on film. Now, this will be the third year in a row I missed a turkey, turkey hunting. And he goes, Never, ever, when they're at 10 yards, shoot at the heads. Shoot at the body. Yeah. Because it's that that will be.

SPEAKER_03 56:47

At 10 yards, you're like that.

SPEAKER_00 56:48

Yeah, he said that he said they're they're moving. So if you want another tip, when they within 15 yards, shoot them in the body. Don't try to shoot them in the heads because you're just not going to get a big enough pattern. All it took was me for him to get out 45 yards and me a tree to prop on, and that's all it took. So I learned again that I need to use a stick or I need to find a tree everywhere I go. A lot of basics in terms of the city. When you get six years old, man, you're not as steady as you think you can do it, but you're not. No, I'm not. You know. So that that's a good tip for you. That is great. Oh. You want people to contact you? Yeah, the best way uh for the tournament uh if you want to get involved is call my cell phone because I can I can come meet you and give you a brochure and and have you register yourself right then on the form and you can write a check or you can give me cash. If you're gonna write a check, write it to Tommy Wilcock so that I can use it for my fourth down and 40 clubs since that's what Craneworks is doing. And uh, but my phone number is 205-792-3131. If I don't answer, leave me a message. I will call you back. 205-792-3131. We have we have a number of openings, and we'd love for y'all to come, you know, have a little friendship with us and uh have a lot of fun turkey hunting and then uh good afternoon eating crawfish and telling lies.

SPEAKER_01 58:34

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 58:36

I'm good at that.

SPEAKER_01 58:37

Well, I'm good at eating too. Tommy Jake's gonna close us out with a with a Bible verse.

SPEAKER_03 58:44

John 16, 33. In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart. I have overcome the world. That's all for this week. Thank you, Jake. Fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 59:00

And just spread the word. If y'all got any people, give me a hell of a.

SPEAKER_01 59:02

We certainly want to give you thank you. That concludes our show today.

SPEAKER_03 59:06

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