Borrowed Time Podcast
Borrowed Time is a podcast rooted in a love for wild turkey hunting, the outdoors, and conservation. We share stories from the field, discuss wildlife management, and talk about life outdoors--because every season is borrowed time.
Borrowed Time Podcast
Fired up Gobblers and Fizzled out Motors
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This week on the Borrowed Time Podcast, we take y'all through the third full week of the Mississippi spring turkey season and share some of our successes as well as our frustrations.
The Borrowed Time crew managed to catch up to a couple fired up longbeards, but they didn't come without an appropriate amount of sweat equity. Lots of miles were walked, unforgettable memories were shared, and the importance of a RELIABLE boat proved its weight in gold in this weeks episode. Y'all stick with us as we share our week in the woods.
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the Bartime Podcast. My name is Seth Box, and today I'm joined with just one of my good buddies, Mr. Johnson Wells. So say hey, Johnson.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Hey everybody. I guess we're just going to take turns of who can be here and who can't. Because uh Daniel, Daniel's out today.
SPEAKER_06Well, you know, it's life. Stuff happens. Um people uh gotta go places, and especially makes it, I guess it makes it harder when you got a little young and running around.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And also this is this podcast is gonna come out on Tuesday. Most of the time we put it on on Monday, but yesterday was Easter. Um, everybody had family get together, so it was Yeah, fresh drop.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Yep. And I know I know we've said it pretty much every week, but trying to give you a Sunday update of the whole week. Yeah, to drop on the following Monday, so you get a uh a pretty fresh update as to what's been going on, and uh you get a whole week's worth of hunting stories, if there are any hunting stories.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, if you if you can if you can get in. We give our our uh ourselves as many days as possible to try to have you a hunting story, so that's why we wait till Sunday.
SPEAKER_06But but yeah, we're missing we're missing Daniel. He ought to be here at some point. He's uh he's watching Harrison today, so yeah. Um he said he's gonna show up, and if if we're still recording, he's gonna hop in. And uh if not, then it'll just be used.
SPEAKER_04Dude, it's April the 6th. April the 6th, 2026. It's already April, which is hard to believe. I mean, uh everything is green. It is uh dude, if you blink like you'll miss it.
SPEAKER_06Oh my gosh. The green up is the craziest thing for me to watch.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's uh especially like adjusting to like uh for for instance this morning, uh hearing a turkey gobble and like trying to judge how far he is. It's uh it's harder now that the leaves and stuff are on the trees because he might be a whole lot closer than you actually think he is. But uh I don't know. I mean it's like this every year, but I don't know. This year seems a whole lot faster than in years years past that it's greened up. But yeah.
SPEAKER_06I think it I think I I say that every year, I think.
SPEAKER_04Probably so. Um but I don't know. It's just crazy at how fast it it does it. Uh in years past, I guess I've probably it's probably done it every year, but I just hadn't really paid that much attention to it. But uh this year I've just kind of I don't know, it's it's crazy. It seems like last week. I mean it was green, but it wasn't like Oh, it was perfect.
SPEAKER_05It was perfect last week, though.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. But the the foliage on the trees. Right. But now it's now it's thick. Um, and we went down to Alabama. When was that? Friday? Yeah, we went to Alabama Friday. Saturday. Was it Saturday? Oh, okay. Saturday.
SPEAKER_06And uh and by we, you mean you and John and Caitlin. I was out of pocket. You mean me, Dan, and Caitlin? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I meant you, Daniel, and Caitlin.
SPEAKER_04Um, it's it's a lot thicker down there, which is further south, but uh it was it was the woods were thicker there than it is here.
SPEAKER_06How well I'm not gonna ask you how far south you were, because no, we're not we're not pin dropping. Right.
SPEAKER_04But we didn't side note, we didn't do any good in Alabama. You can tell them the story. I was gonna let you go first. We we'll we'll start at the like the first of the week, um, kind of tell each day, I guess, what happened.
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SPEAKER_06Alright, so last podcast, I just killed that turkey. Alright. So let's start from there. Um man, I'm not prepared for this.
SPEAKER_04I really Yeah, I know it's really hard to think back. I was thinking earlier. It feels like it was three weeks ago. Day by day.
SPEAKER_06Uh shoot, let's see. Monday. I don't really know what happened.
SPEAKER_04Tuesday.
SPEAKER_06I have to go back at my my photo album. I think I worked. Let's see.
SPEAKER_04I know we hunted some uh Wednesday. Me and you? Yeah. On some public. Oh, we went on public Tuesday as well. Yeah. Yeah, we went on Tuesday we went to a piece of public. Yeah, we went to a piece of public and struck out. Yeah. Hold on, Monday we might have hunted together too at a piece of private.
SPEAKER_06No, no, that was Tuesday, same day. Caught up them two jakes. You know.
SPEAKER_04Okay, hold on. Monday we went to a piece of private that you have permission on. And that turkey gobbled maybe 10 or 15 times and then shut up on the limb. That was about the extent of this. None of these really matter, but just to give you a day by day, this is what happened.
SPEAKER_06Alright, everybody, cut restart. Monday, me and John go to some private, and uh turkey we hadn't known was there. And we roll up in there, turkey gobbles pretty early, 619, 620, something like that. Yeah. And uh we were probably about, I don't know, 350 from him. We advance on him uh 150 or so, get pretty much inside 200 yards, and he's gobbling pretty decent for a while, and then as it slowly gets lighter and lighter, he pretty much completely shuts up. And I think he gobbled two or three times on the ground, probably a total of 15, maybe 20 gobbles. Yeah. Uh just acted like a maybe an older turkey.
SPEAKER_04But if you wanted this turkey to gobble, you had to really pull it out of it.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, you had to really put the pressure on, which I don't like doing. I don't really like trying to force something that's not there.
SPEAKER_04Well, nine times out of ten, for me at least, um, it doesn't ever really end in a kill. No.
SPEAKER_06Ends up in a chase. Yeah. And uh trying to force gobbles. Yeah, I hate that. I hate that. Yeah. So but that was that was really all that happened Monday. Tuesday, me and John went to some public. Beautiful woods. We picked a uh, I mean, shoot, I'd pick that place again. Yeah, that first place we stopped and walked in.
SPEAKER_04I that's one thing too. I've learned you can't really judge a place off of one morning. No, uh, I would have to spend multiple mornings there in order to debase whether or not you know I'll ever go back there again or not.
SPEAKER_06But now, if I went in there three years in a row, like, you know, a couple times a season and still didn't turn nothing up, yeah. I'm I'm done with that. Right. Yeah, I'm gonna say they're they're probably not in there. But probably not. But we uh did a lot of riding around that day, got out trying to strike birds, ended up going to one of your pieces. Yeah, found two turkeys strutting in the field.
SPEAKER_04Thought, thought we were in the the good there for a little bit.
SPEAKER_06They were 500 yards or 600 yards out there, pretty good ways. Yeah, it was a beautiful morning though. Oh, yeah, it was wind was you know, light and variable, as they say. Yeah, probably four or five miles an hour.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, we set up on these two turkeys and uh they were standing out there.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, the weird thing about it was when we first saw them, they were there was two turkeys and two or two hens and two male turkeys. I'll say that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_06And they were strutting perpendicular to us, so they were to the side as we were looking at them. Yeah. And so you just see a strutting turkey. You can't see his fan. And uh they're so far away, and my little binoculars aren't super strong because we really don't have that many big fields around where I hunt. But anyways, I'm like, oh yeah, I think I think one of those is longbird for sure. Like, well, that front was definitely a Jake. And anyways, uh they finally ended up turning and facing us, and they were, I would call super jakes.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Um, a typical Jake fan that I see around here has probably five or six feathers in the middle of the fan that are longer, and then the rest of the fan is shorter. So basically a third of the feathers are longer than the other two-thirds. Right. This was reversed. This was like two-thirds of the feathers were long, and one-third of the feathers were short, like the bottom, probably four feathers on each side of the fan.
SPEAKER_04And one of them, one of them probably had maybe a five or six-inch beard. It might have not been quite that long.
SPEAKER_06But spoiler alert, I did not shoot a turkey. I did not shoot one of these turkeys, so I'm not trying to justify shooting this bird by this having this conversation. Right. No, but anyways, uh, they were out there and we figured out they were Jake's, and so we're like, um, let's play with them, you know. We're about I'm about to go to work. John's about to go to work. So we're calling to him, and they're just following these hens. These hens don't have anything to do with them, so they're just milling around, feeding, you know. And uh these two turkeys, boy, they're strutting their stuff. And uh we called to them and they look, they look. And they didn't gobble, so that threw a red flag before I could see their fan. Yeah. And uh, which they don't always gobble, but anyways, um, they started coming this way after we figured out they were Jake's. They're started coming this way, and they're working, you know, at a fairly decent pace, not breaking their necks to get there by any means. Well, they they cut about a hundred yards, they're probably 400 by now. And uh John's like, hey, gobble at these turkeys.
SPEAKER_04So I gobble at them, and buddy, they came on in a you could you could look through your binoculars and just see both their little legs just coming back and forth as fast as they can go, just sprinting up there to where we were at.
SPEAKER_06They were coming. On a scale of one to ten, I say they were about a seven and a half or eight on the speed scale. They were coming. And uh we're like, look out, look out, look out. So then the two hens, they like I said, they don't even they're not even paying us any attention. Those two jags roll up there, like who done it, man.
SPEAKER_04They got up there about shoot, probably 15 yards, maybe even closer than that.
SPEAKER_06Real close, and we finally did get a gobble out of them. It sounded good too. Yeah, they uh after they kind of smelled the rap, they're they're you know, kind of looking real hard and bobbing their heads pretty fast, getting out of there.
SPEAKER_04And uh one of us, I think you cut at him, and uh that's oh I kikied at him, actually, is what it was. I kikied and uh he gobbled and then then they they like went off. Yeah, they were running at that point. I don't know. We were just we were we were fixing to be done hunting, and uh they ran up there and we were just we were just messing around. You gonna have just see what they would do. Yeah, you gonna have you two mean two-year-olds for opening day next year. No, they got plenty of time to forget about it. But uh then Wednesday, uh we went to school. We didn't break daylight together, but uh we ended up meeting up probably a couple hours after daylight. And uh we did some walking. I what was the total?
SPEAKER_06Right under nine, just shot nine miles. Yeah. 22,000 steps or something. Well, you and Matthew, y'all broke daylight. Yeah, me and Matthew broke daylight out of spot, Jonathan and Daniel broke daylight out of spot, and uh mine and Matthew's initial um place was a bust. Uh but then we went in another gate and ended up getting on a turkey, not really getting on him. I don't know what you call it. It wasn't much of nothing going on. Yeah. Yeah, that sums up and a whole lot of walking after that, trying to strike another one.
SPEAKER_04But yeah, and didn't I mean as much ground as we covered, not y'all, but y'all included, but like when I met up with y'all, and as much ground as we covered on that place, and didn't even think we heard a turkey gobble, was just honestly it was surprising to me because I mean it was beautiful outside. Yeah, but I don't know, it was strange.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, you had about four miles under your belt when you came and picked up me and Matthew, which we also had four, four point two, something like that. So the phone says. And so then we proceeded to make another four and a half mile loop, me and you and Matthew.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and we didn't it was brutal. We didn't even I I say we didn't think we heard a turkey gobble. I thought, which after walking that far, it was hot, I ran out of water. Yeah, I was I was just begging for one to gobble somewhere, and I I mentioned multiple times, neither Matthew nor Seth heard it, but I was like, man, I swear that was a turkey gobble somewhere. We never could make it do it again. But and not to say it wasn't a turkey gobble, it very well could have been and just never gobbled again, but I highly doubt it. Yeah, but and it was a pretty day, yeah. It was a beautiful day, but that was uh Wednesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Thursday.
SPEAKER_06Thursday, I went hunting briefly, I think, and then went to work. Didn't turn anything up Thursday. Yeah, I know. Real cliffhanger, I'm leaving y'all with. Yeah. Very dramatic. No, didn't turn anything up Thursday. Did you go?
SPEAKER_04I don't even remember Thursday. Golly, we're bad at this. So Friday. Well, I'm letting you get through yours, and then I got a bunch of stories to tell.
SPEAKER_06So Friday was also a bust. Me and Matthew and my brother-in-law, we uh made a big loop on his place to no avail. Didn't didn't strike anything. Uh then we went to another spot, tried to get on one that we knew was in there a few days before, didn't hear anything. So then we went to Jack's buddy and got us a chicken biscuit. That's what I had anyways. Good. Man. Best part of the morning. Oh, yeah, by far. Best part of that. Well, I mean, you know, seeing the sunrise is always good and fine and dandy, but I was looking for blood, cuz. Yeah, I understand. Didn't get any. I understand. I'd take it out on the chicken biscuit. Chomping.
SPEAKER_04And then that was Friday.
SPEAKER_06Saturday. Got a heater for you. Let's hear it. Me and Connor and Buddy Darren. We're uh Oh, this is actually this is kind of embarrassing. So okay, he's in this hunting club. Connor is. So he's toting a gun, and Darren's gonna video, and I'm just there, right? Yeah. And uh anyways, so we get out of the truck at this spot ten minutes before a turkey should gobble. Wait about 10 minutes, and a turkey gobbles. Yeah. And he's not very far. And uh man, I guess it was the way he was facing on the limb. And there was a little bit of structure in between us, so that could have played into it. But anyways, uh I'm like, oh yeah, that turkey's right there, 350 or something. And he was like, Well, this is really in a good parking spot right here. Let's go on, let's drive past him, and then there's a big parking spot, we'll park and and and walk back to him. And I'm like, Yeah, I mean there's there's two roads here, like this turkey here's vehicles all the time. Yeah, so no problem. We do that, drive past the turkey, get out, nothing's gobbling, no big deal. We're like, yeah, let's uh let's slip up right through here, uh 150 or so, and we'll check him. And I'm anticipating him being about 200 yards or so. And uh so we slip up through there, pretty close to where we wanted to get, but we were like, let's let's let's stay right here, not you know, let's not just bump him out of the tree or anything. Yeah, dot, dot, dot. That's what happened. Anyways, dude, we one of us hooted. And Johnson, when I tell you, or we were about to hoot, that's what it was, we're about to hoot. And something flew out of a tree about 15 feet over my head. We're all three standing pretty much shoulder to shoulder because we're slipping through this little spot. And uh, I mean, it was over my right shoulder, dude. It was right there. Um, I mean, almost spitting distance. This turkey was roosted in a pine tree about the size of your smaller than your about about the size of your calf. Maybe a little bigger. Golly. Dude, no joke. This the entire tree was no more than 35 foot tall, and he was about halfway up it on a little M. And when I tell you, he was roosted over a county road uh in a ditch. The pine tree just come up out of the ditch.
SPEAKER_04Is that the county road that y'all drove down? Yes.
SPEAKER_06Oh, so he watched y'all drive by. Dude, uh, he probably he probably spit on us. If a turkey can spit, he spit on us.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Yep. So we were like, man, are you kidding? That's a bad feeling. Yeah. Oh, shoot, man. Connor could have shot him out of there, absolutely. Just because you we weren't outlawing. But that's not the end of the story. We went to another spot, got on a bird. He was pretty hot, slipped in there. Man, everything is working out. We're crossing our T's, dotting our I's, and he's working good. And he ain't coming fast, fast, but you can definitely tell he's coming. Turkey's gobbling. Every time I I call to him, and then in between times I call to him, he's gobbling two or three times on his own. Just as perfect as you can ask for. And uh man, finally, Connor, he's sitting about 10 foot in front of me, and Darren is sitting on the same tree with Connor, and uh both of them are facing different directions. And anyways, so finally I'm like, I know Connor can see that turkey because he he's set up on the edge of a log road, and I'm behind him, like I said, 10 foot, 12 foot, something like that. And uh, so this turkey, he's gobbling, he's coming up a bottom, and uh, we're pretty much on a hill to the right of the turkey, so we're above him. Yeah, and uh I see the turkey walk past the end of our road, and I see him get in a gap down there, and he's boy, he's strutting. And so I turn and throw a call over my left shoulder back the way kind of we walked in, and he gobbled right there. I actually videoed it with my phone, him gobbling. He gobbled right there and spun on a dime and uh uh turned right up that road. And I was joking later. I said, buddy, that's how you steer one right there. But, anyways, he's coming up the road and he gobbles. So where he's at right now is probably 90 yards from Connor. Yeah, and uh, so he's you know, he comes 40, 50 yards up there, he's in shooting range. And uh, I seen his old big old noggin down there, John. I said, Man, that's probably a good one. He had a good gobble on it too, loud. What you talking about? Yeah, so he's slipping up that log road, just zigging and zagging, strutting his stuff, right? And he gets up there, and I see the turkey. I was gonna video with my phone, but uh at one point I anticipated the turkey going right, in which Connor's barrel would have been even with my head. So I elected to put the phone down and put one finger up in my right ear. Right, yeah, just for getting a good choice, right? You know, I still want to be able to hear turkey after this hunt. But anyways, he doesn't do that. Turkey comes up the road, but I've done set my phone down so the video is out of the picture. And uh anyways, I see him and I'm like, man, that turkey's in inside 50 for me. And I'm behind Connor, I know he's in range, and uh, there was a slight bend in the road, and I said, Maybe you can't see him. Well, he keeps on coming, has no clue we're in the world, spitting and drumming, coming up through there. Burning it down, and he gets he gets to the spot, and Connor, he don't have to move his gun. I mean, you can see this bird coming from way off, right? And he shoots clean with about 32 yards or so. But this is not me dogging my buddy Connor, because I previously missed one at 45. Yeah, and I had to witness that, and Connor did too. Yeah, and so I mean it happens. Right. If you if you turkey hunt, call yourself a turkey hunter, it's gonna happen. Absolutely gonna happen, and it's gonna happen again, and it's probably gonna happen again after that.
SPEAKER_04That's I heard somebody say one time, if you if you've never missed a turkey, you ain't been turkey hunting enough.
SPEAKER_06Man, I I haven't missed, I've missed a good many turkeys. I'm not gonna say a lot. Yeah. Um, but the ones I've missed, I've missed them at all yardages. Yeah. I've missed a turkey at 15 steps, you know, so on and so forth.
SPEAKER_04I would I would honestly say, now, this is personal opinion again, I'd rather have one at the the 40-yard mark than I had one at the 20-yard mark.
SPEAKER_06If I could pick the perfect yardage. You've already said 36. 36 is in the in that range, 35 to 40.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I would rather have one at the border than I had, you know, 15, 20 yards. I'm I'm scared. I mean, at least a little bit of movement with my gun, I feel like I'm gonna might pull it off his head or something like that.
SPEAKER_06After I missed that turkey at 15 yards, this was a long time ago, dad called one up for me, I missed him 15 yards. After that day, I get this anxiety, which I already got anxiety anyways, when a turkey's 15 yards from you. Right. Don't we all? And uh, man, I just err on the side of caution and I I drop that sucker right above that breastbone, you know, like below the neck a little bit. Basically where the beard hooks on, right, and I let it eat. I'm not gonna try not to miss it. Yeah, that's on me. I mean, it's whatever. I get in the it's you know in the heat of the moment. I can't handle the nerves. I I think I got ice in my veins sometimes. Sometimes I do head tap him right there. Do you? Yeah, sometimes. Anyways, that was that was all that happened Saturday. We didn't get on anything else. So yesterday you probably didn't hunt.
SPEAKER_04I didn't hunt yesterday. No, I didn't hunt yesterday. And then uh today, this morning. Yesterday.
SPEAKER_05Oh, you did you already say happy Easter?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, happy Easter, guys. Hope everybody had a happy Easter. Absolutely. That's the reason we didn't record. Yeah. Um, I think I already said that, but it's okay. Uh then this morning, y'all went and do any good.
SPEAKER_06Absolutely not. We went to a place that we haven't hunted this year, surprisingly. And it's kind of way off to the side. It's just one of those pieces like if you go over there and you strike out and don't hear anything, well, you know, you kind of missed a good portion of the morning if you want to go somewhere else. Yeah. So, well, anyways, we said, you know, last night, so we're gonna go over there. So we rip over there this morning, get out, hear a turkey gobble, hear another turkey gobble. And they're not gobbling great. And Connor's like, let's go over here to this this big high point. I bet we can hear the bit the rest of this place. Go over there to the high point, and there's like three, probably three turkeys gobbling, the two we heard, plus another one, and then like maybe one or two turkeys way off on other property. Yeah, not home. But three, I'd say three, maybe even four, uh, on the place we can hunt. So we go back around, walk in there, and it's a it's a hike back in into where we're going. It's over a bunch of ridges, one right after the other. But they're not big ridges, but you know, up and down, up and down, up and down.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_06And we get all the way back in there, and uh, last gobble we heard was probably about 600 yards, got a good pin on it, bam, right there. And um, like, yep, know where he's at, let's go. So we uh crossed two more hollers and two more ridges and get over there, right where we want to be. And about the time we got there, a logging crew cranked up about half a mile away. God that old tree cutter, oh no, that was not the case. No, and there was a dog way off in the distance toward where the turkey gobbled, yeah, that was like barking every two minutes or something or three. And so a combination of all that just shot our morning right in the foot.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, makes it hard to hear with all that junk going on.
SPEAKER_06And all well, okay, so we left there, drove all the way back to another spot, got out, thought we heard a turkey gobble. We're pretty positive we heard a turkey gobble. And this is what you were saying about the the foliage on the trees being leafed out right now.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Uh turns out the turkey probably wasn't much over 220, I think it's probably 250 from the truck. And uh, but it was it was pretty faint when we heard the turkey gobble. So we walk up in there and uh get to uh kind of a little rise. The road's going uphill. We get almost to the crest of the hill, and Connor's like, hey, you might want to call here and just just see. So I yelp, and about that fifth note, buddy, he gobbles and he is about 65 yards. Pick a tree. A tree right now. And that's what we did. Pick the tree, sat down, waited a few minutes, gave him something else, and uh he hits it and he's about 80 yards.
SPEAKER_02I'm like, what?
SPEAKER_06And uh, anyways, that's pretty much uh that that um kept repeating itself. He'd gobble and he would be about 10 yards further, sounded like 20 yards, I don't know. Yeah, and he he only gobbled like five times, and I was like, he's definitely got to have hands with him. And uh his last gobble he was at a buck fifty, probably. And you know, very obviously went from 65 to 150 headed in this direction, you know, left or right.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_06And so we're like, hey, let's make a loop on him. We bust a loop in there, and uh we have a we're we're having a problem with machinery today. A rotor, uh rotor, a road grader. Um comes by like a county county workers. Yeah. Start grading the road. I'm like, dang, man, can't catch. I'm trying to strike this turkey again after we made this big loop. Can't catch a break. And so we're slipping up through there about every 20 yards, stopping and calling. Don't want to bump him out or anything. We sat down on a tree a couple of times for several minutes, nothing, nothing, taking it slow. We topped this little bitty rise out there and we're sitting here and we're like scratching our heads. We're like, man, the turkey was coming this way that we just came from. Where the heck is he? Yeah, and I hadn't gobbled, hadn't done nothing. Now I had just called and uh something caught caught, you know, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something moving. I looked, and there's a hen scratching the leaves 40 yards or in these wide open timber, pretty much. Yeah. I'm like, oh gosh, boy, I don't know what kind of turkey it was. I just knew it was a turkey. And uh anyways, I said, boys, there's a turkey right there. And so we kind of eased down, ended up being a hen. There was another hen. So I know, you know, that that told me he did have hens with him. Now where he was, I have no clue. He never gobbled again. And uh, yeah, here we are now. That's all. So that was that was your whole week. Yeah, Johnny, tell us a little bit about your all right, y'all. Real quick, if you need professional video work done, we need to check out Collinberry Productions. Weddings, business commercials, or offs, and just about anything you want captured on video, college. With wedding season coming up, we're trying to special right now on all wedding video packages. So head over to CollinberryProductions.com to see his work and look at them.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so mine has is like complete opposite of yours. Um, I've had some really good luck this past week. Um, and I don't know, I've had really good luck in the afternoons like getting turkeys to gobble. And I know a lot of people say they don't like hunt hunting turkeys in the afternoons. Um honestly, I mean, if you can ever get one to gobble in the afternoons, my experience most of time it ends up being you you token the turkey out of there if you can get them to gobble in the afternoons. Now that's just my personal opinion again. Um, a lot of people might disagree, but um that seems to be the case for me. But um, I don't know. I usually go hunting about every afternoon. Now, whether I prefer um morning hunting or afternoon hunting, obviously I'd pick morning, but I don't know. I have these thoughts like when I get home in the afternoons of uh, do I want to go turkey hunting this afternoon? And then I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna go just because I know in June or July I'm gonna be like wishing that I could have an afternoon hunt or just a little bit more time in the woods. But anyways, um Monday, I can't remember what I did Monday morning, but uh Monday afternoon, uh my little brother, he's known as Shiz, but Riker. Um Shiz. He he showed up to my house and it was like four o'clock, and he was like, You want to go hunting? And I was like, Yeah, we'll go. So, anyways, we struck out and uh we we were making our way down in the woods, and uh, it was right before we dropped off into a hardwood bottom. Um, we were just kind of easing our way through there, and I was just walking and calling every little bit. And uh the way that I normally like to hunt in the afternoons, kind of the same way in the mornings. Um, as I and I mean, you you know, we we both do it and we do it the same way. Um and Daniel does it as well, which is I guess why we get along hunting together is because we all kind of hunt the same, but just kind of walking down through there, uh calling soft, just doing little clucks and purrs, and then little soft yelps here and there, and then about every hundred yards or something, I'll stop and yelp pretty loud just to kind of you know see if anything's around. And reason for that, reason I do that is because if you're walking through the woods and you're trying to get to a certain spot and there's turkeys in there, you're gonna spook the turkeys. Nine times out of ten, that turkey's gonna see you before you're gonna see the turkey. You were gonna say something.
SPEAKER_06Prime example this morning. If I would have been, you know, softy open, walking up the road, turkey might have gobbled before I got to 65. Right. Not that it mattered, but it could have. Right.
SPEAKER_04Um well, I like it just because you're gonna you're walking up through there regardless. So I want to give the turkey every opportunity to gobble to let to let him know, or for him to let me know that he's there before I just walk through there and and spook him. Yeah. If he doesn't gobble and you still spook the turkey, okay, you were gonna spook him anyways. So I like the idea of, uh, and some people might disagree, but I like the idea of just walking through there and if he gobbles, great. If he doesn't, okay, well, I was probably gonna spook him anyways.
SPEAKER_06Um and it's not a constant like we're not calling from the time you leave the truck to the way you get back every time. It's pretty consistently.
SPEAKER_04Right. And uh so we we made our way probably 200 yards through this bottom and uh got to a little creek and uh anyways managed to cross the creek. As soon as we got on the other side of the creek, um I stopped and I called pretty loud and boom, turkey gobbled. And he was probably five or six hundred yards from us. And uh so we we made it up about another hundred and uh called again. Turkey gobbled. Obviously, he sounded closer because we had advanced and he had also advanced. And uh so I was like, all right, we can make it up another 50. It's wide open, hardware bottoms. There's little thick patches here and there from where it's starting to green up, but I knew we could make it up another 50. So we got up there, sat down, and I uh yelped to the turkey, gobbled. And so I was like, all right, just he he's coming. And uh sat there for a little bit. It probably wasn't a minute, two minutes, but it felt like a decent amount of time uh when you're sitting there waiting on a turkey. And uh he hadn't gobbled, and uh, so I was like, all right, I'm gonna check him, see where he's at. Yelped, nothing. And I was like, okay. So I cut at him a little bit, yelped again, nothing. And I was like, Alright, that joker's probably coming because out of my experience, if you can get one to gobble and you know he hadn't seen you and he shuts up on you, most of the time he's moving. And uh a little bit later, was sitting there, and uh and I said, Riker, I can hear him drumming. And uh he was like, Really? And I was like, Yeah. And uh, I mean, it was like no time, he said, I see him. And I was like, Okay, what's he doing? Cause he was sitting up probably 10 yards in front of me, and uh he was like, he's gonna be skirting to the right. And uh I was like, okay, so I took my call and I threw it back over my left shoulder and yelped at him.
SPEAKER_06Directional calling.
SPEAKER_04And uh sure enough, it worked. He turned, he was still to the right of Riker, but instead of him going like completely to the right, he turned and he was kind of coming towards us, angled towards us. And uh I couldn't ever see the turkey. And uh so I was sitting there and I could tell the drumming was getting louder and louder, and I was like, dang, like how far is this turkey? And uh I asked Riker, I was like, How far is he? He was like, probably 65, and I was like, All right, so I was sitting there and I see something come moving up through there, and uh I said, Riker, that turkey's in shooting distance. And he's like, Really? I was like, that turkey's like 35 yards. And uh he's like, All right, stick his head up. So I said, pop, he stuck his head up, but he took like two more steps, and uh I was waiting on him to shoot, and he was like, He's behind a little sapling, and I was like, Man, of course. Like I when I did that, I was sitting there thinking, like, man, this turkey's finna stick his head up, pinpoint us, and and get out of there.
SPEAKER_06A lot of times it's hard to stop a turkey for somebody else.
SPEAKER_04Right. Because if you stop and he's good for you. Well, he wasn't good for him, which I don't know. It it ended up working out good. I cut at the turkey and I thought he was gonna stick his head up and get out of there. No. Right there in our face, and I was like, oh man. He immediately, dude, he was so fooled. He immediately went right back down out of strut and went to walking again, like right at us. And uh he's like, all right, stop it, stop it, stop it. I ran his head up there and he shot him. And uh I don't know, it was a crazy hunt. I think the the from the time we left the truck to the time he killed a turkey was literally like 20, 25 minutes. It happened quick, but we got out there and uh I was like, Riker, you you thought this turkey was 65 yards? He was like, Yeah, we stepped it off. It's 31 steps before he shot the turkey. But uh Cleve, Cleve caught us a little bit later and he was like, Riker, you thought that turkey was too far to shoot? I said, No, Cleve, don't give him heck. I said, because I'd rather have him thinking that arrow too far to shoot than years past where he thought it's what it's close to shooting, it'd be 111 steps or 80 yards or anywhere like that.
SPEAKER_06111.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And uh so I was like, man, as long as he thinks that and he wants to let them get closer, good for him. That's great.
SPEAKER_06And that's that's just stuff you learn long you turkey hunt. Right. Everybody that stars turkey on is gonna shoot at a one too far. Well, it's it's you it takes time to to learn distance. Yeah, that's difficult, man. Especially when you're sitting, you know, if you're sitting on your butt, you're two or three feet off the ground, I don't know. Right. Looking horizontally across across the landscape is difficult to range distance a lot of times.
SPEAKER_04Well, and uh I was gonna say if it's flat, it's kind of hard to judge distance, but even in terrain, too, it's still kind of hard to judge distance. It's a mess we especially hunting around here and then going and hunting terrain.
SPEAKER_06And it's it's you if people you know primarily hunt fields, then they'll probably tell you that it's harder for them to judge distance in the timber. Right. And vice versa. Which we mostly hunt timber around here, so we're getting a field. I've done this a bunch of times. Uh like, ah, shoot, that turkey's probably 60. I'm not gonna shoot. Yeah. You know, and um he might come closer, I might kill him, or he might drift off and end up being 42 yards, 43 yards, stuff like that. Right. But yeah, it's much better, in my opinion, to air on err on the side of caution and uh try to get him a little closer, you know, as close as you can.
SPEAKER_04Well, he uh he was he was good and close. Like I say, he was he was 31 steps. Um pretty good turkey. He had uh I think it was like an inch and an eighth spur. Um and then uh probably nine, ten-inch beard. Um, not that any of that matters. Heck, I don't I don't really care how long a turkey's beard is and and uh when he does that for you right there with the bigger. Right. I mean, I should think when when he comes walking up there, I ain't looking at his spurs and I ain't looking at his beard. I'm just I mean, I am not worried about that. I mean, sure, I'll look at him after, you know, if we end up killing the turkey, I'll look at him and I'm proud of him. But up until that point, I am not worried. I'm not sitting there saying, Oh, his spurs ain't big enough. I ain't shooting him. But uh, so yeah, that happened. Um, like I say, happened in the afternoon, happened quick. Um, and then that that was on Monday. Tuesday, I don't know what I did Tuesday. I think Tuesday, I might have gone uh to a property uh in the afternoon, and uh I I think it was Tuesday. Um I can't really remember. Either way, I I went one day this week and uh was walking down a road and uh got to where a road split and it was pines on the left and then it dropped off and down into a hardwood bottom on the right. And uh, I don't know, kind of a dumb mistake on my part. Should have had a tree picked out before I called, just that way in case if one gobbles close, you can automatically just sit down. You weren't expecting him to gobble, was you? No, I wasn't. I was just I was expecting one, if one was gonna gobble kind of deep off down into the hardwood bottom. Well, a lot of folks call that lollygagging, John. Yeah, that's what I was doing, was lollygagging. And uh I I literally I I did a two clux and like a four-note, yeah, like I was like, golly, like this turkey was a hundred or less, like when he gobbled. And uh I scrambled around and was trying to find a tree. It was just pine trees I was standing beside, and all of them were little thin pine trees, and uh didn't really have any cover. I didn't want to just sit down on one of those. I looked behind me and there was uh one that had fallen over um about 10 yards behind me, and so I walked back there and I sat down, and uh I thought for sure, you know, I'm gonna sit down on this turkey, yep at him, and he's gonna crush it. I mean, when he answered a call right off the bat, like as quick as he did, uh, I was thinking, I mean, he's he's ready. Well, wrong. Um, either he wasn't ready or he saw me. I figure he probably saw me because he didn't he didn't gobble again. And uh, anyways, back behind him it was it was a lot of woods to work with, so I just I skirted around that turkey and uh ended up, I got to a big creek, and uh Daniel called me for some reason. I was sitting there and uh I'd kind of got ran and run into a lot of water and I was debating on whether or not I was gonna cross or just kind of go back to where I bet you had them short boots on, didn't you? No, I had my my my knee boots on. Okay. But this water was uh well over the knee boots. And so I I'd kind of run into that and I was talking with him and I was like, all right, I'm gonna get off the phone. We uh I'm gonna see if I want to gobble. If he gobbles on the other side, I'll cross this water. If not, I'm gonna go back. Dude, I know I I no sooner ended the call, hit a yelp. Sure enough, one guy would cross the water over there, and so I was like, well, that makes my decision easy. I feel my knee boots slam full of water. I mean, I went all the way up like like mid uh mid-thigh with water. And uh I was like, Well, I'm already committed now. I crossed over, and uh from the time I yelped that turkey, I was I thought after I crossed that one little thing of water, you know, I was gonna be good. No, I crossed four more things of water. You was in a duck hole, but I was yes, I was in some, I was I was trying to figure out where in the heck I'm gonna set up on this turkey because the whole entire time I'm crossing this water, this turkey's gobbling and he is advancing on me pretty quick. And uh, so I was scrambling around and on the map it shows a blue line going down through there of a creek. Well, I thought I'd crossed that creek. I don't know if my own X was glitching or what, but it was showing I was on the other side of it. Well, I was completely wrong. I was crossing little ditches that came off. Tributaries, and they were already up to mid-thigh. And I got up there to it, and this thing's probably 20 yards wide, and you take one step in there and it's almost over your boot. Like, first step in, and I think deep. I said, Yeah, I don't I don't think I'm gonna cross this one. Uh, not walking it at least. I could probably swim it, but uh this turkey, he was probably 150 yards, he had he had done come a long way. He was probably 150 yards right on the other side of it. So I backed up off of it about 40 yards, and uh he found him a little comfortable spot out there about 100 yards from it, and sat out there and gobbled probably close to an hour. I would I would get excited with him and yelp at him, and he would gobble at me, and then I'd shut up on him for 15, 20 minutes, and he'd sit there and he'd just gobble over and over. And uh finally sat there so long, he eventually shut up. Um most of the time I could yelp at him and he would gobble at pretty much anything. But I've I there towards the end, I was calling to him and he he wasn't doing anything, so I figured he'd probably give it up and worked off, or either gobbled up some hens. So I I left him. Anyways, this was an afternoon hunt, got more turkeys to gobble. Um, then Wednesday we went hunting. Actually, Wednesday, me and Daniel broke daylight and got on a pile of turkeys on some public and uh got close at one point in time, had them about 80 yards, but uh they ended up working off, and then we got on a single turkey that was not too far from them, and uh ended up having a guy walk in on us, walk in behind us, and uh we were kind of playing with the the property boundary right there at private, and this turkey was right over the line. We had 200 yards from him that we were playing with. He was right on the other side of it, kind of going back and forth from public to private, sounded like. And uh, anyways, had this guy come in behind us and and start yelping right behind us on public. So we started calling back to him, you know, trying to let him know, like, hey, we're in here. Well, he he went over on private. Now, whether or not he had permission over there, I have I have absolutely no idea. But he went over there on on private, and uh we didn't hear him ever call again, but this turkey had done picked out a direction that he was going. And uh, you could kind of course him with his gobble.
SPEAKER_06He put the Mohican sneak on.
SPEAKER_04And me and Daniel, we kind of figured out which way he was going. And like I say, we were playing with the public-private line, and so we were just kind of easing our way down through there, and we had uh crossed a creek that ran down through there, and we got to the other side, Daniel hit his pot call, and boom is exactly how it happened. And uh needless to say, we never heard the turkey gobble again, whether or not he killed him or not. Uh Turkey didn't gobble again, and we had to go to work, so we we packed it out of there. Um Thursday, I can't remember what happened Thursday. I don't even I went hunting, but I don't I don't know where. Friday, um me, Daniel, and Caitlin went back to uh some public. Um ended up getting on three different turkeys that were gobbling and actually got relatively close to them too, but man, we were running into people left and right. I mean, it was just crazy. And these turkeys were gobbling. I mean, you could literally you could just cluck at them and they would gobble. I mean, they would gobble in anything, and uh we got probably 150 from them, and uh we're getting above them, and uh, anyways, we we got up up, no way these turkeys could see us, but once we got up above them, we called these turkeys, nothing. Something or somebody spooked these turkeys, no doubt in my mind, because they went from hot to cold just like that. I mean, it was crazy.
SPEAKER_06Um kind of scent control were you using?
SPEAKER_04Dead down wind. And uh it didn't work. But uh, anyways, we left from there, um went to some private of Daniel's and uh struck two turkeys. I don't know, it was a really weird day. You could we we were striking turkeys from way off, and as you got closer, they just shut up. I I don't know what in the world was happening.
SPEAKER_06Sucks, don't it?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it was uh it was pretty pretty crazy. But uh, I mean, my my mindset, we were all sitting there thinking, you know, you you think if you could get one to gobble that far, if you got closer to him, you you could get him to gobble again. That wasn't the case. I don't know what was going on. Um, that was Friday. Okay, so after I left there, I got home, and uh Noah texted me and he asked if I wanted to go hunt with him, and so he stopped by the house, picked me up. We pull up to the place that we're going hunting, and um there's a hen right there where we park at. There's a there's a there was a hen fifteen yards from his truck. She didn't care. She she just kept feeding, and anyways, we had to get out of the truck. 15 yards. From the truck, yes. Wow. And uh got out of the truck and finally she ran in the woods. And uh, anyways, wasn't really paying attention. There's like some sage, grass, and stuff that's like grown up in this field, so it's kind of hard to see. It's not like a clean field. And we're walking down the edge of the field line, going back towards the woods, and uh look out across there, and there's a long beard. And uh he's not bad spooked, he's kind of like a fast walk. He's just like walking towards the woods, and uh, but he's not running, and uh, so I was like, you know, we might can do something with that turkey. And so we made a big loop, and I was like, we're not gonna walk straight at him, we're gonna walk around a loop on the back side of him. And so, anyways, that's what we did. Get around there, they have a little green field on this place, kind of back towards where this turkey had walked. And uh, we get around there to the greenfield and uh kind of pick out a spot because I I'm not expecting these turkeys to gobble right off the bat. I'm expecting to sit there about probably 30 minutes and then then maybe turkey gobble because I didn't really know how bad he was spooked. And uh sat down, yelped, turkey gobbled. And I was like, dang, okay. I was actually kind of shocked. I was like, dang, he actually gobbled. And uh yelped again, two turkeys gobbled, and I was like, okay, two of them now. Well, kind of same scenario as the other day. Struck the turkeys and uh didn't say anything for a little bit, yelped again, turkeys didn't gobble. So I cut at them a little bit, yelped again, turkeys didn't gobble. And I was like, they're coming. Like I know they're coming because these woods are so thick, there's no way they saw us, plus, we were already sitting down, and uh sure enough, a little bit later, and I told Noah, I said, I can hear them drumming. And after I told him that, then he could start hearing them drumming. And uh he spotted them out there coming up through the woods, probably about 75 yards out through there, and uh they went around behind us. There was a little road. They went out there to that road, probably got so there was uh oh gosh, I just went blank on the name. Uh the little bushes? Yeah, palmettoes. Palmettoes, yes, they're they're everywhere out there, and uh there was big clumps of them, and they got behind these palmetto bushes. They were probably strutting maybe 35-40 yards from us, but you couldn't see them. There's palmettoes everywhere, and uh I had shut up, but all you can hear is just back and forth. And then every little bit it was and I was like, good gosh, like if this palmetto bush wouldn't hear, we I mean you can see him playing his day. And we sat there for probably it probably was close to 10 minutes, and uh turkeys were gobbling, and uh every little bit I would just throw a call like back behind me, just like and uh it sounded kind of like they were working off a little bit because they were so close and they were gobbling so much, like it was kind of one of those feelings like, all right, we're here, we ought to be seeing the hen, you know, where you at? Well, they were kind of working off a little bit, so I told I told Noah, I was like, look, you can probably make it to that palmetto bush up there that's in between us. I thought it opened up on the other side. Well, he crawled up there, and as he's crawling, I guess those turkeys thought that he was a hen coming to him because those turkeys broke, and as he got up there on the other side of the palmetto bush, those turkeys walk up there, and they're standing there, I think it was 21 steps after I counted it. I'm sitting up against the base of the tree. Noah's out there, they're 10 yards from him, but they're on the they put the palmetto bush in between him and them. And they're standing there 21 yards. The looker turkey comes walking up there, and and obviously he's looking, he's got his head all up. Then uh I thought it was just him at first, and then like I say, the strutter came into picture, and they were both standing right there, and uh man, I was sitting there, and I didn't even realize how loud I was saying it. Me and Noah talked about it after the fact, but I was sitting there and shoot the turkey. Shoot the turkey, shoot the turkey, and I didn't realize how loud I was saying it, but he was after the fact he was like, I could hear you telling me to shoot the turkey, but I couldn't. He had the bush in his way and it was it was big. And uh they sat there for a minute and they had gotten to where they could see the whole entire greenfield. And uh it wasn't just a second, and they turned and they started kind of walking off, and he slid out from behind the palmetto bush, and by that time they were kind of kind of trotting, and uh he shot at him, missed, didn't touch one. And uh, so anyways, man, that uh that that hurts just as bad as me shooting and missing one or or anybody else. I mean, it's just the opportunities like that don't come very often. And uh so you know when when something like that happens, you want to make the the most of it. And uh so we're kind of bummed out about that. Uh that was Friday. Saturday.
SPEAKER_06Oh, Chad GPT says they're called shrubs, not bushes.
SPEAKER_04Okay, you you uh Yeah, I fact checked you. Okay, yeah, I couldn't, I couldn't somebody's gotta do it. Oh, I couldn't remember. I didn't know what they were called, I was just calling them palmetto bushes. All good, all good. Um Saturday, me, Daniel, and Caitlin load up. We go to Alabama turkey hunting um with a boat, and shoot, we didn't even get to hunt Alabama, but maybe two hours, and the dang boat quit.
SPEAKER_05What that tag soup taste like. It wasn't very tasty.
SPEAKER_04It wasn't very tasty at all. Yeah. And uh yeah, the starter went out on the boat. Um we were, I think we were 1.6 miles from the boat ramp, and we were trying to make it back on the trolling motor that was in the front of the boat. Anyways, it played out. We were going, I don't even know if we were going one mile an hour with that one trolling motor. Like we were putting down through there. It was slow, and uh finally the battery played out, so we're trying to find out what we were gonna do because there weren't any boats.
SPEAKER_06That's when you take that old fishing pole, put a big treble hook on there, and try to get hung on something about 50 yards in front of you.
SPEAKER_04We didn't have a fishing pole, and so we hadn't seen any boats all morning, so I was sitting there thinking, like, we're gonna have to call the game warden or something, get him to come come uh pull us back. Well, luckily, we sat there about 10 minutes. Luckily, uh a boat came down through there and they pulled us back. Did you have to flag them down? Yeah, which they were coming down through there, they were checking jugs, and uh, so they they were coming right down past it. But yeah, we flagged them down, they pulled us back, and uh, so we we came back to the house. I got back to the house about 11 o'clock. As in like lunchtime, 11 o'clock, not 11 o'clock at night. Um, Noah texted me again, and he was like, You want to go try them again, see if they're back out there? Sure enough, show back up out there, and we're kind of going over there because these turkeys are kind of staying around this greenfield, um, because he he's hunted in it before and they've they've been kind of around there. And so we're kind of making our way up through there. But the greenfield, like I say, it has palmetto bushes or what what are they called? Shrubs, palmetto shrubs, all out in it as well, and uh some trees in it too, and so we're we're easing up through there, and uh, we're almost like almost out into the field, um, but just trying to check it because you can't look from one spot and check it. And uh, anyways, we cross this little creek, and I'm like mid-step across this creek, and he's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. And uh I look up, a hen takes off running, and uh he doesn't know gobbler's right there behind the hen, he doesn't know what in the world's going on. She takes off running and runs in the woods, and uh, I thought he was thinking to run as well. No, that joker trotted up there and then blew back up strut and then went down and he walked up again, blew back up strut again, and then he just kind of eased into the wood, and so I was like, Well, he ain't spooked. And but I was like, I don't like I say, this position that we're in right now, I don't want to sit down and call from it. So we looped around. Long story short, ended up getting that turkey to gobble. But uh every time he would gobble, he sounded like he was getting further, and I feel like he had some hens and he was gobbling, but they were just kind of like walking off and uh didn't really do any good with him. Got him to gobble maybe five or six times. Um, so that was that Sunday didn't hunt. Uh that was Easter. Uh today, this morning. Um, Daniel and Caitlin had a spot uh that we could go to. And so, anyways, I went with him and uh broke daylight um and had a turkey goblin. He sounded way further than he actually was, um, but he was right on a creek. Um, but it's where a creek split off into multiple little different sloughs and stuff and ditches. And uh so we we looped around and uh got to where we thought he might fly down. Um, but by the time we made it over there, he gobbled at us one time. I think he was facing us. He was still in the tree, but he sounded like maybe 200 yards. Well, we sat down and tree up to the turkey, and nothing didn't, he wouldn't gobble. Never heard him gobble. And we sat there for like 15 minutes, and I was like, I mean, I would think you'd at least be able to pull one out of him. Plus, the the way that the water kind of ran, if he pitched down, he would have been like right in there, pretty close to us. And uh, because it kind of ve'd and the veed kind of the the V'ed, the V kind of opened up kind of towards where we where we were, and that's where the the hardwood, I don't know if I'm making any sense at all, but yeah, yeah. Um the way that if the turkey would have pitched down, he would have been working towards us.
SPEAKER_06Is this that place over on the state line?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it is. And uh Daniel and them really don't even hunt it that much, but we uh I wish that fool would take me over there.
SPEAKER_06Sorry, Dan.
SPEAKER_04We uh so we were kind of trying to figure out like where turkeys were, and so we uh like I say, turkey didn't gobble again right in there, and so we kind of made a game plan to work on up, push on up, and then kind of walk the creek back down, see if we can get him to gobble. And if he's on the other side of the creek, then we'll be able to tell. Well, we push on up, we're working the creek down, and I yelp pretty loud. And uh he gobbles, sure enough, he's on the other side of the creek. Um, well, so we push on down there pretty close, yelp at him again, and he's like, he'll gobble every now and then, but he's not like directly gobbling at us. He'll just gobble at us sometimes, and so we kind of got it in our head, like we're not gonna do any good on this side of the creek. The only way we're gonna do any good with this turkey is to drive around and get on the side of the woods with him, because that's the only way you can cross this little creek. And so walk all the way back to the truck, drive around, get on his side, and uh, we're walking down the road, and uh the the road we're we're walking straight down it and then the road kind of bananas and uh bananas to the to the left, and then it then it after the little banana, it it straightens back out. Like I say, I'm not very good at explaining this kind of stuff, but I'm trying to give you a picture here. Well, right where the road bends, um, we stopped. We we made the statement we need to call right up here right before the road bends, just to see because where we had the turkey pin, probably 700 yards from where we were at. But it took us a decent amount of time to get around there, and uh so I we stopped and I hit the call. I literally did like just two little bubble clugs right there, 100 yards maybe. It was like blew your hat off. And uh so Daniel backed up about probably 80 yards from us, and uh me and Caitlin sat down right on the road, and where that where that turkey had to come in order to see down the long straight 20 yards right there. So, I mean he was gonna be close when he got there. Well, uh Daniel's back there and he called into the turkey. The turkey gobbles, I mean, pretty much at every call, and there for a little bit he was just kind of staying in the one spot. And uh then you could start hearing him getting closer, and I could tell he was following the road. That's why I told Caitlin, I said he's walking straight down that road because he was he was kind of dipping off down to the left. And uh it sounded like I told I asked her if she could shoot down in the woods because I was to the left of her. The only place I could shoot was out in the woods if he came out there, and she was like, Yeah, I can. Well, uh turkey gobbles again, he's probably 60. And uh then he like he's popping half strut, and then this turkey, when I finally see him, she said she could see him, and then I can finally see him, and this turkey pops like half strut and he drums for a second, and then he comes out of strut. Sorry, he comes out of strut and he's not walking, he's almost like running. He's just like he he's ready, and uh he comes running up there and she's like, make him stick his head up, because uh at this point, I mean he was 30 and then he popped around a bend right there at 20, and uh she was like, make him stick his head up. And I was I had my call in the side of my mouth. I was trying to get my call to my mouth, and while I was doing that, boom, she shot him, and I was like, Okay, well, I don't need to make him stick his head up. She said, whenever she said that, he went like half strutting and stuck his head up, and she shot him and uh like 20, maybe 15 yards, and uh got him. And I think I could be wrong, you can't ever tell, but I think it could have been the same turkey because previous to striking this turkey, we accidentally bumped one or two hens out of the road, and uh they were walking from his direction. So I figure he probably bred those hens and then they were going off and he was he was looking for more hens. But uh, anyways, got him and uh we sat there and enjoyed it for probably 30 minutes. We just sat there and uh talking about it. I mean, I think Daniel videoed it or something. Um I think it was like a six-minute hunt. It was just it was crazy. And uh actually, you you know, selfishly after that had all happened, we were sitting there talking about how we wished that it could have lasted just a little bit longer, um, which is kind of silly to say, but uh it was just it was really fast. Yeah, and uh we were at the back side of this property, so we had to drive through the whole entire property to get out of the place. And uh Well, I mean it ain't just huge. Right. But we we still had to drive through the whole property to get out of the place. And anyway, so we we were driving up through there, and Daniel was like, Stop real quick, let's let's see if one will gobble up in here. And so it was like, okay, well, we we stopped at the truck. By this time, the wind had kind of picked up a little bit, so like if you heard a turkey gobble, every now and then it would it would kind of die off a little bit and you could hear for a decent little ways, but I mean for the majority it was it was pretty windy and uh yelped, nothing, and he was like, Well, let's just walk right out here a little bit. And so I was like, all right, well, let me grab my gun real quick because we're gonna get all the way down here and one's gonna gobble 100 yards and I ain't gonna have a gun. So I grabbed it out of the truck. And by the time we had gotten down there to where he wanted to go, he was like, Well, let's just let's just eat on up here a little bit. And I was like, okay, we'll called, nothing. And uh I remember making this statement, I was like, man, 100 yards could make a difference. I was like, because I mean as windy as it is, plus with the leaves on the trees, I was like, you mean you move up a hundred yards, I mean you could you could strike a turkey easy. Well, that that was the case. Um we walked up about a hundred yards, and uh, I was like, hit your pot call real quick because it was a little louder. And uh he hit it, and uh turkey gobbled about as far as you could hear. We all looked at each other and I was like, that was a turkey gobble somewhere, and they were like, Yeah, I heard it too. And uh he cut at the turkey, sure enough, and uh so Daniel backed up about a hundred yards, and uh me and Caitlin sat down on a tree, and there's creeks and sloughs and junk all over this place, and this turkey gobbled. We we we uh which anywhere on the property you're pretty much gonna run into this. I mean, it's the same song and dance pretty much. There was a creek in between us, and we were standing right at the creek, and uh we were we were kind of just working the creek down, calling, kind of making the loop back to the truck, and this turkey gobbled, and he was on the other side of the creek. Well, I could shoot across the creek, and I was willing to, if this turkey hung up at the creek, I was gonna shoot him and I'd wait it. I didn't care. And uh, anyways, Daniel backed up and he was calling, and uh every time his turkey gobbled, you could tell he was getting closer. And uh I'm trying to think. I mean, like I say, he was just getting closer every single time, and then uh it was shortly after. This turkey, I would say he was probably five or six hundred yards away, and uh he he was cutting distance quick. And uh Caitlin at one point in time she said, I I see him. And uh she just saw like his head bobbing down through there. Well then I saw him, and uh this turkey never strutted nothing, never heard him drum. Um when I saw him, he was almost kind of like the same way Caitlin's turkey did that she shot just a little bit ago. He was like almost running. He was he was coming down through there so quick. And uh I, you know, I I she videoed it with her phone. You can hear me say in the video, I was like, I guarantee you this turkey's about to pitch this creek because a lot of times if you get one that's gonna hang up, you know, he'll come up there and walk real slow and he'll gobble and he might strut. Just find him a little spot over there to strut back and forth. And uh no, this sucker, he was walking up through there, and I mean I when I saw him, I could have shot him. I mean, he was probably 40 yards, and uh he was he was almost like running, and I think that's ended up what he was doing. He was he got him a running start, and uh from the time I saw him, I saw him, and it wasn't five seconds you can see in the video. I said, here he goes. Joker sets his wings, pitches across there, and he lands. When he lands, he's probably 30 yards from me. And uh he goes down a little dip and he pops up on the other side. And uh out of all this, you know, when we left the truck, I wasn't I really wasn't expecting to strike a turkey. I say that. I was very optimistic that we probably would, but I mean it never ran through my mind. Hey, you probably need to load your gun. And uh so this turkey pops up at 25 yards, probably. I get the red dot on his head, click, click. And this turkey gobbles at the gun click. We got it on video. This turkey gobbles at my gun clicking 25 yards, and so I was like, all right, don't panic. I just shucked one in it real quick and uh got it back on his head, pulled the trigger. And uh kind of funny in the video, Daniel and Caitlin were kind of making fun of me. I I and it's the case every single time, I don't know. I have like no reaction like after I shoot a turkey until like I go and pick him up. I don't, I don't jump up and dance, I don't scream, I don't do anything. I just literally I just get up, walk out there, and I'll be excited with you after I pick the turkey up. And uh I walk out there and I grab turkey. Biggest bearded turkey I've ever shot in my life. He has a 12-inch beard. Not that any of that matters, but he doesn't have he doesn't have a single spur, nothing. Like he didn't, I think Jake Spurs would be bigger.
SPEAKER_06I mean, you've been absolutely it's like a little, it's almost like a deformed scale.
SPEAKER_04It's really not it's very odd, but we were also looking. Uh I don't even know if that turkey's strutted. I mean, his wing tips were as pointy. Like if he had strutted, it hadn't been very much. But like I say, the whole entire time he was coming in, I never saw him strut, never heard of him.
SPEAKER_06Well, he ain't got nothing to fight with. He probably gets around.
SPEAKER_04That might have been why Joker was running uh to Daniel Collin back there, but uh I don't know. It was it was a crazy morning to say the least. I had I had told them on my Snapchat memories uh this time last year on April 6th, uh Riker killed one. I was with him, uh videoed him killing one, and then the year before that, on April 6th, I had killed my third. Um, so w we were laughing. This is before we even had killed a like Caitlin had even shot her target. I was like, man, I told them that I was like, man, April 6th has been a good day for me in years past. Well, it seems to still be true because April 6th, uh it was it was a good day. It was a a great day.
SPEAKER_06Um, so I'm gonna have to not mention it to Danny. I'm gonna have to go to the stores. I might have to go talk to his great uncle or his aunt, whoever owns that place and see if I can. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_04See if you can wiggle in there with the game.
SPEAKER_06I'm tired of hitting that old Joker take me over there.
SPEAKER_04Oh man, but I guess uh I guess that means I'm done as far as me being on the gun uh in Mississippi, but uh still got guys like you I can go with. Maybe if you'll let me tag along or something.
SPEAKER_06But uh it might be a silent tag along, but you can absolutely tag along.
SPEAKER_04Well, it's better than sitting at the house. I can cheer you. I'd rather I'd rather go and break daylight, not hear turkey gobble, than I had lay around in the bed because it's it never Fails if you ever do sleep in, or at least me, and I know you're probably the same way. You always have this thought in the back of your head. Everybody and their brother could say that they didn't hear a turkey gobble this morning, and I'm gonna I'm gonna be like, Well, I guarantee you they were burning it up on my place, and I didn't even go. Yep. Um, so which I guess is a good thing because it drives you to go. Like I say, I'll I'll be sitting in June or July and be wishing, you know, that I could go for maybe five minutes or something.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Something like that. But uh heck, speaking of April, we leave at the end of this month. We're going on a trip. Up through yonder. Which is exciting, but then again, you know, when you think about your trips and stuff, we always plan them for the end of our turkey season, which is kind of sad because uh, you know, it's it's reaching the end. Um you look forward to something the whole entire year, and uh it'll be be over before you know it. But um, I guess getting off the sad stuff, it's still turkey season, so we can still turkey hunt. But um, yeah, so that's all for me this week. Um as far as that.
SPEAKER_06Heck of an update for you there, Johnny.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that was uh a lot going on um this past week. Hey, look, uh one tip I guess, if you've never tried turkey hunting in the afternoon, I would try it. Um it's been been good for me this past week. I know uh I don't guess Seth can say the same, but I don't know. I've always I've always had pretty good luck hunting in the afternoons. Um like the the past few years. I've like most of the time if I can if I can get a turkey gobble in the afternoon, it usually happens pretty quick. Uh me and Noah went last year, and uh I I genuinely think Daniel will be the first to tell you. I had just left the office, like his office, and told him that we were going hunting, and uh it probably wasn't 15 minutes. I called him. I told him before we walked out the door, I was like, all right, I'll send you a picture of a turkey here in a little bit. Dude, I sent him a picture of the turkey and he was like, no freaking way. And I was like, dude, I don't even know. But just happened. Yeah, it just happens, but that's the thing. I mean, you just gotta go hunting. Um if you go hunting, you don't know till you go. That's exactly right. But uh heck, I guess that's about it, unless you got anything else.
SPEAKER_06Oh, let me think, let me think. Might as well pick up the fishing pole, man.
SPEAKER_04No, you can't give up on them.
SPEAKER_06No, I'm definitely not giving up. We've got another, you know, I guess uh a little over three weeks left in Mississippi to hunt.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_06I'd love to hunt all three well, three weeks of them, but uh I know we'll be gone. Um but I'm looking forward to it, man. It's this stuff is great. I you look forward to this time of year all year long, and it finally gets here. Like you said, you can't not go.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_06I might I might miss a few hours on a job or something, but I'm going turkey.
SPEAKER_04I completely understand that. Um and I know this is kind of easy for me to say. Um now that I've now that I'm done, I've killed turkeys. Um but uh man, just trying to uh sit and enjoy it, regardless if you're killing any or not. Just uh like I say, you only get so many spring days, you might as well enjoy them. Um if that's breaking daylight, not hearing a single peep. Now I will. You you do want to hear one, that's the whole intent of going. Absolutely. But you know what? If if you don't hear one, it's not the end of the day.
SPEAKER_06Um if you if you if you get mad that you don't hear one, uh, you know.
SPEAKER_04No, no, no, hey, look, I tell you this, no need to go to the house if you don't hear one because you dang sure ain't gonna well I say that I can hear them at the house, but uh you if you're sitting inside, you probably ain't gonna hear one at the house.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, but if if the sole purpose of going out there is to kill the turkey, then you're kind of missing the big picture. Right. That is the goal is to get the turkey.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. It's the it's the whole experience to get the turkey because that's what we were we were saying today, you know. After you kill the turkey, I mean it's fun to sit there and talk about it and relive it, but and and we made the statement of the the the beard and the spurs and how people like to talk about how big they are and everything, you know. I'm not worried about what size beard that turkey has, and I'm not worried about what size spurs that turkey has. Well I'm gonna joke. I am there for the experience. Um he could have he could be a slick, I mean, slick leg joker, just like the one I killed. He could have uh uh beard rot. Um, I mean, I don't I don't care. I'm there strictly for the experience. Um, so none of that really matters, but that's that's a whole nother little rabbit trail we could go down. But um, I guess with all that being said, um, like I say, if y'all would leave us a uh review and uh a comment, uh we'd appreciate those. We appreciate the ones that everybody's already left.
SPEAKER_06And we realize these uh no guest episodes might not get as good of a review as some you know having somebody cool on, but sorry we're not cool enough for y'all, but um I don't know.
SPEAKER_04We might can I can get a guest up before long, but I don't know. Me personally, y'all might disagree. And if you do, you can you can let us know. That's the cool thing about it. But uh I enjoy getting uh a weekly update, um, telling the stories, listening to the stories.
SPEAKER_05Absolutely.
SPEAKER_04Um so like I say, I guess if you don't like it, you can let us know. Um we'll we'll try to change something for y'all. I mean, we do this for fun, um, but also we hope y'all enjoy it. So if you don't enjoy it, let us know. Um, because like I say, we enjoy putting it out for y'all. But if y'all don't like it, then there's no needing us putting it out.
SPEAKER_06And if it's that bad, you just need to turn on your Taylor Swift or something.
SPEAKER_04That's right. That's exactly right. But uh, if you don't have anything else, then I'm pretty much done. That's all I got, man. Why don't you take us out of here? All right. Well, we'll see y'all later.
