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
Deep South Turkey Season Update & Wild Turkey Recipe Preview
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This week we’re back with our usual hunt update—what we’re seeing, what’s working, and what’s not out in the turkey woods.
We also start dipping our toes into the wild turkey recipe talk, sharing a few ideas and getting fired up for what’s coming next. This episode sets the table for next week’s deep dive, where we’ll break down our favorite ways to clean, cook, and eat wild turkey. If you like chasing birds and eating ‘em even more, you won’t want to miss what’s coming.
Hello everybody and welcome back to the Bartime Podcast. My name is Seth Box, and this evening I got my two first guests on. No, I'm joking. Same old two, Johnson Wells and Daniel Halfacre. What you boys been doing.
SPEAKER_02Two weeks in a row, we all made it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, ain't that crazy? Take his yelper out. I'm gonna be yelping. You better put that box custom customer.
SPEAKER_00Two read batwing. Well, look, we recorded on Saturday last week. And if we were recorded on Sunday, Seth would have had a story.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah. Pretty good one, too. Go ahead and kick us off. Not super lengthy, but it's a good story. Hold on.
SPEAKER_02Any updates other than four years? I was about to say I have a oh, as far as like updates now, I don't really have any.
SPEAKER_00Um me and Seth leave Sunday. Going out of state. It's a week from today. Yeah. It is.
SPEAKER_01We're right behind you on Tuesday. Week from today will probably be at this very moment, 6 50 in the evening. I'm sure we'll be on the other side of Memphis. Northbound.
SPEAKER_00Heck, we're leaving like right after church. Late at like three o'clock. Dude, I'm gonna try to convince you to get in the truck right after church.
SPEAKER_02If you leave right after church, y'all should be putting a guy to bed.
SPEAKER_01Depends on our first stop, like our location. It's toss up as to where we're going in this state.
SPEAKER_02If y'all go where you're hoping to get to go, you should be putting a guy there to bed. Yeah, that'd be cool. Or go where I am sending you. Trying to get you to go.
SPEAKER_01Dan says he's got a good spot.
SPEAKER_02I just said there is turkeys there. It's better than going somewhere you hope there's turkeys. Anyway, you know, that's a that's outside this podcast discussion.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we're gonna convince Seth to leave right after church because uh maybe I'm chomping at the bits. Well me too. Do you believe he's chomping at the bits? Are you gonna hunt a turkey Sunday? Oh, I'm just gonna be ready to get there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, there's a big difference though in knowing you're hunting one Monday morning.
SPEAKER_01No, no, but look, if uh I mean you get there at 7 p.m. Sunday evening or 9 p.m. Sunday evening, it's really not that. I don't think we're gonna be there at 7 p.m. I'm gonna ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. Please don't do that. And that's what's gonna happen. What are you trying to mimic there? Is that a coyote call? Yes. Oh, okay. Whatever gets them to gobble.
SPEAKER_02But look, you're you're saying there's a two-hour difference there, but let me give you another scenario that that that two hours makes. You're under a turkey.
SPEAKER_01Y'all two would make some pretty decent loggers.
SPEAKER_02I'm not gonna say you're under a turkey Monday morning, or you're hoping to even be in the vicinity.
SPEAKER_01I can't believe y'all are this ready.
SPEAKER_00You're riding with Caitlin, dad's riding with me.
SPEAKER_01Jonathan, I can't believe you're this ready to leave your wife.
SPEAKER_04No, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00That's what I'm hearing about.
SPEAKER_04She understands.
SPEAKER_00And Maggie's in the right now.
SPEAKER_01We get a week run at 20 feet for up from us.
SPEAKER_00We get a week run at this. I'm trying to make the most of the week.
SPEAKER_01No, you're just ready to get away from her. That's what it is. Not true. Maggie, I'm sorry. Because she's gonna listen. See, I'm trying to stay, I'm trying to stay with my fiance as long as I can. What do you think about that?
SPEAKER_02I mean, you're just I think we can clip that and send it to her. And then that might get you to be able to leave a little earlier. Yeah, yeah. Not the goal, not the goal.
SPEAKER_04She'd be like, Seth just go ahead. Hold on. She might not even want you to stay that long with her. She might be hoping, like, please hurry up.
SPEAKER_02Look, my thing is she's gonna go to sleep. Let's see. Y'all ain't much about oh my goodness gracious. My mic just fell.
SPEAKER_03I wonder why dude just jank up every piece of equipment we have. He's over, he was over twiddling with the cords. This isn't even mine. Oh, that one is yours. Whatever, man.
SPEAKER_02No, no, look, my my theory on y'all leaving is look, y'all ate lunch today at about one o'clock. Miss Addy B is gonna be ready for her Sunday afternoon nap, approximately two o'clock.
SPEAKER_00And you're gonna be keeping her up there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's what I'm seeing. You're just gonna be keeping her up. Get out of here.
SPEAKER_00You're gonna be a problem.
SPEAKER_02Get out of there. If you want to eat lunch with her, that's fine. But leaving at one o'clock and leaving at three o'clock is a big difference.
SPEAKER_01I'll propose this to her and we'll see how it goes. Tell her, wait a minute. Tell her for the channel. I'm gonna be sitting in your driveway waiting on you to three.
SPEAKER_04That's what you should do.
SPEAKER_01I guess Johnson could just wait.
SPEAKER_04No, there's no chance. Johnson's waiting on you out there. You probably need to be.
SPEAKER_01I got an even better idea.
SPEAKER_04Since we are going to two vehicles, you just freaking go and roost me a turkey. Oh, no. If I roost a turkey, I'm not telling you anything about it. What if you roost two turkeys?
SPEAKER_01Hate it. Hate it. Hey, I had a little surprise for later on in the swing. I was gonna put you on. I know we're I know where 15 turkeys are roosting the same tree every night. All gobblers.
SPEAKER_00Well, look, the 12 inch beer. The good thing is later on in the swing, you're hopping in the truck with me. So like right before that point.
SPEAKER_01I was gonna put you in a heck of a spot, but not any longer. That's fine. I'm just gonna follow you. I'm tired of discussing this. I'll tell you my story if you'd like to. We're back to the rabbit holes. Uh the listeners are probably freaking they're on the edge of the cut it off by the time. They may have airpods in, they've put them up, throw them, throwing them away, something.
SPEAKER_02They're listening to Lake and Jordan right now.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. But anyway, so Saturday. Did me and you hunt together Saturday, Johnson?
SPEAKER_02Yes. Yes. Did we? Yes. Me and Sawyer, uh, me and Sawyer went that day. Oh, yeah. And so y'all went one of your spots and then wait, started at one of your spots, then ended up at one of your spots.
SPEAKER_01Okay, yeah, we already told that story. Didn't do any good. Sunday rolls around.
SPEAKER_02Um We didn't tell about them delectable old mud puppies that old Dan right here cooked. They were absolutely horrible.
SPEAKER_01Saturday evening, Daniel cooked some of the best crawfish I've ever eaten in my life. Yeah, they were pretty good. And I eat them, I eat them at me and Addie eat them every Friday. So I've eaten a lot of crawfish this season so far. Those were I'm not gonna say the best of my life because I can't remember all of them.
SPEAKER_00Wait, he just said the best in his life, though.
SPEAKER_01He did say that. Well, I'm taking my words back. I'm not saying they're not. They're they're top three for sure. I'll take that. I don't even know they could be one, two, or three. I'll take it. Yeah, I'll take podium. Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02Anyway, all right, go.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so so Saturday when me and Johnson were hunting, dad went to this little block that we uh that we've been hunting for several years and uh got on a turkey. He wasn't doing a whole lot, and he really didn't push him. I I think he wanted me to go in there the next day and and kill him, which is what happened. But anyways, uh he really didn't push him. He told me, look, turkey was roosted. Here he flew down, he he worked to this location, and he just kind of back and forth all morning. Turkey really didn't move over about 250 yards all morning that that he hunted him. And uh so I roll up a little bit late Sunday morning because we stayed out too late at Johnson's house. It's an hour drive back to my house. I'm getting home like 11 30 or something like that. So, anyways, uh that's that's my excuse for not waking up on time.
SPEAKER_00I mean, it just sounds goofy in my opinion.
SPEAKER_01Whatever, man. So get there when I open the door to the truck to get out, truck is gobbling. 6.05. I'm like, oh man, I need a I should have been there. So, anyways, I'm I'm huffing it kind of up this road, and uh or is the term hoofing it?
SPEAKER_02I would say it's probably hoofing it makes more sense. I don't know, but you also are huffing and puffing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's what I took it out.
SPEAKER_02Me and John hoof it, you probably huff it. Wow, that was not a fat joke.
SPEAKER_04Was that a fat joke?
SPEAKER_01Hey, those crawfish were actually the worst I've ever had in my life.
SPEAKER_04Bro, just threw out a fat joke at you. I wouldn't mean it like a fat joke. I was just how else could you mean that? Because we we we take off after that sucker. And you're saying he's so fat that he's slow. No, he's the one that said huff. Anyway, he said it not me.
SPEAKER_01Maximum shade being thrown at me.
SPEAKER_04But anyway from over there.
SPEAKER_01Y'all are sabotaging my story.
SPEAKER_02All right, all right, I'm sorry, I don't want to say anything.
SPEAKER_01So, anyways, I'm I'm walking at a rather fast pace up this road. And uh Turkey hadn't gobbled since I left the truck. He gobbled like when I was getting my stuff together three or four times. He was gobbling good. And I heard another turkey further back, and um, so I'm like, I know a general area where he is, but he was he was actually about a hundred yards shy of where I pinned him, right? So as I'm walking up this road, he hadn't gobbled, I'm like, I stop, you know, about 150 yards from where I think he's gonna be. And I'm like, well, I'm gonna wait till he gobbles. And I'm waiting, I'm waiting, I'm waiting. I'll say, Oh, I'll hoot at him. Hooted, man, that sucker gobbles at like 120 yards directly to my right. I'm like, oh gosh. Luckily, I mean, it was he was roosted in a thicket. It's an old pasture that hadn't been uh, you know, they just let it grow up 15 years ago. So it's some some pines out there that are you know nine or ten inches in diameter, some sweet gums about the same size, a lot of just undergrowth, real thick in there. And the sucker was roosted in the middle of that thicket. And but here's the the funny thing is around this thicket on three sides is some beautiful hardwood timber. Mixed pine in there, it's gorgeous. And uh that's where I I thought he was right there on the timber change, a little bit further than what he was, but he wasn't. So I sat down right there and I'm getting comfortable, and uh he goes back to gobbling, and um he's handing crows, owls, that other turkey that's gobbling, they're just they're just gobbling back and forth at each other. And so I get, you know, I'm I'm I'm sitting down, I'm like, well, I should probably tree yelp at him, try to get him to gobble my direction. And I don't I'm not in love with the spot I'm sitting in. I don't I'd rather be somewhere else. But so I tree yelped, he didn't gobble. Um crow flew over, he gobbled at it, and then went right back to gobbling at that other turkey. I'm like, I know he heard me. That sucker's 120 yards, no wind. And so I waited a few minutes. I tree up a little bit louder, he still didn't gobble and was still gobbling at everything else. I'm like, I know that sucker, I know he he can hear me. But about that time I heard him flying, and uh I thought he was flying down, but it was a whole lot of flapping, and I knew he wasn't high off the ground in this thicket. I'm like, eh, he's probably tree hopping. And uh no sooner than I thought that he went back to gobbling, I could tell he was in another tree, just moved just a little bit, but still elevated off the ground and uh gobbling good. So I said, Well, I'm gonna get up, walk past him, kind of get to where I think he's going, where he went yesterday with dad. And uh so I sure enough I get up there, and as I'm about 40 yards from my destination, I hear him fly down. Probably, I don't know, he's probably 175 yards from me. And he doesn't gobble, but you know, um, I still feel good about it. So I get to the hardwoods and the leaves are super crunchy. And uh I said, man, I I don't want to get far in these hardwoods because I don't want to make that big of a commotion, but I'd like him to gobble before I do crunch these leaves. So I'm sitting there, I'm sitting there, nothing. Finally he gobbles, probably a little over 150. I said, Alright, I you know, I can do this. He's down in Ohio. So I I bump in the hardwoods about 10 yards, sit down, and uh I'm letting it things calm back down and get quiet. And uh he goes still gobbling at this other turkey. They're just not as much as on the limb, but still gobbling. And uh so I'm like, all right, I'm gonna call to him. Made one call, just plain yelp. He didn't hit it. I said, hmm, kind of scratching my head a little bit. Same deal. I waited several minutes, yelped a little louder, threw a cut in there, and he didn't gobble. I said, I know this sucker can hear me for sure. I know he's heard me all four times. I'm pretty positive. And I said, I ain't saying nothing else. I'm gonna see how this shakes out, I'm gonna see where he goes, maybe make another setup on him. And uh I bet 10 minutes goes by and I hear some slight crunching in the leaves. Like, is that a turkey? You know, I'm sitting on top of this ridge, I can see about 30 yards in front of me before it falls off into this bottom. And to my left, I can see a hundred. So, I mean, and the turkey's straight in front of me in the hollow. And uh, right the direction he should be coming from, I hear some leaves crunching. It's getting louder and louder. I'm like, okay, that's that's you know, I'm 90% sure that's turkey. But then I hear the drumming and I'm hearing them both together. I'm like, oh gosh, yeah, here it is. He's coming. And it's getting louder and louder and louder and louder, and finally I see his head pop up right over the ridge. I mean, when I seen him the first time, he was under he was about 40 yards. And um so he he kind of looks over that ridge and I haven't called in probably 12 minutes, 13 minutes. And so he just knows there's a hen somewhere up there, which it worked out perfectly. And uh as soon as I seen his head, he popped in a strut and I seen his fan come over the ridgetop. And I'm like, oh man, that's beautiful. Sun's coming through, uh hitting him right on his fan. I'm like, golly. So he's coming kind of diagonal, but getting closer. And uh he's walking fast, he's looking for that hen, and he'll stop and drum and full strut or whatever, and he keeps coming. And I watched him, felt like an eternity was probably about 30 seconds. And I said, all right, enough of this. So I stopped him, he stuck his head up and cut him down at 33 steps. That's all she wrote. That's all she wrote. So I called to him four times and he never gobbled at me once. But he did drum.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and then Seth got back to this house, and his dad was telling him how he called to that turkey about 155 times yesterday. Man, it's weird. He would never answer a call. Hey, you know, Seth's dad's over there. Hmm, I don't know. That's weird.
SPEAKER_00That is a good tip. You know, if a turkey doesn't answer you, that means he's not coming.
SPEAKER_02That's like we were talking about last last week. Whenever I was literally sitting there and that uh that hen was yelping, and I just could see the turkey and he just not gobbling. It's a live hen, you know.
SPEAKER_01He was answering me just not with a gobble. Right. With a drum. Which, dude, hey, I'll get y'all's take on this. Drumming and, you know, at close range. That that's equal to me as gobbling.
SPEAKER_02We were talking about that on Caitlin's last one. Uh I was telling Johnson, I was like, it's hard to say because nothing beats a gobble. You know, like that's just what turkey hunting is, you know. But like when you hear the drumming, it's just your heartbeat goes to a thousand.
SPEAKER_01Well, this is what I'll say. You can hear drumming a hundred plus, and you're just like, okay, I'm hearing drumming. Well, what I'm saying is just fires me up just as much as turkey gobbling my face. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's the that's the comment I made. So when we originally struck Caitlin's turkey, you know, I was fired up. You know, I was excited. But when when I could hear him like coming to us and he was drumming, and every time he was drumming, he was getting closer, like my heart was about to beat out of my chest. Like it was just so much adrenaline. Yeah, it just levels it up. Dude.
SPEAKER_02It's like you like, and we were just talking about if you had to, you know, theoretically, if you had to pick one turkey turkey vocalization, it's hard. Not you you couldn't not pick the gobble, you know. But man, that drumming. That drumming inside of 100 yards is look.
SPEAKER_01Every time I got a turkey coming to me, drumming or gobbling or both, I mean, you know, my heart rate is high. Right. I'm I'm short of breath. But dude, this, I mean, I could only see 30 yards and I knew he was inside 50. I mean, I about couldn't breathe, man.
SPEAKER_02It's it's like I love it. You didn't think that you could get any more excited and then the drums within 50, and you're like, oh.
SPEAKER_01And I'm thinking after the hunt, I'm like, man, if he would have taken another 10 minutes to get here, uh or you know passed out. I'd have passed out.
SPEAKER_02You'd have been gagged oxygen. You'd have been gagging like old yacht yaw does. This segment is brought to you by Tabor Drugs in Willistville, Mississippi, a hometown pharmacy built for folks who live life outdoors. Whether you're up before daylight, chasing goblins, or getting back to camp after an all-day tip, stay in healthy matters. Tabor Drugs offers fast prescriptions, friendly service, and the everyday essentials you need to keep going. No big change, just real local folks. Stop by Tabor Drugs in Willistwell and take care of yourself like you take care of your hunt. But uh shoot, I don't have any stories. I was gonna say the only other story I guess is another, it's technically your story. We were on your place, but I guess me or John can tell it whatever, whenever we all three went this week. That was close. We had some close calls.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, shoot.
SPEAKER_02We uh well Daniel uh uh if you give me permission, Seth, I'm gonna tell this story. Yeah, I'll give you permission. I guess, you know, I guess it's a place we can all hunt, whatever. But uh anyway, I guess we we got He went and roosted the turkey. Yes, I went and roosted the turkey. What what day was it? It was Wednesday afternoon or Wednesday night. Wednesday night I went and went and roosted this turkey. And he gobbled and I was like, all right, sweet, nowhere we need to be. Well, Seth came and picked me and John up and we we went to this place and uh sure enough, we we uh got in there and it was 5.55. When he gobbled, Seth said, What time is it? And I looked at my watch, 5.55. And uh we were already 200 from him. Yeah. And and I was like, Well, I think we need to get over here. Turkey's notoriously go that way, go work to the west and to the south. I said, Let's we need to get over here, we're not doing any good here. And uh there was some cutting going on on that particular piece of property, and so I knew they weren't going back that way. So uh we made we made a little loop on him, and and actually I guess we all thought he was a little bit further than he was, because uh, whenever we got to a spot, he gobbled and we were all like we need to sit down, we need to sit down. He's close, and it's dark, it's really dark. Uh so we you know I don't think I wasn't really scared he was seeing us, but we were very close. And uh as soon as we sat down, instantly we heard drumming, and I guess we uh Johnson said there's a turkey close. Well, so I just had assumed I was sitting there.
SPEAKER_00So the the turkey that was gobbling, if if straight out in front of me is 12 o'clock, that turkey was at two o'clock on me. Right. And I kept telling Seth, I was like, I hear drumming, and it is straight out in front of me. I heard it too, but like I just had assumed it was that turkey because it was like the right side of the trick. It was like 11 or 12 o'clock, and I was like, there is a turkey right here somewhere. Well, shoot, five minutes went by, maybe? Yeah, or was it even that long? And uh second turkey gobbled, the one that was like 12 o'clock. And I was like, I knew there was a turkey.
SPEAKER_02A hundred from the turkey we were set up like this one was 50 or 60.
SPEAKER_00He was we had to walk under that turkey to get to our spot.
SPEAKER_02Anyway, that he that's the only time he gobbled, whether it was because we were so close or what, I don't know. Didn't really matter because this other one was gobbling at everything. So uh sure enough, he flew down and he flew down in what I would consider to be still early conditions. Yeah. Because it was very pretty dark.
SPEAKER_01Well, this I was trying to look down my shotgun and I was like, I don't know if I could shoot one or that.
SPEAKER_00This didn't say much, but I could barely see.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Seth had his dot on like the lowest setting, and he was like, I uh I this is really bright. Yeah, it's like really bright. Anyway, saw the turkey, uh, I saw the turkey pop through a little gap. Uh, and then saw another turkey and another turkey. So it was three turkeys, not sure what the other two were. I knew that one was a long beard just because we we all saw him blow up strut, or me and Seth did. Johnson once again didn't see anything. Well, I was on the opposite side of the tree, too. But uh anyway, he got we got him to gobble after he uh he got out there because we were like, you know, we need to call to him, see if he can come this way. And Seth called and he gobbled and we were like, all right, sweet, let's wait. Well, we waited five, ten minutes, yelped again, and he's like double the distance.
SPEAKER_01Easily double.
SPEAKER_02We're like, what is going on? And then we waited another five minutes and he Seth yelped, didn't gobble, and I was like, what in the world? I grabbed my this turkey's been on fire all morning. I grabbed my slate call or my pot call, I was like, what in the barrier? He's running. Uh so whatever. We tried to loop around this turkey, and long story short, we we ended up trying to loop around this turkey and and lost him. And and what I think you'll y'all, you know, later on in the story we'll get to. I think he had just gotten out of that out of range of caring about us, you know, whether whether he could hear us or not, whether he could hear us or not. He wasn't gobbling, he wasn't interested in us anymore. So uh about 45 minutes to an hour had gone by at this point, and uh Johnson was like, I just heard turkey gobble. And we were like, Oh, sweet, awesome. We so we all stood up so we could hear a little bit better, and sure enough, turkey gobble. We were like, I was back towards where we came. We were like, all right, well, let's go. We started cutting across the bottom, and you know, the the leaves on the trees can really trick you, especially this time of year. So we we cut the distance a little bit, hooted again. He still sounded way out there. I think I hooted that time, still sounded way out there. Well, we made it maybe another hundred yards, and I was like, there was some thick stuff up ahead of us, and I was like, Seth, you try him this time, uh, see if he'll gobble. Seth hooted just like I think a one note, nothing. Yeah, and then Seth like 150. We're like, okay, all right, sweet. We're sitting down. Johnson backed up behind me and Seth, and uh, I had I had the camera, so I was trying to video Seth, whatever. Anyway, long story short, this turkey started gobbling out there, and and he started gobbling to Johnson pretty good. You wouldn't think a turkey we were probably what 40 from Johnson and he was cucking and purring, and I could barely hear him.
SPEAKER_01Like it was it wasn't like almost inaudible, but it was very low.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it was it was very quiet. And this turkey is 150 from me and Seth, and Johnson would scratch him in the leaves. I'm like, man, he 100% hearing it because he's just it's just too perfect of a thing.
SPEAKER_00Okay, that goes show though I've heard, and I don't know where they got it from, but I've heard a bunch of people talk about how turkeys can't hear and this, that, and the other. I mean, you can do the softest little stuff and they'll gobble at you.
SPEAKER_02Well, it's like you know, wheat. A lot of times when we're walking through the woods trying to locate turkeys, we're yelping at a decent at a decent volume. But if you're sitting in the woods and a hand comes by you, more than more than likely she's just gonna be like, you know, rarely ever do you just hear that old loudmouth every now and then. I mean, I've heard them. I've heard them do it, but like more oftentimes than not, turkey's just gonna be, we don't go up to somebody and just like, hey, what's going on?
SPEAKER_01Screaming, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Anyway, whatever. Uh so that turkey was gobbling and he started drifting left, uh, which was perfect because we there was like a little blowdown in front of us and and some thick stuff, and we were like, he's gotta come look for us. And uh he started drifting left and we could see probably what, a hundred? Yeah, about a hundred. About a hundred. And uh we maybe a hundred. Just outside of a hundred. He stayed there for the longest time and never really heard this turkey drum, but it could hear him gobble. Anyway, uh, this is a cool little little fact, whatever. I don't know if I've told told my red bird stories on here before, but anyway, a red bird flew across and I told Seth, I said, Hey, you got anybody should be visiting you? He's like, Hmm, no, not really close. What about you? I said, Yeah, that's my mama. And uh Seth said, Oh, we we're about to see this turkey then. As soon as he said, Not even a second. It was not even a second. Both of us both said, I see him. He popped out from behind a bag. He was coming. Yeah, he was coming. Like at that point, he was coming hard.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And uh he got in there and it and I had, you know, whenever whenever somebody dropped back and called, it's it's best to that the people the person up front to not call. Yeah. Not let anything know where it kind of throws off the whole drop back call and how that works, you know?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you lose the quote unquote advantage that you had.
SPEAKER_02Well, I had been scratching in the leaves because I was like, man, I just we just need him to break because he was right there at 100 for the longest time. I was like, I'm just gonna scratch a little bit. And uh anyway, he gobbled at you. He gobbled at me scratching. Like the last last time he gobbled before we saw him, it was at my scratching. And uh sure enough, there he came. He was coming and he was coming hard. Like, you know, he had that old head bob coming. And uh me and Seth were both on the same page. We saw him as soon as he became visible. He was coming and he was coming a little bit to the right, but was still mostly coming at us. Then he started going hard right, and I was like, he's gonna go behind this tree on me. And Seth's like, I still see him. And evidently he Seth said he's kind of stopped before he went behind that tree and started doing the show enough.
SPEAKER_01He's inside 60 at this point.
SPEAKER_02I think we had ranged that tree he was at, and that tree was 58, and he had walked, like brushed his feathers on the back side of that tree. He was like right at 60. And uh, and so he started doing the hardcore looking, you know, like standing in one spot, moving his head back and forth, just looking really, really, really hard. And uh last time Seth saw him, he was, you know, you can't really sometimes you can't tell if they're coming right at you or going straight away, but we never saw that turkey again, so he had to have been going straight away.
SPEAKER_00Hold on, to cut in real quick, some people might not know what you're talking about about the red bird.
SPEAKER_02Okay, the red bird, and I had never heard it either until after my mom passed away, but they say that a red bird is a family member or somebody you have in heaven that is visiting you. Yeah, that's what that's what the red bird means.
SPEAKER_01I had heard that, but I had forgotten until you mentioned it.
SPEAKER_02I had never I had never uh known that before any. Like my mom passed away in September, my granddaddy passed away in December, and I was hunting like the day after my granddaddy died, and there was a redbird there that morning. I was deer hunting, and uh that had just been told to me, like right around that time. And so I told my wife, I was like, hey, I saw a red bird this morning, it's cool, and you know, like like and she was like, Huh, I wonder if it was Papa or it was your mama. I was like, I don't know. That afternoon went to the same spot and two redbirds came back. Okay, well, we both just started busting out in tears. Caitlin was with me, and I was like, Well, we don't have to wonder who it is. Anyway, so that's the red bird story. So ever since then, I've just always Yeah, you see red birds. See redbirds, and it just reminds me of my mama and my my family members that have passed on. Yeah, anyway, that turkey left, and uh sure enough, we waited maybe what, five, ten minutes and hit the glass call, and he gave us that last gobble of hope. One courtesy gobble. Exactly, that kind of a gobble. About 250 yards away to our left, and so we were like, all right, sweet, we're still in the game. Ha, we thought.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02We made a big loop, got up there, nothing.
SPEAKER_01Well I actually think he was coming uh when you started scratching, he was like, Okay, this hen is coming to me. I'm gonna go meet her. Yeah, he gets up there to unsee her.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's the thing. Johnson was behind us, and and I don't think I think if Johnson would have been the only one, I think he would have eventually broke and I think he would have came in there to 40 where we needed him looking for Johnson instead of looking for me.
SPEAKER_00Well, too, uh I I can remember I hadn't called for probably like five minutes. Yeah. And uh because I was I was texting you, I was like, I mean, how far you think you because every time I was back there calling, I was throwing the call back behind me, so I was also pushing the call like in my ear. Right. So I couldn't really I could tell the turkey was gobbling, but I couldn't really judge a distance on it. And I was texting you, and uh, it had been a while since I called and a turkey gobbled, and I was could obviously tell, okay, he's a whole lot clear.
SPEAKER_02I forgot he gobbled right there in our face at 65. A crow flew over and he hit. I was like, I'm sure that's when Johnson realized. Yeah. So at that point, too, the turkey's a hundred yards from Johnson. So of course, Johnson's not gonna be like, okay, well, let me go to Yelping. Yeah, yeah. Because the turkey's at 100 yards. He's like, okay, sweet, the turkey's coming. Well, I guess, and we didn't know either until we kind of started reflecting back on the hunt. I think that turkey thought I was the same hen scratching, had moved up another 40, 50 feet. He didn't see her. And he didn't see her. Probably an older turkey. Exactly. Uh, you didn't see his spurs. Oh, they were like two inches. Oh yeah, they were they were clinging together.
SPEAKER_00I was thinking three, man. And I had bad eyesight and I could see them really good.
SPEAKER_02Anyway, uh he gobbled again, whatever, and we made a loop, never gobbled anymore after that. So I had already told Johnson, Seth, I was like, I think that original turkey worked down the bottom. Like I think that's just where they were had their minds set up when they were going. Uh so let's just, and Johnson was like, hey, before we go back to the truck, let's just go over there where you think these turkeys are and uh try to hit them, see if they'll gobble. It's like, all right, sweet. Well, we started going that way, and we got over there, I guess, just within earshot of them. And Johnson called or I called, I can't remember. I think it was Johnson. Oh yeah, Johnson grabbed his pot call because I had just conditioned it. And uh, sure enough, turkeys gobbled and we were like awesome. But we moved up a little bit and uh did they ever gobble again after that?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they gobbled twice. Yeah, they gobbled twelve.
SPEAKER_02They gobbled twice.
SPEAKER_00Okay, yeah, but then when we sat down, we got to cutting back and forth and that was but that was after a while.
SPEAKER_02We had yelped a couple times at them. Yeah, they gobbled twice, then we sat down, we were like, well, because they're not gobbling a lot, let's sit down. They might be coming to us, and we were finna have a big wide open gap that we didn't probably need to go through if they were coming. Yeah. So we were like, all right, let's just sit. And uh we could see 150 at least, and uh couldn't see anything. I was glassing, and and uh Seth had yelped, John had yelped, heck even probably I had yelped, nothing. We were like, what in the world is going on? And uh I guess Seth, I I told Seth, uh, get get excited with him one time. As soon as he did that a hint, she called it. And then y'all started going back and forth, and in the midst of that, they gobbled. I was like, all right, sweet.
SPEAKER_01Two or three times, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they they they gobbled several times. So we were like, all right, maybe they're maybe they're coming to us. And uh, it wasn't long after that. I told Seth, I was like, I see something coming. And I looked up and all I could see was a blue and white skull cap. I was like, oh, buddy. Then I saw another one and another one and another one. I was like, oh my gosh, where are we gonna get flogged over here by a group of gobblers? It ended up being uh three jakes led the way. And uh they came and we thought they were long beards for the longest until they got to about 60 yards and they stepped out in the open. We were like, darn, that's a jake. That's a jake, that's a jake. It was three jakes. They ended up meandering on by at like 40. They definitely got within jake. That's right. They got within gun range, and and you know, this is a whole flock of turkeys. And we were like, sweet, these gobblers are finna walk right up here and Seth's finna smoke one. Nope. They stayed out there about a hundred. We heard them drumming. They gobbled a few times out there. I think they were wanting us to come and uh come to find out, I'm pretty we're pretty sure. Well, we know this turkey, these turkeys had hens, at least one, because we heard her yelping. I we think that these male turkeys, the three jakes and the two long beards, left their hens to come check us out. The jakes went on by doing stupid Jake stuff, doing what they're doing. The gobblers were like, hmm, don't see a hen, let's go back to our ladies. Well, they went back out there and and never said another word, and that was that was the end of that.
SPEAKER_01Wrapped up the morning.
SPEAKER_02Yep, that was the end of that.
SPEAKER_00Very eventful, though. Yeah, I mean, we were in turkeys on.
SPEAKER_01Great hunt. It was a great hunt. Maybe not for John. He never got to see them, but me and Daniel seemed to be like, Yeah, I was always I was always sitting behind them. Three setups, me and Daniel seen turkeys. Yeah, sure did, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I was always sitting behind them.
SPEAKER_02And that's what we said. We were like, man, we've seen turkeys every time we've set up, which, you know, I guess doesn't really matter if you don't get to kill them, but it was still cool.
SPEAKER_00After that third setup, I was like, all right, I'm sitting with y'all next time we set up on the turkey. I hadn't seen the first one. I walked up there, I was like, how far were they? You didn't see them Jake's come walking through there?
SPEAKER_04No, I didn't see nothing.
SPEAKER_02Man, it was like that. That was a very exhilarating setup because they were like, it was they was right there on the verge of happening, which all three of them were, but whatever.
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SPEAKER_00Anyway, that's the only story I got. Uh I guess the it's it's not really a topic, it's just something we're gonna hit on. We're about to go try to roost a turkey here in a minute.
SPEAKER_01So I guess the way we can do this is uh so we put something on our story earlier in the week asking for people to slide up and uh leave their favorite turkey, wild turkey recipe, um, how they prefer to eat them, and then we would discuss them right over the uh over the podcast this week. But I wanted to try a couple during the week, and I just had some stuff come come up and I was pretty much busy about every evening.
SPEAKER_02Three like three quote unusual.
SPEAKER_00Well, I'll tell you pretty much everybody that DM, which we can we can read a couple if you want. Yeah, just fry to get it put on the right.
SPEAKER_01I want to ask y'all this before we deep dive into this. We can kind of skim over the surface level, and uh next week or another week, we can do a literal a deep dive on after we get the opportunity to cook a few more, um, some different recipes that we don't normally like. Yeah, right. Give a give a really good synopsis of it.
SPEAKER_00Well, also too, uh I mean we had some people DM us, but if we're gonna do this like next week, I mean people can you can DM us, you can email us. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02They're gonna be lucky to get a podcast next week. I don't know when we're gonna record. Oh, we can record one on Saturday.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's fine.
SPEAKER_02I guess we're gonna have to. Or Friday. Yeah, we'll have to. Well well, I mean we might have to do two in one.
SPEAKER_00I mean, we aren't coming back till Sunday, so we'll record two, whatever.
SPEAKER_02We'll take the pod with stuff with us. Yeah, we're discussing stuff on the podcast. All right, let me get this uh anyways. What okay. This guy said uh Well, who are you reading? I'm I'm reading Lang Mills. Yeah, Mr. Lang Mills. Okay, you want me to go to the next one? Oh, you can read it. Yeah, go in. He was uh he said fried. We we asked uh what's your go-to wild turkey recipe? He said fried, cut into nuggets and marinate in a full jar of pickle juice for 24 hours, coat in bisquick, egg, and salt and pepper to your liking. Best thing you ever put in your mouth. I can't disagree. I'd critique it a little, but I had it with the bisquick, it is good.
SPEAKER_01It's a little different to me. At the time I had it, it wasn't as uh maybe not as like hard, crispy um as you know, maybe some flour mixed with some potato starch or something. But it dude, it was good. It had a little bit different taste to it, or a little bit different texture, not taste. Well, I tasted the same.
SPEAKER_00I'll tell you this. So 90% of the time, actually, I'll say 99% of the time, we just fry it. Yeah, but last year when we were uh we were hunting, Seth made some turkey tacos on his little black stone. Oh, I can tell y'all this really. Those things were phenomenal. And I don't know if it was because I was absolutely starving because we've been hunting all day or what, but they were phenomenal.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so we were up north turkey hunting, had killed a couple birds from different states before this, so we had turkey meat. We had eaten it, we had fried some, you know, whatever. And uh I told the boys that morning I said, hey, we're gonna cook some turkey tacos for lunch. And I had me some uh Cajun two step, the original in the white bottle. Oh, buddy, I love that stuff. Good.
SPEAKER_02Anyways, that old put it on a cracker, dude.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, put it on a stale cracker, stale cracker. Anyways, magnificent seasoning, by the way. But um, that morning while we were hunting, I think we killed a turkey, but we found some morel mushrooms as we were getting set up on this to her turkey gobble, walked to the turkey, found the mushrooms. I'm like, boys, I know you probably haven't. I don't think you had had any.
SPEAKER_05No.
SPEAKER_00We had picked some and we put them in the back of our vest. This was like midday, this was two years ago. And by the time we got back, they were like smushed pieces because they were in the back of my vest. I was sitting down against a tree.
SPEAKER_02And it had been it had been like four to five hours since we picked them, and I don't really know the rules on all this stuff, and heck, it's weird enough to me to be eating mushrooms because I'm, you know, we always told, don't you eat no mushroom.
SPEAKER_01So I was kind of spooked about it anyway. Anyways, the year before we had found some and I'd cooked them a couple different ways, and I was like, these are amazing. One of the best sides. Well, I fried them and also sauteed them and put them like a lot of them. We put them on the tacos. Okay, so yeah, cooked those tacos. I cooked the turkeys up into uh the turkey meat up into like nugget size strips, so smaller size. Like fajita when you go to get a chicken. Yeah, and that's that's what I did. I seasoned it and I just you know seared it on top of that little black stone, that portable black stone, toasted the tortillas up, melted some cheese, uh, set that to the side. I think I had a little sauce mixed up a little sauce, and uh then I I put the morels on the on the black stone with some butter and uh had a seasoning with a little dehydrated garlic in it and some onions.
SPEAKER_00Hey, I called him chef box that day. Chef box. Sorry, I won't do that.
SPEAKER_01Dude, oh my gosh, they were phenomenal. That is the best like on the road turkey meal, you know, like camp meal.
SPEAKER_00Dude, it was a now we were on a high, but that was definitely a pick-me-up for lunch.
SPEAKER_01Oh, it was yeah, and it was, you know, a little different than your common fry the turkey nuggets, which are delicious, and that's how preferred. But they're so good.
SPEAKER_02There's two different kinds of turkey trip meals that I've have had in my turkey trips. It's one where it's me and Johnson, and we're eating pretty much exclusively vionis and ham sandwiches. Yeah. And then it's when Caitlin goes and we're dude. We have like phenomenal meals.
SPEAKER_03She cooks it up.
SPEAKER_00Broccoli, mashed potatoes, like all kinds of stuff. All kinds of stuff.
SPEAKER_02On like a little like portable uh gas stove top from Academy. Phenomenal. Anyway, this we're talking about turkey recipes. All right, I got a couple. If you done, John.
SPEAKER_00I thought we were doing this next week. We kind of need rap is shindy.
SPEAKER_02All right, well, I well, I just wanted to answer the guys' question. We told turkey tacos, I ain't gotta do recipes, let me just tell you what. Okay, yeah, my bad, my bad. I keep the legs off of every turkey that I kill. And we we throw it in the crock pot that morning with a little bit of uh chicken stock, just a little bit, don't need them much, and then salt and pepper. That's all we use on that, and then turn it on, and I think we do low for eight hours. You come home from work, you grab the leg, and it just falls off. And you gotta pick out those 150 leg bones that they have, get it in there, and then it's basically already shredded. So whatever you use boiled chicken for or shredded chicken, you can use. So we'll we made poppy seed chicken or poppy seed turkey the other day, which I love poppy seed chicken. Love it. And we don't have to buy chicken and have a bunch of turkey meat, so poppy seed turkey, and it tasted phenomenal. Caitlin makes uh chicken enchiladas, turkey enchiladas, it's turkey leg enchiladas. Uh we make like chicken salad, you know, like buffalo sauce and turkey salad. Yeah, but turkey salad. And then uh uh like all kind of stuff. She just makes leaves it in the crock pot once she pulls the bones out, puts like a can of cream of mushroom in there, and may and uh makes like turkey and gravy. And then we put that over mashed potatoes. Oh phenomenal.
SPEAKER_01Like a turkey roast almost.
SPEAKER_02Yes, almost like a roast. Yeah, but like with turkey and meat. It's awesome. So we use whatever you use uh shredded chicken for, boiled chicken, anything like that, like turkey and dumplings, we make turkey and dumplings. Uh anything you use chicken for, we literally replace with turkey legs. And it's it's a bunch of meat on there. A bunch. Like we've got three different uh meals out of two turkey legs, like three nights of meals plus leftovers for the next day. So it was like a whole week of thigh and leg. Thigh and leg. I just separate right there at the joint and uh throw that whole thigh leg combo in the crock pot.
SPEAKER_01Man, I can't tell you how many I've thrown away in the past and it hurts me a little bit. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You know, they're really, really, really good. And it takes no time to get it.
SPEAKER_01And I also thought about uh I'm probably gonna do this with one or two. I save the legs off those turkeys I killed, and I'll slow cook them like that and you know use the meat like that, but also uh cut the meat off the bone and grind it and make ground turkey. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Or turkey or like legit turkey tacos.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you got a good place you can do that.
SPEAKER_02Turkey spaghetti, we make that too. Yeah, oh meat process, boxes processed.
SPEAKER_01We'll get Hagen into the turkey.
SPEAKER_02Well, he's gonna have to he's gonna have to come off that old checkbook. We've been putting like plugging his business like crazy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, buddy.
SPEAKER_02Lord have mercy.
SPEAKER_01But we're gonna deep dive into this.
SPEAKER_02Yes, because Caitlin knows Caitlin knows recipes. I just know what I eat.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02My my recipes, what I'm in charge of cooking is pretty much exclusively frying stuff and grilling stuff. Yeah. If you want those two things done, I'm your man. Anything else? If you have to start adding ingredients, Caitlin.
SPEAKER_01So what we need to try to do this week is each person, uh, maybe maybe two nights this week, but at least one, cook some turkey, maybe cook it two ways that night. You know, your normal way in a uh way you don't really you've never done before. And that way we can get a good synopsis of these different recipes. And also, y'all please send in some more uh recipes. Yeah, so we can try them. DM us on Instagram or email us.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and this podcast this week wasn't very good, but uh as of right now, uh it's not really the main priority. We're trying to trying to raise the sun.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, no, like we're gonna have to wrap this up because y'all y'all are running out of daylight.
SPEAKER_01But that's the plan for next week. So hopefully we get y'all a really good episode on that. And uh because y'all probably have some turkey meat anyways, or are or are acquiring some. Yeah. Uh season's opening up all over the nation, so people gonna be cooking turkey. So hopefully we can get you set up right there, and uh, that's about all I got.
SPEAKER_00Well, as always, we appreciate it. Uh, and if you would give us a rate and a review, five star, five star only on it. Um, other than that, other than that, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02Y'all uh have some grace with us for these next couple weeks because we really don't know what is gonna happen. We're gonna try our best. I'll just tell you that. But we are finna hit the road, and that's pretty much all we're thinking about right now.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm gonna be honest. I'm not gonna think about the podcast after Sunday.
SPEAKER_01We can get some Wi-Fi somewhere and probably lay one down.
SPEAKER_02It ain't happening. I'm gonna just go ahead and do it.
SPEAKER_01Dude, you got night time. It's not gonna happen. Yeah, at night, you know, we could do it at night.
SPEAKER_02But it's not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01I'm just if we do get an Airbnb somewhere midway through the trip, shower and stuff. A lot of ifs. I'm just saying, it's a possibility.
SPEAKER_02It is a possibility y'all listen to us. Don't tell us in the next couple weeks. It's a possibility y'all don't hear from us in the next couple of weeks.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because I'll tell you, when we head north, I mean, dude, you're hunting at like 4 30 and then it didn't get dark until like nine.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Oh, what time do you want to stick at 11? Roosting turkey.
SPEAKER_01Call the lady and go to sleep.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Absolutely. So, yeah, I don't know about a podcast. I don't even know that I'll bring the equipment.
SPEAKER_01But we're bringing it. We're bringing it.
SPEAKER_00Okay, Seth says we're bringing it, so I don't know. Anyways, uh I'll do that. I guess that's it. All right. Y'all got anything else? Nope. Take us out of here, gentlemen. We'll see y'all later.
