The Season Keeps Rolling

This week we sit down and talk through some of our most recent hunts, including the birds that worked, the ones that didn't, and a few stories from the road along the way. 

We also get into our upcoming turkey hunting trip and talk about what's ahead as we get ready to load up and do it all again. Just good conversation about the season, hunting memories, and what's next. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the Bar Time Podcast. My name is Seth Box, and I'm sitting here with Mr. Daniel Halfacre and Mr. Johnson Wells. About time.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

We're not too good buddies no more, I guess. We're great buddies.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Well, I was gonna say this might be the last Bartime podcast y'all hear. Dang. You wanna know why? Yeah, why? I was just saying that because they might not like it, and this might actually be the last one that they listen to. Oh, well. That's just a joke. I wanted to see your expression.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Yeah, no, I I I thought you were finna drop the bomb on us or something. I was like, oh God, what's going on?

SPEAKER_01 0:49

Well, Dan, we're gonna have to tote it on again.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Yep. Nothing new over here, boy.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Oh, you can't get rid of me all at once. Well, boys, what we finna do? We're gonna load up.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

We are literally all sitting here on my couch in my hunting room. We're sitting on G waiting on over. That's exactly right. We've already got the truck loaded down. We're gonna be headed to the airport. Hop on that old bird. Yeah. Hop on that old bird and head north. First time for Seth on the bird. Yeah. He he asked me yesterday, or I guess I caught him. I said, uh, are you nervous or are you excited? And he was like, I don't know. I'll be honest with you, I'm a little nervous. He's like, uh, I keep thinking this plane's gonna go down. I guess he was- I hope you're rough. I guess he was wanting like a comforting response. I was like, I'll be honest with you, I think about that every plane I get on. I said, I wish I could tell you it's gonna get better. I was like, but you're gonna be walking through that terminal, getting on a plane, you're gonna be scared as I'll get out. And I said, It's scary when that plane's taking off. I was like, but you get up there and it gets a little bit better.

SPEAKER_03 1:43

I guess I've flown so much, I kind of think it's fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

Exactly what I told you, Johnson was gonna say. I love roller coasters.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

I think roller coasters got fun when it takes off. Here's the thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

I ain't never been no higher than pulling corn and no lower than digging taters.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Hey, but I hey daddy. God no. Well, I guess uh I guess guys picking up where we left off last week. Um, Seth, Seth has got to tell like he's told his Missouri stories, man. Yeah, told the Missouri stories. I haven't even heard the Minnesota. I haven't either on either one. Because I have some questions on that because y'all roosted a turkey uh the afternoon prior to you and Big Kev killing, but that's not the turkey y'all set up on at daylight, am I right? Buddy, that was too fine. Well, you just take it from that afternoon.

SPEAKER_03 2:27

No, take us from leaving Missouri, Missouri. That's right. And then fill us in. I didn't really put them in Minnesota. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

Oh, God, yeah, that's good right there. This segment is brought to you by Tabor Drugs in Willistor, 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 step, staying 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 Willistor and take care of yourself like you take care of your hunt. I'm just gonna keep my hands trying to leave.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

Yeah, me and me and Dad kind of did our own thing because we were in our own vehicle.

SPEAKER_03 3:12

Yeah, left me out high and dry.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

I don't blame you. If I if my pops would load up and go in the truck with me, that'd be pretty cool. Yeah, that'd be a good thing. I mean, that's pretty cool. Oh, it was a blast, man. Because he was I'm I'm ruining it. Go ahead. Just start. No, it's okay. Keep going.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

He had a ton of fun. He said, he told me, he was like, man, I really don't care if I kill a turkey or not. I just like seeing the country. He loves seeing the very farm. Every time I saw him, he was taking pictures or something, which is cool. Or he'd tell me to say, hey, take a picture of that.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

Well, it's like we're we're Mississippi boys, you know, born and raised through and through, and we've never seen the parts of the country we have, but we're 20, I'm 27, you boys are 24, 22, whatever y'all are. And Mr. Kevin's what? Is he 50 yet? He's 50. Yeah, so you know, he's double our age and and still hasn't seen that part of the country. So, you know, he's waited twice as long as we have to see it. So that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03 4:02

We were riding down through there a few times and he'd be like, Man, Seth, look at them cattle.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

And then he said, pull over and take a picture of that right there. They are some fine looking cats. He said, I need to show my brother this. They are some double wide calves in a pair of cut. They eating that alpha, alpha, hey. All right, anyway, box. I'm sorry. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

Well, uh when we first One more thing. I'm just kidding. Very funny, very funny. So when we first got to Minnesota, uh, well, actually, right before we crossed the state line, me and him made a pit stop at a DG market to get some groceries. And uh Johnson, he just went ahead and went on to town and uh knocked on a few doors uh that we had previously, some places we had previously hunted, he wanted to recheck with him and you know, kind of see. So uh he beat us there, went ahead and knocked on this this door to this place. Uh what'd she say, John? She said, you know, didn't care. Yeah. Go ahead. Yeah. She was a little bit more. Okay, so me and Dad, we went to a completely new farm that I found on the map. Looked really good. Went and asked people. Uh the lady was very polite, but she said that she had some family that turkey hunted. And uh, which is a common response.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

Common response. We got that several times, and they were like, Oh yeah, I got people down here hunting. Ha. And we never saw anybody hunting. Anyway, I think that's just a I think that's just a preloaded response. I think they're too nice to tell you.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

I think I'd tell you that if you walked up to my.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 5:25

You say too nice to tell you no we had some, and sure enough did not care.

SPEAKER_00 5:29

We'll we'll get into that. They'd tell you what they wanted. It and it's like it's just a part. I don't know. I don't know. It's just crazy. It's not, but like 30 minutes from where we where we were and where we were getting good permission and where the people were exceptionally nice, and we went over there and revisited a spot where me, Johnson, and Elliot had gone before and not had luck with permission. We thought, uh, you know, maybe it was the day, maybe it was the time. No, these people were so freaking mean. Like, close the door in Johnson's face before I got none of asking the question. Like, and every person we asked, they were just so rude, like so rude that we were like, let's get the freak out of here. I don't know if it was just like that's where all the rejects go to live, 30 minutes away from the nice town. I don't know. But they they were mean, buddy. Anyway, continue box.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Yeah, so Johnson went in and you know, reclarify with the the landowner and got the green light. So me and dad, when we left uh that farm that we asked about, we just we weren't far from there, so we swung by and saw two strutters out in the uh the cornfield. And uh so it was about roost time then. I mean they had maybe 20 minutes. So we just kind of watched them and uh got a real good pin on them, watched them fly up out of the field, across a little ravine type thing, and had a very you know, like a decent pen, not an exact location of where they were to the tree, but a general area, you know, within a hundred yards. And uh turkey actually gobbled um on the limb two times and so the we went uh back to where we were staying and uh got up with John, kind of showing him uh the breakdown on the map of that that particular track and where the turkey was. So, anyways, he made plans to go there the next morning. We went elsewhere, and uh one landowner that we had hunted on in in previous uh the last time we were up there, we hadn't got up with him uh that day. So the next morning rolled around and there was a turkey on his place. I'm talking about breaking his neck. Gobbling so good. Choking himself. Choking, yeah. And uh, you know, it wasn't far from where we could hunt, but do I mean we're not gonna go over there without the dude's permission. Right, right, right. And I mean I was it was one of them deals I was 99% sure he didn't care at all. Because I talked to him two different times uh in previous seasons. But anyway, still we didn't go over there and turkey gobbled and gobbled and gobbled and gobbled and gobbled. We bounced around, listened to some more pieces, didn't hear nothing. It was kind of cold and windy, and uh ended up seeing that guy later that day. He was like, No, I don't care, go ahead. You know, but that turkey was long gone. I don't know where he was, but so we're kind of riding around, see a turkey feeding by himself in a corn cut cornfield, uh, got the lady's address, went to her house and uh ended up seeing another turkey on her place um with some couple hens. So we went and asked her and she cool cat, cool as could be. Uh did not care whatsoever, so we actually went back out there, you know, and it was getting pretty close to to roosting time at this point. So really the the first day didn't add up to much for us. I don't even think we set up on a turkey.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

Uh well uh and we we briefed on this, uh, but it was like 40 mile an hour winds that day. Yeah. Now me and Johnson and and Caitlin were good enough to kill a turkey, but you and that's just a different story for you and Kevin. So, yeah, we uh the A team killed. Yeah, I mean we know how to get it done. Yeah, I mean we did, we did what we did.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

So I I tried to tee you up right there at daylight, John.

SPEAKER_03 9:03

Dude, you put me on some freaking mean turkeys.

SPEAKER_00 9:05

You know, looking back, there's a reason him and Kevin didn't go to them turkeys.

SPEAKER_03 9:08

Yeah, I I'm thinking so because they were some mean turkeys.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

All that was unknown. Him and Big Kev was headed to a different farm at morning, was like, that goofy joker ain't finna get near them turkeys. Sure enough, they stayed in a tree for however long. Y'all already heard that story.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

Yep, so we're riding around after we talked to her and go back to the farm, that place right there that we saw the bird at, and uh got out, heard a turkey gobble, and we're like, what the heck is that was a turkey gobble? Ended up being a pet turkey. And uh the more we listened to it, we're like, hold up now. And uh dad, he didn't mention it to me earlier, he said, No, no, I did see a turkey in a pen over there, like a chicken coop. And uh so it was a pet turkey, but about the third time that pet turkey gobbled, a real turkey gobbled on our our piece.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

Now now this is just for me, the listeners won't know, but like from where y'all were standing, that turkey from where the real turkey ended up gobbling and roosting, this turkey was on the other side of the road. Yeah, on the other side of the road. Okay, all right, that's just for the road.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

So these turkeys, this the the pet turkey and the wild turkey are probably four or five hundred yards apart. Yeah. And uh, but the wind surprisingly laid at dark and you could hear good. And uh, so he's like, oh my gosh, the turkey's right there. So we rode around, got about 250 from him, just listening from the road, got out, hooted, pow, he cut down right there. And he gobbled four or five times. He might I think he actually gobbled closer to ten times from the turkey.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

You videoed him four or five times.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Yeah, from the from the location we first heard him at and the second spot. So, well, as as we're listening to that turkey gobble every once in a while, a turkey further behind him, another 300 yards, gobbles. So we're like, okay, there's two of them on the place we can hunt. So we get in there, um, in between those two turkeys the next morning, well before daylight. And it's really not a good place to set up with how the this topography kind of lays out on this piece. Uh we had to cross one cut cornfield and get kind of in the same drain as the the the turkey we were the first turkey we roosted. That's the one we were anticipating being close to. Uh so we got set up there, and daylight comes, and the further turkey, which is kind of over our left shoulder, probably about Up there on that big knob. Up there on that big knob. He's probably he might be 300 yards. 280, 300, something like that. And he's gobbling really well. Well, the turkey in the drain is not gobbling too good. It just kind of every every third gobble, the one up on the hill gobbles, the one in the drain gobbles. And uh, so anyways, we're set up and we're like, man, you know, I guess we'll have to spin around and work this bird behind us. And uh so about that time, this turkey behind us is roosted right on the property line. We see two hens fly down across the fence in this little green field. And uh I'm like, crap, he's got hands, you know, gonna get skunked probably. Well, anyways, he stays in the tree pretty long. The turkey in the drain has flown down, he's kind of working away from us. And uh finally the one behind us flies down in that green patch, and I see him strutting, I'm watching him. He's about 200 yards.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

And uh nothing between y'all, but air and opportunity, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:19

Yep, one little roll in the field, in the cut corn field, and a fence. He's on the opposite side of the fence on the neighbor. And uh so we're working him, and he's eating it up, man. He's gobbling, and you know, if we're not gobbling, he's he's gobbling two or three times on his own, then I'll yep to him. You know that you know the how it breaks down. Oh yeah. Anyways, and he's just slowly kind of inching our way, and I'm like, well, maybe, maybe he'll eventually get over here, but I doubt it. You know how they'll they'll kind of get a little bit away from their hands and then go back to him or whatever. So that's what I'm thinking in the back of my mind. Well, he keeps gobbling and goes below the rolling that hill. And I told Dad, I said, Man, I think he crossed the fence, I think he's in the cut cornfield with us. And he's gobbling, he's gobbling, and he finally the sound breaks the little crest of that hill. I'm like, oh, he's definitely coming our way. And uh, anyways, he tops the hill, and when he tops the hill, he's about m a smidge over a hundred. And from that point right there to the time when we shot him, I mean it was probably between 15 and 20 minutes.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

They'll end up seeing this footage one day because it's it's actually some pretty good footage.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Yeah, uh, over the shoulder with my iPhone. And uh so okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:29

Hey, that's a darn that's a darn uh title right there. Thumbnail. Over the shoulder turkey hunt filmed with iPhone. Oh yeah. That's gonna get too much. Shout out to Apple.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

I like it. I like it. I like it. So, anyways, Turkey Man, I mean, he is just eating it up, gobbling, strutting, and uh working his way in just real slow. He'll gobble, take two steps, strut, strut, gobble, two more steps. So he finally, I'm not videoing yet because uh dad with his eye injury, he's g his his shooting eye is is good.

SPEAKER_03 14:01

Hey, okay, let me butt in really quick. Go ahead. Even him with his eye injury, I would hate to know how good that man can see with both eyes, because dude, with his one eye, I have no idea like how he was even like he was spotting it before Seth. He spot how far were those turkeys that he spotted in Iowa, Seth? Iowa. They were like three quarters of a mile. They were far away. Dude, it was like literally like a dot. Like a little dot. He's like, what's that across there?

SPEAKER_00 14:30

No way. What happened to his eye, real quick? I didn't, I don't know. I didn't know.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

Oh, so this would have been this upcoming September will be two years since it happened. Anyways, he was cutting grass and uh a little rock out of a driveway, um, bounced off a ricochet off the rubber tire on the front of the lawnmower and bam, right into his eye. Damn. Left eye. Jeez.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

Yeah, so he had uh his son would have been mowing the dang grass like he told him to.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

It wouldn't have freaking happened. No, if he'd been wearing that PPE. You would blame it on the PPE. Anyway, hey, he don't go nowhere without it now. I bet he don't. No, but anyways, he had he had it was a nine millimeter cut, so I mean, on an eyeball, that is significant. Um shoot yourself with a nine millimeter and measure it, that's how big. Maybe, maybe something like that. But anyway, yeah, don't shoot yourself.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

Don't shoot yourself with a nine millimeter.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

Uh he's had a couple surgeries on it, and he's he's after my wedding, he's gonna have another surgery that should do the do the deal. He's getting uh a cornea transplant.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

What the heck?

SPEAKER_01 15:36

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

He's gonna be looking through the cornea of another man's eye.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

And a uh he's gonna view your mama in a whole new light. Golly. So his iris from his initial injury, like some of it leaked out.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

Oh god.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

Yeah, it might be too bad.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

It's okay. I just wanted to brief us. I don't, I don't do the back to the story of me anyway. Yeah, yeah. Lime mower rock eye.

SPEAKER_03 15:56

Lime mower rock eye. All right, so he's he's he's beat it down on the turkey.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

Yeah, so he can't uh like judge distance as good as he could, obviously. Yeah, depth perception's a little off. He's still pretty good about it, but anyway, so before I got my phone up, I'm just I'm just ranging the turkey till he gets inside like 55. You know, that's where I know, okay, you know, come on a little bit further, and he's pretty much in range. Right. So once he gets to like 57, I range him 57 o'clock. I'm gonna start videoing now. So I get my phone out and start videoing. And uh I told Dad where the turkey was and let him keep on coming. Of course, the turkey, he has no clue. He's just slowly but surely, yo yeah, completely fool. And uh I video him for maybe five or six minutes, just gobbling his head off. And he gets into about 47 is actually where he shot him at 47 yards. And uh he said, make him stick his head up. So I bang bab bang. And then dude, he just gobbles. And I wanted dad to shoot him while he was gobbling. I thought that'd been cool. But uh he he wasn't comfortable with it.

SPEAKER_00 17:00

So he's just too much of a sportsman.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

Yeah, and so there's nothing between us. Yeah. Uh I I caught your joke now, but there's nothing between us, you know. So I'm thinking as soon as I make a noise, he's gonna run that head up, you know, look at us. And uh, dude, he won't do it, man. He's strutting harder and he's gobbling and he's spinning around in circles. He's just like, oh yeah, she's feeling me. Oh, she's right. I'm gonna look good. I bet you can see me doing this up here. And finally, he kind of like halfway comes out of strutting up. I said, Dad, you better shoot him. So he shot him, and uh oh, the turkey never knew anything was you know, he never smelled rat or nothing. Right. So we go out there and get that turkey. The first turkey from the drain, he gobbles again. So we're we're thinking about, you know, okay, I got my tags, let's make a play on him. Well, he ended up being closer than we thought, and when we topped the hill in his cornfield, he was on the hill across the drain, and he actually saw us or or some of his hands did.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

So once again, this is just for me. Yeah. Is this is was it the hill where we end y'all ended up seeing that one go on up later on? Or back across kind of where where y'all roosted him at?

SPEAKER_01 18:13

Okay, you know where that bird went in the woods at where you and Johnson went after him? Yeah, yeah. Okay, it's the next hill down. To the left. To the left.

SPEAKER_00 18:20

Toward that big knob.

SPEAKER_01 18:20

Yeah, toward the big knob.

SPEAKER_00 18:21

So at where did that turkey end up coming from where y'all killed? Because that turkey flew off the big knob. He's getting to it. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

Okay. So we tried to make a long story short, we tried to make a play on the drained turkey. Didn't work out. So we left, went and checked a couple other spots, came back, got out, and this the way this property lays out, it's kind of like a big valley with a creek uh in the bottom of the valley. And you can see across on the other landowners, like uh the neighbors, you know, up the up the valley. And we saw a gobbler coming from the neighbor, just walking right down the creek, coming toward this lady's place. And so we said, okay, we're gonna get in front of him, you know, yep him up or whatever. So we get all the way to the back, and uh you know, we really don't have much real estate left to work with. We're like, well, you know, let's see if he gobbles or whatever. I called nothing, called nothing. And I said, Well, I'm gonna walk back up here, up the up the cornfield, uh, on top of this knob, and see if I can see into the valley where we saw this turkey. And uh sure enough, I get up there and it's two jakes down there where we saw this gobble. When we saw him, he was doing like 1,500 yards. So we just for sure, long beard? Well, no, no, just male turkey. Okay, you know.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

So it could have been one of these jakes?

SPEAKER_01 19:34

Yeah, that's what that's what I'm assuming it was. So we get up there and we're like, crap, Jake. So as I'm messing with these jakes, I'm gobbling at them. Trying to just, I don't know, just messing with these jakes. And uh gobbled at him. Then I went to cutting and a turkey gobbled uh on Hardwood Ridge, like 700 yards away from us. And I'm like, okay, you know, noted gobbler over there. Well, we keep this going back and forth. He gobbles maybe five or six times. So I walked back down the hill to dad, and I'm so I'm I'm you know, asking him what the game plan is. And he's like, Well, I heard him over there, you know, he's kind of pointing where he thought he was. I said, Well, let me check him one more time. So I yelped and he's done cut 200 yards off. This turkey gobbles, and he's went from 700 to 500. I'm like, oh shoot, man, he's coming. And this is about 9 a.m. Um so, anyways, we get set up and uh this turkey pops out um of the the wood line up there into this kind of pasture on a hill. And dude, he is like frantic looking for this hand. He's like he's coming pretty quick. Right. About every 10 steps he'll gobble, pop strut, and then you know, hurry, coming, coming, coming. Like, oh shoot. So I get sat down, and dad's behind me uh across the ditch, and he's videoing with his phone this time too. So he's standing up back there in some bushes, and I'm uh on the on the edge of this cornfield, and dude, that turkey pops out in a cut cornfield, probably 250 from me. Same deal. Pop strut coming, coming, coming. And it it literally worked, they you know, very few of them work out like this, but he'll start, you know, he's coming straight at me and he'll start going a little bit too far to my left. And I got some thick stuff real right here to my left. I don't need him to get behind it. So I'll throw the call over my right shoulder and he'll uh he'll steer just like I'm I mean you steer in a RC truck, he'll come to the right. When he gets too far to the right, throw a little yelp over my left shoulder. I mean he was just zigzagging perfectly. Well, he got about 70 yards and I didn't say nothing else. He was on a good, a good little track coming to me. And uh he got about that 40 yard mark clucked and he stuck his head up and I shot him. And the box loads worked. Box loads worked perfectly, I might add. Got the job done. He killed him box loads. He did actually, out of his 12 gauge.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

Oh, okay, okay. So well, pretty good then. All right, and then uh then that goes right into where I killed mine up there, and then we all separated. It again and went our separate ways.

SPEAKER_03 22:02

And Seth, I told I told the story of my Iowa hunt, and then also I told what happened afterwards about all those jakes and everything. Oh yeah. I didn't tell if you want to tell the story of uh the one we got on right after we called those jakes.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

Kind of touched on it, how thick it was and and all of that, and how you you got real close to one, but we didn't really go into detail.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

Man, that was a great hunt. It was a really good hunt. Without seeing a turkey, it was a great hunt. Um why didn't you see him? Well, I'll get to that. Yeah. Me, Dad, and Johnson uh went back over to the the point A that we started at on the farm and uh heard a turkey. Like, okay, cool, cool. No, we saw those turkeys strutting first, and I don't know why they didn't gobble that morning, but we saw some turkeys strutting uh way back in this dude's field. So we made a play on them and they were gone. Had no clue where they went.

SPEAKER_00 22:53

That's some ones that you've seen the day before that also didn't gobble the morning before.

SPEAKER_03 22:57

No, this is this is the same day. This is first day. We saw them two days. Two days.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

Okay, but they never gobbled either day. Never gobbled up. As far as you can tell, this ones you're talking about might be putting themselves in a position where they can't.

SPEAKER_03 23:09

Yeah, you can't hear them. But like it's really weird how the field lays out. Like if you just if you stand back and look at it from a high point, it kind of looks like just a little rolls and kind of kind of flat. Dude, when you get to walking it, some big old big rolls, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

Yeah. So we see those turkeys, we go over there, make a play, they're you know, in a in a different zip code. And uh we struck a turkey. You wanna you wanna put that zip code what it is, or no, heck not. Okay, absolutely not. I was making sure. No, not gonna get that out of me, but so we struck a turkey, and uh we realized where he's at in relation to this big steep drain. And uh he's across the drain on top of a ridge. So we go around the the upper end of the drain, um kind of snake down through there, buddy. It's thick, because they just logged a bunch of it, cut a lot of the bigger trees out, and it is thick with bars.

SPEAKER_03 24:06

Let me add this too. This turkey is gobbling, he's gobbling very well, like really good. And I think we all had the same mindset, which is the worst thing that you can do before.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

We're gonna go up there, yep, once and kill him.

SPEAKER_03 24:20

Yes, like he's gobbling so good that I'm literally I have the idea in my head, we're gonna make one call and this joker's gonna break and come back.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

Well, I got old Richard Schwartz turkeys. I like him. Well, and one call, that's all wrong. Very wrong. Hey, I just come up with that on the spot. I'm gonna use that more often. I like it.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

That's pretty good. So 30 minutes later, when we finally get over to where this bird is, um set up, you know, like we just said, tried to call nothing. He gobbled, but he was in one spot, would not move. And uh so we slowly advance on him. You know, we'll pick up another 50 yards and uh sit and call. Our final setup, which is our third setup on this turkey, we're about a hundred and I don't know, 40 yards from this bird, roughly. And uh, dude, when I tell you this sucker's got concrete feet, dude, he is not. He had his fight.

SPEAKER_03 25:14

Dude, he wouldn't.

SPEAKER_01 25:15

It's almost like somebody took a turtle box up there and press play on some goblin, and that's what we're listening to.

SPEAKER_00 25:24

How'd you find out? How'd you know? How'd you know it I was up there? Oh yeah, you pulling a slick one on me, huh? I lied, boys. I didn't go, I didn't go nowhere else. I followed these boys down and was taunting them the whole trick. That's a heck of prank. There's a reason they didn't see none of these turkeys.

SPEAKER_01 25:39

Yeah, that's a heck of a prank. But man, that stuff, we were it was actually a multiflora rose thicket. I I bet what is it? What is like the is it multifloral, multiflora? What is it? I actually don't know. Multiflora, multifloral.

SPEAKER_00 25:54

See, I always say multifloral, but I don't know what it is. I just say multifloral.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

We'll say we'll call it we'll call it wild rose, is what we'll call it. Okay. Wild rose bushes. And uh so finally it gets to the point we've been on this turkey for, I don't know, an hour and a half. And uh still the same thing. I'll call, he'll gobble. He'll gobble two or three times on his own, I'll call again. And you know, we tried shutting up on him for 25, 30 minutes, and uh he didn't go anywhere. So we pretty much threw every little trick we had at him. Everything but the kitchen sink. Everything but the kitchen sink. There's one thing left to do, and I said, Well, I'm about to crawl, see how close I can get to this bird.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

And was it thick in between you and him?

SPEAKER_01 26:32

Very thick. Oh my gosh, I couldn't even see Seth after he crawled 15 yards away. Yeah, so and I don't I'm not typically one to like kind of rush a turkey hunt. I hate doing that. But we're on a pretty tight time schedule. Like this is day one in Iowa, and then day two, we gotta like till eight or nine a.m. and then we're leaving coming home. So we kind of gotta make something happen. This is around noon. Um so, anyways, I get to crawl on this turkey, and if I if I do something a little bit loud, I'll cluck and purr and raking the leaves like a hen, and boy, he'll eat it up. So it takes me, I don't know, every bit of 45 minutes to crawl 100 yards on this bird. And I finally get to where I'm like, I am in gun range. I know I'm in gun range. And uh, same deal. I can see about 15 yards as far as I can see. And uh I'm like, that turkey, we got to a point I said, this turkey is 25 yards tops. Yeah. I mean, I can literally almost hear this thing breathing. And uh I'm I'm pretty hella corn on the card.

SPEAKER_03 27:33

Yeah, dude, I was texting Seth in the process because I I was I was mainly calling while Seth was crawling, trying to keep him gobbling. And I was just clucking and purring. And he would he would cluck and purr, and then every now and then he'd yelp, and I was like, my gosh, like they're almost in the same spot, it sounds like and I was texting Seth, I was like, dude, how far are you from? He's like, he's gotta be 25 yards.

SPEAKER_00 27:55

I was like, golly. And in that, you just want to tell him about just shooting. Yeah, just shoot him.

SPEAKER_01 28:01

And and while this is taking place, from me getting from 40 yards to 25 on this turkey, the jakes gobbled behind us back over there by Dan Johnson. A group of jakes. I heard them all gobbling one time, three or four of them. Well, they stood up and tried to shoo the jakes off. Well, the jakes we're like we're waving our arm.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

And in case y'all didn't hear that, he said, shoo them off. S-H-E-W. Yeah, chew on them. Yeah, we were trying to scare them. Shoot them off.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Yeah, we were not shooting jakes. Yeah. So, anyways. Yeah, I fired off four times at them. Yeah, for real. Uh they just went around Dad and Johnson, like, didn't pay him any attention to that. Dude, they did not care at all. I hadn't heard him gobble again. I'm thinking, I don't I, you know, maybe they're handling that situation back there. I don't know what's going on. So I got my I'm I'm basically target locked. I'm like, man, that turkey's behind that tree right there. If I can, I don't know, if he'll move an inch. Yeah. I got it.

SPEAKER_00 28:56

Could you hear him spitting and drumming?

SPEAKER_01 28:57

Dude, I could hear him stepping.

SPEAKER_00 28:58

Like But was he was he?

SPEAKER_01 29:00

Yeah, about every, I don't know, couple minutes.

unknown 29:04

God.

SPEAKER_01 29:04

He wasn't just steadily drumming though, you know. So, anyways, uh I'm drumming.

SPEAKER_00 29:09

Probably wondering what's going on, you know. I mean he's whatever.

SPEAKER_01 29:14

Go ahead. Well, once he realized I was coming at him, I guess he was right.

SPEAKER_00 29:18

Right. He's like, I'm in my spot, she's gonna come, she's gonna keep coming.

SPEAKER_01 29:21

So I get to 25-ish, and uh I'm like, I'm just gonna have to stand up, just ease to my feet and see if I can see him and get a shot. And uh so man, I I get my my one you know knee up, foot on the ground, second one up and I ease up, and when I get all the way up, I'm like crap, I can't see. But I still hear him right there, he gobbles. And about that time over my left shoulder, them jakes, they started putting.

SPEAKER_00 29:49

Dang, they didn't close the gap quick.

SPEAKER_01 29:50

They done close the gap quick.

SPEAKER_00 29:52

They didn't do a good enough job shoeing a mile.

SPEAKER_01 29:54

So I tried to calm the situation down, which has worked for me a good bit. Right. Just clucking back to him, you know, and trying to keep that turkey gobbling. Well, he never gobbled again. And I'm like, oh crap, you know, these jakes just screwed the pooch. It's it's over now. So I I I sit there for like another 15-20 minutes and I realize that nothing is uh is you know happened since these jakes putted or whatever. And uh finally I'm like, well, I just gotta go see. I gotta go see where this turkey was at. You know, it's bothering me. And uh so I slip up there the remaining twenty-five yards, and uh it was the most open spot on this ridge. Instead of it being, you know, chest high rose bushes, um it was pretty much just like knee-high foliage. It really wasn't those rose bushes. Just a little like a just like a little hole in there.

SPEAKER_00 30:48

Yeah, did it open up all the way.

SPEAKER_01 30:50

It was his little strut zone. I mean, he had I don't know, like a maybe a 30 by 30 yard, you know, wow little little open spot. Just a little hole that's where he was at. God gum it.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

And that's uh where he was staying. Yep, that's the extent of my where he's at right now.

SPEAKER_03 31:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:08

Probably so. He's probably just losing his mind. Oh goobling, old goobin' fool. We talked about the uh why you didn't shoot the one that that crested the ridge right after all them jakes. So that's understandable.

SPEAKER_01 31:22

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Had them gobbling jakes in my face. I didn't want to which it's legal in Iowa, but I don't want to shoot a Jake regardless, so I want to fill my tag on a Jake. Right.

SPEAKER_03 31:33

But yeah, you can tell Seth doesn't listen to the podcast when he's gonna be a good one. Yeah, we've already talked about all that.

SPEAKER_01 31:38

Hey, uh, real quick, if you need professional video work done, you need to check out Colin Perry Productions. Weddings, business commercials, or honestly just about anything you want captured on video, call it together. With wedding season coming up, he's running a special right now on all wedding video packages. So head over to Colin PerryProductions.com to see his work and book with him.

SPEAKER_03 32:05

You know, he d he has no idea what we talk about. I'm not incriminating myself. He's not a true supporter of the Barred Time podcast. No comment.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

I noticed that there ain't never no listener from French camp, so I know he doesn't listen.

SPEAKER_03 32:18

Oh, he doesn't tell his buddies about it. No, nothing like that.

SPEAKER_01 32:21

I need his little people that know me to know about this podcast.

SPEAKER_00 32:24

We have an absolute incredible photo of the barred time guys with turkeys and a turkey and whatnot. And we all got our bared time hat on except Seth. Seth. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

Oh, I thought you were talking about right now. I'm like, you're not wearing a hat, and Johnson's wearing a macio hat.

SPEAKER_00 32:40

No, I'm talking about the incredible portrait that we want to get framed.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

That is a good pick.

SPEAKER_00 32:46

It's a great pick if you had your barred time hat on.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

Man, I'm wearing this vintage green leaf macio.

SPEAKER_00 32:51

You can't hate on the baloney. Baloney. Honestly, we crop Seth out of the picture. Yeah, honestly. Please do. That'd be about he's just a guest at this point anyway. Yeah, that would bring me a big one. You see how uh this is off topic. You see how small that Kentucky turkey is?

SPEAKER_03 33:06

Whoever fanned it out did a terrible job, too.

SPEAKER_00 33:08

Yeah, and the plaque is disgusting.

SPEAKER_03 33:10

Oh no, the plaque looks phenomenal, but the uh the fan looks terrible. Um we're chasing rabbits. Yeah, that's besides the chasing rabbits.

SPEAKER_00 33:18

I don't know if it's a big room. That's pretty much uh Yeah, I want to ask Seth kind of what we hit on last week. All right, so we talked about at the end, we talked about how it was a common theme up there in the surrounding three or four or five states up there where we went that it's like it's just really thick. Like really thick. Uh I mean you find some spots and some blocks of woods where it ain't, but it's like that multifloral rows and some really leafy, stem y stuff. Oh yes, autumn olive olive. Whatever they are. But uh, and and you know, people give crap about MDWFP all the time about how our habitat sucks, how it's terrible. Do you think people say that because they don't really travel everywhere? Just in your your opinion, because up there I would say we have better. Well, you know, it's hard to say that. I told Johnson because there's a lot of turkeys up there. But uh in your opinion, you think we have it better than what people realize, habitat-wise? Yeah, yeah, I think we have it. Public land-wise, you know? Yeah, I'd say so. Because we were and I understand, like to Jake's point, I think it was Jake's brawl. He was saying how he sees hand in hand how the money goes into it up there, but I don't think that's anything to do talking about fields and cornfields and soybean fields and whatnot, I don't think that's anything to do with their wildlife agency. I think, correct me if I'm wrong, I think farmers lease out those fields and they plant it themselves. Correct? Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty sure. And so, like, I don't even think that's any wildlife dollars going into that. That's just farmers farming open ground.

SPEAKER_01 34:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:55

Okay. All right. All right. I I thought.

SPEAKER_01 34:57

I have seen farmers, what y'all saw them this year farming on the pub. Right, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

But to my point, I was just saying how people always like to gripe and get on Facebook and say how our our our wildlife agency doesn't do anything. Well, I I think that they do. I think we have it better than what people, you know, give them credit for. Anyway, we just hit on that a little bit last week. We ain't got to go back into it. I just wanted your opinion on it. I think we got it better than what people realize. Absolutely. I think people need to travel and realize how, you know.

SPEAKER_03 35:28

Hey, side note, uh for all the people that said that the turkeys were done in Mississippi in April, uh Yeah, we have we have two different stories to go back, and not even close to being. I had one in my backyard that was absolutely raking it with four hens. Not yesterday but the day before.

SPEAKER_00 35:47

Gobbled in the afternoon, gobbled on the limb.

SPEAKER_03 35:50

He gobbled on the limb about thirty times, and then I walked outside about six fifteen uh the next morning. Crows were flying over, and I mean he was just he was losing his mind gobbling at him. He's out there full strut. He was so handsome.

SPEAKER_00 36:08

Yeah, and then then he ended up even gobbling like 11 a.m. the next morning when you went down there and yelped to him. Yeah. I was insane.

SPEAKER_03 36:15

I was wanting to try and uh I was in shorts and t-shirt and I threw a yelper in, and uh I was wanting to try-grabbed your big boom stick.

SPEAKER_01 36:23

No, I'm just making it.

SPEAKER_03 36:25

I was wanting to try to yelp him up and just video him on my phone. And uh he was kind of a mean turkey, I ain't gonna lie. He gobbled at me good, but uh every time he gobbled, he sounded like he was kind of going the other way, which was fine. I mean, it was just cool to get him to gobble in the first place at like 11 o'clock during the day. But uh shoot, he gobbled probably 20 or 30 times at me, but he eventually got to a point where uh he was going away from me. And I mean I wasn't going down there to chase him. I was just going to see if I could pick him up.

SPEAKER_00 36:53

But yeah. It's the same exact like a day apart from when you can't say it's the same turkey, but boy, he has the same tendencies as last year. Showed up a day later.

SPEAKER_03 37:02

Yeah, it was a uh so last year he showed up on May 18th, this year he showed up on May 19th. I can't prove it's the same turkey, but he did the same exact stuff. He just kind of hung around um in the same spot. But anyways, it was cool to still see him do his stuff, and he was still still out there tending to four hens, so um maybe uh maybe they'll maybe they'll get bread and go get on a nest.

SPEAKER_00 37:29

And then I think it was the same afternoon, it wasn't yesterday, it's the day before. So that Wednesday. Yeah Wednesday afternoon, I was on the way home, and I've been seeing some turkeys in the field, um, kind of close to my house, and I hadn't seen them all year long, but in the past week or so I've seen them two or three different times. Actually, five gobblers all all together still. Anyway, uh I uh I was on the way home and should you say all together again? Yeah, yeah. I guess you're right. I can't really say I ain't seen them all year, but they're all together as of right now. Anyway, I was on the way home and it done started raining, and I was looking out there just because I wanted to see them, you know. And uh man, I looked and there was a turkey strutting, he was strutting like 60 yards off the road. And I was like, oh my Lord have mercy, in a little block of trees, and it like goes down and do a little bottom, then back up to where I can see again. But anyway, I got I made it about a hundred yards past him, and I was like, I can't take it. I gotta back up and look at him some more. I I seen it wasn't nothing coming behind, you know, this is a county road, it ain't no big road, ain't busy. I can see what in front of me a ways and behind me a good way, so I just backed on up that hundred yards and stopped in the middle of the road and still had the car running. And uh I just I was like, oh dear God. I had to cut the car off. I had to I just had to sit there and listen to him for a little while. I yelped again with my mouth, nothing. So I just said Oh, he was doing it. I was like, oh, I gotta leave before I get in trouble.

SPEAKER_01 38:59

That's a pretty good scenario you just gave us. Yeah, really good.

SPEAKER_00 39:02

Well, dude, it was awesome, man. I was like, that was my first turkey gobble in over three weeks. This is so yummy. So yummy. Yeah, it was it was amazing. Anyway, that was nice. And uh went by yesterday afternoon. It was again, it was raining, but he was off the road a good little way, several hundred yards, and I could see him out there strutting. It was nice and pretty. So it's nice to know one made it. But I've already seen five, so they five of them made it. But I did see a hen. She was printing herself out there. I haven't seen any polts yet.

SPEAKER_01 39:32

Oh, I have confirmed siding polts on the ground.

SPEAKER_00 39:36

If you confirmed it, or old buddy worked at low login job.

SPEAKER_01 39:38

Yeah, I had a it's uh right up the road from my house. We had uh a guy from the pole mill coming out there to mark some mark some poles for us, and and as he was coming onto the job, there's a little bitty field, and he said, Man, I seen a hen out there. I swear she had 30 little ones with her. I like that. See a little bitty joker's running through the grass.

SPEAKER_00 39:57

Hey, if they're running around, then you know, I'm always nervous until they can fly. And even then it's not really a done deal, but normally when they get to where they can spread their wings a little bit, they they're pretty safe.

SPEAKER_01 40:08

Yeah, and I I know it wasn't 30. I mean, I guess it could have been another hen in the woods and it actually was 30. But anyways, it could have been fifteen.

SPEAKER_00 40:15

Statistically, they're they're most likely to get got like with what within the first three days of them have? Yeah, something like that. To get got. To get got. To get to be pred predated. To be predated by Nah, I like get got. Get got. To be got get guided. Got getted. Anyway. We just rambling now. Heck, what y'all want to talk about? We talking about anything, or we fish finna.

SPEAKER_03 40:39

No, we finna pack up and hit the road. We'll have stories for you next week, hopefully. Lord willing.

SPEAKER_00 40:44

And the creek don't dies. Did y'all see Toby Dean's story of that freaking pheasant? That's died out laughing, dude. That was funny. You probably didn't watch it.

SPEAKER_02 40:53

No, he did because he talked to me about it.

SPEAKER_00 40:55

It was funny, man. Anyway, yeah, we'll have to get old Dean back on here over the summer. Yeah, because he, golly, he did a lot of trap. Moly Toby had a freaking spring. And so did Grant and the whole 21 South crew, man. They had a spring, buddy. But uh they just got back from a little road trip and they hit us hit a pheasant in the middle of the road. Uh somebody hit it.

SPEAKER_01 41:15

I don't know if they hit it or not.

SPEAKER_00 41:16

No, they hit the pheasant. Like they hit the pheasant and picked him up uh because they were like, oh, you know, whatever, we're finna cook some turkey nuggets up, so we'll just fry this pheasant, you know. Uh so that way it don't go to waste. Anyway, uh, dude, they put it in the floorboard and they'd been driving down the road for several minutes, five, ten minutes. And Grant was like, Toby, this thing just twitched. And he's like, Oh, it's been it's been laying there for five, ten minutes. Don't worry about it. Then that sucker came to life, boy, running around the floorboard going nuts. And then in the video, you see him doing circles in the floorboard, and and Grant opens the door up, and he flies out, and Grant, they just take off laughs. Toby's like, uh, it was freaking funny, man. It's funny. I can't imagine what we'd be doing if if a darn pheasant come to life back on the. I wouldn't want to have one of them little boogers corners. I've seen that happen. Just a quick story, just to tell Seth, and I guess I'll tell y'all too. I got an uncle that uh he he turkey hunts a good little bit. Uh pretty good turkey hunter. Anyway, he killed it, he shot a turkey one time, and uh he it ended up being further than he thought, but he went out there, grabbed the turkey, brought him back to his stuff, sat him down, and was sitting there with the turkey, just enjoying it, and he said, by God, that sungun come back to life on him and took off, like just hopped up, took off running. Well, when my uncle hopped up, he tripped and his barrel went all the way into the ground. No. Yep. So he was like, uh-oh. Well, no shooting it, or you're gonna kill yourself at that point, you know. And uh so he said he just took off running, he started grabbing sticks, throwing it at it. Well, finally he grabbed a log and he just got it within reach of that turkey and bow, popped him with a with a log and knocked him over, and then he wrung his neck real good. But he said he chased that turkey, that sucker for like 7,500 yards before he got him. That's insane. I've seen videos of that happening, but that's crazy. Yeah, poor turkey.

SPEAKER_02 43:11

Shoot, that was about like the one in uh Missouri, Seth.

SPEAKER_01 43:15

Well, that was a mess. We'll leave it there. That's about how we left it. It's about how we left it.

SPEAKER_00 43:22

It was a mess. We got the turkey.

SPEAKER_03 43:23

We did get the turkey, but we he was holding the turkey and thought it was good. He set it down, and uh, we were sitting there talking about it.

SPEAKER_00 43:32

I didn't hear about this. Y'all conveniently left this out.

SPEAKER_03 43:34

We were sitting there talking about you know how much of a crap show that was.

SPEAKER_00 43:38

Yeah, we had different words, but I have a I'm gonna be honest with y'all, I have a pit in my stomach right now. I'm so darn nervous. We're finna have to road. I can't sit here no longer. Yeah, well, hold hold on.

SPEAKER_02 43:48

So he sets the turkey down. Well, dude, we're sitting there talking about it. This turkey gets back up and like starts to take off.

SPEAKER_01 43:56

It was very weird. It was very weird.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

Turkey hadn't moved for a long time.

SPEAKER_01 44:03

Yeah. Not laughing about it. It was weird. Dude, it was laugh.

SPEAKER_03 44:08

It was a bad I'm ashamed of that morning. Like it was horrible. If we told that full story, y'all would think we are the worst turkey hunters.

SPEAKER_00 44:18

Like it's stuff that happens, but it's not proud of it. But anyway, whatever. It's done and it's dead and done. And uh I guess, you know, like if we like we said, y'all stay tuned. We got another, hopefully a couple more episodes of fresh turkey content coming your way. Uh we are recording this on Friday morning before we head to the airport. So we are dedicated to this. We actually tied down Seth, believe it or not. And we had to fool him. We didn't tell him we were doing a podcast. We just told him we was going on a turkey trip. You know, a little benounced to you, Seth, unbenounced to you. We ain't going on a turkey trip. Let's just get a podcast done. Uh no, we do have we are headed out, but I want to plug this real quick. June 6th, coming up uh pretty quick. Y'all that are listening in the area of Louisville, Mississippi, we have the Robert Hickenbottom Memorial Chapter coming up. Banquet. Memorial chapter banquet coming up. It is one of the it's the second largest one in the state behind Columbus, which they're sponsored by the by the light boot guys and the Apex Ammunition guys. So you can imagine how big that one is. But anyway, this is a second one, the second largest one in the state. Uh it's a really great time. You can get up with either one of us uh personally, uh, or you can if y'all are really are interested in coming, y'all can DM us uh on Instagram or send us an email. We all have tickets. Uh it's gonna be a really, really good time. We uh eat some real good food, bunch of guns giving away, bunch of door prizes. Like I said, second largest one in the state. So y'all y'all come out to that if you uh if y'all are if y'all are in the area, even if you ain't, you know, we'll be there.

SPEAKER_03 45:56

June 6th, what time?

SPEAKER_00 45:58

I think June 6th. 6, maybe. The doors open at 6. Uh Taylor Groceries there, they're from Oxford. About the only good thing ever come out of Oxford. Uh amen. Uh yeah, we just beat these boys in the uh in that OSEC tournament. I ain't gonna tell y'all what happened later, but we beat Ole Miss first. Wait, no, we didn't freaking beat them. I'm dumb. We we run rule of the team that beat Ole Miss. There you go. Anyway, uh so yeah, for Taylor Grocery coming, they got good. Pretty much beat them. That's exactly right. We beat them. Uh anyway, Taylor Grocery's coming, they got really, really good food. I think it's a seafood buffet again this year. Uh y'all get up with us for tickets, bunch of donations that's gonna be there, a bunch of door prizes, and and I I'm saying this, ain't no way anybody's gonna drive to meet us, but we will be there. Uh if y'all do want to come shake our hand and and talk some turkey, it's gonna be a very, very good time. We have a lot of fresh might even be listening to that before uh before a podcast comes out about this trip. So y'all uh you know, you can come talk turkey. We have some fresh turkey stories, but anyway, heck I don't guess I have nothing else, boys, y'all. Uh give us a rating and a review. That's exactly right. Five star, ain't that right, Seth? Six. Dude over here watching Dick on Instagram. He's already bored. What the heck? I'm ready to roll. Get him out of here.

SPEAKER_03 47:13

Yeah, dude's fixing to hit the snooze button as soon as we get in the vehicle. Yeah, he does.

SPEAKER_00 47:17

Yeah, he's gonna be rattling the daggum windows on that old GMC buddy. Anyways.

SPEAKER_02 47:22

Anyways, uh, we appreciate y'all listening as always. We just pretty much ramble.

SPEAKER_00 47:28

Yeah, we rambling this week, boy. We just we sitting on G waiting on O right now, so we we ready to get out of here. But in the meantime, guys, y'all take care of that. Low country D. Uh no, I guess ain't nothing left but to take us on out of here, John. We'll see y'all later.