The Topher Brown Show
Topics of discussion include faith, culture, and music
The Topher Brown Show
LIVE FROM PARADISE
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JOIN US THIS WEEK AS WE COME TO YOU FROM BEAUTIFUL KEY WEST, FL. TODAY WE ARE GOING TO GET INTO SOME FUNNY AND INTERESTING HUNTING AND FISHING STORIES!
LETS DISCUSS THAT!
Well, folks, we are not in the studio. Let's discuss that. This is the Topher Brown show. That's it. That's the thing. Hey everybody, welcome back to the Topher Brown Show. We appreciate you tuning in, watching wherever you're watching from, listening wherever you're listening from. As you can plainly see, we are not in the studio today. We're somewhere else. Where that place is, I'll have to leave it up to your imagination. We're in Key West, Florida this week, down here uh playing some music in paradise. And uh we just want to welcome everybody to the show. Uh don't be too jealous, don't be too envious from where you are watching from, because where we are watching from is nothing short of amazing. We're gonna talk about all kinds of stuff today. We've got a special guest on the show. You may or may not be able to see him in frame right now as we speak. Pay no mind to that. But before we get into that, got to introduce my co-host and my best friend, Mr. Nick Smith. Howdy howdy, America. Howdy howdy, Key West. How are you liking it down here in the beautiful Key West?
SPEAKER_02It's hot, but it is beautiful.
SPEAKER_01First of all, how does it feel to not be sitting in front of a computer and also in the same vicinity as one another?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, there's not a wall and a piece of glass separating us right now. It feels pretty amazing. Yeah, I think we need to change the format to this more often.
SPEAKER_01I agree with you. We never get to we never get to just be in the same room when we're doing these podcasts. So this is this is interesting for us. So the the context as to why we are here, okay? We're here playing music, nothing special, but we are in absolute paradise right now. And it is uh it's been amazing. The weather's been awesome, it's been a little bit hot, but it is paradise nonetheless.
SPEAKER_02It has been special. We're playing at the world famous Key West, as Topher likes to remind the crowd every night.
SPEAKER_01Yes. It is world famous, is it not? I think it is world famous, yeah. I mean it's like it's amazing.
SPEAKER_02Well, we do meet people from all around the world here as well.
SPEAKER_01Yes, that there is no shortage of like diversity here in Key West. And I mean that in every sense of the word. Okay.
SPEAKER_02But for another episode.
SPEAKER_01As you can see from behind me right now, and I'll I'll I'll put some b-roll footage in here to give you a better uh understanding of where we are. But this is we're currently at uh Fort Taylor, Fort Zachary Taylor, and this is a very scenic part of the island, as you can see, sailboats, and we're right here, we're here right at sunset, and so it's about to get even more beautiful than it is right now, currently behind us. Since we are in the outdoors, and since we decided to record a podcast in the outdoors, even in these outdoors, we thought this is a good opportunity for us to do our hunting and fishing episode.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely, and with none other than the great Nathan Spears, who we've said we're gonna do an outdoor podcast with anyway. Yes, and it's just Kismet.
SPEAKER_01We're making good on that promise today, ladies and gentlemen. So please welcome to the studio slash the picnic table in Key West. Mr. Nathan Spears. Hey, buddy. Hello, thank y'all for having me. Absolutely, thank you for being on today.
SPEAKER_03What a beautiful place. I I mean I hate I had to drive all the way down here just to do the podcast, but what a place to do.
SPEAKER_01We just we appreciate you taking a week out of your schedule just to come down here and do this podcast because that's what it's really all about, right? To be honest with you. What we got happening behind us right now. Here's a boat just coming, just coming through, just breaking up our shot.
SPEAKER_02And everybody's so friendly. Look at the howdy, howdy America.
SPEAKER_03Now, if this ain't American, I don't know what it is. So we got an iguana literally right over there.
SPEAKER_02That's so American, it's almost Cuban.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's correct. Yes. How do you reconcile those things? I don't. Um, so okay, for real though, the reason that we're all together, we're we're all together a lot of times because we play music together on the rig. But we are down here in Key West for the week. We're playing music. Mr. Nathan Spears is our drummer of our little outfit that we have here. And so we thought this is a good opportunity, because we've been threatening to have you on the show for a while now. Yeah. And this is a this was a good opportunity, this was the opportunity that we had. I agree. First opportunity, I should say, because there'll probably be others. But you are an avid outdoorsman. You're an avid hunter, an avid fisher of fish, and also men. Yeah, that's right. And so are you. So I I will admit to you fully today that I am the least experienced in these two things. However, I do really, really enjoy both of these things, hunting and fishing. Uh but today I thought this this we're in a fun place, we're in a beautiful place. Let's let's just share some stories about the great outdoors. I'll share some stories about maybe your most exciting hunt, maybe your funniest hunt, maybe your most disappointing hunt. I don't know. Uh-huh. Uh, but but let's get into some of that today. So Nathan comes from the from the great town of Philadelphia, Mississippi. It's a very metropolitan type area. A lot of hustle and bustle. Oh yeah. A lot of hurt.
SPEAKER_03Wide open. Traffic's terrible at the moment. They're building a roundabout, and man, it's got people in a tizzy. Oh no. So tell me a roundabout. Yeah. The first of many, I think, that are coming.
SPEAKER_01Oh boy. So tell me, all right, so when you're not playing drums, playing music, uh, because you also play a little guitar, uh, from what I understand, I'm told. Uh, what do you do? What do you do during the week?
SPEAKER_03Well, a lot of time, mostly during the summertime like this, I farm a good bit. Got a few cows, my brother's got some cows. Uh, we're kind of building up our farm or ranch. I don't know what you would call it. Uh, we call it a farm. And uh, and I think that that's where my my love of the outdoors comes from is just literally being out there, and people ask me that all the time, you know, people are always wondering, how do you how do you do that and this? And I think it's it's the drastic difference of the two. You know, whenever we're playing music, we're constantly around people, and it's lights and all this loud stuff, but then you get out there and the whether you're out in the pasture or whether you're fishing, whether you're hunting, and it's a whole lot of this. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01A lot of silence. Still silence.
SPEAKER_03Still. And I don't know if y'all know this or not, but I'm uh kind of a shy person. Y'all have never seen that. Say what now?
SPEAKER_01Hold up now.
SPEAKER_03But I'm uh I'm pretty shy. What is the word? Uh introvert. Introverted, yeah. And so uh, man, being around crowds of people and the older that I'm getting, the more the bigger the crowds, the more I'm like, ugh. Really? But the music, like, it's so weird, you know, being on stage and playing and performing and I don't mind it. It's almost like flipping on a switch of a different person. Like it's this character that, you know, you play and you're on stage and you can be this different person. But really, in all honesty, dude, I would much rather be sitting in right here. This.
SPEAKER_01Well, I can relate to that in a lot of ways because in a lot of ways I'm the exact same way. Like, if I had it up to me, you know, I'd just be sitting down by the lake 24-7.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And people people hear that about me and they're like, hold on now. You're a front man of a band, you know, you're a a worship leader, you're on stage every every Sunday morning. Currently, I'm I'm preaching, so I'm putting your public speaking every Sunday. Are you telling me that you're an introvert? And the answer is absolutely I am. Absolutely I am.
SPEAKER_03Um, you probably feel the same thing. It's almost like a, you know, it's a switch that you flip.
SPEAKER_01It is.
SPEAKER_03In a certain way, because you know, it's and it's there, it's still a part of you. It's it's still you, but the person that you really like would rather be, I guess maybe are where you're the most at calm and peace, is just I would rather not be talking a lot of times. I would rather not be around, you know, and I don't mind talking with a group of people or anything like that, but I've been known to go off over there by myself and just sure, you know what I mean, and not talk or anything like that.
SPEAKER_02Well, see, that's that's pretty new to me because I I'm I'm quite the introvert as well. Uh probably more so than both of y'all. Yeah. So when I when I think of you, Nathan, I always think, man, I wish I was more outgoing like Nathan.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, man. I know it's uh the older that I'm getting, the more that I'm realizing that, and I think it, I don't know, it has to do with like a social battery, and maybe Reagan brings that out in me also because Reagan is the epitome of a social butterfly. Reagan is my wife, by the way. Reagan, I love you to death. You Reagan? You my sweetheart. But she is the definition of a social butterfly, and and so maybe that kind of brings it out in me a little bit, but really to be honest, I think it's more like musicians. I can instantly hit it off with musicians. But if you're if I'm around like other people or something like that, dude, I'm just you know, shy. It takes me a second to really warm up to people. It seems like we ought to, if I remember correctly, like we just hit it off instantly.
SPEAKER_00No doubt about it.
SPEAKER_03But and I found that with musicians, I'm more able to do that, more just able to just boom, and we're off and going. But normally, yeah, with normal other people, it takes me a little while to really warm up to anybody, you know.
SPEAKER_01That's very interesting. You learn something new every day. Maybe I'm a weirdo, but that's cool too. Well, if you're a weirdo, then I'm a psychopath. So tell me about uh your love of the outdoors, kind of where did that come come from? You grow up hunting and fishing, did you daddy take you out? I know your brother's also an avid hunter and fisher.
SPEAKER_03Well, for me, it was really it was more my brother. My dad, he hunted very rarely. Like I he did some, but it, I'm telling you, it really came a lot more from my brother. And uh, because growing up, he was the one wanting to go out and hunt, and my daddy was more helping him do it, and and helping him planting flute food plots, and we didn't know, and nobody knew what was going on. You know what I'm saying? And so he was helping him do it, but it really comes more from my brother, I believe. Now, my my grandfather on my dad's side, huge fisherman, huge bass fisherman. I never got to meet him, but that's one thing that I've always heard about him. He loved to fish. Same on my mom's side, uh, he was a huge fisherman. I mean, he would go out to the river. Well, I can't remember that creek in Sebastapool, but uh, and just wear out some catfish, catching crappie, anything. He was a big-time fisherman, and uh that was more, you know, those two guys, I think more my my grandpa on my dad's side, that was catching the largemouth was more enjoyment. The one my grandpa on my mom's side was more of feeding them like they needed to eat. Yeah, and so he got extremely good at going and catching catfish and white perch, whatever, and and cooking them, and oh man, you know, just to to feed his family. And uh whereas, you know, on my my dad's side, they had a farm, you know, they had pigs, and I can't I don't even remember what all types of animals they have, but they had they also had a huge garden back behind my grandparents' house that they kept up, and uh and uh it's so funny too that garden would get, you know, how many they had five kids and of course family around the area. That was enough food for them to feed their whole family, people in the community, and at that time they would put uh my grandpa would put out advertisements on the radio, inviting people from the whole county, like, hey, if you want food, come out here and you're more than welcome. On the radio, how crazy is that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's pretty cool, right?
SPEAKER_03And one of my favorite stories of my grandfather is somebody called the house and was like, Yeah, I need such and such amount of corn. If you can get me this amount of peas and such and such, and he said, Nope. Hung the phone up and then told the boys, go out there and plow up the rest of that garden out there. Yeah, he was he was uh he was a tough son of a guy.
SPEAKER_02Who do you reckon that was that called? Oh, I didn't know like that.
SPEAKER_03Oh, I have no idea it could have been anybody. I don't know. He said, That's it. That's it. I ain't going out there and picking it for you. You come out here and get it yourself, and you're more than welcome to have as much as you want. Because I'm sure it was if I had to guess, it was close to the end of the season. You know, this they had more than enough. They had already put up and canned, no telling how much to, you know, so you know, and that's the kind type of man that he was. He was more than willing to give anything to anybody, but he wasn't about to go like that. Sure. And I think he used a little more colorful words heretics. Oh yeah, but he was known as the uh mayor of McDonald. That was the the community that I grew up in, and that was his might be your new nickname. That was his title, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that was kind of one of the beauties, too, about growing up in that country community. Yes, dude. Is uh, you know, I when we grew a garden, which we always grew a big garden, we had cows, we always killed deer and turkey and ducks and whatever we could to eat. Um but me and my brother would sell them on the roadside. And I remember we we'd make a little money over the summer doing that. Yeah, but I remember there was many a time where our uncle, uh Uncle Jack and Aunt Joyce from down the road would call us and say, Hey, we got plenty of corn. We just go get tons of corn and you'd spend the rest of the day shucking and creaming. Yes.
SPEAKER_01Dude, I had an Uncle Jack and an Aunt Joyce. Really? That's insane. What was their last time? Really? They were two two different ant they weren't. Oh, they were on two different sides.
SPEAKER_03That's funny. Pretty interesting. Yeah, those days are almost long gone in a way. You know, and it's crazy. The older that I get, the more that I'm like, man, you know, and I didn't even get to experience any of that. Not as much as like everybody having a garden, then having so much food that you were able to feed so many people like that.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_03I still know some people that have gardens and stuff like that, and uh, but it's it's just a it's a dying thing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's a it's uh like yesteryear or whatever they say. Um so I y'all tell me if you can relate to this because I know like you know, we're gonna talk about hunting and fishing here, but and of course the point of hunting and fishing is to harvest uh meat and fish.
SPEAKER_02Right and and conserving nature is exactly but you know, for me, I didn't have a a necessarily a childhood where it was just full of hunting and fishing.
SPEAKER_01You know, my dad's a guitar player, so our our my childhood is a lot of uh you know growing up around music and and and and doing and sports, you know, sports were a big thing for me. But it wasn't really until probably in my I'd say my twenties that I started to get back, you know, I I had hunt hunted and fished um sporadically throughout my my younger years with some of my cousins and my uncles and stuff like that. But in my 20s, I I found a a new a new passion for it, but more so just being out in nature. You know, I think you kind of touched on that a little bit. Like the my my favorite part about hunting and fishing, no matter what I'm doing, no matter where I'm at, is the fact that I'm just outdoors.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Like that's the my favorite part. Like, you know, we're sitting here right there, at right here at this bench. I could sit here all day and just look at wildlife. I don't necessarily have to now killing something uh and harvesting an animal is uh of course an added bonus, and I'm going to be, you know, of course I'm gonna be responsible with that, with that kill. But um, you know, for me it's just an appreciation of God's nature, God's creation, being out in it. I remember we had um a snowstorm that came through our town. This is this is probably you know 10, over 10 years ago. And um it came through right in the peak of of hunting season and uh a big snowstorm came through and my and I and I started gear getting my packing up my stuff, gearing up to go uh for that next morning, and my wife was like, Are you crazy? It's like you know, 19 outside and snowing, and I was like, I'm going to go be in that deer stand when that sun comes up because I'm gonna see that snow covering the ground. I'm gonna see all these little birds coming out, chipping away and stuff. That that to me, like, don't get me wrong, I love we have a a friend of the podcast, brother Bruce Pratty, who's been on the show uh a couple times, and he's got some hunting land that we that he's so gracious as to allow us to go hunt on, and uh there's a bunch of deer out there. And well, I love watching them come out. I and we'll talk about it here in a second, but I I've even got a kind of a disappointing story about one of those instances where I had an opportunity to harvest a big buck and and and drop the ball. Yeah, but um anyway, I I just man, I just really I love to be in nature and I love to observe God's creation in that way. That's that's like probably 50% of the whole reason that I want to go out there to begin with, if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_02That was definitely it for me as a kid. It was a mixture of that and and fear because I I feared being outdoors alone as a as a little kid. Uh but I figured it out at some point. But just being up in that stand and witnessing nature, but then your first kill, I remember being so disappointed. Actually, my second kill too, I cried so hard watching that deer lay on the ground and suffer. Yeah. But you know, that that's the great thing about having a dad that was so experienced in that, and also not just experienced, but he knew what to tell you to explain to you hey, this is about conservation, yeah. This is about feeding the family. You know, I remember him telling me, you know, do you know how many deer I've killed that I've not cried about? It was like, you know, at some point when you see the end result of putting that food on the table and taking care of your family, that no longer becomes a concern. But I remember he killed a deer. I had not killed a deer yet, I was just with him. I had a BB gun with me. Which is a great story because I kept turning that BB gun up and down, and those BBs kept going, and he'd look at me, I could see the cuss words in his eyes. Uh but he killed that deer, and I remember the first thing that we did was we walked up to that deer and we knelt down beside it, and he prayed, and thank God for that deer. Uh-huh. And I do that every single time that I kill a deer now. It's been a wonderful family tradition.
SPEAKER_01I've witnessed this, and it's it's pretty, it's pretty neat. Uh the last time we went, matter of fact, you you uh harvested a doe and you knelt down and you prayed over that deer and said, Lord, thank you for this for this deer. It was pretty cool. Absolutely. Uh so alright, I'm gonna I'm gonna start off with my embarrassing story. Cool. Okay.
SPEAKER_03And then y'all Which which, if it makes you feel better, if you ever the more that you do it, yeah, it's gonna happen. Oh, it's gonna have, oh man, it's gonna happen so many times. No doubt.
SPEAKER_02It's just so that it happened to you pretty early.
SPEAKER_01It happened early and it happened twice in a row. So, okay. So, you know, uh again, I've been I've been um pretty consistently hunting since I was in my 20s. So could you about 20 years or so. And uh I've Damn, how old are you? That's a different podcast. Uh so I've had successes and I've had failures when it comes to hunting. Uh but this this pastime, uh, man, we had been looking at this six-point on the trail cam who had been coming to this specific plot uh daily, really every morning. And it's kind of the end of the rut, you know, so they were they're still kind of out there, but they were getting fewer and far in between. Give out. Give out. They were they were we're out.
SPEAKER_02And for some reference, he said six point, but what we're not talking about a regular six point. Yeah, it's we're we're talking about something that we call a big six. Yeah. It's a big rack, but it's a six point.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, uh it seem he you know, he's probably a five year old deer if I had to if I had to get I don't know, but that he was an older deer. Um and the biggest six point that I've ever laid eyes on. Big old son of a guy, muscular. And those his his rack was thick. I mean that that dude was that thick around. But uh okay, so we're we're observing him on this trail cam, and I'm on a feeder, and I'm in a shooting house, and right at the right at the time that that we've been witnessing him on this trail cam, I'm telling you, just like clockwork, he walks out. He walks out of the cutover and he's headed, he's kind of walking towards me, and the feeder is off to his left. He's walking towards me, the feeder's to my right. And I'm when I tell I'm telling you the nerves were, I mean, going, buddy. My heart was pumping. And when I tell you he turned broadside to me, and I could not have painted a picture as to how good of a shot this was. About 150 yards up the hill, Nick was hunting in another shooting house. And this this buck comes, walks up to me and turns broadside, and I'm like, dude, this is it. And so I get ready and I ease up, and about that time, bah up the hill. Uh-huh. Nick shoots a doe. Yeah. And that that buck looks up the hill, and I'm like, oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_02Every time this story is my fault.
SPEAKER_01No, because he didn't do anything. All he did was look down.
SPEAKER_02Also, in my defense, we had two group techs going. Uh one because we had been hunting with uh Lucas Bivens, which we gotta get on the podcast.
SPEAKER_01He'll be next.
SPEAKER_02Um we had two group texts going, one with him, and then one with one just our core group that was hunting that morning. Right. And I was only checking the one from the one we had that morning. And I think he would send out a group text saying he he just came out like in the other group text. And I didn't check it. And if I had known, I probably would have held off for a minute. But it's they had does all morning.
SPEAKER_01But it didn't make a difference because all he did was just look up and he was frozen. And I was like, Well, it's now or never. So I squeeze a trigger. Click.
SPEAKER_03Oh no.
SPEAKER_01Nothing. And he kind of hears the click and he turns his head and looks over at me. Yeah. And I'm like, What do I do? You asked the deer that?
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01I think I asked the deer. What do I know? I think I asked the Lord that. And the Lord was like, Yon yon, but I don't know.
SPEAKER_02Um I brought the deer out. What you gonna do?
SPEAKER_01So the deer, the deer turns and kind of like, he's not spooked just yet, but he's on the verge. He's suspicious that something's going on. Like Brother Bruce said, he's suspicious that there's a booger over there somewhere. And he turns and kind of starts trotting away from the from the feeder. Well, I got my gun and I'm like, what just happened? I'm like, I've got a misfire. So I eject the round. Oh, so you did have a round. I was thinking you didn't have a round in there. No, no, no, that was a room.
SPEAKER_02It just wasn't seated.
SPEAKER_01There was there was one in there. So I eject it. And I I rack it up. I rack another. Well, yeah, there's you know, all kinds of noise going on. I'm like, well, it's over. So I eject it, I rack another round, and he's a little bit further away from me. Now he's broadside to me facing the other direction. Right on the wood line, and I'm like, he's giving me another chance. He's a little bit further away, but it's still a clear as day shot. I gotta shoot through some brush, but I can see his shoulder plain as day through my scope. So I'm like, thank you, Lord, you gave me another chance. Click twice. Two misfire. Now, on the on the in retrospect, what it was, that little 308 that I'm shooting, you gotta slam at home when you rack it. You can't ease it. And I and I was waiting until I got to the shooting house to rack around. Right. So I'm not gonna be sh, you know, up in the shooting house before dawn, all the deer start coming out.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So I just ease one in the, you know, just eased it in the chamber, and that 308 gun does not like that. It wants to be jammed up in there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And uh so at the end of the day it was my fault, but boy, was I cussing that gun.
SPEAKER_02Golly, I was cursing that gun. If there had been a little swamp on the way back to the house, I think he would have thrown it in there.
SPEAKER_01I think I would have too. I'm still thinking about throwing it in there to be honest with you.
SPEAKER_03I've been on the hunt for a new gun. I was about to say that and just gonna stay at the house from now on. I I'm I'm actually in the market for a new one right now.
SPEAKER_01We'll see if we get it in time for deer season.
SPEAKER_02We're not sponsored, but uh Savage, uh, hit us up. Please help this man.
SPEAKER_01He needs a 306. If you if you'll send me a gun, I promise I'll do a lot of content with it. A lot of content with it. Promise you that. That's my embarrassing hunting story. Okay. My all of my embarrassing fishing stories just involve going out to fish and being all gung-ho and not catching a dog on a thing. That's all that's all I really had on that. All right, I'll somebody else chime here to relieve me of my disappointment and failures.
SPEAKER_03I'm trying to think the only one that comes to mind of where I was just mad afterwards was because I've had and I've had more experiences. I've had I've had more experiences of like missing turkeys and stuff. I've been pretty good about deer a lot of times, which I've I th I I think I'm on the cusp of killing way more turkeys than I have deer, because I didn't, which is crazy. I killed my first deer whenever I was only like 15, 16. And I didn't start turkey hunting until I was in my mid to late 20s. And all that time wasted because turkey hunting has lit me on fire, which I love some deer hunting, don't get me wrong, but turkey hunting, man, has lit me on fire, and so I'm way more way more picky about times in like turkey hunting, and I guess there's so many different moments of like I don't know, in my experiences, I don't feel like that I'm that well deep off into deer hunting as I am in turkey hunting, and the fact of deer hunting, I go climb up in a deer stand and I'm and I'm waiting for something to come out, you know, a lot of times. And and of course there is hunting with that of figuring out where are they coming through, what time are they, where's the nesting area, and those type of things. That's hunting, but with turkeys, you're having a conversation with them. You and he goes, Huh, whoa! You know, and that fires me up. So, all right, all that to say. I want to say this was probably two or three years ago. It was near the opening, it had to be opening morning or that sometime alone, it was very early in the season, and I had a turkey, I knew whereabouts he was, but I didn't know exactly where he was. But based on the land, I knew that there was a ridge that kind of came, and I had a feeling that dude was sitting on the edge of that ridge, and so sure enough, I get up on the ridge with him, you know, and I know about which direction, and so starts getting more daylight, hit the old hooter, he gobbles, bam, gobbles. And I was like, okay, well, that's one checkoff, okay. Now we know where he is, and so then I'm starting to kind of figure out well, he I'm thinking he's gonna stay, he's gonna pitch down, and I have a feeling he'll stay on this ridge as long as I can be the first woman in his life in the first one in that morning, he he'll he'll come. And so, sure enough, he he gobbles on his own, and I let out a little ha ha ha, and he gobbles, and I'm like, okay, check. We we just moving along, everything's we got interest here, everything is working, you know. And and so I'm I sit down, and the way that I'm set up, you know, I'm on the edge, I'm still up there on that ridge with him. I know I'm close enough that I can hear him fly down. Well, as soon as he hits the ground, and of course, and it's early in the season, so there's no leaves on the trees or anything, so you can hear him pretty well. And I want to say I was within, I was within a hundred yards of him, and I can hear him, I know that he flies down, he gobbles on his own, and uh I I know that he is coming. Now, with it being early in the season, I I've done poke my chest out a little bit. I'm like, I'm already gonna kill one first up. I'm getting that monkey off my back at the beginning of the season. Man, I you know, I'm I'm already mounting him. You know what I'm saying? He's already in the frying pan, buddy. Yeah, you know, and and you know, I called it. He gobbles. I mean, everything, check, everything is working in uh in the order that it needs to be done that you want it to early in the morning. And uh, I'm thinking all these things, man. I'm man, I'm just already excited. Get this first one out of the way, then I can start, you know, really kind of finding some other ones, maybe find one with good spurs. All this is going through my mind, and he's walking through the woods, you know. Well, finally I get him, I see him, you know. And just, I mean, couldn't have asked for it to be any better. He's coming. He's making his way, he's completely by himself. He's just he's walking exactly, and it don't happen like this very often, but I mean, he's walking exactly where I need him to, exactly where I wanted him to. He is coming.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And all of these things are, you know, check mark, check mark. This is what I need. Oh, it's going perfect. And I draw my bead on him. Uh boom! And he flies off. He runs up the hill. And I was in absolute disbelief. I mean, I'd stood up instantly, knew that I'd missed him clear as day. And I and also, there again, big chest poking out. I was on a hot streak of there for a minute. Of I hadn't missed one in, you know, years.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03You know what I mean? So, and I was had a little bit of pride in, well, man, I bought a uh pack of shells this this year, and I had I went three for three. And I had shells for next year. You know what I'm saying? Right.
SPEAKER_01It's rare, rare for you to miss one at that point.
SPEAKER_03Oh man, yeah. And especially, and I'm, you know, got my old Mossberg, and you know, I'm very confident in that dude, and I mean it'll reach out and touch him, especially with the TSS. And I mean, as soon as I shot, knew that I missed him. And he turned and was running the other way. What do you think went wrong? Me? Just I mean, I was just I was overconfident. Overconfident I could, I should have just let him. He was coming. He was coming. Should have just let him just keep on coming. I mean, and I would have had a, you know, but of course those thoughts go through your head of, is he about to turn? Like I know that I can kill him from that distance. Is he about to turn? Is he gonna turn in a way of whatever could happen, you know? I mean, he could turn and just start going another direction or go off this away, and then it's then the the the window is closing very quickly. But what he was doing at that moment, the window was wide open. I mean, he was coming right for me. He could have come from me to this camera if I'd just let him, and I could have probably just but yeah, shot, missed him. I stood up instantly, grabbed my chair, and just just grabbed it up, and I just walked, just power walked through the woods back to my truck.
SPEAKER_01Like that's it.
SPEAKER_03So so mad. So so mad. Because I mean, it like I said, those check marks, a lot of times in when you're hunting, you may not get that check mark, but then this one is checked, and you kind of have to decide maybe he flew down and went the other direction. Now everything changes. Now you have to run, and now you're running a whole different set of checklists or whatever it is, you know. But that particular morning, it was like it was textbook exactly what you want them to do, what you need them to do. And you know, I was like, I'm playing everything correctly, everything is just I'm getting this off my back, man. I'm gonna be able to tell my buddies I've already got a turkey. I'm gonna be able to, you know, I'm one up on you know, all these things going through your head and just like that.
SPEAKER_01It all slips away. Well, I will say this to encourage you a little bit. If you go to his YouTube channel, which is what's your YouTube channel name?
SPEAKER_03Uh Nathan Spears and some numbers. I don't, it's Nathan Spears and it's me and some sort of little mask.
SPEAKER_01Just search for Nathan Spears turkey hunting.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I guarantee you'll find it. There's a video of you shooting a turkey out of a roost out of a tree. Now that was a big thing. Which was it's extremely impressive because of all that you had to do.
SPEAKER_03Now it wasn't off the roost. It wasn't off the roost. Excuse me. He was just up in a tree. He was up in a tree. Now this dude had, we were on two birds this particular morning. I wish I could remember the name of that video. Maybe uh, I can't remember which one it is, but that particular morning we're on two birds. One of them is absolutely hammering, I mean, just gobbling his head off, and the other one is gobbling every now and then. Well, the one that is gobbling the most, he takes off across the canal. Well, this one that was a little bit closer to us, he pitches right there pretty close to us. And uh I was like, you know, and I've had that happen every now and then, but it it not very often that they'll pitch closer, which I, you know, in retrospect, I know that he was looking for us. He was trying to, he wanted to see that hen before he came down.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Well, where he hopped to, still couldn't see us, he gobbled. And then he proceeds to then pitch again off to my right, and I mean he can clearly see, and this is what's wild to me too, is that there are times when you're turkey hunting and there's a turkey within eyesight of you, and you move just a little bit, and that dude boogers and is gone. And then this particular time, he's up in the tree. He can, I mean, it is a clear shot looking down towards us, and turkeys are very, if you yelp to them, they know where you are. Like, I don't know how that works, but that in my mind, that's how they they know where that bird or where they think the bird is, is exactly where it's standing. So I know that he knows where we are, and I still had time. I had to ask my brother, I was like, is it legal to shoot him out of the tree? You know, because I had a feeling like he's gonna look down here and see us and then just be gone, you know, which has happened numerous times. But he's up there in the tree, and my brother is working the camera, and I was like, just turn the camera towards him. And it he couldn't have done it, I and it was out of accident, he couldn't have done it any better. He turns it, and the the tree is perfectly in frame. You see the turkey at the top of the tree, and then the ground, it's perfectly in frame. And I had time to go completely left-handed and swing and bust that dude out of the tree. And it me and my brother go to giggling like a couple little girls, like we do.
SPEAKER_01It is one of the most impressive things I've seen. And then what's funny about it is that y'all sit the camera down and you see y'all running off to go get the bird like that.
SPEAKER_03And it's so funny. My brother is the the king of this. Whenever we I don't know how he does it, but you shoot a bird and it's like instantly he's sitting on his butt and it's like boom, and he's on his feet. And that dude is on his feet and already running. I don't know how he gets up that quick. He's pretty nimble for his age. Yeah, you a little old, but uh yeah, it's it's so funny to me. But he'll be up and running already to him. But I I knew at that time that we watched that and just boom, boom, hit limbs all the way down and he. And we was like, he did.
SPEAKER_01That's a it's an awesome video. You only need to go look watch that video and check it out.
SPEAKER_02It's impressive for me too, because I feel like every time I stand up from hunting for at least 10 minutes, one leg is asleep.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_02So I'm running sideways.
SPEAKER_03And you've been sitting on a root or something, and your right butt cheeks just sore or something, you know, whatever it may be, you know, and it's like, oh, or you've had to be so still, you know what I mean, for so long, and then when you finally move, it's like, oh you know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's awesome. Thanks for sharing your story, bro.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, man.
SPEAKER_01Spitty, what you got, bro?
SPEAKER_02Uh oh, I should have been thinking about it while y'all were telling those stories, but I was so enthralled. Um well, I I I know one uh for sure that was pretty disappointing. Um I was a kid, I'd I'd been bow hunting for a while, but I'd not killed a deer with my bow yet. And but I had missed about three of them for sure. There was this one stand, we had a uh a climbing stand, uh, or a ladder stand, I mean, on the ryegrass hill, which we we grew up, where we grew up was there was a lot of bottom land. Every time it rained just a little too hard, you had standing water in the bottom field. Um so I was hunting up on this ryegrass hill, and all week, because I had already missed several doughs, I had been shooting over their back because they kept dipping down. You know, like they do, you know, 99.9% of the time when you shoot. Yeah, dipping down inches over their back. I mean, sometimes it singe the hair on their back. Well, I had been practicing all week to shoot just a little bit lower. Because I shot instinctively. For you at home, if you don't know what instinctive is, it means you're shooting without sights. I never shot with sights. See, I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_03I never killed one with a bow.
SPEAKER_02Um, so I had a sort of a side. Is it a compound or a recurve? Compound. Gotcha. Yeah. Um, we had a recurve, but golly, I was terrible at it. Yeah. Absolutely terrible at it. Because once you get it pulled back, you know, when you're out there exposed a lot of times to have enough room to shoot at a deer with the bow, you gotta have a good bit of limbs and stuff cleared out. So when you pull that thing back, you're gonna have to hold it for a while sometimes. Um, but with that that recurve, it was you pull it, you let it go. Well, I've been practicing all week to shoot just a few inches below the bull's eye. Well, what do you know? Here comes Big Nanny Doe. She steps out, she's got a couple little yearlinks with her, and I pull back over, so I'm trembling because I've been sitting there waiting for her to get broadside on me for a hot minute. I must have had that bow pulled back for three and a half minutes. She finally turns broadside to me. I'm getting ready to shoot. I pull back, phomp. Let it go. You think she dipped?
SPEAKER_00Of course, Bob.
SPEAKER_02She jumped. She arched that back like this and stuck it right in the dirt. Oh, man. I remember now I told y'all I'm a crybaby. I like to cry when I shoot deer. But at that moment, I was crying from anger.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I yeah. I bet.
SPEAKER_02I was so mad. I remember my daddy was so mad at me because I was. I probably could have waited because it it was it was about this time in the evening. It was not dark yet. Um, I remember the amber glow on that on that ryegrass field. So I probably could have waited and she might have come out. And maybe even another little group of deer would have come out. But I went to hollering, I was screaming for my daddy, Daddy! Daddy, come get me. Because I at that time I was I didn't want to come down from the tree by myself because we didn't have a rope or anything to let him go down.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02So uh I would I would crawl about halfway and hand him the bow down and then climb the rest of the way. He was so mad because I'm pretty sure he was on deer. Oh no. He was about to kill one himself, and here I am hollering through the woods. All cause I was mad about missing that deer.
SPEAKER_01Oh man. What a bummer. Well, I I also so one of the first deer I ever shot, I was driving a little Nissan Pathfinder. And I I remember throwing that deer up on top of that Nissan Pathfinder, strapping it down and taking it to clean it. But that but I was thinking about that because it reminded me of uh one time of seeing pictures of you. He drives a little Ford Explorer with a dead turkey on the front of that Ford Explorer.
SPEAKER_02Oh, the the amount of videos we've gotten of him pulling up to McDonald's with a turkey in the passenger seat.
SPEAKER_03And I'll I'll pat that dude and say, he's sick. I'm taking him to the van. And they go, Oh, okay. And they oh baby.
SPEAKER_01Gentlemen, the sun is going down. Yes. It is about to be sunset on this beautiful uh picture right here behind us.
SPEAKER_03Now we are about to sell boats back then. Because I do have one more story.
SPEAKER_01Okay, go ahead and tell it.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_02Just one more.
SPEAKER_03So this actually happened here in Key West. And I think that it fits with the whole outdoor thing. It does. It has to.
SPEAKER_00Must. I don't think I know which one it is.
SPEAKER_03Do you know which one it is? I just thought of it. I was like, how did I thought of a flu before? Yeah. So all right, let's hear it. Alright, so one of the first time, I think it was the first time I came down here. Uh, you know, wanted to fish. You know, I know absolutely nothing about fishing salt water, nothing. I knew nothing at the time. And, you know, could have gone to YouTube and got some advice. Nah, I'll figure it out. I'll get it out, you know. We'll figure it out. It just fish. I'm gonna catch something, you know. And so I go to the bait shop and uh I'm looking at lures and I'm like, man, they got all kinds of different things. Well, they had a fluke, white fluke, and I was like, Well, I know about that, okay. Let me try this thing out. So I bought a few different things. Well, that was the first thing that I wanted to try was that fluke, and uh not even thinking about saltwater buoyancy or anything like that, didn't ever cross my mind. And I go out to the White Street Pier, and uh, dude, there's people everywhere. Yeah, I don't think I've seen that many people out there since. I mean, it was so many people out there, and as I'm walking through there, I mean, there's fish everywhere along the side. I'm like, oh okay, here we'll go. All right, and so I cast it out. Cast, I got my fluke, you know. I'm pretty sure it was weightless, positive it was, had to be weightless. I cast it out there, and uh the dude ain't sinking, it's just sitting on top of the water, so I start kind of burning it in, trying to get it to go underwater and stuff, and uh it's not going deep enough, you know. I'm wanting to get under there and so I can fish it like a fluke, you know, like you would. Yeah, and uh and so that's one of the first things I'm noticing. I'm like, well, it ain't sinking. What the what is going on here? Okay, we're learning, we learning as we go. And uh so second, third cast, here comes Mr. Seagull. Skims atop of ah, and I'm like, that ain't good. Should have learned then, didn't cast, cast out again, and uh all of a sudden Mr. Seagull picks him up, no, carrying him off and so he carrying him like a cake. And and so I'm like, okay, let me just like kind of jerk it. Maybe I can jerk it out of his mouth real quick. Well, jerk it out of his mouth, catches him right up in the arm. He died, boom, into the water.
SPEAKER_00Oh god. No.
SPEAKER_03Like I said, there I hadn't seen that many people out there since then. This place was packed. I don't know what was going on. There's most people, I mean, there's people everywhere. People around me, you catching fish, what you doing, you know. Oh I'm reeling that joker in. He's getting closer, and by this time he's you know, he's got his, he's floating, but his wings up, you know, because I'm dragging his butt. And I'm like, oh no, how are we gonna deal with this? And so get him up there, and I grab a hold of him, and he just starts pecking, pecking my hand. And I'm thinking, man, if we was in the Shoba County and wasn't nobody around here, I know how I'd handle this, but there is people taking pictures, they're admitting.
SPEAKER_01There are tourists that are going to be absolutely traumatized if you do what you would normally do in this situation.
SPEAKER_03And I don't know the law, what's going on I don't know who it's just a lot happening at once. Sure. Like I said, I'm a shy guy, and I'm like, oh my god, what is going on?
SPEAKER_02Kids around going, Mama, look.
SPEAKER_03Yes, they're doing there was literally, and there comes a there's a crowd around, and I'm sitting here wrestling this bird. Well, then this man comes up, sweet man, come to save the day, helping me out. And he said, Let me get him. So I let him hold him. No, I'm still holding him, and he's trying to get the hook out, and he starts pecking that man. He's coming back and he's pecking me, and I'm still wrestling this bird, and I'm like, all right, man, you ain't you ain't getting it, you ain't doing it. And I said, You hold him, I'll get it out. Well, then he grabs the bird, and it's, I mean, eating him, just tearing him up. And by this time, there's about 20 more people coming up, looking around, oh, talking, and I'm like, oh, I'm never coming back here again. Well, I get it out, pull it out of him, and I said, let him go. And he takes off, and I packed up all my stuff.
SPEAKER_00They're there to return.
SPEAKER_03Well, I did return. I don't know if I went back that week, the the week we were done, but the next time I came with way more knowledge.
SPEAKER_01Sure. You had done some research.
SPEAKER_03And weights. I have not fished since then without some sort of weight on there.
SPEAKER_01I love that.
SPEAKER_03Dude.
SPEAKER_01I don't love that for the bird. I love that for the story.
SPEAKER_03I think he was I think he survived. I guess.
SPEAKER_01Okay, I reckon.
SPEAKER_03I don't really know.
SPEAKER_01That seems like a good one to end on. We'll have you back to do the to do. This was the hunting podcast. We'll have you back to do the fishing podcast. Yeah. Does that work?
SPEAKER_02Oh, I got plenty of disappointing stories about fishing. Yes, that's what we want to hear.
SPEAKER_01That's what we want to hear. All right, so listen, guys, thank you so much for watching. Thank you so much for your support. If you want to uh support us financially, you can do so. Patreon.com slash tofer brown. Every cent that you spend with us goes towards making this podcast happen. Sorry that we've been off for a couple of weeks. We've been doing all kinds of crazy stuff, including this kind of stuff. So bear with us. The summer's almost over, and we'll be back in a full swing. Gentlemen, the sun is going down, and I feel like this is a good opportunity for us to turn and walk into the sunset. How do you feel about that?
SPEAKER_02I love it.
SPEAKER_01I love it.
SPEAKER_02Thanks, guys. Adios America, you know.