"Scouting for Turkeys 2026: Expert Techniques & Tactics"

Join Alex Rutledge and Red Bone for an in-depth guide to scouting turkeys for the 2026 season. Learn expert techniques from traditional listening methods to modern trail camera strategies using Wise Eye data cams. This episode covers everything from understanding turkey behavior patterns and strut zones to building your own scouting algorithm. Plus, get tips on landowner relations, hunting ethics, and a bonus meatloaf recipe. Featuring updates from the NWTF Convention and local sports coverage.

Chapter Markers with Timestamps:

• 0:00
  • Introduction & NWTF Convention Recap
• 4:36
  • Local High School Sports Update
• 11:08
  • Traditional Scouting Methods
• 15:45
  • Understanding Turkey Behavior & Movement Patterns
• 26:15
  • Using Wise Eye Trail Cameras for Scouting
• 40:25
  • Landowner Relations & Hunting Ethics
• 43:58
  • Bonus: Red Bone's Smoked Meatloaf Recipe

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Transcript

 

Introduction & NWTF Convention Recap

Introduction & NWTF Update

I encourage everybody to go out and spend as much time in the woods as you can or in the field. Sure. Because you learn so much more. But yes, they're going to change. Their patterns are gonna change tremendously from, you know, it could be because of predation, it could be because of. Uh, logging happening in that area or, or something could cause those turkeys to move.

Right. But if you're like me, you can't wait for they hear that thunder gobble. Yeah. And get up every morning. Listen,

camel boots on my feet, bowing my hand walking in the early dawn to climb up. Been my stand, Alex. I know it's about food plot planting time. What are you gonna plant this year? Okay. In the spring I like to plant different things and also in the fall, but my go-to all the time is the eagle seed smorgasborg because as a variety of blends, you know, when I was a kid and even as an adult, I loved to go to a smorgasborg.

I bet it's the same for deer. It is. They, they have a variety to choose from. Instead, eating one thing all the time. They got a variety. Just like you walking into a restaurant, get smorgasbord today and you'll hold more deer and Turkey. How can I go about getting that smorgasbord to go to a dealer near you or go to ww dot eagle seed.com.

Yeye Technologies presents. Welcome to American Roots Outdoors. It is a beautiful, sunny day. Here in the Ozarks, I'm at my lodge, my cabin calling into the studio, and red bones on the boards red bone. The turkeys are starting to gobble. I'm getting reports from people saying, oh, I heard summit. Well, what they're doing, they're doing dominance gobbling right now.

Establishing that pecking order. And what we're gonna do this week's show, we're gonna talk about scouting techniques. How to put plans together for the upcoming seasons. And as we all know, across the country, you used seasons before the regular seasons, right? We wanna see everybody be successful. And we're recording here on Thursday, right?

And Red bone, you, you, uh, during the break we talked about me being sick and I had to leave Nashville on a Saturday Red bone. I caught something. It was a virus. And no joke, I woke up at 4:15 AM in the morning on Saturday morning. I could not breathe. Mm. And yeah, and I went to the doctor. Ms. Bev didn't my, my doctor, and they treated me for a virus.

But I laid in bed when I got home Saturday around three 30 and until Tuesday I only got up to use the bathroom, but to eat a little something. Wow. But it was terrible. Terrible. See, what I'm thinking is you'll probably ate too much of that Nashville hot chicken. Well, I ate some good food down there. I can't, I can't lie about that, but, so that was good food.

Yeah. And, and also I'd like to, you know, kind get a little bit of a review today if you would, on the NW tf since we haven't had a show. Uh, how well was it attended? I think Red Bone and, and you know, Lester Tennis was very good, but this year I think it blew out of the water. No kidding. Uh, it took Harold Mon.

I talked to Harold Mon, the owner of Yeye last night. They're on their way up to North to do a big show up there. And he said, oh, it was so bad to go 150 yards to the bathroom. It took 45 minutes. There was so many people there. Well, that is unreal. Yeah. I think it keeps overwhelming. Yeah. It, and it just keeps growing and growing and growing.

It does. And you know, uh, we got a new, uh, national champion, hunter Wallace with, uh, he's with a company out of Tennessee. And, uh, those guys rolling Thunder game calls. Hmm. The one J Len ended up third. Okay. And I'm very proud of those guys, but, uh, we'll talk about that in the other statements to show Sure.

A little more. But I want to move on to local, uh, sports. Okay. Right now, right now, baseball season's starting off across the country and a lot of high schools. Uh, we got, uh, high school basketball, the girls and the boys. Uh, Liberty. Uh, boys are 22 and two now. Red Bone. Yeah. And they are the, uh, outright SCA champion.

So congratulations to the Liberty Eagles and again, we're recording on Thursday and Liberty and Thayer played tonight. Uh, so people will hear this on Saturday. We'll already know how the game came out, but I expect to be a good ball game and the Liberty and Thayer girls play tonight as well. And the Thayer girls with a win will be the outright.

Girls champion and will be undefeated in SCA play for the second straight 

Local High School Sports Update

Local High School Sports

year. That'll be awesome. You know, whether win or lose, you know, K Country 95 is our mother's station and these are all our friends. And, uh, you know, I'm from Birch Tree Mountain View area. You're from Fairy. We're, we're both rivalries, but we still love one another.

And may the best teams win. Well, exactly. And you know, some people get really upset. It's just a high school basketball game. When it gets right down to it, uh, it doesn't, doesn't mean a whole lot in the realm of what's going on in the world and what goes on with your life. So people should just chill. You know, you wanna be rivals, be rivals, but at the end of the day, shake hands and say, great game.

Hope y'all do well in the districts. I mean, that's the way it goes. Yeah. I wanna give a shout out to number three from Salem, Missouri, the Salem Tigers. His last name's Thompson. He's a senior this year. He's their point guard. They give Liberty one heck of a game. I'm telling you, they led Liberty. Most of the game, red Bone, they was hitting threes.

I bet their percentage rate was. Mind blowing. Yeah, I know there's over 70% pointers. Well, well, Alex, what'd I tell you? When the season started, do not sleep on Salem. Those boys had been at it for a while and, uh, they finished second in the SCA race this year. They beat Thayer earlier this week. Uh, I don't beat us by six or eight, whatever the final was.

I don't remember exactly. Uh, but yeah, they, they will be a force in their district tournament when it gets started next week. Well, I know this, they probably had the best defense I think we faced all year, in my opinion. Wow. They, they, they come back on us with it. They actually caught us and passed us. Hmm.

And we come back and pass them again. Yeah. They, their defense was very impressive. Yep. And, uh, well, they got a good coach up there and the kids are buying into the program and that's what it takes. Yeah, congratulations to the Salem Tigers and, uh, other high schools in our area are really good. You know, Willow Springs.

That's a tough team to beat right there. Red Bull. We only beat him by one point at the buzzer. Yeah. That took a miracle shot all at war again when we play 'em again. Yeah, well if you do, I mean, you gotta say if Yeah, because uh, it would be in the district finals if it happens. And, uh, Thayer's in that same district.

Well, you talk about the loaded district, that class three up at Kabul. You've got Liberty. Yeah. You've got Willow Springs, you've got Thayer, and you've got licking all in that district. And, um. I say, you know, any, of course Liberty is the odds on favorite to win it, but uh, there are four teams that are capable of winning that district.

I would agree with you. It could go anyway. Uh, hopefully none of our guys get hurt or any of the other schools players get hurt and, uh, we'll see some great games. Exactly. Uh, you know, today when I'm done recording the show, I'll leave here and go to Springfield, catch an airplane to fly to New York to work a show New York City.

Who you gonna be there? Yeah. New York City. Yeah. Who you gonna be working with up there? I'll be working with 12 point hunting blinds. It's the Empire, uh, stage P ground outdoor shows where I'm going. Red Bull. Okay, boy. And those 12 point hunting blinds, those boys, they're getting out there. They are. They are really making a name for themselves, aren't they?

Yeah. Wise, I wanna mention Wise, I, you know, I'll mention 12 point again. Wise, I had a record show as well at the NWTF. Mm-hmm. And 12 Point was at the Harrisburg, the Great Outdoorsman Sports Show in Harrisburg for 11 days. And they had a record year of selling, uh, blinds there as well. So all the companies I'm representing.

We're having an unbelievable year. Yeah. Well that's great. And, uh, you know, people are, people are, you know, looking to get back in the woods and get back to nature and those kind of things. And, um, the outdoor industry, I think overall as a whole is in pretty good shape right now. Now there are, you know, some parts are better than others, and one of the parts, Alex, I know we got a break here in a, in a minute or so, but the one part that we gotta get back to going in the positive direction is the numbers of hunters.

Which continues to decline. There are more people that are giving up or getting outta hunting than there are that are coming in new, and we've gotta reverse that. Well, I, I tell you what, from being at the NWTF, you couldn't tell me that I seen more young people and young kids there that I hadn't seen in years.

It was impressive. Hopefully we're on a rebound here and it's coming back. Yep. Guys, we're gonna go do a break. We're gonna talk to you about how to scout for turkeys, scouting for turkeys, and using techniques and hunting techniques to close the wheel for the upcoming seasons. Don't go away. We'll be back with more right after this.

Hey everybody. This is Cody Huff, mass Master Elite Series Pro. You're listening to American Roots Outdoors with Alex Rutledge and friends.

I've been on Big Back Bone. Yazi has just gotten better with these new cameras that they come out with. How could it get better? Well, they got the new mini and they've got the new DC two. They have the DC two. Yeah, DC two. You can actually go live anytime you want and film your own hunts with the Yazi data cam.

Now wait a minute. You mean? I could be getting ready to shoot a deer and I could go on my phone and activate my camera and boom, film your own hu. Well, that's amazing. That's amazing. Okay, Alex, you convinced me. How do I get one of these cameras? Go to a dealer near you or go to wise eye tech.com. Order yours take to a crown of a big 12 point hunting blinds presents.

Welcome back to American Roots Outdoors, scouting for turkeys, using techniques and tactics to prepare yourselves for the upcoming seasons. We're gonna talk about different ways to scout, and most of us know in the old ways before trail cameras and this new technologies. The way that most of us scouted was actually get our vehicles and go to areas where we knew Turkey was at in the evenings, and listen for turkeys to gobble.

Right now the gobblers are in the pecking order. The gobbler are in groups, and they're starting to gobble right now across the Midwest. And parts of the southern states is already way ahead, like Florida, uh, Southern Georgia, Southern Alabama, the Gobbler's already gathering their heads. But right here in the Midwest, 

Traditional Scouting Methods

Scouting Basics - Traditional Methods

some of the Gobblers just starting.

And what they do is they establish that Peck order. Who's gonna be the dominant guy who's gonna do most of the breeding, who's gonna have most of the hens? Once you understand these things, and if you, the old timers, like we said, they go out and listen. And what I would do is go to a map and I would mark all these spots where I was hearing these turkeys, and I would write a date by it at a time.

So what I created is my own algorithm. Mm-hmm. Since Red Bone to figure out where these searches was at. So after scouting for a period of five days in a row in these areas. It gives you a, a, a direct plant of what you need to do to get on these turkeys. Yeah. You kind of get those turkeys patterned. We used call it patterning the turkeys.

Exactly. And, and the more that you can scout an area and you can go now to onyx or topographical maps and learn where all the fields are at food plots, water sources, fences, et cetera. It's crucial to know where these barriers are, like a fence or a bluff. Or some thick cover. Once you learn all these areas, you know the areas to set up in and not to set up in red bone.

Yeah, exactly. And and also you wanna make sure you know where those water sources, those creeks and, and small rivers and things are, because those are gonna gonna create your boundaries. Yeah. And that's just indicators of where they're gonna frequent off, you know? Yeah. Uh, especially if it's a dry spring.

You know, turkeys love to be around water, you know, so. Uh, after the gobblers start gathering their heads, their, their pattern changes. Red bone. You know, you'll hear people say, man, I've got turkeys all over me this winter. And all of a sudden spring comes, the turkeys are gone. Right. What they do is they break up.

Mm-hmm. And they go, the heads break up and they separate some hits stay together, but they try to find their nesting grounds where they feel safe. Have their clutch. Yeah. They're gonna find their nesting rounds. And you know, I remember one time we had Ray I on the show, Alex, and we were actually at the NWTF and we were talking about this very subject and, uh, we're recording Ray down there and uh, Ray said something I will never forget.

Uh, like you do all the time, uh, when I'm learning about Turkey hunting. But he said where you, where you saw your turkeys in the fall while you were deer hunting is not where you will find those turkeys in the spring. And primarily because it was food source. Food source, food source. The food source changes from the fall to the springtime.

So you've gotta be able to adapt for that. Exactly. You know, Ray O, one of the greatest Turkey hunters I've ever met in my life, he is so knowledgeable. He could become a biologist and not even go to college. He knows turkeys. Yeah. But anyway, I have the utmost respect for him. But again, knowing where all these things are, I just wanna reiterate that knowing where all these obstacles are, we call 'em obstacles or point of focus, and some could be obstacles, but Right.

We'll help you be a better Turkey hunter and help you understand where you need to be. So by going out and listening to all these Turkey marking these spots. Sometimes I would stay in the woods throughout the day and, and find out their travel routes where they're going. Mm-hmm. And when you do that, they, they go to what we call strut zones.

If you're a Turkey hunter, you know what they are for the beginning, Turkey hunter. This is areas that they feel safe in. And, and then these spots can be an open ridge, a flat spot where he can see the churches can see a long ways, or it could be an open field or a food plot. Right. And what, what happens is it's a meeting site.

They, they becomes, uh, arrhythmic in a sense that the gobbles that go there to meet the hens, right now, this gobbler breakup, uh, the hens and gobbles aren't roosting too far from each other and hearing distance of course. But as the spring near it gets closer and closer, the weather warms up, the testosterone levels get higher.

The goin gets more intense, but once they gather the, his, the goin activity slows down. Because they don't have to gobble if the he or with them Sure as much. So a Turkey that gobbles has got hands with him, he still wants more hen. So scouting is crucial. It's probably as important as learning to call.

Yeah, I would. I would agree with that because, well, you know, you're only as good as the ground you're hunting on, and if you're hunting somewhere where you haven't done some scouting and actually heard some turkeys or seen turkeys, you're really just kinda wasting your time. Exactly. You know, we move 

Understanding Turkey Behavior & Movement Patterns

Understanding Turkey Behavior & Patterns

on here to segment three.

After this, we're gonna talk about other ways to scout in different ways, but I'm gonna share one thing with you. One of the greatest things I've ever, ever found about scouting is listening to farmers, listening to the school bus driver, listening to the mailman. Absolutely. Listen to your neighbors talk.

Uh, you know, there's a lot of Turkey owners here in the Midwest, in southern Missouri, Northern Arkansas, Southern Illinois. Northern, all the western parts of Kentucky. A true Turkey hunter doesn't share much information. Red Bull. Yeah. You don't wanna tell where his turkeys are at, right? You. But, uh, the key thing right now, I can't reiterate it enough, is knowing where your turkeys are at, what they're doing, and that will help you become a more successful Turkey hunter.

You know? And it's not just about killing the Turkey, it's about the experience and. Being out there in God's creation and hear the morning come alive with, uh, Whipple wheels and the owls and the morning birds, the blue birds, right? It's, it's just a wonderful spirit. I cannot wait, wait to take people. My focus more is now taking people than it's ever been.

I have come to realize, the older I get, the more important my faith is. My family and friends are. I love taking people Turkey in it. Yeah, I think anybody that's really good at the, at that craft, and the same goes for deer hunting and fishing or whatever, I, if you get really good at it, then you know, the challenge kinda lessens.

So the challenge is to get that other person in, in the right position to kill a Turkey or kill a deer or catch a big bass. I mean, that's, that's where, that's where the challenge is. Once you've kind of, and I hate to use the term mastered, but once you've mastered that craft. Then the challenge is not as much, it doesn't get your, it doesn't get your juices to flow in like it does when you do that for somebody else.

Yeah. When you do it for, you know, after you've done it a while, like I said, it, it, you kind of lose, I guess, the passion for killing. You know, I'm 61 now and I'm not mad at 'em. That's an old saying, boy, when you're mad at him, you won't try to kill every Turkey that you in every state legally. Of course.

That you can, and you know, I'm just not mad at him. Right. You know, I went to Mexico last year and hunted the ghouls and a very good friend Richard Kraft invited me and took care of me and always take his grandson. And, uh, he's my buddy scout and, uh, he's coming out with me again this spring. It's more about trying to get the kids involved so our future of the sport of hunting can stay strong.

And the last few years I've been taking a lot of senior citizens. Yep. And that means so much to me. Absolutely. I'm, yeah. It does. Alright, we need to take a break here. Uh, we'll continue more American Roots Outdoors Radio with Alex Rutledge and his friends in just a minute. Hey y'all, it's Tyler Far and you're hanging with me and my good buddy Alex Rutledge on American Roots Outdoors.

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so you never worry. Eagle Seed presents. Welcome back to American Roots Outdoors, segment three of our show. We're talking about scouting for turkeys, using techniques, techniques, and tactics to close the deal. Alright, so share. Go ahead. Yeah, before you, before you go that I wanna, I wanna ask a question because I think this is a fair question.

Uh, here we are, you know, Turkey season is in April, we're in mid-February. Do we, do people wanna go do that now and start patting, patterning those birds now? Or is there a likelihood that by April those turkeys are gonna have moved and be in a different pattern? So you need to wait till closer to Turkey season.

Well, you know, I encourage everybody to go out and spend as much time in the woods as you can or in the field. Sure. Because it, you learn so much more. But yes, they're going to change, their patterns are gonna change tremendously from, you know, it could be because of predation, it could be because of, uh, logging happening in that area, or, or something could cause those turkeys to move.

Right. But if you're like me. You can't wait for they hear that thundering. Gobble. Yeah. And you just want to get up every morning and listen to 'em and see what they're doing and go watch 'em. You know, I go out and listen to 'em and, and watch 'em gather their, their hands. And throughout the whole spring, I usually March 1st is when I really get really active and I start walking a lot to get in shape and get conditioned.

And, uh, scouting can do that for you. Yeah. Well get on your feet and walking. And, and and being came out and everything, and not calling to your turkeys, just glassing and watching them. Good optics is a virtue to have with you reached out for turkeys. You could find your target gober that you want to take, you know?

So yeah, yeah, March 1st. Start listening, taking notes. But I wanna say eagle seed food plots is one of the best magnets that you can have for helping pattern turkeys by creating these food plots. The, these turkeys, the hens love to come to eat the clovers that's in this, these food pot mixes. Mm-hmm. So clover is the key for wild turkeys in the spring, and deer as well.

A lot of protein for the bucks that's developed, the antlers and the those that's gonna be fawning, uh, encourage you to have good food plots in your, in your budget. Food plants is a great way to help you Stout. Red Bull. Yeah, I would agree. And you know something else, Alex, by getting out there now and listening and watching and, you know, being stealth, I mean, you wanna be in your camo and everything so they don't see you, is learning to call because you're gonna be listening to those birds talking to each other.

And then when you go home you can try and mimic and learn to mimic those, uh, those sounds they were making. That's just gonna make you a better Turkey hunter all the way around. Yeah. The more, again I wanna reiterate, I say that word often is that the more that you can be in the outdoors and listen and learn the rhythms and their vocalizations, the better you will be.

Call it. Remember, you don't have to be a champion caller to call a wild Turkey in right. Uh, key thing is getting close to the turkeys without spooking them and calling soft and easy and talking to the turkeys. Just not calling. But it's kinda like, I always say this, humans talking to one another. If you are a monotone and you don't call with the experience of talk with influence or emotion, you can become boring.

And that the same thing can be with turkeys. Yeah. So learn to call with emotion and we'll talk about that throughout the few next weeks. To make people, help people become more proficient and successful and learn how to talk to churches as well. Alright, so Alex, you talked earlier about, uh, you know, getting a map and, and you know, pinpointing on the map where your things are, writing down what you're seeing in the woods to kind of create your own algorithm.

And there is another, well, well, lemme put it this way. Uh, and would you suggest that once you find where those birds are. Then you go in with your wise eye cameras and set those up to help you watch those birds. Exactly. You took the words right outta my mouth. Red bone. That's where I was going. Now, once you know the strut zones and areas, that's going to be frequenting.

That's where the wise eye data cams come in. These yeye data camps here, we talk about 'em all the time because I believe in them. I've used them for six plus years. They're the greatest tool for any hunter. That wants to be more successful by using the wise eye cameras. It will collect data and create an algorithm for you.

You can get right on your app, on your phone and tell you the best time to be there to shoot that gobbler. Yeah. And folks. And it takes the guesswork out out of hunting. Yeah, exactly. And the thing is, for the weekend Warrior Red Bone, we talked about that in previous shows, he don't have a lot of time.

Right. He, he wants to get his gobbler or his gob two gobbler. And, and, you know, be done, then maybe take other people. Mm-hmm. But the more wise eye cameras you can run in an area, the more, uh, evidence you collect to close the deal on these turkeys. Yeah. And folks, if you don't understand, or, or you haven't heard us talk about these wise eye cameras before, I mean, they, they're gonna give you.

What the wind was, what time the bird appeared, uh, if it's the same bird that's coming back day after day, I mean there, there are so many things it's gonna tell you and you can say, you know what? I need to be in food plot number two on Tuesday at 8:00 AM because that's when these birds show up. I mean, it gives you that much information.

Yeah. And, and, and the thing is, you know, with these cameras, and we all know that turkeys are tough to call when they got a lot of hands with 'em. If you know again where they're going and they're frequenting and they're spending a lot of time, you can go there and call very sparingly, soft and easy you to be accepted by the ends.

If you go going too aggressive before they get to this location, you're lo to push 'em away 'cause the hens don't like competition. Yeah, well, exactly. And Alex, I would think too, with, by using the wise eyes and studying them and studying and studying, you're gonna figure out how those birds are getting from where they roost to that particular spot.

So you could actually set up and do an ambush hunt, am I correct? Correct. From the travel routes, from a roosting sites to their 

Using Wise Eye Trail Cameras for Scouting

Using Wise Eye Trail Cameras

strut zones or watering location feeding locations. I wanna share some tips with people while you're scouting. Uh, I think this is crucial. You understand this, and I learned this from an old timer, a good friend of mine.

We was fall Turkey hunting one time and it was super cold and we was having trouble finding the turkeys. And this old timer, he said, Alex, as cold as it is, he said, it's a Sunday morning. It is like 20 some degrees. He goes, I bet these turkeys are on the, the east and south hillside. Because that's where most of the H heat is being reflected to.

Mm. Sent to. So we went to walk in those hills and we run it and found the turkeys. So if it's a spring morning, it's a cold morning. These turkeys cold morning, they want to go to somewhere where they can get warm. It makes 'em feel good. Yeah. So keep that in mind. If you're hunting a cool morning, going forward to up spring.

Alright. Alright, we need to take another break here. Uh, folks, we'll continue, uh, more of American Roots Outdoors Radio with Alex Rutledge and friends, right up to this. Hey everybody, this is Michael Watting with Bone Collector and you're listening to my buddy Alex Rutledge on American Roots Outdoors. Man.

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The ammunition presents. Welcome back to American Roots Outdoors, segment four of our show, scouting for Turkeys tactics and techniques to close the deal for the upcoming seasons. What better way to be more successful knowing where your turkeys are going to be? That's what we're trying to do here, is help you become a better Turkey hunter.

Not assuming, not guessing, knowing where the turkeys are at. We talked about the old way of county. Walking glassy, finding the turkeys, hearing them using topo maps, marking all these spots. Then we moved on to the new technology wise eye data cams, which does that work for you? So the more cameras you run, the more successful you're going to be at collecting.

The evidence you need to close the deal. Red bone. Yeah, I would agree. I also would like to say right here, before we get to the end of the program, 'cause I know, we'll, we'll talk about it again, but, uh, folks, if, if you're hearing this right now and you're thinking, oh man, I bet I missed a good show, a lot of tips from one of the best Turkey hunters on the planet and Alex Rutledge.

Go to our website, the American Roots Outdoors website and you can listen. To the podcast, which will include all four segments of the radio show. I just wanna throw that out there, and we're gonna have a bonus segment on there as well that you won't hear on the radio. But, uh, and, and that way every week with the show is if you, you know, tune in late or you just happen to hear part of it and go, man, I wish I would've heard the rest of that.

It's always available on the American Roots Outdoors website. Just go there and, uh, click on podcast and you can pick which one you wanna listen to. Just wanted to throw that out, Alex, before we get to the end of the program. Because I think if, if, if people miss the first, that is why you're my director.

Well, if people miss the first couple straight, if people miss the first couple of segments, they really did miss some really good information from you. Thank you very much. I just wanna see everybody be successful, especially the, the, the senior citizens and kids. You know, kids is the future, and I can't say it enough, uh, to keep our sports strong.

We gotta keep passing on this great tradition heritage that we have. Because it's in our roots, man, to become Turkey owners, deer owners, fishermen, outdoors, men and women. But moving on here to scout, just driving around the vehicle. Yep. And if you have access to a lot of the properties that you're driving around on, you can glass from a distance with great optics, a lot of great optics out there.

And that's another way that I collect data to create an algorithm to close the deal. And when I Turkey hunt, I say this all the time. The same with deer hunting. I want to plan A, B, C, and DI want, uh, if plan A fails, I go to plan B. Sure fails, go to plan C. So have different plans. Don't just have one plan.

Think about it 

Advanced Scouting Tips & Weather Considerations

the night before your hunt. Alright, I'm gonna hit this spot, that spot, my wise eye's saying they're strutting here. So that's where I'm going first. Uh, if that don't work, my wise eyes and where I've seen turkeys, I'm going over here. It's gonna make you more successful. Don't stick to one area.

If you've got access to other areas, go to other areas in within that property. If you have a small area and you've already scouted, you know, turkeys are coming there, you've seen them, or you've used the wise eyes, don't go in there calling loud and aggressive. Right. You could push turkeys completely onto other people's properties.

Yeah. So Alex, just keep that in mind. Yeah. And, and to bring up something else here, and you talk about driving around and listening and doing things like that. Should you get property owners permission first or do you wait till, Hey, I've heard turkeys on that farm, I need to go talk to the guy that owns that and then try and get permission?

I mean, which, which is the appropriate order to do that? I think it's best to communicate with the farmers that you may have access to year round. Okay. Uh, if you only contact them right before Turkey season, that kind leaves a, a bad taste in some of their mouths and stay Sure. Look, it's the only time he talks to me when he wants to Turkey hunt, you know?

Right. So, become friends with these people. Uh, some land leasing is going on, some is not. Some people don't do that. But going out and trading work with a farmer. Uh, helping him buy him Christmas gifts, Thanksgiving, turkeys, whatever, showing respect, picking up trash, doing things as a good steward should, when you up people's properties will help you obtain properties and keep properties.

It's all about relationships and respect. Yep. For the resource. Well, the re observation, yeah. Observation is crucial. As we all know. Yeah, absolutely. And, and of course the respect for that farmer. And, and, and by that, don't leave your candy wrappers, you know, in the woods and don't leave, uh, you know, close gates when gates are supposed to be closed.

And if he doesn't want you to climb the fence, don't climb the fence. Walk down to a gate and go through it. I mean, just, you know, show respect for that landowner. Yeah. One of the things my dad always hated born, he'd whip us going for it. If you're gonna cross a fence. You cross in a post or go open big gate.

Yeah. Do not cross in the middle of a fence, you stretch the wire. You, you cause a low spot and it runs the fence. Yeah. And we'll just weaken, weaken that fence. And, and you know, and now almost everybody uses barbed wire. And, and Alex, if I'm hunting somewhere, it's got barbed wire and I, you know, I'm gonna cross the fence.

I just crawl under. Yeah, I just get a little back and crawl under. You can take the water and pull it up a little bit and wrap it into the other wire when you can crawl under and that doesn't hurt it. Right. But if you go to stretch and leaning down all that stuff, it weakens things. Yeah. So, but yeah, respect the farmers and landowners properties and there the Turkey across the fence.

You don't have permission. Don't go over there. No. We've all been there and done that. Some, most of the people that do cross fences don't own property themselves. They don't understand and uh, I don't want to get on the ran about that, but Right. We need to respect each other. Yeah, exactly. Remember, crucial that we put the kids first During this new season, we have so many people going out before season, filling turkeys before the kids.

Need to ask yourself, what kind of person am I that would do that before a kid could kill a Turkey? Hey, I grew up doing some honest stuff. I look back at it, I'm not proud of. I won't ever do it again. And I encourage people, it's all about the kids, man. Save the turkeys for the kids, that we can hunt 'em during the regular season.

Red bones. Yeah, exactly. And you know, earlier Alex, you talked about, uh, the older folks, you know, taking senior citizens and things like that. Uh, I think middle-aged people that have never started Turkey hunting, I mean, are a prime target to get out in the woods. You know, maybe they're fishermen and you know, you're talking one day and they say, yeah, I like to squirrel hunt and I go to a little rabbit hunting every once in a while.

But nah, I don't Turkey hunt. I've never been Turkey hunting. Well, you might ask them why not, and you might just kind of. 

Technology & Algorithm Building

Pop an idea in their head that, well, maybe I ought to do that. And then they will get out and go, because we do need more numbers of hunters out there in the woods. You know, some people they don't understand that.

I remember as a kid growing up, I where flight back to hunt with my brother, uh, he would say, you don't tell nobody when we're hunting, you don't tell nobody. I, you, you don't come back here unless I tell you you can come back here. Right. And there's a lot of truth to that red bone. Oh, sure. Yeah. You got, you know, we're all about getting more hunters, but we're also about respecting each other's places that we hunt.

Exactly. Exactly. You know, I know guys that's gotten fist fights on Mark Clay, national Forest, or National Park Service or MDC properties because they get over there and they hunt at the same place every, every year. It's kinda like claiming their territory, but as respect, if I know somebody that hunts in that area, I don't go there.

Sure. It's a ritual. It's kind of a respect thing. So I'm all about teaching people, getting people into hunting, but I do respect other people's hunting places. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And Alex, it's, it's time for us to wrap it up for today. Well, I wanna say thank you to everybody that's listening and congratulations to Hunter Wallace.

From rolling under game calls from being the National Champion this year, calling Champion, and I wanna thank all of our partners that supports us and all of our listeners, and we'll close with this. This world needs more love, not hate. I watched the news, I want to go on Fox and I never been so much prouder of the world of peace, meaning that I watched Red Bone is pulling countries together.

Yep. And world peace is what we need and we need world peace right here in America. Uh, we may not agree or believe in the same things, but we all serve the same God. We need to love one another. We need to teach our boys to become men. We need to teach our girls to become ladies. We need to get back to what America once was and remember.

When your roots run deep and strong, there is no reason to fear the wind, so you never gotta worry what the wind might do. American Roots, thank you for joining us for today's American Roots Outdoors Radio with Alex Ru. You can find us on Facebook. Look us up on the worldwide web@americanrootsoutdoor.com.

We'll be back again next week on this great radio station.

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Simply put the best Hordy ammunition and now arms presents. Find hordy ammunition at a retailer to you. Come. Come reach doors again com. We talking about scouting for Turkeys, techniques and tactics to close the deal. This is a bonus segment. This is where we talk about recipes and I know Red Bone, you're always chomping at the beach.

Yeah. At at at recipes. You love to cook and I want you to share something. We can only share so many recipes. And not be repetitive. Try not to be repetitive, but what have you got in store for us this year? Well, you know, I, and I've talked about this before, but I did it yesterday because I've got me a, I got me a new piece of equipment, Alex, and I've been using the fire out of it.

But, uh, miss Dina, my wife was wanting a meatloaf. Now I've done meatloaf on my grill and I've done meatloaf in my wood smoker and things like that. But I have recently. Uh, become the, uh, uh, well, not the owner, but this thing is at my house. It is an electric pellet smoker. It's a pit. It's a pit boss. And, uh, I started using it 'cause I've always been kind of, eh, I don't know.

I like doing things the old way. Alright. But I've been trying this pellet smoker out and I've kind of fallen in love with it because I can set the temperature and get the temperature right where I want it. And if I need to increase that temperature during the cook or need to decrease it during the cook, I can do that easily.

And it's got 

Landowner Relations & Hunting Ethics

Landowner Relations & Ethics

a probe that I can put in whatever I'm smoking to make sure I get the internal temperature where it needs to be. And just all of these things, it really is. Um. You know, technologically it's, I, I can see why people are falling in love with these things, but I hadn't done a, a meatloaf in it yet, so I decided to do a meatloaf in the smoker.

Now, I'm just gonna tell you what I did. I took a pound of deer meat, ground deer meat, and a pound of regular hamburger. I combined them. Now, once I combine these, I sprinkle rendezvous seasoning, like from the rendezvous down at Memphis. Into the meat. And then I put my two eggs and my crackers and my ketchup and my mustard, and I put that all together.

It all mixed up good and tight. And I, and I probably need this stuff more than I should because I want it to stay together. When I slice that meatloaf, I want it to stay together like a big old slice of meatloaf and uh mm-hmm. And then I create a loaf and I put that in my iron skillet. I got one of those tall iron skillets.

It's about six inches deep. I put that in the iron skillet and then I sprinkle more rendezvous on top. I put that in the smoker. I sat it at 300 degrees and I cooked it for two hours. And then of course I put my, my, uh, topping on, you know, some ketchup and some stuff and put that on, let that get warm, and every once in a while, go and put the lid on.

Because what you wanna do is you wanna get the lid. On there because that puts a crust on top of that meatloaf. Mm-hmm. So you got a crusty bottom because it's catching that heat from the bottom. And then I just leave the lid in the smoker. So when I put it on the pot, it's good and hot, and then it creates a cuss, a crust on top of that meatloaf.

And I gotta tell you, I did that last night and it was perhaps the best meatloaf that I have ever eaten in my life. I do a lot of meat. I do meatloaf, some, I do meatloaf. At least I'm getting hungry. Well, here's the thing. I brought some to the station today and was gonna give you a piece if you would've come in for the broadcast, but I know you gotta, you gotta get the Springfield and catch a plane so you weren't able to come in, but, uh, it's sitting back there in the fridge waiting on you, brother.

Oh my gosh. And you know, well next week I'll plan on being in there. Alright. Okay. And one of the things that I do too, that sounds delicious. Well, and one of the things I do, Alec, is I put a lot of green peppers and a lot of onion. Yes. Some people don't put too much. I put a whole green pepper and a whole big, uh, lia onion in this two pounds of meatloaf.

You cannot take a bite of this meatloaf. What's that? Take all of our recipes that we've collaborated and put 'em on the website. Yeah, it'd take a long time, but, uh, yeah, it would be, it would be nice. But I, but I like, I like to take, when I take a bite of meatloaf, I want meat, I want green pepper, and I want onion all in that one bite.

And I try to create a meatloaf that you cannot take a bite without getting green pepper and onion in every bite. What a recipe. Red bone, even though it wasn't Turkey. What a recipe. Yeah. Well, you know, I, I've never made Turkey meatloaf, so I don't know about that. I bet you could do it. You could take a, you know, your, your, your grinder, your food grinder, whatever.

Yeah. And grind it up and make a Turkey meatloaf. I bet it would be delicious. I bet it would be. You know, that's something you could do with the, you know, the meat, you know, everybody likes the breast, but, you know, we've talked about before, pick all that meat off that Turkey and make Turkey salad. I bet you could grind it up and make a.

Bonus: Red Bone's Smoked Meatloaf Recipe

Bonus: Red Bone's Smoked Meatloaf Recipe

You know, like a Turkey meatloaf. Absolutely. Yeah. We Maybe we'll do that this year, huh? Yeah. We might try lots of Ella onions in it and green peppers, like you said. Mm-hmm. And vous seasonings. Yeah. With Turkey for an extra flavor. You might wanna put a jalapeno in there too. Oh yes. Gotta have that. You know, I was thinking something else that's pretty good that my sister used to make a lot was Turkey and noodles.

Turkey and noodles. Now. My wife loves doing noodles. She does chicken and noodles, right? Chicken rice soup. Now Turkey rice soup would be another good one. That would be good. Sounds good. I'm getting hungry. I think I'm gonna go to lunch. Yeah, we gotta wrap this thing up. What a great show. Again, red Bone.

Thank you for everything you do, and we hope that these counting tips that we shared with you today. Helps Turkey Hunter become more successful. Remember, it's not always about the kill, the harvest. It's about making those memories, sharing the experiences, especially with senior citizens and our younger generation, to keep our great sports strong.

The world needs more love, not hate, world of peace. Meeting today sure made me feel good about the direction the world's going. We may not agree upon that. We really do serve the same God. We need to love one another. Share the great outdoors. Teach your boys to become men, your girls To become ladies, we need to get back to the old America.

When your roots run deep and strong, there's no reason to fear the wind.

Sun ain't up, they ain't down. We'll be waiting when they hit the ground. Big time coming. It's what we do from a whipper wheel to a no lau who sitting still till it's time to shoot. American rules. Take it to a holler, take it to a field across the creek of a big year after year.

Am my on down, in the ground around your heart. So you never got a word. What the.

Granddaddy always said, when your roots so deep and strong, there's no reason to fear the wind American roots will rise again. Yeah. God. Family and friends and living the truth. American roots.

Yeah, God. Family, friends, and living the truth. American roots.

American roots.