Gobblers That Died, Should've Died, Shouldn't Have Died

This week on the Limbhanger Turkey Hunting Podcast, we're getting a quick hunting recap from Joey, Adam, and Parker. 

Joey shares some great stories from his trip to Oklahoma where they had 4 successful hunts in 5 days. Adam tells the tale of the gobbler that keeps getting shot, but doesn't seem to ever actually die. Lastly, Parker shares the story of filling his 4th and final Alabama tag on a turkey that maybe shouldn't have died. 

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Limb Hangar Turkey Hunt podcast, brought to you by Grounded Brand and their new impact 2.0 Turkey vest. Get grounded@groundedbrand.com. The limb Hangar Turkey Hunt Podcast strives to bring opinions and discussions from all aspects of the Turkey hunting community. From legendary Turkey hunters who hunted in military fatigues to the modern day hunters embracing technology while maintaining traditions passed along for generations.

All are welcome at this round table conversation about one of the war creatures in North America, wild Turkey. Y'all stick around. It's gonna be a great show.

All right everybody. Welcome back to the Limb Hanger Turkey Hunting podcast. We got a fun episode today. Because we got to talk about a whole lot of turkeys that died and some of them that should have died, and some of them that [00:01:00] maybe came back from the dead. We've just got a lot of things to talk about today.

We can even talk about one that did die, that shouldn't have died which is mine. And so we've got a whole lot to talk about. Man, Joey, I think you had. Probably one of the, if I had to guess, one of the best weeks at Turkey hunting that you've had maybe in your life. Tell us a little bit about that.

Yeah, it came pretty close as far as being in a couple different states within a week. The Sunday, no the Saturday, the weekend before I went to Oklahoma, I shot my second Tennessee Turkey, and then on Wednesday I went down to Oklahoma. And Thursday there were four of us killed. Two turkeys on Thursday.

Didn't kill anything on Friday. Killed one on Saturday, killed one on Sunday morning before we went home. And it was phenomenal hunting out in Oklahoma when we found the birds. We were talking about before we recorded or hit record that, Rios and Miriam's, y'all hunted. Y'all hunted Rios, that there are little [00:02:00] pockets of Rios, in Rio Country and the bird densities in Oklahoma.

Just aren't what they are in Kentucky. And we, when we found birds, like there was, we only really needed to take, one bird per property per quote, unquote pocket. So when we found a pocket of birds, we'd kill that bird. And there honestly weren't that many other birds. Didn't see a lot of Jake's Saw a handful of hens, like not many like we saw.

Most of the birds that we saw were gobbler, like lone gobbler. But it made for some really good hunting. It was phenomenal hunting once we got on 'em. Good. And maybe I missed it. Were you guys hunting public or private? For the most part it was private. I think we went over to public. That Friday afternoon just cuz I don't know, it was windy, just couldn't get nothing kicked up on private.

So there was a piece of public, like 30 minutes away and me and another guy went over there just to, put some boots on different ground and didn't see any kind of [00:03:00] sign or I don't even know if that place had any turkeys at all, but it was just a different place. But how'd you get access to private in Oklahoma?

Man, you. A friend of mine actually invited me on this trip. He has some family friends. He used to live in Oklahoma and he grew up with these people as if they were family. And they had gone out there in previous years Turkey hunting and took a hiatus from going out there because they've had kids.

You know how the, you know how it goes. So it had been a handful of years since they went out there, but they went back out this year and invited me out. And we had a big old time. The goal, the number one goal was to get my buddy's son his first Turkey. He's seven. And it was funny because the number one goal was to get him a Turkey, and he was the last one to kill a bird.

But I'll try to breeze through. Is this a bunch of old men? Grabbing guns from children? Is that what happened or no, Adam didn't go with us. [00:04:00] That's what you're asking, but no. So I'll try to breeze through these right quick so we can get on to, the other things we wanna talk about.

But, so the first morning, Thursday morning we get to this one piece. Here's some birds. Gobbling. Had to make a big loop around across the creek, Billy goat it up, a cutout bank, that kind of thing gets set up. We call in There were multiple birds in this little flock. And when they peeped up over their eyes, the kid shot at what I am, like 95% convinced it was a long beard.

He was just a big, dark red-headed bird. He wasn't really in a position to see his wing patches, but after l, after seeing this is foreshadowing, after seeing the Jake that got killed, he was definitely a long beard. But anyway, he'd missed a long beard. And his dad actually had a gun laying beside him.

Kid was sitting in the dad's lap, kid missed, dad pulled up the other gun shot, the first male Turkey head that he saw, and it ended up being a Jake. And I think I sent y'all that picture that Jake [00:05:00] flopped around in like red, nasty mud. And I think it was legitimately the ugliest Turkey I've ever seen in my life after he got done.

It looked absolutely horrible. It was rough. You send us that picture, it's turkeys are supposed to like almost shimmer, it's supposed, there's, listen, did, there's a beauty about it. And that one was, man, that looked more like a, like he caught a beaver and a beaver trap next to the pond.

It was horrible. But Yeah, his dad had to burn the tag on that. Jake. It ended up being a Jake. If you look at the picture, you probably couldn't even tell what it was. You probably couldn't tell if it was a hand. Jake Gobbler buzzard. You probably couldn't tell what that thing was. Wild pig. Yeah, it could have been.

You just drum up any kind of animal in your mind. Like it could have been that cuz it was just so nasty. But anyway the the day went on and after lunch The the kid has some health problems going on, so he didn't really feel like going out with us for a little while. So he laid back, rested up, and me and his dad actually went out to this other property, [00:06:00] got on another bird, and he did exactly what a midday Rio is supposed to do.

Struck him. He got fired up. He came on in gobbled every, seemed like every a hundred yards or so. And marched right in and he was the area we were in eastern Oklahoma and wait. Oh wait a second. Did you kill that? That one I did. Okay. I didn't kill the second one. Yeah, you didn't say who shot it.

I guess it's assumed cuz the dad shot, shot earlier that day, but yeah. But yeah, I did get to shoot that one. And this one appeared to be more Rio than Eastern. I think the area we were in could have been that, like that hybrid, threshold there. You could be an eastern, could be a Rio.

I honestly couldn't tell you what a hybrid looks like. I can pretty much tell you what a Rio looks like. Coloration, the buff tips especially on the secondary feathers. Gobble. Weird, so let me pause you real quick. Cause I haven't hunted an area that has hybrids, and I think both of you guys have.

Can you distinctly tell from [00:07:00] the gobble, because when you hear a Rio Man, that sounds like a R, an eastern sounds like an Eastern. What does a hybrid sound like? Feels like a dumb question, but I'm, I've gotta ask. Nah, I'm trying to think. And we took video of a couple of these hunts and I'd have to go back and actually listen to 'em and see if there was a difference, in the world.

I can tell you what your sounded like cuz you sent us a video. Yeah. And it sounded like a Rio. I was like, yeah, that's a for sure. Rio Yeah. Gol. Yep. And like the third one that we ended up killing, I think it was more of a mix. If I'm trying to, if I remember correctly, its gobble had a little bit more of.

Had a little bit more oomph, like an Eastern had a little bit of buff tips. I could tell it was probably 50 50 Eastern Rio. I'm pretty confident that was a hybrid, but but mine was, I think, pretty confident. Mine one's, mine was a lot more Rio than Eastern if it was a hybrid. And got, go ahead.

I was just gonna say, I can tell you in Nebraska I've hunted the Rio be more of a Rio Miriam's hybrid. So [00:08:00] when we were in Miriam's country, there was, obviously, it was Miriam's gobble, it was, not real strong, very weak kind of barnyard sounding. When we moved over to this other part of the state where it was more hybrids, we could tell a pretty big difference.

Cuz we'd been here in Miriam's and then we jump over here and all of a sudden we're like, whoa. It knock your socks off a little bit. More now it's completely different when you go from hunting Easterns to hunting Rios, because Rio's gonna be a whole lot strong or a whole lot weaker than the Eastern.

But there is a difference between Miriam's and Rios too. Like it, and it's pretty significant when you one day you hear one, and the next day you hear another, it's it's a pretty big difference. Yeah. The, all I got outta of that is Eastern's our superior to other social altars.

Zero down. Yeah. Yeah. There's no doubt about it, but I will say I, I do enjoy looking at 'em. Miriam's yeah. The white tips. Yeah. God they're pretty bird. They're gorgeous. They [00:09:00] live in gorgeous places. They're gorgeous birds. The in the, the four of us, three adults and the kid.

We didn't care either way. It wasn't that kind of thing where we were after a Rio. We were just having a good time. And the third Turkey that we got on Saturday morning got set up pretty close to some roosted, birds pitched away from us. Moved off the property walked around for another couple hours, got on another bird, lone bird.

Worked him in. It was another case. The kid was with us. He was ready. He had to, he he sat in his dad's lap. They had a little Turkey chair, a little low profile Turkey chairs. And he sat in his dad's lap. He had a tripod to hold his gun up and he had a little 20 gauge pump that he hooked to the tripod.

And so he could maneuver, a little bit. He could adjust to maybe get a shot within, a foot, couple feet or something. He couldn't swing on a bird, if he had his gun freehanded or anything. And he'd never killed a Turkey before. So no experience.[00:10:00] And in this case, bird swung around to our right and came into the setup.

We throwed a couple decoys out for him. Circled around the setup. Came into the right, got about. I don't know, 10 yards from the decoys. It was just a Jake and a laydown hen. It wasn't like we had a strut or anything that would scare anything, but I don't know. The Turkey didn't see didn't see something he liked.

He either saw us or something, but he was about to booger outta there. He started putting, and so the third guy my buddy's brother-in-law he was gonna be next up. And the the kid, kid couldn't swing on the Turkey. Turkey started putting, and brother-in-law killed him, and he, as soon as he shot, he's dude, I'm sorry.

He was apologizing to the kid and I didn't really see who shot. I was tucked away behind some bushes or whatever behind him. I was just like, did you kill him? Did somebody kill him? Because I did. I did. A lot of the calling on this trip, and I guess selfishly I just would start [00:11:00] calling, when we'd get somewhere and the brother-in-law would call some too.

He was pretty experienced. Turkey hunters, he'd call some too, but and I said throughout the trip I was like, anybody's welcome to call. Don't think I have to call all these turkeys, but I do enjoy it immensely. But immensely. So I didn't immensely. I love calling turkeys and So I was just, we'd worked this bird, for a little while, 30 or 45 minutes and I was just glad that somebody shot.

And I was really hoping somebody had killed the Turkey. I didn't really care who, but that bird ended up having like inch and inch and a half spurs. He was a beast heavy. He was that, I think he was the Rio Eastern hybrid. Didn't have quite the coloration of a Rio that mine had, but big, nice bird.

Roost a bunch of birds. Saturday night, got in real tight Sunday morning to two of 'em, and I actually, the brother-in-law filmed all the, all that hunt that morning, and I pieced together those videos and threw up on, threw 'em up on YouTube[00:12:00] for the kid to watch. His dad said later that it was, he was tickled to death.

He loved seeing that, so that was awesome. But Got about, I don't know, 175 yards across the pasture from these two birds. Got them super fired up on the roost. They were gobbling a lot anyway, but I just tree yelped to 'em. And then when I broke out my wing and I just flapped it like I flew down.

They went ballistic. If you listened to the video. They just like double, triple goblin going haywire, not scratching the leaves or whatever, and just. Do the feeding stuff, the real soft stuff that I've done all year long. I just kept that up and they couldn't see us. We had some decoys out for the kid, but they still couldn't see us from where they were at, from where they were at.

I don't know. They were just eating it all up. They pitched down and marched right over to us and got up into the decoys. It was a good show. It was a good show for the kid and he let her rip. Made a perfect shot. Nailed the Turkey. And I think we were [00:13:00] all more tickled than he was.

But he was pretty hooked. He got to listen to 'em gobble, on the roof the night before they gobbled evers from wake up till they got shot. So it was a really good time. Really good time. It seemed like it was, it was every single day you were gone. It was like and I didn't hunt much either whenever you were on this trip.

I'm just, Schedule and try to get some work done. So I wasn't hunting a lot. So I'd be like waking up to, Nope. There's another text from Joey. Have another dead Turkey. Another dead Turkey. It ain't as bad as Dave, man. Dave would be like 60 days straight of a Turkey. It's like I get tired of Dave's Instagram stories.

I ain't gonna lie about it. I sometimes, I muted him through the season for sure. Yeah, I'll pick back up. Pick back up on Dave, maybe in June. I'm about to have to mute Joey. I think it just keeps going any longer. Take a break for a couple weeks anyway. Yeah [00:14:00] Adam actually did. I actually muted all of you guys.

They couldn't take it. I can't blame him though. That's a nice transition. Adam, we talked, I think, on the last podcast with Jordan. I think we may have hit on it a little bit that you had a rough day maybe. I can't remember if we talked about the first bad day or not. Yeah, I think we talked about my first miss.

And then Luke's, debacle. So two in a row. So I decided to go, went another weekend and try it again. But for anybody who didn't listen to that episode Luke shot a Turkey and hit it and it just got away. Luke is your son. This is only his second Turkey. And also he was bragging about how he don't miss turkeys that morning before.

And yeah, we got, we have to mention that Parker. Yeah, that Parker made him miss that Turkey, but it was not, it was gone. Put, he's gone. Somebody didn't pray to Joe Boo. Like in Major League. Somebody didn't pray to Joe Boo that morning, [00:15:00] dude I got him on video and I asked him about it.

I said Parker called it out. You go miss one. He said, dad, I just miss all my turkeys. He sounded just like me. It's all defeated. And I could see it in his eyes and I was like, oh man, he inherited it. That's not good. This isn't good. You got that toxic gene in him.

You got that toxic for sure, man. Woo. So if any we'll call it now. He's gonna need a, he's gonna need a nice support system as an adult. Yes. He's gonna need good friends. Shoot, way less turkeys than him. Make him feel bigger. He can be friends with Walt. Oh, freaking Walt tore it up towards the end of the, his season.

He's just out there. Making good on. I think it was another reason to Adam, Adam muted everybody. I was like, Walt won't be killing turkeys. I can't have, I can't handle this. Say off. I've said it once. I've said it [00:16:00] once before, Adam, I'll say it again. I have never met somebody who has more exciting Turkey hunts, like for the amount of time that you get to.

To Turkey hunt. Right now with your work schedule, you're pretty much going on the weekends. Like e every weekend. It's an exciting, you have an exciting hunt. Dude, I feel very sim I feel like you're in a similar place to where I was with deer this year where it was like, why can't I not hit one of these jokers?

Like, why can't, it doesn't make any sense. I practiced. Freaking year round this is the most important thing to me. Why can't I figure it out? I hate to, to spoil the story, but tell us about this past weekend. This past weekend I just, last weekend with Luke the day before when I missed my Turkey, I'd only heard one Turkey gobble on that spot.

But, I've learned this area, like I know it, like it's my home ground at this point. You talk about having exciting hunts, I think you can have a lot better exciting hunts if you [00:17:00] know the property that you're on and how to move on birds and get in tight. And you gotta have turkeys there and so this place is home.

Some turkeys, I knew they were there. I went in blind on Sunday. I didn't get hunt. Saturday, we had a company event. Get in there, go to my normal listening spot. Boom, won gobbles and man, it's if a Turkey gobbles where they were roosted, like you have a very high percentage chance to kill the bird.

Now, I'm not gonna give too many details based on if somebody knows what my truck looks like. But you kind, you don't have 'em like boxed in necessarily, but there's, you know where they're going to go and you can poi position on 'em pretty well. So that makes all of this worse, right? So like I zoom in, I get to the exact, almost the exact tree that Luke and I were on the weekend before.

I did not call to these turkeys on the roof because obviously they are heavily pressured by me if nobody else at this point. He did hit the ground and he did what I didn't [00:18:00] expect him to do, and that was when the one direction that I didn't anticipate he would go and he had a hand with him. I did just call to him one time.

I don't know if that had anything to do with it or not. He was very responsive calling back and him and then him both, man I could just see him in the back edge of that field. I didn't call anymore. I watched him strut. And man, he was going, both of 'em are gonna come like at 20 yards. And that didn't happen.

They got behind some brush and I'm waiting. I'm sitting there waiting. He ended up popping out and I think he was probably 40, maybe 45. I didn't range it. I'd ranged it before, but he was like in my perfect zone. I talk about my shotgun, like honestly, at 40 yards I get the best pattern.

It's two dead gum tied at 20. That's why, one of the reasons I probably missed it last weekend, that and shooting a tree. But dude I'm settled in. He's feeding. I just cut at him. Yep. He pops his head up stands straight up like a statue. Boom. Shoot folds, like Turkey doesn't move. Like when a Turkey don't move, that gives you a little bit of like relief okay, [00:19:00] that Turkey is dead.

So Parker knows a lot of my woes at this particular place. I'm hunting. Eight birds have slipped through my fingers, whether I think that's my maybe four misses. And then Ford didn't shoot something stupid happened. I've had a lot of problems this place. So I'm sitting there taking this moment in under this tree.

Joey talks about jump up, go grab him. I'm like, man, thank you Jesus. This is Sunday morning. I'm about to go to church. I got it done real quick. Like it, it ain't seven o'clock yet. Like his feet are barely wet, right? This is good. And then I see the hen running off and I was like, you know what I need, hit my head like, I, I need to go grab this gobbler.

So I'm running out there trotting, and this is tall grass. It's like hip high at this point. I look and he's got his wings spread all the way out. And I'm like, man, that don't look right. Like turkeys don't usually die like that and that. So I'm looking for his head, I'm looking for his feet, and I'm just going to grab one of them.

And dude, as soon as I did, he just popped up like a bottle rocket over [00:20:00] my head and he's just spinning and flipping and I shoot from the hip. Boom. I don't hit crap at that shot. And this is embarrassing as all get out. So Joey's over laughing like TK and Michael, I hadn't heard this story, so this is fresh.

So I shoot from the hip, miss, he gets out and I'm like chasing him. At this point I get my red dot on him. I shoot, it's a bad shot. Like I don't obviously hit him in the head, but it's a very visible body shot because you can see when you body shoot it, like just, but he impacts, it's like you just knocked him off his feet.

But dude, he just keeps on running and I'm like chasing him at this point. And this is, again, comical. It's embarrassing, but I'm like, I've injured the Turkey and I want to kill him. I wanna get this done. So I'm running and trying to eject, I'm trying to put another shell in and get my bolt to close home.

My boat won't close like. I'm beating it with my fist, like I'm serious. This is TK and Mike moment. I'm about to like, just lose my mind. So I chase him as far as I can. He outruns me. I need to start running a [00:21:00] little bit more. So what I'm gonna do in off season, gonna eat less Debbie cakes and for your backcountry Turkey hunts or your cross backcountry CrossCountry, Turkey hunts, actually what that sounds like.

That's Turkey shape. There's nowhere this Turkey could have went. There's all kinds of blowdowns out there. There's grown up fields, nights very high fields, some blowdowns and it's water and he never flew. But I just zig-zagged and I went through all of that property the best I could.

Like an hour, 15 minutes, I think is what I looked at on the clock. Never did see him. And I chased him almost to the water. Me and him went on a race. Here's the deal. I know it's hard. I know it's hard on you, and I know it sucks, and you kept saying that it's embarrassing. I can't think of any other person who would do anything different.

A bird falls down, stone dead. You take your time a little bit. We all get up and run. I can imagine it was probably more like seconds and less. It was seconds. Seconds and less. It was seconds. Less of minutes. Yeah.[00:22:00] Seconds of oh, okay, yep. Catch my breath, get up, go walk to him.

I don't know of a single person that would've just said, that ain't right. I'm gonna shoot 'em right here, and shoot 'em again at point blank range. Yeah, it would've just, it would've happened that way to anybody. Now I guess, look, if I come up on another one, his wings are stretched out, I'm absolutely gonna have my gun pointed out.

Yeah, I don't know what else could have done. And he had been kicking or flopping and. I don't know. I may have tried to shoot again, but he was like, when I got up on him, he was like, not moving, just had those wings out. I'm like, what in the world? Did you get to see anything about his beard first Spurs?

Oh yeah. I've seen, I'm pretty sure this is the Turkey that Luke shot and rolled. He jumped up and run off. I got to see that Turkey for so long. Like he just has a distinct look, I'd say. Yeah I feel like he's definitely got a distinct look now. Yeah. Oh yeah. Who? Whoever kills him.

Yeah, whoever kills him. But they might have a world record for weight. All that TSS [00:23:00] hit him. Tss from a body shot. That joker's gonna be heavy, dude. I just, I hate it. I hate it for you, man. That's a, it's a sad story and but I still maintain crap. Dude, you're having some the hunting portion of it is not a, Doesn't seem some experience has been the best.

Yeah. Yeah. This is some of the best experience experiences I've had in a Turkey season and I think that's what makes it worse. You only get so many days, like last weekend I only had one day and I only had a couple hours cause I had to go to church like that's all I had the whole week. And if you only got a couple hours to work with and you walk home empty handed and this is like the one thing that you love to do every year I'm sure a lot of people can fill this.

It hurts, man. And then a freaking look at Joey's killed 20 turkeys in the last 24 hours. I'm joking, Joey. I was happy for you. Dude. I didn't kill 'em all. Just so you know, I've only killed three turkeys this year. Yeah, I know. Called in seven Edward. Hey, let me, lemme say this. Saturday night before I went to hunt [00:24:00] this Turkey, I'd ask Luke, I said, Luke, you want to go here?

You want to go there? And he said I want to go to this place. And I was like, okay, you know what? I never really go over there. And He said, is Joey going? And I was like, no, Joey's not going. He's huh, eh, I might sleep in.

I was like, dude, I'm taking you Turkey hunting. One time you shot the bird. Like I called you Turkey up, you can go. Cuz Joey's still going. Ooh. I don't even know. That's gotta get you, that's gotta hit you different as a father. No, I don't care Like it, it'd been different if it was. Somebody else who's Parker?

No, it wouldn't have been different if it was you. There's some friends that've been like, come on man, call this good. Like really? I can't call good to Joey. I can't, not on the same level. I think I've just I've gotten lucky, man. Like I've always said that finding cooperative birds has been the hardest part [00:25:00] for me.

Once I find a cooperative bird, and I think that's probably anybody, once you find the right bird, yeah, things could probably go pretty good, but. I just think that I've gotten lucky and have happened upon more cooperative birds this year than in previous years, even in Oklahoma. Lets let's talk about this real quick.

You're saying that now Gene Dunnery, we talk about old to oh, pro Turkey hunter lot. He wrote in his book, the success of a Turkey hunter relies on 1, 2, 4 factors, and this is how he breaks em down. He says, your ability to locate a wild G Turkey gobbler is 20%, is what he rates it. Your expertise in approaching the located gobbler and sitting to him.

So basically your setup is number two, and he puts about 30% on that one. Then he says, the calls that you make to the gobbler, 40%. Now he put a high price on that one. The last one. He says, the ability to consistently make the kill when the Turkey is called in range is 10%. Now, I [00:26:00] would highly disagree with Gene.

On this particular number, just based on my last two weeks of experience. Adam, your last, let's talk about your last, I mean your last few years on this particular place. It, yeah, it's like at some point you have to step back and be like, is it just the place? Is it something he Mr. Gene Nunnery also talks about this that sometimes.

In the Turkey woods. There's just, you just gotta be okay with not being able to understand everything because I even took Joey there. I said, Joey, I'm gonna film you to kill one. I hate this place. I wanna watch him die. Wait. And then he didn't kill one else and then he went somewhere else and killed one.

Later that day. Yeah, later that day. It's the place, it's first it's tough. I won't describe, what the place looks like, but I can understand how it can be tough because, I have not killed a bird this season in that type of place. So it's fun though. It's addicting. I just wanna keep going back.

Yeah, it's at some point you probably [00:27:00] do put it up on like a pedestal at some mythical place where turkeys are made of iron and they have the brains of chimpanzees or something. They grogan different color colored feathers. They're multicolored. They actually do. That's true. They actually do grow multicolored turkeys.

Oh, it's going, it's gonna happen. And it may happen this season. You may limit out in a weekend if you get two mornings in a row and you may limit it out. But it's it's part of it. If I'm putting money on who's gonna have the best hunts of the weekend, or at least a story to tell, it's pretty much gonna be if Adam's in the woods.

Adam's probably had something happen. Yeah. At the very least it's some non-resident Turkey hunter from Indiana walking around Turkey hunting without a shirt on, which was just something bizarre, you've got an exciting story for every time you go out there.

Yeah. Oh man. [00:28:00] This Turkey season has been a weird one. For me, cuz I, I don't feel like I find myself in the position that I found myself in. Not very often with Alabama turkeys. I've never once have I tagged out. I've never really even been close to tagging out because it used to be five birds and now it's four.

And in previous years, the most turkeys I ever killed in Alabama was three. And And then having a good season in Florida, I was like, you, Joey, I felt like I was finding receptive gobbler in the places that I was at. If I would sit down and focus, I was gonna have opportunity.

It felt like, those years where you really just feel like I have, I've had, I have had these seasons with deer where you feel like I just can't do, I can do no wrong. Almost like it's. They're great. Sometimes you have the seasons where you feel like, I can't do no. So they balance themselves out, but but I definitely have been having one of those type seasons where it's man, I just feel like I've made the right decisions and, but I think part of it is in the calling,[00:29:00] I think really, we talked about this a lot with Joey really talking heavy on. Soft calling and making that more of your, I still do excited Yelps.

I still do loud Yelps if things are getting dead or whatever, but I'm constantly doing this soft calling and so I think that's definitely helped a lot. I got to thinking about it here in the last handful of days, and I think, we. We've talked about it and we've heard it for years now, that calling is a small percentage of the of the process.

And then, the other part is woodsmanship or Adam was talking about with with Gene Nury and his breakdown of things. But I think, how do I put this? So the, I think with, when you get exceptionally better at your calling, I think you're set up. Can lack a little bit, if that's making sense.

Okay, let's say if you use decoys, you could have a lot more [00:30:00] poor set up than if you didn't have decoys. Does that make sense? Yep. And I think if your calling is more on the realistic side, that you have a better chance of coaxing that gobbler into a place that maybe he otherwise wouldn't want to be there.

And I think if. There are people that are at, a lot of us are average and below average collars and people kill turkeys and we've killed turkeys like that years ago when my calling was just beginning. But I think the setup, and I didn't realize it then I think my setup was just good enough to where that Turkey would come in, even with my poor calling or he was so fired up that he would come in.

Yeah, and I think when you get. When you really practice that soft stuff, that realistic stuff. Now I gotta think about this too. Like how often do you hear a hen yelping her head off? Like loud or you can hear, oh, only in response to me, yelping my [00:31:00] head off is pretty much, or first early season, first thing in the morning, early season, yeah. They'll get fired up. Or if they're a Miriam's hens just makes so much freaking racket. Yeah. So the more realistic approach, I think, And we know that turkeys make noise all the time in the woods, and they make vocalizations all the time in the woods, but it's super soft feeding content noise, and I think if you can get that down and scratch in the leaves, then you're painting more of a realistic picture for that gobbler to put in his head.

Okay, they're just hanging out up there. They're feeding. I'm more apt to come up there instead of a hen up there that's. You open to get him to gobble. Now, I may get a little bit louder when he gobbles. I talked about this before too, but I'm answering him instead of me calling to get him to answer me.

Yeah. And I think that puts a few more the dominoes fall my way in that department too, when you can get that to go on. [00:32:00] Yeah. One thing I will say about doing this is I've had more, I felt like more silent. Birds work their way into a setup or very like casually stroll by. Which makes me think, more of natural order probably is more, it might be more related to drumming.

Especially at a distance, like if a Turkey gobbles or if Turkey starts drumming a hundred yards away, I'm sure the other turkeys can hear it. I probably can't not, not if I don't know he's there, you know what I mean? And so I've been trying to listen a whole lot more to that.

And it's funny because today actually I had this experience. Unfortunately, I'd already filled my last tag. So that story Basically I had a pretty uneventful morning, all morning long. Worked my way up to a clear cut and about 400 yards off of that clear cut. I see some turkeys. One of them crosses the road and I'm like, man, I think that was a gobbler.

And I stand there for a little bit [00:33:00] and I'm in the middle of this clear cut lit up by the sun. And the worst possible spot you can be to hunt a Turkey cuz there's no trees. It's only like a year old clear cut too. So it's. Plenty clearer open to walk through whatever and no trees. And so I'm like, I don't know where, what I'm gonna do right now, but there's a bunch of turkeys.

So I look anyway I stand there five more turkeys come running outta the woods and start running towards me. And I'm like, crap, I gotta get somewhere. So I got behind a stump a cut stump and just propped my gun against that. Waited about 15 minutes. Called a little bit. Nothing, didn't hear anything gobbling.

I'm like, man, I'd like to know where these turkeys went, because I know one of them crossed the road and I'm pretty sure that was a gobbler. So I low walked my way to the edge of this ridge and looked across and I could see 'em there at about a hundred yards. I could see Turkey. I could see a Turkey.

This was like, crap they're still there. They're coming. So I backed up and found the only tree. [00:34:00] Available. So southern guys will probably know what this is, like a fresh, clear cut. There's a little bit of new growth growing up, almost like food plot level, but most everything is just dirt, blowdowns, stumps, things like that.

And so I found the only tree is this beach tree, which is not very big, but it was enough for me to lean back against. And so I leaned back. Put my 360 camera down in the ground. So I knew I had that running my other camera though. I didn't have my, I didn't have my tripod set up and so I just laid it on the ground, faced it at myself because these turkeys were like literally coming right towards me and running, and I had to get ready for them to walk out in the open.

And so I get ready and I see a. A Turkey move behind a root wad. I never saw what it was. I just saw a Turkey move. And then it comes back the other side of that root wad, where the root wad and the tree that it belongs to meat. And I see [00:35:00] this very vibrant, bright red head pop up. And I shot it and I was like, I had just said to the camera it's probably a bunch of Jake's, but I'm I just don't know.

And literally had just said that to the camera and then this whole thing transpired and I maintain it. I'm, I've maintained this throughout, if that, in that scenario I would rather, and people are gonna freaking bite my head off for this, but I would rather shoot a Jake in that scenario than watch a gobbler run away, cuz I didn't shoot him.

In these amen in these situations, it's just if you hunt hill country, if you hunt clear cuts and thickets and stuff like that, you're just going to, you're just gonna do it. And I do it cuz I'm pretty unapologetic for it. I don't wanna shoot a Jake on purpose, but at the same time, in that scenario I just don't really wanna let.

A male Turkey go if it is. In fact, a gobbler. And I knew there wa I knew there was [00:36:00] a good chance that the turkeys I saw running were a bunch of Jakes, but I also knew that there was a gobbler somewhere in there and he had went through first. And I, it was just, it was one of those things, man, I don't feel bad about it.

I'm excited. I'm super happy to be done. It allows me to get a bunch of work done before we go to Montana. And I'm not gonna be trying to multitask and Turkey hunt. But so what I was getting at, the reason I told the story was because I had been in a spot earlier in the morning, like right outside of that clear cut, and it was beautiful.

Like hardwood. It was a hardwood flat at the top of this ridge just. Money, Turkey habitat, and then I could see the clearcut edge right through the trees, maybe 150 yards off. So I was in this perfect little spot for a Turkey to mill around, hang out, and then go out on the top of that ridge and the clearcut and gobble as nutsack off.

I was just in that spot, and so I was sitting [00:37:00] there. I hadn't heard anything. No turkey's gobbling. But at one point I was like, I think I just heard one drum. Like I'm pretty sure I just heard one drum. And so I sat there a little bit longer and called real softly. Never heard it again. I let about an hour, maybe, probably an hour pass, I got up and walked into the clearcut and that had that whole experience.

As I'm walking out of the woods leaving this clearcut, and I, like I'm unapologetic about shooting at Jake, but there is a disappointment in me. I'm like, eh, I didn't get to do it the way that I really wanted to for this last one. It's okay. I'm not mad about it, but eh it just, you feel a little bit of, a little bit more remorse in that situation.

And so I'm walking through and I'm Marco Polo and I'm pulling you guys. And telling y'all the story of what all happened and explaining it to you. And as I go over the hillside and there's a little dip like freaking where I had been calling [00:38:00] earlier that morning where I thought I heard drumming and there's a gobbler standing in the middle of the trail, like just standing there.

And I've got this Jakes on my shoulder and I'm like, you earned it bro. Like you deserve it. Good job. Not got one. Cuz I'm gonna be honest with you, while I was calling this morning, you ever have those mornings where you're like, man, I sound sexy. You're like you're like, it's something in the reed is just right and you're like, man, I'm sounding good.

And he didn't gobble to it and he was obviously somewhere pretty close. But, so I ain't in my Turkey season or my Alabama Turkey season anyways today, which I've, I have never in my life been able to say un unless it's the last day of the season, it's pretty much been the end of my Turkey season every year.

So it feels really strange. Really cool. I'm I'm excited about it and like I, you struggle. With these type of stories? I do. I struggle to tell 'em, because I don't want people to think that I'm only telling the story because I'm trying to give you a reason why [00:39:00] a shot this, you know what I'm saying?

There's not ever a way like you could post pictures of it and, do that whole deal and like on Facebook ah, I don't normally shoot a Jake, but blah, blah, blah. And stop trying to justify it. So you find yourself I found myself at least in this I'm, I don't feel bad about it, but at the same time, like I'm still disappointed, but yeah, at the end of the day, the situa the story with the gobbler in the middle of the road, that's almost worth it. It's almost worth the memory. Like we talked about before we started recording the story of you killing that you know would be Jake is a lot better than if you just walked up on that gobbler in the middle of the road and shot him.

You've got a lot better story. Yeah, because I would've, right? If, yeah, that would've, I would. Anybody would've. Oh, we'd have way laid that gover in the middle of the road. He was like, it was literally your dream situation. Except for I had a Jake on my shoulder. It was like, I'm walking. It's a perfectly clear [00:40:00] spot.

He's standing there. He pauses and looks around for a minute and I'm like, on Marco Polo with you guys. Holy crap. There's a Turkey right here. Oh my gosh. It's a gobbler. Yeah. Like he gave me time to say that before it happened and aside, that's aside the fact, like I, even if that would've happened, I have another Turkey to hunt, right?

Like yeah. But it is what it is and it happened the way that it happened. Yeah. And still my best Turkey season I've ever had, so yeah. Congratulations ma'am. That's awesome. I appreciate it. I do feel bad, Adam I felt bad this week. I've been trying to like, like not talk about turkeys with you.

All of my friends have abandoned me all week long, and I'm like, I feel abandoned, but they're just trying to give me space. If I know if I was in the same situation and y'all guys were talking about freaking turkeys, I'd be like, screw you guys on. I'm out. I don't wanna talk to y'all anymore.

So like I just, I don't know, man. I hate it for you. I [00:41:00] hate it, but I really, how many weeks you got left? Three. Three or four weekends? Sounds about right. Yeah. I think I'm gonna miss the last weekend, but yeah, it's four weekends. Let me check down. Yeah, probably three.

Yeah. I'm on team Adam four. And if as a four weekends. If as a podcast we had a budget, we would print shirts that say don't do that. Don't do that. Team. I feel like Rudy, I'd be like, Rudy out there, man. At that point Rudy. When you kill these two turkeys of the next month, we're gonna make you a Rudy video to just overlap the chant.

I'm cleaning that up. Pat that up. That'd be great. Thanks guys. No man, I really do. There's a lot of Turkey hunting left to do though. I really do. Always come back to this Adam you dang have the encounters. Like you got that part down yeah. You know how to dang Turkey hunt. [00:42:00] If I wanted to go out and find turkeys on public land, I would probably take Adam.

Yeah, just for the statistics. Like the statistics. An and because I like you, Adam, but I'd make a good God. Yeah. I'd make a really good God crush that job. Oh man. Prayers for Adam. Joey. Prayers for you. You got three weeks left of Turkey season that you gotta just. Sit by and not Turkey. We'll be Turkey hunting one of them week though, in Montana.

Yes, sir. Yeah, I can't wait for that. Man. I'm, I look forward to hearing about that one. I'm excited. Do you really? Yes. I'm happy for you guys. I seriously am happy for you guys every time y'all kill. I had to tell this to to Parker last time he FaceTimed me and he killed a gobbler, and he is you're mad, or something like that.

I was like, no, man. I'm so happy for you. Look, this is just my face. This just, this is my happy face. I am smiling somewhere. Parker, [00:43:00] Jacob and I are gonna have so many broke toes coming outta Montana from Adam's bad juju wished upon us. We ain't gonna be a walk back home. Oh, man. It's all fun, man. I gotta tell you guys hanging out with y'all this season, the group of guys that we got around us has been it's been a lot of fun and Yeah, I've enjoyed doing the podcast.

Like it's, I'm really excited about Limb Hanger. I think it's a great podcast and it's it's always fun. It's, you got a good thing when I genuinely look forward to it. Yeah. Talking about Turkeys with you guys has been a blast this year. And it ain't over, and it ain't over Far from over.

It ain't done. It feels like it's over.

It's a couple a happened. Black my eyes. We gotta thank y'all. Parker. You've been Turkey hunting for two months. Yeah. Yeah. Since you went to Florida. Yeah. Almost two months. You didn't go for that open, south Florida weekend. But [00:44:00] by the time Turkey season ends, it feels like it's been a long time.

In some years, there's some years where it just flies by. But I think just all of us hanging out, y'all hunt in Florida and then, Tennessee and Alabama, everywhere else in between Texas. Texas, Oklahoma. Yeah. Yeah. And then we're going out to Montana in a couple weeks and stretching out.

There's a lot of Turkey hunting going on in the three months that it's open. And when we get back from Montana, going up to y'alls head. Yeah. Yeah. It's gonna be crazy. It's exciting. Turkey got left to do. I can't imagine how much greener it's gonna be. It's freaking green. It's green right now.

It is green. Like I'm telling y'all. Y'all need to find some hardwoods like hunting the Amazon. That's what I'm 26 and it fits already waist high. I'm telling you. Oh yeah. I wouldn't mess with no field birds. I'm, you ain't gonna see 'em. No, they're gonna come through there. It's [00:45:00] going, if you had an aerial view, it would look like that scene in Jurassic Park where the Velociraptors are just coming through the grass and you see the trails or whatever.

That's what it's gonna look like. Yeah. You need find you some woods. You're gonna have more fun. Anyway, late season is upon us, fellas. It's here. Yep. And we got a lot of stuff still to talk about. Yeah. It's not Turkey. Still gobbling. Yes, sir. Boys, anybody got anything to add? I ain't thinking nothing.

Prayers for Adam. It's been fun. Awesome. Prayers for me. I'd appreciate all the prayers. Prayers. I'm gonna take a trip to Baton Rouge. I think. Go see me, a voodoo lady and those two boys are gonna have some broken toes before it's over with. There's a voodoo doll down there with a little pen in Adam somewhere.

A little Adam doll. Yes. Yeah, you're just trying to find, you're trying to find the pin that, or the doll that somebody made for you. Apparently. Not. Not for other people. Go there. Ask her to shake that curse. All right guys. We'll talk to y'all later. See boy. See [00:46:00] you. Hey, thanks for listening to the Limb Hanger Turkey Hunting podcast.

Hope you tune in next week for another great conversation about our favorite bird of woods. That's the Wild Turkey. We'll talk to you guys next week.

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