Show Notes
Welcome back to the Limbhanger Turkey Hunting Podcast. This week we're doing a little bit of turkey gear talk, discussing the pros and cons of being a minimalist in your turkey hunting approach, and specifically talking about some of the good and bad gear we saw at NWTF 2023 over the weekend.
It's time to blow the dust off your vest... or fanny pack... and get things in order! We're talking everything from calls, vests, red dots, shotguns... everything. Season's almost here. Get ready!
Show Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Limb Hanger Turkey Hunting podcast, where you're gonna hear opinions and discussions from all aspects of the Turkey hunting community. From legendary Turkey hunters who hunted in military boutiques to modern day Turkey hunters embracing technology while maintaining the traditions passed along for generations.
All are welcome at this round table conversation about one of the war creatures in the woods. That's the North American Wild Turkey.
And welcome back to the Limb Hanger Turkey Hunting podcast. We've got a full house tonight. Matt Reeves, Joey Bell, Adam Cruz, and myself, Parker McDonald. We're gonna host you through this thing. We just got back from NWTF this weekend by a show of hands, who is at N wtf? I, the listener [00:01:00] cannot see that Adam, me and Matt were all there.
Joey was not able to attend this year for the first time. And how long has it been Joey? It's been a long time. So since I started going to Nashville pretty regularly, Adam, I don't really remember what year that was, but they continuously had it in Nashville. But I think I think I've been to everyone that I could go to since I could drive, with the exception of a couple years, the handful of years that I lived up in North Virginia in Baltimore.
So from 2012 to 2015, I didn't get to go, but I've been every other year that I could remember. It's crazy. Was it rough? Struggling. It was really rough. Especially, I've met so so many people, over the last handful of years, with a onset of social media and YouTube and how we're all so easily connected.
Now. I used to go and not know a single person, [00:02:00] like not know anybody. I might have known one or two guys from back home that went and now I could have easily seen a couple dozen people probably that I knew up there. And yeah, it hurt her not being able to go. But I will for sure go next year, man.
It was a good time. It was actually my first one to actually go to most of the time N W T F falls on my daughter's birthday. And so anytime really around my daughter's birthday, I'm probably not going to anything. I pretty well, I pretty well use all those brownie points. During season and I would rather use 'em during the season when I'm actually hunting than going to shows and stuff like that.
But this year, for whatever reason, it fell not on my daughter's birthday or Valentine's Day, which is freaking great. Cause I was able to go and hang out and I got to man the tethered, not the tethered booth. I got to hang out at the tethered booth some, but I got to man the new canoe booth. And man, there's a lot of cool stuff.
So [00:03:00] today what we're gonna do is we're gonna talk gear, we're gonna talk about the gear that we saw at the Nwtf Show. But before we get into that, really, I think like, why not address the piece of gear That was the talk of the two, 2023 N WTF show, and that's the Mr. Fox vest. Now only rich people could get the Mr.
Fox. , we're really desperate, stupid people. Maybe . No, it was a, an expensive vest, but for a good reason. I think it's pretty cool. And Adam, you were able to pick one up. First impressions, dude what'd you think about the vest? Actually, tell us what you had to do to get the vest and then and then tell us what you thought about it.
So I had no clue going in, like what the demand would be like. I thought it would be pretty crazy kind of thought. You'd have to be like first in line to N W T F to get one. Based on like that first day of Thursday of opening the door, everyone heard.[00:04:00] There was a line that started, I think seven or 8:00 PM on Wednesday night.
So everybody's like there's a ton of people spending the night. There was 200 given tickets given away throughout the night. I think they gave away the last ticket right at opening around seven o'clock. I heard that piece of news, talked to one of my buddies and he said, Hey man, I'm going if you wanna go and hang out.
And I thought, Hey, why not? Like I already owned the Bob Dixon vest. I got three boys. I'm sure as Mossy Oak progresses over the next couple of decades, they'll probably have another signature limited vest. So if I've got three boys, I've already got one. The Mr. Fox would be number two. So I got there 10 30 hung out with Taylor Johnson.
Some of you guys know him on Instagram. Outdoor volunteer. Awesome guy. Great. Turkey hunter. And we set up and we talked till about two o'clock in the morning about every Turkey hunting story that we possibly could come up with. And finally, we were both like I think that's about it. So we retired and tried sleeping on the floor.
Ended up getting one of those [00:05:00] tickets. Man, just so fortunate to be able to get one. I really believe it's like a piece of history. Mr. Fox has done so much for the industry, for through conservation all of those different things. And honestly too the vest is built like a tank. It's very similar layout to the Bob Dixon.
There's not much different in the way the layout is concerned or even the weight. But it is what I believe is like a nicer vest. It's just as far as. Looks, it's got a lot of leather going on. It's very comfortable. I actually think it's a more comfortable vest for some reason. The way that it fits me, it comes down in a tighter fit around my shoulders and not, it doesn't feel like it sags as much.
So overall I'm happy with it. The Bob Dixon's been my number one go-to vest throughout the years since I've had it. And I think this will replace that and I'm gonna absolutely use it. Wear it out. It is a sharp vest. Yeah. I freaking love the thing. Now you talk about the leather work that's on it.
I don't have a Turkey vest. I don't [00:06:00] believe that has leather. Does the Bob Dixon have the, any leather on it? Not at all. I didn't think so. No. But it looks like, just to me, especially the leather on that strap seems like it's gonna be a really comfortable fit. Like not only it's a collector's item, right?
. Yeah. Like collector's items. A lot of times they're not gonna have bells and it's not gonna be bells and whistles. You know what I mean? , it's you're getting it for the fact that it's a collector's item, but this one's actually gonna be used. Are you planning on using it? I, 100%. If it's not my go-to vest, then I'll still use it.
And like I've told you, like I want my buddies to hunt out of it. This is not a vest that's gonna set in my attic. It's not gonna set in my closet, it's not gonna be in the box. It's gonna get dirty. It's gonna get bloody. And the day that I handed over to my kids or my grandkids, we're gonna sit down and we're gonna talk about every Turkey.
I can remember being killed out of it, honestly. And I thought about it, I was like, maybe I should just keep that thing in the closet in case they wanna sell it when they're 60 years old. But what if my [00:07:00] house burns down and I lose that vest, right? Like it just sat there for nothing. Let's go make memories out of it.
So that's what I'm gonna do. Dang it. It's a nice vest. I saw that. One of 'em went for 31, 30 1000 bucks at the auction, which is insane. Wow. Number five vest. Now what number did you get? I think I'm like 3 36, 3 39, something like that. Wow. That's cool. That's a cool piece of history.
Pretty cool, Matt. I can tell you're trying to talk, but I think you're muted.
You're still muted. Something ain't working.
Ain't got you at all. I think you got me now. Yeah, I got you now. All right. Just start over. I'm, let's give like a 20 seconds of silence [00:08:00] and you go into what you were gonna say, Matt. Okay.
Yeah, I saw there was one on eBay. I think they listed it for three grand. Just crazy stuff. I know there was a lot of hype on it. And to see the vest I don't think I heard about the vest until a week before N W T F. I didn't know that there was, it was really coming out. They kept it pretty secret for a while.
But it's just, it's amazing that is that hype and got so much publi pub publicity for Mossy Oak too with what they've done. And it was a neat to see. But they also had a lot of other stuff to offer Moss Oaks, k kind of turning around the whole industry and bringing old school back is one of the things that I saw.
And I think we're all pretty excited about that.[00:09:00] Just to bring it back. I have some old masio Greenleaf I think my dad had from like the early nineties that I was, I think I w I started out Turkey hunting in it, and it's just cool that, hey that's cool.
Now, that's the thing I can wear at vintage stuff, man. I've still been wearing this. I got this hat that my grandpa gave me. I think he gave it to me when I was about seven years old. And listen, you guys gotta understand I've moved a lot in my life have lost a lot of my stuff from moving houses and moving states and blah, blah, blah.
But somehow that greenleaf hat, it says West Point Barbecue, so it's legit like, it's like from the nineties and it's got that rope on the front, big old lid on it on the top. And I killed a lot of turkeys in that stinking hat. I love it. I freaking love the, I love the vintage stuff. It's awesome. Is that the one with the orange riding on it?
Yeah. That's the one. Yeah. Yeah. And it's got like the frayed bill on it. You [00:10:00] know how we used to wear it in the nineties? I'm, yeah. I scratch it on the concrete. I don't know if I did that or if it happened over time. I'm pretty sure I did that. Cause I used to do it to all my hats. I just scratch it on the pavement and get that bill nice and tore up.
skater, boy. Oh man. You know it. I can't believe it used to be cool. Maybe it wasn't, maybe I thought it was cool and it actually was not cool. And that's, there's probably better chances of that. But you're right, dude, I saw all the throwback stuff. I bought a lot of it. I think it's really cool.
I think one thing that I really like, That is, they're not just, it doesn't seem like what Mossy Oak is doing. Like they've brought back the TK and Mike or not brought it back. They've started this TK and mike line of apparel, which is pretty cool. They've got the Mr. Fox vest, that's cool. They got mossy Oak companion stuff.
But specifically with the mr. Fox vest and the calls and stuff like, it really to me stuck out as like pay [00:11:00] and tribute to the guys who started, right? Like you've got a new wave of hunters, you got a new wave of CEOs within the hunting, in hunting industry and new people are taking over these companies.
It's just a new wave, right? And I think it's important to pay that respect back to the ones who really started it. Cause you think about. And cause Strickland Knight and Haile and those guys, like they really started this content creation trend that we are doing even right now through a podcast.
They were the front runners in that, which is pretty cool. I think it's really neat to pay that respect and also welcome the new the newer stuff. And boy, I will tell you what, there was some off the wall new stuff at N W T F this year. . All right, so moving in, Matt, I know you went in with, all right, I got this much money need a lot of stuff.
I walked around with you, Matt, for [00:12:00] a good little bit. Yeah. And you, I didn't spend all my money. You didn't even spend it all. What were you looking for? What? What'd you notice? Things that you saw, things you liked. . Yeah, so I, I was pretty set on vest boots and stuff like that. I was really going in to find, good face masks, some gloves, grab a couple mouth calls, one of the couple knee strikers.
Just little things. I have my core of what I like. But I saw some cool stuff as far as if you weren't being a mobile Turkey hunter, a couple ground blinds that stood out. That mini, I don't even know what that one's called. Adam, you may be able to help me on that.
Mini ground blind. , but it's like a, it looks like a full size ground blind, but many we thought they were all midges A little displaced. Yeah. We thought they were displaced, but No, they were like the real thing. You know those little tiny tents they put up like at Yes.
That's Walmart stuff. In the candies. , yeah. We thought it was the model. Yeah, the model. That's what I was thinking. Oh, they just, no it was the real thing. Saw that [00:13:00] Adam, you really like that though, right? You have one man. I have one and I'm sitting here trying to rack my brain and figure out what the heck that the name of it is.
I can't even remember the manufacturer, but it literally, it doesn't come off the ground, what, three and a half feet? Yeah, it's small. Yeah. There were a lot of, there were a lot of call companies too. Lots of call companies. I noticed that. And that's fine. Yeah. Did you, did Now you, I was with you.
You bought a call. Tell us about the one that you did buy. Yeah, so I bought two calls. I bought foot on the head, and then I bought Rolling Thunder. So I, I like both of them which I've been using Foot on the head for a few years now. I really like their stuff, but I like this rolling Thunder call too.
I wanted to get a call with some color and some flash on it, so I bought their pink call and it lived up to the hop, so I thought that was pretty. That's awesome, man. And when I used to go all the time, I used to get my shells there. And especially in the last handful of [00:14:00] years when shells are hard to come by.
N W T F had a pile of shells and they had 'em for cheaper than you would find them in the store. So I know last year I don't know how many boxes of shells I bought for that very reason. I don't, I'm not even gonna buy any more shells this year. And I would just buy a couple mouth calls here or there.
And that would really be the only thing I would buy ever at N W T F, unless there were some things there that I couldn't, pick up in a store or like I couldn't shop for later and get my hands on. Like for instance, the one thing I wished that I had been there for was that tethered fest.
That's what caught my eye more so than the Fox Fest shoot. Yeah. Because it was just lightweight. It just, I don't know, just something about it lightweight American made. It was simple. So it just, I don't know, that piqued my interest. That's what I missed the most. Dude, it looks sharp. It is sharp, like it's very well thought out, which tethered is pretty well thought out with most of the stuff that they make.
But I know they, they [00:15:00] worked with the hunting public to make that thing right, which to me, there's no surprise that it turned out the way it did because, I've noticed like the THP guys, a lot of 'em will run that running gun vest the night and hill running gun. I think it's got some issues with it.
Still a great minimalist vest, but really working on that I felt like the things that were really home runs this year and it seemed like they were home runs to everybody, was that minimalist feel. The tethered vest obviously being super minimalist, but even looking at the grounded vest in the grand scheme of vest.
That's the lightest vest that I own, and I've got four of them. You know what I mean? So it's still a pretty dang light vest. What what modifications did they make, or what kind of upgrades did he make to that vest on the, you guys able to talk about that? Did you find out? Yeah, so they, they did the straps.
So like the shoulder straps. There was [00:16:00] a, I don't even know what it called. It was a buckle. Yeah, it was like a buckle. A buckle with cinch strap. With the cinch, exactly. That's right. And it had the little clips on it. It has the little clips, yeah. Now it's like a cam strap. Would that be what you would call it, Matt?
Yeah. It folds over. You run the strap through it and it folds over and keeps it in place. More, more pressurized because what they're running into is that vest would start slipping over time. And you'd have uneven vest. And so they went in there and really redesigned that. And I'm wanting to grab that 2.0.
Got the 1.0 right now. And they also updated the the seat the clips that, not the seat itself, I don't think, but the clips on the seat, they were further in the center of your back, I believe. Is that right Matt? They were further in the center, hard to reach. They connected on the 1.0.
It was at the bottom where it was just two straps and it went straight to the bottom. This is actually up more on your sides to where you can fold the [00:17:00] vest down a little easier than there. And what they also did is that they did some reinforced stitching on the back to where, when if you put a Turkey in the Turkey tote in the back, , those straps aren't gonna give out on you.
So everything else as far as the compartments and everything stayed the same. Which, I didn't have any complaints for that. No, man. My biggest thing was the straps and the seat. And they nipped those in the bud right there. Yeah. I've been, didn't have any complaints. I didn't have any complaints with the seat on mine.
I was while y'all were talking about that, I was trying to think of exactly what y'all were talking about. Because I never even noticed anything like that. I guess I was so enthralled that there was a giant magnet on the back of it that I didn't have to throw out my back to try to clip back up anymore that I didn't think about.
The little clips underneath there. I think you said that magnet was like 30, 30 pounds of pressure or something like that. I believe it. It's a great magnet and I don't even use my, the clips on mine, I don't guess, because I'm like you Joey. When Matt told me, he was like, yeah, they updated the.[00:18:00]
the straps on the back of the seat or whatever. I was like, so what was wrong with them? I don't remember anything being wrong. The clips that hooked to the, like the bottom of the vest to the seat? Is that what you're talking about? Yeah. It's not. So on the 1.0, they were, they had straps coming out of the bottom of the vest that went into the bottom of the seat right there.
. So they just move those up onto the sides of the seat. But you can still just run the magnet to where it's not directly attached. Okay. It's a great vest. The layout of it. Oh, the other thing too that they did is they got it in Greenleaf. So it's been what obsession and bottom land is that Right?
Bottom land New bottom land. Yeah. New bottom land. Yeah. And now they've got it in the green leaf. , which looks freaking good. Looks so good. I picked up, I got my masking gloves from them. . I was really, I looked at the maseo mask at first cuz they've got that little rubber piece that goes on your nose that really intrigued [00:19:00] me.
I had one of 'em lost it somewhere, but I gotta look in the ground and they're, they have a wire, it's like a four inch wire that you can mold to your nose and I tried on and that stick so much better to my face and that, rubber, sometimes if I sweat that rubber will, fall down. But if you have a frame, that was awesome.
And then the gloves, I mean they were great. Good type in my hand. You got some rubber feel to 'em. That's like those what were those like three quarter. Mask or whatever back in the day. Yeah. The oval shape things. Yeah. , I think I still got one of them. And I have it, my vest for a backup and a pair of gloves just for if I leave my mask or if somebody else leaves their mask.
I still got that thing. I bet that thing's 15 years old now. Yeah. Probably smells real good too. I bet It smells amazing. Yeah. Put it on the memories. Come back real quick. , I've got the or I had the North Mountain gear gloves, , and I had to use those to wipe my son's butt when we went deer [00:20:00] hunting.
So I've gotta buy some new gloves this year. And I haven't done that yet. I do have, I cleaned out my office and I found a $50 Amazon gift card that's probably gonna go towards a a new set of gloves. Great. Matt, you mentioned the wire, the, like the wire frame. On a face mask.
. So I've got one of those. Have you tried one on which one? The one that Joey's talking about or the like, that has a wire that ha, that has a wire frame. Yeah. So I've got one and I was like, oh, this is so practical and so cool. And then I watched my a video while I was wearing it and it looked like a goober is like
It's like the wires like bent all the way. It looks like I got like a witch nose or something. God. God. But yeah I didn't buy too much stuff. Oh, I bought a Al Hooter just, I probably won't use it, but I just wanted Al Hooter. It's called the Hootie. It's called the Hootie. Who? Just [00:21:00] some no Noname guy.
We walked by. I wasn't allowed to hear about those until I was 18. And yeah, just some note, he said he won a, some grand national calling or something and my dad bought one and I was like, that sounded pretty good. And we walked around. Walked around cuz I usually do it with my mouth in the woods just so you know.
One less thing to carry. But I bought one. Just say I had one felt like a crow call. I don't carry crow call. I don't carry one either. And I should, I always try to mimic one and I never do it. That suck at it. Crow call I can do an hoo pretty good but crow call is, I can't do a crow call. Yeah, they may.
Crow call's been nothing but a paperweight to me. Over the years I've never had success with. Really had it one time. Yep. Man, I have had the same crow call for 20 plus years, and that thing will fire a gobbler up, I swear to you. Let me hold it a minute then. . It's, I never had one where it's one of those old mad calls [00:22:00] and it's the cherry.
I remember. It's like a cherry wood God, man. It will fire an afternoon gobbler up, I promise. , I've never, I have never struck a gobbler from a crow call. What the Never in my life. Same. Nope. I've, everywhere I've hunted, it seems like I've been covered up in crows. And I don't know if that's a reason or not.
That's probably not the reason. But yeah, I had one of those, I don't even know what brand it was, but I carried one for a while. Use it every now and then. Never could strike a Turkey with it. Everybody, anybody that was ever with me that had one, couldn't strike a Turkey with it. So maybe it's just me. , maybe I'm the common denominator.
All that . Joey, are you a minimalist? Like when it comes to things you take into the Turkey woods. But not really on purpose or, I don't count all the things and cut my toothbrush in half, when I backpack and things like that. But I don't know. I don't carry a whole lot of stuff.
Had a couple mouth calls. Most and half of those are backups. A pot call, [00:23:00] maybe two. I do have a tube call and that's it. An WL hooter. I do have an Al Hooter, so I am the same. Like I don't carry a lot in this year. I'm trying to go a little more minimalist. I know Adam. The opposite. Like he wants to carry pretty much everything into the woods.
And I'm just I'm, I have been, I will say that I have been in the past like, man, you just never know. You never know when that golfer's gonna want this or that or whatever. But I've been really trying to just slim it down as to what I'm taking because I'm taking camera gear. And that does take up space, right?
And and even at that I try to be pretty lightweight with camera gear. But moving into that, obviously that tethered vest is perfect for that minimalist kind of guy. Tethered. Tethered, really? No. Knocked it outta the park for that. I don't know if it'll work for, with what I'm doing with camera equipment.
But for the minimalist dude trying [00:24:00] to, , go out there with one or two calls and a gun. Like I, I really think that we're gonna start seeing that be a trend is guys start, they've already done it in the deer woods. Just really prioritizing what do I need to go then what do I want?
You know what I mean? And just balancing those things out. We gotta think too, we've talked about it before, just the rise in popularity of public land and you got all these guys just like myself that hunted private for however many years, and then when you take all that junk that you would carry on private and two, two or three miles back on a piece of public, you're gonna realize you either A, don't need all that stuff, or B, if you do want all that stuff, you're gonna have to lighten some of those up and just be a little bit more efficient.
So it's no surprise that, just judging from what you guys have saying that it's the year of the [00:25:00] mobile hunter with 2020, with everybody getting into the woods and they've had 21 and 22 to figure out what's working and what they want to work for them. Then I think the market's right for a, for mobile hunter equipment or mobile Turkey hunter equipment I think I am an advocate for taking the kitchen sink.
I just wanna start right there. I think, mobile hunting, I think like minimalist. I think that is all the rage. But every single Turkey season, I start out with everything in my vest and by the third, fourth hunt I'm like, you know what? I'm not taking all that stuff. So I parrot back and I go to my night in hell running gun vest, and I've just got one slate call.
I got my diaphragms and maybe my crow call. And then when I'm out there I'm like the wind's howling and I'm a box call or, they're not answering this particular cowboy. Sure. I wish I had 'em a push button. Oh, how? Man, I wish I had old Yeller right now. There's all kinds of these things.
And then so what? Like by the next hunt, I'm back to my Bob Dixon and I got everything . [00:26:00] So I think maybe talking about a minimalist hunter. What are we carrying in our vest? For me, I've got I got at least one, maybe two potholes. I got a box call. I got diaphragms, I got a Al Hooter, I got a crow call.
I put a range jacket back there. I got water. I have extra gloves, I have extra face mask. I have shells, I have binoculars. I have a range finder. I was gonna ask if you take a rangefinder. I do not take a rangefinder. Never done. I in Turkey woods. Yeah. You hunt field bergs. You better take a rangefinder. You gonna be shooting it past where you need to be shooting because you think, I don't even take binoculars.
Oh, I'll never go, I'll never go the woods without binoculars again. And I've got range finding binoculars now. So that knocked out the rangefinder hanging off the side of my chest egg. But I love having binoculars. I don't go hiking without binoculars. Now. I'd go without a rangefinder before I go without binoculars, without a say, especially Turkey hunt.
Like you absolutely need binocular. [00:27:00] If you think about it getting up there and you think you see it a gobbler, roosted, you don't know, like at that dust. , you did binoculars. There's so many options. So you just pull up the rifle. Yeah. Look through this coat, man. Come on. I don't know what you're hunting with
I don't wanna veris too far off of nwtf, but when I think about picking up myar and looking at something, , my hands would've got hit by my father telling me to quit moving and moving my hands, trying to look at a Turkey, just sit there and be still. I'd have gotten in trouble for that. So that's probably why I don't wear binoculars, or take 'em.
Let me, I don't ever use 'em when I'm like sitting on a Turkey, like when I'm sitting in a spot. I don't, I'm just like, have 'em at my ready. I take 'em for sure when I go out west. Cuz you just gotta have 'em. I would take 'em probably if I were hunting places with lots of fields, but I don't even put 'em in.
I keep 'em in my truck, but I don't even put 'em in my vest. when I'm hunting the big woods and it's just [00:28:00] not really a thing. Me and Joey talked about the other day, like 90, close to 90% of our turkeys come out of fields. , where we hunt, we need binoculars. Yeah, absolutely. Especially if you go out west when you can see two miles off of a ridge somewhere.
That's, they're a must out there. This is, so this is not necessarily N W T F related. I guess you could relate it back to there, but I know Vortex had a booth there and there's some other optics. What kind of optics are you guys using? I've got the the fur. Are they the Furies? I got the Furies, the range fine of binoculars because I'm gonna have two different sets of binoculars for deer hunting or Turkey and Turkey hunting.
And I bought those primarily for when I go out west. Like before I went mule deer hunting back in 21. I bought those. And man, those things are nice. So I just carry those. I got Vortex Viper, 10 by 40 [00:29:00] twos and that I did the same thing as Joey. I went on a yield deer hunt, and I bought them for that. And then I got the Vortex ranger for the rangefinder.
Nothing special. So y'all are gonna laugh at me. For my Turkey. So for my deer stuff, I have a pair of vortex something or another. I can't remember what they are, but they're nice. But for turkeys, I'm just, I don't want to carry around a chest rig while I'm walking miles. I ain't trying to do that.
So I've got these little bitty, they're like tiny Ozark trail, Walmart binoculars. And I'll be honest with you, you can't see far, you can't see much, but you can tell what you're looking at. And that's all I really want is just to know what I'm looking at. If it's a Turkey, I wanna know it's a Turkey, so I just keep 'em.
And they're, they freaking pack up small enough. Like the size of a wallet, I just throw 'em in my vest and it's not a big deal, I've gone back and forth though going out west just because, like I do more walking and [00:30:00] more hiking when you Turkey hunt out there than I do here at home.
And it's a little bit rougher terrain than it is here at home. And man, like not carrying those big, heavy binoculars. I would like to have a set of like really small. , nice binoculars. You know what I mean? Same. I would too. But there, there are places I would go hunt. Like when we go to Florida, I will not have my rangefinder and I will not have binoculars because I know we're not hunting fields.
I may regret not having it, but that's just one last thing I do need to have to carry in. That'll be my version of minimalist and that, Parker. But you and I probably hunt more hardwoods than we do fields. Yeah, absolutely. So that, that shows why we, probably don't carry our binoculars with us, but really a rangefinder too.
But if I was a field warrior, I'd have both of 'em, because, sometimes those birds are so far away from you, and you just won't look at 'em. Yeah. So moving back into the Nwtf show and the gear and in this same conversation about minimalism, [00:31:00] I've been really looking for a diaphragm.
I know it sounds dumb because diaphragms are not heavy. mouth calls aren't heavy, they don't take up space. You keep 'em in a little wallet and you're good to go. But honestly, I just want to get rid of everything that I don't need because I do have camera gear and batteries. I need all the space, whatever.
So I'm just walking around, and it's a little bit overwhelming. If you're going to look for a mouth call at the N w TF show then good luck. You know what I mean? You're just gonna have to kind of luck into one really. And that's what happened to me. I was just walking around, looking around in a corner that I hadn't been to before.
It was like an outside corner of the other building. I believe. I believe it was in the same building that Tethered was in. I could be wrong, but I think it was in that building. But it was a company called Cluck, K L U K. And you guys know that I've been freaking singing their praises for the last two days because I've always felt especially with a mouth call.
I can do certain things with certain calls, [00:32:00] like I've got a ninja hammer that I use and that's usually it for what I have been doing, it's a kind of an InBetween, soft, but raspy. But you can really, when you really just lean into it, you can get some good rasp out of it.
I've used a hooks hooks, custom calls, I think is the company. I've used their ghost cut for some of that more whiny stuff and whipping and doing all that kind of stuff. But I'm always going back and forth. I feel like I'm changing too much to get a certain call, a certain sound, and This dude, I just stopped at the desk and talked to him for a minute.
He had a cool logo, is honestly why I even stopped. The branding looked great, so I was like, eh, cool. That's kind of stuff sticks out to me and he sold it to me, man. When you looked at their calls, they had several that were just off the wall, bizarre looking like alien looking designs in the reeds.
And I told him, I was like, Hey, do you guys have a ghost cut? I'm k looking for a another ghost cut to see if I can get something with a little bit more low end l [00:33:00] more that low end punch than the hooks was. It was like very high. And he said, yeah, check this one out. And it honestly, it looks like bat.
like the cut out of it looks like Batman, like the old Batman logo. . No kidding. Yeah. And I've got a couple of their calls. They have some wicked looking cuts. They do, they love their calls. And this is called the Crying Karen. And it is first off, again, great branding. Good job, guys. But I feel like with the, I can almost make every sound that I wanna make with it.
And when you're talking about minimalist and streamlining your process and the things that you take in with you, like having that one go-to call like this for me is a pretty big deal because I've never really felt like I've been able to find one. And I've been, I'll be honest I was the kid that when I was like six years old, when I got $5 for pulling weeds in the yard.
I didn't even Turkey hunt, but I knew that they had Turkey calls in the sporting good section, so I go and buy it, right? Like I've always [00:34:00] had mouth calls and learn how to u them, use them. A long time ago. So it's not like I just started doing it. I've seriously never been able to find one that was completely comfortable to me like this one.
So I'm gonna keep singing their praises. I freaking love this thing. It's called the Crying Karen from Cluck Custom Calls. Freaking love it. I've got I got two of their calls. The, I think one is the smoke and hen and the other one is the kill Switch. Y'all know how I feel about Turkey call names.
Most of 'em are pretty cringe to me, . But anyway, that Parker, and you mentioned it in the. Some conversations before about how you can choose your stretch. Yeah. A low, medium or a high tension stretch. And I had never seen that in any call company before. And I thought initially that I would like a high stretch call.
And so when I bought those calls, I bought low, medium, and high in both of the calls, and I stuck with low on both of [00:35:00] them, surprisingly. And that, which 1:00 AM I talking about here? The smoking hen? It's the most effortless, like wines, key keys, Kikis, everything. I don't like a lot of rasp in my calls anyway.
I think Mo most of the calls that I've ever tried to run have had too much rasp. But I have never, like I could whisper. a per out of that call. And yeah, I absolutely love it. And what I did this year, and if I hadn't have done this before, I probably would've done it while I was at N W T F. I don't know how many mouth calls I bought this year.
I bet you I bought a couple dozen from however many different companies. And it wasn't that there was anything wrong with what I used before. I used to run Appalachian custom calls. I'd get a handful of their calls every year and that's what I'd use. I don't know, it was just looking to see what else was out there.
And now I still have one or two Appalachians [00:36:00] that are gonna be in my vest this year. But I, out of those couple of dozen mouth calls, and most of those were ghost cut and maybe a few bat wings, stuff that had worked for me in the past, I narrowed down maybe like five to eight that I would consider carrying this year.
So I bought a lot of calls just to narrow 'em down and I may even do that again next year. With some different calls. It was cool, but I think Nip TF would be the perfect place to do something like that. The cool thing about this clock custom call company, like you said, they have, you can choose your stretch and while we were there they have a bunch of like B-line calls, like the different stretches, like just here's one of them right here.
This is the one that I did. So I basically got two calls for the price of one. I, for whatever reason, they couldn't put this one into production. I don't know if something's off with it, but it sounds great to me. But I could try it, I could try it out there. So it's like, what do you feel like you would like, [00:37:00] I don't know, maybe the medium and I just got lucky, the medium.
I was like, yeah, I like that. Let me try one in a high. Cuz I knew I wouldn't like the low. I've struggled and I love. The whole like foot on the head. Freaking love those guys. But what's the main call, Matt? That main diaphragm that they sell? He is the, I think it's the hooked, it's a bat wing.
I think the one that I've got, it's like a, I think it's a combo cut. I can't remember the name of it, but it's like a real popular one that they sell. It's like the main one. I can't remember The legend. The legend, maybe that's it. That sounds right. Anyways, it's a, it's like a real low stretch and man, I just struggle to get sound out of it.
That's just for me. I've talked to other guys, hunter Lindsay freaking loves the thing. Like he has four of them in his vest at all times, the same call. So I knew, I'd be either medium or high. And turns out I was the medium. Got to try it out, got to test it, put this call in my mouth when I got home.
[00:38:00] And man, I've just been nonstop my neighbors and my wife. are probably tired of it by now. So I've just been, I've come wailing on it. I've about decided that people's mouths are almost like fingerprints. They're just so different. And I can, whenever somebody gets on Facebook after they ask what choke and shell that everybody uses, they ask what mouth call brand that everybody uses or recommends.
And yeah, you can, all you could do is just tell people what has worked for you. Yeah. But I think what you need to do is probably what I did this year is just buy you a bunch of calls. They're cheap. They're, less than $10 a piece. The majority of 'em, when you're buying 24 of 'em, it can that can rack up the price a little bit.
But if, and all you do is Turkey hunt. That's true. Yeah. I ain't buying saddle gear and arrows in the fall. That dumb crap. Yeah, for somebody that's either getting into, Turkey hunting or trying to learn [00:39:00] mouth calls or whatever that would be my suggestion. Just get a bunch of different brands and if you know what, if you know what cut has worked for you in the past, maybe just get those cuts and maybe one or two off the wall ones just to see what kind of works for you and just narrow 'em down.
That's, cause that's what I did this year. I think I got a pretty good arsenal full of mouth calls now. That's awesome. And then that's great. I think the cool thing, one of the great things about N W TF obviously is you're able to go and try out a lot of this stuff that you're not able to any other time.
You're just looking at stuff online, you're able to see things, put your hands on it, put it in, see it in person. I thought the thing that was really neat about this company is that you could actually try. These calls. So it was really cool, man. Really enjoyed that. Going more into the minimalist thing, I guess the only other thing that I really saw was for me I got to test out, or not test it out, but hold that Mossberg what is it, Adam, the [00:40:00] Mossberg 500 Bantam, is that what it's called?
Yeah. The compact version, I think is what you were looking at. Shorter barrel, shorter stock, lightweight. Oh man. I've been singing the Mossberg praises for the last year and yeah and you're a snob when it comes to this kind of stuff. I am like, you would expect me to be going by the Benelli.
My last shot, Turkey gun I bought was a Frankie , I ended up just buying that Mossberg SA 20, which has got, it's the tactical version with the pistol grip. It's got the 22 inch barrel. Oh man I just threw a bur as fast fire on it last week. I'm ready to go shoot it. So I'm excited about that.
I've seen a lot of people hacking their barrels off this year. It seems like everybody's wanting them short barrels, everybody's tired of carry around them duck guns, no, I, man, as soon as I find a gunsmith, I trust I'm going to chop that Frankie down. That's for sure. That's, yeah, 26 inch barrel and it's going to 22 without a doubt.
For me, I was I'm a short guy anyways. I'm only five foot six, so I know it [00:41:00] sounds really dumb. My other shotgun the first one that I had when I was a kid, it was a big giant thing and I had a makeshift sling on it. Like one of those ones that you like tie to it, and it would actually bite me, like in the calves, whenever I walked it, it just would drag, it would just pop me in the calf. Now I've got a eight 70. It's the eight 70. Super Mag Express, I think. So it's a lot shorter, a lot more compact, but it's a 12 gauge, so it's freaking heavy. And when I pick up that 12 gauge my gun, which is pretty compact and small, and compare it to a full size 20 gauge, it's not even close, man.
Like that 20 gauge feels like a BB gun compared to mine. And so with the, with TSS and stuff these days, there's no reason that a guy should need a 12 gauge. And then we saw that there, and I'm like, holy crap. Like I've gotta get this thing. So it's going to serve double purpose. It's gonna be my gun, but I use, but my kids will also be able to shoot it whenever they get a little bit [00:42:00] older.
I'm still probably gonna buy a four 10 for them to shoot at a younger age, but my daughter just turned six today, so here in three years she'll be able to shoot a 20 gauge or Yeah, a 20 gauge. I don't see any issue with that. . If you look at like a Mossberg five 10 Bantam and a four 10, that's even like a better option for a younger kid than what the Savage 3 0 1 s are.
I know everybody's out there running Savage 3 0 1 s and four 10 s, but that's a 26 inch barrel. You look at that five 10 Bantam, like that is the gun for a youth against that automatic's gonna kick less in that single shot anyway. Is it not? But the band is that is a pump. Oh. Oh, it's a pump, okay.
And it's smaller than that 3 0 1. So it do, I ha I've had one for my kids since they were about six, and they had no issues with it. , there were, they were, I've never had any desire to own a pump shotgun. Full disclosure, I've always had autos. I've only ever run a pump. I will [00:43:00] never own a pump that I know of, have zero desire to own one.
I've only ran pumps until recently, until I bought that Frankie and now this Mossberg. Both of those are semis. . Maybe I need to get a semi-automatic. Maybe that's the thing. Hey, stay on the pump game. But I, that's where I'm at. It's like a red dot. I don't use a red dot cuz I never have.
And I don't know. It's kinda like why start it? I haven't really had an issue with, I threw one on my gun a couple years ago and I don't know that I've looked back. I ain't missed that bead. Not one bit. There ain't no way I would look back. No way. Nope. Now, once Adam didn't, it wasn't there some big innovation on Mount for Red Dot that was released to N wtf.
There was a couple from Meadow Creek. They released one , one mount would go on the rib of your shotgun, which we saw one of our buddies, he was like, A quadruple stack cheeseburger and then a red dot on top of it, to make it [00:44:00] mount on his shotgun. So to take that out, you can put it on your rib now, like that to me is that's a no-brainer.
I think there's been some companies that's done that. But what was really cool to me from Meadow Creek, and I think that's their name, is they put they, they've developed a site where it's a front post, obviously, and your rear post mounts onto your red dot, which lets you co witness the iron site through your red dot.
So if your red dot was to fail, now all of a sudden you can look through your iron sights. And to me that's that's huge. That's one thing that I'll absolutely buy and stick on my. Yeah. Yeah, that's my biggest fear of using a red dot. Is it me, either me forgetting to turn it on or it dying? I think it's a legitimate fear.
We got a text thread going. I was talking about a specific red dot that's not on my Turkey gun, but that's on my everyday carry gun. And there's guys in our office and me included, we've all had issues with either the battery making a full connection, and this is a very popular red dot, or the battery [00:45:00] draining very quickly because of the technology that's within that red dot.
So I, I think like being safe and having the ability to co witness. Is, I hate the stupid cliches of game changer, but it makes you feel more comfortable using it. And I'm not going in the woods without a red dot again. And I do think there's a few red dots that everyone like you can feel comfortable with.
That's Burris. It's Leopold and probably the Vortex. And I'd put 'em, maybe Burris and Leopold you could interchange is like the dominant ones that I would absolutely. Like I don't think you're gonna have a failure out of. So the Meadow Creek is there's an actual red dot or is it a, like a mount to go with any other Red dot.
Red dot. It's a mount. I think they sell those burs. I think they're a Burris dealer. Okay. As well. Is that right Adam? I think so, yeah. I actually have I have that original Middle Creek mount, that rib mount. I had it before I got that sum toy and it worked really well. But then I got that Bonelli drilled and Tapp.
so I could put that sum toy on there. I like it a lot [00:46:00] better. But if the Meadow Creek is a solid option, if you didn't wanna tap your gun, and that's another thing to think about, if we are talking about our buddy that had the quadruple stack cheeseburger with a red dot on top of it. If you are taking your cheek off of your stock back here, you are really throwing off everything and you're chance in missing turkeys.
So even a pico tinny rail to me is just a little bit more height. Going to a sum toy makes a huge difference. The flatter you can get on that, that, that red dot on your on the receiver, man it just makes it all the difference in the world, I think. So go lower. If you gotta a pick a tinny rail, I'd consider going to a sum toy without a doubt.
Yep. And the red dot and I'll say this and then maybe we can talk about something else, but the reason I liked that red dot when I first started using it from a bead is when I looked at a Turkey and I had that red dot on his wattles, I could see just about his entire body, or at least the [00:47:00] top half of his body.
And ver versus that bead when I would put it on his wattles, I'd see the top of his head and, it, or the, at least his head. And that would be it. But just more sight you can see more of your target and where, you can move your head around, left to up or down.
So long as that.is on your target, you're gonna hit it, yep. No brainer. I will never, knock on wood, I will never go back. I have, I've been hosting the podcast for, I think going on six years now, and never once in I don't believe one time has there ever been a podcast that, or a conversation that happened within a podcast that I was just completely lost on.
And y'all started talking about red dots and freaking mounts, rail and rails and all kinds of stuff. I'm like, that junk don't belong in Turkey hunting. That's . [00:48:00] I'm just kidding. Obviously, like you guys, obviously people love red dots and one day I'll probably get a red dot, but man, everything y'all just said I hope other people.
are not like me cuz I'm like, I don't know what the crap y'all are talking about over. That's like your arrow build. Yeah. That's like your arrow build. Exactly. Yeah. That, yeah, that's like y'all talking about deer hunting stuff. What y'all just experienced right there is what I experience in the fall. with everything.
With everything . No, it is just one of those things like whenever guys I gun hunt, I rifle hunt. I'm not a gun fanatic by any stretch, I don't know a whole lot about 'em. I know that I like to shoot animals with them, but when people start talking about like some of the specifics with optics and scopes and rings and blah, blah blah.
And then you start getting in into conversations about ballistics and all that kind of stuff in the gun space. And I'm literally lost most of the time cuz I just, I'm just dumb [00:49:00] with that kind of stuff I guess. But Let's say, I guess it's just the technology thing and just Yeah. The amount of information that we have at our disposal.
Know back years ago if we wanted to learn about something I guess what you'd have to read about it in a magazine, and then you'd have to read the manual that came in the box or talk to the dude at the counter, where you bought the thing. And now, you could spend hours on any product name of product.
Yeah. And then when you're researching and you're just learning more about how that stuff works, so like the red dots and the pico Tinney rails and and then when you purchase a couple of those things, you realize that, okay, maybe this is a lot better option than this. And you're just learning more and you've got a lot of different stuff you can compare to.
Absolutely. Yeah, for sure. Whenever I first started building arrows, build my own arrow set. So I was like, there's no way. This is like Spanish to me. I'd watch some videos and stuff. I'm like, I don't even know what these guys are talking about.[00:50:00] When I first started really trying to get a Turkey gun that was a Turkey gun I mentioned before that grew up in West Texas and we shot turkeys and I had a shotgun, but it wasn't a Turkey gun.
Like it was a gun that would shoot turkeys for sure. But when I started getting into the different loads and choke tubes and all that kind of stuff, man, it was like this whole new world opened up for me. But I thought it was funny. I was sitting there thinking about it while y'all were talking about this.
I'm like, this is the first time I've ever been lost in a conversation and I don't have anywhere to go from here. , . So I've got somewhere we can go since I wasn't at N W T F. So what, out of all the awesome stuff that you guys saw, was there anything that you saw, and you don't have to name company names, we're not having to throw everybody, anybody under the bus.
Were there any products that just made you either roll your eyes or just stand there and ask yourself why and what and what were they without? Like I said, without [00:51:00] throwing somebody under the bus or you can, I don't care what you do. It was the roofing gutter salesman for me.
Really? Yeah. I don't know dude. . I'm a dad. I'm a dad too now. So I probably would've stopped at that booth. . That guy was funny as crap, man. He tried that guy. He was like at one point I walked by several times and every single time he'd say something like, he was really, it was like I was in the streets of Mexico getting sold something and he's begging.
And one of the times I walked by and he goes, would you rather be Turkey hunting during the spring and not cleaning your gutters? And I was like, Hey, yeah, actually , I don't wanna be cleaning my gutters. Re that's pretty awesome. He was staying relevant. He was learning. He was learning the room.
That's man that, that knows everybody is a customer. Everybody is a potential customer. Yeah. You never know. Somebody bought some gutters while they were there. Lord, I hope so. Somebody ain't tell'em what that man's booth cost. Golly. I guess [00:52:00] for me, the thing that I saw and man I hate to even the one thing that sticks out is this it was like a Turkey bag, like a pack out bag for a Turkey like a game bag kinda.
It was like a, it was basically just a camouflage duffle bag that would hold a dead Turkey , and I didn't understand it. Back your best. Yeah, I did may and maybe I was not understanding, maybe it was a suitcase slash dead Turkey duffle bag. I maybe it was a multitask thing, but I walked by that booth and I was like, now what?
In the world? What is that? and why? Somebody's just, if I'm Turkey hunting with a buddy. Now let's just make this scenario right here. If I'm Turkey hunting with you, Joey, and we're in the mountains of Montana, like we're gonna be at the end of the spring and you kill a Turkey and you're like, hold on guys, and you pull out a duffle bag outta your vest to put that dead Turkey in.
I'm gonna make fun of you so [00:53:00] hard. Like I'm going to drag you about your Turkey carrying bag. Am I missing something? What if it's one of them Louis bitten witten bags? Louis? What if it's one of those gki bags, G bags? That is pretty wild. Oh, okay. I do have another question. . I used to see this dude literally every year at N W T F.
And he's the guy, let's see if I can explain this via podcast. It was almost like he had this wire frame with like a camouflage net hanging in front of it or hanging off of it, and it would attach to your head and he could flip it up and down like a fa like you would a face mask almost. But it would just
I don't know. It looked like it looked like one of those giant retainers, that would hang off of people's faces, . But it would attach to his head and he would, drop it down. It would expose his face. And when he wanted his face mask up, he would just flip that thing right up and it would be like a shower curtain hanging right there in front of his [00:54:00] face.
Yeah. I was wondering, was he not there? Did he finally give up? I didn't see him. Oh man. He was there for at least a decade. I know he was. Adam, I don't know if Adam, I don't know how many times Adam has gone over the years, but I vividly remember that old boy. I'm one of the worst n w TF shoppers of the show.
I have in my mind what I want to see. I go and see it, and I get the heck out of Dodge like that way. Now, , that's the way I am now. And I have been for the last few years, so I don't remember your crazy wire guy, man, this, I hope he's still out there. This not, yeah, this was my first year to go. And so I have anytime I go to Expo, deer Expo, I walk the whole place.
First I go up and down each individual aisle, and I think I ended up doing that a total of three times. Parker w when you walked with us, we had been there since eight 30 that morning when the doors opened. We were just getting after it. But there was a lot of crazy. . Crazy things. Crazy names.
The names get [00:55:00] me. There was a call company that really got me, but I'm not, we're not gonna say any names, but it's just you should totally you've gotta say the name. You can't say not if they have a ridiculous name. They did it on purpose. Okay. Yeah. Their name, their names was Pecker.
Wreckers. . Oh, I've heard, I've, I know that. . And that's fine. But it's just like somebody was sitting at a table with their brother, with their buddy and was like, dude, I got this great idea. , let's be the pecker. Wreckers. It's that's if we started a call company, let's be the SNOO dudes.
. That's what I wanna be. Yeah. They, I'm telling you, Turkey call names are getting more cringe all the time. It's like a, it's like adult adult toy names. It's like the call names, the Karen, am I Nwtf or am at the store on the interstate? You know what I mean? Am I Mirandas and Bucks in Hickman County?
There was a T-shirt company there too that was a little off colored. That was one thing I noticed last year. When I went to n w tf, when I [00:56:00] started walking up and down the aisles, I was like, jolly, how many of these people are selling t-shirts and hats now? No offense, Parker but how many of these jokers?
It was just I understand, you guys, have your merch, but you also have YouTube channels and you have other content that you're putting out there. These people were just selling on t-shirts and hats. And I don't, I'm a capitalist. I hope they make a million dollars.
If you can have a good name. If you have a good name and you put a yellow lab on it, somebody's gonna buy it. . Yeah. I guess you're right. But I just Cool Name, put a yellow lab on notice was just the apparel companies, just regular old t-shirts and hats and cozzies of course. And I don't know, I didn't know, I don't know if there was that many people that y'all saw this year or if I was just, there on a one off year when everybody was selling stuff.
There was a lot. Those guys had the biggest booths. Yeah. The people selling the t-shirts. They had the biggest booths there. That the tallest booths to where if you looked across, you saw their flag flying, come by my shirt. [00:57:00] But Adam, I don't want to jump past you behind the Fox fest.
That was awesome. Didn't you buy some more memorabilia associated with him? I only bought the primo call and I elected not to buy the apex shells or the Cody call from me. Wait, tell out I thought the apex shells came with it. No, you had to buy it for a noal with it. Yeah, I'm sure No telling what it was.
I didn't even go buy there. I literally have I have over a case of 20 gauge T ss, like there's, I don't need any more sh shells. Good to know. I got the hook up at work. So good to I'm know. I don't, no, but are we good? That's what I mean. Are we good ? You know what I mean? But the only call, the only thing I bought with that vest was the Primos call because I went into it and I said, okay, I'll buy something that means something to me, and Primos means something to me.
Like watching Will and all those guys from the time I, before I started Turkey hunting, like I [00:58:00] really believe Will Primo Mark jury, those guys taught me how to Turkey hunt. And so that meant something to me and that's why I bought that call. That's cool. That cool, that Rolling Thunder pot call that they did the Mr.
Fox call that? Yep. Look, without a doubt, like I looked at it most of the booths, if a call company had, some calls out, I'd look at 'em. That was the prettiest call that I think I saw. It was like, I don't know how it sounded, don't know anything about it. I just thought it was a really good looking call, like the artwork on it.
Really that whole thing, man. All the Mr. Fox stuff was just so well done. . And really like when I come away, when I think about N W T F 2023, I'm gonna come away thinking about that more than anything else. It's just like the honor that was showed. I thought that was really cool. Yeah, that was neat.
But you could see anybody you wanted to if you went to that place. Yeah, absolutely. . Yeah, [00:59:00] beside, besides the booths, there was a lot of cool booths, but I gotta see and meet people I never thought I'd see and meet, yeah. And that's another whole episode we can have on how the changing hunting industry is with the turkeys of YouTube versus, Michael Waddell.
He was there, but was he the star? Would y'all say he was the star of N W T F? Listen, you wanna know who you wanna know who? The longest line I saw was for Lee Ellis a deer hunting fool. No, the guy has some big giant bucks and the one that you can see is the one that you could see there.
I think they had the one that had that upside down looking rack. . But dude, there were so many people there to shake his hand and take a picture. It was nuts. I have no idea who that is. Sorry. Yeah. You're, you over there with your Turkey content you watch? No, I'm serious.
Who? So who is this guy? Maybe I wouldn't, maybe I would like to meet him. One. Have you ever heard of C one Productions? They shoot the big [01:00:00] giant urban area, giant yard deer. Yeah. There, there's one way to say it. The good thing about Joey he can't really take it as disrespectful when he is talking about somebody who's a deer hunter.
Because he is not talking about the person, he's just talking about the sport. He does not like it. It's not that I don't like it, I just like to get people fired up. So it's not personal. I totally get it. No, it's not personal at all. Maybe sometimes it is but yeah, that was crazy.
That was crazy to see. You got Michael Waddell and Lee Ellis right there pretty close to each other, and Lee Ellis absolutely has the crowd around him, which was interesting. It's a change, it's a shifting of culture shifting of a lot of things, these guys have been doing it for a long time and doing it really well.
And that's one of the things I really appreciate about Cuzz Strickland is he very publicly acknowledges these guys that are. Out there, leading the pack right now. I was standing next to Catman talking to him, and cuzz came up there and talked to him. He's yeah, I don't know if you know this, but you're [01:01:00] in the presence of a legend talking about Catman.
He's just a, he's just genuine, just a nice guy and believes in the kind of the modern way that we're doing it now. And it is very different, but it's I think it's important, like I said, to give back that respect to those guys. And I think it's awesome to see that they do the very same thing.
They're modeling that and is pretty cool. It's like a changing of the guard so to speak, with cause and those guys that were filming Turkey hunts with VHS tape, cameras slung over their shoulder and now all, like, all you guys that are doing the YouTube thing it's just a different culture now to the people that are watching YouTube stuff now versus the type of people that may even still watch phone collector and Michael Waddell and that group of guys.
Like I remember Parker last year we talked on your podcast about, I forget exactly what the topic was, like social media or something like that. [01:02:00] And the topic got brought up like when you see a guy or whoever at a party or some gathering and they had a bone collector shirt on and we talked about how different viewpoints that we have on hunting versus what they have.
Like you almost can't even carry a conversation with 'em about hunting, right? Cuz we're so different. It's not that they're wrong and we're right or vice versa, but the culture around hunting media and the viewers of that media is so different now. Yeah, it is. It is. But it's. But it's good. You know what I mean?
It's good. It's a good thing. I saw more young guys at N WTF than I saw old guys. It was tons of young guys running the dang thing, I thought it was really neat and see the, have the presence of some of those older dudes, it was just really cool. But I had a great time really fun time that was a memorable one 50th anniversary of Nwtf, which was cool.
So that was special. I [01:03:00] cannot wait. Adam said that he is going to allow some friends to shoot turkeys out of the fox vest, and I can't wait until it's my turn. I'm so excited about that. Come up stand. See man, I will be you. Pull disclosure. So Adam, if I go hunting with you, will you just carry that thing and just let me throw it on when I get to shoot?
Cause I don't know if I wanna carry that heavy thing all around all day. You're a vests guy, don't you? Hide behind it. You're a vests guy. I am a vests guy. We were given Walt crap earlier about, he's basically trying to, it sounds like Walt's just trying to build a vest out of three or four different pieces.
And he's got he's trying to build a chess rig, a fanny, pack a seat. And I'm like, Walt, you could just get a vest. Here's an idea. Let's combine. Let's combine all these into one article or one garment and you could just wear it on you and possibly even zip it up or buckle it to you. I don't know.
Bless him. Hey, hope what a concept. [01:04:00] I hope the little guy just gets whatever his little heart deserves. What if you saw, what if you saw Walter out there with a fanny, literally a fanny pack, a chest rig. What else could he have? Like a one of those Walmart foam cushion pads to sit on.
Yeah. He's got literally all this stuff put together and it, who one of you guys sent that picture of Duane Johnson? That lady that was me. With the turtleneck. With the fanny pack. The fanny pack. That's totally Walt going Turkey hunting this year. Walt 2023. I want to be different guys. Yeah, you'll be different.
All right. You're just because you're unique doesn't mean you're useful. . Yeah, . All right, fellas. Man, that was a good thing. Good time. I had a blast. Can't wait to go back next year. It's gonna be a lot of fun. Turkey season soon though. Adam, you and I are gonna be hunting them real quick really soon.
If y'all are hunting South Florida, you gonna be hunting in a couple weeks? Yeah, I'm gonna be hunting like the 15th. I'll be the 17th. Oh eight, 18th. Yeah. Yeah. [01:05:00] 18th. Opening day at Northtown. Yeah, man, it's gonna be, it's gonna be good. I can't wait. I'm jealous. Send picks. I'm literally send SNDs.
I'm literally like kicking myself right now because I didn't buy any shells. And you said that, I was like, what an idiot. Why do I suck this bad? I know a guy. Okay, so we are good. All right. I, that's what I was opening the door for that conversation to happen and you should have told me before, I'm glad it happened.
I'd hooked you up. I could have hand delivered you some, but, That means Parker, when you show up to go hunting with Adam, you ain't gotta bring nothing cuz you're gonna use that fox vest. You can use that 20 gauge and that half a case of shells use. I'm gonna use the call, I'm gonna use the fox call too.
Yeah, just show up in a pair of boots in your drawers. Righty. I'm sure you can scare you up. Do you have any camos? I literally, I like, I actually have camo, like extra camo stuff in my truck just in case my buddies go with me [01:06:00] and they don't like actually bring, I'm gonna bet you don't wear. I'm gonna bet you don't wear a 34, 30
No. Probably not a size that you wear, huh? 34 32, huh? I'll tell you what is handy to keep though. And then we can quit. But just a like just a cheap leafy suit like pants and a jacket. You can throw that over anything. And so I can go Turkey gun with you. It's handy to have real nice full work.
I got two of 'em here. I want to throw this in. We talked about that ground blind earlier. It's the Alps deception. Ground blind. That's what it is. Alps deception. That's right. It was Alps. Duh. Yeah. They had Alps vest all in there. Yeah. Cool. Little blind man. I'll probably never own one. I'm not gonna say that.
I'll never say never. But there's a good chance I'm not gonna ever own one. But great idea. I really like it when it comes to, when it comes big rainstorm and you're in Tennessee, we will curl up in it together. Those still birds with my binoculars going to be cute. [01:07:00] There's gonna be the big spoons.
Gonna be cute picture. All right fellas. Yeah, I'm Jacked up about Turkey season, but I am very tired right now. I'll talk to you guys later. Hey, thanks for listening to the Limb Hanger Turkey Hunting podcast. I hope you tune in next week for another great conversation about our favorite bird in the woods as the Wild Turkey.
We'll talk to you guys next week.
