It's All About The Attitude

This week on Limbhanger, we're talking about the one thing we can control in turkey hunting. That's your ATTITUDE!  We dive into the things that make us feel the most confident while in the turkey woods. Are there certain calls that you just know he's going to gobble to every time? We share some of these type of things and much more. It's turkey season boys and girls! Get after em!

[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 wart creatures in North America, wild Turkey. You'll stick around. It's gonna be a great show

and welcome to another episode of the Limb Hanger Podcast. Tonight we got the three other we're full. I was gonna say three amigos, but there's four of us. We're full house . We got all there and we got everybody in here. We got Matt, we got [00:01:00] Joey, and we got Parker. Who of course is Turkey hunting because that's what Parker gets to do.

He just gets to go all across the country, back and forth, up and down, chasing Gobblers while the rest of us try to work for a living. I know you work on the side, that's good. But it's good to have you guys. It's not working. It's not working on the side. I'll work for a living. , . Come on man. Turkey, you Turkey hundred more hours today than you worked.

You ain't gonna lie at me. Hell yeah, I did. I worked one hour . And then I was done . I really, I had good intentions. I got outta the woods at one and I was like, you know what, I'm just gonna work the rest of the day. There's a little library over here or whatever. And I was like, I'm gonna work the rest of the day.

And the library was closed. because it's a Monday. I guess people won't read books on Mondays. And so I couldn't use wifi and I was like crap. And then my phone told me that it told me that I was out of it was gonna start throttling [00:02:00] my data because I last week and I was Turkey out and I was just using my hotspot over and over again, so I don't have any hot spots.

So I was like, eh, I was just gonna go back and turkeying hunt and I did and didn't hear anything or see anything or nothing good happened. But I was out in the woods, so it was fun. Speaking of reading books, let's take a quick poll. Like Everybo, it seems like every Turkey hunter says like the 10th Allegion is their favorite book.

I have a thing going where I tell most people, like I, I don't believe like the 10% of Turkey hunters actually read any kind of Turkey hunting literature. So sorry for the Turkey hunters out there. But if you've read , if you've actually read a book, man, that was a horrible Start that off. . You just, you're gonna have, you're gonna have to, girl.

I've never, I have never read a Turkey book in my life. Have you not? Never. Never have you bought one? No, I don't own one. Nothing. Okay. First of [00:03:00] all, Parker, you gonna have to edit that out.

That wasn't mad. I didn't wanna alienate how, because it came out the wrong way. What I was gonna say is I feel like a lot of Turkey hunters say they love Turkey hunting literature, but at the end of the day, they probably never actually read the entire books that they say they love. And you were talking about a gobbler, running back and forth as yet one o'clock this afternoon and it got, we were talking before we jumped on here about old Gallberry Joe from the old pro Turkey hunter.

And I had not read the old Pro Turkey Hunter until last year. Up until that point. The only piece of tur, the only two books I'd read on Turkey hunting were the 10th Legion, which is good. And illumination in the Flatwood. And that was just to learn more about the Wild Turkey. But for me, like the old pro Turkey hunter is like the, it may be my favorite book of all time and I'm like, I like to read.

That is my favorite book of all time. Just a great story. What do you guys. Yeah. Old [00:04:00] pro old pros up there. Is it better? Okay, Joey, go ahead Matt. I couldn't name you. Five Turkey books. . We'll change your, we'll change your Heart. You killed five turkeys last year, so we're gonna get you on five Turkey books.

We'll get forever Turkey. You killed this year. You gotta read a Turkey book. I'm not. Ooh, I like that. That is pretty good, Joey. I that's good. Okay. Ready to read. That's the new challenge for this group. If you killed Turkey this year, you have to listen to, you have to read or listen to a new Turkey hunting book and there's not many on audio, so you're probably have to buy some.

Yeah. Cuz I've looked for flip. That means I got, I already gotta read one. Just read the cliff notes. , you're, we're gonna cancel you now. Matt . I'm just a casual Turkey hunter. It's okay.

book reports are due on Memorial Day. Oh, goodness gracious. That's actually a pretty good [00:05:00] challenge. How about we do this? What if we challenge everybody to do that? For every time you kill, read a new Turkey book. It could be I would say it can be about Turkey hunting. Tom Kelly's got several books.

Yep. , it's not like he's just got the one and make that a challenge. So every Turkey you kill, you gotta read a new Turkey book. And it's not like kids Turkey books, because I'm sure those exist, like how to make a hand Turkey, like they have Turkey hunting, bedtime, storybooks.

My daughter's got two of them. Yeah. One of 'em, one of 'em got the little sound buttons. The little things on the side that you can push. . It's got like slate calls, mouth calls, gobble. It's got the sound of a dude shooting a Turkey with a bow. It's like

Kyle's book. That's awesome. Sal's book. It's ac it's not too bad. The other one I have is it's like my first Turkey [00:06:00] hunt or something and it's like actual photos and I don't know, that's the best one. I'll have to send y'all a picture of it. But I got it for, or somebody give it to me for my daughter and she loves that thing.

I think mostly because I do all the sound effects for it. But yeah, that adds on you when you read the book to her. You have your Turkey call in your mouth too, right? No I have to do everything with my mouth, oh. Thought you may have a Gole tube. I haven't gotten that far yet. So Joey, you, I've got cringe.

Okay. You didn't act like the old pro was your favorite. What's your favorite Turkey hunting book? . Yeah it's old pro. Okay. Admittedly, I haven't read that many Turkey hunting books either. Read Old Pro 10th Legion and one or two other ones, but I don't think that's very many considering the amount of Turkey hunting books that are out there.

There's not a crazy amount, but they're pretty dang good. The ones that are out there are just mostly there's some good storyteller type [00:07:00] books that are out there, like good traditional literature. So I would recommend one Man's Game by Kenny Morgan, think is Ken Morgan or Kenny Morgan, one of the two.

My le you're talking about kids' books. My 11 year old has some books by Lane Walker and I can't remember their names. I was trying to look 'em up while you guys were talking. But I remember the author and they're more of like books that are pertained to hunting but have a real story kind of built in and he really likes those.

. So that's good for kids. , ill tell you who has a couple really good ones. Is Doc Weddle, he's, yeah. Is journaled or put to paper several of his, Turkey hunts from decades. The man when we talked with Bons, I forget how many he said that Doc has and is currently working on as far as us super slams.

He's got more than anybody that I can think of. But he I bought, it's like tails and something from aro, from Turkey hunting tails or from across the country. I forget the exact title, but he's got volume. He's got [00:08:00] at least two volumes and may have a third one by now. But man, if anybody can fill up a book with Turkey hunting stories, it's stock weddle and they're good.

The ones I read have been very good. How many does he, how many us super slams does he have? Did you say four? Is that right? I think that's right. He has four working on five. I think so. That's insane. But you gotta say he was on the Gamekeeper's podcast a couple weeks ago. Yeah. I need to listen to that.

DOCman Turkey hunting, like traveling and Turkey hunting. Literally decades, I think. What since the maybe the eighties or something. Does that sound about right Adam? You know what I'm talking about? I think so. Yeah. And golly, it's funny how many popular Turkey hunting figures in the industry that you hear of that's Met Doc, not at a industry event, but at some public w m A road.

Like you Yeah. On the road you hear oh yeah, met Doc Whittle at, in South Carolina, this and this. We, oh heck, we had who was it we had on from Bayside Legion. [00:09:00] It was Bons. Yeah. Yeah. Bz Bons. His dad met him, right? Yeah. That's another story that met Doc Weddle. Yeah. Like I said, it's pretty, Man's been traveling and Turkey hunting for well over 30 years, probably close to 40 years.

And as far as I know, he's worked for himself his entire life. I forget exactly what he does. He is in construction. Yeah. Some kind of construction. And it, I want, I kind of wanna say it's like some kind of antique restoration construction or something to do with old stuff, old kind of construction.

But he, yeah, he is just legendary for traveling and Turkey hunting for as long as many people have been alive. And I don't know that he gets really the recognition that he deserves. He's it almost seems like he's a little quiet. He holds a little bit of stuff to the chest, close to the chest but I don't know, maybe he's just one of those that just goes out and kills turkeys and doesn't really worry about [00:10:00] anything else.

But he's he's a machine man. Fellas, you're gonna hear my truck start up so that I can keep my light on on this thing. So probably everybody's gonna hear my truck start up. Let's see. Have you started it? Let's hear.

Does a Chevy Con keep a continuous per, or does it have kinda like ale and dip and then back? It's a and dip. Lemme tell. You've annoying. It's like just whatever. I was honestly waiting for the truck to just die. Or not even start. It's on the recording. . You know what's awesome, what I'm super fired up about is that we have.

Set a standard where I can just have the worst audio in the [00:11:00] world and be out here Turkey hunting, doing podcasts in the Walmart parking lot. I love that. And eat and eating that potted meat on your sandwich too. Ooh. Lemme tell y'all something about a, lemme tell y'all a traveling Turkey hunt. Okay.

There are, so a lot of people like the tuna, like the bags. Y'all know what I'm talking about, like the little Yeah. Tuna creations or whatever. Yeah. . I hate 'em. I hate tuna. Yeah. Like that. Just not my favorite. Walmart started selling this. Pulled pork in a bag like that. Tuna first off. That one was freaking amazing.

It's so good. It tastes like gas station pulled pork. So by so good. You have to set your standard, right? You gotta set a low bar. , but it's good, it's edible. So at Dollar General today I found this refrigerated, like field pulled pork and it's amazing. It tastes like a restaurant [00:12:00] worthy Wow.

Pulled. And it's the same stuff, it's the same kind of like pulled pork parts is probably what it is, but it's pretty delicious. . You probably just lay it up there in the dashboard while you out hunting and just get it all nice and warm under the windshield there, down, down the, and let that good Florida sun just bake it and get it all nice and warm for you.

I'm doing this one cheap. Like last week I was in Florida while we were, when we recorded the podcast and I've actually been home and then came back because my wife and kids went for spring break to my in-law's house and I was like I could just sit at home by myself and not Turkey hunt because.

the peasants don't get to Turkey hunt in Alabama until this weekend, the pores, the rich guys get to do whatever they want. Starting the 25th. So I was like, you know what, I'm just going to drive down to Florida. And then I realized somewhere about [00:13:00] halfway I was like, all the gas money that's spent in Florida, I could have just got on a lease and hunted the 25th , but the stores weren't been wouldn't have been near as good.

No. Yeah, it's true. The hunt, the hunting down here is it's fun. So it's, the habitat is just really cool. It's a fun place to hunt turkeys at. I'm not gonna say there's just a pile of turkeys but I'll say, I will say, it just, the habitat that they live in makes it that much more interesting.

There's all kinds of sounds. , different birds making noises. It's just really cool. The palmettos, I have this thing with Palmettos where I really want every bird that I kill in Florida to like bob his head up and down through the palmettos, like looking through all the leaves just because it's a cool, it's like a cool setting.

You feel like you're in the jungle, and yeah I decided to go ahead and come back over here and try to fill that last tag. But like you said, Joey, earlier I didn't work a whole lot [00:14:00] today. My intentions were to work, but I got a little bit sidetracked. But maybe tomorrow will be better.

We'll see. . So you've experienced Florida cattle pastures here recently and Palmettos, and you got to see both like the beauty of a gobbler coming through that cow pasture versus the a Turkey just bobbling his head through palmettos. Which one did you prefer? . Ac we didn't see any come through cow pastures with Eli.

Nope. Eli's bird was we were like we thought that we were probably gonna kill a bird on that cow pasture. I think that's where we were like, that's where we're gonna kill him at. If we kill one in here, that's probably we're gonna kill him. That bird actually went between two cow pastures and he was all woods in that like live oak hammock, just absolutely beautiful.

It looked pristine. Where you guys shot was, it was like where all those pictures [00:15:00] are taken is literally where the bird died. Like it was that pretty man I've dreamed about that one a lot and I didn't even pull the trigger on him. It was just so freaking beautiful. And And it was fun.

Eli, I can't wait for people to see this video. It, he gets tore up and it was so much fun to watch. It was so much fun to watch it and to film it and like just be a part of it. My buddy another guy that came with us, Casey, he filmed a second angle and got it perfect. And so we were just all three there.

Like in probably the most beautiful place I've ever even imagined killing a Turkey. And we all got to experience it together. And what most people, a lot of people probably don't know is that I don't hunt with a lot of people. I haven't Turkey hunted with a whole lot of people at all. And so obviously being around, being with somebody else whenever they kill a Turkey, I haven't been a part of that just a [00:16:00] ton and just a few times I have, but not just a ton.

that one was like, oh man, I just, I could talk about it for a long time cuz it was just that, it's those it's the reason why we were just talking about these books and just the poetic nature of these books. Those type of hunts are what I think pulls it out of people. It's I've gotta think of something stronger than just my redneck vocabulary to describe whatever that was, because that was beautiful.

Yeah. And it's, you have some hunts that are ugly. I, I sometimes you shoot one, you're like, that wasn't pretty , but we got it. But those ones that are just, where he just basically walks into the bead and really you don't, the shot was not really the part of it that you remember the most.

It was him coming through the woods. . Man it's, this is quickly turning into my favorite time of the year. I love it. [00:17:00] Good. . I don't, that'll be, see that ? Yo. I don't see it either, Matt. I've been saying that for years when Parker's he'll say that, and it's dear season rolls around and that dude is just 100% centered and focused on one thing, and that's killing deer.

But one of the topics that we wanted to talk about tonight was just that, and that's attitude. It's confidence. And I'll say this, Parker I've known you a lot longer than I've known Joe and Matt, and I don't know, you guys may have this same kind of drive. Parker's confidence and his attitude in the woods is like second to none to anyone I've ever been around.

And the confidence part to me is something that I strive for. And it's tough, like for the everyday God to just have that confidence. Cuz confidence is something that's built and it's almost it's kinda like a healthy habit, right? Like you just gotta keep it going and going. But attitude is something anybody can really flip a switch on and continue to keep in your [00:18:00] favor.

And one of the things that I was dealing with in Florida on opening day, honestly, and this is a really simplistic way to get this started, is we weren't here in Turkey's goblin on op on Unopen day when you and your buddies had been hearing seven, eight Gobblers in the same general area that we were in those mornings.

So when you're in that same area and you're not hearing Turkey's goblin, at some point you gotta say, okay. I'm not the type of guy to go to Waffle House. I'm not the kind of guy that's gonna throw in the chips, but I do have the sense sometimes of maybe I should throw it in on this particular area.

Although I know go, or turkeys are here, I, the sign is here and I'm about to abandon this general area just because I'm not here in Turkey's gobble, which is not always the correct thing to do. And honestly, like I was, I'm trying to do a journal this year and one of the things that I was going through on my lessons learned from that Florida trip was just that if I could change anything about my Florida trip, it's day number one N, not a single bird's goblin.

I would've set up over signed and I just stayed [00:19:00] there. I'd literally done the gay meadow set up over plenty Turkey, sign Yelp, three to five times and just sit there. And I don't care how hungry I am, like I ain't got anywhere else to be. I'm in Florida. Let's make it happen. And that's all about attitude.

And so tonight, That's one of the main topics that I want to us still run through is just attitude in the Turkey woods and overall like general confidence, how to build that confidence and to make the right decisions. Cuz I think that's people talk about woodsmanship a lot. They talk about calling a lot, they talk about setup a lot.

But if your butt drives 10 miles down the road when you should have sat right there underneath that scratching so that's, that could be the difference maker. Can I I wanna say I am, I'm in my head. I'm not confident in my ability, but what I am confident in is if I'm there, my chances increased.

And so I think that's where [00:20:00] the positivity comes in. It's last. Had a great conversation actually with with Eli, who we were talking about Who killed that bird. The day before I killed my bird, or no, I'm sorry. The day that I killed mine, we, we hadn't heard anything. Dude. Opening day was a bust.

Y'all heard more gobbles than we did Adam, on opening day. And I'm the one who did all the flipping scouting in that area. And I'm like, crap, I haven't heard a thing. We've just covered ground. We could cover like seven miles that day. I think just trying to figure out something and weren't able to. And so the next day, Eli, we'd walked a lot that morning, haven't heard anything, hadn't even heard a Pete him, nothing.

And he said, man, how are we gonna find a B? How are we gonna find a gob on Turkey? And I was like I can't tell you just based on skill. I can't tell you anything. , but I can tell you if we just cover ground eventually we're gonna run [00:21:00] into one. Like it's just gonna happen. It all, it does.

Everybody knows that if you just walk around enough, eventually you're gonna run into a Turkey that wants to gobble. And so we just, we're like, we're gonna just walk. And it, what's really funny about the positivity thing is my wife, when we got out of the truck, right before I killed my bird, we were walking through this swamp man, and we were sinking into our, like it's just loud, suctioning to that mud and we're just trying to find a high spot that we can get out and just set up.

All we were gonna do was just set up and my wife texted me, she said that You killed Turkey . I said, no, I haven't. But some guys in camp have, and everybody's here in Gobbles, so I know they're here. and she said, wow, that sucks. And I said I'm just trying to be positive. And when I said that, I was like, positivity doesn't really come, like you can't have a [00:22:00] positive attitude when everything's always good, right?

You have to have, there there's gotta be negative to, to actually be somebody who has a positive attitude. Like you gotta have a positive attitude through a lot of stuff. Somebody that's somebody that I've really tried to force myself to be that way because of guys like Jeremy Aaron, who just seems like every bad thing that happens to them, he just lets it roll right off his back.

We press forward, , it's okay, yeah, you're right. That's what we do. So anyways that's where I am. Like there's I, and you can, I think all you guys probably know this, maybe not you as much Joey, because you're not into the, all the deer stuff. During deer season, I get up in my feelings like I'm the worst freaking boat.

Bow hunter, rifle hunter, fricking, I can't even ride a boat. Good. You know what I mean? , I freaking boat. Can't even do that. You did break your boat, so Yeah, I actually did break it. I actually do suck it riding a boat. , . I [00:23:00] get up in my feelings a lot, but I keep going and I think that's where the having a positive attitude really helps.

And I'm telling you man, like I don't have, I don't always have the most positive attitude, but I do have confidence that if I just keep going, I'm eventually gonna ha, something's gonna happen. That's just how it. , what do you guys think? So when you're in a camps type scenario or even just out, watching Instagram and your best buddies are shooting turkeys and you're not hearing anything, like, how does that impact you?

Like I'm unfollowing all the Turkey pages on Facebook during Turkey season, , because it does some, it really does do something to you. Guys are out there killing all, we doubled this morning, we killed these. And it's just like, why is it not happening to me? Do I suck that bad? And it's no, it's just right place, right time kind of deal.

And like Parker said, and you said earlier, Adam, if you're having a [00:24:00] crappy morning and there's turkeys around, like there's turkeys there, they're gonna end up around that sign at some point. You ain't got nothing better to do. I, the, they, you can beat that into somebody's head.

They may still wanna run 10 miles somewhere else where they've never scouted turkeys just to see. But they're leaving turkeys that are there that are gonna make their way. And that's, patient skills. More turkeys, everybody says it. It's easier said than done a lot and I've caught myself since I'm a privileged hunter of the state of Alabama.

I caught myself already this year wanting to to move to get up. Me and my dad got up one time and walked around the exact tree we were sitting on three or four times looking for another tree, ended up sitting right back where we were, cause I got impatient and I just wanted to move.

As much as it sucks in the turkeys ended up coming back. But yeah, it's just with people, the social media that just, that's rough. And especially for y Adam and Joey, I don't know how [00:25:00] y'all are functioning, not being able to Go out. When I was seeing some turkeys being posted before our season was open, it bothered me.

But I didn't get into Turkey mode until I actually went hunting Saturday. So I'm full force now trying not to get jealous. Everybody else, they're, that are killing them. Can I say Joey? I feel like Joey doesn't, it doesn't do anything to him because I feel like every time somebody shoots a Turkey, Joey's the first one to comment.

Congratulations. I just think I just think it gets Joey hard thinking about somebody else killing Turkey just as much as it does him killed a Turkey . I wanna say something on the comment board for these Turkey pages. People post their turkeys and they brag on them. And some people sell themselves short.

A young man posted a picture of a Turkey and said, got my first bird, so solo by myself. He's not the biggest, but I'm excited. and I was the fir I comment, I don't usually [00:26:00] comment on post. Just I'm not that guy. I'll like it. But I comment on this one. I said, man, don't sell your short, self short on a long beard.

A long beard. A long beard is a long beard no matter what size he is. And I feel, and that's a whole nother podcast for another time, but I feel like these pages have gotten so sensitized to how big a Turkey is. It doesn't matter. You hear the saying to talk like a man die. Like a man. I'll shoot a, I'll shoot a jack in the face if it sounds like a full Turkey, and I'm not gonna apologize for it.

You work for that and be proud of it. So if you're listening to this and you're contemplating posting something because it may have a six inch beard, not a 13 inch, ground dragger, they can kiss my sn

I feel like Matt Mac got fired up. Yeah. I think it gets me going, man. I keep talking about it. That's the best part about Turkey hunting to me, man, is that it doesn't matter.[00:27:00] That's why it's so great. Ev each and every single one of 'em is a dang king. You know what I mean? Yes.

And they I don't ever let Parker Uniondale to, I don't let social media, really get to me during Turkey season. Even during the, now the month and a half, that people are Turkey hunting before I can Turkey hunting, Tennessee. Not, like I said originally. Yeah I had planned to go to Florida and everything else, but it's just I just don't let it get to me.

And why, why should I, what can I do about it? What I gotta do just sit here and pout for six weeks before I go Turkey hunting. No, I can just, that's just two more weeks for me to get my stuff more ready. That's a lie. I ain't got nothing ready yet. , . But and as far as, even when season does open for us up here, and in years past, there have been rough days, couldn't buy a gobble, couldn't hardly tell you what a Turkey sounded or looked like, by the end of the day.

I'm just, it's just one day and I'm confident that I know turkey's well [00:28:00] enough that what's going on, maybe an hour away from me is probably totally different than what's going on. Where I'm at. Birds Connect 100% different. Adam just, was it yesterday you went out listening to a spot?

We were gonna go hunting On Youth Weekend, and a buddy of mine sent me a video from his, the back deck of his house. It was about an hour away from where we were planning on hunting and birds behind his house were lighting it up. and Adam couldn't, he couldn't buy gobble that morning.

But I know turkeys are there. I 100% confident there are turkeys there, so I just you can't let it get to you. If you do I don't know. And then as far as like the confidence thing, one of my favorite quotes in the world is it's called, I think it goes, the definition of confidence is going after Moby Dick and a rowboat and taking tartar sauce with you.

Now, that ain't got nothing to do with Turkey hunting, but it's still my favorite quote. But you do have.[00:29:00] You awesome . A couple things, Joey. I didn't know you were a philosopher. I did peg you as the guy that wouldn't care on social media. If your buddies were killing turkeys, you'd just be like, oh, good job buddies, and you would just be happy for everybody.

But I didn't know that you were truly a philosopher. Second thing is when you were sending me that video of your buddy that lives in the same dadgum county that I do, and turkeys are gobbling their heads off, here's my attitude. I'm like, piss on that. What am I doing? I should have went, got my boat and went on the lake and sent a bird.

Why not drive an hour out here? I guess everybody knows why I wanted to talk about attitude because I am the guy on social media when, when Parker kills a Turkey this week, I'll be like, I hope he breaks his toe on the way out. just it

Chip on his mouth, Carl. Yeah. We were talking about, we were talking in a group in our grex. Do you know, have you [00:30:00] heard that? Gre No, not, no, not since now I have not heard of that. Clay Harper is the one who told me about a gret that is a group text. That's what the kids are saying. We were talking in a grx today about statistics.

And particularly the statistics of I think Matt, you're the one who sent it. Yeah. The percentages of only this percent of hunters killed one gobbler this year and even less killed two. And these are numbers. I think it's this way, probably countrywide. The numbers are not just amazing.

There's not everybody and their brother is not shooting a Turkey. Everybody and their brother that you follow on Facebook is because their life is turkeys. You know what I mean? It, you just have to like, you have to see that, see it with that kind of filter. Like when I feel like I'm not shooting [00:31:00] any turkeys because I've only killed three or whatever, like most people are just out there trying to kill one, kill the first one.

, we had an influx of hunters there in covid year. A lot of people in the woods right now have not ever killed a bird. And so I guess that's where some confidence can come from too. I would imagine a lot of the people listening to this podcast are in that upper percentage of people killing 1, 2, 3, 3 birds, something like that.

If you're interested in enough in Turkey hunting to list to listen to a podcast about it, you're probably traveling some, doing whatever. . And so I think that's really important for people that listen to this, it's like you're real, you are in a, you're in another league most, most of the time.

If you killed a few turkeys, you're in a very high tier of what the average, what the percentages are reporting anyways. Yeah. And yeah, one state oh, sorry, Parker, go ahead. I was [00:32:00] just gonna say that can really boost your confidence. Yeah. The one state that we were talking about today, the percentage of hunters that kill one Turkey during that season, there was like a five year average.

63% of the hunters got one Turkey and then two turkeys that dropped down to 22% and then three turkeys or more, it got into single digits. And that kind of boost my confidence right there, because if I got three Turkey tags, and I filled three of 'em. I guess I'm, I guess I was in the, what, the top 9% of the hunters in the state.

That state. I'll take that all day, every day. But also in regards to like confidence or attitude and I guess perseverance. Tennessee dropped their limit to two birds for this upcoming year and shifted the season. Two weeks open. The middle of April, closes the end of May.

And I will tell you right [00:33:00] now, if I fill one tag on April 15th and I don't fill another one till May 28th, you can bet your hand in. I'm gonna be hunting May 27th, 28th. And I'm confident in saying that there's probably not that many people in the state, they're gonna be hunting that last half of May with psychopaths like me out in the woods.

It is true. Run around any wma. Towards the end of the seasons. Most of the time they're there. Ain't anybody there? . You can get a lot of stuff to yourself in the season. Honestly, most WMAs after are opening week. Most WMAs that I've ever been to are, you pretty much have choice for your rain where you wanna go.

One thing that kind of makes me feel better is Adam, you see it on Tennessee Turkey hunters all the time. People are belly aching about that later season and that makes me feel good. Yeah, I wish they all felt like that. . Y'all stay, y'all stay at home. Come May and let me have all [00:34:00] those good may turkeys.

Y'all stay at home. Don't hunt in the heat. It's too hot for you. Stay at home in the air conditioning. Go croppy fishing. Don't talk about May Turkey. Just stop . It can be tough. I want to touch on something real quick. I know attitude is everything. Turkeys have attitude. Every gobbler has a different goble, gobble, they all act different.

But for our confidence is us. You gotta we've said this before, you come up to a parking lot and you have a line of hunters. You can tell who the Turkey hunters are, but maybe it's their can't, everybody's wearing bottom land now. That's hard, but you can just tell how people talk.

F for y'all, I wanna know this. When you're in the woods, like what is your most confident I want to say lo locator call, but if you're out in the woods, you're having a tough day and you're like, man, I gotta get one to gobel, what is your go-to? Hey, this is what he gobbles to. Every time when I call to him, mine's easy.

, I can cut pretty dang good. If there's one call that I feel like I have [00:35:00] completely mastered that is excited Yelps, followed by some cuts pretty hard and quick. Yeah. And I feel like a midday gobbler if I get one to strike on that, especially at midday, I feel like that's a done, that, that's as close to a done deal as I'm gonna get now.

Is that with a mouth call or? Yeah, with a mouth call. Pot call. Okay. Mouth call. Yeah. Yeah. Heck yeah. What about you, Parker? I tell you, sorry. My number one mo thing that makes me the most, that I'm most confident that will work is sitting down and just waiting. Take you a little nap. I'll call.

every 15 minutes. And I'll tell you the other thing that make, dude, this night inhale aluminum hot call is, it's killed more turkeys for me doing just that because I can like it, it has like [00:36:00] a really high pitched sweet, like low it, like low sound or low volume. But when you get to ripping on that thing, like it'll cut so hard and it just cuts through the wind, it cuts through the noise, the birds, whatever.

And I have struck more gobbler with that by just, sometimes it's finding the sign and sitting down. Sometimes it's just Hey, this looks like I, I know there's turkeys around. This looks like the kind of place that they would want to hang out in. I'm gonna sit my butt down. I've, dude, I would say like a good 60% of the turkeys I've killed in my life, were doing just that.

And if not. That doesn't mean that I'm like deer hunting. I'm waiting for 'em to walk through. I'm just waiting to strike one. And that's all I'm doing. Like I'm, sometimes it's worked out where they just show up and they come in silent or they come in gobbling and they're, they start coming.

Sometimes I'm just trying, I'm just waiting to strike one and I'm, then I [00:37:00] go and find them. But it's always doing that, just being there. I think you all I sometimes get in the habit of just walking and just covering as much ground as I possibly can, knowing that if I would just sit down, that usually works, . Yeah. It does a lot. So yeah, that's where that's my most confident thing that I do when I sit down, I'm like, I'm gonna sit here until I hear a gobble. So I'm either gonna sit here all day and take a good nap, or I'm gonna hear a gobble . Yeah. It's not gonna hurt. Just sit still and listen.

Not at all, Joey. . I'm like, Adam, if I can get one to answer a cut or something like that, have a lot more confident. I almost, I've got to where I think if I have to beg him to gobble with some kind of locator call, that may be okay, but I think I'll have to work at him to get him good and torqued up to really come in there.

I'm not saying it's, it probably would happen but [00:38:00] I just think if he can cut, if he can gobble at a cut and I can keep him gobbling for a little bit and I think my odds go up significantly rather than striking him with alcohol. Or I got a new locator call for this year for the daytime, but I ain't saying what it is.

Not until after we record, but but yeah, if. if I have to, if I have to drag a gobble out of him and then work, try to get him torqued up enough to move in. It's, I would almost just rather start out with that cut. Start out with a Turkey call. Yeah. I love how you were saying that about the locators.

I've got a, I've got mixed feelings about him just like you, you're pulling one out of it. Does that mean he's fired up and ready to die? Not necessarily. He's just giving you a beat on him. And this is not the confidence thing, but I just let the woods wake up in the morning.

I don't make a sound. I, the owls are gonna go on their own. The crows are gonna go on their own. Let those turkeys wake up naturally [00:39:00] like they always do. And that's just me, , some people have their preferences. They'll hootie hoo on every ridge, but that's not me. I I saw some on Facebook.

A guy was Crow calling at six o'clock in the morning last weekend. Down here. Trying to locate some birds for this coming weekend. Just wild stuff. , I'll, I think locator calls are much more effective in the mornings. I will say that like hoot hooting and whatnot, and I will be that guy that hoots probably earlier than he should.

And I'll tell you why. If I can get that bird to gobble before anything else starts to gobble or before daylight , that gives me enough time to get enough of a pin on him to see where he is at and use the cover of darkness to get in there and get closer to him. If he gobbles instead of him gobbling at daylight and gray light when he can see me for probably a hundred something yards or 200 yards, especially this early season when there's nothing on the trees, then,[00:40:00] you gotta do a little bit more maneuvering to get up there to him.

But I think if you can get him to gobble when it's still dark out and he can't really tell what's going on the forest floor, , I think you got a better chance of getting closer to him and then probably just shutting up until daylight comes and then maybe you can see him or just whatever. But I think just getting in there as close as you can to him before he can see you is pivotal.

I I want to define what Joey and Matt were talking about with striking a gobbler, with a locator call. I think you guys are talking specifically about afternoons and evenings, right? When you strike a gobbler with a locator call in the afternoons and evenings, your confidence goes lower. Yeah.

That you are actually finding a hot Turkey, because it seems yeah. For me, if I'm, let's say I'm walking old logging road and I'm gonna stop and I'm gonna cut or something, I'm gonna yelp, or I'm gonna do some type of Turkey call and I get no reaction. Then I take another 50 yards and I'm like, oh man, this looks like Turkey.

I need to hit my crow call. I hit the crow call, and then one gobbles [00:41:00] a hundred yards away. Like you guys, I feel like if that bird, if that gobbler was really hot, he'd have probably gobbled at my yelping or my cutting, not at that crow call. Yeah. And so my confidence level does drop. And like Matt said, man I got a beat on him.

That's about it at that point. I think there's a, I think there's a difference in a shot gobble and a gobble in response to a hen. I think when you are striking him with that locator call, he's just shot gobbling, and I don't think that he's really trying to communicate with a hen and let that hen know that he's fired up and that he wants her to come to him, or vice versa.

I think it's just a true shot gobble when you strike 'em with a locator call versus with a Turkey call. I think they communicate with a Turkey call. I think they just react to a locator call. Yeah. He, here's one thing that's I wanna talk about more. My confidence goes down. We've been building our confident, our confidence is up when this happens, or I'm confident through [00:42:00] this.

My confidence goes out down when I find out he has a hen with him of any sort. And that was my story this weekend. Joey I got in there in the darkness and I sat down and I looked at my left and I could see a hint in the tree. She still had her head tucked, whatnot. But I get very, I know people talk about anxiety and whatnot, but I get very anxious walking in the woods under a Turkey.

I, cuz I feel like I'm committing a crime and I'm about to get caught . Becau because they don't know I'm there, just hope I don't get busted. But anyways I get in, set up and then you start hearing those hints. How are you gonna compete with a live hint? And I've, I'm finally understanding it.

, which I don't fully understand it, it's hard to fully understand Turkey hunting, but he's gonna prefer to go to those hands over you. You're already on the ground. You may talk to him, he's never heard you, whatever these calls are called, the raspy hen, this sexy swat, what whatever that doesn't matter [00:43:00] to him.

He knows those real hens are there. And if he sees him pitch down, he, that's where he's going. So to that, do y'all feel like you can call those hens to you, or are they just gonna do their own thing? I feel a higher confidence of him having hens with him than I do if the wind picks up. Yeah.

The wind is what kills my confidence in finding turkeys hens. I think I can, call, I can communicate with them and hopefully, pull that boss hand over there and, to me, if I can get a hand fired up and start talking with her man, that is just as fun or more fun than talking with a gobbler, because that hand's gonna tell you exactly what to say.

And how to say it? Because you just do exactly what she says and you just let her, set the tone. If she gets fired up, you get fired up, she gets even more fired up. You get even more fired up and you just repeat that process, and hopefully they'll just bring the whole flock in.

But also Matt, like we were talking on the Marco [00:44:00] Polo shameless plug for the Southern Ground Patreon, Marco Polo here talking about Turkey hunting. I think him having hens with him doesn't really kill my confidence so much that I just give up on him at least for a couple weeks. Him having hens with him makes it difficult for pretty much everybody.

There's gonna be those days where Dave Owens can't call him away from those hands. But I have confidence in that since it's gonna be so hard on everybody, maybe not everybody's gonna put a pin on that spot and come back and check him in two weeks. And hopefully if it's on public, he hasn't gotten killed.

And if he is on public, you just have to hope that, he stay end up for another weekend or so until you get back out there. So that doesn't kill my confidence nearly as much as wind. Wind. I would rather, I'd rather hunt in a hurricane than hunt in a 20 mile an hour wind. I hate it. Absolutely hate it.

Wouldn't a [00:45:00] hurricane technically be like a really high wind ? Yeah. You get what I'm saying? Wind maybe. Maybe that Forest Gump rain. I'd rather hunt. Forest Gump. Rain. Rain in sideways than wind. Yeah. There we go. , I'm with you Joey. I'm the same. I hate if it's, if the wind starts picking up, I'm like, Frick, I'm just gonna do something else.

Yeah. I just, oh, that I tell you that's one of the hardest parts about hunting turkeys out west. Yeah. You hear everybody talk about Miriam's and old Miriam's are fun and they gobbled at everything. Yeah. If you can freaking hear 'em, , you gotta wind, gotta hear them things in the pause of wind, let me tell you.

Yep. It makes it tough. I've had last year I was in Wyoming one morning, it, that wind was whipping in the dark and there were turkeys gobbling. And it was so frustrating because I could hear 'em. I just had no idea what direction they were coming from. I, and I had no chance. They were fired [00:46:00] up.

They were gobbling like crazy. And it's just that sounded like it was over here. , this was kinda like here, and so I'm right there, dude. It's Gosh, I hate hunting him in the wind. I'd rather hunt in the rain. I feel pretty confident. If what you're talking about Matt, about finding a bird that's got hymns with him I feel very confident that there's a Turkey in the area, right?

. And at some point that hen's probably gonna leave him that day. She's gonna leave him be, and he's gonna remember, I don't remember who it was that I heard talk about this. It may have been Dave or somebody on a podcast or something. But just the, vie it's common knowledge to hardcore Turkey hunter, but he'll pinpoint where he hears you at.

If he's gobbled at you that morning, he'll pinpoint that. And if he does, Lose his hands at some point. He's gonna just work his way back through there and see what's up with you because and I've seen it happen, freaking time and time [00:47:00] again. , where you'll be working a bird, then you'll leave and you'll go over somewhere else and he ends up gobbling right back where you were just at, like that, that I've seen that happen over and over again. And I'm, as long as I know there's a Turkey in the area, my confidence is pretty high. Yeah. Talking about confidence and just the ability to get it done. I bought a book the other day and I was sharing some stats with you guys, where in 1975, the state of Tennessee had 5,000 turkeys is what they guesstimated.

National Wild Turkey Federation had this book was, I think, hunting the Wild Turkey by Dave Harbor, and in that book showed statistics. of Hunter success rates per day. And it's the same statistics that, the different states are looking at today. I know Miss, the state of Mississippi looks that a lot and what I've heard, and I can't remember exactly what those numbers were, I think the state of Mississippi says the average let's say hunter in that guy that's killing two or three birds and I can't [00:48:00] quote all this stuff.

I think he's killing a Turkey every seven to eight days. That's pretty close to what Dave was saying in 1975 for those Turkey hunters. So you think about a guy living in Tennessee with 5,000 turkeys. Now he may have had to go to Alabama, where, Alabama's generally got more turkeys in Tennessee for all those listening, so does Kentucky.

. Even in 1975, you had to cross those state lines. But they were having just astronomical success rates. When you think about that, and it had, and I think about those guys you're dealing with that few of turkeys. You're going out there, you're dealing with the wind, you're dealing with rain, you're dealing with the ailments.

You're dealing with having to work all week, but you're still getting out there and you're finding birds and you're getting it done. Like those guys, probably a heck of a lot better Turkey hunters than what we are. And for what most of us say today, I will I won't argue that they were really good Turkey hunters.

Yep. But I will say that if I was a gobbler and there were so few turkeys that I hadn't heard of, hen [00:49:00] in a week and a half I may come running to the first hen I see. Or here I. I agree. That's what I've told Parker about Florida's dude, I love going to Florida because there ain't as many tur, it doesn't feel like I hear as many turkeys.

And if you strike a gobbler during the middle of the day, he probably doesn't have a hand with him. He is gonna be easier to kill. And unlike Tennessee, where it's I feel like they got five hens with him at all freaking times. Like you can't shake a shake 'em off of them. They did last year. Last pile year pile of turkeys last year was rough for a birds.

I'm seen You're right Jodi. I'm seeing like, even this year, it's like I see one gobbler every 10 hens. That's what it's like look like today. I today I saw what four struts, four strutting Jakes and then like 10 hens. They're all just hanging out in the field seeing a lot of field birds this year.

But the hen numbers are real high. The place I was hunting this weekend, they've been out there pretty much. [00:50:00] every other day. And it's two gobbler with eight hens. , that's a lot of eyes. Yeah. But that's, I'd rather have him, I'd rather have them have eight hens with him than two hens.

Yeah. And just have a bunch of turkeys. We've had some good hatches last couple years all across the southeast, and I don't, probably even up in the northeast too, just from what I hear there've just been some good hatches and there are those big winter flocks. And so I would anticipate, some big groups in early season, pretty much everywhere.

And again, I might anxious see what happens with Tennessee since we got the two week pushback, if they're still grouped up by that April 15th. Mark, I know a lot of states do like buck to-do ratios. Have you, have y'all ever heard anything of doing like a tom to hand ratio per state, which these states don't know how many turkeys they have anyways I don't know if they could be able to tell us that or not, but that'd be something cool to know.

Yeah, that, that information may be out there, but in my opinion, you can't have, you can't have too many hens. [00:51:00] Yeah. You, we can probably gripe about hen up birds, but at the end of the day, all those eight hens are hopefully getting bread and laying eggs, at the end of April. And it's, it was funny and shocking to me.

It was a couple months ago, I was getting my oil changed and guy was changing my oils, one of those little quick clue places or whatever it was. But anyway, he saw the Turkey, paraphernalia all over my truck and he said striker in the front seat. . Yeah, I got the, have you've ever been in my truck?

I got a hitch cover that's a strut and Turkey just sits on my dashboard that's gobbles. So Gobbles rides up on the dash all the time, and he saw that and he saw the N W T F license plate TF T sticker and whatever else on there. . And he said, are you a Turkey hunter? I said, yes sir, I am. And he started going on about how he Turkey hunted someplace a couple counties north where we were at.

And he said, man, I wish T W R A would just let us start killing a few of them hens. And I'll just , I just caught my head [00:52:00] like a dog, listening to a whistle and I didn't really know what to say for a minute. And I was like, oh yeah, how's that? He goes, yeah, man, them hens up at our place. I see 75 of them things every year, and only a handful of gobbler.

Man, I can't only have call them gobbler away from them hens. I wish I could just kill a few of them and and make them gobblers a little easier to kill. And I just, I think it was right before Christmas. I was like, yeah, man. I wish you the best of luck. Merry Christmas. And then I didn't, I just rolled my window up and I didn't talk to him no more.

But don't shoot those beard at hens. Yeah. Golly, man. I saw I had a beard at hen roosted beside me Saturday or something yesterday morning, and I had to catch myself. But no, Joey I would be a liar if I said I, I didn't think about that at one time. You know what, if we did kill some of these hands, we'd be better because that's my deer hunting mentality.

Yeah. With deer they say Kill, kill more dough. It'll make the rut, better. Not too, not as much competition, blah, blah, [00:53:00] blah, blah. That could go into a whole nother different category with turkeys. I can see where some people will think about, think that, but that's not a good idea.

No, I think I did tell him, that like we need all of those hens to make more turkeys. Don't you know where turkeys come from? They come from hen turkeys. I don't know if they talked to that in biology and the predation. Yeah. That's big. Yeah. That nesting success rate is so low.

If you start studying and looking at that, and again, we're not wildlife biologists, but it is very low, and I don't know how that compares to the deer out there, but Yeah. Yeah. Long story short, it's a flat miracle that we have adult gobblers to hunt every year. Yeah. And statistic wise, the odds of that bird making it two or three years is extremely low.

It's insane what it takes to grow a Turkey. . So again, we're not gonna go down a habit rabbit trail. I'm just gonna say one thing real quick. You read the old timers and I'm, and when [00:54:00] we're talking old timers, I don't mean the early 19 hundreds. I'm talking like the 18 hundreds. The 17 hundreds. When you hear the amount of turkeys that were in North America, gobbling their head is off from ridge to ridge.

And I think, I can't remember if it's the old pro Turkey hunter that references this or what book it is where they're just, it's like a continuous gobble once one starts going, you did not have two things during that time. And that was like the hunters that were out there doing what we're doing today and habitat loss.

So one of those two things, predation had to been pretty dang good. I guarantee you those Indians weren't out there trapping coyotes. I guarantee you those Indians weren't trapping coons. They weren't trapping possums. There was two things happening that's different today. Habitat loss. And hunter concentrations way, way up.

Not a ha, not a wildlife biologist. Not gonna go down that rabbit hole. Here I am doing it. Parker's looking at me like You . [00:55:00] You just put two sticks together. You just put two sticks together, started whitling on it started to cause a fire. You, no you just broke your own rule. I know. I couldn't take it

I couldn't take it. Oh, I'm saying I don't care what you say. You just broke your own. I know. That's why you were laughing at me. Cause I was sitting over here breaking my own rules, my own judgements. No, man, I gotta tell you how funny story, Joe. You reminded me of it, man. You're talking about that guy.

So we were Turkey hunting and this guy, , this guy comes up, this was last week. This guy comes up, he's talking to us, and he's a, he's an older gentleman pretty redneck fella as well. And he's yeah we've seen some, we've seen a bunch of gobbler go across this field.

Heck, I, I've shot about 10 hens this year already. , I don't think he knew there was anything wrong with it. I don't think he even had any idea that you weren't allowed to shoot hens. Cuz he was just like, yeah, we shoot hens back there all the [00:56:00] time. The gobblers they'll be further out, but yeah we'll shoot them hens.

That's good eating. It was like, okay, then that's, and it's one of those things like, do you tell 'em you're not supposed to do that? I know, not really. I don't know. He's gonna keep doing it , so it's golly it's it's crazy. It's crazy to think about that though. How many people do you think are out there actually shooting hints?

There's probably a few, like quite a few. , there may be a few. I think the percentage of people that just don't even read their regs, it's probably higher than that. Like I bet you next weekend there's gonna be some folks in Tennessee Turkey on No doubt it ain't supposed to be because they don't know nothing.

And in all honesty, I mean if, let's say somebody did not have social media and maybe just picked up if the, if they picked up the regs maybe, once a year sometime or another, what are the odds you think they know about some of the major changes [00:57:00] that, even Alabama?

No, y'all got more rules than we do. I think, no decoys first 10 days and w Maser closed for a week and I don't know, go, you just go down the list. If some old dude just didn't have social media and didn't even pick up the rigs. But he knows when Turkey season has historically opened.

He may kill a couple turkeys, but he may just be starting a week or so earlier than everybody else. I guarantee you right now there's somebody on a national forest in Alabama hunting and they came from outta state and they're camping and there's not very many game boards out there, and they're going to go and have a heck of a time thinking that they're hunting nobody else out there.

I promise you. I listen, I promise you that is happening right now as we speak. Because it happened last year. There was a lot, there was actually a lot of people out there from outta state. It was only non because all the [00:58:00] residents pretty well new. Yeah. And there are people out there hunting them, and like I, part of me is it is the rules are confusing, especially if you're a non-resident.

As a non-resident, I don't really, when I look at when. If I wanted to go to Indiana, I'm gonna go and look and see when does Indiana's Turkey season start? And that's what I'm gonna do. I'm not gonna think about I wonder if public land starts later or whatever. It's a, it's a weird rule.

Yeah. Most states don't do anything like that. I think Georgia does. Georgia and Alabama may the only ones Mississippi. Mississippi is like quota or draw for the first week or something like that for non-residents. I don't know, couple weeks I think. Yeah. Yeah. And quota hunt, you just, it just goes to show you need to do your due diligence for you just light off somewhere.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely, man. And I like just even going back to the [00:59:00] talk on hunter ethics and things like that. Like when we did this episode, when we did that episode and we. Put it out on social media. We were getting, we got messages and comments and some stories, same thing happened to us back, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And some guy poached the tur there, there's a lot of people out there breaking the rules, like an alarming number. And so a lot of these statistics are just honest statistics and we may never actually know how much is actually being effective or affected by hunter numbers.

Yeah. Guys, this conversation's been a lot of fun. . I enjoy this. I hope the listeners enjoy it. Parker, I think you said cuz I'm not gonna be here next week, I don't think. I think you said you guys are gonna pull a guest in for next week to have more of a traditional type interview. So anybody that's listening and man, this is two weeks in a row of you guys pontificating on all all things Turkey hunting and , [01:00:00] just the round table discussions.

Maybe it's getting old for 'em. We got traditional interviews coming back the next probably week or two and and hopefully some good Turkey kill stories coming as well. Heck, you. All right. Guys, thanks for joining in. Subscribe. Wait a minute, you don't subscribe. Podcast . You do actually. I subscribe.

I dunno what everybody else does. You don't podcast. I think you follow podcasts, right? I don't actually, I think Spotify works differently than, yeah. Than like iTunes and stuff like that. I don't know, see who the, say, who the boomer in the group is. All of a sudden it just came shine through . Do subscribe to our channel.

Okay. Bye smash. Smash. That light button says the notification bell, so you know everything that happens when it happens. Let out a big big old hoop when you do , [01:01:00] so we know you did.

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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