Show Notes
This week on the Limbhanger turkey hunting podcast, we're joined by a man who is only the second person to complete every turkey slam that exists. Chip Davis hails from Mississippi, and has killed a turkey in just about every place they exist. This includes: Grand Slam, Royal Slam, World Slam, US Super Slam, Canadian Slam, and Mexican Slam.
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Show Transcript
[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 roundtable conversation about one of the wet creatures in North America. Wild Turkey. Y'all stick around. It's gonna be a great show.
All right guys. Welcome back to the Limb Hanger Podcast. We got a really good one lined up for you here this week. Uh, we got Chip Davis with us who has completed, let's count 'em up, the Grand Royal World. Super Mexican. [00:01:00] And Canadian slams. And he's one of, one of only two people registered with the N W T F that has done that.
And, and that's pretty incredible. Um, and we're gonna get into Chip, uh, pretty heavy here in just a minute, but first we gotta have an update from, uh, Mr. Adam Cruz, because Parker and I haven't been Turkey hunting in a while. I haven't seen a Turkey d a little over a week. And, uh, same, I'm, I'm hurting Parker's tagged out in Alabama, so he ain't been hunting.
So, Adam, you gotta tell us a Turkey story. Good, bad, sad, all of it. I told Parker, uh, before we got going that this is the saddest of stories. So this, how, how can it, how can it get sadder? That's what I wanna know. Like, it's like, it's like what? It's like watching a movie and, and you're getting to the climax.
This is the climax. Oh no. This is like one of those, this is Billy Maze. But wait, there's, this is one of those Hemingway books where you just know like somebody's gonna like it [00:02:00] is gonna be really bad at the end. So anyways, um, so I went this weekend, I heard wine, Turkey, gobble. That's it. So I think Parker, I think he jinx me because up until that point you're like, dude, every, every time you go, you're like, you know, close to pulling that trigger or you know, close pull the trigger, do pull the trigger, whatever.
And then this weekend I heard one Turkey gobble on private land. I was hunting public. Did not get to chase him. So I'm gonna fast forward to the middle of this week where I started having some pains in my hip and I went to the doctor today. And so I have a, uh, a meeting with a surgeon Thursday. Like, I'm probably gonna have to do surgery, like pretty quick.
I'm guessing my season is probably, I'm already in light duty. She was like, do not do anything. Um, so yeah. Yeah, it's not a big deal. It's like minor. There's, I'm, I'm good, but the fact it remains like I can't do anything. And my s I mean, it, I don't know. Yeah. Lady. See, man, I mean, that's better than [00:03:00] you've got like a terminal illness or something like that.
Like Yeah. Yeah. It felt like you were going there and I'm like, gosh, I hope he doesn't do that right, right now. No, I'm not gonna do that. No, it, it's totally minor. Um, it's all good. It's just something I can't, yeah. I can't have strenuous activity, which I'm still probably gonna try to go Saturday somewhere.
Real, real easy. Unst strenuous. Unst strenuous. Did they say anything about Unst strenuous activity? I hope, yeah. I'll have a loo, uh, pull him out for me. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Did they, uh, did they say anything about armed hiking on semi flat terrain? Not, it was, it was pretty strict, but Wow. Yeah, man, off mine out Thursday, so hopefully Thursday.
I'll have more info. You barely Anyway. Thursday morning. Uh, afternoon. Thursday morning. Gosh, man. I hate it for you. That stinks. It's hell Getting old. Yeah, getting old sucks, bro. I [00:04:00] hate it. Uh, freaking hate it. But, um, you know, one thing that I do really appreciate are some good flipping Turkey hunting stories like, and what better guest could we have?
I mean, this guy has a Turkey hunting story from every place that somebody could tell a Turkey hunting story. You know what I mean? Like this guy has a, a mindful of Turkey hunting memories. We got Chip Davis on the line with us. Chip, how's it going buddy? I'm great guys. How are you guys? Hmm, we are excellent.
Just solid. Very good. Not speaking for Adam. Uh, we're doing excellent. Yeah. Yeah. Sa same just yeah. A surgeon crashing your season. I mean, yeah. A bummer. Dude. Adam's entire playlist is gonna be like early two thousands emo music from now until next Turkey season. Yeah, it'll be all right. It's, I've, I've had a great season, so it's okay.
[00:05:00] Well, chip, you know, I mean, Joey just read off like a, a pretty impressive resume. Um, and I know that it, it ain't, it ain't your style to toot your own horn, but man con congratulations from us on completing this thing, man. That's, uh, that's really cool. I wanna know like where, Where did it all, where did it all come from?
Like what gave you this idea to, to go out and complete every slam possible. Well, thanks. And first of all, thank, thank you much for the congratulations and, and, and, um, number two, thank you for having me on. I, I know this is gonna be a blast. I talked to you a couple times, uh, last day or two and I'm absolutely looking forward to this and hanging out with your listeners as well.
This is gonna be a lot of fun. It started, I was literally in college. Um, I graduated from Mississippi State University. Go dogs by the way. And um, when I was in college, there was a group of us that we all enjoyed Turkey hunting and we were buddies and we kind of hung out and, and uh, just, I guess it was kind of a goal of, you know, maybe to shoot [00:06:00] the grand slam to start with.
And I never traveled outta state at that time. Um, and then maybe we kind of, several of us, you know, it'd be really cool. Nobody had ever done it at that point in time. This was in, I finished in school in 91. So at that time, no one had ever shot even a US super slam. Um, much less all, you know, actually at the time they had have not even defined things like the Mexico Slam or the Canadian Slam.
And, uh, most of Canada had zero seasons at that time. So we were predated a lot of this and, and, uh, so we, you know, we just kind of talking it around and, and, um, A group of us. And so it still wasn't even a goal at that time. That was the first time, I guess it was an idea in my mind. And then in, uh, 1992, the following year after I finished school and came back and, uh, started a professional career and that sort of thing, uh, I actually went to Missouri and that was my first OUTTA state trip.
Um, they always open on a Monday. Historically, I always have, [00:07:00] I think they still do to this day, open on a Monday of the week. I think it's the third Monday of. April, if I'm not terribly mistaken, and somebody might correct me on that. But, um, at any rate, um, I did not shoot a Turkey on that Monday, but I did shoot a Turkey on that Tuesday.
And ironically, a year ago on the third, Tuesday of April is when I pulled the trigger. Almost the identical time on my watch is when I pulled the trigger on my very last 49th state. And I happened to be in, um, West Virginia at the time, almost to the minute. And so that's kind of, kind of cool how it all worked out exactly.
30 years later. 30 years, man. So that's, so from start to finish, it took you 30 years. Exactly, exactly right that that's the first out-of-state trip to the last out-of-state trip. Now obviously I had harvested turkeys in Mississippi PR previous to that, but, but yeah, the first actual traveling, you know, traveling thing.
In the meantime, I've, you know, early on, it's probably been close to a decade ago now, I went to Goulds, [00:08:00] uh, on the Goulds Hunt, um, in the Sierra Madre Mountains. Uh, that was a lot of fun. So I guess I kind of came to the question of, okay, you got, you got super slam what's now, and to, and I guess I'd heard of the Mexico Slam.
I knew I did not have a Mexican Rio, had lots of Rios, but not a Mexican Rio. And, um, and I also had been kind of saving the Oscillated Turkey. Um, at the time I wasn't super enthused about going there. Um, if you go when they're singing, they don't quote unquote gobble, uh, although some of the finer notes of the sound of his song, uh, have some sharp pitches, like a, a, you know, regular, you know, the other subspecies gobble.
It's, it's a few notes in there, but it's more of a, um, I don't know, it's more of a, uh, just a different sound. Um, but they're, they're definitely doing what we call gobbling. Um, you know, the, the natives there call it singing [00:09:00] and uh, and they react much like they're all, they're 100% of wild Turkey. Their, their, their body language, the different things that you look at when they get nervous.
They relax what their body language that you read so many times and they're exactly the same. They are a wild Turkey. Um, you know, their reactions are very, very much the same. So, uh, I'd saved that one till after the super slam, so I was able to pick that up. Um, actually made a trip earlier this year to Tama TAUs, uh, Mexico, probably hands down having more fun than I have on.
I've been on close to 100 different Turkey trips. Um, and just cuz I love to do it, not because I'm good, it's just cuz I love to do it and probably because I need my head examined for spending that kind of time and money chasing a Turkey. It's got a brain the size of a quarter. But, uh, but, but I'm absolutely in love with it.
And so, uh, So, yeah, that's, um, and of question when you get there, there's only one more step, and that's a Canadian, so that's what we just finished up last Wednesday [00:10:00] was, uh, we could go tomorrow, um, is the Canadian Slam. And so that, that wrapped em up. So now it's kinda like, I don't know, it's bittersweet.
Um, I'm certainly glad that the quest is complete, but it's also a little sad because I, I I, there's never an off season for me. I mean, there obviously, or about 10 months that I'm not hunting, but th those 10 months are comprised of thinking and planning and, you know, Googling turkeys in, you name X you know, Canada, turkey's in British Columbia, turkey's in Alberta, whatever.
And reading everything I can read and, and, um, and so yeah, it's just, uh, it is bittersweet. The bitter part is what am I gonna do now? I don't know, you know, so, uh, I know what you can do, and I actually had it written on here. Uh, you can go to New Zealand. I was just about to say that now that that's the, that is the last, all right, so I started to, I almost segued into there that it's on my list this fall.
Um, [00:11:00] believe it or not, this is how this, this small world we live in, it's great big, and he was traveled for hours and hours and hours on a jet airplane doing 650 miles an hour. And it takes forever to get somewhere, but also the world's tiny. When I was in British Columbia on the very last hunt, there was a group in that lodge and he had now there or fall, right?
Their, their seasons are opposites. They're southern hemisphere and he had a buddy of his that was there. And I had been looking for a place to go in, in New Zealand. So since then, this is literally less than a week ago. Since then, I've made contact with the guy in New Zealand. And we're not a hundred percent booked yet, but within the next two or three days, we're gonna be booked for probably an October trip, which will kind of be six months opposite on the calendar to them.
And that's when their targets should be gobbling and they're, they're breeding season. So yeah, that's, that's there, that's literally in the work. So that'll be maybe the last big trip I ever take. So, man, that is awesome. I [00:12:00] always, uh, I don't ever wanna discredit somebody for getting the US Super Slam because I know it's incredibly hard and it takes a lot of dedication, but when somebody does these, uh, the Mexican Slam, the Canadian Slam, uh, and they go to these different places, I love all of that because it just seems like nowadays there's so many people going after the US Slam, you know, ever since, well, pre Covid the last, what, four or five years probably people have really started.
Getting after the US super slam more and more. Uh, and like I said, I don't wanna discredit those people because I know it's incredibly hard, but whenever you go up into Canada and you go down into Mexico, uh, and you hunt those turkeys and then you got plans to go to New Zealand, I mean, that really sticks out to me.
Uh, and I'm also anxious to hear about that New Zealand, uh, trip because it's been on my radar too. Um, but, uh, I just haven't, haven't gotten there yet. That's at someday. That's [00:13:00] someday. That's, that's not on the calendar, but, uh, I'm gonna get there. So maybe when we, uh, when we sign off here, I may have to pick you brain about it a little bit.
Absolutely. Sure. I. So, so Chip, I was thinking, like you said, you didn't know what's next, but as far as, you know, like next season or, or next goals that you might have, do you have any desire to do the US Slam again or is it more about the best experience possible from here on and out? Yeah, so there's some certain things that I'm kind of haven't figured out yet and certain things that I don't know, but for unequivocally, 100% I will be, not re I will not be repeating a second US Super slam for sure.
It was, uh, not that I didn't like it, I absolutely loved it, but boy it is so much dedication and so much time and so much effort and travel and I love the effort, I love the travel, I love all that. And so, you know, it is, it's kind of ironic maybe for me to [00:14:00] say I'm not doing another one, but I just, I just know how much, how much it takes and I just, I'm.
I'm not as young as I used to be. You know, I'm in my mid fifties now and I just, I don't know that I got another one in me, you know, so what I would rather do, and this is more my choosing, I would rather hunt with, you know, with friends and family that I'll enjoy spending time with and go back to my most favorite ones, you know, with no pressure.
I will say this and, and I've had some degree of success in the Turkey woods, but this whole slam thing is fun. It's how we keep track, it's how we keep records. I do think, and, and, and I hesitate to even say in this, especially on a public podcast like this, but I do think it takes a little bit away from the Wild Turkey.
Um, I've been in places that's really, really difficult and hard to get there, and I had str struggling hunts. Uh, so, um, my whole Hawaii hunt was a great example of this. I did the Hawaii hunt [00:15:00] on the year. That was, it wasn't exactly to the month, but uh, my wife and I were married. Uh, at that, the year I did the, I think it was two years ago, I did the.
Hawaii trip, uh, that happened to be the year we were married in, in January, but we waited until March to go on that hunt and we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary at the same time. I did my Hawaii Turkey hunt. Very, very expensive. Airline tickets, very expensive stay. We get there, a hunted on public land for a day.
Um, had some other outings that that were, um, Still outdoor oriented, but not, um, but not Turkey oriented and did those, and we got down to, I literally had two more days. And, um, well, I started feeling the pressure and it does things to you that you don't normally do at home. It, it, it, it makes you, it, I don't know exactly.
I mean, it's nothing unethical. There's nothing there. You just get in a lot, a lot more haste, a, a bigger hurry. You try to force things too quick and, and it robs you to a certain degree [00:16:00] of the experience and the love that we all have in our hearts. For the Wild Turkey, I do think a certain degree, especially, I didn't feel this until I was closing in on that, but there's a few of these trips that are so difficult to get there.
They're so expensive, so much travel that I do think it takes a little bit and at the end of the day, More than, more than anything. I'm in love with the wild Turkey. I'm in love with that gole. I'm in love with hearing him drum. I'm in love. The first time I see that red head pop through the furthest you can see.
And when you first catch that glimpse of that red head coming to you, that's what I'm in love with. And, and when you're almost forced to, I, I don't know. I mean the, the slams, I think some kind sometimes can possibly take some of that away, man. Chip, the, you, you transitioned so perfectly into what I wanted to ask you is like when you go on these hunts, like is there, is, is you're trying to do something that has a per, that it's a personal goal.
Like I don't know [00:17:00] if Nwtf sends you a whole bunch of stuff. I don't know, like if you actually get something out of this, but most of it is like. Just all inside, like, it's like a pride and it's, it's a personal sense of accomplishment. Um, so there's really nothing huge at stake here, right? Like if you don't mm-hmm.
Finish it. But is there, like, was there any situations where you didn't shoot a Turkey the way that you wanted to? So maybe you were walking through the woods and, uh, Turkey ran out, gobbler ran out in front of you and you shot it. You know, I know out west a lot of the style of hunting that I've done in the late season on those Western Miriams is kind of like a spot in stalk style thing, you know, cuz they're moving so fast.
Is there like a particular style of hunt that you're like, this is. What I'm going for. And I know your answer already cuz he told me yesterday. I think maybe it, well maybe not. Cause I don't even remember exactly that, that answer, but I'm gonna answer it this way cuz this may be better defines what I was trying to [00:18:00] say earlier.
And I'm gonna go back to the, to the last target of the US Super Slam, which was last year in West Virginia. And I was so nervous. And I got there literally on Easter Sunday afternoon, I got to the property that I was gonna hunt. Beautiful place in West Virginia. Um, I was staying a little cabin up on top of the hill that was literally overlooking this pro property.
And they had a major, it was warm, it was bright sunshine. Uh, uh, their season did not open until the following day, until on that Monday, so I could not hunt. Um, you know, because there was, the season was not open. But I've got glasses, binoculars, we call glasses. Um, and, and I'm, I'm hearing turkeys gobble, and I'm, I'm way up on this tall mountain.
I'm looking down all these beautiful, beautiful property and turkeys are gobbling everywhere. Well, that night we got six inches of snow. And, um, it started out freezing rain, then it was sleet, and then it was snow. And so the opening day, I start feeling its pressure. And then I guess that afternoon it warmed up a little bit [00:19:00] and these turkeys are gobbling again.
And I said, no, then I just relaxed then, then it's, it's plenty of turkeys here. You know, this is, this is gonna happen. And I just completely fell into a relaxed, relaxed type of mode. It, it is just, you don't have this pressure, you don't have this insider, you know, there's nothing monetary. There's, I Ntf doesn't send me anything.
I fact of matter. I have to pay them to register my turkeys with them. So, uh, so no, there, there, there's nothing at stake. There's not like, I lose a paycheck if I don't shoot a Turkey. But there's, um, I think this internal pressure is, I, I, I treat it more like a job and I, I maybe I take it too seriously.
And I, and that's all I was saying about the slams, is I think we as humans, Put certain things in life way more important than they really should be. Turkey hunting should be to be enjoyed at whatever level that is. If you're, if you're a first time Turkey hunter, it's a great goal to hear your first Turkey gobble.
I remember the first Turkey I heard [00:20:00] Gole, and that's a awesome first goal. You know, if your, if your interest and your goals are to grow a good business, you know, a monetarily successful business, you need to have a first sale sometime, you know, because you can't get to me, uh, to be a millionaire without having that first sale.
But then you need to, to, to look at, depending on what it is, I'm not telling anybody what they should do or shouldn't do, but it's goal setting. It's what it is, and it's step by step. And I think that when you get toward the end of these, the pressure just becomes more than it should be because it is, I I, I never fell out of love with the wild Turkey.
And, and, but I do think that, you know, that when you got to the tail ends, tail stages of the s. It, it was something I wasn't, I wasn't prepared for, if that makes any sense. It makes so much sense. It, it definitely does. But you know, there, there are times chip, when we start hitting our goals and maybe we even start achieving some of that success, but then we run into roadblocks.
Right. And I know if you've went and hunted all these [00:21:00] different states and all these different places, you've talked about the pressure that's on you. Have you ever went through a serious slump? Like it's nothing, nothing's going right. And then how do you deal with that? I have, I think all of us have for, for sure.
Um, my approach. I've approached most all of my truckies now. This has been a work in progress for sure. But the first thing that I do when I get to a new state or a new property, or a new foreign country or a new, anything that, that I've been to is I'm immediately trying to determine. Where the turkeys are in their breeding cycle, and now I'm not talking about what a man said on a calendar date is season opens on X date.
What I'm concerned is they're, I believe I've defined about 17 or 18 different cycles, everything from pecking order that in Mississippi and Alabama, more than likely, uh, happens in February all the way down to Gobbler's getting back together [00:22:00] again, usually in mid to late June. And the period in between there has many different segments and many different cycles that are vastly different.
And when you learn to identify those and you learn to react to the turkeys based on what their life cycle progression is during the breeding cycle, I know it's a lot of cycles that said, but, but it's more an adaptation. And you may hunt today on a Osceola in Florida and tomorrow on an Eastern and North Dakota.
And we're totally opposite ends of the cycle. And you better be prepared to adapt your game and give the turkeys what they want, uh, if you're gonna be successful. So those are more of the challenges. Some places, um, my least favorite places to hunt are mountainous areas that are extremely wooded. Much like the very, very last one, British Columbia.
And what if you want to add one [00:23:00] more curve ball to that, you put those, those guys when they're hand up and they're got not goblin much, because every Turkey that I used to say this, I used to say every Turkey that's ever been ho harvested, one or two things had to happen. You either had to see him or you had to hear him.
I've kind of even refined that now. Every Turkey that's harvested, you've gotta see him at least right toward the tail end. When, when, when you put your bead on him and you squeeze that trigger, you've gotta see him. And so when you're in areas that are straight up and straight down, like last week in British Columbia, then you really rely more on the audible.
And if it's not goblin, because the turkeys are hand up. Plus the area I was in had very, very few turkeys. Very few turkeys. Um, and so there's not a lot of 'em there. And they're only gobbling once or twice in the tree, and you've got 12 hours to be with them, you know? So it just makes it, where do you even start?
So I'm glad that was the last one instead of the, the instead of the front one. Cause I had to, I had to pull on all the [00:24:00] strings that I'd learned, but, but, uh, I hope that, I hope that makes sense. It sounds like maybe I was rambling there, but I was trying to make some points about progressions and how the season progresses.
No, that, I'm really glad you brought that up. Um, because, uh, probably by the time this this episode drops, it'll be really late season for, uh, the rest of the country, you know, north part, north part of the country, out west. You know, Tennessee's gonna be open throughout the, throughout Memorial Day. Um, I kind of wanted to ask you, what, what kind of tactics do you implement for that late, for those late season, uh, cycles that you were just talking about?
Yeah, so it just, it varies. It literally depends on which micro cycle they're that they're in, you know, um, um, obviously as the hens are going to true nesting, you know, they're done breeding by the time, and, and turkeys tend to get a little easier, um, just because their desire to procreate is still there.
And, you know, and that's a pretty textbook. I mean, you can find that [00:25:00] information anywhere. Um, So, yeah, um, I like to be mobile. I like to, you know, uh, within reason, um, you know, you can, that can be abused just well, for sure. Um, I got a story about that, but I, I don't know that I can say that without naming of name.
So it was recent, so I'm not, I'm not gonna even gonna go there. Uh, but yeah, you don't want me too mobile. I, I'll say that, you know, when, when guides in certain places say, you know, how do you like to hunt? You, you know, we got temp blinds, we can seek you in and come back and pick you up at dark or, or I said, I'm more of a move around.
I'm more of a go to the Turkey kinda guy myself, you know, and see how the go to the Turkey means walking 20 miles an hour, as hard as you can walk straight up and down, beautiful Turkey country. I finally had to say, no, dude. Hey, look what? Stop, let's change places. You follow me? And we, we, if I gotta have a guide, that's okay, but you be behind me.
And, and so yeah, we spent a half a morning blowing out country. So, yeah. Anyway, that's, uh, that's probably a rabbit trail right there. But yeah, that happened. I was [00:26:00] really curious. Uh, About hunting late season, especially this year with Tennessee's season, Tennessee's season getting shifted, uh, so late. Um, and I'm not bragging on myself or anything, but I tagged out early and I, I didn't have the opportunity.
Oh, we're not, we're not worthy. We're, but, but I, I killed a couple turkeys by, you know, by the third week of April, and so I'm not able to hunt that, that mid to late in May that we haven't been able to hunt before. And I'm kind of upset about it because that was something that I hadn't tackled yet. And so I'm all, I was just been really curious of how, you know, how guys really tackle that super green up, that type of year, the way the turkeys are acting, because when our season usually ended was about, you know, now, you know, mid-May, uh, when, when we're recording this, And so the gobbler were starting to break up a little or starting to get back together maybe a little bit in some [00:27:00] places, but I always remember that first week of May being just like rhyme hunting and I would only imagine that it just gets better and better throughout the month of May.
And so I'm just sad I missed it. Well, the, the negative you have with the late season turkeys, and I'll actually try to do a better job of answering your question here. Um, the positive is what I did mention a minute ago. They're without hands, but more and more each day. The negative part they just got through with, depending on when the manmade season on a calendar started, they just got through with a whole bunch of pressure.
Um, so it's a trade off there. And, and so there's a varying degree of tactics that, I mean, I can spend the rest of podcasts. I think we wanna cover more subjects, but they're real quickly. When I get on pressured turkeys and, and you may or may not have pressured turkeys there, I don't know, but there's just, it stands a chance that turkeys are not as fresh as they were on opening day of season, if that makes any sense.
Mm-hmm. And so you got pressure turkeys, um, you know, that have probably heard most everything, most [00:28:00] of the calls in the woods. They've done that. They've lived for a reason up until now. What you got going for you, the positive. That's the con. The, the, the, the positive is, is, you know, all of a sudden this is their last chance.
You know, I mean, he's, he's been talking to hints and had girlfriends every day up until last week, and now all of a sudden there's a new one. So the tactics typically are, try to get close without bumping him. That's, there's, again, positives are negatives, just like life. Every decision we make's got positive and negatives.
I'm, you'll see me bounce back and forth to life lessons in Turkey on him as we go through this. But, um, so I like to get close. I like to call lightly because if you can get close, there's no need to blow him out of the woods with, you know, with cuts and, and, and all these other, you know, high, high pressure type calls.
He, he's already in the mind frame. You, you, you, you gotta get the turkey's mind. He's already in the mind frame. All of a sudden. This may be the last chance I had. I hadn't seen a lady in two weeks now, or a week or 10 days or whatever. And there she [00:29:00] is. And a lot of times this soft calling, but getting close and those are my tactics that I would try.
Uh, part of that kind of derives from the pressure thing, you know, that's the soft cost of, uh, part of it kind of is more focused on where I think he's at in, in that particular life cycle, the, of the breeding cycle. So I hope that answers your question. There's a couple more specific tactics that I would use in situations like that.
Yeah, chip, I mean, like you said, like I, I feel like a guy who, a guy who's hunted as many places as you. We, we could literally spend a week probably talking about the different differing tactics between different differing Turkey types. Um, I wanna know, was there one. In your, in all your travels, was there one that was like absolutely without a shadow of a doubt, um, your absolute favorite hunt?
It doesn't have to be because a Turkey hunt was so good in [00:30:00] that state, but just the hunt itself was so memorable. Um, and if it were me, it would probably be the one that was the hardest. I would think it would be the one that would be the most memorable. Is there one that really sticks out to you? It is.
It hands down is a hundred percent and it happened this year, believe it or not. Um, TAUs is a state of Mexico, TAUs Mexico on a Rio Grande hunt. I had an absolute blast. One of my favorite, so, Obviously to shoot. And, and this is not braggadocious, I promise you. In order to shoot the super slam, you have to go to at least 49 states.
Okay. I mean, you just gotta do it. You gotta be there to, to do that. And then you add the other international trips and all that. But I didn't, you know, I went to, I'm in Mississippi's where my home state is, so I probably went 20 years to Missouri. This is before I was really sure enough in the chase. Yeah.
I would pick up a state or two here or there or whatever. Um, and then I, so [00:31:00] Florida, uh, I went to Florida, uh, golly, 16 times I think. Um, I, I wound up some really, really good close personal friends in Florida. Uh, we would swap out turkeys for deers and it, and they didn't have very many deer and we had a good population of deer.
And so we'd swap that out and we enjoyed them too. We'd actually even go down there in the summer just to hang out. So a bunch of trips to, to, you know, to Florida. Other, other places I've been. Hunting Alabama probably 12 overtime, 10, 12 times. So there's a bunch of other trips that are not solely dedicated to the birds that were harvested that goes to the goal, if that makes sense.
Yeah. So all in all, I'm guesstimating right at 100 different Turkey trips. Um, you know, a lot of those were repeats, you know, between Missouri and Florida that accounted for, you know, scores of them right there. Um, and then plus all the ones that did count Tous Mexico from the time, um, I was on the ground in [00:32:00] Brownsville, Texas, and I got picked up until we went there.
Everybody said, do not go, do not go drug cartel. Uh, you're gonna get killed. You're not gonna come back. You're all this stuff. And I know, I'm gonna say I was a little apprehensive about that at first, what I saw in Mexico. W the, we first landed at Madam, well, at Brownsville, I spent the night there. I got picked up Madam O immediately across the border.
I saw, I don't know how big it is, a couple of million people going about daily lives, you know, and just some of the neatest things, some of the best talent to be folks juggling bottles on the, at every stoplight or whatever, you know, it, uh, it's just, just neat stuff that you see. Not Turkey related at all.
Some absolutely gorgeous country we got down there. Um, the Mexican people absolutely are, they treat you like a king when you're there, almost to the point of it was a little uncomfortable that you know, that they're, they, you know, and so it, it [00:33:00] is private room, air conditioned swimming pools, the whole nine yards.
I didn't get in the pool, but, but, uh, beautiful country. And we get there and there are, I'm the only guy out there. They're really and truly a, uh, a quail hunting operation. Uh, but they started adding on the Turkey hunt, so they got plenty of turkeys. We go go hunting the first morning, actually the first afternoon.
And there's me and the two owners, and then there's like eight other guys in the back of the truck and we start dropping guys off. There's eight other people, well actually nine counting one of the owners. And then myself on my hunt, there's 10 people finding, finding turkeys. You know, they're looking, they're listening, and you got all these scouts there and it's like, well, which one do you wanna go to?
This is Gobel 25 times, and this is gobel 80, 84 times. And this has had four hands. And, and it was Turkey heaven. And the accommodations were awesome. The food was awesome. Hands down. Uh, anybody can contact me later. I don't know if I'm supposed to name say the name of that outfit or not, but I absolutely would highly encourage [00:34:00] anybody to do that.
And um, as they're saying was, it's kind of like South Texas only for men.
Solly made Adam, Adam season even sadder. Oh, the very, the very first afternoon, I gotta tell this story, the very first afternoon, and I'm not a big blind hunter, but occasionally when you don't what, what the turkeys are, you're in the learning stage. I'll sit in one for a little while just to kind of get, and also it was so windy.
We had not the rest of the trip, that was the only day, but that afternoon we had probably 40 knot gusts. It was unbelievable to wind. You couldn't hurt a Turkey anywhere. So you had a l uh, you know, um, mu vista. You could see a long ways from, from this blind. So I said, you know, hey, we're going. We're a cut of losses here and we're going see what, what the turkeys are doing in visually and, and so hunting in a blind.
We're there about an hour or so and, and, and so I'll use the guy's first name, but not his last name. Jose is one of the owners and [00:35:00] we're sitting there and he jumps and he says that choice words too. And without any explanation, I knew exactly what it was. I looked straight down. Our boots are probably, I don't know, eight or 10 inches apart.
I look down and I see the six foot long temp Rattler. I think he's a 10, no, he's a diamond back. Rattler diamond back. Yeah. Crew crawl right up in the blind with us, and he's literally four inches in front of both of our boots. And, and he jumps. I, I slide back. I try not to jump like we come out and yeah, that kind of, that kind of messed up that hunt.
But long story short, I harvested a couple of birds there. They were, they, it was so much fun. Uh, called up some turkeys for the other guys in camp and had absolute blast. That's my favorite. Yeah. Yeah. I'm, uh, sorry it took too long on that, but that's a awesome, I mean, and you didn't even have to hotspot estate.
Like, look at that. Yeah. We just accomplished a lot right there out there. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Yep. Uh, super easy hunt. It. That particular one on that particular lodge is two and a half hours. Actually, not even quite that. Just call it two 15 South of Brownsville, Texas. [00:36:00] Uh, but you're in TAUs, Mexico.
Absolute blast. The the most fun I had on any out of a hundred. Hey, dude. Tell, tell the name of the outfitter. Go ahead with it. Yeah, I mean, I think that'd be great. Yeah. Yeah. It's, uh, El Hacienda, um, Outfitters in TAUs, Mexico. They do have a website and I think it's, I think you can search l e l Hacienda. Um, Um, and maybe even re add Rio Grande on the end of that and you can find him.
Uh, yeah. Uh, Paul is the guy that you wanna get in contact with. He's, uh, he's a US citizen and, uh, soon to, I think maybe even be a dual citizenship guy, but, uh, super good guy, Missouri boy. Um, and yeah, you can talk to him, understand him, all of 'em. You can. I, I feel, I feel like El Hacienda, Rio Grande is like the house on the, on the Rio Grande River.
Yeah, the house on the big river. So you might have to search like hunting operation. Yeah. Um, and I was trying to think, um, I may actually need to look that up here in a moment. Uh, maybe the next [00:37:00] question that's length. I can look that up cuz, uh, I wanna think, say maybe there's another word to that. It's, that's been about a month ago now, so it's not real.
I, I know it's El Hasa, but, um, I'm looking El Oh, I got, I got El Dore. El Dorado Hasa. Try that, try that. El el Dodododo Haciendo. That's it. Yeah. Yeah. I found it. El Yeah, El Dorado Hacienda. That's it. Yeah. And if, if, if Paul and Jose are listening to this, I apologize for getting the name of the lights wrong, but I had a blast with you guys, so, so yep.
It's Hasa Hacienda del Rio. No has hacienda el dorado mx.com. That is it. That is absolutely it. 100%. That's it. Yeah. I'm gonna be checking that out cuz that sounds like a good time. Yeah, that's a great time. That's a great time. And I know Joey's got a question, but I, I gotta ask what happened with the snake?
Like nobody got bit, I'm guessing like you left me hanging. Yeah, no, no, no. Nobody got bit. The snake had a bad day. I'll say that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was, uh, [00:38:00] uh, he was six feet long. I know that definitively. And, uh, he, he only had seven rattlers actually. But, uh, we 40 mile an hour winds and, uh, and not shooting my own ammo cuz it's, you can take your own shotgun, but it's very expensive to do that.
So shooting their shotguns, their ammo. So yeah, we, we, we waited until a really, really high wind gust and we knocked him out. So get the, uh, the international travel is just so intimidating to guys, especially when you bring up Mexico because of all the, all the horror stories that you hear on the news about Mexico.
But I'm, I've been to Mexico oodles of times for work, uh, and then I went on my Goulds trip last year, uh, and I've been down though. And Brazil, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and a hand, you know, a handful of places all down in there. And lemme tell you, once you get down in there, it's almost just like the United States in that when you get away from the towns, I mean, everywhere down there is gorgeous.
It's just beautiful scenery. You get the mountains down in Mexico [00:39:00] and once you get outta town, you wouldn't be able to tell if you were in Mexico or Arizona. I mean, it's just, the terrain is so similar. The people are so nice. Uh, chip, you nailed it. They treat you like royalty when you're down there. Even, even on my work trips, they did that.
Um, and uh, it's, uh, it's something that I recommend anybody to do and it's so easy to do. Like you mm-hmm. You go to Mexico, like you have to have a passport to get back into the United States. When I went to Mexico for my Golds trip, I didn't show anything to get across the Borderer. They didn't care. And, uh, but.
By golly, they checked my passport coming back in. But, um, it's the people shouldn't be so intimidated by international travel, especially on this side of the globe. And you don't even have to cross an ocean. Um, you're, you're a, you're absolutely right. And I, I, I would like to use that opportunity to say that I'm using Turkey hunting as my goals, cuz that's what I just completed.
That was just my [00:40:00] goals. But I'd really rather the show be in my message, be more about goals and, and life goals and how many times I'm guilty of it. I'm sure all three of you guys are. We let the least little things intimidate us sometimes, and we rob ourselves from the passion we rob ourselves from, from success in achieving our goals because we let the smallest of things get in the way.
The what ifs. What if I don't succeed? Who cares? Guys? The listeners, if you don't succeed, you gained a lesson. You know, it's not a failure, it's a gain of a lesson. You know, if you get, if you get somewhere, you don't shoot that Turkey. If you're going on a elk trip and you don't hear him bugle, and he does, and you don't get to, to draw the bow or shoot the gun, you learn something.
You know, and, and there's a lot of ways you can learn something. And hopefully our listeners, as we're talking about Mexico in particular right now, that's one thing. Yes, you absolutely always wanna be careful. You wanna be careful in business, you wanna be careful as you're raising your families. You, you know, you don't wanna send your, your [00:41:00] kids to, you know, to the middle of the drug, part of town, you know, in, in a u US city.
But at the same time, with caution, There's no need to, to live your lives in fear and, and because fear robs us of our ultimate goals. Yeah. A life lived in fear is a life half lived is one of my favorite quotes. Mm-hmm. Man. So stinking good dude. Um, chip, you, you talk a lot about, you talk a lot about life and, uh, how it relates to Turkey hunting.
Uh, you've also mentioned that you, you do have a family. Um, like has this affected your family and, and not to get too personal with you, cuz I, I truly don't know the answer to this question, but what would you tell a, a fellow that's got a wife and, and some kids as it pertains to Turkey hunting and, uh, and traveling to Turkey hunting and, and doing some of these things that you've done?
Oh boy.[00:42:00]
Well, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna tell you what I tell my children, but, uh, but, uh, don't, yeah, no, it's, no, I love my wife and, and I've got a really, really good one that understands it. Um, I'll quote her dad right after, soon after we got Mar married and, and I was going on trips and, and he told her and she was pretty upset, but, but you know, I was going, I was, I was just gonna go.
And it was just, it's something that I do. And he told her, he said, well, you knew, you knew that he Turkey hunted when you married him. So, uh, I would absolutely encourage people to get that workout. If you're gonna be going on any type of trip, anything like this, you need to have a really, really good network behind you.
A good solid core team behind you. And that includes your family first and foremost. And, and yeah, you need, you know, if you hadn't, I'm not the best at this, but sit down and talk about it. Get it, hash it out. You know, do this in June or July. Don't, don't wait till Turkey season, cuz it's gonna be tough. [00:43:00] But, uh, yeah, if you're dating, if you're thinking about getting married, uh, You need to have that conversation with your spouse.
I mean, there's a lot of ladies that are doing this now that works the same thing in opposite, you know, for females to males, but traditionally it's been more males to females. But, uh, have that conversation, get it, get get it out there, you know? Yeah. Communication is everything. Now, chip was your, was your father-in-law?
Turkey hunter? He was not. He was not ne never, never Turkey hunter, never Turkey hunter. Duck props to the father-in-law on that one. For a man who's not a Turkey hunter to give a advice like that, that's solid stuff. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, you nailed it though. Uh, sorry, chip, go ahead. No, no, go ahead.
No, you nailed it. As far as that needs to be hashed out, you know, before Utah, the night, because I couldn't imagine springing something like my Turkey addiction. I couldn't imagine springing that on my wife right now, you know, four years and two kids later, uh, after we're married, [00:44:00] That just would not, I mean, it just wouldn't go over well.
Wouldn't go over well. Mm-hmm. And we started dating in late 2015 and come spring of 2016, she was hit with a hard dose of reality of what my life is like in the spring. And thank the Lord that she stuck it out that first spring, because that, I just knew, I was like, I knew in the back of my head, I was like, if, if she can get through this first spring, we can probably make it through a bunch more.
And thankfully she did. And that's not to say that it's easy by any means. When you, I think you, I can't remember if we were recording or not when you were saying how we need to have our head examined. Uh, sometimes when we go to chase these birds around, like when you're going through Kroger and you see a pile of turkeys laying in the freezer section, meanwhile you're flying across the world trying to shoot the things, uh, for, for, for an, uh, exponential amount of money.
[00:45:00] Um, you kind of second guess yourself on how your mental status is. At least I do. But, um, it, uh, yeah, you have, you have to establish all that early, and I'm not saying it's not, it's not impossible. Uh, after you're married and you know, somebody that gets into Turkey hunting. But it's gotta be smoother, you know, nipping that in the bud from the beginning instead of a few years later.
It literally absolutely is. And, and this is actually kinda a little uncharted waters for me cause I've never really talked about this on the podcast before. I've done a lot of the podcasts around and, but this really is worthy of mentioning it. It's um, especially what I see Turkey hunting becoming now is a lot, a lot of younger guys.
Um, you know, um, when I started there was not many people at Turkey hunting at all. Um, just cause we didn't have many turkeys. Turkey were just really rebounding to a very healthy level when I started. Um, so, [00:46:00] and I don't know that I've ever heard this talked about, but it's literally, I'm, I think maybe I'm gonna refer to this in non hunting genre instead of Turkey hunting genre.
It's communication is what it is. And, um, Guys when you're married, especially not quite as much in relationships, but the same thing applies. But when you're married, uh, that's real because you're a partner, you're a 50 50 partner with your spouse, uh, regardless. And I keep saying, guys, I apologize that cause I'm sure we have female listeners too.
It happened. He either way. Um, and that's 50% of that, they've got to be on track with it. It almost more than an acceptance type of thing. They almost, they don't have to have your same passion. My wife, she knows what my passion is and she accepts that. Um, are there times that I'm away from home for a month on end, especially as a late, and she says, I'm so ready for you to get home.
Uh, you know, then, then, yeah, there those times [00:47:00] happen. But she still, she, she's, she's been my biggest cheerleader through this whole entire thing. You know? Um, I've gotta segue from that and tell you, Every single Turkey, I think. Um, we weren't married when I very first started this, so not everyone, but every once for the last 20 years, I'll call her and we've got just a thing we do.
When I finally harvest Turkey, she knows where I'm at. She knows from the South Carolina or North Dakota or Washington State or, or or Ontario or wherever. And when she gets a call and she says hello, and on the other end she hears, and then, then, then she, she knows that, man, I just killed a Turkey. I'll gobbling her.
And, and, and, and, and every single time I usually, if I'm hunting with, uh, you know, landowner, whatever, they're with me, she'll say verbatim every single time. She'll say, and it doesn't matter if it's, if it's a tree hunt, right off, he, I watch his feet hit the ground and I shoot him. Every single time she says, it's about time now, get [00:48:00] your black home.
That sound at, at any rate. But yeah, it's uh, I love it. That almost is, yeah. That's become a kind of a thing between she and I. So, but no, the communication is everything, but so is communication in any other avenue of life too. Man, I, I had a completely unrelated question, but I, I think I'm gonna, I think I'm gonna hold off on that one.
I want to kind of stick on here on this, like, you know, getting things in line, chip, what do you do for a living and what have you done for a living that allowed you to, to like make this work with a family and keeping a job and all that stuff? It's kinda interesting because my occupation for most of my life was very non conducive to Turkey, especially traveling for 30 years of my life, I was a farmer.
And, uh, farmer in the deep south of the United States of America. And, and we were planning about right now, um, and I couldn't go on a trip until [00:49:00] there was at least two inches of rain in the gates. I, I, I used to not thought, have, didn't think exactly like that. I went to Missouri one time cuz we had an 80% chance of rain that night.
Supposed to be rainfall up up to three inches and said We're gonna be wet. I'm gone. I got all the way up there, and this is before my dad died, uh, almost 20 years ago. This is, is at least 20 plus years ago. Call back home. Uh, drove most of the night. Got there honey. One morning, uh, called since I got done.
Just wanted to make sure it rained, you know, so I was set up here to other days and he said no. He said it hadn't rained a drop. I had to turn around and drive all the way back down there, paid the outta state license pay hundred one morning. Uh, so yeah. So then, so then I learned that lesson and, uh, and I wouldn't leave until we had rained in the gates.
So, and in those days we weren't going to four or five, six states. I was just going to try to pick up one extra state. You know, this has actually may even been before I got super serious about shooting the 49. And certainly before I tried [00:50:00] to. You know, shoot the other international birds as well. So, um, so yeah, that, again, that's more of, you know, of fact finding and research and, and and what you do.
So today, uh, since then I've had an opportunity to sell part of that farm. I still own some of that, and I rented out and I became an auctioneer. And so, um, auctioneer and I deal in farm equipment. I actually primarily broker farm equipment much more so than I do the actual auctioneering, but I'm a, I'm a licensed auctioneer in, in the state and, um, and primarily deal either in farm equipment or banquets type settings.
It's more of the actual live cost stuff that I do. So, uh, love to do that. If you're having a Turkey banquet or a DU banquet or a, or a or whatever, banquet and need auctioneer, you call me. I'll be more than happy to help. I di I guess I didn't realize that you needed a license to be an auctioneer. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mo most states is required. Everything east of the Mississippi and plus several west of the Mississippi is required. Yep. Well, [00:51:00] I am even more impressed that you got all these slams now that I've figured out you were, or that you said you were a farmer. Because my dad was a farmer. I grew up on a farm and I could not imagine my father leaving.
We had 2100 acres of crops, uh, 200 mama cows and a 120 hogs ferreal to finish. Those of y'all that are in the the swine industry know what I'm talking about, but I couldn't imagine my dad leaving like every other weekend nearly, or even a couple times a month, maybe in the spring to go do something like this.
Dad is incredible. Dad grew up, dad was a bird hunter. He hunted a lot of quail. Uh, he was a big time quail hunter. And so, you know, it obviously makes sense, you know, hunting in November, you know, October, November, December, you know, wintertime, whatever. Uh, that's a lot more manageable than springtime Turkey hunting while you're trying to get crops in the ground.
That's incredible to me. [00:52:00] Yeah, it, it is, it's definitely difficult, but just like any difficult challenge, if it's your passion, you're gonna figure out a way to, to, to do it, you know? Um, you know, I use business and family a lot as examples, but, um, you know, if it's, um, you know, if it's a certain school that you want your children to get into, and it may not be convenient, but that child, that school can offer your child so much more, you find a way, it may be sacrifices that you have to, to make and, and, and it may be.
You know, a lot of challenges and a lot of extra things, but you find a way to do it. I think I was just so in love with the Wild Turkey that we just made it happen. I, I, I was not able to go hunt five or 10 states a year early on. I mean, I had a crop to raise. I had a crop to get planted, and I had employees to take care of and maintenance to get done on the farm and all this, but I found a way I could sneak it in there.
I typically saved, early on, I saved a close state or two just in case it was a [00:53:00] bad financial year or as a, I got sick or something and I literally didn't shoot. Um, I'm in Mississippi. I did not shoot a Turkey in Louisiana until two years ago. I saved that one all the way up to the very, very last. So it, you know, if we have a bad crop, if something happens, if, if it's not a good time, if I'm sick, if whatever happens.
I can always run down there for two days and, and, you know, and hunt Louisiana cause it's close. You know, I did the same thing to a certain degree with, with Tennessee as well, but that was, that, that's been done for a few years. So yeah, you just find ways to address your passions and you find ways to achieve your goals.
And, you know, those are, those are just some of the, I know, are related all back to turkeys, but those are more life lessons, uh, as you know, as at least in my view. You know, chip, there's, there's very few Bo Jacksons in the world, and I'll explain that. There's very few, uh, pro sports athletes that are dual sports guys, right?
Mm-hmm. And [00:54:00] you also kind of find the same thing, I feel like in the Turkey deer hunting world. Uh, the guys that focus all of their attention on one, usually like that cream rises to the top. Do you feel, I mean, do you have your focus and hobbies all honed in on turkeys, or are you just as impassioned with deer hunting and farming and all, or golf or anything else?
I mean, are you all in on some other things or is it turkeys. I'm not the Bo Jackson guy. No, I'm, I'm Turkeys and turkeys only there. And, and this is the ironic part because I'm not, there's, there's some guys that you may or may not recognize their names. Um, there's some guys out there like some Steve Brown's, uh, like some, I hate to even start naming names.
Uh, some MIT war law, some, some several others that, that are probably much better Turkey hunters than I am. Um, and, but for me, I don't view myself as being a super, super [00:55:00] great Turkey hunter. I just, I view myself as being super passionate about it. Um, and so do I Deer hunt? Yes, I deer hunt. We enjoy eating deer and we put up between me and my family and four of us and we all hunt and we ate a lot of, probably three nights a week.
We eat deer meat. We package 12 to 15 deer a year, and inside the door right there, there's a wall full of, of pretty decent bucks. And. But at one stage in my life, I, you know, I enjoyed shooting the big bucks, but now my target deer is a year and a half old dough. That's, that's, I've had a great day. Yeah.
Because, uh, that's what I used to eat. And, and so do I Deer hunt. Yes. Um, I, I also love BirdDogs. I grew up, uh, much like he was saying earlier, um, in the quail days and the hay days when we had quail, we, they're almost nonexistent now, but we buy 'em. I still have a couple of bird dogs and we still run 'em.
Um, I will be going back to TAUs cuz they have a ton of wild quail down there. I saw on that, on that uh, that Turkey hunt we [00:56:00] were speaking of earlier. I literally stepped on probably 20 to 25 coves every morning, every afternoon while it was Turkey hunting. So I'm going back down there with bird dogs in December.
Um, so that's the closest I come to. But I've never really traveled much outta state for anything else besides my turkeys. I'm, to answer your question, I'm not the boat Jackson guy. I'm pretty much more of the, of the Brett far guy. I guess. Just, just one sport only. So yeah, I've always thought that there were just a, a handful of guys out there that were really good Turkey hunters and really good deer hunters.
And Parker, I always puts you in that category cuz you're a good deer hunter and you're, you've become a really good Turkey hunter too over the last handful of years that I've been follow. Well, they gummit Joey, I appreciate that. You're welcome. You're welcome. You can make me tear up on the podcast, but I think, uh, I put cat, like catman.
I always brag on Catman. Yeah. I put Catman in that category. Shane Simpson. Uh, there's a handful of guys out there, and there's only a handful of guys, I [00:57:00] think. And someone like myself. Yeah, I'm ju I'm one of those Turkey guys too. Chip, I, I strictly go Turkey hunting. I may go out west every other year, deer hunting or whatever.
But I chose Turkey hunting. And one of the things that, uh, really drew me to Turkey hunting and that I've noticed over the last handful of years, uh, you said, uh, I'm trying to think of what exactly you said. Like, a, a lot of these veteran Turkey hunters are not gonna tell you they're great, or even good Turkey hunters, they're gonna tell you that they're experienced Turkey hunters because they've messed up more than anybody.
If you're, if you're experienced, if you've got 15 years under your belt, that just means you've got 15 years worth of failures too. And a handful full of a handful of successes every other year, every year or whatever. Uh, but there's no good or great Turkey hunters. There's just experienced Turkey hunters.
I, I totally agree. And back to the Bo Jackson question. I will say this. I think there's so much crossover with Turkey hunting [00:58:00] more so than anything else. You know, with bird hunting quell, you need, you need a, uh, uh, at least one pretty good dog. You know, I can't smell 'em, my dogs can smell 'em, you know, with, uh, with duck cunning, you need a good duck resource, but with deer hunting.
But the commonality of all that, and I think that's why you see some of that, you know, if a guy's a good hunter, typically, maybe not the Bo Jackson, maybe not the expert in it in two or three different genres, but there's so much woodsmanship that crosses over there. Um, I just think that, you know, when the Turkey goggles tan's there and you can read those woods, and we got so many more tools available to us now, you know, used to be the, the one thing I was really good at was navigating with a compass.
Um, and, you know, and did I ever get lost? I absolutely thought I was gonna die in South Dakota, uh, I'm sorry, Nebraska in a snowstorm. And when I didn't write my compass bear down in, in, and there was no such things as, as handheld phone [00:59:00] maps at the time. We didn't even have cell phones then. You know, and, and, uh, yeah, before the GPS days that we were strictly navigating composition, there's a lot of kids sitting here.
They're like, you must have been born like in 1910. No, I was only born in 70. So, so it's, it's not been that that long ago. I'm not, I'm not even that old. Yeah, exactly. And so, so the, the woodsmanship I think plays so much into Turkey hunting, and if you're a good woodsman, then you're also typically you have that basic understanding that carries over into other things.
The only other thing I did. For a long time is I duck hunted a lot. In, in my earlier life, my dad absolutely loved duck hunting. I loved duck hunting with my dad and we hunted and we were, we had a good duck resource on the farm we had as excellent in the Mississippi Delta. Um, and well, we went seven years and limited every single time.
We hunted for seven years straight at one, at one different stint in there. And, and we were [01:00:00] pretty decent callers. He and I both. And we, he loved it. And he died in 2004. Um, and it just wasn't the same. Uh, he, he'd actually died in March and that next year it was not the same at all. I said, you know what? I don't even want a duck hunt.
So I started guiding cuz folks would pay you pretty good money to guide at that time. And, and I, we, we still carried the streak on. We still killed a lot of ducks, but I, I bet I hadn't killed 25 ducks since he died. And we used to, I mean, we were used to. We were really arm, I mean we were extremely successful.
And, and so I got it for several years and it still wasn't the same. And guiding is really adult babysitting, I'm sorry, but it is. And, uh, I got tired of the adult babysitting. And so to this day I leased my whole farm out that, that same resource that was guiding on the debt and I hunted on and I leased it out to third parties.
And, and yeah, just, um, so yeah, I, I was kind of backed outta that whole thing cause I just wasn't comfortable with it. [01:01:00] But, you know, I know this doesn't really relate to Turkey hunting, but I, I've gotta throw the life lesson. Sometimes things change, sometimes your goals you're passionate about and sometimes they change, you know, at one time in my life I was really, really skilled and, and, uh, really good at duck hunting and, and we harvested way more than our share.
But things changed and, and my part of my goal, what part of my goodie outta that I guess you could say was I had something I could do with my dad. My dad never turned me on either. We talked about my father-in-law, but my dad never Turkey me on either. I, I kind of grabbed that outta the air, I guess, and, uh, early as a teenager and started doing it and, and, you know, so, um, so yeah, but he died and then shifted the goals and said, well, maybe I can monetize it.
And that was even worse. And that all took almost a decade to play out. But finally I got to the point that said, you know, I'm done with this one. And, and it's time to move on with other personal goals, whether it's business or family or, or [01:02:00] sports or any other thing. Sometimes your goals change and it's okay.
And speaking to the listeners now, it's okay to change your goals sometimes. You know, I mean, I, I love the completion. I love when you set the ultimate goal at a really hard one and you get it completed. That's great. But I think sometimes guys need permission to say, it's okay to change my goal, you know?
And, and you don't hear that a lot. And, and I think that's a real important thing that, that folks can understand and grow from in their personal lives. Man, chip, you're talking about that, uh, with, with goals changing. You said something early on in this podcast, you said, uh, at some point in there, at some point in this, you know, chasing this, this final goal, um, it, it maybe affected your, how you felt about the Wild Turkey.
It was almost too much pressure. It was almost too much. Um, Just, I mean, just the stuff that we've, we've talked about all a [01:03:00] lot, the frustration, you know, we open this whole podcast with Adam telling us a, a pretty sad story of, of these Turkey hunts and, and you know, there's sometimes that we put so much pressure on us that it almost becomes not even fun anymore.
Um, and I've, I've been right there. I know. Exactly. And a lot of seasons are winding down right now, and there's a lot of hunters out there that are like, I don't even freaking know if I wanna go back in the woods next year, because they just get in their butt handed to him. What would you tell a guy in that, in that position, uh, your guy who's traveled around a lot and done this I'd, I'd be interested to hear your advice.
So if I can answer this question with a Turkey story, my most recent Turkey hunt in British Columbia a week ago tomorrow, um, I had literally called home and um, my oldest son, he was actually, uh, I'm so proud of this cuz I kind of had a really, really big hand in teaching him the Turkey hunt. And, and he is kind of almost a [01:04:00] protege, so he started going to different states.
Um, and he is not, you know, he is still, he is just getting started. Um, you know, he is professional now. He is outta school and, um, uh, he is a nurse and works on a helicopter, on a, on a, um, uh, you know, um, a air, uh, air ambulance, uh, uh, medical helicopter. And uh, but he took time off, saved up time, and he went to North Carolina and also Virginia and harvested a bird, both as, so I was talking to him.
I also talked to my wife and I told him both the same thing. I says, I'm in British Columbia. There's not many birds up here at all. It's more than likely not gonna happen. I'm halfway through it. I had heard one Turkey go at that point in time, and I'd seen one hand. And that was it. And my read on the turkeys with what little bit of intel I had, a lot of this is talking to other people that, you know, that had been there.
Um, there had been 16 people go through this outfit before I got there, and they had harvested one, Jake. That's, that's it. Um, and, uh, and I don't see Jakes. [01:05:00] So that was, uh, I just, I didn't see it happening. And, but instead of giving up, because I'm already almost a completion, there comes a point in time. Now I'm getting to, I'm using this as an example, but the Turkey hunt.
But there comes a point in time that you get close enough that it's just gonna, you're gonna get it done. Come hell of high water. It doesn't matter. It may be next year, but I called both my son, who's actually, I wanna out state Turkey hunt, having great success. He's all over turkeys. And also called my wife shortly after that same night.
And I told both of 'em, I said, I just don't think it's gonna happen this year. So I'll be back next year. You know, I may not come back to, to the same place, but I, I may find a different, you know, a different group to go with that maybe have us a little higher density of turkeys. But I'm not quitting, I'm not giving up.
So I guess this is the oxymoron. This is, I just got through telling the listeners a second ago, it's okay to change your passion and it is [01:06:00] okay to change your passion, but also when you get really, really close and you put all that work in, then it takes dedication to stick with it. Life is not rosy.
Every single step of life is not gonna be happy. You know, you may have a child and that child's born with special needs. That literally happened to me and my wife. It's okay. We still love him. We still raise him, we still do everything. The doctors told us that he'd never walked. They told us he would be in a wheelchair.
He actually graduated last year from high school running track. You know, so you, you, you, you, you literally, You literally, there's certain things you cannot give up on, but there's also certain things that you just gotta use some common sense advice and you gotta look at your goals and you like gotta look at what's realistic.
And then finally, when you get really, really close, there is no quit. No. Does that, does, did that, did that answer your question? I you sure did. Okay, great. [01:07:00] Well, chip, I know if you're a farmer, me being an old farmer, I know it's getting late and we like to go to bed a little early here. I do. Um, so we'll wrap things up.
You got any, uh, parting words for us? Like, anything to kind of put the button on this thing that you want us to take home? I wanna encourage people to chase their dreams. You know, that's my message, that's what I'm here for. Um, it's a really, really, really cool feeling when you do, you know, when, when, when.
It doesn't matter. It doesn't have to be Turkey hunting. You know, it could be anything. It could be life, it could be family, it could be business, it could be, you know, any number of species that we hunt. It could be fishing, it could be whatever. Find a dream and chase it, guys. I mean, get off the couch, turn over off.
She's not gonna help. Um, you know, get off the couch and take the first step. Um, if you never take the first step, you can never even develop a plan. You can never develop a goal. And, and, and [01:08:00] that's my encouragement to the listeners, is take the first step. If you're already on your journey, take the next step.
You know, there's certain things, briefly, communication skills through your core base. Developing your core base is huge. Communication skills in the field, communication skills at, with your, with your core base and communica communication skills with your adversary. I e turkeys, you know, I mean, I'm not saying be an expert caller, I'm saying be an expert in turkeys.
What does it mean when he raises his wings up and sets him right back down? That definitely means something. We can go on that in another podcast later on. But, but, but that goes under communication. You know, you're communicating with the turkeys at that point in time. Um, there's, there's so much that, that, to execute your plan.
Just like, I'm just, like, I'm saying, and then dedication maybe would be the, there's probably another 15 I could make points of, but dedication would follow that and follow through [01:09:00] and make sure that, you know, make sure you do everything in your power to, to stay on focus and stay on track. But most of all, um, keep chasing your dream.
Continue chasing your dream. Not all of 'em are gonna be easy. There's a lot of 'em are gonna be hard, but the hard ones, and there's not all of 'em are gonna be successes. There'll be a lot of failures along the way with whatever dream it is. A fail, a failure becomes a success when you learn something from the failure.
And now if you've got 15 failures, that's actually 15 different learning points that actually turns into 15 different successes. That's that, that's my advice to folks. Keep plugging away guys. I mean, um, yeah. Yes. Stay after it, you know, chase it. You'll, you'll get there, man. That's excellent advice. And, uh, your, your advice, uh, kinda lines up with a lot of guys that have finished that us slam after they finished it.
They, I always hear 'em say, you know, slow down, [01:10:00] enjoy it. And I can tell just from your stories and talking with you, uh, here tonight, that you, you set out on this journey not to just put, you know, tally marks, you know, up on the wall and pins and states and everything else. You went on this journey because you enjoyed it.
And it, I, you almost make it sound like you just happened. To get all these slams. I think you, you traveled, you know, this half of the world chasing wild turkeys because you truly enjoyed it and you loved it, and you just happened to get a Turkey in all these places and complete these slams. So I really respect you for that and uh, I am anxious to hear about that New Zealand trip.
Uh, you, you bet, uh, we will for sure be keeping up with you. Uh, or I will be, I may be the only one, uh, out of, out of our small group of folks, uh, still thinking about turkeys in October, but, uh, I will assure you, I'll be keeping up with you. Absolutely. Well, I do wanna thank you guys, all three of you guys.
It's been a, [01:11:00] it's been a blast. I've, I've had a lot of fun hanging out. I hope I hadn't bored listeners and bumbled, and rambled too terribly much here. But I love talking to turkeys and, and, uh, and, and I love talking to Turkey men and, and, and women and, and I just, I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you so much for having me on.
And if I can ever help in any way, Uh, please feel free to let me know and it's, it's been absolutely my pleasure hanging out with you guys and your listeners. And same here, chip. Appreciate you buddy. Yep. Yeah, we really appreciate it. Uh, everybody hanging around with us, so we got one more. We got another episode coming next week, I'm sure, as the Turkey season starts to wind down.
But y'all catch us next week here on the Limb Hanger Podcast. 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 the woods as the Wild Turkey. We'll talk to you guys next week.[01:12:00]
