Show Notes
This week you are blessed to have Paul and Andrew discuss a few topics from around the state and the industry. To start the guys recap the opening weekend around the state of Ohio, in regards to turkey harvests. There were 4,078 birds harvested on the opening weekend around Ohio which is up from 2022 and the 3 year average. Great job people!!
The guys talk about their trip to the woods last weekend, that was unsuccessful, and very wet, but still a good time in the woods nonetheless. Looking forward to more nice days ahead and hopefully a gobblin Tom or two!
The meat of the show this week comes from an interview that Paul did with our friends at the Okayest Hunter. Paul misspoke and the evil social media world decided to descend on him like a swarm of locusts. Keep in mind, that we aren’t perfect, no body is, so chill out a little bit. Good talk and discussion about Turkeys isn’t supposed to lead to world war 3.
Have a great week and enjoy the O2 if you get out into Ohio’s great Outdoors!
Show Transcript
[00:00:00] And what's up everybody? Welcome back to the O two podcast, the Ohio Outdoors Podcast here on the Sportsman's Empire Network. Paul, it's here, man. You're in the dark over there. Started, I'm in the dark and I'm these lights on in my office, man. It's cold down here. I'm in a pissy mood. So I just want the lights off.
You can still see me. You can see the shadow of my depression. Paul. Oh, man. What a week, man. What a week. I've been on Turkey season's here though, man. That's a, that's been. That's been fun. This weather is pissing me off, dude. Just pulling up the quick 10 day here.
It's getting better because there's only three days [00:01:00] with a chance of rain. Earlier it was like nine days with a chance of rain, but dude, it's like, it's just crummy. It's Ohio. We've had our little spells there of really nice weather and it's always funny to me when it's 80 degrees out and sunny and beautiful and you're like, oh, those weathermen are stupid.
They don't know what they're talking about. They're saying it's gonna be 40 degrees tomorrow. There's no way. Sure as hell. And then it does. It does. Yeah. We've had it all and, and honestly, in these early spring, and it's not even early spring, I was it mid-spring, man I don't know.
I've Turkey hunted in the same type of weather. So I feel like what we're having now is just this is like a standard, typical. Opening week of Turkey season, but like you and I talked about the other day when we went out on the opener, it, remember that opening? As long as I've been hunting, I don't remember that much vegetation.
I don't remember the leaves being leafed out. I don't know. What do you [00:02:00] think? No, I'm with you. I, we started, we never had a winner, right? We had that, that first cold snap at Christmas and realistically that was about the only cold snap. I think we had one other measurable snow, maybe two. So everything is just accelerated and we've had cold snaps that kind of slow it down for a second.
And I don't know, to me there's some spring, some of the spring side of things feels average. But what I, at this point, average sucks. Like you're, once you've had that taste of those nice days it's let's go. Yeah. And I agree with you that I, I think phenological things are blooming fairly on schedule at this point.
Might be a little bit ahead. With some of phen. What? Pheno A lot. Phenol. I can't remember that word. No. Oh, you can't do it. You said it once you shot your shot and that's it. Blew the wad. There you go. Phenological. There it is. Yeah, something like that. So have to bleep that out if you say that again, [00:03:00] right?
Oh, shoot. Yeah, but I think one of the things that's really cool, and you see it in deer season too, where you start the opposite, where you got lots of leaves on the trees and you're waiting for 'em to go down, so then you can see more and all that kind of stuff. Man, though, it's, I remember going out with you last weekend of the season last year and.
It was like being in jungle and you can't hear anything. No, you can't see anything. This this year there we're seemed to be at a fast start to that. Yeah. I went out today, I went to some public land here in, in east central Ohio. And man, it was, it still wasn't, obviously completely bushed out, if you will, but man, it was getting there and I'm thinking like, man, for opening week, like this is just crazy how green it's there's been opening weeks of the season where there's nothing green on the ground.
I, nothing is, I gotta stop talking in absolutes and we'll get into that. But, there's definitely not that much green normally, so I don't know. We'll see birds. Were active though on Saturday [00:04:00] and Sunday from reports that I got from people and so let's thank the sponsors of this program, Andrew.
Time to go out.com. Find the Apple store on the Android. Everything that the hunter in this country needs to hunt. Deer, Turkey, all the fishing stuff, they got their ditch pickle. Kits are out. So if you're looking for a new rod, do bass fishing gear. Pan fishing gear. They got all of it. Time to go out clamp.
You got the app. Find us. Oh two podcast. Find me, Paul Campbell. Andrew, you're also on there. Sign up for an account. $10 on off of your next order. Pretty cool. They got a ton of stuff for the angler here in the state of Ohio. So check them out. Go wild. Okay, Paul, real quick before we get on anymore, I, as a novice still in the hu Turkey hunting industry.
Give me the Paul Campbell list of five things a Turkey hunter must take out in the woods with him, gear wise. Gear wise. So [00:05:00] I'm gonna say thermic cell number one. Really? Yeah, dude. If you're just like looking for gear, I'm not talking about like everyone we're not talking about Turkey calls.
We're not gonna talk about like a Turkey vest. You like that's the stuff that I would consider those on the list. Yeah. So hell, we'll put on the list. I'm going take a gun out for sure. That's gun out. What's that? Don't put a gun in. Gun is not part of the fire. Yeah. That's, man, like a thermostat is i'm is a must.
The one thing that I'm really big on is like a really good pair of boots. Especially if you're like running a gun and if you're walking a lot hills here in the state, a good pair of boots is paramount. Goad actually has probably my favorite pair of boots. There's there's a para Irish shedder vapor tracks, huge fan of those super light.
They get. And that's what I like. I don't like the big clunky boots. A good comfortable Turkey vest man is another one. If you're gonna be doing a lot of sitting, you can get a stool, but I like and Turkey vests are just there's different, as is the, the [00:06:00] people on this planet, right?
They're all minimalist. Then you've got, the primo vest that you can stick freaking everything in and take everything with you. So it's really whatever your personal preference is. A good pair of Clippers, man, that I know that I don't know if go out selling those, but that's something that, that you are definitely gonna want in the Turkey woods from time to time.
So get you a pair of, you can go to the dollar store or, Harbor Freight and get like real cheap pair. And what you're talking about clippers is like a pair of pruning shears right hand Yeah. Pruning shears. Yeah, man. So that you, that brush. Yeah. Yeah, cut down screens or cut down, small shooting lanes.
For a guy my size, man, there's always something in my way when I sit down on the tree. So yeah, those are nice to have. So what's that five? That five I feel pretty good. I think it's five boots, vest, boots, vest, pruning, shares, what was the other one? Thermostat The cell? Yeah. It four. Yeah. And indeed a Turkey call [00:07:00] that you're comfortable with.
Yep. Whatever it's give her that we were running. We're, go ahead. What's that? Yeah, like you, some people were like, ah, I hate box calls. Kenny Keaton, I love you. I know you're listening. He's always running his mouth about what? Freaking box call. I hate it. It sounds good, man. Why do you hate it? Just use whatever you're comfortable with, man.
If you're comfortable with a fox, call pot. Call a trough. Call a tube. Call trumpet. Mouth call. Doesn't matter if you're comfortable with it, a turkey's gonna gobble at it or come to it. Yeah, that's it. A call that you are comfortable with. And honestly, on Saturday it was rain gear. That was an important, oh my god, part of our equation there.
But anyhow, you can find all that stuff. I'd go wild if if you're looking for gear and check out the reviews and people are out there showing you what they're using, they'll tell you what they think of it, no problem there. So yeah, for sures Midwest Gun works.com, Ohio Outdoors five user code save 5% off of every order that you'll put in Parts Finder is amazing.
So if you're working on an ar this [00:08:00] year, this summer, shooting, if you're citing in a rifle, Andrew, they have everything for the North American gunsmith, everything that they could possibly want. And they also sell firearms, ammunition, custom gun, gunshot, all. One stop shot for the firearm enthusiast in this country.
Every part that you could possibly imagine. Upgrades, all sorts of stuff. So U ar guys, I know you love 'em. You got, that is a mega store part. And they've got some really obscure stuff. So if you got something weird that you're working on, check 'em out. Midwest works.com, Ohio Outdoors, five, save yourself 5%.
And I'll tell you, Paul, I think I got a problem because I got my AR that I took for the coyotes and stuff and now it's just tinkering with it. And every time I turn around I'm like, I need a different wrench, or I need another part, or I want to do this or do that. And I'm always. I think they've delivered three boxes to my house in the last week.
So Oh man. Good stuff though. And I'm comfortable going there slow, [00:09:00] get the answers I need. Yep. On top of that AR 10 that you have from Most Gun Works, you have a wonderful TS thermal imaging scope. TS 200 from X Vision TS 200. Yep. Yeah, that thing's pretty cool man. It is. I've been out a couple times trying to call in some dogs not dogs, coyotes, coyote, let me, lemme coyotes.
Yeah, you're gonna get us canceled cuz someone's gonna have the dog medicine. They're gonna blame you. Yep. And I am not a coyote whisperer yet, so I'm still figuring this out, but man that you said that you thought they were dn up pretty hard. You didn't, that was what the Missouri guys cause the breeding seed.
I get that. That makes sense. There's a lot. Yeah. So I don't know if I've even told you this Paul, but somebody that I sold some grass seed to a friend of a friend. Him and I started talking and he lives out in we'll call it North Central, Western Ohio. And he's huge Coyote hunter Jason?
No kidding. So Jason is when we started talking about it and I was telling him about how I was interested in it. Dude, he sends me videos every weekend and he's come on out, man. He's [00:10:00] make sure you're well rested cuz we go all night and it's let me find that time.
Let me find that time to out there because yeah, he's got some sick at that point. That's a full day commitment. Yes. Because you're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna work all day, then you're gonna hunt all night and then you're gonna sleep. Oh man. Yeah. As much fun as that sounds, that's a tough sell for me, man.
Especially right after Turkey season or before Turkey season. That ain't happening hard. I'll tell you that. Hard with little kids, right? Cuz they don't care. Oh, they don't care that you were out all night trying to. Take out some predators, but yep. Thanks for our buddies. Half dash rack, half rack. They got some really cool stuff coming out.
The meat Lu is that you can pre-order that. When's that coming out? Do you have any idea? I haven't heard from No. Dead air. I haven't heard from you. Yeah, it's getting close. They got the hunter hanger. Those things are pretty neat. I got my bow sitting behind me. I got a really neat spot picked out that I'm gonna hang that sucker from looking forward to that.
So all sorts of accessories for the Hunter. If you're doing any like land management, they've got the tags for marking [00:11:00] trees and all that good stuff available as well. So half-rack.com, Ohio Outdoors 15. Save yourself 15%. That's a ton. That's a good savings right there.
Ohio Outdoors 15 off of your order. Absolutely. And they are also available on Go Wild. But I don't think that code doesn't transfer, so you have to use it on the half rack code or on the website. So finally we got first light. So thank you to guys at first light. They just came out with the trace pan and quarter zip system.
Super light, can't wait to use it, need that nice weather to come back. We'll be very nice for late Turkey and early deer. I'm excited to see what else they've got coming out this year and we'll keep you in the loop when things start pouncing out. Yes, we, yep, yes we will. I'll tell you what, man, I lost I lost enough weight I could fit into that order, honey, that I bought last year.
Oh my gosh, that is without a doubt my favorite piece of equipment or piece of clothing rather, that I have.[00:12:00] As soon as I put it on fit, I'm like, this is amazing. It might be why I have three of 'em. So I agree, dude. For this For these early seasons, man even like later in the season, during Turkey season when it's like, when it's cold in the morning and you're just sitting there working a tom or whatever, those things, that extra layer comes in.
Oh man, I can't stick more highly of that building face mask with all of it. Origin hoodie, that's, that has my stamp of approval for Turkey and gear for sure. Awesome. Let's see. One other thing I want to cover. We've got, so our buddy Justin Ross, who's running his archery hike for the second year all that information is now up and available.
So the website is archery hike.com. The dates are gonna be July 7th, eighth and ninth, down in Hocking Hills. You can register today, but you're looking at 25 targets, 3D targets testing your skills, but it's also getting, it's a legit. [00:13:00] Hike through the woods. There's ups, downs, some areas you're like, I really we're gonna follow this path.
Last year when we did it was like 90 some degrees hot as hell. But it's, it was awesome. And there's definitely different, varying degrees of shots and all that kind of stuff. So you can register today you can pick, I think there's one day, two day and three day passes. Friday it's from 10 to six.
Saturday, eight to five, Sunday eight to four. And a lot of the proceeds are, I guess they go to farmers and hunters feeding the hungry. So this is the money that he earns off of. This goes towards helping to get the processing fees done on any deer that we donate next fall. So it's good stuff.
Yeah. Pretty cool. Yeah. Pretty cool. Looking forward to that again, this year's good. Yeah. Good event, man. I can't wait to do that. I'm looking forward to that. Hopefully when, gimme the dates again. July 7th, eighth and ninth. Seventh, eighth and ninth 30. Cowboys. And then somebody's, Matt. Somebody's birthday is July 10th.
[00:14:00] So Andrew Mons and Urban Meyer and Sophia. Sophia Vigar the chick from modern Family. Oh yeah, I'm in good company. Good for you. You got a couple of you a couple stars there, man. That's pretty cool. Yes. So what else, man? What else we got? What? Nothing crazy to report from the woods.
Opening Turkey season here in the state. If you killed a Turkey or had some good interactions, find us on social media. The DO oh two Podcast. Go Wild. Oh two podcast. Yeah, send us your success. Send us your failures. Whatever it is, man, don't be afraid to talk about it. All right. So I do news from around the state.
There's a couple things real quick. We've got Devi Division of Wildlife acquires 492 additional acres at Woodland trails. That's in Camden, Ohio. There's some mind safety training earns national recognition. All these articles and stuff can be found at odn R'S website. [00:15:00] But let's talk. Paul Ohio's Wild Turkey hunting season is underway in 83 counties.
I am shocked at the turnout. It was good, man. The harvest totals over the weekend shock. What do you got? So is this youth, is this the youth season as well or is this just the weekend opener? No, just the weekend opener. Okay. So Ohio Hunters checked 4,078 wild turkeys during the opening weekend of spring hunting season, April 22nd, 23rd, according to OD N R Division of Wildlife.
So what is 4,078 compared to in 2022? We are at 3,315, so we're up about 700 birds in the first two days compared to last year, the average taken the first two days of the previous three seasons is 3,590. So I mean it's, you probably can't really. Correlate them completely. [00:16:00] But apparently it seems like the population is up a little bit, right?
If there's more birds out there being taken or there's more hunters, we hear about how the hunter numbers continue to decline. I don't know. I'm, I am hopeful that we are talking about population increases, and that's a big part of it. So the, I'll get back to the top 10 counties here in a second.
But the Division of Wildlife has issued 37,610 Spring tur Turkey permits. Let's see, in addition to the opening weekend results, so addition to the 4,078, the Utes took 1,823 turkeys on their opening or on their youth weekend. So what is that? We're almost to 6,000 birds so far. Interesting. And when it was just barely over, it wasn't quite 12,000 for the harvest last year the entire season.
I don't have that in front of me. Yeah. It was 11 [00:17:00] something. I know. I'm pretty sure of that. Mark Wiley covered that in last week's episode. I should go back and listen to that. Yeah. That's interesting. Good job. Hopefully. Yeah. Hopefully that's indicative of of good numbers and the weather.
You think about the weather in I feel like in the entire state it was just trash. It was poured rain on us and everyone that I know that was hunting across various parts of the state if it didn't, it was, this storm moved through and you were fortunate. It stopped raining on us.
Heavy What right about seven o'clock it was done. If you were east of our location, it ran pretty decent amount of the daylight hours. And following up, like what Mark talks a lot about when we talked to him, a lot of this, Isha, each summer the division of wildlife collects information on young, wild turkeys called pulses brood surveys in 2021 and 2022 showed above average results that will benefit Ohio's wild Turkey population this spring.
So average pulse per hand observed in 2022 was three, [00:18:00] and it was 3.1 in 2021. The 10-year average is 2.7. So that's, it's this, we, our weather that we're dealing with now is important for the future years, but those past couple years that definitely helped out. Reminder. Let's see. Wild Turkey hunting.
Ohio. South Zone is open until May 21st, and the hunting hours are from 30 minutes before sunrise until noon through April 30th, beginning May 1st South zone hunters can hunt from 30 minutes before sunrise until sunset. So you and I were talking about this the other day, according to what this email says.
And we're not going to, this is not legal jargon, but at sunset, after May 1st sunset, not 30 minutes after sunset, it's sunset. Make sure you guys are on top of that. Also, counsel Le a lawyer for legal advice. DePaul. Let's talk about the top 10 counties. [00:19:00] Can I, can, Okay. I'll go down, I'll give you a headstart.
I'll give you the first test. I just wanna do the I just wanna do the, I wanna do the top three. Okay. So I'll go from, I'll go from 10 down and you can guess the top three. Okay. So number 10 is Megs number nine, Tuscarora. Number eight is Monroe. Seven is Jefferson. Six is Harrison, five is Galia, and four is gk.
So I'm gonna go Muskingham, Athens Veon. Number three with 117 birds was Belmont. Oh. Number two with 127 birds Muskingum. And number one with 129 birds. Adams. Adams. There you go. I'll tell you what Killers Turkey, that's killer from. So 1 29 at Adams and 1 27 to muskingum mean their neck and neck.
Belmont not far behind. They [00:20:00] got room they could make it, so yeah. Good for them. Megs had 1 0 4, so everybody else is in between if you're interested. But Athens not on the, on that, not on that top 10 list. Interesting. Yeah. Wild. What a week. What a weekend. Yeah. Tag us in your post, man. I wanna, I want to see, I wanna see how, what you guys get going on.
So you talked a little bit about it, but we went out Saturday, you and I and Kenny and yeah. You guys heard some gobbles? I did not. But we walked through the woods and we never really saw anything. No, we didn't see anything. It was just I dunno, man. It was just one of those crappy public land hunts, man.
It was just mucky and it rained and we were cold. We heard some turkeys and remember we, we were like trying to move on 'em. Then it just started like dumping rain and we couldn't hear anything. So it's just like, where'd they go? And it was a new area in a WMA that I've hunted a thousand times.
And it's just, I've never really worked over there. But we're dealing with that brush man that just, that [00:21:00] vegetation, what'd you call it? Japanese knot Weed was just popping. It was absolutely everywhere. So yeah, it was just one of, it was just a weird, it was a, I don't know man, that, that hunt had a real weird vibe to it.
So I for whatever reason, and I don't know much about turkeys, like I could probably go out on my own and attempt to do it, but it'd probably end up like my deer hunting for the first six years of my career. And very unsuccessful. So I was just sitting back and observing. You guys have been at this for a long time.
You've been out down south of Mike Pentecost and not some successful hunts already this year. And I was just observing and there's things I was like, why aren't we doing that? Or why aren't we doing that? And I haven't even told you about this, right? So I because I wanted to save this for the show.
But one of the thing when we walked out, so try to paint this picture here. We parked the truck, we did a little bit of a hike. We came out into a pretty good big grassy field. And I don't know what was planted in there, but it's some kind of, it was only about six inches tall or some kind of crop of sorts.
[00:22:00] And then it's surrounded by, woods or whatever. And you guys didn't, we didn't do any calling for a very long time that morning. And I think part of it was like, you weren't, you didn't have your gun with us or with you. It was Kenny and I that were gonna be shooting and you were gonna call, and then at some point, You told us like, Hey guys my call's too wet.
I can't. Yeah. That's why I wouldn't call. I couldn't get, freaking calls are too wet. But we didn't do like an owl hoot or anything right off the bat, going in there in the attempt to get 'em to gobble on a roost. Yeah. Is that normal or is that no, that's because I've that's because I've hunted that same area a ton.
I know that there's there's turkeys in that area pretty regularly through, throughout the year. I like, I know that they roost pretty close. It was dumping rain that morning and they're like, everyone tells you their tendencies when it's raining is to hit the hit. The open fields, which driving down the roads are haunting.
You see 'em when it's raining, like you see [00:23:00] large groups of 'em in the field. So just from like historical experience at that area, like I know that. I hear turkeys roosted in those areas all the time. Like they were rounds. So my thought was like, if they're gonna hit, they're gonna, they're gonna come, they're gonna come and hit those fields.
That, that's what I hoped. So just because you hooed Adam, 'em doesn't mean they're gonna gobble, yeah, it's just, that's the thing, like it's, you never know what they're gonna do. It was cold, it was windy, it was rainy. So I'm thinking, what, they're gonna be pretty, pretty quiet and they're gonna hit, they're gonna hit that field and head to it, try to warm up as, as quick as they can.
But I'm sure at some point there's a beard of Turkey in that field during that day. We just didn't happen to be sitting there when you were standing out in that field at one point, so that does count beer to Turkey. Yeah, I if I'm. If I'm wanting I just with that weather, man, it was just so crappy and like that area, is real prone to flooding, kinda along the edges of the river there.
So I [00:24:00] felt like confident okay, if they're close, they're gonna hit this, they're gonna hit this field. It's funny, Sunday I took some Justin and Brandon out, two good friends of mine and yeah, he commented on like how subtle the calling was in the morning that I did.
And it's just those real light tree yelps on that per pot. And it is like super quiet man. And it's just nasally and tenny and it sounds like you're just like, God, that sounds gross. But man, if there's anything close, they freaking hone in on that. They lock in on that a lot of times and they'll gobble hard and.
It's a way that I think Scott Ellis has talked about it. Like he and I think I know Dave Owens too. I remember in a conversation with Dave, he said that's the number one thing that people comment to him when they hunt with them for the first time. He was like, why? Your calling is so soft.
And when I hunted with Mike, like the first thing I'm like, wow, his calling is way softer than mine. And those turkeys were just like, ow, ow. And so that's like just a learning lesson that I've gotten from, just hunting with really good Turkey hunters is you don't always have to have a, kick the wall down type [00:25:00] approach.
And that's something that like, I've not always done even like in like first light, just, and not necessarily aggressive, but louder than what it needs to be. And because we underestimate the hearing. Capabilities of Wild Turkey, I guess so, yeah. Now, but one of the other thought questions I had was how did we decide on where we were gonna sit?
And that field was pretty big. I don't know. It was at least a hundred acres. It was a big field and so there was you just going by historical, they're generally in this area or cuz we walked all the way across it or we were playing the wind at all to try to catch any noise. I think we were walking west, so Yeah.
Like we were facing east. Not that the sun matters, but you people say, like good hunters tell you that, turkeys don't like walking into the sun because, it affects their vision. That I wanted the, so all that flooding was behind us, right? So my thought is like, there's probably not gonna be anything roosted in the [00:26:00] woods there.
I'd rather, not risk bumping them out of the roost when we set up. And who knows, there could have been 10 of 'em roosted right there, and it's just how the, like it was real, it was flooded back there. So I was thinking like, okay, that's flooded. It's real short. The river's right there it's super mucky down there.
So they're probably not gonna be in there. They're gonna be in like these nicer areas, just cause I've been there, there's a lot of nicer areas for a Turkey to walk through. And so if they come into that field, like the way that field was sloped we had a great look at the field, like all corners where we were at.
And so my thought was, okay, the floodings to the back, the sun's gonna be in our face if for whatever magical reason, all the clouds break. And if a Turkey flies down into the field at any. Point in that field, they're gonna be able to see us. Cause we were like on that high side of that field with all that flooding to our backs.
That's why I was like, let's go Set, set over here. So we have, we had a full view. We could see everything. We could see every corner of that field. Turkeys could see us as well. Got it set up. Picking a [00:27:00] set ups all. Yeah. No, I just, I'm not questioning any of it. I was just, I'm, I was observing and trying to like, take mental notes of why we're doing certain things because I'm still trying to pick all this stuff up, yeah. And that's something that I've been I've put a lot of effort into learning, when I do get to go out with these hunters that are much better at Turkey hunting than I am, like just how they move through the woods, how they see the woods, and how they're some of these really good hunters that I've talked to on the h the, how to hunt Turkey's podcast.
It's amazing how they just talk about like understanding how turkeys move day in and day out, and how they use the landscape and the terrain and what they like and what they're looking for. And you can do all of that. And then a Turkey may choose to do none of it. That's part of the fun, but, for the most part, they have their tendencies and so I'm like, they like to be in fields when it's raining. So what everyone says, if they've got that option that, they're probably gonna take it. So th that day they didn't. And if they did, they, we, I mean we saw a Turkey fly out of the roost over the tree line into the other field.
That was the only Turkey that we saw all [00:28:00] day. And that's a one of the. Gambles out there is that there were quite, there's a few fields that are broken up by these, I don't, they're not fence rows, but small wood fingers or whatever. You picked the wrong field and you might not see 'em, but obviously then using your historical knowledge of the area, that would come into play as well.
So it was a tough one. Yeah. And no doubt about it. It was, and that, that other field, like for us to set up in Yeah the brush is just like the, the vegetation is a little higher. A lot higher. That it's a lot higher. Yeah. And it's just, it's there's more terrain to it. You could be sitting on a spot and not be able to see anything.
But yeah, it didn't work out. That's Turkey hunting and, I know my buddies Brandon and Justin had one hell of a hunt. Lots of turkeys, gobbling, lots of hens around him. I went out with them. We got permission on the farm. We went out too. And it was Hen city man, when I was out there on Sunday.
Yeah. But it was cool. They were around. It was funny, there was a point, like it felt bad for Brandon. He had one of those like his butt, like he just slid off the seat and he's hens Andrew around us for seriously, over 90 minutes, almost two hours. [00:29:00] And we all, I had a piece so freaking bad.
Justin had to pee ju it was funny. Justin scared one of the hens off and his hen's 40 yards from us. And he just he moves like really suddenly and really loud. And I'm like, Justin Rush, whatcha are you doing man? And he's I fell through my seat and we all just start laughing. His seat cracked.
Cause we're out in field edges. This is small property. We're not like, we're not moving as we're trying to be comfortable. That end booked out. I did like just some soft call and then she came like right back. They were on there for hours. It felt so bad. I had to pee. Justin had to pee Brandon, like his butt was con.
Completely numb. It was miserable. And those hens, dude, they did not call, much like they, they just like the softest yelping, and it was so pretty. But I sent that video to you. They were 15 feet from us for 20 minutes. Very close. Just very close. Oh dude, it's, were you guys in a, were you in a ground blind?
I had the newcomb hunting blinds out in front of us. I had three of I, so I had two in front of us and one behind us because the way the field is like the it's [00:30:00] mostly pasture. And so there's a little strip and then there's like a, the line fence. And then a lot, the turkeys kind of roos behind us.
But every time we've seen 'em, like from the road, like they're in the fields, yeah. And there's just a ton of Turkey sign out there it's secluded and like the, that particular part of the farm that we were hunting, there was, you couldn't see him for the road. It was like this little sw and it was super protected.
But man the toms, they just stayed behind us. We could hear 'em gobbling but they were like on, they were on other property and they, and we just ran outta time. We ran outta, ran outta shooting hours to, to hunt 'em yep. But yeah, it was cool. It was cool. It was so still good hunt today saying, yeah just bumping around, man.
Just relaxing, enjoying, getting my southern Ohio hunting legs on me and putting miles on the boots. So it was good, man. It was a soul clean. I just shut my phone off. Good. It was a soul cleansing day. So gotta have that every once in a while, oh, yeah. So what else is going on, Paul?
What else do you wanna talk about? My viral, let's talk about yeah. [00:31:00] Let's talk about that and I'm gonna try to be humble and positive because, man, that's just my, my, my personality. If you're listening to the show, For any amount of time, like I, you probably feel I feel like you you know me at this point.
Like I try to be a gentleman guy and humble. And so I did the Okay hundred podcast the other day. Our friend Eric Clark invited me to come on and talk about turkeys, and it was great, man. I, it like, I got off that interview and I was like, man, that that just felt like a really good interview.
It felt, really positive. And their mission is, not shaming hunters. And if it's legal and it's your tag, like just enjoy the sport, the pursuit of hunting, soak it in and it's a message that I can get behind, I hate I hate the shaming that, that people go through, like you shoot a, you shoot like a small buck, right?
And you're pumped, man. And people were like, yeah, you suck your piece of shit, kill yours. It's just nuts, right? Like social media is just a vile place a lot of times and a lot of that, like that hunter. V Hunter, man I don't like that. And so I Whoa, [00:32:00] buddy. Welcome to the internet, Paul Campbell.
Welcome to the Hornet's Nest, Paul Campbell. It was Wild man. So I was on this, I was on the podcast and sorry, we're gonna have to, I'm I gotta take this call. Gimme a second. All right, Andrew. Sorry if you're listening. I had to take a work call. I had to interrupt. I could not miss this call.
It is dang near 10 o'clock on Monday night here. But yeah, man, so I did the Okay. Hunter interview. And it was just really good, man. It was a really good talk. Eric's a phenomenal interviewer and it, at one point, like he, he had made a comment about. Like that sticker that he had about, note Jake break and Jake, Jake being an immature male Turkey.
And so we he asked me, he's would you shoot a Jake? And I'm just like yeah. You damn right. I would, and so there's a lot of context with the conversation that we had and would I shoot at Jake? Yes. If I'm gonna tell you right now, if I'm in a state where it's legal and I'm outta state, and that's like my la [00:33:00] my only chance, my last chance, yeah, I'm gonna do it, man.
And so what's interesting and so where I went wrong I made a comment. I was just like, yeah. I would shoot at Jake. And so people always talk about how there's if you're shooting Jake's, there's you're hurting the population of the wild Turkey because that's your future, right?
And so I've read all of the research mount, and this is where it gets just nuts. Andrew, I've read the research. I've seen it, like I have it, like I have the receipts for this, that there are countless researchers, there are countless biologists that have said that so some mature turkeys.
Do 99% of the breeding every year, mature turkeys, and the way that they do it, we won't get into it. So not all mature turkeys are breeding. And so my comment, I was just like, yeah. Like it's okay to shoot at Jake. If it's not as basically what the gist of it was.
It's not bi as biologically impactful. Is what people say that it is. I'm gonna say people, Yeah, go ahead. When you say mature Turkey, you mean? Yeah. How old Jake is? Almost a [00:34:00] year. Jake is a first year almost a year old. And then so a mature Turkey is two. Two and up. Okay.
What's a mature, that's a mature Turkey. And I can't say like all of the studies, all of the reports where it talks about harvesting of immature male turkeys has no significant impact, no biological impact, right? And and then it talks about 99% of the breeding is done by mature turkeys.
And so my comment, the first comment that I went wrong, I was like, you can shoot that Jake, there's 0% chance that he's breeding, right? Because Jake's are, they're immature. They're like just dumb little kids, right? Through studies. Go ahead. Are they sexually immature? Could they breed?
That's the thing. So some of them are, like, you look at the research, Chamberlain's talk about it. Like some of, some Jakes are, and then some Jakes, they're not sexually mature. Like they literally do not produce semen to fertilize hens. All right. And like wild Turkey hens are super weird, man. They pick They picked the toms that they wanna breed with.
And so just because and here's where the internet got [00:35:00] nuts, man. Just because like you see a Turkey, like a male Turkey humping a female Turkey doesn't mean that they're breeding, right? It's like dry humping in middle school months. You weren't doing it. Dry humping, get all your clothes on.
Jake's got his clothes on, man. He's dry humping in his parents' basement. All right. So that's it. Just because you see it doesn't mean that's anecdotal evidence. And we and so the internet was having my freaking ass dude. They're like, I shoot Jake's pumping decoys and I Jake's breed.
Yeah. They breathe dude, it's it's literally like 1% or less of the total breeding. And so that was my point, man. Don't let that conversation, like the science tells us that it is okay for people to harvest Jakes. And there's actually I was talking to a biologist just this week, man a wild Turkey biologist just this week about how they look at and I'm not gonna get into it cause I'm too dumb to talk about it, like health indicators of overall like her, like flock populations with the Jake numbers, and so like higher Jakes, like it's [00:36:00] not a bad thing. If there's more Jakes being taken, like it's good overall indicator of like herd health or flock health. And do people are just like, Like Andrew, I've literally gotten death threats. That's death threats from people.
That's insane. It's insane. Death threats over this. And people were like and so the and Eric did a really nice job. The clip is really good. So he cut a lot of the context out of it. And I'm not mad about that. There's nothing wrong with that. You got, I get it and it was a great clip.
I and so I stand by dude I've read all these research projects. I misspoke. I said, there's like a 0% chance. And then I said there's a chance too that he's not gonna breed next year because dude, we don't know if that Jake's got a crooked foot or some crap like that, or gets hit by a car or gets killed by an hour or something.
We don't know. We don't know if that Jake's gonna be around to breed next year or if he's like a suitable breeding Turkey. We just don't know. And so my point is, man, if there's the biological impact from shooting at Jake is minimal. Minimal. That's what the freaking research says. [00:37:00] But the internet knows otherwise.
They've literally been trashing me. I, there's it's probably close to when I looked at it, I, it was over 150 or 160,000 views, hundreds of comments. And, some people were very supportive. They're like, one guy was just like, oh, yeah I walk around with a wild circuit biologist every year on my farm.
He says the exact same thing. You listen to Chamberlain and so I, what I what is crazy is turkeys are super nuanced, man. The breeding of turkeys are nuanced. And every time you've heard me say this, every time I have one of these like, biological conversations, and this wasn't even biological.
This was just about not being dick fellow hunters. That's what this conversation was about. But the way that it was presented, it was definitely like a biological conversation on my part. Do you think that some of the, I don't know if it's misinformation or lack of knowledge.
I'm not gonna say I, I. When I hear you talk about this and you explained it to me, it makes sense, right? Yeah. But people think about things [00:38:00] in human standards, anthropomorphizing things, if you take out the old males that just have more young males that come through, if you think about it like a deer, it's not the same.
Is it just that we're trying to, cross all these different species into the same way and people don't realize it? Yeah that's exactly what it is. Cuz they're like, oh you leave the turkeys, they mature, they get bigger. They breed more. And so people are, they're putting like a dear trophy mentality on a bird.
And it just, it's not the same animal, right? It's not the same. It's literally not the same species. It's just, it's a bird versus what is a, an ungulate or a servant or whatever, that's just crazy, man. And I preface that by saying, listen, I'm not a wild biologist, a wildlife biologist.
I'm just an idiot that listens to people and I ask questions and I try to understand, and people probably do it. It is insane to what people were saying about me. And it's all, all because of that one comment. And so like at one point I talk about I made a comment where you kill a Jake, like you're not affecting the population.
And [00:39:00] so people were like, you kill a Turkey, it comes off the landscape. Literally like the next part of that conversation that wasn't in the clip was the role that hunters have. When we remove turkeys from the population, like when we kill turkeys, we don't, we don't, a lot of times we don't account for the impacts that, that we have, is hunters and the impacts.
And so like, all of that was missed. So people were like, you dumb ass. I'm like, oh my God, dude. Welcome to TikTok, welcome to Instagram. Dude. I had people like messaging me, dude I like one one. And talking to our buddy, Brad, one guy was so fucking vi, excuse me. So vile. He was just like, I wish I could get your phone number.
And dude, I responded to him with my phone number and the words love to chat. And I've yet to hear from him. Cause I like one, there's a part of me, I told you this the other day. There's a part of me that really loves the passion that people have. And they're like this guy's a dumb ass.
Yeah, I am. I definitely am. But I wanna protect this sport. I wanna protect this creature and I wanna protect hunters, wild Turkey hunters, dude, more than anyone of those people commenting on TikTok. I can [00:40:00] guarantee that. And I've done more to do that in my life than they probably ever will.
But I don't say that to them because I don't wanna get into it, man. I was just like, yeah dude, I definitely misspoke, man. My bad. And people like piece of shit. Family sucks. You suck. One guy was like, you should take a load of TSS to the face. I could help you out with that. I'm like, oh my God man, this is insane.
It is absolutely insane. And it's just it's just dude, the ones that are really bad, the, to message me. I'm like, dude, I. If you wanna talk, man, we'll talk. Do you want me to send you the the study, like one, one p one so I pulled up one research that I've read. I was like, it was 104 pages long.
I'm like, oh my God, dude. So I, you know what I did? I went to or highlighted what I wanted to show people. Read the abstract. If anyone wants it. If anyone wants it, I have all of it. I had a biologist buddy of mine did the same thing, highlighted a bunch of stuff, send it to me. I've had a couple biologists listen to it and they're just like, yeah, no, I like what you're saying.
It's don't ever talk in absolutes, because we've all learned that. And one of them used the, talking about deer oh, you're know you'll never see a deer feeding [00:41:00] on a Tuesday on an east wind, on a corn pile or whatever. And he'd inevitably someone would be like, ah, bullshit.
I got this trail cam picture from 1997 that tells you are dumb. And it's just he's you're never talk in absolutes. And so it brought up an interesting conversation with him. This is like a lit, like this is a researcher dude. A biology research, biological like biology professor, researcher, that's just that, that talked about like how hard it is to get the information out that they have to talk about it.
He's dude, people argue with me. And he's I'm talking about a three year study. And they're like that's not right. That's not what I say. And he's like, how do you beat that? Like how do you combat that? To where we're like, so we're so conditioned in life that my perspective is right.
Everyone else be damned. And I'm the type of person, Andrew, and you know me, man, we've known each other for a while, like this, like this scenario that this happened. I misspoke. I definitely did, man. I shouldn't have said 0% because it's not, it's 1%. And honestly, it's probably like less than [00:42:00] 1%, but I still said something wrong.
That's what bothers me. It's not the comments, it's not the hate, it's the fact that, like I said, something that wasn't right about, about turkeys and breeding, and that's important to me. And there's a super non, nuanced conversation. And I try to dumb it down for for myself to understand it.
That's what bothered me the most. That I need to be a I need to learn more and I need to communicate more effectively so that stuff like this doesn't happen because what really what it was like it was wrong, like with the information that I relayed was wrong was the heart and soul of it.
Absolutely. Man. Don't shame other hunters for something that you don't quite frankly know what the fuck you're talking about. Okay. Stop it. Yeah, no, I, that's all I got. I'm with you and I. The whole thing is, it's just a sign of the times. I think. Social media, podcast, whatever. They give us a platform to talk.
They give you an opportunity to talk. So it gives these other people a chance to talk. But come on, people let's just be people and chill out a little bit. And we had that talk we did with the guys from [00:43:00] Vance's was that last fall? Yeah. And I think the exact line that I used was like, bow hunting was not easy.
Okay. That's it. Bow hunting, deer, whitetail, deer is not easy. Okay, now total semantics. What you deem as easy and what I deem as easy can be two different things. All right? And the comments and stuff on there, people were going crazy and then they changed the words that it's oh, he says bow hunting deer's hard.
I waddle out to my stand in front of my corn pile like. And it's not hard, okay, for you, that's not hard. If you want to go public land and deep and you could throw all these different things into it to make it more difficult, to make it not easy, but it's just what you know.
I know the guys that go wild and their podcasts have gotten eaten up for misspeaking. Yeah. Before everybody's, oh my gosh, human. Yeah. It's so easy to do. You know why? Because we're all idiots, man. We do it to ourself, right? We don't have to do this. We don't have to sit on this podcast and talk. I don't have to go on the Okayest Hunter and talk.
I don't have to put myself out there. You don't have to do that. [00:44:00] We choose to do this. And so when you do that, be ready for the consequences, I guess is the story. But a little grace man. And this world goes a long way. Sure does. And I, it's, there was like, some of the comments were they were really cool, man.
They're like, Jake's like definitely like canned breathe like, I've seen it. Yeah, you've seen it once again, 1%, they're probably not actually breathing, they're just dry humping. But they're like, I get what you're trying to say. Yeah. Don't and that's what, that's man I will protect someone's right to to shoot something that's legal, use their tag, enjoy it.
Dude, I can't tell you like, it it's funny because all of this starts happening, last Tuesday and then out of nowhere, dude, I start getting these messages because of the How to Hunt Turkeys podcast. And so I'm gonna, I'm gonna read you this message. I'm not gonna talk about who it is.
It's one of the listeners of the How to Hunt Turkey podcast. And I actually think he listens to this show as well. And this was Saturday afternoon, man. So this is a couple days after all this is going on. I said, wow, man, after nearly 20 years hunting these Bachelors on public land, I finally got one [00:45:00] 20 years.
Man, it's first Turkey. He's been hunting these, the entire hunt from Friday scouting and then Saturday range to the shot was epic. I called this Jake in from about 200 yards and took the shot at 30 yards. I was using this old Remington eight 70 man Turkey gun. I'm telling you, Dennis killed more turkeys than anything else combined.
I was I thank you and your podcast. I was patient and called, stopped calling at the right times because of the people on your show. I'm on Cloud nine, man. Thank you. And he sent me four pictures of him in this Turkey, and there actually was really cool, man. I didn't read this part. There was a little button buck that was like all over him.
Literally, look at this picture. You can't, I don't know if you can see this is a button buck that's smelling his shotgun that's laying on this dead Turkey. That's awesome. It was in his, it was in his blind. And that's the stuff that like I see that this man's been hunting turkeys on public land for 20 years, man, and got his first Turkey.
It was Jake and all those people on that TikTok. Look at this guy as a as an [00:46:00] idiot. First you shoot this Jake, and you know you're bull crap and but that's not true, man. That guy's a Turkey hunter dude. That's what he is, man. And I'm so frustrated with the people and I had, I, there was a conversation on there.
One, one guy told me, he's I raised my 14 year old daughter, just had this conversation about not shooting Jake's. And this is his comment, because the Spurs are small, the beard's small, the tails small. And I'm embarrassed to tell my friends that I shot a Jake. I'm like, dude, that is such a sad way to view Turkey hunting.
It's not like that, man. It shouldn't be like that. And if it's like that for you do you if I think that's your thing, man, and if you're gonna only shoot 170 class inch deer, that's fine too. But don't tell me about all the one 40 s and one 50 s that you passed on, yeah. Cause I'm gonna shoot that one 40 every time, and someday maybe I will. But it's one of those things if that's what you're at, if that's hunt, you're hunt, right? That's all these guys say. If that's your thing, that's fine. Don't give everybody else hell for it. If they're doing it legally and stuff, that's part of the game. That's part of the, yeah.
The sport. That's it, [00:47:00] man. Yep. That's it. And I'll also I'll support that at, any point. The one thing that I will say that I found interesting, I've heard some biologists say that at this point, talking about shooting something that's legal, but impacting the population, negatively impacting the population.
Obviously time take Turkey out the landscape. It's negative impacting, but I heard Dr. Marcus Ashley Lashley, excuse me, talk about he, hi. His comment at this point, we shouldn't be shooting bearded hens during the spring, even though that's a legal. That's a legal bird to shoot. And if you wanna shoot it, do that.
But I think you seriously consider because of the population issues that we have had, that's like shooting four or five turkeys with one shot. If we got three PTs per he, that's the average. And she's, she could have higher than that. She could have less than that. She could have five PTs.
You just killed six turkeys. That's tough, man. So that's one of those like soul searching things. If you're like, yo, dude, I shot the spirit of him. I'd be like, good for you man. Let's take some pictures. Congratulations. And then I would say [00:48:00] okay, so next year let's think about this. Think about the biological impact, but when science tells you there's no biological impact, dude grip and rip.
That's all I can say. So if you're still listening to this I love you and thank you for listening to this podcast. Here's another shout out for our guys at Gow Wild, where the community does support you. And it's all about, I. Ethical hunting and doing things the right way and supporting each other.
None of this TikTok crap, the Instagram crap where you just get beaten up on it. So if you haven't been on there, please go check that out. It'll be worth your time. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, it was a man and dude, the podcast was just good, man. It was a good conversation. It really was. And it was so overshadowed by that.
And at one point, a couple people had listened to it and they're like, yeah, like listened to the rest of the podcast listened to the conversation before most, some during that com that, that comment, that clip, and then after, like it all makes, like it all makes sense, right?[00:49:00]
1%. Andrew is the breeding done by immature birds? 1%. So I'm, I've got shirts coming, say Turkey got on 'em. Buddy Jacob Knight from Gowa text me. He's who died made you Turkey? God. Oh, buddy. Oh man, I'm gonna light it on fire, dude. In some way, some I'm, but I'm just, I don't wanna, I just wanna educate people, man.
And I and that's what's so frustrating is that I misspoke, man. That's what bothers me the most. It's not the comments, it's not the hate. Because the reality is, dude and I'm gonna say this, 99% of those people will throwback there. I'd beat their ass in real life. And I could say that with like full full conviction, man.
Start using an anchor band line like 60% of the time. It works every time. And just talk like that. Gosh, dude. Man, it's just, it's It's a, that was a learning lesson, dude. And Eric, I was doing my dishes and this is three hours after after our interview, and he is Hey man you're about to go viral on TikTok.
Damnit [00:50:00] Eric. He knew damn what he was doing too. Huh? I'm like what? And this thing had been up for an hour and I pull it up and it had 5,000 views. I was like, oh, that's a good clip. I was like, yeah, it was pretty good. I like that. And it was just really neat how he did it. I'm like, oh, you gotta teach me how to do it.
And then it was just like two hours later it was like, ding dang. Oh my God. That's it. Oh dude. I was just like, wow. People were really mad about that. I should go back and and I'm like, oh. Yeah, it's definitely not 0%. Oh you know what? All I can say is I, you know what I pray, I wish you would've left in the part where I'm like, I'm not a biologist.
I'm just an idiot. Because that's, that's true, man. Weird. You're like your warning message. Warning. Yeah. Not a biologist idiot. That's what I changed my, I just, that's, I changed my TikTok profile because it shows you like how many profile views you have and into it is, it's a lot.
People are like, you were like, who the hell is this guy? And so I'm on there, it says, not a biologist. Justin, you keep keeping the TikTok world entertainer, right? You can [00:51:00] have that. What a Matt what a mess. But we do all, we all make mistakes, man. So it don't beat yourself over, your absolute thing and learning experience or whatever, but.
To hell with those people. And what's, and and here's what's crazy is like the hat that I was wearing, people were like, oh, where'd you get that? I just pulled it up just to see it. That was the first comment. Hey, where'd you get that hat? It's the hat that I'm wearing right now, which you can get@turkeyseason.com.
So I was talking to Eric that I sold all these hats when this video went live. And I'm like, dude, I'm about to be the Tucker Carlson of the Turkey hunting world. And just say the craziest stuff that I can come up with, like I saw a bear mate with a Turkey one time and just just get people all worked up and they're gonna be like, kill yourself Paul.
Be like turkey.com. Just sold outta hats all the time man, bear pig back and oh yeah, I'm gonna show up at the N W TF Convention with my Turkey God shirt and people are gonna be like this guy. I'm not, that's a joke. I'm not that freaking conceited, but, oh man, that's what a mess, dude. What I do, you talk about like just poking a hornets nest dude, that [00:52:00] internet.
TikTok. I'm just like, funny. We'll give her hell again this week. And you know what I'm gonna tell you right now, if I get a chance and there's a Jake in front of me and it's the only bird I got, it might be the only time I get out this week. This hell, the juvenile Turkey killing some bitch Andrew months.
Get it? I can't believe it. I'll And you what? Here's the reality, dude. If I get a tur, if I had a Jake bird come in on me today, I would just take a video of 'em, because there's a little bit of me that I like, dude, look at that big old rope hanging from my freaking off. Look at the size of that man.
Right? That's I like that. I will, I like shooting big turkeys. I'm tell you right now, the last day of the season, Jake. Woo. Eat. Look at that fan on the wall. Dude. That's the first train you ever kill. That's a, Jake, I didn't know any different. I wouldn't know the difference. Okay. I don't know.
Anyhow. Yeah, you would. Cause I'm gonna Andrew, that's Jake. Don't shoot if you're an idiot. I'm, if you're an idiot, then I'm like the super idiot when it comes to that. Anyhow, we'll give it hell this week. Oh man. We'll what a [00:53:00] day. Come back next week. Yeah, we're gonna give it, hell let us know how your Turkey season's going, man.
You got some crazy stuff. Let me know. I'm not I'm gonna say this again. I'm not an authority in the Turkey hunting world. I've been around enough. If you're having some tough hunts, man there's an episode that I just put out on my How to Hunt Turkeys podcast called Burn the Boats.
Listen to that episode. If you third week of July, or excuse me, third week of May, look at me talking nonsense. People are like, oh, Paul's hunting Turkeys in July, third week of May. Th I don't hunt. Turkeys in July. Andrew, third week of May. If you are having a tough time, how to hunt Turkeys podcast, click on Burn the Boats.
I want you to listen to that episode. So that's all I got man. Thanks for following us. Thanks for listening to this show. Thanks for allowing me to get on my soapbox. Thanks for all your support. Give us a review on Apple, iTunes, whatever the hell it is. Spotify pod beam, wherever you listen to this podcast.
Thank you for the support of this show. We really appreciate you. Find us on the feed dot o dot podcast. Man, I appreciate everyone of you. I really do. Absolutely. Thank you guys very much, and we will talk to you next week.[00:54:00]
