Turkey Ninja, Jason Redd of Timber Ninja

This week on the show Paul and Andrew sit down with Jason Redd of Timber Ninja to talk Turkeys.  Jason is known for his overall outdoor prowess and top notch hunting products, but he’s on this week to discuss hunting turkeys.  This is an overall BS session to discuss the ins and outs of what Jason has been into this year, and what is to come.

Paul was successful on a MASSIVE Ohio Tom this past week.  He covers that story and how he gives this bird the business. First time on the edge of a field with a decoy, and he got it done!!!  Andrew’s got very little to report from the field because… Life.

Around the state, the bird harvest numbers continue to climb and we have almost matched our numbers from last year after the first 2 weeks!  Good job to all those successful hunters, and keep grinding to those out there still searching!

Have a great week and enjoy the O2 if you get out into Ohio’s great Outdoors!

[00:00:00] That's how starts, I'm ready. That's how we'll start the show this week. Look, what's that? Paul banging on the pot. Call Turkey. El Weathered oak man. Weathered. Oak King calls months. Guess what, man? Yes, sir. Killed a Turkey. You did. Killed another Turkey tagged out in Ohio, man. What a week. Yeah. What big week?

A week buddy. Kenny killed a Turkey. It's pretty cool. Took some other guys out Turkey hunting. Justin and Brandon went out. Terrible hunt. Saw some hens, other than that, man, it's good, man. Good. So tell me about it. Let's hear about it. Let's hear about this Ohio, Turkey. Okay. So first off, thanks to our partners at Go Wild.

You've heard us talk about the, their platform, social community, social commerce platform. Awesome group of [00:01:00] guys, a ton of products. Andrew, available for the bass, angler for the cat fisherman for the Turkey hunter in this state, in this fine country that we live in. Visit time to go wild.com. Download them on the Apple or Android platforms.

They got a cool, they got a cool podcast. Also a part of the Sportsman's Empire Family, their podcast Uncensored. It's a good one. It's a good one. It's it's How do I say this? It's those it's like you're watching the sitcom, and you're just like intimately involved with their lives and it's just super entertaining.

It really is. You just, you, you just like part of the family. Yeah. But you don't say anything. I like it. I like their podcast Uncensored. Check that out on all podcast platforms. Download their app. Join that. We just got, we got some messages just recently from some oh two podcast listeners.

Thank you one for listening to the show and two signing up for Go Wild. Finding Us On. Go Wild Man. We really appreciate your support. Thank you. Thank you for that. And shout out, it's Chris Swanson, right? Yeah. Chris's giving us appreciate you talking to us there. And then Brian Jackson, who's new to the show [00:02:00] following it.

But shout out to him for touch a Base with us there. We talked. I appreciate you guys. Chris shared with us his story there about the coyote coming into is blind with 'em. We talked a little bit about crazy in the show today, but yeah, that was nuts. Yeah, what a cool. So yeah, time to Go out.com.

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Gear for the angler, hunter, land manager, all sorts of stuff available on their website. Are you on their website right now, Andrew? I am. What do you got? What's the half rack product of the week, man? I'm still waiting for that meat lug come. I know it's coming. Soon It's coming. It's gonna get there. They're big on the hunter hangers right now, so Hunter hangars cool man.

Super, super classy. Way to little. Yeah, just hang stuff up in your, around your shop. Once I get done with my huge project that I'm working [00:04:00] on in my yard, I'm going to reorganize my hunting stuff with all the hunter hangers and stuff. Yeah, they got some cool stuff, man. So you guys will like them, check them out.

half-rack.com? Yes, sir. Exhibition optic optics. Are there another sponsor, partner, exhibition optics. They've got all your thermal and night vision optics out there. Sawyer and the guys they're good. They know what they're doing. I've got that scope on my gun that I took to Missouri and Oklahoma.

Super cool piece of technology. It's be able to record. I think that's one of the coolest things. You can record what you're shooting and you don't need an additional camera or anything like that. And it's see in the middle of the night, and I wish I could use it more. That's my problem right now. I need to find more time to go use that, but it's gonna be pretty cool.

Woo. I think's awesome yeah, no, for sure. Yeah, check them out. What is it? X vision optics.com. Yes, sir. And what else? We [00:05:00] got first light, they dropped some new stuff, hunting gear western hunting related, but could definitely fit into the whitetail Eastern woods as well. So haven't picked any of that add up yet.

But, Hey, trace, I'll tell you what, man. That freaking catalyst system that I bought for whitetail hunting has been a lifesaver for the Turkey woods this year. I've hunted in the nastiest stuff, but man it's, it doesn't impeach your movement, which is huge for me. And man, the layering.

Oh, that marina wall down on your skin, all the way up to the, through the catalyst vest and jacket and bibs are the ones that I use that it has been it's pretty, been a bit of lifesaver for me. So check that out. First light.com. I know they got a big, is it 20% off sale?

Still going on? I'm not sure if it's still up or not, but they come and go on there, so keep an eye out for sure. So I've got, we've got a big announcement coming up for this show. What do you got? Oh, go ahead. I think I know, I think, no, I think I know what you're gonna say. Go ahead. Okay. [00:06:00] Big, so big announcement.

This is we're jumping out a few months here on the calendar, but mark the calendars for July 21st through July 23rd. Okay. So this show, Andrew and I, we are sponsors and supporters of every conservation organization that, that we can do the one that we really have latched onto and wanna see do good.

I love what they do in the state beyond backcountry hunters and anglers. So we are a corporate sponsor of B h A here in the state and nationally. So July 21st, the 23rd muster and the marsh it's usually muster in the mountains. This is like a huge event. It's a national event that, that they throw on every year.

It's at Covered Bridge Outfitters in Can Canoe Creek. Am I saying that right? Connet. I think it's con Connet. Yeah, I think it's Connet. Yeah. Way up there Northeast. So if you're listening from the Northeast, please tell me I'm an idiot. And how to pronounce that. But we're gonna be there, we're gonna be podcasting live, we're gonna be doing some other entertainment type events.

Really looking forward to that. If you want more information about backcountry hunters and Anglers Conservation [00:07:00] organization man they're here to protect public property, protect water hunting rights, really good organization, backcountry hunters.org. They don't have anything right now coming up soon on their on their events here in Ohio.

But muster the marsh. Dude. We're gonna be sitting down with none other than Ryan Cal Callahan. He's gonna sit down. We're gonna be doing some live podcasts, all sorts of really cool entertainment. Up there July 21st of 23rd. Put that into calendars. Tickets are not available yet. There's a field to table dinner that's gonna kick off the weekend festivities on Friday night that I've heard nothing but good things about that.

So a lot of raffle prizes, a lot of live entertainment, music, all sorts of good stuff. So it is gonna be a freaking party, man. I'm excited. I'm excited. I can't wait. It's gonna be a blast. Road trip. O two road trip. Yep. Backcountry hunters.org. We'll have more information and the ability to get tickets or point you in the right direction on our website.

The o [00:08:00] two podcast.com. Keep you're gonna hear all sorts of stuff coming out for that, but I'm very excited to be a part of that. Absolutely. And also we've got the archery hike the 3D Archery Hiking event. Down in Logan, Ohio, July 7th to ninth. So let's see. You can sign up for one day, two day, or three day passes.

All the registration and information is@archeryhike.com. So this goes towards farmers and hunters feeding the hungry. Sponsored by our buddies over at Advance Outdoors, whitetails Unlimited, awesome event. Justin does a knocked out bang up job on that. And yeah, archery hike.com if you want more information, but look forward to that event as well.

So you, so let's see, what else, man, what do you got for the news? Anything good? Oh, so I, I saw this story about this woman that had fed oh, Matt, Jesus, to deer and trained them to like these white, these whitetail deer to [00:09:00] attack hunters has been debunked. Oh, as the AP news said that it was satire.

I don't know. Is that satire? Is that I don't know. I, hell man, I guess I'd have to google the definition of satire. I thought, I just thought that was funny. And I wanna live in my own bubble and pretend that was real. So when you told me that the other day, I was so mad at you that you didn't just surprise me with it on the show, because I'm pretty sure my jaw would've hit the floor right then and there.

Dude, what a crazy story, but, Clearly not not real. So here we go. So I got some outdoor news for you Andrew. Out knows as is from outdoor news.com. That is a classic publication y'all see in the grocery stores. You can get on their website. Ohio Buck Shot on Four Acre Property and Alays County scores.

1 96 40 eights. This thing is a freaking pig fellow named Rick Place of Sidney, Ohio. Congratulations, Mr. Place. That is [00:10:00] one heck of a dear Ohio. He harvested this book and be clowning on a property that his family owns. Police has, it says the place has quite a lengthy history with the property where the massive buck was killed.

So sounds like a family farm. It killed it in the fall of 2022 on October 28th. So 13 point buck non-typical man. What a deer. 33 and Threequarter inch buck 33 and quarter. Oh man. The one and only Saudi deer camp. See what else we got? I don't know. We got what's, I'm just thinking about Agley County. I'm up in Agley County a lot, man.

Four acres of woods up there. That's hard to come by. That's impressive. Yeah, that's why all the freaking deer there, right? Let's see here. Man, there's all kinds of headlines. I don't really want to dive into these. I'm gonna rattle off the headlines. If you're interested more. You can go to Ohio dnr.gov for more information, but we've got Forestry Field Days for Teachers.

That's June 15th and 16th. ODN R'S New Conserve Ohio [00:11:00] initiative commits to a sustainable future. Oh man. I should just stick to the headlines before I try to get more into this odn r to celebrate improvements at the Walton Recreational Complex Walton. That's a good town, man. Yeah, I like Wilson.

Yeah. There's some big turkeys down there. Let's see. Is this past the date? That's past the date. You got dead air. I know. What are you doing? I need to vet this. I just get sick. There's no good, there's no what's in the world of there's gotta be something crazy going on.

Dill State Park offers a play place for all to play. Oh, there you go. We used to have a little swimming pool there, but it it closed like during Covid and I don't know if. Dr. DeWine has opened that back up. I think this is playground and stuff that they're opening. So perhaps it's along the same things.

Sensory equipment, multi-user swings and stuff. Cool. Turkey numbers. All right, let's go. This is the fun part at the start of the year. All so let's play the [00:12:00] game. I have did not read it. Give me, give us the total numbers. I'll give you some background. All right. So through, don't gimme the counties.

I wanna pick the counties. Oh, I, we'll get you. I know who you like to play this game. All right. Total harvested birds so far through 2023. This was as of Sunday, April 30th, 10,351. That's insane. 10,351. And that in, does that include the youth hunts? No, I don't think so. So Hunters checked an average of 9,433 during the same period in the previous three seasons.

So last year that's a lot. Harvest hundreds had harvested 7,551 birds through this period. So we were up almost 3000 birds from last year at this time which last year that was, the first year that we dropped turkeys for, to one bag limit or one bird for the bag limit. And that was like, I, if you look at the [00:13:00] pole number talking to Mark Wiley, that was like the, the worst of those pulled hatches that, that reflected that was accurate.

So they were right in their counting in, in, in the struggle to the pulp. Productions era, what? 20 17, 16, 17, 18. So it does say this year's total. Total includes results from the two day youth season on April 15th and 16th. Nine days of hunting. Okay. In the South zone following the season opener on April 22nd and the first two days of hunting in the Northeast zone.

Yeah. Which opened April 29th. Those studs up and Ashton Bule probably killed 9,000 of those turkeys. Yes, sir. All right. Let's play the county game, Paul. Okay. County game. I'm still, so I said Muskingham first, last week, and it was Adams, but I'm going, I'm gonna say Muskingum was number one because there's some Turkey killers there.

I'm going Muskingum, Adams[00:14:00]

man. Tusker, ROS. Hold on. All right, so it says the top 10 counties. I'm not sure there's 10 here, but we'll go from number 10. Jefferson number nine, dropping. The number nine is Adams. They must have been on vacation last week. Dang. Eight, Washington. Number seven. The old deer killers also know how to get the birds because shock didn't be serious.

Oh my God. Will you guys stop? Six is Meg, stop being so good. Megs county. Megs. Really? Okay, here you go. Five Monroe. Mike Welsh down there killing turkeys. I hear you. Big boy. Five is Monroe County number four is Belmont County. All right, so the top three after the second weekend. Number three with 287 birds.

Tuscarora County I, there we go. Nice. Okay, number two with 297 birds, Galia County. Kalia and [00:15:00] number one, I would've never have guessed that number. It's gotta be Muskingham, right? Number one with 316 birds, Muskingham County. Nice. Three 16. Good for them. Yeah. Wow. I was in Morrow County. How many birds came outta Morrows?

It say you give a county breakdown. Find that It's just this one quick one. Yeah. I killed the only, only Turkey in Morrow County. That's funny. The so tell us, yeah, tell us about your story. I'll give you my background. That was what, last Wednesday. And that was about my only morning. I was gonna have to go out during the week and I woke up and it was about three 30 and I was gonna have to drive about an hour and a half, and it was, 37 degrees and Yep.

I pulled the old sissy card and said, I'm not just gonna go walk around the woods by myself. So I went back to bed and I got up, I was doing some work stuff, and which I shouldn't have been going out in the woods anyways, but a few hours later, all of a sudden you're FaceTiming me and I'm like, what the hell's he want?

[00:16:00] Like I was, have you rejected my call? You bitch? I think, sorry. At that point I think I was actually mowing the grass because I had just enough time to do it. No, you called me. Yeah, you called me back. You mowing the grass, but here you are walking outta the woods with a burn. I'm like, you fat Turkey.

Damn it, Paul, I thought you said you were busy this morning and so I, I was, I, so my nephew had like state testing downtown. He goes to school online and so I took him down, I dropped him off downtown and so he's walking back and I asked the lady running the show, I'm like, Hey, How long is it gonna take him?

And she's oh, like 1 30, 1 o'clock, one than one 30. I'm like, perfect. And so I had all my stuff with me. So I jet out to the farm, man, and I walk into the woods at nine 20 and as I'm walking in I hear I hear some I hear real pretty he yelp in the far corner. And this is like this, it's a small property that I've got.

And so I like sneak in and I get set up and I hate where I'm at. So I [00:17:00] move I'm like sitting, I'm set up for 20 minutes. I'm like, I hate this. So I move, I get set up. I the property is it's a really, it's a lot of pasture. And then there's like a small strip of woods, like a real small strip of woods.

And I am like 15 feet from the line fence, right? And so I've never, I've not hunted much with decoys, but I don't. I have to use decoy because there's nowhere, just the way that the property is there's nowhere to hide, right? It's just, it's it's gotta be, it's gotta be decoys. So I had a Jake decoy out, I had a hen decoy out, and so I get two Toms coming in.

They're gobbling like crazy, man. They're gobbling at me. They're gobbling at crows, like someone was shooting a gun. They're gobbling at that and they're getting closer. So I'm just not even calling. I'm just waiting for 'em to happen. And they're coming in just directly behind me. And so I'm sitting in this, like this log pile and I've got, I know I got perfect cover.

I just, I just hope they see the decoys and fly over the fence. So I'm not like super confident that it's gonna [00:18:00] happen. But it was cool hearing 'em gobbling. I'm like, heck yeah man. And so I look up and I'm like, oh crap, that's four redhead. And there were four Toms. In the other side of the property in the other, like the corner of the field, right along the property line and three heads.

And I'm like, oh, hell yeah. And I didn't pull my binoculars out like I could see beards. I could see bright red heads and I'm like, oh dude. And so there's 3, 3, 3 red heads real close together, and there's a smaller, there's another red head that was just like up on the hill that never really, he didn't come in.

And, but I like just did the softest purring and like real soft clocks just to get their attention because they were about, at this point they're like 150 yards from me. And I did that and all three of them gobbled and all three of 'em go to full strut. I'm ah, sweet. And so I do it again just to see him go to full strut, again, a little talking sweet to strut.

I'm sweet. So I like, I. [00:19:00] Forced myself to not call again. And I'm just sitting there watching the man and they're feeding with the hens and I'm like, and like I said, this is the, this is the first de decoy Turkey kill that I've had just cause I don't use 'em. And I missed on a decoy kill would've been my first last year in Kentucky with Derek.

Go on. So dude, they work their way in, they're feeding and then like they finally see this Jake decoy and they're like, ow. They gobbled dude. And they start running as fast as they can and they stop and full strut and they're running and they full strut and they're dropping and running and they get up and they're full strut.

And I'm just like, dude, at this point I'm watching these turkeys and it is they walked in, I saw them at 1128 and you gotta stop at noon. You gotta be outta the woods at noon, right? It's either walk is three minutes, like this is not a hard walk through the cow pasture. So I'm watching them and I'm like, dude, I'm gonna to get out.

I'm not to get up and scare these turkeys to get outta the woods by noon. Because they're not gonna get here in time. And I was just [00:20:00] panicking. I had my phone on a on a log below where they couldn't see it. I was constantly just touching it. Like every 30 seconds. I'm like, okay, what time is it?

All right. I got time, 1143. Man, I shot that Turkey and dude, like when they saw just the just a beeline, it was freaking badass. A again, man, I shot and missed again. I've gotta stop doing that. I don't know what the deal is. I don't know. It's just my eyes. I had to get reading glasses.

I don't know. I have no idea. I didn't miss the second time and I, just like the Osceola missed the first pounded them, like the second shot's always harder cuz they're farther away, but I don't know man, that rogue three and a half inch t s that dude, he did not flop. It was just straight to the ground.

It was he had no idea what hit him. And you pointed out to me I'm not, I still don't have the trained eye for some of this stuff. The head on that Turkey, that thing had a dome like, dude, it's the biggest body Turkey I've ever killed. It's massive. That thing's head was huge.

It was like the size of a softball. Yeah, it, he had a, it was like, [00:21:00] I've never weighed a Turkey. I've never even considered weighing a Turkey. I like, if I ever shoot one that size again, I'm gonna weigh it. Cuz that sucker was massive. His beard was good. It was over 10 and a half, so it was a good Turkey.

He had, over one inch Spurs good Turkey, in, in the trophy sense. His fan was huge. But dude, he was just fat and aggressive and just beautiful. And man, it was cool. It was just, it was neat, it was neat watching him run in and attack the decoy. And I let him do that. I, I could've let him, I could've let him sit there and attack that thing for five minutes.

My nerves couldn't take it. I'm like, you get one swipe done. That's all. That's it, it's cool watching him ta jump on that thing. But man, it was just, it was cool, man. It was a cool hunt. We talk in our episode today with Jason Red from Timber Ninja about Turkey hunting.

It's just I'm not saying anything negative about hunting a field edge, with a decoy. I'm not saying that at all. It's just something that I haven't done. And there was a bit of me that I felt like a little like [00:22:00] guilty because I, normally when I Turkey hunting, I'm successful.

I have to like really work hard in the sense of pushing myself physically. And it never happens the first week, and. Here. It all just it all just came together, yeah. But you gotta give yourself more credit than that because you did work hard. You went out Saturday, which, Saturday, Sunday, Monday leading up to that.

Yeah. And all in different ways. Like when you were out with us on that Saturday, you didn't even take your gun. Like you were just out there with us and that's work, and you sat through the crap weather and mucked around in the swamp and so I don't think, I don't, I wouldn't think anything less of it.

Thanks man. No I'm, I definitely, I'm too, have tickled Ben. I thought I was freaking awesome. Like before that, the day before that I went out actually two days before, I think it was Monday, that cuz Parker McDonald has inspired me with the new spot Monday. So I went somewhere new in a W M A that I've hunted quite a bit, but it's a new spot.

And just looking at the maps, I'm like, it looks like there'd be a Turkey in there. And I went out just with the [00:23:00] expectation of I'm gonna, I'm gonna scout. I'm gonna look for sign. I'm not gonna call much. I called a little bit. I heard some turkeys. I walk into this area and I'm like, oh my God. This is the prettiest piece of public property I've ever walked on.

This is amazing. And I, drop a pen. I send it to my bro or my son and Kenny. I'm like, oh, mad guys aren't gonna believe what I found here. I heard two turkeys, gobble, and I just ran out of time of the day the legal shooting time. And so Kenny goes out there the next day, takes my son, they hunt, they got turkeys all over him.

Kenny goes out again by himself. They, they get close. Kenny goes out the next day with me. And not, that was, it was the day after I killed my Turkey. We'd go out and get him close. And it was a cool hunt, but just a ton of action. Just couldn't get 'em in. They had some hens with them, just, just turkeys being turkeys the next day he goes out, boom, kills a Turkey, but it was cool, man. I've not, that was like the first time in a long time that I'm like, I'm gonna go out just to scout a new area, not with any expectations of [00:24:00] killing a Turkey, and I'm glad that that someone got to do it. So good. Yeah, it was pretty cool. Okay, good.

Good. I'm sad that my Ohio season, like for me is over, but I've been out with other people. I'm gonna go out with you again. I've got, I'm going to New York and Kentucky and Pennsylvania. And then that's it. I'm not gonna be able to do the Royal Slam this year. I just don't have, I don't have the time to get out there to, or the Grand Slam.

Excuse me another time, man. You know how it is oh yeah, I get you. I'll get the Lifetime Grand Slam. Hopefully. So shout out to our fellow network host Jeremy over there at the Antler Up podcast, he took down Bird and Mitch. Yeah, man, Mitch took out a bird over there in Pennsylvania.

I don't know what Josh been up to. He's already had a couple. Josh is, yeah, he killed in Iowa, Wisconsin, Alabama, and Georgia. Oh, wow. Yeah, he's having a good, he's having a good season. So Dan Johnson took his garbage bag out in the field. He took down a bird. My god, dude, I swear to God suck. I'm like, good.

I don't know. Maybe someday we'll get one Paul. [00:25:00] Yeah, we gotta get you on a good Turkey. I gotta get out there. That's a problem. You get too much stuff going on, but that's all right. All right, so this week we've got Jason Red from Timber Ninja. Just kind of a Turkey BS session, huh?

Yeah, it was good. Man. Jason is a phenomenal Turkey owner. He really is. We talk hunting the hills. Pulling out the stops man. For getting the, getting a Turkey, Jason, how to do it, how to move through the woods. He's really good. So he's sharp. He's a very good woodsman.

There, there is some language in here, mostly from from me. So keep that in. It's nothing crazy. But if you've got small ears in the car of the house just be aware of that. Yes. I think that's all we've got for our side of things this week. Couple things, just thinking about it, man.

You get out in those woods, put spray down with your promethrin, check yourself for the ticks afterwards. You don't need that. No. Tick dick around here. No. And if, I don't know if I was just listening to other podcasts or hear people talk about it, but man, it's not the time. Don't screw around with that.

Take care of yourself. You knock on wood. I haven't had a single tick [00:26:00] on me since Alabama. Ah, I had one tick on me in Alabama. Write my belly button. Yeah. Yeah, that's one tick too many, but or I've got like 30 of them in my back and I have no idea you can't see 'em. Those are just skin tags.

Paul, the if you're so inclined, please leave us a review on iTunes or Spotify or any of those. We appreciate you guys for listening and everything. We look forward to next week. We will we'll talk to you then if you get out in the woods. Good luck and take care everybody.

That is, man. What's how's your during season? Been good, man. You sent me a couple pictures. You've been out there smacking 'em around, huh? The shit's not been easy, but yeah, I've killed, I killed one in West Virginia, which I haven't been telling many people, like we at states, I'm especially not on social media, like what's even what state I'm going to anymore.

Yeah. Cause people are just weird, man. But [00:27:00] I killed one down there. We went down there for a four day little mini Turkey camp and, I killed him on Sunday and then I killed this bird, the one this weekend on Saturday. But it's been rough, man. The dang birds man for the last few years. I don't know what it is.

And I'm not a guy that really stays past noon or anything. If I'm not getting on a hot one by 10, I'm done. And man, these birds last few years, whatever reason, especially early season, is dude, they'll gobble on the roost as soon as they hit the ground, they shut up and don't say another word.

And I know a lot of 'em are henned up, but they're not even like firing back up after they break away from their hens like they have in the past. So it's it's weird. We had a guy reach out to us recently and I'm not the big turning hunter, right? I like the idea, but I just can't find time, whatever.

Paul, you might be able to talk a little bit more about this, but he, one of the listeners was out and he, what? The bird flew down right off the roost. He gave it a little bit of a wave or something to try to get its attention. Is that something you can do to make it think that there's another bird there?

He's probably using a fan or something. A tail [00:28:00] fan or something like that. I don't know. Something along those lines. He said within a matter of seconds, he had a coyote in that blind with him. Oh. That was coming after him. And in his mind he's that's why the birds don't talk when they come down because that he was calling and hit that little fan or whatever.

And that dog came right in there on him. Huh. I have heard that. The thing is, I was talking to my business partner Jordan, about it. Cause he grew up here and we were just talking about the hardship of trying to hunt public around here in the national forest. And I was telling him when I moved here in 2009, like it was like, I thought I was in Turkey heaven, cuz like I, there was birds, 30 50 birds in a field, like in any of these small pastures.

I could go on in the national forest, I could hear four or five birds a morning and it just couldn't, I mean I was tagging out two birds every year up until about 20. I looked at my harvest record. Yes. Saturday, actually I think it was 2017 was the last year I had tagged out. And that was like when it really started getting rough and I started hearing less [00:29:00] birds.

But I don't know, like I said, like you said, Paul's probably a good person to ask this. It's I don't think like predator numbers really increased that much over that duration of time. Cuz this n nobody was predator hunting pre that. The only thing I think about, I know Paul was the one that actually influenced this on me, was like, how much our weather changes in the spring and like how many pulses don't make it.

I think that's got a lot to do with it. Cause we've had a lot of wet springs and it never dawned on me until, Paul had mentioned that they don't have any feathers. And you get these days where it's pretty last week, we're in the eighties, it was 37 this morning.

Yeah. And rainy and windy. Yeah. And that's I take that from other from our state biologists. He talked about it, that's the number one reason for Turkey declines across this country. That's the number one reason. It's not the only reason, it's the number one, it's the biggest factor is those cold wet springs.

And like today it's the highs like what, 42 today, Andrew? It's disgusting outside. It's disgusting, it's windy. And luckily it's prob I doubt that there, there might be [00:30:00] like some little pu running around right now, but if there's a, if there's a three day old Turkey out there right now, it is going to die today.

Like just, it's gonna die. Yeah. And then because it's like this whole week, and I mean our, I know like in the southeast, like nest initiation historically is like April 9th to April 22nd. That's initiation. And then they incubate for 28 days. So and I'm not sure what the nest initiation dates are here in Ohio off the top of my head.

So it's gonna be like later than that, but we've, dude, we've had frosts recently and on Memorial Day Andrew. Yeah. Just weird, those weird cold little snaps, in, in May. And that's the main killer. But, I think the president, Paul, we don't talk in absolutes.

Remember? That's one of the main killers. What's, yeah, that's all, that's, yeah, that's what I said. I dipped my toe into the, to the VI internet the other week. Jason, I misspoke. I said 0% instead of less than 1% Uhhuh about Turkey, like Jake's breeding. And like I literally got death threats on the internet.

So that's the last, I'm gonna mention it [00:31:00] on this show, but, oh, dude, it was crazy. I've never been like more wow. I just felt bad for those people. But I digress, man. We're gonna keep it. We're gonna fuck those people. We're gonna keep it positive, we're just gonna move Right on.

Andrew, you're gonna have to put an explicit warning on this because of that. Don't bleep that out. I want those assholes to listen to that every time I say it. Anyway. But talking about like predators I feel like predator hunting has never been more. Popular than it is right now because of like the Turkey decline and people like human nature.

Man, we wanna look for that one thing that we can control, right? So if something's wrong, what is it that I can blame that I have some sort of control or, whatever. That's predators man. Jason, but it's interesting. Do you do a lot of predator honey or any No, dude it's really rough up here cuz we don't have ag.

To go try to kill a cow in the woods is a challenge. We do a lot of my son and I, we set out some of those dog proof coon traps every year and catch some coons. That's about it. But, [00:32:00] nobody coon hunts anymore. There are so many coons in the woods, and skunks and fox and bobcat and deer.

Not deer, but coyotes. And I do know that they do put a damper on 'em for sure. And to your point about that coyote coming in, man, like before I ever went and hunt and hunted Florida, I'd always heard that too, that those birds never gobble once they hit the ground. Rarely because they have so many things out in the woods trying to eat 'em.

And I've had guys that hunt in Florida and in South Carolina that I, are legitimate guys I know aren't bullshitting, but they said that they've been calling birds before and had alligators walk up on 'em. That's crazy. Yeah. That's nuts. No, I'll tell you what, if you ever get the chance to go do the predator hunting, do it.

I, oh yeah. I just went on a trip to Missouri and Oklahoma with the thermals and at night and all that stuff. I'm hooked. I'm hooked on that. Yeah. And it's amazing how many that can go. So we are out there. One dude shot like 50 of 'em, and the other guy they were with 110 for the year. 160 [00:33:00] dogs or whatever.

Coyotes. Sorry, coyotes that they had taken out. You'd think there's none anywhere. Nope. They're still there. I got another, oh yeah, another guy in the state here. He sends me stuff all the time. Like every time he goes out, just keeps calling 'em in. Calling 'em in. They're just everywhere. They know how have you read that book called Coyote America by Dan Florence?

I can't read. There's an audiobook version of it. Okay. But he talks about the coyote, from, its, it's, through all of its existence and how like crafty they are and like they live in every area of the United States. They even live in Central Park. And just how resilient the, and cuz they've had to battle against wolfs as they started up to people.

And the thing about a coyote, what they say is if you kill, they say if you kill one out of the pack, the, I've heard that the female can adjust how many P pups she can throw to accommodate what they lost outta the pack. That's crazy. Wow. I once read a research paper like full out scientific journal on the coyote population in downtown Chicago.[00:34:00]

And it was, yeah, this was back when I could read the they would come in through the pipes and stuff and the sewers and it was incredible. They had all these dog, their coyotes were collared and everything and yeah, they are everywhere. It's an insane. The awesome thing that I would love to do. Have you seen the people hunt 'em with dogs and use the dogs as bait?

No, I haven't seen that. That's wild. Oh dude. There's some Instagram videos of it. There's two different styles. There's one guy I've watched. He's got he's got like a three-legged shepherd, like a Australian shepherd that he has a tr train cuz he'll get the calling and it gets the dog in.

Then his dog goes out there as a lure and will go out and run around and run the coyote back across in front of him and he shoots the coyote. The dog's trained to do that. I've seen that. That's pretty rad. And then the second one that I've seen is people use greyhounds to hunt 'em. And the dange greyhounds will run 'em down and kill 'em.

Dude, wow. It is intense. The video I saw, there's a coyote running across a a snow covered cornfield like hauling ass. And then he pans the [00:35:00] camera back and there's three grain ho hounds, and you just see 'em making ground up and they just grab him by his high end and knock him down, and they just tear him apart, man.

He is sick. That's wild, man. That is absolutely crazy. And like the new thing here in Ohio is Bobcats. That's the, we don't have a season. It's just within the last couple of years that I think the Bobcat has the sightings are pretty regular. I'm seeing them more often.

Andrew, I know you've had some run-ins with them, so you know, man, every minute of every day, even in the middle of the night, there is something that is trying to kill a wild Turkey doesn't. I mean it's, there's always something, yeah. And then, we're a part of that, a part of that thread at some points, throughout the year.

But every minute, that's why there's so damn hard to hunt sometimes, because there's always something trying to kill 'em. The moment they, that they come hatch outta the egg even before that moment, they're the moment they're an egg. There's something trying to kill them their entire life.

Yeah. And I, it's funny, cuz like [00:36:00] I always say, you're looking for the Turkey that's willing to die that day and that's the one that is just gobbling his brains out or is willing to come see you, come check out your call. But man, I, it's just I killed a Turkey last week and I made some soft, I didn't even know they were in the field.

I had no idea. There was four Toms and three hens, and I had no idea they were in the field. They never gobbled. Not once that they gobbled. Huh? But eventually they, they, I actually, because it's, I it's the first Turkey that I've killed off of a decoy. Huh. And because the property that I have, it's like the woods are super thin and then the rest of it's cow pasture.

Yeah. And so it's just there is nowhere to hide, man, for me. So I'm like they actually started running, so I'm like, son of a bitch, this is gonna work. Oh my God. This is how I actually, it was crazy at the end of it. I was obviously I was super excited, but it was like the, it was the one Turkey that I didn't have to like, hike a hundred miles for, sounds yeah, man. I felt a little weird about it, but I was super excited. I'm not gonna lie, but I don't know, man it just, I think the way that we Turkey hunt is shifting. [00:37:00] I feel like in this country, and I don't know if it's like weather, I don't know if it's like pressure if more people were involved.

So especially on public property, man, where it's just yeah you and I are very different in the sense that if you don't have a hot one by 10, you're out. Yeah. There are time. I prefer that 10 to two at this point. I like that second half of the year, the hunting pressure's gone a lot.

I think biologically they've worked through a lot of things. So I think, and that's just been my personal experience. They've been more active in the public land than I hunt here in Ohio. Like that 10 to two. That's what I hear that a lot, man. Yeah. Are you hearing 'em gobble a lot during that time too?

No, and that's the thing but when they do, they are like way more willing to come die than they are at. Fly down. Yeah. A lot of times we've all been there. You're, they're gobbling like crazy. They hit the ground. They might gobble one or two times and they're just gone.

Yeah. Like they're gone. Yeah. And it could be hens. I don't even know, I don't know what it is, man. But that's the, I feel like the [00:38:00] for, for Ohio then that that those highly pressured turkeys. I feel like they're, like, if you strike one up at. Noon. Yeah, he's done.

Dude, you are in the game man. Look. Yeah. At is game. It is game on. So I have killed him at that time. And it's true, if you hear one gobble around 11 o'clock, it's over with Oh yeah. Oh, you just sit there and watch the show, man. Cuz it's gonna happen. So my problem is they're not gobbling, I'm not hunting them.

I'm not gonna deer hunt a Turkey. I hate that. I'm with you. Yeah. I hunt 'em because I like to call him. I like to move. I've never personally killed a Turkey over decoys. I've only taken decoys once and that was when my son was little. I took a set cuz I knew he'd be moving so much.

And I needed to get 'em in close cuz he was shooting a four 10. Pre tss and I knew I had to have him in under 15 yards for him to kill him with a three inch six shot, which probably had 12 shots in it, yeah. But it worked. That bird saw that Jake and he didn't even bat an eye dude.

He walked right up behind that thing. But yeah it's interesting man. I'd like to figure out what's going on with the [00:39:00] birds, cuz it was fun up here for a while, like running around these big hollers and big mountains and finding 'em, and, I can, I use Turkey hunting to scout for deer too, a lot.

So it doesn't completely kill me if I don't kill a Turkey or hear one, but, so do you change like your mentality especially in those big woods, which I mean, where you're at and you've done a lot of hunting in southern Ohio. Yeah. If you, if it's a quiet spring, like what are you doing differently to, to get 'em to work?

Like what? Do you change the way that you hunt if they're just not as willing to come out and party as as they normally are? What I really try to do, the biggest thing that's helped me cuz where I grew up. I grew up in the Mississippi Delta and A, we didn't have a lot of turkeys when I was growing up.

And b the ones that we had were so pressured, it was ridiculous. So I learned from an early stage to not call a lot. If I had one goblin, I didn't call until I get really into his bubble. And I think that's, [00:40:00] I still use that strategy here. If I can hear one on the roost early in the morning, I'll get in as tight as possible and I'll maybe do some little tree yelps or something.

But, it's, I'm pretty minimalist there. I don't do a lot of fancy calling. I do have to mix it up some. To try to locate, I'll start doing a lot more cutting and stuff, but I keep it very traditional and I use a couple rules that I've always, you know I've learned over the years from some older guys, like one, you probably heard this, but a guy told me years ago is when you're going in on a bird that's roosted and he's gobbling, you think you're close, always go one more tree closer.

And that really, and I do that when I hear him on the ground too. If I can get him to talk without me calling and him knowing, looking for another bird, I'm gonna get as close as I can without him seeing me and then call. And that usually when you know that, when you're in that bubble, it doesn't matter if he's got a hint or whatever, he's gonna come in.

And that's the beauty of the mountain terrain is you can use that terrain to your benefit where he can't see, cuz that really screws us. Early seasons. We don't have any leaves and they can look across [00:41:00] from one ridge to the other and see if there's a hint over there. So that, and man, like one thing that we've been doing we did this on this trip a lot more and it was working well, is doing a lot more al hooting during the middle of the day and not just your regular who cooks for you type, doing that, what they, it's kinda like that, that ball they do, that's really gotten 'em a shot gobble pretty well.

It's almost, that's almost like a, kinda like a soft coyote yeah. Yeah. And it, then he goes w with it, that really gets him going. And my crow call, usually a crow call works really good for me during the middle of the day, but I've since, we started doing that hoot like that in the middle of the day.

Cause I used to just do the hoot until it got daylight and I quit using the hoot. It was just a rule of thumb, like owls normally aren't out in the middle of the day, but it really works on 'em. Yep. You ever try elk bugle? No, I don't carry that with me. That's something Paul and I have.

We've talked about trying that. Oh yeah. If for nothing else, just a screw with every other hunter in the area. Yeah. Yeah. Just lit out a big ripper. Yeah. Oh yeah.[00:42:00] Dude. So the one I killed this weekend, I got to this null on my way out cuz I didn't hear anything way back where I went and I was on my way out and I was going about to let off a locator, call off this null over this bottom.

And I was getting ready to let it out and I wasn't. I was probably about a mile or so from this main road and it's a road that a lot of People run their cars, fast cars up and motorcycles and some crotch rockets were going up it and ripping out and they opened it up and they let off that Turkey.

He nailed it right then. It shot gobbled him and I was like, oh damn, I don't need anything. And I got with, I had that bird from the time I heard him gobble to dead in eight minutes. Oh wow. I heard him I looked where he, I knew where about where he was and I got in tight, saw how this bench went straight and it dropped off and he was on that side and I was like, he's not gonna be able to see me until he comes on this bench.

So when I got on that bench, man, I was I cut one time and got him to answer me back and then just a little bit of call and he was just, he, cutting me off and double gobbling. And so I just, that's another thing I do once I get him [00:43:00] committed, I just shut up. Yeah. And I do a little bit of leave scratching and that's it.

And dude, he, yeah, like I said, from time I heard him to the time he was dead, it was eight minutes probably. So is that the one that you were out on the boat? And you were No, that was two weeks ago. Oh, okay. I wanna hear about that one, but I, are you hunting these with guns or are you bow hunting 'em?

Cause I know you're a big bow hunter. Man, all gun. I keep romanticizing about wanting to shoot one with my long bow, but I have killed, I think one or two with a compound, but I've never used a blind and it's just hard man. The guy that taught me to shoot a long bow is a old Bower that's lives here in Nashville actually.

And when he taught me, we were talking, I was like, man, I'd like to kill a Turkey with one. And he looked at me, he says, son, there's certain things that are meant to be shot with a shotgun. And cuz you don't see many people out there, Shooting them with especially traditional equipment without using a blind and decoy.

And I just, I don't like that for my own style, but two, I don't wanna be dragging around a blind when I'm walking five, six miles. Like I don't field hunt or anything, but no, I, it'd be [00:44:00] sweet. I did call in a group of Jakes this year that I totally could have gotten drawn and, got an opportunity with them, with my long bow without anything, but, and I normally don't shoot Jake's, but I totally would've shot one with my long bow.

But no strictly shotgun man. 20 gauge. I've been shooting 20 gauge for about, I don't know, almost 10 years now. Gotcha. Got a Ithaca Turkey slayer, which is the best Turkey gun there is. Man, I've, that's a legendary firearm in the Turkey woods, isn't it? And that's out there with eight seventies, honestly I think so, man.

But it's funny, you see all these people posting their Turkey guns. I never see another Turkey slayer. And that gun is deadly, man. It has rifled sites on it that are fiber optic. It's a smooth shooting gun made in America. When people are posting their guns these days, they're all po posting four tens and stuff.

And I get it from a lightweight perspective, but. I picked up, my buddy's got, he's got a little 20 gauge Stevens and it, that gun I like a light gun just for packing, but that gun was just too light for me. I like a little bit of weight. Yeah I did too. [00:45:00] I had one of the 3 0 1 Stevens the 20 gauge, and that's a good gun.

I, I'm I would get another one. Man, I could not keep that thing in my hands when you squeeze the trigger, the gun just kicks like a bastard mule and it's like flying up in the air. It's, it does the trick for sure. I would, I we went out to Midwest Gun Works outside of St.

Louis this past January, and I was like, I want a 10 gauge, three and a half inch custom made. Turkey killing shotgun. I was like, can you make that? And the guy's you're a maniac. Get outta here. I'm like, I wanna throw a thousand t s pellets down range. Just be, not because I wanna shoot, 80 yards, cuz that's crazy.

But just because if something, it's isn't like 35 yards, I want no questions asked. Dude, it's just boom straight to the dirt, dude. That's, I've shot Long Beard XR forever and I had a situation last year where it was so steep. I'm not trying to make an excuse, but this is the only thing I could think of is I got this bird called in.

He came in, I thought he was gonna come in from my side. He [00:46:00] came in right below me and I was already on this mountain side. It was so steep. I had to kick my heels in to keep myself from sliding down. And when he came in I always aim for the waddles is where I put it. And I aim for that.

And man I hadn't missed a Turkey in 15 years and I shot this Turkey and it knocked him down. And He ran off and I was like, dang. And so the only thing I think is with the angle, it hit him all in the body with that lead. And so this year I switched to TSS and cuz I was talking to people about that shot and they were like, oh, that tss you would've went right through him.

You would've definitely killed that bird. So I sh both of those birds this year been shot with that tss and dude, it's, they dropped stone dead like you said. I mean you're getting a thousand pellets, I sight of that gun to 35, but I hear guys shooting birds at 67 yards with a 20 gauge. Yeah, that's and that's, I.

That's possible. And I'll be honest, if I was using TSS and I was hunting outta state and it was my last chance to kill a Turkey and he's at [00:47:00] 65 yards and I had battered my gun, I was comfortable with it. I knew that my equipment and my skillset was able to shoot that Turkey at 60 yards humanely, I'd probably do it.

It doesn't mean that like I'm al it's just, I don't know, man. I like getting 'em close and I shoot a Browning a five that gun has killed three turkeys this year. And dude, not one of them has flopped. Yeah. It is just, and it's, they've all been like 35 yards and in, and it is just, it is devastating.

Yeah. When it comes to it is just, you talk about humane kill, it is over with, man. There's no, you can't stop the flop. It doesn't happen. Like it's just not there. And I think that's I'm fine with that. I'm into that man. I don't. I want 'em to be there and done.

Yeah. Just k kill 'em. Debtor. And it's a weird play of words, but it's true. Like when they get hit by this stuff and I'm like you man. I like to worker bird and I like killing 'em under 20, which most of 'em are. But I'll take a poke at 35. I don't think I would ever shoot one at 60 or 70.

I don't, I don't know where I'd get the opportunity to do that unless I was hunting the field personally. [00:48:00] Yeah. Yeah. I don't think, man I'm with you. I don't. If I had the chance and I was confident, I might you, like I said I probably let it rip, but I've had, I've watched more turkeys walk out of my life at 60 yards than I Oh yeah.

Have. I wanna ask you, I don't want this to be like a controversial topic. This is just something that like, Like it, it bothers me and I don't know why it bothers me, but like I, you're, you and I are both Turkey hunters, man. Like when people were bow hunting turkeys with like those guillotine broadheads, have you seen those?

They got like the four blades that come off. Yeah. Yeah. And there's a Josh Bomar guy. He's been putting out videos left and right of people like, just like destroying Turkey heads with these guillotines. And so this I one I know, and I've talked about this on other podcasts, I know that it's my own bias that I don't like this because that is like a, like that's talk about like instant death that is done.

There is a, Turkey is just dead. There's no, it is as dead or as you can possibly be immediately. [00:49:00] I do not like bow hunting. Turkeys with those freaking guillotines and this, I think it, for me, and I don't think it's necessarily bow hunting them with the guillotines. I think it's where they've got multiple angles of the heads exploding they're putting out, like to me it's just a dude, it's a lack of respect.

For the animal and for the pursuit as a whole. Am I off base there? If I am, tell me I'm an idiot. From my perspective, I don't think you're off base. I think the thing is from my perspective is I come from like a very traditional Turkey hunting background.

Like you call turkeys. You don't, I don't field hunt turkeys like it's all been like big woods. Hunt 'em traditionally, shoot 'em under 30 yards, shoot 'em if they're talking. Don't use blinds and kill 'em as humanely as possible. In my opinion, I think like the guillo, in bow hunting, turkeys in general okay, people are using a bow, but you're in a blind with a decoy, is that pure Turkey hunting and however you wanna do it, that's fine.

Like whatever, floats your boat. But, don't act like you're some [00:50:00] badass, if you're sitting in a blind, shooting one at 20 yards, like if you're a real Turkey hunter doing it pure, get out there with your bow and lean up against the tree and get it pulled off, that makes it harder, the thing that's tough for me with bow hunting, I'm not against the guillotine thing cuz like it does kill 'em dead if you do hit 'em in the head. And if you miss. It's usually a clean mess. It what gets me is the people that are trying, and a lot of people are successful with this, but I know for a fact cause I have friends that hunt with bows that they lose a lot of turkeys when they go to try to take body shots because a turkey's kill zone is about the size of what I mean a baseball.

Yeah. If that, and when you look at how turkey's body changes so much, like it's really hard to identify where that kill zone is. And also they don't bleed so blood. There's not enough blood in 'em to really blood trail. So you either gotta do a string tracker or how many people just lose birds or just wound them with the blow.

Yeah. Yeah. Now each to their own, don't get me wrong, like if that's, if it makes you feel good and like it's your hunt and, but [00:51:00] just the opportunity to have a wounded animal is another reason I don't bow hunt turkeys consistently. Yeah. Yeah. I've said this thing. A story from the a t a show a couple years ago where, really accomplished bow hunter had made the comment that of all the big game animals that he's killed literally every big game animal across this world.

This is a very accomplished bow hunter. He said the number one animal that, that he's lost over the years, archery hunting was a Turkey. I'm like why did you keep doing it, man? Yeah, what? Stop it. I'll tell you what, the friend of the show and a buddy of mine, Clint Casper from Working Class Bow Hunter and the CC Hunt files dude, is an absolute stone cold killer with archery equipment.

He goes out west and loves a Turkey hunt Turkey with a bow. And I'll tell you what, man, the way that he does it, there's no blind, there's no decoy. It is like that old school and he'll just hide behind he'll. I've seen five full urologist waiting for him to come out. That is a skillset that I could never develop.

Honestly. Man, dude, that's solid. Yeah, it's pretty. That dude is a freaking stud man. I respect the hell out of that [00:52:00] ability. What? Like you said, man, I don't want if you're hunting out of a blind, by all means, man, I just, I don't like the, I don't like the the guillotine just shots, man that people were putting on online left and right.

Man, I don't like that at all. It makes me, it just upsets me, man. I don't know why. And I, for me, it's just it's just oh, look what I can do. Look at how crazy. Yeah, it's just it's like the Gore Fest, yeah. It's like Turkey porn or whatever the hell you wanna call it.

So it'd be like, oh, hey Andrew, I killed this I killed this giant buck with with a rocket launcher. I'm gonna put this video on, watch 'em split in half. People be like, you monster. Yeah. I'm real cautious about the photos I take and even for myself. Yeah. Like I'm not big on getting a picture with me behind animals, to be honest with you.

It to me it's more about the animal itself and the chase and respect. And I don't like, I always clean an animal up before I post a picture. But like you said, these people like decapitating, like I'm not a big fan of that or guys showing that their shot was so compact that it blew half its head off.

There's a time and [00:53:00] place for that, in my opinion. Yeah. Cuz especially with the internet right now, that's just, in my opinion, that's just more fuel for, anti hunters too. A hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. I heard the way that I heard that explained best to me was stuff like that.

And it could be like and it does, it's not turkeys, but it could be deer grouse or rabbits, like those super grotesque moments. And like we as hunters, we shouldn't shy away like that. That stuff happens. But I think when we like put out what we do to the general public, the non-hunting public videos like that can take a non hunter and turn them into an anti-hunt.

Yeah. And we need more non-hunters than we do Anti hunters because non-hunters, they're either our friend or they don't care. They're neutral. But someone that's against us, man, that, that really that's a responsibility that we all share. And I think that it's people say don't watch it.

If so, I'm rolling, scrolling through Twitter or Instagram or whatever the heck it is, and you see something that you know, and. It just pops up that, it might not be a thing. That's how, I don't know. [00:54:00] I'll get off my soapbox there. Yeah, it's tough too.

When you're bringing up people like Bomar that only post stuff to get attention, hundred, hundred percent. Yeah. Dude, Jesus, I, it shocks me that people like that have such a big falling, especially when they've been convicted of things and people keep following 'em and thinking, they're like, what the representation of a hunter is, which is completely opposite.

Yeah. A representative of a hunter is on a person with their shirt off shooting trend and their body to make 'em look bigger. And everything they do is just for likes and click bait, yeah. It, we need a change in that. If there's my soapbox, I get so sick of that shit.

Yeah. No I'm with you, man. You know what it comes down to, man, I like hunting turkeys with my buddies. I like hunting turkeys with people I've never even met. I wanna bring more people into the pursuit. I want people that have a good time. I want people to experience it. I took a guy out today, never been a Turkey hunting ever.

Never been very young. Yeah. And we had some gobbles, man, we were moving through the woods and he is, he is yeah, this is cool, man. I'm like, yeah, it is cool. And like the pressure that I felt to, to make him, to give him like a good experience. Dude, [00:55:00] we were slipping through, I, he'd talk about like hunting mountains and I. Him and I had this conversation today, some people are drawn to like ag land and fields. Some people are drawn to mountains and those big woods. I don't know what it is, Jason. I freaking love hunting swamps, dude.

I love, oh yeah, no, that's what I grew up on. Yes. That is my favorite thing to hunt. Swamps and marshes. Man. I love dirty leg animals, man. They got mud all over 'em. That's my favorite thing. I don't know what it is. And we were hunting some swampy bull crap today it's all flooded out. I'm like, yeah, we can't go this way.

There should be, need deep water, but, we'll wa and it was just cool, man. That's my favorite train type to hunt. Dude I know man that is made hair stand up cause that's just how I grew up. Yeah. Cause I hunted, the Mississippi River bottoms and all, it's all backwater from when the river's up and the tributaries and stuff.

And like we had to wear it. I've always pretty much worn tennis shoes when I've hunted because back then we just wore tennis shoes cuz we had to clo cross so many slews we were gonna get wet. So there's no reason to have rubber boots. And y also, you can move quiet in woods and tennis shoes.

But dude, there's nothing like [00:56:00] watching us a bird strut through water. Oh, it's people say they won't walk cross water. That's bullshit. Oh yeah. Hell yeah. They'll, I've seen it so many times, man. Yeah. The Florida, the Osceola that I killed this year, we were in a freaking Cypress Swamp man.

Yeah. It was freaking awesome. And we're. My buddy and I we're sitting like leaning up against live oaks and cypress trees and Spanish moss everywhere. Like I turn around and I can see this creek that, the slew that you say that it just like overruns it. I mean it's, it is like 15 yards from us.

I'm like, damn, this is freaking awesome. I'm looking, there's water everywhere, there's cypress knees. I'm like, oh, this is the, I love it. Yeah, that sucker, dude, his feet are as black as you could possibly imagine. I know. It's just, oh, I love it, man. I got some Ohio birds behind me that I took out of this.

These swamps, man, I think you just got this freaking black feet, man. I love it. That's my terrain. If someone's Hey, you wanna hunt this crappy swamp or these beautiful hardwoods, I'm like, swamp. Not even oh hundred percent. Oh yeah. The freaking mosquitoes. Boy. I grew up and there's a lot of cypress trees and there's just always something about the nostalgia of [00:57:00] mossy camo.

Yeah, mixed in with that. Like for me as a Turkey hunter, like it just brings back childhood memories and, but I love the mountains and I like the swamps. I, like I said, I'm not a field hunter and I haven't hunted out west this year. I'm gonna go next year. I'll try to finish up my public land slam next year.

Oh, that'll be cool. I had I had a lot of, I had three, so I had an Osceola and then obviously Eastern opportunities, and I had I had a hunt out to Montana scheduled this year actually for this week. And I just, man, I just can't, I can't make it happen. So I'm a little disappointed there, but it's all good reasons.

It's all stuff for my kids, and that's the stuff that like I'll sacrifice any type of hunt for. Yeah. But I want that slam. That's like the only, it's funny, man, like I'll put, I'll send pictures to friends or I'll put you pictures of a Turkey butt or something like that on social media and people are like, oh, how big was this beard?

And I'm like, oh, I have no idea. I didn't even measure it, man. I was like, yeah. Bigger than my hand. Like I, I have absolutely no idea. No, that's insane. And but the the one like trophy that I [00:58:00] want desperately is that slam, that grand slam for the turkeys And it's not just cuz I want the experience, I've never hunted out west, so I wanna be able to like, I want that first Turkey, like that first hunt out west to be a Miriam's and then hopefully a Rio.

But yeah I want those white tips. Oh dude, they're so pretty. Have you killed Nas yet? Yeah, I killed one five years ago and I, okay, I did a draw hunt down there and I'd heard about how hard of a hunt it was gonna be, and I, dude, mine lasted 45 minutes. I got lucky. Yeah, bird was exactly where I thought he would be, and I'd heard about them not gobbling, they hit the ground.

And I'd found this point going out into this little swamp. It was a it was a pine point that went out into this water, this lake, and there was a swamp there, but it went out into the lake and I was like, man, that's a great place for one to be roston. And I walked back in there and there was some sandy trails, like four-wheeler trails through there.

And right off that point where those trails were, there was like strut marks. And I was like, oh yeah, he's definitely using it. And I went there that morning. [00:59:00] Sure enough, he fired off and as soon as he hit the ground, he came right in and I killed him. And. I but yeah I got lucky on that to find him, but I would love to go back down there.

I got a buddy that has a spot he hunts down there on public that you gotta use airboats to get into. That's crazy. Yeah. So I think that'd be pretty fun. Yeah. Jason, I appreciate your time today, man. We won't yeah, we won't keep you too long, but yeah, you're good. Where can our listeners find you on social media Tim Ninja Outdoors, Facebook, Instagram, everything.

That's really it. I don't really push people personal. Jason.

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