Bear Grease - Ep. 202: Turkey Stories - Shot in the Face and Three-Wheelers (Part 2)

Episode Date: April 3, 2024

This is episode two of the Bear Grease Turkey Stories Series. We’ve got nine storytellers on our final turkey episode from Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Arkansas. They talk about three-wheeler wrecks, people getting shot, folks flying around in jets, a turkey walking with a forked stick, and even a Voo Doo gobbler. Join host Clay Newcomb, along with guests David "Yawt Yawt" Ellis, Andy Brown, Clifford Lawing, Slade Johnson, Dale Craig, Chris Hopson, Kevin Laws, Bill Baird, and Russ Arthur, as these men tell their best turkey hunting stories. Connect with Clay and MeatEater Clay on Instagram MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube Shop Bear Grease MerchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. First Lights fieldware collection is made for the work that happens long before opening day and continues when the season ends. Products built for early mornings, full days and real use. Hard wearing where they need to be versatile where it matters. No shortcuts. Just gear designed for the work that earns the season.

Built to perform, built to last. Check out. First Light's new field. Worldware gear at firstlight.com. I could see them spinning full-struck. And as I raised up and went to shoot them turkeys, it was boom. And everything got dark. We've got eight turkey storytellers stacked like cordwood on our final Turkey stories episode of 2024.

They hail from Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Arkansas. The Southeastern Conference and Collegiate Sports has an interesting tagline. stating it just means more down here. There are passionate and incredible turkey hunters all over this great country, but I've got to say that SEC tagline fits turkey hunting like a three-piece custom suit. It sure means a lot down here. On this episode, we've got three-wheeler wrecks, people getting shot, folks flying around in jets, a turkey walking with a forked stick, and even a voodoo gobbler.

I really doubt that you're going to want to meet. it's this one. And hey, I'll be on the Meat Eater Live Tour starting April 23rd, going all the way through May 5th. Me and Steve Rinella, Yonis, Cal, all the guys we're going to be hitting Mesa, Arizona, San Diego, Anaheim, and Sacramento, California, Salt Lake City, Utah, Boise, Idaho, Missoula, Montana, Spokane, Washington, Portland, Oregon, and Tacoma, Washington. You can buy tickets for those shows. Now, I hope to see you there. And it's some point we're going to come to the south so stand by and i've got my gun like this right here and i go to leaning in about that time i just tumped over my name is clay newcom and this is the

bear grease podcast where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant search for insight and unlikely places and where we'll tell the story of americans who live their lives close to the land Presented by FHF gear, American-made, purpose-built, hunting and fishing gear that's designed to be as rugged as the places we explore. Just this last week, I was in Mississippi turkey hunt with my friend Lake Pickle. We were within hearing distance of four goblers at daylight. One of them darn near in field goal range as a clasp a pine limb in the windless cold twilight. They gobbled good on the roost. as the dark forest became like a dimly lit room and gradually brightened to the point of being

able to discern between tree species, they quit. Almost as if they talked it over the evening before, when their dinosaur toes hit the ground, they went silent, tight-beaked, despite the pleading yelp marks that Lake was leaving on their feathers. At 9 a.m., we left, and we went to a new property and made a big loop, yelping from time to time in the mid-morning, all the while listening. Most of the hope for our morning was gone. Until, at 1045, we heard the arrogant gobble of a tom following the sharp staccato of a pilated woodpecker. We closed the distance with no more than 75 quick footsteps when Lake's posture

changed and he stuck at his chest and from deep within erupted the most beautiful spine-tangling four-note bard owl hoot I've ever heard made. I did not know if a barred owl had landed on his shoulder or if on the inside he was one. But after the trill of the final note, a gobble erupted so close it shook our souls and we melted to the ground like May apples in June. Within seconds, we heard drumming. And soon I saw his shiny black chest feathers and his red head moving towards us. My resolve melted like wax as Lake whispered, Shoot him. But what he couldn't see is that some limbs, briars, and grass stood between us.

But like separated lovers, he was closing the distance. After having a near mental breakdown, rotating my shotgun a full 45 degrees, I squeezed the trigger as he walked away after tucking his wing. And the woods erupted in flailing wing beats. Lake Pickle is not a small man, but he outran me to that turkey and snatched him off the pine straw like he was recovering a fumble. We'd done it. In all my outdoor pursuits, the feeling of calling in and killing a spring gobbler is indescribable. And that's why this week we're celebrating the wild turkey.

We're going to come in hot with our first storyteller. You may have heard of him. They call him yawt, yawt. but his name is David Ellis, and he's from West Point, Mississippi. This is about a wild hunt that he had in Missouri with his good buddy Po Daddy. Pay attention because this story takes some quick twists and turns. Here's y'all, y'all. So the most, I don't know if people say it was scary, the most war out,

but me and my buddy went up to Missouri. I'd have been up about three times trying to kill him in that national forest. And I always wanted to meet this guy named Eddie. Sauter. You know, Eddie Sauter was the guy that you watched on TV. You saw him on the Saturday mornings, and he had that call sign when he killed a turkey, and he went over and got picked it up, he goes, ow, you know, and that embedded in my head, you know, of all these years. And I was like, I said, I want to meet Eddie Sauter one day. So anyway, me and my buddy Pohaddy, his name's Paul, nicknames Pohaddy, and he wasn't poor. He's just really cheap, you know. We get a hotel

with one bed to save $10, you know. So we went up here, and I'd have been up there about three times trying to kill them. The mountains, I call them mountains to me, you know, but they're steep hills. Finally, I ended up with a guy that had 4,000 acres, one block of land. And through a friend of a friend, he said, just come on, I'm loaded with turkeys. Well, the first day, man, we got in there, and them hills was just as bad as over at the but they had plenty of birds. You would mess up or a bird leave you over here.

He'd hammer over here. You just go to another one, you know. We finally, one day, we just split up like, man, you got birds over here. I got birds over here. But the mountains was just wearing us out, them hills and valleys. And they called them ridge runners for a reason. They just run up down the ridge. We're trying to run over them, you know.

We weren't smart enough to figure it out yet, you know. So about three days of more thunderstorms. The more ridges was wearing me down. I mean, one ridge took us five stops to get to the top of it one day. And so the last day I told Po Dad, I said, you know what? I'm done with this. I said, I'm going back to what I used to do and how I know how to kill turkeys. Because you know how it is when you hunt with somebody, you just play it differently.

You don't move like maybe you should because you got two people. You don't call like maybe you should or not call like you shouldn't. You just play it different. I told him, I said, this is the last day. I said, I'm tired of these thunderstorms. I'm tired of these hills. I said, when them turkeys hit the ground a day, I said, I ain't going to have these boots on. I'm going to be like, you same boat.

I said, when it's go time, it's go time. I said, when they hit the ridge running, they're going to run down it. I said, I'm going to be on the other side. I said, I'm going to pop up. And I said, I'm going to bust him. I said, and we're going home. He said, well, go get him, son. So right, the daylight.

Them old owl started getting the going. I said, all right, Daddy. I said, you just stay right here. I said, I'd be back in just a second. They just kept on, ready to get more and more daylight. At that time, foon, foon. They hit the side of that ridge, and I hit the other side of that ridge, and I was running down there with that shotgun.

and they were just hammering all the way. They knew what they was going, and I knew what they was going, and all they need to do was pop on the other side of the ridge. And as I run and run and run, as I got to the edge of that ridge, they pitched up and flew. They ain't pitched up and flew the whole time. They've been walking all week, and today they pitched up and flew. And I knew the ridge we was on because we had stopped five times the day before on that thing.

I said, you know what? I ain't giving up. I shot down in that valley, and I started coming all the way up, and they were still hammering on the next ridge, and it just kept driving me, driving me, and I pulled myself to the top, and I got up. I could feel the sweat just running off of them. I was hot.

I had a pull over on. I got a hood. I'm always wearing a hoodie. I was sweating, and they were just over there, just hammering, running away. I got on the other side of that ridge, and I took off, and as I got closer, I could see them spinning full strut. And I seen an old pine top, and that song on was just brown. So I slid up under that pine top, I knew I was going to be about 40 yards. And as I raised up and went to shoot them turkeys, it was boom.

And everything got dark. And I knew I didn't pull the trigger. I didn't think I did. But I felt blinded. I felt the pain. I could feel the sweat. And as a little bit of blood just run down to my lip, I could taste it. I have a lot of nosebleed, so I knew what the blood tasted like.

And as I sat there thinking, Lord, am I dead? Did I die? And about that time, I heard, and I took my face mask and the pine straw that all stubble in my face, and I pulled it down. and I looked and I said that's Eddie Salter Eddie Salter. Eddie Salter then shot me in the face

so I laid there and as that guy walked over there and he picked up both turkeys and I don't think you could shoot two turkeys in the state of Missouri at the time but he did.

Now this wasn't Eddie Salter but that was in my mind enabled it all I heard was the hudai and as I laid there I was thank you. was I trespassing? Was I not trespassing? And as a guy took his turkeys off, he picked him up by the heads. Where I'm from, he picked him up by the feet, throw him over his shoulder.

And as he walked off down through the valley, I got up and wiped the sweat and the rest of the blood off my face. And I limped back down there to my buddy poe daddy. It took a little bit. And as I got up there, my buddy poe daddy said, he looked at me. Well, did you get him? I said, no, I got a shot. That's what I got. You ain't say nothing to him. Say something to him. I didn't know if I was actually trespassing time. All I could think of was, if I am trespassing,

not only did I get shot, I may have to pay $1,000. I wasn't fin to get shot and pay $1,000. I said, we're going home, son. But in the end, I was not trespassing, and I hadn't crossed no fences. but in my mind, I never thought that he was trespass. So we caught, you know, I just thought I'd automatically obviously got so zoned in on a turkey that I just lost where I was. Anyway, we called a landowner and come to find out who actually killed him

and they took, you know, DNR took care of it. But he was a fellow that lived next door to that 4,000 acres that nobody ever a turkey hunting. And very well could have been, you know, I could have lost my life. A lot of things could have happened. guy did not know he shot me. So he's probably 30 or 40 yards on the other side of those turkeys, and he shot both of them between the two turkeys and the tree top. Saved me from probably losing my eyesight.

I had about eight good stings in the face, you know, where the blood was coming out. So if it would have been for him killing both turkeys and that tree top, it didn't tell how many out what it took. Wow, that was incredibly scary. And David tells it so funny, it's hard not to chuckle. but the actual trespasser did not know at the time that he'd shot David, who had permission to be there. David did. David never heard what happened to the illegal turkey hunter.

That's a wild story. And thank God it wasn't more serious for David. I bet that was a long ride back to Mississippi with no gobbler in the truck. David has a podcast and a YouTube channel titled in his signature Yacht Yacht brand. And I've told you before, these Mississippi turkey hunters, are just made different. Our next storyteller is also made different. It's none other than my friend Andy Brown from Western Arkansas.

He needs no introduction. He's a bare grease regular. I'd never heard this story, but it involves a coat and tie and a major mishap at the moment of truth. Here's Andy. Anyway, Wayne one time he calls me. And I had just went to work at the place I work at now. And this was in 1990.

He calls me, he said, what time are you getting off? And I said, I'll be off at 5 o'clock. He said, you want to go try to roost the turkey? And I said, sure, I'll go with you. And I'll never forget this. I had a pair of black slacks on, white shirt with a black tie. William, he made us wear ties from Labor Day to Memorial Day. So we always had to wear a tie.

So that was our tire, you know. Of course, I was decked out, you know. And so we drive out to board camp and we go in there to a spot and cross the creek and pull the mountain there. And he had a four-wheel drive, a Chevrolet pickup that took us thousands of miles, turkey hunting. But anyway, we pull in there and he said, do you want my jacket, camouflage jacket? He said, why don't you take that 16 gauge? He had another shotgun too. I said, why ain't going to need that?

I said, I'm just going to walk out here east where I can hear good. He said, well, I'll go west out here. And I said, well, I'm going to go out here east. So I go out there. And of course, by getting out of there after 5 o'clock, the sun's starting to go down then. But I had those slacks on, and I didn't want to sit down on the ground, and those slacks, and I looked, and there was a little piece of plywood, I guess. A storm had bloated in there, about 16 inches wide.

And I took that plywood, and I just sit it down by a tree there and sit down on it. I did wear his camouflage jacket, but I didn't take the gun. So I had black pants, white shirt, camouflage jacket, and the black tie. I didn't have it buttoned. I just sitting there, you know. So I sat there and sat there. And, of course, you know, gobbler turkeys, lots of times will not gobble to you think it's too late to gobble. And that's one they'll gobble.

It's after the twilight, everything, when you think that they're not going to do it. But anyway, I was sitting there and it's starting to get dark. All of a sudden, I heard him coming. And I knew there's no doubt. I know you've heard this. But when a gobbler turkey is on a mission, it sounds just like a person walking. It's just crunch, crunch, crunch. And I could hear him coming from a long ways.

It was dry. And I look, here come my big rascal, right to me. And he just walks up there at about 20 steps of me. He just walks up the mountain there, right up on top, about 30 yards from me, flies up a tree, right on top. And there I said. So I had to wait until it got completely dark. So I drug back into the truck. I said, where are you being?

I said, well, I told him about the story. I said, but man, in the morning, I said, we're going to get this dude because he's going to go back just exactly. like he come in there. You know, he's put his hands to bed, and I said, he's going to go back the other way. So the next morning, we get up extremely early. We go in park, we go around the south side of the mountain, hit an old road, get over on the north side. We're going to get set up, you know, and so we walk a little ways and walk a little ways, and we look at it, and I said, this don't, I said, let's go a little further. So we go a little further, and we get out there, and I'm out there, I'm out there, I got my pocket knife, and I'm cutting limbs, building,

some of them blind, you know, and get in where we can hide, you know, and I'd get all that fixed. I sat out there and wades right there with it. It starts a little bit. I mean, we could have took a nap. It was so early. But anyway, it starts getting daylight. And I look out there, and I thought, what is that right out? I could see something light covered.

And I look out there, and there's that piece of plywood where I mean, we are sitting right under that turkey, you know. And I thought, oh, no, about that time he got. just blows her hats off right there. And when we did, he just pitches off on the south side of the mountain. He didn't pitch back off the way he'd come in and went right east. There he went, gobbling. And he went right back around there to what we call Bible Gap. Anyway, I told Wayne, I said, come on, let's go try to kill that day.

We go back around, we come into the gap. And the time we get into the gap, he's kind of off on the south side, off down on the, it's pretty open in there. He's down there with some hens. We got in there and got stashed, and I put in on him, and he went to golf, and I mean, that he was doing it. I looked off down there, and here he come. Come up to him out. He just, here he come.

Just kept him coming, kept him coming. And I could have killed him at 30 yards right in front of me, but he was getting to my left. And just right there, there was a game trail, come up a leg. And I don't know why I didn't shoot him down there, but anyway, I was just going to let him keep him coming, you know. He'd come right on up there. He hit that game trail. This is the way it works.

There was one another one, them big bullpines. there. And all he's got to do, when he walked in behind that pine tree, I just moved my gun to the left of it. I had to, I was facing this way, but I had to turn my gun. And there's nothing. It's just like this floor here on both sides. There's not even a Huckleberry bush. I mean, he's in behind the tree at 15 yards. All he's got to do is just, and he just walks right in. And, you know, he's in a walk. And about that, when he gets behind that tree, it just stops. It's called patience the guy should have. You should have a little patience because there's really no way this turkey can get away hardly, you know. But I'm kind of, you know, my body's this way,

and I've got my gun like this right here, and I go to leaning. To see if I could, you know, leaning over like that. In about that time, I just tumped over. I just tumped over. And that old turkey running his head up there, of course, I'm laying on the ground like that. And I just, but the problem was I shot him too low.

I mean, I just sit and I jump up. And I run to get him and, of course, he got his legs under me and got his wings under him. And he flew right out through a little old notch in the mountain. And as far as I know, he's still going. Now that was a good story, Andy. And I figured that turkey is still flying. A fella could take a few notes on how to kill a turkey from Andy Brown, but also on how to tell a turkey story. The perfect story is just the right mix of details, humor, passion, and know-how.

Thanks, Andy. Our next storyteller hails from the Smoky Mountains of Southern Appalachia and Green County, Tennessee. His name is Clifford Loewin. The first turkey ever killed in the 1970s was the first turkey ever checked in Green County. He calls this the story of Big Red, and Big Red ain't a turkey. Clifford Loing, I believe here basically all my life. I was in the military for a while, and worked construction for a couple of years,

out west, around Colorado and around. I'll tell you one about the Big Red. My nephew had got a big Red, Honda's Three-Willer. I rode it around my house there in a yard a time or two, as all I'd ever wrote it. And I was working construction at the time, working at Doler Jarvis up there. I was working with CNC Millwright, working construction,

and talking to a boy, and he said, you've been turkey hunting over there. road in it lately and I said no I said hadn't been up there in years he said we've been trying to kill one up there told me where he was at and I said that's the area where I kill my first turkey he said we can't call him in said he'll get the goblin and what they was done if he wouldn't come to him he'd try to get closer and he'd just go away from him and they'd follow him in more smart tombs they'll take you around and round so I was at work and got off early at evening and I call my brother because I didn't have a four-wheel drive to get back in

at the time and I called him. I said this. I borrowed Brendan's Big Red to go to Paint Creek Turkey hunting. He said, yeah, I'll come and get it. So I said, evening hunt. So I loaded it up in the back of the truck, took it over and dumped it out and started up in there. There's a little road that runs up the backbone of the mountain there. It's kind of steep getting up to it. And like I said, I didn't know much about that big red, so I started up there and like riding a motorcycle in the mountains, if it starts raring up, what do you do? you throw your feet down. I learned the hard way you don't throw your feet down on one of big reds.

Because when I got stopped, the wheels was about in behind my knees there. And like I said, didn't have a reverse on it. I'm sitting there on that steep bank. I said, I'm in trouble here. Couldn't get off of it. I finally got it killed. Couldn't get it pushed forward enough. And finally got it.

It took me about five minutes. I said, I'm in trouble here if nobody's over here. Finally got it off of me. Hold on. It flipped over on you? It didn't flip over, but it ran up my back legs, the wheels. Describe that to me better. When it rear it up, I throw my legs down, and the rear tars is right there,

and they come up in my back of my legs. It's got your pinned there. It had me pinned. Oh, wow. And I'm sitting on that steep hill pinned with my leg. Yeah, my knees are on the ground. Almost on the ground. Yeah.

And I'm pinned where I can't keep doing about it. And I worked there for a while. I finally got out of it, luckily. And I eased on up that road. I had my shotgun. Didn't have back in them days. I just had a rope tied to it and just opened my shoulder. Eased up through there, and there's a place or two.

They was a limb hanging. I'd have to get around that. And I got up there in a field where I'd kill my first turkey. Stop, got off of it, and walked around every while looking for sign. And it was probably about an hour before dark. So I got my call out. I used a mouth call. I got it out and a cackle real loud.

Over on the next ridge. I said, well, so I got across this holla, and I don't know I can get this done all before dark or not. I stood there, I couldn't stand it no longer. I took off. Got over and eased up in there and found a pretty place to sit down and had a little level flat in it and went up the ridge. I called and he gobbled right up on the ridge above me. He just, he gobble every time I called. He gobbled up here.

Then he'd come back down here. I said he's not, he's not coming down. And it's getting on down. And like the tape said, old Rob Keck said, if you got one to hang up, just turn your head and call time or two and spit it out and just don't call them on. So I did, and he gobbled. Well, I just sat there. It seemed like forever. I seen a black spot moving on the ridge above me.

He'd stop and start turning around and around strutting. I guess that was the best hunt ever had. He'd take a few more feet, gobble, turn around and around. I wouldn't. My car was laying on the ground. ground. I just sat there and watched him and watched him. It seemed like it took forever for that bird to get to me. And I let him get about 15, 20 yards. He just go around, round circle. Drum, spitting drum, gobble. I was tore all the pieces. I don't say I kept sending a shotgun shake.

You know, I said, I'm finally have to shoot him, so I shot him, got him, got back to the three-wheeler. It was almost dark. I mean, it was getting on down there. So I tied him on the three-wheel. wheeler and tied my shotgun back across my shoulder and took off down through there. It was getting pretty black by then. And I didn't remember the tree hanging across the trail. And my shotgun hooked it. The next thing I know, I was eating the ground and the three-wheeler was going down through the woods with my turkey.

So I survived that one and got up and got on out of there. I was more careful getting on out of there after that. That was the last time I rode Big Red to the mountains. That was a good story, Clifford. It's a wonder any outdoorsman survived the 1980s as much of the backwoods travel was done on Honda Big Red three-wheeler's. From the very beginning, they were known as Widowmakers and Death Traps. Gary Believer Newcomb never had a Big Red,

but he had a Kawasaki 110 three-wheeler, which was just as dangerous, just not as iconic of a machine. That actually bought me a little two-stroke Yamaha Tri-Tri-Zinger three-wheeler when I was four years old. I still remember tumping that thing over a time or two and once hitting a barbed wire fence. It's a wonder any of us are still alive. If turkeys had three legs, they'd be easy to kill.

You could just tip them over on an incline. On blood trails, the stories don't end when the hunt is over. They just get darker. I've seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bag. And there was a pool of blood. Oh my God, he doesn't have a hit. Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving,

the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence. Indications were he should be right there, but he wasn't. This season, we're going deeper, from cold case files to whispered suspicions, from remote mountains to frozen backwoods. Each story begins in the wilderness and ends in darkness. Because out here, there are no witnesses. no cameras, just fragments and the people left behind trying to piece them back together. He's not an honest person. He's incapable of being honest.

Somebody somewhere knows something. I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 of Blood Trails premieres April 16th. Follow now on Apple, Iheart, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Our next story is probably going to surprise you. The mode of transportation isn't a three-wheeler, an old four-by-four picker. or a mule. It's rather a jet. This is Slade Johnson of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He's a very serious turkey hunter with a very unique 45 hours of turkey hunting to tell us about.

And you're going to need to know that a turkey hunting grand slam is killing the four subspecies of turkeys in the United States. An Osceola, only in Florida, an eastern turkey in the eastern deciduous forest, a Merriam in the western U.S. and the Rio Grande in the southwest. Here's Slade. I grew up turkey hunting. Like I said, that was my passion, passed down my grandfather and dad since before I could walk. It's my favorite thing to do.

Out of all the turkey, and I try not to miss a day of turkey hunting in the spring, but out of all the turkey hunting I've done, probably my favorite trip was, I guess it was three years ago now, one of the investors in my company's, big outdoorsman, he's a pilot, and he likes to just do choward. crazy things and so we had found out that we were just curious like what wonder what the the quickest time anybody's ever completed the Grand Slam and so we looked it up and it was actually a friend of ours was one of the guys that did it and they had done it in 46 hours somewhere between 46 and 47 hours

we're like oh we can beat that or thinking we could at least you know and so we're starting to put this big strategy together of like all right let's let's make this a fundraiser for the NWTF. Let's use, you know, swap trips with guys through trips for trade. John would fly his plane. He's a pilot, like I said, so that would make things a lot more efficient to get to each of the birds. But our goal was we're going to do this in under 36 hours. And so we were thinking, you know, that'd be really two full days of daylight of hunting. And then we found out that the guys had done it before started the clock on the first gunshot. So the end of the story, you see, that made a difference. So we decided, all right, as soon as we

harvest the first bird, the clock starts, and we harvest the last one it stops. We'll see if we can break this 46-hour world record. So anyways, we started in Alabama. I thought that was going to be a lay-up, because that's his personal farm, cover-up in Verge, very low pressure, and it took us till like 9.30 in the morning to get it done at that farm, which we were like, oh, man, this is killing our time. We really thought we needed to kill off the limb this morning. So we killed that bird, we run over to the plane, take off landing near Orlando in Florida, we hop in a rental car there, we drive to this farm, which is a trips for trade guy on the swap, and no pressure on this farm too, hoping that we could get it done. And those birds, again, thought it was going to be a layup,

and they whooped us. We got all the way down to the last probably, I guess it was probably the last five minutes of shooting light, and we're like, it's done. We're not going to be able to do this if we don't harvest this bird this evening. And like an answered prayer, these two long beards come out not answering calls not goblin they just come walking out into the field and john was able to get it done there so we're high-fiving we're all fired up so again back to the airport we fly overnight to kansas buddy casey's there incredible turkey hunter he had got permission on a farm for us to hunt a rio there in kansas and it roosted them which so many people involved with this it was it was incredible to see and so that morning right there they're set up on this

tree. They know where he's roosted, about to get, you know, day breaks about to happen. And they look over and two guys are poaching coming in from the road. Somebody dropped him off. And they're walking in between, under the trees, the turkeys are roosted in. So they're at this dilemma, too, of like, do we stop the poachers and confront them? Do we just like, hope they don't screw up this hunt? Because we're on the clock. We don't, we want to screw up the hunt. It's now or never. This is the only, only birds we've got on this farm. And so they were just like, we'll worry with them after. hopefully they keep walking, so we don't even know where they ended up going. But the birds woke up, you know, gobbled on the limb, pitched right down,

just picture perfect hunt. So now we're on cloud nine. We're, you know, this is daybreak of the second day in Kansas, you know, 615, whatever the time is. We've already killed the Rio. So back to the plane, we're in South Dakota by like 11. And so we land in the badlands. Sean's up there, awesome dude. They got a big Indian reservation property that we could hunt.

and by the time we land and walk in there, he's like, I saw a group of birds in this field, you know, we should be on them within an hour. So we had our first setup there in South Dakota. The clock was at 27 hours in. And so that would have obviously been an incredible just time for doing that challenge. But then they just gave us the run around. We had, we hunted all day. We had six different opportunities on birds.

We had misses. We had ran out of, you know, lost shells, just everything you can imagine, just thinking we cannot get it done on the Miriam. And so we're getting down to the end of the day and we realize this is, we're not going to be able to do it. So we're defeated. We are like, whooped. We're sitting at dinner that night just like heads in our hands, you know, just like, golly, we put all this effort into trying to do this and we didn't do it. And we're doing the math. And we're like, wait, since we didn't kill till 9.15.

in Alabama, that gives us 30 minutes of daylight to still be under the world record the next day. But we had a rainstorm coming in. So we're like, there's a little hope, but like, it's probably not going to happen. And so sure enough, the rainstorm ended that morning right before daybreak, and it was the most perfect hunt. We're sitting up, setting up on the edge of this field. I bet you there was 20 plus Longbeard's Goblin in the trees around us, like just pure big group Miriam fashion. Bird pitches down. I'm calling on this one

and John's up in front of me to shoot and he just, we can't get him to break the distance. He's just strutting out in the field at the distance and we're like counting the seconds. Like we need you to come over here. Anyways, finally he broke and came in close enough to get the shot. John made a great shot.

We picked him up and we ended up harvesting that bird when we stopped the time. It was I think 45 hours. in 52 minutes. So we had eight minutes left to spare for the world record. So that was, that's probably one of the most meaningful hunts I've had.

You know, it was a lot of people involved. You got to see every subspecies of turkeys in the U.S. So that was a lot of fun. And then ultimately, as I mentioned earlier, the fundraiser side, I think there was like $25,000 or $26,000 worth of money of people donating that were watching this live on Instagram and everything, donating money to be in the raffle

that we were able to. donate to NWTF. I wasn't expecting a jet when Slade started telling me this story. That's pretty wild. I'll be impressed when somebody makes a turkey slam only using a Honda big red three-wheeler as their mode of transportation. Slade runs a business called Trips for Trade, where they connect people looking to trade hunts with other people across the country.

It's a pretty neat business. Our next storyteller is my friend Dale Craig from Western Arkansas. Dale told one of the best deer stories ever told on this podcast about calling in a buck with a rolling apple. Y'all remember that one? He's a veteran woodsman and a mountain hunter. Here's Dale with a short story about a gobbler putting the voodoo on him and his buddy Travis. One thing me and Travis got into one time,

and decided we was going to work the turkeys over, you know, kill us one. We've been all over the country. It was right, just two or three days before the season was over with, and I pull up here to the house. I hear this turkey goblin over here, just east of my house. He's right at dark. I called Travis up. I said, hey, I said, I just roosted a turkey.

He said, where at? I said, right here, I'm standing right here in the yard, and I said, it's over here east of the house. We'd been all over the mountains everywhere trying to get. We had neither one of them to kill the turkey. And he said, well, how do we get in there to it? You know, I told him where we was going to go the next morning. So we met up way for daylight, parked in the neighbor's hay met him.

We slipped off up there on the edge of that ridge. It's starting to get light, called. Boy, this turkey just gobbled. And just sat in, just tearing the woods up. I told Travis, I said, we need to get, you know, get up here and get set up. I said, that turkey will come in just a little bit. So we eased on up on the ridge, you got up there, and we got set up. Travis, he'd called, he called for a little bit, and that turkey just gobble, gobble, gobble.

I tried with my call, just kept a goblin right there in that same place. So we decided he had some hens with him. So we kept, we just started easing that way, being real quiet. Every once in a little turkey gobble. So we got set up again. We called that dude just gobble, gobble, gobble, right there in that same place. Wouldn't come, wouldn't come.

We sat there and listened to that thing forever. And I mean, every time you called, he just cut you off. We decided we was going to sneak off down there and try to put the ambush on him, you know. We got slipping off down there, slipping on down the ridge there and got off the side of it. Then I heard a rooster crow. We looked at it.

one another. And then we decided that turkey was in a pen down there. I didn't know that house was back in there. I hadn't been back in that country in years. I used to cune on all in there. This old gobbler, we slipped on down there where we could see. That old gobbler, you could see him down there in that pen. You could hit that call.

That dude just gobble, gobble, gobble. He was in that pen base with a bunch of chickens. But I didn't even know that house. that house when it was built. But anyway, we was going to ambush that old turkey, and he kind of put the voodoo on us. The old Penn turkey story. Any bona fide turkey hunter should have sniff that one out

after Dale's opening line. But I walked into it like an ox to slaughter. Or like a 1980s middle class man walking into a Honda dealership and buying a big red. What got me was that it was by Dale's house. And I knew that he would have known what was going on near his own land. I didn't see the pen turkey coming. Anyway, good story, Dale.

Our next story is from the mountains of East Tennessee, told by a man named Kevin Laws. He's a humble fellow with a string of turkey spurs darn near long enough to wrap around a Volkswagen. Here's Kevin. When I started out turkey hunting, it's probably been about 25 years ago, I guess, because I was, I always kept beagles and coon dogs and bear dogs, and I used to didn't like nothing if he didn't have a dog involved in it. I mean, that's all I'd ever done, is bear hunted and rabbit hunted and coon hunting. I wasn't interested in no turkey.

I finally decided there that I would give it a try. The first year, I didn't kill no turkey. And then my brother went together, and he killed a big gobbler early that morning, and there was another one with him. and it run past me, and I killed it, and it had two beards. That was my first turkey that I'd ever killed. After that, I just got to hunting and learning as a went, but he's a lot better turkey hunters than I am around here.

I mean, there's some good turkey hunters in this part of the country. I remember one time I had been up in the mountains, and I had this turkey up there and I got the calling on it. And, I mean, he was doing some goblin, and my brother was with me that day. I finally got him called in, and when he came in, he came around kind of behind him, and my brother was on this other side over here. And so I just kind of eased around with my shotgun there and got me a good beat on him. and when I shot, he left out.

I missed him. I mean, he was gone, son, I missed him. That was about, I don't know how long I've been hunting, but I still haven't been hunting a long time in. And we waited two or three days and went back, and we called him there again, and we got him to gobbling, and he come in, and then he left back out,

went way down through a haul of their movement, It must have been, seemed like a half mile, I don't know if it was or not, but it was a pretty good piece. And I thought, well, he's gone, I mean, you know. And this was of evening. And I told my brother, I said, let's give him one more call and see what happens. And so we, I let out a big cackle, or I had a mouth call, and I let out a big cackle. Man, he gobbled down in there. And a few minutes, he'd come on, he was still gobbling.

And my brother said, he's coming. So I just sat there and waited for him and he came up there and jumped up on a big log there and stood like he was pretty brave, you know, whatever, so I blowed him off the log there and He was a pretty good pretty good hunt right there and then it wasn't a few days later It was getting closer to the end of the season, I guess and we went back the mountains again there and My brother was with me again there too And I like to hunt the mountain because sometimes you can call and they may be there in 10 or 15 minutes and then sometimes it may be two hours. And I got up early and we called and I was one gobbled about three ridges over.

And we called a few more times. My brother sat over here on the left side of me and I was watching for the turkey to come up through here. and I mean it wasn't I'd say it was less than 10 minutes and I mean he was over like three ridges and man he was there and all of a sudden I hear my brother shoot you know and he's killed the turkey

but it was I mean him's some fun hunts right there I like him those were good stories Kevin I like those kind of hunts too our next storyteller is also from East Tennessee near Greenville. His name is Chris Hobson,

and he's going to tell us about chasing one the hard way with a bow with no blind and no decoys. And no Honda Big Red. Well, my name is Chris Hobson. I'm from Greenville, Tennessee. I guess I got started briefly turkey hunting back when I was a kid when there was hardly any turkeys around, you know. But that was just the early stuff.

and didn't get really involved big with it until probably late 80s, you know, early 90s. Of course, when I was a kid, I mean, it's like you very rarely ever seen a turkey, you know. And it's like seeing a bobcat, you know, you're just really surprised to see one. I've had some really good times in the turkey woods and some good success and he's a lot better turkey hunters than I am. I don't really believe in luck, but I've been fortunate enough to, you know, kill my share of turkeys. kill my share of turkeys. This one is a, I don't know, it's right there around where I live at at home. I had decided I was just going to dedicate half the season to bow hunting turkeys.

There was a particular gobbler hanging around there around the house, and I picked the wrong one to bow hunt after I got to chasing him. So because he, we live on a farm there, and he would get out in a big pasture field, it was probably, I don't know, it's probably 15 acres. And every morning, I'd be down there and he, I'd, I'd, I'd, know exactly where he was roosted and try to set up. And when I said I was dedicating half the season to bow hunting, I meant with no ground blind or anything,

I just put a gilly suit on and just wanted to hunt it, you know, just out of the woods and try to blend in. Wasn't using any decoys, which is a very, it's very hard to do. Well, this particular turkey, he, I picked the wrong one to bow hunt because he would come out in the, when he would come off the roost, he would go right in the middle of the pasture field. and he would stand there for hours, just hours just going back and forth, back and forth just strutting. You know, he'd have a couple of hens with him, but he was just, he was very stubborn.

And it took me, I probably hunted that turkey for a week and a half. Just, I got really close a few times, but, you know, bow hunting is, it's a game of yards and feet most of the time. He finally made a mistake. I got up one morning, four daylight, and, you know, bowhunting, and, you know, he finally made a mistake. And he was roosted in a different spot that morning. He flew out in the edge of the pasture field that morning. And then he skirted around some of the other fields there. And I would just back off and go back behind the ridge and get behind him where he couldn't

see me and try to set up in front of him, you know. I tried all different types of calls, diaphragms, and wasn't using any decoys. That's pretty hard to do, especially if you got one stubborn like that. There was a little pond there and he went toward the little pond and I got, there was some blowdown trees down there. And I got him behind those trees and I just sat. I had caught him crossing. There was a bottom there and he was coming down at bottom sometimes in, you know, late morning. I got set up over there on one of those blown down trees.

There was a cedar tree or something there and I just, you know, skirt it up behind it. And he come, I probably shot him at 12, 13 yards. I had to draw before he got there, you know, and I had to, you know, I had to weigh, of course, I had a low poundage bow because it don't take a whole lot of pounds to kill a turkey with a bow, but made a really good shot on him. And, you know, I tell a lot of people, I like to bow hunt them, but there's just something about a shotgun, you know, it's because there's so, you know, turkey's vitals are so small. You know, when you're bow hunting a turkey, I mean, it's, you know, you've got to be precise

on your shot placement. I just, it everything just lined up that day to, you know, for it to happen. You know, I just, I'm just a bow hunter at heart. I just love to bow hunt, but I like the shotgun hunt them too. You know, I just, I don't, I don't bow hunt them a whole lot now, because I'm just taking my nephew and my daughter a lot now. You know, there's a lot of those hunts that stands out that's really special to me with my daughter and my nephew.

I have to give them credit. They hung in there pretty good and killed some pretty tough turkeys too. Chasing the turkey with a bow Without a blind or decoys Is as difficult a turkey hunt as there is Period I've just started to notice that some turkey hunters Are giving people a hard time for killing turkeys out of blinds

I didn't realize we were doing that Like giving people a hard time about this It's no doubt easier when you're in a blind And I don't really have a dog in the fight I've never killed a turkey out of a blind But it's interesting that we're ribbing people about a method of take. Anyway, just an observation.

Good job, Chris. Thank you for the story. Our next story is being told in the Mississippi Wildlife Heritage Museum in Leland, Mississippi. Bill Baird is from Indianola and is a long, long-time turkey man. I'm just going to let these two stories

that he's about to tell us unfold on their own without much foreshadowing. But I figured the first story should be called fork it stick my name's bill baird i'm from indianola mississippi i guess if i remember the first turkey hunt i went on with my father i was about 12 years old had a 16 gauge browning and uh i think the first time that we went he set me off by myself and i missed a turkey and then we went on that afternoon to kill one so that kind of got me started kids nowadays start hunting when

they're five, six, seven years old, but we, most of the older men back in those days, we needed to be about 12 years old to be able to handle a gun to where we could hunt. So I guess that's when I started, turkey hunting. Well, you know, I enjoy all hunting, but I don't know there's something about a turkey. When you fool with a turkey in the fall, you see them, and they're really dumb. You know, they'll stand there and look at you on the side of the road. but when you start hunting a bigger old turkey, a four or five, three or four or five year old turkey,

he's been through several seasons, and he's wised up. When you get an old turkey and you trick him, you've really done something. You know, you said something about that earlier about a favorite hunt. There's so many of them that I can remember but one particular time that actually Roy

and a friend of ours from Indianola went to Illinois's. We'd go to Illinois as every year, been doing it for years and hunt with a family up there. But we could kill two turrets. and I killed one one day and one the next day. Probably two of my best turkeys.

And the first one kind of, it wasn't mountainous, but it was hills, pretty high, and the turkeys would kind of roost right off the top of the ridges. And I heard one gobble and got up there that morning, and it was a fence. And the fence was the line, so I couldn't go on the other side of the fence where the turkey was on the other side of the fence. So I'd call and he'd gobbled.

And I'd wait, and I'd wait, and I'd call and he gobbled. He gobbled. Finally, I just figured out, you know, I'm going to just be silent and make him come look for me. Well, I see him coming through the woods, and he's limped, and he's just walking along limping like this. He kind of got one wing down, and I said, something's wrong with that turn. Well, he got up to the fence, and right when he got to the fence, I saw him kind of bend down and do something, and he came up on the other side of the fence, and he looked up real tall, and he kept walking on towards me. Big old beard. old turkey, but he was messed up in one foot. He finally got close enough, and I spoke to him, good morning,

shot him, went over there and got him, and under his right wing, he had a forked stick, that he was walking along using that stick as a grudge. I don't know what I ever did with a stick. I should have kept it, I guess. Wait a minute, Mr. Bill. What? Okay.

But he was a big old turkey, and he did have a gimped-up foot. Now, I told that story, and believe it or not, how many folks will believe it for a little bit. I almost got you there. But he was one of the bigger ones, and the next morning we went to another ridge. My friend and I, from Enidola, went to another ridge. The first time I messed up my knee, we were walking along, and I stepped over a log, and I tripped and I fell. The turkey was goblin, and he was down in the bottom, and my friend said, well, you just stay here. I'm going to go on, and I'll shoot the turkey.

I said, no, no, it's my turn. So we kept going, keep going, and I'm hobbling along. Finally, we get up there, and we peep over the ridge down there. We see the gobbler down there with two hens, and he's just strutting. He won't gobbled. He's just strutting with those two hens. And the hens were dusted. We sat down, get ready, and we called, and I called, and he'd look up every now and then he'd gobble.

The more we called, we got a turkey coming from behind us, and he came up there. And my friend Ed said, well, let me shoot this one. I said, nope. had to literally put my foot on his gun. I said, no, we're going to kill this turkey down here. He's bigger. So he was trying to slide his gun out. He was messing with him, I'd call.

And finally, this old gobbler came behind us, and he started gobbling just right out of. With the old big turkey down there, you know, it got him wise, so here he comes. Anyway, he runs up the hill. Long story short, I shoot him, and my knee is hurt, so I can't run. And my buddy runs down there and puts his foot on his head.

He said, you lucky sucker this, the biggest one you'll ever kill, and it probably was. I think, I don't remember what he weighed, but he had an inching 15, 16th spurs. Those two particular hunts that I went on day back to back like that, I'll always remember that. And I always kind of tell that story at the beginning to kind of get off on a good wreck, you know. When I first met Mr. Bill, he didn't strike me as a comedian. So the forked stick caught me off guard for a bit. Then when he had to put his foot on his buddy's gun so he wouldn't shoot the smaller turkey

so they could get the big one, I then realized I was dealing with a man of rare prowess and wit. Hat tip to Mr. Bill. Great stories. Our final storyteller, the one wrapping this thing up, is once again my friend Russ Arthur from Cleveland, Tennessee. He told the story on the last episode

of finding the journals of his father on the day of his father's funeral. On the first page he opened up to, he found the story his father had written about Russ's first turkey hunt when he was just a boy. It was a great story. Well, here's another one about Russ's father.

We had a special bond with the turkey hunting, and one which, when he did pass, I realized that I had something really special. And a lot of friends, some of which you've met today that reminded me through those hard times how lucky I was to have that level of a bond

with a father. And it was. It was truly special. And, you know, I know it's, I've got a grandson now. Took him on his first turkey hunt last year. He was seven. Carried a little 4'10. And he sat there, and I've never been so proud of my life.

He's, we didn't kill a turkey, but we had a hand come in, and she was looking for us, and she looked for us for us for 15 minutes. I mean, she was panking and popping and looking and just raising all kind of cuss to try to find us, and he never blinked, never moved. And as soon as she walked off, he took his head in that office, and he took his head in that office as Poppy, I wished I could have shot it. And I thought, you know, hopefully I can pass some of this down that got passed down to me. but he and I shared a special bond.

There was having to understand the mountains, and you understand them, and sometimes you can get really remote in the wilderness area. And I was about probably five miles from the closest road. It was only up in the day. It was a pretty day, and I was more or less just hiking, scout, and enjoying the day, and I heard a turkey gob. I got my map out, made sure where it was at. You drop off the wrong drainage, you can get in a bad way.

Figured out where it was at. Side hilled around, crossed the creek, crossed another creek, pulled up on a ridge, and I looked and I saw this slow rolling little flat, and I thought, if I can make it to that flat, I believe that turkey will come to that flat. It was a little saddle on both sides, and it appeared to be a springhead. I'd never been there. Been all over that place, but never been to this actual place. no trail, no road, and I saw a huge hickory tree.

If I can make it to that hickory tree, I can kill that turkey. So I eased around through there, and I called up the turkey and killed it. And it just was really tickled, couldn't wait to get out and tell Dad. Of course, this is before cell phones. I come out, and I was living fairly close then and working for the Forest Service then, and I called him. As soon as I got home, I said, you're never going to believe where I killed the turkey. And he said, where?

And I described it to him. And I said, the funny thing about it is, I said, we're going to have to go back in there. He said, why? I said, well, I got so excited that I've got this habit if I'm going to be hunting in the back country, and I've got a turkey and working, and I've got a sling on my gun, I'll take it off. I don't want that extra movement in that gun. So I had taken my old leather sling off and I'd rolled it up and put it next that tree and covered it up. I said, I left my sling.

I got so excited, I come out of there and walked all the way out of there. And I got halfway out before I realized I left my sling. So we're going to have to go back in there. Next day, I had to work the next day. I come home from work. When I come home from work, there on my back door was a turkey feather. And all it said was call me. Oh, and my sling was there.

So I called Dad, and I said, what's going on? He said, you'll never believe this. But he said, it's such a pretty day. He said, I thought I'd go back in there, try to find your sling. And he said, I kind of went in a different way. And about 11 o'clock, I heard a turkey, and I coursed it, and I got my map out, and I pulled up there, and I saw this saddle. I thought, well, if I could get to that hickory tree,

and he walked, and he sat down right at the same tree and killed that turkey the very next day. I mean, it's just unbelievable. That truly is an incredible story. Jim and Russ's knowledge of the land and how to communicate before we had onyx pins on our phone is pretty wild. Great story, Russ. Thank you. I hope you've enjoyed these stories, and I know that I sure enjoyed meeting all these folks face to face.

We've really got something to celebrate into wild turkey. Be safe this year. best of luck in the turkey woods and I can't thank you enough for listening to Bear Greece. I'll see all you Western folks on the live tour soon and I really hope to convince these meteor boys

to come to the South sometime soon. I hope you have a great turkey season. Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps game calls in building each of our own favorite turkey diaphragms called Prime Cuts. Now I'm going to tell you, I love mine because it's easy to use. I'm not going to win a turkey calling contest.

It's just not going to happen. But when I run this call, I get the sounds that gobblers are looking for. I have a great turkey hunting track record. If you go listen to real turkeys out in the woods, they're not going to win calling contests, right? That's who I listen to. I can make those sounds on my cut. I also hunt with Phelps's cut, and I hunt with Clay's cut because they're all three great cuts. Check out Prime Cuts at Felps.

Game Calls.com. I think you'll be glad you did. And you'll find out that the Steve Ronella cut is an easy-to-use cut for beginning callers who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting action. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.