Bear Grease - Ep. 302: Turkey Stories - The Greatest Turkey Story Ever Told

Episode Date: March 5, 2025

Turkey season is right around the corner, so on this episode of the Bear Grease Podcast, host Clay Newcomb will get you primed with some amazing stories by some amazing storytellers from Mississippi and Arkansas.  Listen along as Mark Sledge, Andy Brown, Robin Risher, David Huffman, Lake Pickle, and Med Palmer recall epic tales of turkeys with more beard than you can believe, busting poachers, dog collar-wearing bandits, becoming one with nature, and possibly the greatest turkey story ever told. If you have comments on the show, send us a note to [e-mail] Connect with Clay and MeatEater Clay on Instagram MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and YouTube Clips MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTubeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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It was one of those with every gobble he was gaining ground. And I'm sitting there going, man, any second, we're going to be looking at him. And then finally, just like you draw it up in your head, out he appeared in full strut.

And then came all the rest of them. And I mean all the rest of them. I do not know how we managed to yelp up that many turkeys with only one turkey gobbling the entire time because we thought we were dealing with a single longbeard, but it was not. It was a wad.

Longbeards, jakes, hens, we had every variety, and they were all marching our direction. I'd never seen anything like it. Just like clockwork, the rotations of the earth and the tilting of its axis towards the south have once again found the North American continent in the early stages of the most glorious and redemptive time of the year, the spring.

Despite the uncertainty in the world of men, natural systems hum along with the unfa, consistency. And by our good fortune, many of us live in places where there are wild turkeys. Why everyone in America doesn't hunt a wild turkey, I do not know, but I'm glad that they don't, but I'm grateful that I do. And I'm truly thankful for every goblin, spitting, and drumming and strutting turkey that I've ever messed around with. Being a turkey hunter is but a small ripple in the global affairs of men, but in our minds it stands like a granite peak, impossible to avoid.

You can't go around it or under it, but each spring, you've got to go through it. This is our Turkey Stories episode. It's one of my favorites of the year, and we've got a group of turkey storytellers that are as good as I've ever heard. And I really doubt that you're going to want to miss this one. And I'll leave you with just one hint

about the next hour of your life. Whatever you do, don't miss Med Palmer's story at the end. It might be the greatest turkey story ever told. My name is Clay Newcomb and this is the Bear Greece 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. Of all the things that we hunt and celebrate through story, turkey stories are usually the best. The hunts are dynamic involved in moving and sneaking and owl and and crowing and yelping and listening for the vocalizations or lack thereof of an old gobbler. The decisions of the turkey hunter are more often than not wrong if the intent is to kill the turkey, and the turkeys are usually right. But when the hunter gets it right and he fools that old Tom turkey, the raw elemental chemical dump of excitement with that side of fried wild turkey breast is a scenario without equal. But it's time to get on to the stories. And our first one is from Mississippi.

And the man telling the story, his name is Mark Sledge. But in this hunt, Mark is rooting for the turkey. My name is Mark Sledge. I live in Ridgeland, Mississippi. And back a few years ago, I was a turkey hunting. late in the season, and I was just prospecting, you know, walking and calling. And I stopped. I was way on the north side of my property, and I stopped and was getting ready to call,

and I heard someone call, and I was no question in my mind. It was a person and not a turkey. And a gobre answer. And so I sat there for a minute and tried to decide what I was going to do, and I said, you know, I bet I know where they. guy came in here. So I walked continued north up to my property line. We got to the property line. I was standing there looking at a turkey vest where the guy had taken his vest off when he crossed the barbed wire fence to come on to us. And so I picked up the vest and was standing there

trying to decide, you know, when I found the vest, I knew I was going to get the guy because he was coming back to get the vest. But I was trying to decide where I was going to weight on him. And there was a big tree about probably 50 yards away, a great big oak tree. And I'm talking about a huge one. And so I walked over there to sit down next to the tree. And before I got to the tree, he shot. And when he shot, I realized the oak tree was in a straight line coming right up the ridge from where he had shot. And I knew he's fixing a walk right by me. So I just sat down next to the tree. And I had, you know, I was turkey hunting, so I had camo gloves and camo face mask.

And I put everything on, just laid my gun across my lap and sat there. And sure enough, man, it wasn't 45 seconds. I saw him coming through the woods carrying the gobbler. He had gotten the gobbler. I sat there and I didn't move and I let him get about three feet from me. And I said, boy. Isn't it something how your luck can go from being so good to so bad in such a short period of time? And when I spoke, he liked to jump out of his skin.

And I stood up and took my face mask off and pulled off my right glove. Stuck my hand out and I said, good morning. My name's Mark Sledge. And he said, hey, how you doing? I said, no. I said, this is the point of the conversation where you tell me your name. He said, oh, I'm John Smith. I said, come on, man.

You've got to do better than that. you're insulting my intelligence. He said, no, no, that's really my name. I said, no, it's not. I said, you need to tell me your real name. No, no, I promise you, that's my real name. And I said, it is not your real name. I'm not behind that. And I said, well, what do you do? He said, well, I'm in school, community college. And I said, you look too old to be in school. I said, where do you live? He said, well, I kind of live on the outside of Bentonia. I said, so you live around here, huh? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I said, man, you might as well tell me your real name because I'm going to find out. He said, no, no, I swear, that's my real name. And I said, well, here you go. I pulled one of my business cards out of my wallet, and I gave it to him. And I said, that's got my office phone number on it. Whenever you decide you want to come tell me your real name and get your turkey vest back, give me a call. You can come down to my office and we'll sit down and talk about it.

and I picked up his turkey vest, walked off. Of course, I was looking back over my shoulder and make sure it wasn't dropping down on me while I was walking off. But I went back to my camp and immediately rode into Bentonia, and it took about one stop to find out who the guy was.

And so I identified him and called the neighbor who he had come off of and told him what had gone on. He said, Mark, don't you worry he will never set foot on my property again. and I didn't hear from me. That was on a Friday.

And I figured, you know, I'd probably hear from them next day or two. Well, on Monday, a woman calls me with the exact last name. I thought, wow, that's kind of strange. You know, for a guy to have his wife call me, so I took the call. And she identified herself, and she said, oh, Mr. Sledge, do you have my husband's turkey vest? I said, I sure do. I said, I'm sitting in my office looking at it.

It's on a hat rack in my office hanging right here now. And she said, is there a handmade turkey call in the pocket? I said, I have no idea. I've never looked to see what's in it. And she said, well, I gave him a handmade turkey call for our 10th anniversary. And he said it's in the pocket of his turkey vest. And I just want to make sure it's there. And I said, well, hang on a minute.

And I went over there and looked. And I said, yeah, the. It's in there. And she said, okay, great. I said, wait a minute. I said, why are you calling me? And he's not calling me. I said, that doesn't really make sense to him.

She said, oh, he and his dad and his brother got up early Saturday morning. And when they were leaving, I asked him where his handmade turkey call was. And he said, well, I don't have it. And he told me why he didn't have it and told me it was in his vest and you had his vest. And I said, that's right. She said, well, can I come get it? I said, absolutely not. I said, he needs to come down here and get it when he gets back into town.

And she said, okay. And I said, let me ask you something. I said, do you have any kids? She said, yeah, I have two boys. I said, me too. I said, how old are your boys? And they were a little bitty then. I want to say they were three and five or something.

And I said, think about this. Your husband's come sneaking in there, poaching on us, and I got two sons, and they love to turkey hunt. So they're out there turkey hunt, and they have no idea your husband's in there. And one of them accidentally shoots your husband. I said, my sons have to grow up with the fact that they've killed a man, and your sons are going to grow up without a dad.

And she said, oh, my gosh, I hadn't even thought about that. And I twisted the knife a little bit more, and I had her pumped up where she was going to whey him when he got home. And so sure enough about the middle of that week, he finally called me and said, Mr. Sledge, I'd like to come get my turkey vests. I said, I'd like to give it to you. I said, come on down here. And I'll be glad to give it to you.

So he came to my office and I made him sit down in there and we had a little chat for a little while. And at the end of the chat, I gave him his vest back. And I've never seen the guy again. and I've certainly never seen him trespass it again. I think I probably made an honest turkey honor of him. That was a good story, but I was surprised that Mark didn't get the law involved. I kept waiting for the gay morden to show up. I wonder if you were.

I respect a man that's willing to take care of his own business, and I'd say that that was quite merciful, mercy being an admirable human trait. Maybe that guy that killed that turkey is listening right now. Thank you, Mark. But now we're on to the next one. And it's none other than a bear grease legend from Western Arkansas. Oh, Andy Brown.

He could tell a story about an empty black pot and it would be interesting, but when you get him talking about turkeys, it's hard to turn away. Most really good turkey hunters that I know, kind of in my experience, usually have two or three really great stories. Andy seems to have an unlimited supply. And this is a story about the best gobbler, that Andy ever saw killed. My brother-in-law used to come up from Hope, and Bill, he really liked a turkey hunt because he never got to do any of it.

I used to go down and hunt with him and Debbie down there, and they were avid deer hunters. I used to love to go down there because you'd see more deer in one day down there back in the 80s, 82 probably. So that's been 40 years ago, but it was nothing but soybean fields and cornfields. But anyway, I'd go down there and deer hunt with them. him and Bill got to coming up and turkey hunting with me and he came up one year and he was always really enthused about it because it's just something he had never done and I took him out on my mountain that I out west I always liked out there when we we pulled them out in four daylight got into the low cap and the same thing happened that day as happened to me and Scott I sent

Bill West and I went east and man it was fine morning got out there and not a peep never heard Never heard of turkey. And I told Bill, I said, we'll meet back at the gap at 10 o'clock. I walked back into the low gap probably about 9.30, and Bill was already there. And I said, Bill, did you hear anything? He said, yeah, I had one all over me this morning. He just couldn't, he just wouldn't come to me. He'd come in above me.

He'd went out west and kind of dropped over on the north side, and this turkey come right in on top of him and just wouldn't come off to him. And he said, he gobbled good. He said, just all the drumming. I could hear him drumming, and he just wouldn't come. and do you think you can take me back out there where he was? And he said, yeah, I think I can take you right where he was. He said, he was out there where it kind of drops off.

So we walk out there, 250 yards. And he goes out there and knobs out and kind of drops off. And he said, I think we were about right here is where I was. Cut on the north side. And I just walked up there and just walked over on the south side. And the call, when I did, he just broke me off. This is 10, 10 o'clock, you know. And of course, that's every turkey hunter's dream, you know,

you get one to answer you at 10 o'clock at the morning. And I said, come on. So we just got over on the south side. And it just went out there and just fell off and kind of a little old canyon, just kind of straight off. Got set up, and I called him when I did. He just broke me off down there. And I looked at it, and I said, this isn't going to work.

I mean, because I don't know if he's going to come up to the left of the hogger or the right of the hog. I said, let's back up on top. So we got up and walked back up on top of the mountain there, and it's just a big flat. And anyway, I really put it on, I got aggressive with him in, and he was just, I mean, he was eating it up. Every time I called him, he gobbled. And that's kind of the way I always did back in those days, early days.

If they wanted to gobble, I wanted to call up, you know. And anyway, I tore him up, and he come in there. And Bill was, I had Bill set up where I just knew he was just going to walk up his lap. So that dude coming up to Bill, he just come right around to the left of me. And there was a little old blackjack thicket there. He got right in behind that. He'd come right up the mountain east of me, full strut, and got right in on top. About 60 yards and all the gobbling he did.

Of course, I'd shut up then. I hadn't said another word to him. And he gobbled, and he gobbled, and he gobbled, and he gobbled, and directly he just turned, and he come right back off the mountain like he come, and he got off down there. And when he got behind that black jack thicket from me, I called him again, and we had a little sit-in right there. But I knew he wasn't going to come.

I mean, once they'd do that, your chances of calling a turkey back where he'd already been is, it's slim to none. At least it's always been that way from me. So he kind of got over back off on the south side, about 50 yards from me. And I motioned to Bill. I said, Bill, come here.

and Bill, give me one of them, what are we doing deals, you know? I said, come on. And he said, come on. I said, come on. And so he comes to me, he said, what are we doing? I said, we are going to move. We just dropped over the north side. And when we got over the north side, I said, Bill, we're going to move on this turkey.

We're going to kill us, dude, I think. So we just went east. And when we topped back over the top of the mountain there, I said, if this turkey answers me, he's a dead turkey. We didn't move 75 yards. We got a little higher and got over on the top. I called him, and shoot, he just tore me up, you know. I said, you better get ready. And it was so funny.

I was sitting there, and I had him a gun across my lap. And old Bill, I mean, it's pretty open there. Kind of comes up there and makes a little old bench, and there's a pine tree that's four foot through right there on top. And I look, and you're coming on Turkey. I mean, he's coming right to us. It could be close. I mean, 15 steps.

And when he goes behind that tree, Bill moves his gun. And when he comes out, Bill didn't quite wait long enough. He did, but he didn't because he shot about two inches of that tree off. But he blowed that turkey. He just blowed that turkey down. And when that turkey, you know how they are? That turkey jumped up. And when he took off, of course, I was in really good shape then.

I took off after him. And I run that turkey. I had face masks and gloves and stuff strolled all. down the side of that mountain. But I run him about 100 yards down the mountain there. And finally he just stopped and put his head down and went to clucking. I mean, I caught up with him. Anyway, I finished him off.

But that turkey was the best turkey I've ever seen. He had 34 and a half inches of beard on him. He had a 10 and a half, a 10, an 8, and a 6. He had an inch and a quarter spurred and weighed 21 and a 1. and a half pounds. He was a, you know, and then people say, well, that's not a very big turkey. A 21 and a half pound turkey in Washington is a big turkey. But it was the most awesome turkey I ever seen. And I told Bill, I said, Bill, you'll hunt a lifetime and you will never kill a turkey like this. I said, I've hunted these things like I was mad at

them for 25 years. And I've killed, I'd kill several with two beards, but I ain't ever killed a four bearded turkey. That's such a good story. And you can learn a lot about turkey hunting. from that story. Andy is a rare combination of a man that's as good a turkey hunter as has ever traversed the mountains of Western Arkansas, and he's a heck of a communicator too, knowing just when to include details and humor and internal drama, but really it just kind of flows with overt passion. You really can't teach that or copy that.

Every step of the way, you feel like you're right there with him. I've noticed that every region of the country, even down to specific, you're, and you're specific families and hunting groups have peculiar aspects to their storytelling. I wonder if you've ever picked up on any of those from Andy. My old buddy Steve Rinella did, and after you heard Andy tell the story one time he said to me, Andy Brown sure has a constant sense of the cardinal directions. I laughed. If you're paying attention, Andy's always saying the bird was coming up from the east,

or we went back to the west, or we were looking to the south, where I grew up, which is where Andy lives, always having a sense of where a north is was like the 11th commandment. Thou shalt always know which direction is north. I was never that great at it, but direction is always included in Andy's stories and the stories of his son, Scott,

and all their hunting crew. I like it. Thank you, Andy. On blood trails, the stories don't end when the hunt is over. They just get darker. I've seen something in the road. instantly thought it was a sleeping bag and there was a full 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 two of Blood Trails

premieres April 16th. Follow now on Apple, Iheart, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcast. The next story is off the chain. It involves an ATM and a man wearing a dog collar. I first heard this man tell this story as a guest on the Hayden Alabama podcast, and I cackled out loud like a giggling hen. I'd like to introduce you to a very funny but precious man, Mississippi pastor, Robin Risher. You get what I mean when I say precious.

He's a nice guy. I'm Robin Risher, and I love turkey hunt. I live in Mississippi, but I spent a very short time living in New Orleans, Louisiana. I went to seminary down there, and I was a fish out of water in a big city. The country had come to town, no doubt about that. And I got a chance to go turkey hunting. I got permission to hunt some land in South Mississippi. I taught my wife and let me go.

And she said, yeah, you can go. Naturally, when you get in your wife's car, it's going to be on empty every time. That's a law of nature. And the seminary, I don't know about now, but 30 years ago, it was in the worst neighborhood in America, one of the worst. I popped out there and got my wife's little car. I was going to go into it because it got good gas mileage. I had a pretty far piece to go, and we were rolling pennies where gas broke,

and we didn't have no extra money. But I had all my stuff laying on the front seat of her car. My gun was laying there, and my vests with the shells in the pocket was laying there. I come out of seminary in this worst neighborhood in America, and I kind of goofed a little bit. When I did, my shells came out of my pocket, I know it's still illegal.

I know I wasn't supposed to do this, but I just took the shells in the magazines at 0870. The gun was loaded, but it would not fire until you worked the action one time. And pump shotguns have a very distinctive sound, and it sounds something like, if you've ever been on the bad end of that sound, you recognize it. Well, I had that gun. with bullets in the magazine, but none in a pipe or none in a barrel.

And I had to go get some gas because, like I say, the car was on empty in the worst neighborhood of America. And ATM machines were very different back then. You were one of those swiping, and they take your car away from you, and then access your account, and there you were. And criminals knew this, but I wasn't thinking about that. I just wouldn't have to get me $20 to get some gas put in this car. and I walked in there to this little ATM. It's about two in the morning, because I was going to go turkey hunting in Mississippi.

It was about three-hour drive. And I pulled in there, and I saw this guy hiding in the Azaleigh of bushes. About the time, I saw this fellow in the bushes there, he wasn't wearing nothing but a diaper. But he was some kind of ugly. I'm telling you, he's the uggest fellow I've ever seen. in my life. He was ugly. U-G-L-Y. He didn't have no alibi. He was ugly. M-A-M-A, how you think he got that way,

his mama. Boy, was in bad shape. I saw him right after I accessed my account. I looked in front of me, there was a guy with a silver-studded four-inch dog collar on and no shirt. And he was walking towards me. I looked out to my right and there's got a pink and purple. hair. And they were all closing in at a rapid rate. And they knew what they were doing because they let me access my account. Now, I didn't have but $86 in there, but

that was $86 of my dollars. I intended to keep them. I grabbed old Abigail there for my old Trusty Rusty. I shut that shell in there. And when that thing, when that $870 swallowed that copper-plated magnum, turkey thumping, down a whopping mojo load.

Old dog call herded. He went to give him the signal. I don't know if he wanted me to bunt, steal, or take, but we got all the signal on. And I saw old bad ugly there. He was in the bushes there. And he heard that old pump, swallowed that magnum load, too.

And they just kind of stopped. I got my money. I got, I got it out of there. and went to Mississippi and killed turkey that morning too. And the moral of that stories is, they made a decision to take my money. I made a commitment to keep it. Some of the best turkey hunting stories have little to do with actually killing a gobbler. I'd have been scared, too, if I'd have heard old trusty, rusty swather that turkey thumping, dino-wopping mojo load.

And hey, if you're looking for some good country storytelling, go check out the Hayden Alabama podcast. They're doing some fun stuff. Our next story is from none other than Lake Pickle, also from Mississippi. But this story takes place in old Mexico, and it's got a shocking ending. Here's Lake. So it's spring of 2017, and I got the opportunity to travel down south of the border into Mexico, Turkey Hunt, which is something I'd ever been able to do. I travel down there with Brad Ferris and Troy Ruiz. I feel the need right now to tell you. that I was there with those two gentlemen because when I get to the point in this story where I talk about the actual incident, it is so outrageous and so bizarre that even though I have video evidence

that this happened, I just want everyone to know that there were also two other people there that witness this and can confirm that this story is true. But anyway, we travel down there, we crossed the border, drive for several miles, I think we drove for maybe an hour, hour and a half, And anyways, we get to this property that we're hunting. So the next morning we wake up, it's a pretty clear day. And man, didn't we hear some turkeys? But they were in some flocks. And if you ever dealt with big flocks of turkeys,

they are really fun to watch. They are really fun to listen to. But man, if you aren't where they want to be, they can be a pain to try to call to you. So we spent all morning in turkeys, looking at turkeys, here in turkeys, but we didn't shoot any turkeys. So we go back to camp,

grab a nap, grab some lunch. We're sitting there eating lunch with the landowners, telling them about our morning, telling them what we saw. And he says, hey, you know, there's a power line. And every time I'm on that power line, I see turkeys every time. He also mentioned at this same lunch that despite the fact that he was not a turkey hunter,

he always wanted a big pretty gobbler to mount and put in his camp. Remember that. That's an important factor of this story. So anyways, we head out to this power line. We get there and we start walking. And our plan is really just to walk until we find something that looks like to get set up, calling every once in a while along the way. If we hear something, we'll sit down.

We're just kind of rolling with the punches. We're just kind of easing up this power line. I don't remember who saw it, but we noticed that there was a dead hen turkey just laying kind of right off the, just right off the side of that power line. We look at it, we're like, hmm, that's kind of odd, but we didn't think much about it and kept walking. And we walk a couple or hundred more yards, and there's another dead turkey up under there, just off the side of the power line in the same spot, another hen.

We're like, huh, something's to that. But again, we don't really know and don't make much of it. We just keep walking. We end up setting up and start calling, and sure enough, a turkey answers us, turkey gobbles at us. And this turkey, unlike the ones we got into this morning, starts quickly closing the distance. And I'm back filming run of the camera, Troy and Bradder up front. And this turkey is coming. Like no if-if-ans or butts about it, this turkey is coming.

It was one of those with every gobble he was gaining ground. sitting there going, man, any second, we're going to be looking at him. And then finally, just like you draw it up in your head, Audi appeared in full strut. And then came all the rest of them. And I mean all the rest of them. I do not know how we managed to yelp up that many turkeys with only one turkey gobbling the entire time, because we thought we were dealing with a single longbeard, but it was not.

It was a watt. Longbeard, jakes, hens, we had every variety, and they were all marching our direction. I'd never seen anything like it. This entire wad of turkeys makes it within 20 steps of Brad Troy. But the problem was, is there was not a second, I mean, not a single moment where either of them could have pulled the trigger and only killed one turkey. They were so clumped up together that, I mean, if any of them would have shot, they would have killed, multiple turkeys, five turkeys even.

I mean, it was crazy, and obviously we were not trying to do that. And it was in the afternoon, they stayed there forever, just standing around, strutting, goblin, yelping, and looking, and it starts getting dark, and these turkeys start getting shifty. And all of a sudden, turkey start flying up. So turkeys start flying and roosting in trees to the left, to the right, behind us, in front of us. One gobbler picks up and flies out of the middle of that power line road

and lands in a tree almost right over Troy, which is just off the right side of his power line. And that turkey, he starts getting kind of shifty up in that tree. And for whatever reason, he decided that limb he had picked was no longer good enough for him. And he picks up and flies and tries to cross that power line, I'm assuming, to land in a tree on the other side.

But we'll never know, because he's flying and all the sudden, Zappa! There was this loud popping noise, this bright flash and lights, some sparks, and that turkey fell out of the sky and thudded on the ground dead as a rock right on the other side of that road.

He had hit that power line when he tried to fly across the road, and it killed him. I mean, in all reality, it looked like a giant mosquito hitting a bug zapper. I mean, just zap and lights out. That turkey was gone. He did not flop at all.

I will never forget the look on Brad and Troy's faces, which I probably had a pretty dumbfounded look on my face too. But we got up, walked into the woods, found that turkey. And I remember all you could smell was burnt feathers. But other than that, the turkey looked to be fine. And if I'm lying, I'm dying, that turkey had four beards and an inch and a quarter spurs. So we put him in the back of that buggy,

drove him back to camp, told the landowner what happened and said, hey, you said you wanted a big pretty gobbler at a mountain putting your camp. I think we found the perfect one. I told you that that was a shocking story. Thanks, Lake. And by the way, they got all that on video.

Pretty cool. Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps Game Calls and 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 go 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 help with Clay's cut because they're all three great cuts. Check out Prime Cuts at Phelpsgamecalls.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. Our next story is another Mississippi turkey hunter, and if you haven't seen a trend in this episode, We've got a lot of Mississippi boys, and I'm quite certain that Mississippi is the cultural epicenter of turkey hunting. This gentleman's name is David Huffman, but he traveled out west to turkey hunt, and I'll be interested to hear what you think of this story.

My name is David Huffman. I'm from the Jackson, Mississippi area, turkey hunting my entire life. I've done a lot of traveling, turkey hunting, without giving too much information on where we were in the state we were in. but there are several Indian reservations across this country that you can hunt on. But when you go to hunt on an Indian reservation, you have to have a native guide. You have to have somebody to walk you around the place and show you where to go, what lands you can go on, what's tribal, what's not tribal. So we had enlisted the help of a local guy where we were going, and he was very well recommended in the area.

He had been there for a long time, very well respected. So me and three buddies went out as our first time traveling to the state. and got there and we're young we just fresh out of college have been traveling around for a while and you know we were sitting pretty high on our horses of you know we were good turkey hunters and we knew what we were doing we were going really didn't need a whole lot of help i come from um you know a family of my my brother-in-law is a guide um he owns an outfit so i understand uh the saying don't guide the guide right so if a guy tells you to do something you should probably listen because he knows more than what you know about that area.

So we get there, and I meet the guy at first, and we start riding around his truck, and he's like, well, you want to go see some turkeys? Like, yeah, absolutely, let's go check some out. So we pulled to the top of this hill, and he says, okay, they're going to be down in this bottom, and he shuts his truck off, and he reaches into center console,

and he pulls out this old cherry bark box call, and he reaches out, and he makes the three most god-awful yelps you've ever heard in your life, just squawks across it. Yelp, yelp, yelp, yelp. and sure enough, they come out of this bottom and walk up this hill right to the top of the hill

20 yards from the truck. And I'm thinking, all right, this is going to be pretty easy. You know, this isn't going to be a whole lot of thought to this, just listen to this guy and we'll be just fine. So my three buddies, they were a day behind me and they show up and I tell them what happened that afternoon and said, look, you just need to listen to this guy

and hill points in the right direction. We'll kill our turkeys and we'll get out of here. Well, I've got two buddies that are a little bit more headstrong than I am, and so they're big, bad turkey hunters, and they don't need anybody to tell them where to go. They just need to be pointing in the right direction. So they go off and they always hunt together, and me and my other buddy always hunt together

when we're on these trips. And so first morning, the guide, his name is Ken, he tells everybody, he says, okay, look, I'm going to send you down to this creek bottom. And when you get down in there, the birds are going to be chirping, owls are going to be hooting, let everything calm down.

You have to let the creek accept you. Very Native American thing to say. They're very in tune with the earth, very in tune with everything around him. He said, you have to let the creek. crick accept you before you make a call. He said, do not call until everything has quieted down. You'll know the creek is accepted you and then you can start turkey hunting. So he tells them, and I can see that they're just scoffing like, okay, whatever, we're not going to listen to this.

So they go down in there and he takes us to another spot and he tells us the same thing. He says, let the creek accept you. Wait until everything calms down. Don't make a call until that happens. And so I'm walking down to this creek bottom with my buddy and I sit down. So let's just take what he said to heart and just to see what happens. So sure enough, birds are chirping, owls are hooting, whole nine yards. We don't hear a single bird gobble. As soon as everything calms down, lo-la-l-l-l-l. So it's okay.

They're here. And so I yelp, yelp, yelp, yelp. And 10 minutes later, turkey flies down, walks right to our gun barrel, we shoot them. Simple. I was like, hmm, there's something to this. So we get back to the truck and calling our buddies and we see them going across a mountain. going across this hilltop probably 500 yards away

chasing turkeys and we get back to the truck and said Ken said they didn't let the Crick accept them so they should have killed by now and so we watched them chase turkeys for probably two hours going across these hills and they get back to the truck and said these turkeys will not

work with us one bit they keep running from us they're headed in the opposite direction we can't get in front of them blah blah blah and Ken said well did you call before the Crick accepted you and they said yes he said That's why you won't kill a turkey. We'll try again tomorrow. We packed up in the truck and left, and we got back to the house.

I said, you guys better listen to them. It said it happened for us in five minutes. I said, you better let the creek accept you tomorrow. And they went down in there. Same thing happened. They let the creek accept them. Two turkeys walk in 10 minutes later, and they shoot them. Simple as that.

So that is a story of if you go traveling turkey hunting and you go with somebody that knows the area, you better listen to them. They know what they're talking about. Let the creek accept you. Even if you can't doctrinally accept the animistic element of this guide's suggestion, if you're a woodsman, I think you kind of get it. It doesn't always happen, but there comes a point in some hunts when you feel like you're a part of the natural system, not just a visitor.

That was a good story, David. Thank you. Our last story is told by another Mississippian named Med Palmer. Mead is a biologist for the state, and best I can tell, he's the greatest turkey hunter who has ever lived, period. Or at least that's the way that people that know him talk about him. And he's no stranger to bear Greece. If you recall, he lost his son in a tragic accident on the Mississippi River in December of 2020. This story is about Gunner, his son's, last turkey hunt, and an incredible experience, Med,

had the following year. Here's the greatest turkey hunter that ever lived, Med Palmer. My name is Mede Palmer. I'm from Copiah County, Mississippi. The spring of 2020 was an unusual year for turkey hunting. It was a year that COVID had started and school was out. They pretty much telling us to work from home. So basically we could turkey hunt every day, me and my son got her.

and the limit here in Mississippi's 3, and I had limited it out about middle through the season. And Gunner, like one turkey, limited it out. So we had got down to the last day of the season. I had saved that last day for just me and him, you know, to enjoy hunting together, and hopefully he could get his last bird. And there was a bird he had hunted through the season that had given bits. I asked him like, boy, so where you want to go, and he said, well, I want to try that bird again.

So we go in there that morning and get his last bird again. So we go in there that morning and get him. on the bird and the bird was right on the property line. I actually flew up on the property next to us. We couldn't hunt. We got with hands and we just couldn't do nothing with him. I said, well, next year, I said, opening day. I said, we'll be back. So we started heading to the house. I told him, I said, I got one more spot. I said, we've been in there twice this year, but it was an ordeal to get in there. It's like a three-mile drive on a little old fire lane to get in there, and then you've got to walk by another quarter of a mile to get to where the turkeys are. And he said, we've been in there twice.

we hadn't heard any birds. I said, well, that particular spot's got a lot of good nesting. I said, late in the season, those hens come in there and start nesting. I said, the gobbers, you know, they'll follow them. They'll be with them. So we start going in there that morning about 9 o'clock. We drive in there and get out and walk. And Garner really didn't think we was going to hear anything.

He was standing there kind of with his head, hung low, which we were wore out. It had been a long season. And the first year, Turkey gobb was in a distance, about 300 y'clock. And he looked at me and started grinning. I said, come on. So we eased in there, got set up, and got set up on the bird. And I figured it'd be maybe one or two hens that late season. Man, when I yip, after we set up, it was like seven or eight hens cutting up.

They started taking them away. Well, they got about 150 yards and hung up. And the gobbler hung up. The hens, I think, was they were yeping trying to pull him, but he didn't want to leave. So we poo with him back and forth, back and forth, probably for another. hour or so. Well, it was 12 o'clock straight up because I looked at my phone. All of a sudden, he broke and he starts coming. Well, he's coming up a fire lane. And we couldn't see him because the road made a bend about 30 yards in front of us. And I yip, and he gobbled right around the

band. I told Gunner said, you better get your gun, he can come out of the curve. As a matter of fact, I see him. I could see him coming. Gunner couldn't see him at that time. I said, look, just let him come. Let's enjoy the show. He rounds a band. He comes in there. Gunner shoots him. So he kills him. We tickled to death. Went down to the wire. The last day, you know, he got it done. Well, what I didn't know was that was Gunner's last turkey hunt.

That year, December 3rd, 2020, Gunner was an accident on the Mississippi River. I actually scouting turkey spark veteran to take a veteran duck hunting the next day. And we looked and, you know, To this day, we've never found Gunnarious buddy. The next year, I didn't even know if I was going to turkey hunt or not. I mean, I'd lost my son. I lost my hunting buddy. You know, it was real hard.

And the day before the season, I decided I'm on hunt, you know. And actually, nobody had called me that year to ask to go turkey hunting, which generally by opening week, I've got the first 20 days booked. And that year, nobody had called. Anyway, I decided I was going to go. I was going to go to the last place where Gunner, me and him hunting that bird that we didn't kill that last day. It was probably the longest walk of my life was that first time turkey hunting without him.

But anyway, got in there, turkey come in and I killed it. It rocked on that whole season. I had an all-season. I don't think I called, but like 10 turkeys that was killed. To be honest with you, I had long. my spirit. In the Bible, it talks about somebody losing their spirit. So it rocked on into the next year and I had some really exceptional hunt with some disabled people, but I was still just ambling a long turkey hunt. You know, I just didn't have that fire I'd had before. You know,

I'd lost my way and I don't know how else to put it. So finally I decided, I said, I'm I'm going to go in there in the morning we're going to kill his last turkey because I couldn't even think about going that next year right after accident. I said I need to do it and need to get it over with. You know, that's why I'm going in the morning. I said it's early in the season. I said I probably won't hear nothing because they hadn't moved in there. They're not nesting yet. So I get in there that morning, had to leave real early because like I said, it's a pretty good ride in there.

I get in there and then I walk and I get there probably about 10 minutes before gobble time. And it gets about time, birds start chirping, so I hoot. And lo and behold, the turkey gobbels. I said, man, he's right in there close to where Gunner was. And it's still, you know, dark. So I get in there, and the turkey gobbled early. So I get in there and get set up about 100 yards from him like he wanted to do. Well, it starts getting light.

And all of a sudden I look around. I said, I am on the very same tree Gunner was on when he shot this turkey. And it starts getting lighter, of course, you know, it's emotional, you know, because I said, what is the odds of me coming in these woods? Two years later, a turkey goblin, and where I need to set up is the exact same tree where Gunner was when he killed his last turkey. And about that time, it dawned on me. I said, when Gunner shot, I said, he pumped his shot, gun. He's shooting a 20-gauge 870. I said, his shell would be to the right. And I look at him. over and about a foot from me there laid that shell.

It was pine straw and a leaf covering half of it, but the yellow part of that 20-gate shell was sticking up, and it really got emotional then. And, you know, I'd quit calling because my mind was somewhere else, and that turkey keeps gobbling on his own like, hey, don't forget about me. I'm still in this tree, you know? And it gets about time to fly down. You know how they always do.

Right before they fly down, they'll be go ahead off, and then I'll go quiet for a minute. He had done that. kid guy, I said he's been a plied down. And by the time I heard him fly, kind of glanced him through the wood. Well, he flew away from him. So I yip, he gobbled in there about 150, 200 yards.

Well, I yipped again, he's going father. And then all of a sudden, the next time I yip, he gobble about 75 yards right over the hill. I said, he's coming. So I get my gun up, and I'm still emotional, you know. All this is going through my head. I said, this ain't been the hat. I said, I'm not going to kill a turkey sitting on the very same tree that Gunner.

killed his last turkey. I see the fan pop up over the hill. Here he comes right down. He gets about 25 yards on the side of a ridge, and all of a sudden, you know how the dew in the morning, when the sun comes up, it makes rays through the trees.

It's like God put him on stage. All of a sudden, the sun broke out, and it was raised the sun just beaming on it. It was the most beautiful sight I've ever seen in my life. He strutted there for 20 minutes until I finally decided, you know, I need to do this. It was going through my mind. I'm not going to kill him.

I'm going to let him live. And then I said, no, if I don't shoot this turkey, Gunner, be so mad at me. And finally, you know, I yelp made him raise his head and I killed him. But it was, and I've seen a lot of turkeys before in my life. But that turkey by far, I could literally see every color. He had turned different, and I could see a different color. And it happened on the very same tree that Gunner killed his last one. I mean, there's no doubt in my mind that the good Lord and Gunner said, I'm okay.

And that day, I got my fire and my spirit back. A turkey hunt now, just like I always did. And I needed that to get me back going. That may be the greatest turkey story ever told. What a privilege that we get to hear it directly from Med. Thank you for sharing that story so that we can all celebrate Gunner's life. I can't thank you enough for listening to Bear Grease. Please share our podcast with a friend this week.

And be watching for Meat Eater's Turkey Week, which is coming up where Brent and I'll be facing off in another turkey calling contest. And I want you to know that I'll be looking for your vote. But not for any reason other than I'm just a better caller than Brent. And I think we all know that. And keep watching for First Lights new, Tree line turkey vest.

Yep, First Light has a new turkey vest. We've been using them for a couple of years, the prototypes. And truly, it's a great vest. Check it out. Keep the Wild Place is wild because that's where the bears live. First Light's 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 in 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 fieldwear gear at firstlight.com. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.