Bear Grease - Ep. 310: The Unexpected-Bushwhacking, Wingshooting & Biting Turkeys

Episode Date: April 2, 2025

On this episode of the Bear Grease Podcast, host Clay Newcomb brings together one last group of turkey stories for the season told by some of the best story tellers. Stories from custom turkey call makers Don and Sarah Clark, internet sensation Trent Ellis, “the greatest turkey hunter in the world” Med Palmer, story-teller-in-residence Andy Brown, Brother Robin Risher, up-and-coming outdoorsman Bear Newcomb, and newcomer to Bear Grease Johnny Johnston. 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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Built to perform, built to last. Check out. First Light's new field. Worldware gear at firstlight.com. I'll get out of the truck and I'll just, you know, with my mouth, right before I do my first putt, I take that breath in and that sweet, heat, pineapple, deer sausage last night that I ate hits me because it's mixed with two cups of coffee, prime coffee with that creamer sitting

over there, that coffee make creamer. And I'm thinking, oh, dear God, this is bad. And I don't want to run in these woods because they may be a bird, you know, roosted. And I got in there, I got in there kind of late because it's already blue in the sky, you know. Like these birds should be gone about that time. This is our second turkey hunting episode of the 2025 spring, and there's something that I hadn't told you. It's that we save some of the best turkey stories for last. Say you might

How does a person Topped the greatest turkey story Ever told Hat-tipping to Med-Palmer's last story on the last episode And say I to you Listen and find out From being bit by a turkey

To chunk in a pine knot At a fox To using a panther scream To kill a big gobbler To a man wearing only His underwear and a chemo jacket To shoot a gobbler His stories are full of surprises

And some of them are even Downright embarrassing but they are guaranteed to get you fired up for turkey season. You guys know how this works. We've got eight people telling us their best stories. This is one of my favorite times of the year, and I really doubt that you're going to want to miss this one. Well, at my time I start leaning over,

a stick goes through my underwear and gets hung up in it, and now I can't move, and now he throws his head up. He sees me, so I just leaned over, rip my underwear, where when I did. And he jumps up when he does, I shoot him and kill him. My name is Clay Newcomb, 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. The best thing about a good turkey story is that you just never know which direction that it's going to go. And these stories are going to surprise you. It continues to amaze me

how many varied and sundry things can go wrong from the time a turkey starts coming to when he's in gun range. And how many varied and sundry things have to go perfectly right. Our first storyteller is new to bear grease but is a true veteran of the spring. This is an old-time turkey hunt with Don and Sarah Clark,

and they're going to tell us how the name Clarket came about. My name is Don Clark. I'm from Sheridan, Arkansas. You know, Sarah and I make box calls and have a lot of people ask us, how did y'all come up with the name Clarket custom calls? Clarket is a name that was given to us by several of our friends here that were turkey hunters. What back in the day we didn't have a lot of turkeys, this was back in the early 70s.

There wasn't a lot of turkeys around. So if you heard a turkey, you better get on him. And because if other people found it, you know how that goes, they're going to be in there and they're going to kill it too. But our general rule was, you know, you hunted him for three days, if you didn't kill him, you got on the phone. You get on the phone that night, we would call cousins, we call uncles, we call sister-in-laws, brother-in-laws, whatever. And we're going to go down there. and somebody would go in or try to go into the night before and roost that turkey. Well, he would be more than likely the game plan guy.

And my brother James, he loved to call the turkey. But we had a turkey that our good friend, Willard McGarity, had been hunting for a few days and hadn't killed him. So he called us. He said, if y'all would come help us, come help me kill this turkey. So, like I said, the phone line lit up at night. We got everybody all planned up. We met up the next morning at that little.

church here where willard had been here in the turkey he was giving everybody you go here you stay on the west side you stay on just go about 200 yards mat and we're going we're going to get there and we're going to surround this turkey when he gets off the ruse because you couldn't call him that's what he said you can't call him he's going to leave so james irvin was going to be the call man which he always got to be the call man this here was sarah's first turkey hunt i think her and becky both got to go that morning we had cousins there uncles so we had our little plant lands there and going down the roads. Well, I don't know if a lot of you guys, or maybe like me,

but a lot of times when you get to the woods in the morning, something will hit you, and all of a sudden you have to go to the restroom. Well, I had my pretty young wife with me that morning. Anyhow, I told her, I said, you stay right here on this road, and I'm going to slip right out there and take care of the business, and I'll be back. Well, I go out there and start to take care of my business.

Well, I just took my foot and worked about three times there, just cleaning me out of little. spot and set to squat. So whenever I squatted, just about the time I got squatted, I'd laid my gun on a stump right there in front of me, about three or four yards. I heard a racket and I looked to hear that turkey come running just as hard as he could run. He run right up her to me and stopped. Like, oh, my God.

Well, I'm sitting there with my pants all done done. And so I thought if I can just ease up here, just reach over and get that gun real easy. Maybe I can kill him. So I started that little process. About the time I almost had my gun, that turkey went to put him. He jumped up in the air and he went to fly. Looked like a B-52 bomber leaving her. Just about that time.

Boom! He flew right over the top of her and she had just started turkey. This was her first turkey hunt. She blowed a hole through that turkey's breast that you would not believe. But anyhow, I went running to her still holding up, They were grabbing my pants up and running to her. Got there. Got to looking at the turkey and bow with high-fiving, hugging,

kissing, and carrying on like a bunch of little kids. You could have stuck a beer can through that turkey's breast where she had shot. That whole load it went through there. The turkey had a 7-inch beard and 11-inch beard, and that was her first turkey to every kill. Well, everybody would show the turkey. Of course, back then, whenever you killed one, you showed everybody. You went to shared, and you drove around, and everybody got to hear the story.

what people would say, well, did you Clark it or did you call it up? So the Clarket name come from all the clerks calling to get together, surrounding a turkey and killing it, which we did that several times, but we'd rather call it up and kill it just outright. But, you know, back then, turkey was a delicacy, and the clerks were known to kill turkeys. Now, that's a good story. Really a testament to the effectiveness of scratching in the leaves

and making the most of every opportunity. And sometimes opportunity comes when you least expect it. This isn't the only wing shot turkey that you're going to hear about today. And later we're going to hear from Don's wife Sarah. And it's not hard to see that these people have dedicated a big chunk of their life to the wild turkey. Our next storyteller is a handful. I can't say that I know him real well, but I know two things beyond a shadow of a doubt. Number one, he's a handful.

And number two, he lives in the cultural cradle of American turkey hunting, a magnolia state, Mississippi. His name is Trent Ellis, and he's pretty much an internet comedian. This story is about a public land gobbler, and all I can say is, hide the kids, hide your wives. This one shows some serious dedication and might make a pale-skinned person blush. And it's oddly connected to Dawn's story.

You'll get why. And if you don't know him already, meet Trent Ellis. My name's Trent Ellis, and I'm going to tell you all about a story of my last public bird that I killed here, okay, here in Mississippi. So every morning, I like to get up during turkey season, obviously, because you've got to get in there way before daylight, and I'll come in here and I'll turn a coffee pot on. And I love to get, you know, from here to the woods, I like to drink, you know, the port and thermos, and I'll probably drink a cup and a half to two cups of coffee. So I step out of the truck that morning, and I'll get out of the truck and I'll just, you know, with my mouth, right before I do my first hoot, I take that breath in and that sweet heat pineapple deer sausage last night that I ate

hits me because it's mixed with two cups of coffee, prime coffee with that cream or sitting over there, that coffee make creamer. And I'm thinking, oh, dear God, this is bad. And I don't want to run in these woods because they may be a bird, you know, roosting. And I got in there, I got in there kind of late because it's already blue in the sky, you know. Like these birds should be gobby about that time. And, well, see, what I did learn is one gobble really don't change nothing for me. But when you hear three of them, that stomach ache starts to lessen.

Okay, it starts to go away. because I'm talking about that son of a gun, he started, go on, go ahead, over to my left, I know there's two birds. I'm pretty sure there's one double gobbler. He's hot. So I make the decision to hop in that old six, seven cummings, fire that loud diesel up and move another 150 yards.

Instead of walking like a smart person, okay? And you know when you have to go, walking is kind of a, that's a question mark. You know what I'm saying? Like, so I get in that truck and I go up about 150 yards and I swing off the road and I park. And from the time that I left that place to the time that I got to the second place, I'm prairie dogging, buddy. Let me tell you, it's hurting. I had a buddy in the Marine Corps that said, you ain't got to go bad enough until you can feel it in feet.

And my feet were throbbing. You hear what I'm telling you? Like they were, it would just pulsating, all right? So I made a decision. I'm like, I got to handle this first before I get in here after. for these birds. And I get out of the truck and I shut my door real quiet and everything. And I'm going across and I got my pants, you know, halfway down and everything.

And I don't have a, I mean, I can't go into the woods because these birds are, I think they're 80 yards from me. I'm like, I don't see how they don't see the truck. So I grab on the front of my truck and I go to squat and that son-gun double gobbles like 100 yards away. And it's just like, it's just like it just went right back up. And I was like, oh, crap, no. So I made a decision at that point that I'm going to kill this bird.

And to make a long story short, what I learned was, I'm willing to crap my pants to kill a bird, okay? Because that's exactly what happened. All right, I'm not going to go into all the details and get real, you know, but I ended up shooting that bird at 60 steps that day. I won't never forget. I had gone through a lot of crap that morning to get to this bird. Well, he was walking the edge of that slew. And he popped up on that little rise right there to where I could see him. Well, where I was hunting, it was just wide open bottom.

So he could see a long way and he could see whatever's calling right there ain't there no more. And he come up there. And when he turned, I had that old 12-gauge stoger. Well, I shot. And to make a crappy situation turn crappier, I knew I hit him because as soon as he and he turned and I thought he was going other way. I shot and that son and flew up. I nearly beat the wad to him, all right?

As soon as I shot, I got up and went to run it. I made it about 10 steps and I tripped on a route and my gun went flying, nearly made it all the way to the bird, and I ate about four inches of Mississippi mud right in my mouth. Okay? By this time, he literally, he flew up and he flew back down, and landed, and I got within two steps of it. So I said, you know what, it's worth $10?

I threw that 12-gauge stoger up, and I shot that sun gun two steps away right in the head and folded right there. And that was literally the best crappiest day I'd ever had in a turkey woods. I told you that he was a handful. You can unplug your kids and your wife's ears now. And next time, Trent, why don't you keep stuff like that to yourself? I mean, this is going public. Like, people are going to listen to this.

Just kidding, Trent. That was funny. Very funny. You should follow Trent on social media. He puts out a ton of funny and oddly clean content that I often laugh out loud to. I appreciate it when people are funny that aren't vulgar. That's really hard to do. And Trent does that.

Cheers to Trent Ellis. Our next story is told by a man named Johnny Johnston from the mountains of eastern Oklahoma. He's a handful too, but in a different kind of way. And I don't know how to say this without, it sounded like I'm trying to flatter the man. But he's as hillbilly as anyone I've ever met, and I mean that in the most honorable and noble way. Johnny is a turkey hunter's turkey hunter. and he's got two stories that he's going to tell us. The first one involves some bloodshed.

It's his blood, though. This is Johnny Johnston. I did some guiding. I guided for being late quite a bit when he was down here hunting and for another man that was very military. And he wanted me to take his judge turkey hunt. I agreed. He said, no, you're not.

You'll have to be on your best behavior. This is a big time judge. He likes to hunt, but he don't joke around much. I said, I'll be all business. Perfect spring day. Got out of the truck. Turkeys were already gobbling here and four or five different turkeys gobbling. So we went to him like a biting sow.

And we got in there and got perfect where we needed to be, had him out where he could shoot. And I was doing a call and kind of watching. and start calling and three or four gobblers got together, and they were coming right down our gun barrel. And to my ride a turkey gobble, about a half of gobble, not a full gobble. People say, oh, that's a Jake.

I don't go for that because Jake's can't gobble just like a big turkey, and big turkeys, if they're gobbling, it'll ought to be gobbled out, and they'd just do about a half of gobble. I didn't pay any attention to it, though. I was watching the Wad coming. He killed one. I was going to try to pick me one out.

And I saw something, and I cut my eyes, and probably the biggest turkey I've ever seen, a huge, big gobby walking to my right close. And I forgot I was a guide, and I just rolled out and give him one. And turkeys went everywhere, and he went down the mountain. I didn't get a good shot on him,

because he'd run in time I shot. and I was running after him in that steep country. And where it dropped off is about a 10-foot drop. And I was running fast as I could run. And off that bank I went, landed in the rocks, and really messed my ankle up. While I was laying there wondering where my turkey was, I heard him kind of making a breathing noise. And I crawled up, and he was up partly under a big white rock, and I got him out and carried him back up there. where the judge was and I said look here judge and I had this turkey by the neck and I had him right up in my

face talking to him I said this is judge Linder he's a turkey man he's never seen a eastern turkey just like you he's a real old grand guy but I've read your book and that turkey went through my hand and bit me right on the end of the nose it popped I'm talking bit for me and bit a big blood blister on the end of my nose and i bit him in the top of the head i started chewing on his head asking him how he like to be bit and that judge says oh my my my my i've never even heard of anything like this but it's less seen something like and from that day on that judge and i were close friends we did a lot of turkey hunting together I'd never seen a real grand turkey, but he introduced me to him the next week.

Now, tell me why you bit this turkey. Just to reflats, he bet me, so I beat him back, see how he likes it. Really? You weren't trying to be funny? Just, just. No, I just bid him. Just bit him. He bit me, and I beat him back.

Now, you said that turkey was big. It weighed 23 pounds. That's big for eastern turkey in spring, but had full hooks. turkey hunters know called a limb hangar four or five year old their spurs will hook and you just hang them by their spurs on the limb had two beards almost 12 inches both of them looked like a turkey hunters called a paint brush big thick two individual beards what year do you think that would have been probably 1980 pretty cool turkey and i want to add a little bit to this that judge was an excellent box call caller best i believe i've ever heard but he said let me show you a trick on how to

brain this turkey and bleeding i'd never seen that i'd never heard of it and a lot of people have it but every turkey i kill i'll brain and bleed from that day forward you hang them upside down and go up their mouth kind of like cutting the deer's throat on each side of their lower bill make a cut and then stick your knife right through their brain straight up i thought that was pretty neat now he hung them to let them bleed bleed out just so like the meat would be better right he said that makes the meat they plucked their turkey they don't skin them he said that made a measure to pluck i don't know i ain't ever plucked one i skin them but it's pretty interesting i've never heard anybody say that uh they were coming to me like a biting sow yeah

That's serious. That's serious advance, Gordon. Serious. Yeah. If I hadn't foreshadowed the turkey bite in the intro, I doubt you would have seen it coming. When's the last time you heard of somebody getting bit by a turkey? I don't think I've ever heard of it. If you can't tell, Joddy's a character.

And how about bleeding a turkey? That's new to me. I appreciated that tip. Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Felps. helps 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 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 hunt 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. This second story is short, and it's about his dear friend, who he didn't even call his friend.

first name. He just calls him Wildman. He's a superhuman, good man. And another little Wild Man story we was over in that same country, a little bit east, and there's a new road and a bunch of big

clay roots where they'd punched that road in and the ends of that pine timber cut off them humongrous clay roots and the road made a sharp curve and the turkeys were in that road. I was sure of it. I said, Well, I'm going to get where you can shoot that road.

Well, I started calling, and instead of, Turkey ain't supposed to come down real steep hill. You've heard all that. Turkey can go anywhere he wants to go. He's very mobile, wings, good leg. This were straight off. Em, two gobbler slid off that steep bun. I watched them.

They didn't come the road, and that's the way he had set up to shoot. He was in a jam. But when I realized this coming on, off that bank it's too late to tell him. And they, he was leaned up against the clay root and the gobler was on the other side

of that clay root. That's close. Tree stump linked from him. And I thought, how is he ever going to kill that turkey? But it's going to run, he can't shoot. I'm going to make him fly. Well, I didn't have time to explain

all this to wild man and I screamed like a panther. Ha! Boy, that turkey went straight up. Boom, he shot straight up, and boom, he dropped. I rocked got the turkey. Wild man's laying against the clay road holding his chest. He said, don't ever do that to me again.

I almost had a heart attack. So you scared him when you yelled. I scared him when I screamed. That's a good story. That's good. That's the kind of turkey stories I like to tell you. That's a good story. Now, you've told me two stories where you wanted a turkey to fly.

There's times depending on where you're hunting, brush, briars. If he flies, you can kill him. If he runs, you can't. Our turkeys will fly. The Rio's, the mariams, they'll mostly run. But the eastern is very mobile to the air. It'll go up. And you'll go straight up.

If you listen, old Johnny will teach you some stuff. And it goes without saying that a turkey hunter's first option obviously isn't to shoot a flying turkey. But I guarantee you that if you talk to any old-school turkey hunter that's killed twice as many turkeys as he's lived years on this earth, he's probably wing shot one before. And you might as well have a strategy for when it's the only option that you've got. Thank you, Mr. Johnny. And hat-tipped Wild Man. We'll probably be hearing more from Johnny in the months to come.

there's more to this story than what you've heard here. Our next story is told by Andy Brown of Western Arkansas. He needs no introduction and has become a fixture on our turkey episodes. This is a short story with lots of twists and turns. One morning we went out here on a couple of f***ick and me and a friend of mine. Dennis Ferguson, I don't know if you don't know if you don't need us. me and Dennis went out there one morning. And I was in great shape.

I mean, I could get around as good as anybody in the woods. But anyway, we parked. We went back across the pavement, and we went north back up the mountain there. It started up a long leg. And Dennis, we're trying to get to top of the mountain. And Dennis, he just takes off. And he just flat, just leaves me. And I said, well, I mean, it's early.

I said, I ain't got to kill myself to get to top of the mountain. I'll get up. there, but I just stopped and leaned up against a tree about three-fourths of the way to the top. And I was just sitting there kind of catching my breath. And all of a sudden, just right there, a turkey gobbled. And Clay, that turkey, he was gobbling so low, I don't know that you could have hurt him at the road. It just, oh, I mean, just really low. when he did, I just slid down there by that tree with my back to it facing uphill.

That turkey gobbled undoubtedly 150 times before daylight. Of course, I wouldn't call him. I mean, he was too close to call. I mean, he wasn't 60 yards from me there. I couldn't see him, but I mean, he was just right there and I head up a little old hog. And so he just, he kept a call. and all of a sudden I could hear something behind me coming up that leg, just like me and Dennis had walked in. Snip, snap, snip, snap, snip, snip, snip, snap.

And I look over my shoulder, and here comes a gray fox. He's coming to that turkey. And I kind of waved my arm at him like that, and he just kind of looked at me and just stood there. That turkey just gobble, gobble. I wound up having to get a pine limb and throw at that gray fox to run him off. Well, I get him run off. It starts getting light. Turkey, he pitches out just right there.

And when he did, I called him. He called him right back at me. And I just got my gun on him. I mean, he's just right there. Drummond's just blowing my ears off. I mean, he's close enough. I hear him suck wind as he's drumming. And I've got my gun right here, and all of a sudden I look right there, and there he is.

I don't know how he got there, but he did. I mean, I had a rope on him. And he's not 30 yards from me, but I can't move. I mean, he's, and so he kind of gets around out of my side there, and I call him in all the goblin. He gobbled and gobble, gobbled, but he was steady going up the mountain away from him. Well, I knew I'm going to call him back. So you got out there and got in the kind of head of a big haul, right? I just pulled that leg and went all the way to the top.

And when you got up on top of it, that mountain on the north side of it, it's not 25 yards across. It's almost like you step on one side, step over on the other, you know. But there's a little old brushy gap up there. And I walked up into that gap. When I got up in the gap, got my breath, I called and he gobbled right out on the knob, just east of me right there. and I slip out there and there's never forget this there was a cedar tree and I just walked up in that cedar tree and got kind of stashed there and I called that turkey gobble real big guy and I look out there and it's still early but I can see a redhead I can just see it out there you know and I said that's good enough

right there I just raised up through that cedar tree and pull the trigger and what I did is a Herky flew went south off the mountain there. And that one was flopping. And, of course, I'm patting myself on the shoulder. And I walked out there and I'd killed a big old jake. Didn't even kill the big gobbler. I killed a big old jake because I was really disappointed that deal. I don't know if I'm ever going to run you out of the street.

It takes a lot of things going right to kill a long-bearded gobbler. And just to clarify, back in the day, killing a Jake was legal in Arkansas, so beard checking wasn't a necessity like it is today because you can't shoot jakes today. But that was a good story, Andy. We appreciate it. But now we're in for a real treat because our next story is told by none other than Med Palmer from Coppia County, Mississippi. And if you just heard the way that people that know Med talked about him, you'd think he was 10 feet tall and his daddy was a gobbler turkey and his mama was a red fox.

But in this story, we'll see that Med is just a mortal turkey hunter, not superhuman. And he puts on and takes off his pants just like the rest of us. My name's Mede Palmer. I'm from Copiah County, Mississippi. We started traveling turkey hunting several years ago, going to other states, you know, enjoying pretty country. And we've been going out west for a couple years. And it was me, my brother, my nephew. So we get back Same place

My nephew and my brother had tagged out It was almost the same scenario As a year before We was going down to the last day We was going to leave that day And I had to fill my tag And we had tried a couple spots We got on the bird

He got he ended up And I told him I said Let's go back down to that spot Where my gun snapped I said I bet that bird's still there And they started laughing And my brother said look I didn't tag down

I'm not climbing that mountain again like I did last year. My nephew said, I'm with you. He said, if he gobbled, I'll go with you. So we get there, and I yelped, and a hen yelps, and I said, he's there. And they were sitting in a truck. I told my nephew, said, come here. He said, what is it? I said, a hen just yon just yon, just a hen just, you hear him? I said, no, but he's with that hand. And I yelped again, he didn't gobble. I told him, he's got a slate. It's just, you know, some calls just had that tone of turkey love. I said, get your slate and call. I said, cut on him. And he cut in that turkey got one. My brother went, oh my God. He said, I'm going to have to go with you. It was the same

place that that turkey was last year. So up the mountain we go, and it's freezing cold. And I get on top of a peak on that mountain, and it's a steep drop-off down to the river bottoms where there's turkey in this big bottom, but it's got, I don't know if it's but it's butt-willers or what those bushes are, but they don't look knee high until you get in them. And there's open pockets out there where that turkey was flying down, getting in my open pockets with the hens is what he's doing so we get on top of the mountain i yep the turkey gobbled i said well he's still on the roof i said we got time to get to that bottom and so we start going we get up to the next peak which is probably 300 yards i reached for my snuff can it's not in my pocket

i had lost my call i've had that snub can i made it when i was 11 years old i said we got to find that call they said what i said i don't lost my call i said you're joking i said no so we walked back and trail ourselves through that grass we'd walk in. You could see that grass was dead. Get to where I'd call where I knew I had it. We ain't found it. And I was just sick. I said, oh, my Lord.

I said, we don't have lost this car. And I said, I have called. Every turkey ever called my life would just call. We start coming back. Man, my nephew are walking side by side. My brother gets tired and he sits on a rock, and then he whistles. I turn around. It was under his feet when he sat down on a rock.

I could have hugged his neck anyway. So we get the call. I, yeah, the turkey's done flown down by now after all this ordeal. So he gobbled more to our right and that bottom. I said, he's swinging around that bottom. Well, we went down the mountain, got in a swag, crossed the little ditch, and when I come up, they grabbed me. He said, there he is right there.

And I said, I don't see him. Well, I couldn't see him because I was lower than that. The gobbled was about 30 yards. He didn't come up on a little nose right there, come up the side of that mountain. Well, I didn't realize what that cold weather could do to those batteries. When I throwed up, I barely could see the bead on that gun. Well, I shoot, and turkey rolls.

Well, I didn't have but two shells in my gun. I don't know why I didn't put three that day, but I didn't. He takes off, I punt, and now the dot's completely gone, so I'm having to shoot instinct like I do dubs at him. And my nephew said, shoot him again. I said, I'm out of shell, so he takes off running. Well, a turkey's flopping going up the side of the mountain. Well, I take off.

Well, around the bend, and then. they get to the peak of the mountain, and my nephew's gaining on the turkey. And there's an opening up there. It's a big, huge drop-off, and it goes across this big bottom, which is probably 300 yards, and then there's the river. And the river is, it's rolling, and it's probably 250 yards across at least that. When he gets right to the ledge, my nephew dives at the turkey, and almost caught it by the tail,

Turkey lunges, makes one lunge. He don't blount, but he sails off the top of that mountain. And he's sailing across, he goes across that bottom, several hundred yards, goes across that river several hundred yards. Me and my nephew just standing there, and I'm sick. He's probably 25 or 30 yards off the ground, and all of a sudden he folds like he's a shot dove. He just folds up and drops for dead.

my nephew looked at me said, did he just fall? I said, like a rock. I said, give me your binoculars. I wouldn't take my office spot. I get his binoculars, and I look through there, and he's just laying there. Wings spread out, head plop down,

graveyard dead. And we had watched him from, I said, we need to watch him. And I got to get a good pinpoint because I don't know how in the world, I'm going to get over and get to him. I said, I got a dead turkey. I got to get to him. I can't leave him there. and I told my nephew, I said, I wish we had that air mattress.

Well, I always take an air mattress. I said, I wish we had that air mattress from the motel. He said, it's in the truck. So we decided, well, that's what we're going to do. I said, I'm going to use that air mattress. We got to find the paddle. So we made them all around, and we found a little old piece of wood. It was probably about three inches wide, and it was broke off the top.

I said, it's almost like a boat paddle. That's good enough. I said, it won't be much, but that will get me across them. I said, y'all tote the air mattress down. there, I'm going to go on and start taking clothes off. Because I'm going to have to, you know, it was shallow. I'm going to have to push this thing through that shallow to get out there. So they got it down there.

So I'm in my underwear. I got a jacket on with my boots in the back. And I start pushing this big old thing across. And the wind's blowing like crazy. And it's trying to blow this thing. And anyway, I finally get to where it gets above my knees. I said, I've got to get on this thing now. And I could see the channel.

It was dark. I said, there's the channel. And this thing's rolling. So I jump up on there And when I do When I tell you I took off I said I'm gonna be at the Mississippi River In a couple hours away out

I start paddling with that little old stick And the wind blowing Well it started shooting me to the bank It worked out great So I got over there Got out of it And I'm in my underwear I ain't got no pants

And then it domed on me I said what is this going to look like If I'll come up on another hunter Me and my underwear I said well it is what it is I got to go try to get this turkey. So I had marked me a big tree behind what the turkey was. So I got about 40 yards in that tree.

I said, all right, that turkey is going to be right out here to the left. And I got about 30 yards where that turkey is supposed to be. And he jumps up, and he jumped up like a rocket. Like what, nothing wrong. And he takes off. Well, I shoot him and roll him. And then he cuts and goes in the woods, and he flops down in the middle of it with his head. And I said, all right, I got to get this tree between me and him

because he can't run again because I'm going to lose it. And I start crawling. Well, about the time I crawl up there, I got probably about 15 yards from him. I was going to lean out behind that tree, shoot him in head, finish him off. Well, it was some limbs there. Well, about the time I start leaning over,

a stick goes through my underwear and gets hung up in it. And now I can't move. And now he throws his head up. He sees me. So I just leaned over, rip my underwear when I did. And he jumps up when he does.

I shoot him and kill him. So anyway, a turkey hunter do what it takes, I reckon. That's probably one of the most unusual hunts I ever had in my life. That's a good story, Mad, and shows the links that the turkey hunter will go to get his bird. 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.

Our next story is told by a turkey hunting author. She's written a book. Her name is Sarah Clark. This is Dawn Clark's wife from the first story, the one who shot that gobbler out of the air when her husband was scratching a big circle in the leaves. You know, she wrote this book called Clarket, True Turkey Tales. And this is one of her favorite stories.

I'd like to introduce you to Ms. Sarah Clark. This is Sarah Clark, and I'm from Sheridan, Arkansas. And I'm going to tell you a story that happened probably about 2010. I'd been hunting a long time with my husband. He taught me all the tricks to turkey hunting. In fact, I got to where I understood where I needed to go, how I needed to handle a turkey, and just got kind of arrogant, I guess, about it. But anyway, I started hunting on my own a lot.

And my sister-in-law came to me one time talking about how she would love to hunt. She'd never hunted turkey. And so we decided to make a hunt, and we hunted a lot in the Washington Mountains. I knew all the crooks and crannies. I knew where the road's in. You know, we just hunted it so much that I became, I knew where I was going. Anyways, she didn't, so, and she didn't call, and I did. So we partnered up as a team, and I got to where we went a lot of times together.

We had our little rituals that we did. She took care of the organizing, and I did the guiding, but she had made sure we had toilet paper, we had something to snack on if it was a long day. Anyway, so we decided to go early one morning, and before daylight, we got there. Instead of staying at the truck, which she wanted to do, I said, let's just go down a little ways and go down that curve and get the truck out of our site. So we eased down that road, of course, I was in the lead, and we got right to the curve and got out of sight, and soon as we got around that curve, all of a sudden, flop, flop, flop,

gosh, we looked at each other and both said a dirty word. And then we decided, she was just shaking her head. And I said, well, let's just stay right here. It's okay. There's probably more than one. And then about that time, flop, flop, flop, flop, flop, another big old turkey flu. We could hear it going through the, up high in the woods.

So I said, look, I know what we can do. We can drive around and get on the other side. We can get in there close to them. Well, we got around there to the place where I thought, And I said, it's not that far. And so here we go. And we had crossed three different little branches. And that third one, she looked at me like, good Lord, how much further we have to go.

And I said, just a little bit further. So here we go. When we got to a place and I got my little, well, my mouth called. And nothing, nothing answered. I said, let's go a little bit further. And I got out my little slate, a little sweet slate call. and did a pretty loud call, and the turkey just answered real quick,

and he's at the top of that mountain on the left. Well, so we quickly made our plan, and I said, let's get over here on the right-hand side, pretty close to the road, and maybe we can call it down. So we got to find a tree that we could sit at, and she's, we've got, our partner thing is that we find a tree, and we'd say that's 12 o'clock.

So if one of us sees the two, turkey and the other one doesn't, we can say it's coming in at 9 o'clock or coming in at 3 o'clock, and that helps us to figure out where we are. Since I've already killed several turkeys, she had not killed one yet, and so I put her face in the road, and I got over to her side parallel, with my legs parallel to the road, and anyway, so the turkey was steadily gobbling. It was steadily coming to us. It was coming down the hill, the mountain.

And I said, now please let it come. It's got a ways to come. I said, just keep letting it come. Just keep letting it come. Will it come on? And it was getting close to the creek. And about that time, on my right eye, I saw a white head coming. I said, wait a minute, Louise, wait a minute.

There's another one coming. It's a big old gobbler coming down the same mountain, but coming at Angling, the different way. I said, maybe we can double. And so, and I said, are you still got your eye on that turkey? He said, yeah, I can see it. And she had that gun aimed at that circuit. She said, well, let's crossing the creek.

And finally I was able to start seeing her turkey, and it started crossing the creek. And then here come mine. I said, now, wait, wait, let it get across the creek. So it crossed the creek, and it was working on up in there. And finally mine got to the creek. And she said, can I shoot now? And I said, wait, let mine get across the creek because I knew it would be a long shot for me too. And mine got to where I thought, okay, I could shoot.

Now, I said, are you able to shoot? She said, yeah, yeah. And I said, I'll count to three. So I said, on the count of three, shoot. And so I said, one, two, boom. She shot, and then I boom. And then she shot again, boom. And hers took flight.

What happened? And, of course, we both took off running. She knew that to get to her turkey, I took off running, got to my turkey and put my foot on its head. And she was over there, and she had body slam that turkey. The second shot she hit it, and she was laying on that turkey. I mean, her whole body was covering that turkey. Anyway, the woods, if the turkey hunter had been around there,

there's no way they would have kept on nothing because we were, it was like the cry of the Teraducto. We were just hollered and screaming and laughing and cutting up. And we told that story to each other ten times before we left the woods, but we both got our turkeys. We doubled, and that was our first turkey, so it was a great day. What a privilege it was to hear that story for Ms. Sarah. It's really hard to pull off a double, and those two did it in style.

Thanks for sharing the story, and don't forget about her book, Clarkett, True Turkey Tales, by Sarah Clark. Our next story is told by a young man. He's 19 years old, and by means of the fate of his birth date and the state that he lives in, he's never really experienced any glory days of turkey hunting. His father took him turkey hunting every year since he was six years old, but honestly, they didn't get on a lot of birds around their home. Though he's killed a few, this lack of birds hasn't altered, though, his trajectory of being well on his way to becoming a dino-wop-wapin, turkey-thumping, good turkey hunter.

This young man's name is Bear John Newcomb. and I'm the boy's father. But on this high-pressured public land turkey hunt, Bear John sure didn't need any help from me. So I'm Bear Newcomb, and this is a story that happened last spring. So I was hunting a big section of public ground. There was a lot of pressure, a lot of people, but I'd found some turkeys down on the bottom of this big hauler.

And the first three days I was on their tails. I got close a couple of times, and I had them kind of honed in. I knew right where they were and what they would do every day after they'd come off the roost. But I kept running into people. I'd be chasing a turkey, and then I'd run into another person or someone would come in from the other side. So there was just a lot of pressure, and they just were getting less and less responsive to calling. So the fourth day of season comes around, and I'd just been living out in the woods at this point. and there was a road that led down this mountain and it led right to this corner.

It was like the mountain made a corner and you could hear off both sides of it. And the left side was just full of people because there were roads all on the left side. But the right side was just a big block of woods. And if they gobble on that left side, I was going to be competing with a bunch of people. But if it was the right side, it was just going to be me in the turkey. Sure enough, about 15 minutes before daylight, right as the sun started to glow over the mountains, I looked over at the top of the holler and you could see two headlamps about 500 yards apart.

They were moving, kind of shuffling down the mountain, getting to their listening spots. And then I looked across the valley, and I could see another light over there. So there were three people all in this kind of same area. And then me, so there were four people in this area all hunting the same turkeys. Right at first light, a gobbler fired off

right down at the bottom of the holler. and that was just like the gun going off at a track meet. It was like you could just feel people like just shuffling down the mountain trying to get to this bird. But I kind of knew what he was going to do. I'd been on this bird before and it seemed like all three mornings that I hunted him, he would go up the mountain about 300 yards and he would meet up with another gobbler. Whenever he was on the roost, it was just him.

But once he got up the mountain, there'd be two goblers. And so as soon as he got up, you know, you could just, I decided to skip the roost and just go straight to where I thought he was going to go. And so I run down this holler. I mean, I'm just like booking it. And you get down to the bottom and there's these big bluffs. And there's one spot you could cross. You know, I'd been running up and down this holler all week.

So I knew right where to cross. And sure enough, I get about where I thought he was going to go. And I just hear a gobbler up there. And as I get closer, it gets louder. And I could tell he was with that other gobbler. There were two of them. So I kind of crept into a reasonable distance and then kind of surveyed the situation to see what the best plan of action would be. And they were up on this bench right above me.

I was one bench below them. And I thought, okay, I could go down that bench and then get up on their bench and be even with them and try and call them in. But I don't know, you know, this was right where the other people were. And I didn't know if they were going to respond to the call or not. And so I kind of creep in a little closer and I look up on the bench that they're on and there's a big rock about the size of my Ford Ranger just right on the edge of that bench.

And they sounded like they were just right on the other side of it. They were flapping their wings and gobbling out of each other. They'd just be gobbling right on top of each other. And I thought, well, I could just slip up to that rock and they won't see me. And so I started to creep up the mountain real slow. I jacked a shell in, I get right to that rock, and you could just hear them. I mean, they were just, it was as close as I've ever been to a goblin turkey, I mean,

they were just like right there. And I kind of creep around the corner of this rock, and real slowly, I look around, and I see a flock of turkeys. There's a couple of hens there, and there's these two goblers, and I real quickly, you know, jerk my head back, and, you know, I get my gun up and get ready. And about the time I put my gun up, I see a turkey's head. just walk right out in front of it. I mean, he couldn't have been five yards.

And I look, and he was a long beard, and he was the first one that stepped out. And about the time that I saw him, he saw me, and he turned to start running, and I just put the bead right at the base of his neck and folded him. But I was just as excited as could be. I remember FaceTime on my dad and showing him the turkey, and this was, you know, four days of hunting the same bird. So I was pumped. But it kind of goes to show, you know, when you're hunting pressured land, you

don't always have to just call them right in. Sometimes you can sneak up to the rock and bushwhack them. And anyway, got them. That was some woodsmanship bear and just being smart. That was good. You did what you had to do to kill a bird that was likely pretty much uncallable. We're going to close with the turkey story combined with a mini sermon by Pastor Robin Risher of Mississippi. The setting is the country church.

The windows open at the peak of the spring. My name's Robin Risher. I pastor a Southern Baptist Church in Mississippi. I've pastored several of them. I was pastor at Stronghope Baptist Church down in Copiah County and had a pretty good turkey population around that church. One Easter morning, we had a sunrise service, a legitimate sunrise.

None of the 7 o'clock business and eat donuts. It was dark when we started preaching, and when we quit singing and preaching, it was daylight. We had a sunrise service. And just as old sun was easing up over that graveyard, he had kind of hard-licking to us. Jesus is alive. He heard me. I made like I didn't hear it. There was some rednecks there in the back, and their feet got scrubbing.

They got the walling around back there. They just wanted to go. I said, I'm going to try him again. I say, he's alive, I said. And for the rest of the time we sing and preach and prayed and worship to the Lord God Almighty, that turkey goblin. And nobody ever killed him. I can't thank you enough for listening to Bear Greece and Brent's This Country Life podcast.

Please leave us a review on iTunes and text this episode to a buddy that needs some turkey inspiration this spring. Be careful out there. Fully identify your target before you pull the trigger. Honor the ancient turkey hunter's code of not moving in on another man's hunting area or on a bird that he's calling to. Good luck to you this spring. Keep the wild places wild because that's where the bears live. 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 fieldwear gear at firstlight.com. This is an IHeart podcast, guaranteed human.