Bear Grease - Ep. 440: Turkey Stories - Bears, Bows, and a Pot Belly Pig

Episode Date: April 8, 2026

When Cody Villines prepared to draw down on three dark approaching turkeys, he definitely gets more than he expected. Janis Putelis hangs in for a fourth quarter double, Clay and Lake get a big surprise about what comes into their call, and a miraculous retrieval—all exciting stories from Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas, sure to get you fired up for Spring Turkey Season. Watch Clay's Utah Mountain Lion Hunt on YouTube Thank you to our sponsor, Tecovas. 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 YouTube Shop Bear Grease MerchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

Built to perform, built to last. Check out. First Light's new field. Worldware gear at firstlight.com. That bird was right there, 20 yards from me up that hill. It was just one of those moments where I just paused and went, man, what are the odds? Thank you, Lord.

What an amazing story. This episode of Turkey Stories is full of surprises. Probably a good title for this one would have been April Fools. But some surprises are good and some are bad. We've got stories from Missouri, Nebraska, Arkansas, and Texas with some new voices and some old ones. But they're chock full of goblins, strutting, laughing, some fear, some grunting, and maybe even a tear. These stories tell themselves, so I doubt that you're going to want to miss this one. And hey, be sure to check out the Phelps three pack of Prime Cuts turkey diaphragm calls.

These calls were designed by myself, Stephen Ronella, and Jason Phelps. I really like them. My name is Clay Newcomb, and this is the Bear Grease podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search for insight in unlikely places, and where we'll tell the story of Americans who live their lives close to the land. Brought to you by Tukovas boots. I'm a cowboy boot man, and I've been wearing Tocovas for years. They're the most comfortable boot I've ever.

put on. Good boots for good times. We're coming off the limb and full strut on this episode, and we got a good one right off the top. You may remember our American Lager series with the Villains family, episodes 420 and 424. Well, our first story is from Cody Villains, and I told you back then that these guys were good hunters, and they didn't get this way by accident. These boys have been hunting since they were born. And Cody's got a story from when he was 15 years old. And it involves an uninvited guest.

Actually, three. Keep your eyes and ears peeled on this one. You want me to introduce myself? I'm Cody Valenz from Newton County, Arkansas. This is one of two times in all my hunting that I can remember that I did everything right. And still, it was like Mother Nature was like, you're going home. with an empty sack. And the other one is a deer story, but this is a turkey story.

And I was 15. And I came home from school one day. Dad wasn't home yet. He was at work still. I told my mom, I said, I'm going to go out the road here. I don't want to see if I can hear a turkey. It's getting pretty late in the evening, but I went ahead and went. Drove out the road.

Went off in this is a pretty rough place. But anyway, I strike a turkey. And I know it's getting late. But anyway, I dive off in there. I go after it. I get to work in this turkey, and I kind of think there's more than one, just by the way he's acting. But I wasn't sure. But I'm working this turkey, and he's coming.

He ain't coming very fast, but he's coming to me. Well, I start to realize that it's going to get dark on me before I get this turkey killed. So sure enough, it starts getting dark, and he got close enough. I roosted it. There was three turkeys flew up. So I'm thinking he's either got a couple hens. with him or Jake or something. I knew there was something up, just by the way he was acting.

But I got him roosted. I know what tree. I know right where this sucker is at for the next morning. So I go home. And I told Dad, I said, I got one. I got one roosted. I know right where this sucker is at. He said, so I don't guess you're going to school in the morning.

I said, no, I'm going to kill that turkey. So the next morning I get up early. when I get out there to the forks of the road there's a neighbor that used to live out the road here his truck is sitting at this parking spot well I know from where he's parked

he's probably going to be on the other side of the canyon from me where this turkey's roosted but I don't think a whole lot about it so I use off in there in the dark and I get set up on this turkey and I mean this is public land and there's some people around here that can kill some turkeys. You don't want that turkey gobbling much on the limb.

So I don't hoot. I don't do anything. I mean, I know right where he's at, I ease in there, and I'm just going to kind of let him gobble. And then, I mean, I'm in, I'm in a driver's seat. Well, this other guy's on the other side of the canyon from me. He starts hooting. This old turkey finally gobbled. And he starts making crow calls. He's even, he squaws like a peacock at one time. He made the office record. ever heard in my life. Well, come to find out it's what I think by sitting there listening to them. It's a big turkey and two jigs. And I ain't said nothing. But that old boy's over. He's hooting. He's crow call them. These turkeys go to having a fit. I mean, they're gobbin like crazy. Well, I'm just sitting there. Well, it gets about time, I think, and I make a little call.

old turkey gobbles I just sat there the old turkey flies down he gets the ground he comes my direction I mean I had I had set up on him pretty nice because I had all not to think about it

I was just up on the side of the hill up out of the canyon coming off from the top on the other side of that finger that ran off was kind of an open hillside I could see you over there pretty good well that old turkey

he pitched down he pitched over just dang near to where i could see him in that open spot anyway he i heard he pitched down he gobbled when he hit the ground and i mean he's just i'm gonna see him in just a little bit he's gonna be way over there but i'll be able to see him and then he's got to come around and when he comes up over that finger you know he's dead so turkey hits the ground hey gobbled he's coming my direction and i'm sitting there watching and over there on that that open spot, I see black spot. And then I see another black spot. And then I see

another black spot. There they are. Old long beard, two jakes. They're coming. Well, they come through that opening and they go in behind that finger and I got the safety off. I mean, this is a done deal. This turkey's dead. He just don't know it yet.

And I'm waiting and I'm waiting. No more goblin. But I mean, that wasn't uncommon. and I mean, I'm just, he's fixing to pop up over that hump. Well, when he pops up over that hump, he ain't a long beard. He ain't even a he.

It's old Sal Barre. When she come up over with hump, she was 35 yards, or, you know, shotgun turkey range. And I thought, oh my, because I don't seen three black spots. I know there's two more. And I got a pretty good idea of what they're pretty. probably are. She comes over that hump like she knows where I'm sitting. Like I in the back of my mind I think I've just called this bear up. She comes over that hump and she comes to beeline

straight to me. And when she gets out there 15 and 20 steps, she kind of pulls up the hill and she comes right beside of me and she goes behind me. I can't see her. I can hear But I can't see her. But those cubs are probably, I don't know, 40-pounders, they're pretty little. They had gotten behind her, you know. I don't know how far they were behind her, 25 or 30 yards. They were kind of playing around, whatever. When she goes behind me, they come around, and they come right in front of me.

So I'm between them. I mean, I'm right between them. And I've heard, you know, I'm a kid. I'm 15 years old. I hadn't heard my whole life. Don't get between a sow and her cubs. And here I am, smack between a sow and two cubs. And I didn't, that ain't what I had in mind when I left the house that morning.

It wasn't very long. I mean, honestly. Probably wasn't a minute that I was actually directly between them. But she's making these little rackets at them. So I can finally hear her to where she's getting around over here. I finally get the nerve up enough, I turn to where I can see her out of the corner of my. She's right there. I mean, she is right behind me.

I got close. Like, for me to you. Not too close. So I'm flat in my butt with my gun up, you know. And it didn't like I could jump up and run if I wanted to. And they finally, the cubs kind of come along below me, and they come right up through there. And she's just waiting on them. The whole time I can hear her.

I know she could smell me. There's no way that bear don't smell me. But she never did. I mean, you could hear, like, you know, winding and whatever. But she never did do anything aggressive. I mean, they got back together, and when they went out of sight, I went to the truck. The turkey hunt was over.

It's common for turkey hunters to call in coyotes and bobcats. As a matter of fact, on our last episode, Claude, Claude Strauther called in a bobcat that whacked him in the face. And in recent years, I've heard a guys calling in bears or, you know, calling a turkey and a bear comes in. And some of them have been genuinely convincing to me that the bear was actually coming to investigate the hen call. But in this story, it really isn't 100% clear if it was a coincidence or if the bear was coming to the call. But in my research on the American Black Bear for my book that's going to be released in spring of 27, we talk about how bears have been proven to be the most curious mammal on the North American continent.

And that curiosity has caused them to be successful and usually produces food. So I'll let you be the judge. But here's what Cody thought. It was like she knew where I was sitting. It was like I called her up. It was just like I called that bear up. And like I said, I hadn't called a whole lot to this turkey. You know, I called maybe two times when that turkey was on the roost.

And I ain't calling loud. I probably called three times. But she came straight to me. Coincidence, whatever it was, I don't know. But not only did she come straight to me, she came straight through the middle of those turkeys. Like she scared those turkeys off. I know she did. It was drama for a 15-year-old kid.

I'm going to say that's probably quite possibly the first bear I ever seen on the hoof. That was a good story with a surprise ending. And our next story is a good one too. It's a bow hunt from Nebraska told by Dr. Adam McCall and his buddy Mark Yacht. And y'all may remember what my buddy Lake Pickle always says. is don't bring a bow to a gunfight. Actually, Lake never said that, but he talks about how he doesn't like to bow hunt turkeys.

But these guys put on a clinic on how to do it. Hey, I'm Mark Yant from Fayetteville, Arkansas. I'm Adam McCall, also from Fayetteville, Arkansas. Happened to be Clay's doctor. So we go turkey hunting every year. We've been three years to Nebraska. We met this fellow and invited us to come up and hunt. He's got about four or five hundred acres of just solid northeast Nebraska land.

And, I mean, every time we've been, we've seen turkeys on turkeys on turkeys. So we show up on Thursday afternoon, 70 degrees, beautiful. Turkeys everywhere. We don't have really enough time to hunt. And so we go scout for birds, roost about 60 birds, I'd say. and so we get up that next morning and the temperature would probably drop 50 degrees

and I mean it was 26 degrees outside cold and we didn't hear a gob we heard like three gobbles but we knew they'd come off that mountainside so we sat there all day just waiting and so finally I said Mark

I think that we're gonna have to be hunters instead of sitters and he's kind of looked at me he's like there's zero chance you're going to kill a a turkey with a bow and arrow outside of a blind. And I said, well, we're not going to kill one inside of a blind if we don't see it. So that next morning, you know, I hear four or five new birds gobbling,

so I went and sat down there for a little bit and I didn't see anything. It's like once they left the roos, they didn't make a sound. And so I thought, well, I'm just going to be patient. You know, I've heard many times, like if you think it's time to leave, you wait another hour because that bird's coming. Well, they weren't coming. as I got up and left, and I just started walking it. And at the same time, I'm walking up the hill that morning,

and I decided to sit at the top of this hill, I'm downwind and uphill from where you'd heard these birds the night before. So I hear them first thing. I can even hear the hens clucking with the wind and everything, and I'm like, great. They're pretty far away. I'm looking on on X and deciding it's probably about 500 yards away or so. But I'm going to go sitting this blind.

I'm going to call to them a little bit, get them to Anson. I'm going to go sit down and, you know, the dreams of flocks of turkeys coming through, you know, were jumping through my head. And after about an hour of hearing nothing after that, you know, Adam's words kept ringing through my head of, are we going to be hunters or are we going to be sitters? And it was the last morning. And I'm like, you know what, it's a beautiful day. I'm getting out of this blind with my bow. And I'm going to start going after those birds I heard this morning.

Luckily, it's been an hour, but I go back to the same spot I listen. And I still hear them down there where they were roosting. So I start kind of slowly trying to make a move on them while Adam's over there running around the ridges on the other side of the property. Look, I was chasing a bobcat. I saw a bobcat and I thought this bobcat knows something that I don't. So when I say chasing, I saw him go a direction. I thought, well, that's a direction I need to go in. This is horrible hunting advice for anybody who's listening.

Adam and Mark split up and spend the morning chasing fank gobbles. But later in the morning, they end up working the same birds kind of from different angles. and Adam actually sees the gobbler. He's been hearing all morning, but he's kind of out of position. He's caught off guard, and the gobbler walks past him with no shot. But Mark and Adam finally see each other. What Adam didn't know was I was watching the same gobbler at 50 yards because he was coming toward my call.

And I didn't know Adam had gotten down to where I was. And so he's over there, and then I see this bird kind of struttle a little bit and then turn back and go where he had come from. And I'm like, what the heck? So I call Adam, and then I see him answer his phone and stand up. And I'm like, oh, you're right there. So we put the phone down. And what I didn't tell you is on the way over through that half mile walk,

I had started shedding gear because it was hot. And I got my backpack and my stool. And I put them in a random spot through that half mile hike in a valley. And I marked that spot on Onyx and go get my stuff later. And now I'm up with Adam, and we're deciding we've got to put a move on these birds. So I'm like, hey, we're on one side of this ridge. they're on the other in these woods. They're going to go up toward that field.

Let's run around this side of the ravine and get up there in that field and set up and try to catch them where they come. And so we did. We did the classic kind of run and get out of breath. And he jumps in a bush. I said, let me get behind you

because they're clearly staying with their flock. Maybe they'll get close enough for you to shoot, but I'll call from behind you. So I start calling. They gobble once or twice, but they're just strutting for their hens and coming and checking us out a little bit through those woods.

And they just won't get any close. and they won't come up in that field. We still can't really see them. We can just hear them clucking out in those woods. And he's gotten himself up in this brush pile where he's got an amazing shot out to the field, but nothing back into the woods. So I hear them start moving back into the woods.

So unbeknownst to him, I stopped calling for him as a good friend, and I start rushing to where I think I can cut them off in the woods, and I get halfway to where I think I need to get behind a log jam, and I start seeing a head over the side of the ridge. And I dropped to my belly and my knees with my bow in my hand. I'm sitting there going, this is how turkeys don't get killed. Where you're not behind a tree, you're with a bow, first of all. So we've already decreased our odds by 95% just by holding that weapon and not a gun.

And that's what seasoned it is in Nebraska, by the way. So that's why we were doing that. And I'm just like, oh, no. And these two tom starts strutting where I can barely see them from the ground. And the hens stayed behind this big log jam where they couldn't see me. So I get to a point where I can kind of see them strutten, but I realize Adam's like 10 yards from them. Why is he not shooting? So I had these two tombs. I mean, at seven yards at one point, I can see my reflection in this gobbler's eye. And so this is after I had to turn around in this

like, it's like this Chinese elm tree. You got these big low hanging branches. They're thick. and so I was in I was in had my release clipped in and so when I was turning I was trying to kind of draw at the same time well I accidentally released my arrow into the tree and I was like well it's over now there's zero chance and so but I gave a little gave a little yelp and a little cluck and man all the sudden I see two birds just pop I mean there's seven yards six yards and I get drawn and I'm like this is a little cluck and man all the sudden I see two birds just pop I mean there's seven yards six yards and I get drawn and I'm like this going to happen but they never come forward for me to get a shot and the only thing i'm thinking is i'm not going to take a dumb shot and ruin this entire hunt because if i do i will hear about it for seven and a half hours yeah that's true so i'm sitting over there watching these birds strut and i'm i don't have my range finder with me because i dropped it with my gear i wouldn't have been able to move to use it anyway so i'm going look i think that tree it's almost like old school pre-range finder days you're like i still have this skill i think in my head mark you can do you can do it you can do it's

this. So this tree looks 20. They're about 10 past that. I'm going to use my 30-yard pen. So I draw and I decided I'm going to take a shot when they move in between some of the brush. And one of them does. And as soon as I shoot, he struts sideways and it goes right behind him. My arrow. I'm like, you've got to be kidding. So I stand up assuming that they're going to run off. Well, when I stand up, luckily he was strutted the other way. So his fan blocked him from me. And I'm like, oh, shoot, I'm going to get another shot. So I knock another arrow except I don't knock it because it's got mud in the knock. And I'm like, you've got to be kidding me.

So he struts around one more time with that. You know, when they put their fan back and they cover their head, you've got your moment. So I drop that arrow, grab another one and draw and take my 30-yard shot. And I hear it just bam, hit him. And I hear it hit cavity. And I'm like, man, this is awesome. I wonder if Adam saw that and all this stuff because I know where he's at.

So I go running up to Adam. And I'm like, hey, that bird just pitched off after I shot him. I hate that. I don't love that. It's not what we're looking for. but maybe that was a quick pitch and he's right down here. So Adam comes out of the bushes

trying to figure out why the heck, you know, what happened. And we got to figure out we've got to go start looking for this bird because the other ones could kind of ease down the hill at this point. It's a tough go at it. So if you can use a gun, you might just do that. But so we start looking for this turkey and we're grid searching these couple little dips. And at this point, we've walked over 100 yards

in grid search up and down the hill. And I'm just getting sick. I mean, nobody likes wounding an animal and not finding it, all of that. So we're looking. And at this point, I'm like, Adam, go make a move on those birds. Go try to find them again. They're still, they weren't too skittish.

I'm going to keep looking for this turkey, and I'm just getting depressed. So I pull up on X, and I'm like, I'm going to find my way back to that gear that I dropped. By the way, which is 450 yards away in the opposite direction that the turkey pitched off to. And here's the climax of the story. Adam goes off to try to find those birds, and I depressingly walk back to try to try to get my gear. And I come over this big hilltop looking down in this valley of these woods. And I kid you not, I get up to my backpack. A random spot, 450 yards away from the direction that bird went opposite direction. And I hear something moving in the leaves 20 yards away

from me. That bird was right there, 20 yards from me up that hill. It was just one of those moments where I just paused and went, man, what are the odds? Thank you, Lord. What an amazing story and that we got a chance to harvest that bird clean eventually at the end and be able to get him. That is wild that you found that gobbler right back at your pack. Over 400 yards to opposite direction that the bird flew. Shout out to On X because I think all of us have left a pen where we dropped some gear. I love it.

It was a great story. Love the camaraderie and the excitement of that one. 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 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 Rinella cut is an easy-to-use cut for beginning callers who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting action. But our next story is from, you guessed it,

Andy Brown in Arkansas. Yep, old Andy. And he had just told me a story about his family member Bill Decker. We played that story actually on the 2025 episode. And he kind of had a tack-on story. And I wanted to play that one. So this is another story about his family member, Bill. Here's Andy.

One more story with Bill. Same kind of same place, same mountain. and we got we had went in there and we heard a turkey north way north and i told bill i said come on we're going to go down and we did we fell off the main mountain and it goes down there and it makes a divide and ties on to a kind of a high ridge in there that runs off west and that turkey when we got there that turkey was straight across across the next canyon over on what we call well there's a name for the ridge that we use but that turkey was on that ridge and i said and he was gobbling good. I mean, this is, you know, this is 8 o'clock in the morning. I mean, he's gobbling

good. So we get in there and we get set up and, and I called that turkey and shoot, he just, just immediately just broke me off straight across from me. Well, quiet game. Five minutes. I called him again. When I did, he's already off the mountain. He's already come down. He's right, he's right down below us. Still, still in the bottom. but he's below us. I said to Bill, I said, that turkey's coming. I called him again. He just broke me off again.

And so I just kind of shut up in a minute. I could hear him drumming. Back in those days, I could hear it. I think I could hear a turkey drum 150 yards. I mean, I'm still more. I mean, I could hear him a long way. So it's something I can't hear him more. I can't hear him drum.

But anyway, I could hear that turkey drumming. And I could tell he was coming up to our right. And Bill's right in front of me about from here to, well, let's just say, 15 foot in front of me right there. Thinking he's coming up here, but I could tell he's going to come up to the right right there. And I said, Bill, and no Bill's intense. I'm because that turkey, he's drumming and he's gobbling.

And I said, Bill, right here. And Bill, he'd look over his shoulder at me, and I'd say, right here. And I'd say right here. He was coursing him coming straight up. And I hauled the drumming. I said, Bill, I said, Bill, that turkey is right here coming up to your ride. And he'd shake his head no at me. You know, he's got that gun.

I mean, he's got her pointed north right here, and that turkey's coming up the east right there. And, of course, I had my gun laid across my lap, and I just kind of laid down like that. And all of a sudden, Clay, there he is. I mean, he comes up right there. You know, I mean, he's not 10 yards from Bill. They're just straight across with each other. And you can see old Bill. He had that good point in north.

And anyway, that turkey comes up there. And I'm thinking he's not getting away because I'm going to kill him. I mean, he's got. Too close, but I wasn't going to shoot him for the world if Bill could kill him. But I'm thinking, Bill's busted. Because, I mean, he's just, Bill's just right there. And about that time, that turkey just, he just turns. And he just starts right off, right off the mountain, going at an angle right in front of Bill.

And about that time, old Bill, he just raised it up and just kills that turkey in about 10 yards right in front of him. I'm thinking, I'm thinking, this guy, God has blessed him today. It's all I can day because this stuff don't happen, you know. But Bill's a great guy. I mean, a great guy. That was a good one, Andy. But our next storyteller is an absolute wild card. Revis got out some tears coming when the gobbler dies.

Yonis Putelles, the Latvian Eagle, has a story hot off the press from deep in the heart of Texas. It involves a recent hunt with a new friend and the twists and turns might make you car sick. Here goes nothing. All right. So this is like a bottom of the ninth. Two minutes left in the fourth quarter. Does that make sense to you? You know what that means? You have enough sports? Baseball. Yeah. Well, and then two minutes left in the fourth quarter, that could be basketball or football. Anyways, Clay said he really liked it, which is something that I actually don't like about his storytelling is when he tells you ahead of time what's going to happen or what you should like about something that he's about to tell you. I prefer just to have the story laid out and then I make

that decision. You never know at Meat Eater when you're about to get roasted. Come from the east or the west or from above or below and it'll sneak up on you like a bear. But Janus, roasting doesn't mean that you can roost them. See how I flipped that old saying from the turkey hunters? Here's Janice. All right, so this is like a bottom of the ninth, two minutes left in the fourth quarter type of story. Jesse Griffiths, the chef owner of Dai Duet in Austin, Texas, and I donated a hunt to the National Wild Turkey Federation's

hunt and hook sweepstakes. It was a three-day hunt for two people in southern Texas in mid-March. The winner of the hunt, Holly, killed her bird on the second morning. So that just left. her husband Zendl to get a bird. He and I hunted together the rest of the second day. No luck. The third day, we went to a spot where a giant big plane kind of next down to like

what we'd call a pinch point. And every day somebody had seen turkeys and strutton Tom's traveling through there. And he's like, Yain, this is the way I like to hunt. I like to sit in a spot and just let them come by me. I'm like, man, that is a perfectly fine tactic for me. Like, let's go do it. We sit there from dark until 1 p.m. And we get like 10 hens that go by us.

And like, don't hear gobbles, don't see gobbles, nothing. That afternoon, we find some strutters in a field. We chase them around trying to sneak up to them. No luck. So technically, the hunt's over. Because we only had three days. But the fourth morning is the next day. And I don't, they drove.

I don't have to be at the air. airport until one. So I'm like, Zendel, let's go do it. We'll just get a couple hours in, make one more swing for the fences, we'll see what happens. I'm like, as long as we quit by nine, like I can get back to the ranch, take a shower, and get to the airport on time. So he and I go out and we think we have got the plan. Like we're in the nexus of where all the birds have been goblin every day prior to that. And if we start there, we're going to have at least a place to start. Daylight's been about 7 a.m.

Sunrise was 7.30. By 7.45, we haven't heard a gobble. Like, my gosh. How did this happen? Like, the birds just had moved out of the area. I'm like, all right, Zendl, let's start walking. So we walk a little ways, and finally we hear some birds,

but they're on the neighboring property. So I'm like, well, let's at least get down there and listen to them. And I know they're going to come on to our property because we had water. So like, let's get between them in the water. You know, maybe it'll happen. So we do that.

We sit down. The birds are gobbling, gobbling, gobbling on the other side of the fence. But 30 minutes goes by. They're not moving any closer. So I'm like, okay, we got to keep pushing. We got to make something happen here. So we're in a piece of woods that's like a triangle, and we're at a point of it.

So it's only 50 yards wide or so. So I tell Zendal, I'm going to go peek out the other direction onto this giant big, they call it the plon, which I believe just means like great plane and I'm going to peek out there and see what's going on I do that I see two strutters with like 15 hens a couple hundred yards out run back to zendal I'm like there's birds out there let's make a move at this point like any tactic goes and so I've left the decoys behind but I do have a turkey fan with me I'm thinking just get close and at least I can show the fan to these strutters and we get the the reaction we want one maybe both of them come running towards us. So we make a move, get to a couple hundred yards of them, and as we're nearing the edge of the tree line, I notice another golver strutton off to our right,

about 100 yards, on our tree line. To my left, 50 yards, is a pack of 15 hens or so. Maybe a Jake in there, too. Can't be any better. I mean, it's like where you want to be. The sun's at our back. It's passing a nice long shadow out into the opening. We creep right up to the edge.

get Zendl set up, flash the fan, make a few calls, Gobbler looks over, sees us, and immediately just turns 90 and starts marching towards us. I'm like, oh yeah, baby. Like, I'm looking around like, we need a nice tree to take this picture of Zendl and his dead turkey here in a minute. The bird makes it to like 50 yards and puts the brakes on.

Best I can figure he had gotten his butt kicked recently. That's why he wasn't with those hands. That's why he wasn't with that other flock. the other two strutters and he's by himself. And he makes it to 50 and he's like, eh, I don't need to get any closer. Like I'm a little worried about the situation. So we're sitting there talking it over

and I'm like, Zendl, you know, he's shooting TSS. He's got a nice shotgun. Red dot scope on it. I'm like 50 yards, very makeable shot. Turkey's not like moving or running. He's just, you know, kind of sitting there eyeballing us.

I'm like, I'm going to yelp. You shoot him. We discuss it. He's like, got it. I make a couple yelps. turkey cranes his neck up. Zendl, pah!

Not a single feather on that turkey is harped. And he just goes scampering off like nothing happened. There was no time for a second shot. So I'm like, yeah, that's a bummer, you know, but what are you going to do? You know, Zendl's beside himself, just sick to his stomach. Like I would be too if that happened to me, you know. I'd already killed a bird, so I'm like, you know, stinker. We're just going to have to go three out of four Zendl's how it goes.

But we've got two other strutters and those other hens only 300 yards away from us. They had made it to the waterhole and now turned around and we're coming back across this great big giant field. So I'm like, look, man, like it's probably 8.30 at this point. I'm like, let's make one more move. Like we have a little bit of time left. Let's just make a loop through the woods and we'll try to cut them up. and hopefully they'll come right to us. So we do that, and we get to a spot where we're on a nice little rise.

It's a pretty flat country, but we've got a nice little rise underneath this big, beautiful, live oak tree with beautiful shade. And that time of day, it's getting hot in South Texas, right? So these turkeys are looking for a shady spot where they can stop and basically loaf, do some dusting and just chill. I'm thinking, this is the spot. We sit down, I can see these birds coming towards us. They're probably at like 150 yards. And as we settle in, I hear three other hands like clucking behind me. Again, we're like in the middle of birds.

Like this is perfect. What else do you want, right? So here they come, here they come. The hens from behind us come out, go past us. And the birds that are coming towards us with the strutters in the group, they meet at literally the first giant mesquite tree that's out in front of us, like out in the meadow. and literally decide to hole up there and start loafing.

A couple of the hens jump up onto the limbs. They're just like chilling. They're not going to come any closer for quite some time. I've like shown the fan, the gobbler saw the fan. I've called. No reaction. Nothing, nothing, nothing. So again, like 9 o'clock is like knocking on our door now.

Zendl's even like, yawning, you need to, we need to leave soon because you got to catch your flight. You know, you can't be late. I'm like, I know, but let's try. something else. Like we still have a nice long shadow. The sun's not that high. And the shadow line goes out maybe 10 yards in front of us. And there's literally the smallest mesquite tree on the entire ranch is out there. And it's like a shrub. It's like five feet tall, maybe six, 30 inches wide. Like not a lot of cover. But again, we're down to minutes to the hunt. We're just going to try it all. So I said, leave everything behind. I'm going to hold this fan out in front of us,

which we're only doing because we're on a private ranch and we're absolutely 100% that no one else is out there hunting in our vicinity, but we're going to scoot behind this fan and then try to get to this next little piece of cover. So now we're at maybe 60 yards, and I'm showing the fan, I'm calling. Nothing, nothing, nothing. Like, they just will not pay any attention to me.

The strutters have actually kind of moved around the backside of this mesquite to us. I can see hens in there, but nothing's going on. And Zendl again, it's like, dude, we had to stand up and just walk out of here. I said, you're right. Like, we're out of time. But I said, you know, I think if I leave by 11, I'll make it to the airport by noon.

Like, we can probably go to like 9.30, you know, we can push it a little bit. Like, let me just try to throw the kitchen sink at them. By which I mean, I'm going to give them every call I know how to make from a diaphragm. So I just start getting after them. Yelping, clucking, cutting, fighting purrs, love making purrs, everything I know. It sounds like a... Like if you did this to some, if you met a turkey hunter at the National Wild Turkey Federation and you're like, hey, check out my calling. And you did that to them.

They would look at you and go, your calling sucks. But it's like all I had left. I'm just like going to give it all to him. Well, a couple rounds of that. And one of the hens sort of like, I can see her. She sort of like cocks her head and looks up at me. I'm like, okay. I got someone's attention.

I keep doing a little bit more. And all of a sudden, there's two hens doing it. And those two have taken like a few steps towards me. And now I'm like getting confident. I'm getting very dry mouth because South Texas, 9 o'clock in the morning, I don't have any water on me. And I'm just calling my brains out. But here they come.

There's two hands. Then there's three. Then there's four. And they're kind of all doing that when they're coming at you, kind of like in a little bit of a mob. And they're like, something's going on back there. We need to know what it is. We want to investigate. What is it?

They're kind of craning their necks and looking. And obviously, there's two full-grown men trying to hide behind really nothing and one turkey fan. They come, they get to the closest hens probably gets to five yards, maybe three yards. The gobbler still haven't really left their little shady spot underneath the mesquite, which is at 60. Finally, they are like, okay, we're going to follow the hens. So they break. Here they come. they get to 25 yards

so I said look just let me know when you're going to shoot because I need to plug my ear he's like all right I'm ready so I plug my ear I'm holding the fan on the other hand boom first gobbler just folds usually when you shoot at one and there's two of them

sitting there the other one will just sort of like flap his wings once or twice and he hops up 10 15 feet in the air kind of lands and will run off with everybody else this bird if you can imagine if you're sitting next under like a power line. Like that, not like a high high line,

but just like a regular old power line, you know, a T-post. This bird jumps so high that it could easily, like, roosted on, like, where you normally see an eagle's nest, you know, on a power pole. Gives me enough time because my shotgun is laying in my lap. So I unplug my ear, drop the fan, pick up my shotgun, put it on my knee, and when that turkey lands, boom!

He falls over, too. We're so excited. We're just hooting it, hooting, hoot and holler and we high five and I'm like all right Zendel you pick up the birds and get all the gear I dropped my vest I said I'm going to go run and get the truck I had three

quarters of a mile to go to go get the vehicle so I just run up there grab it turn around come back load up Zendel two turkeys vests seats guns and we just high tail it 20 minutes back to the ranch house

I plead for Jesse to clean my bird he does I jump in the shower throw everything into a duffel and take off to the airport and made it back to Bowesman, Montana by 11 p.m. That was a good story, Janice, multiple lows, and the surprising double at the end, man, I thought the story was over, and then you killed one. I actually thought it was going to be a dud hunt,

and it was just going to be our buddy missing a couple of times. 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 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 Phelps 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. Let's jump straight into our next story with no foreshadowing. So I'm going to tell you the next story.

Yep, this is Clay. And in response to Janus saying that I foreshadowed too much, I'm not going to give you much information at all. This may not even be a turkey story. But me and my friend Lake Pickle were invited to hunt with our other buddy, Justin House in northern Arkansas on opening day of the Arkansas season in 2025. We hunted a bird early that morning,

couldn't get on him, but had heard. a bird a half a mile away all morning that eventually about nine o'clock we decide to go after. We go over there, crow call, and the bird responds, but he is a long, long ways away across a big canyon from us. I'd say that it's one of these birds that low likelihood that he's going to come to you, and we really can't go to him. But we call pretty hard at him. Lake Doe Lake's a great caller, and the bird responds. Well, five minutes later, we hear him, and he's closer. Five minutes later, we hear him, and he's way off in the bottom of the canyon.

We think he's going to get hung up, but he keeps coming. When he starts coming up the other side, we get tucked into a big brush pile. I'm about five feet behind Lake Pickle, and Justin House is back deeper in the woods kind of completely out of pocket. The bird keeps coming and Justin has told us that we can't shoot on the other side of this fence. The bird has to cross a fence

before we can shoot him. Well, this bird's coming. And directly there he is. And he's on the other side of a five-strand bobwire fence at about 60 yards. And Lake starts to soft call. We start to scratch in the leaves.

And this bird just stands there and looks and he won't cross this fence. And we can't really figure out why, but he starts to move down the fence away from us, and we think, well, he just has a place that he wants to cross. And sure enough, that seems to be right. He goes about 50, 60 yards down the fence, crosses under the barbed wire fence, and starts to hook around, and we think, well, he's going to come in now. He just wanted to come in from this direction. We're watching this gobbler out in the field now, probably 75 yards in front of us. No fence between us.

And it's getting serious. But this turkey is acting funny. It's just throwing its head up and just looking, won't move, won't move, won't strut, won't gobble. Something has happened from him being hot before, so hot that he was just barreling in. And Lake's looking down the barrel of his gun. I'm right behind him. And all of a sudden, from my left side, which is the field side, it's real bright over there, I see something out of my peripheral vision.

And I immediately think there is a strutton gobbler like six yards from us that has come in to the left of us. A pit just forms in my stomach. It almost scares me, just like somebody walking up behind you. It was that surprising. and I see this black blob strutton gobbler just moving just at a pace of one just in full strut. And I mean, he is on top of us. He is five yards from Lake. Something's about to happen.

And this turkey is out there, 75-ish yards, and he is just staring. And, you know, kind of makes sense. Well, this gobbler didn't want to come in because there's another gobbler coming behind us. Well, I cut my eyes to the left. and what I thought was a strutton gobbler is not a strutton gobbler at all. It is a pig. And what I didn't foreshadow to you is that on the house farm, about a year and a half ago, a pot-belly pig showed up, and it has lived on their farm.

They've not fed it. They don't know where it came from. And it is fat as a hog. Its belly almost drags the ground. They've just tolerated this pig. Well, we saw the pig that morning when we were walking from the first gobbler to the second gobbler, and he never even lifted his head to look at us. And we go on over at least a quarter mile from where we'd seen the pig.

And I am fully convinced that that pig winded us and came into us because the wind is hitting us right in the face. And I believe that that gobbler was red hot, and he came to the fence, wanted to cross, but he saw that pig way down the field slowly working his way towards us. And that's what turned him. You just never know what's going to ruin your hunt. Well, we just can't believe it. You know, of all the things that could spook a hunt, you know, a bobcat, a coy,

another hunter, a four-wheeler, a cow, just all the things that could have happened, we weren't expecting the pig to blow this hunt. Well, we run the pig off, you know. know, and we're just like, Justin, why do you have a pig on your farm? And we decide to make a big loop and go after this bird. It's mid-morna we think he's by himself. We make a big loop, get about 300 yards in front of where we think this turkey's going, and to make a long story short, we softly call, and we hear a hen that cuts us off. And we start calling at this hen real aggressively. This hen comes right in, comes on past us, and Lake says, man, that gobbler's got to be here.

And Lake just plays the patience card. This turkey never gobbles, and he just sets there. And sure enough, that gobbler pops his head up over the heel probably 10 minutes after that hen passed us and moved on. Most people, I think, would have moved on themselves. and Lake Pickle kills that gobbler about an hour after that pig winded us and came in and blew our hunt. So the moral of the story is you never know who the villain's going to be on your turkey hunt,

but be suspicious of everything. I never in a thousand years would have thought that dadgum pig was going to ruin our hunt. But our next story is straight out of one of the country's best turkey hunting states, Missouri. I give a lot of credit to Mississippi for having great turkey hunters, but Missouri has some incredible turkey hunters. This story is from dairy farmer Brian Patton in southwest Missouri.

And this story we call the first and last turkey, and it's good. I had mentioned to a lot of people that I wish my wife turkey hunted, you know, and be careful what you wish for, because she's turned into quite the turkey killer. I'd got her some calls over the years, you know, and their cousin had made a few calls, and Cameron had left one up there at our house, and it's a box call, and it really is nice.

And I walked in the house one day, and, of course, it was during turkey season, and these boys had left turkey calls all over the bar, you know, and lo and behold, I'll be done. She had that call, and she was yapping on that call. And I'm like, that sounds pretty good. She said, well, listen, you guys all the time. It's that ain't that big a deal.

I'm like, oh, really? Are you going to go try to kill one now? Well, if you put me out there, I might do it since you can hunt in the afternoon. And she's an afternoon deer hunter, too, you know. And so I said, well, I said, your dad has really been wanting to go. And my father-in-law, he had got to be quite. a turkey killer himself. Not never was much of a call guy, but oh, he loved to go and he liked to get out there, and he'd killed a pile of turkeys. And I said, won't you take your dad? It'd be good

for both of you. She's like, I don't know if I can do it. I said, you sounded great. I said, just do like you was doing. The cadence is more important than a lot of the other things. And I said, you don't have to call as much as Tanner and Cameron. Just call some. And I said, I'll put you in a good spot. I said, I've been seeing these old gobblers come through there in the evening quite a bit going back to their roost. And so I had them a blind set up. And I mean one of these turkeys was a whopper. I mean, he had a beard on him.

And my father-in-law likes those big bearded turkeys. He always has. He's got C-O-P-D, and he couldn't walk very far. And so I got him down there. I said, now when we go, when I call you, we got to go. Oh, yeah, yeah, you're going to go with me? No, I'm going to put Tina in the blind with you. And there was some silence.

He said, okay. And so anyhow, we got them down there. I set up a decoy for them. And I told Tina, she's watched some of our videos that we'd done before, and she knew what to do, but she'd never been the one to do it. And she was getting to experience that. And me actually seeing her and seeing that enthusiasm and seeing that passion start to build,

it meant a lot to me. And so anyhow, she said, I started making a few calls when Daddy would tell me to and nothing was happening. And then all of a sudden I made one and one gobbled. And she said, I looked out the blind and there was like three or four of them, and here they come.

And she said, Daddy, get your gun up. Get ready. Here they come. And so I had one of those, we call him old Rattler. He's took some collateral damage over the years. When you pick him up, you can hear some shot bouncing around in him. And I'd set him up out there just about 18 yards. And I told her, I said, now, your dad has been known to say that's close enough.

And I have witnessed that not to be accurate a few times. So I said, if he's at Rattler and a little past, he's okay. But I said, if he's on out there 10 yards or so past Rattler, you need to put the brakes on him. She said, I'll try. And so these three come in there, and they was roughen up, old Rattler. And she said, don't shoot, don't shoot. He said, I'm waiting on that one.

He'd already picked out that big one, and he was coming in there. end. And so as he got up there, she said, them others is just like Moses part in the Red Sea whenever he come in there all full strut. She said, them things just spread out. And she said, he just kind of done a dance around that, he wasn't, she said he wasn't even, he was about half sidling decoy. And she said, he just half pose there and daddy shot. And she said, he just hit the ground. And then he started flopping. And she was so excited. And it really spoke to me. That's probably the last turkey that my father-in-law will pull the trigger on,

unless there's a miracle, because he's in hospice care right now. But to see her get to experience the joy that I had experienced all those years, you know, and it finally did the light come on. There's a lot of things in life that we go through. That it's just a matter of timing, you know. That's one of the greatest turkeys that I have ever had in my hands. That turkey had six beards. He was a 25-pound turkey.

This is a turkey unlike any that I had ever killed. And it's the first turkey that my wife had ever called in. and it's probably the last turkey that my father-in-law will ever pull the trigger on. But that was a great turkey. I can't thank you enough for listening and supporting Bear Grease. We really work hard to bring you the best stories that we can conjure up, that we can find. And it means a lot, all the support, all the listening, all the following us on Instagram and Facebook.

I mean, the main thing that you guys do for us, though, is you represent the American sportsmen with honor, integrity in the field, with your families, with people all over the country. And I hope in some way these stories and this podcast build that culture that continues to allow it to thrive in the coming years. Thank you for listening to Bear Greece, Brent's this country life, Lakes, Backwoods University. We're putting our heart and soul into this. We thank you. Did I say that already? Thank you. These episodes are some of my favorite.

And if you've got a great story that you think would be good for us to hear next year, be sure to email us at bear grease at the meat eater.com. And as always, keep the wild places wild because that's where the bears live. First Lights Fieldwear 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. FirstLight's new fieldwear gear at firstlight.com. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.