Bear Grease - Ep. 98: Spring Turkey Stories 2023 (Part 1)

Episode Date: March 22, 2023

This week is open mic night at the Bear Grease home fire and Clay Newcomb is givin’ the stage to some of the best turkey hunters he could dig out of the spring woods. You'll hear from Cauy House, authors Robert Hitt Neill, Jr and Hank Burdine, Garvin Gibbons, and Richard Campbell. And Bear Grease veterans Andy Brown, Moe Shepherd, and Hall of Famer Roy Clark. These stories give a glimpse into the joys, tribulations and passions of the American turkey hunter. On this episode,  we’ll hear about a white Tennessee turkey, a hunt where a hunter catches on fire, a turkey that had the gobble shot out of him, and we’ll end with a somber story that might bring a tear to your eye. I really doubt you’re going to want to miss this one.... Connect with Clay and MeatEater Clay on Instagram MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube Shop Bear Grease MerchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

Built to perform, built to last. Check out. First Light's new field. Worldware gear at firstlight.com. And so I called Papa. He goes, hey, I'm back here with Mom-Mall. She's fixing me in surgery. And I said, I need your help.

I'm on a turkey. He's down here in the road. I need to know what to do. And I can hear Mama on the background. She's getting ready there prepping her. And she goes, Steve, you need to help him get that turkey. You need to help him get that turkey. It's open Mike Knight at the Bear Grease Homefire.

And I'm giving the stage to some of the best turkey hunt. I know. It's mid-March. The days are getting longer. The Sarvisbury blooms are popping, and the stories are flowing like clear mountain streams. Turkey tales aren't just for entertainment, but they export in words and spirit a picture of the dedication of a unique band of brothers, a tribe of people bonded together by a ground-nesting goblin bird. These stories give a glimpse into the joys, tribulations, and passions of the American turkey hunter. It's an odd thing that a feathered beast would grip a heart so tightly. It really doesn't even make sense.

But a goblin spring turkey is as dynamic of a combination of audio sensation, challenge in the hunt, and visual imagery as there is in the natural world. A strutton gobbler rivals in beauty and mystique, a breaching humpback whale in the North Atlantic, a big horn sheep on a mountain crag, or even the great scenes of the African savannah teeming with migrating herds of ungulates. A goblin turkey is the real deal. Add in the backdrop of the spring woods metamorphizing into brilliant hues of green, and it's almost unreal. On this episode, we're celebrating the wild turkey and the hunt.

We'll hear about a white turkey in Tennessee, a story where a hunter caught on a hunter caught on. fire, it's not a joke, and a turkey that had the gobble shout out of him, and we'll end with a story that might bring a tear to your eye. I really doubt that you're going to want to miss this one. And one more thing before we get going. You can go to the meat eater YouTube channel and check out three videos that I made called the Bear Grease Road Show. There is a video that we did about Warner Glenn, who we also did a podcast about. There's a video about the full archaeological site and a bear hunt that I did with a fulsome point. Also something we did on a bear grease series.

And lastly, there's a video about plot hounds in Appalachia. Go check all that out. Daddy got his gun up and the turkey's right there and all of a sudden he smells something smells warm. And then he looked down and he sees smoke coming up out of his pocket. He said, you might be interested to know that pockets not only burn to the outside. They burn to the inside, too. 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. I love turkey stories and always have. The telling of stories is an important part of the culture where I grew up, and maybe it's the same where you came from. A good story is like money in the bank. You can withdraw it when you need it, and it draws interest with time. It gets better the more that it's told.

Being a good storyteller, to me, isn't about flashy details and oratory pizzazz. It's about a payoff being delivered to the listener, and it can come in a lot of different ways. Some great stories I've heard come with a monotone delivery and with minimal hand gestures, but the frequency emitted by the teller confronted the listener with the display of moral character, the execution of wit, or the joy, trial, and tragedy of the sliver of time described. Some storytellers carry a contagious passion, and their personal investment in the story is sensed, and all the very best ones have a high degree of that.

We all want to listen to folks that have a zeal and passion for life, someone who can describe with clarity what it feels like to look through their eyes. We learn when we see what someone else sees. We want to hear someone who's willing to tell the truth, and authenticity trumps pizzazz every time. We learn how to communicate by listening to other people's stories. Communication is everything in the same. successful execution of being a human. If you were looking for a great self-help area to focus on

in 2023, that would improve every area of your life. Increasing your communication skills would be hard to top. And it isn't just a sequence of words. AI can produce words in sequence, but the passion, energy, spirit, and intent behind words give it life and meaning. You're about to hear eight different stories from turkey chasers from the ages of 19 to 81. And before we get going, just be patient here, my brothers, stories deliver different kinds of value. Sometimes a turkey story describes a tactic, the behavior of turkeys, or introduces us to a new skill. The story's really functional and it helps us. Sometimes we don't learn much, but we're highly entertained. But one of my favorites is when a story exposes the broader life of the teller.

It's usually a small window, but they'll show their cards to you if you're paying attention. Enough for rambling, and you boys know I love to do it. I want to hear some turkey stories. And we're coming in hot with this first one with none other than a bear greece favorite, Andy Brown of Western Arkansas. He's a masterful woodsman and turkey hunter, and his passion shines through in every single. story he tells. I know you're going to enjoy this one. You know, I have been fortunate. I have really

been fortunate in my life to be able to have hunted with some really, really good turkey hunters. Of course, had a lot of fun. I mean, yeah, we were serious about what we did, but I mean, we kind of like to gig each other and, you know, have a little fun with each other. But one story, Jim Fite, and he was a dear friend of mine. He always called me Andrew. That's what he always said, Andrew, he wanted to go turkey hunting, never been, before his life. That's back when I was, I mean, I was really eat up with it. And, of course, where we lived at that time was right in the heart and soul of it. I mean, I could stand on my deck any morning from the 10th day of March till May 1 and hear

turkeys goblin from my deck. And what was funny about that, I had all those turkeys out there and I'd drive 20 miles to go hunting. You know, I mean, just stupid stuff like that, but I had places I liked to hunt and got I like to hunt with. But anyway, Jim wanted to go. And he'd never been, and he did have some camouflage. And I think he borrowed a pair of gloves and a face mask for him. He'd come over one morning. And I can remember this, just like it was yesterday. He had a sweet 16 browning shotgun. But he shows up, and we go in there north of the house and pulled it on the side of the main

mountain on the north side and got up in there. And back in those days, that's when there wouldn't be a leaf on the side of that mountain that wasn't turned over by turkey scratching. I mean, there was, people would not believe it that didn't know it. That was like, and we moved out there in 84. But that mountain, it just like you took a tiller in there and just till the leaves. But anyway, we pulled in there on the mountain where I thought we were going to be in the chips. And of course, naturally, you know how that goes. You're trying to be the big, bad turkey hunter.

And you take somebody that's never been, you get up there. The turkeys ain't God. But, you know, there's just mornings that they're over the hump. You know, you're on one side of the mountain, and they're on the other side of the mountain. or some mornings they just don't want to gobble. But anyway, we hadn't heard a thing. And I told Jim, of course, I had to go to work. It was before work one morning.

And I said, Jim, we'll just have to do it in every day. It's just not working out. So we head back off this long leg. Down at the end of it was an old well down there. And we got to the old well. I heard a turkey gobble down in the low woods. Kind of northeast of us over. I said, you hear that?

And he said, I thought it did about that time he gobbled again. And man, it was about probably 8.30. That dude put in over. I mean, gobbling ever breath. And I said, come on, let's go. I said, we're going to kill that dude. I mean, he's just one of them. You can just tell the way he's gobbing.

You're going to kill him. And when we got down there where he was at, he was an old road. He's kind of a big ridge in there. And there's an old road come off the south side of it there. I got old Jim. We didn't stay on the made road. We kind of got off the road. There wasn't really a place you could get and shoot down the road.

But I knew that turkey was going to come down that road. And so right off the road, it was a little old kind of a dry branch there in the hump. just a little old ridge there and I got Jim out there and he laid down on his belly. Of course I put it on that turkey and he just gobbling every breath. And I mean, I was, of course, I was showing out a little bit. I was hammering him, you know, and he was, everything was just like you wanted it. Just come just drumming and goblin. And I got behind a little old white oak.

Probably wasn't 10 inches in diameter. And I knew I didn't have to hide. You know, this is going to be short and sweet. Anyway, I'll look out there. Here comes that turkey down. road he's all blowed up he comes right in there and there's a trail that comes in and jim's standing there or laying there on his belly his gun on that on that turkey and that turkey just kept a coming right to him and he got down in that that little old deal there and i don't know jim moved or

something and of course the turkey went to clucking and then about the time he went to cluck and he went to flying and i knew then that jim wasn't going to shoot and so anyway and of course i could drive at him never never cut a feather on him and uh i said i was a bit of been out of shake, you know, because I mean, it was a sure enough deal. I said, Jim, how come you didn't shoot that turkey? He said, Andrew. He said, all I could see was his head. I said, well, Jim, that's what you're supposed to be shoot, that's, you know, is his head.

That's all I can see was his head. Oh, my goodness. I could see was his head. It's hard not to laugh with Andy when he hits the punchline of his story. On this next one, we're in for another treat, because it's being told by none other than Bear Greece Hall of Famer Roy Clark of East Tennessee. Mr. Roy is in his mid-70s, and he's as good a hound breeder and bear hunter as God ever made. As a matter of fact, I just made a video about him and his plot hounds that just came out on the Meat Eater YouTube channel. You should check it out. What a lot of people wouldn't know about Mr. Roy is that he's a dang good turkey

hunter. He doesn't talk about it much, but a few years ago, I asked if he'd had a good spring, and he told me he'd killed five goblers, three in Tennessee and a couple in North Carolina. Here's Mr. Roy's story of the white turkey. I was going to tell about an East Tennessee turkey hunting event above home. I heard about this white turkey through my brother, and I know the two boys that supposedly seen the turkey, and they was out drinking, and I know both of them, but I know one of them was pretty truthful, so I went and talked to him about it, and he told me what they seen and where they seen it, and so I told my son-in-law, Scott, Childers, about it, and Menhem went up there to see if we could see it or find it,

and we went up our one morning before daylight, and we heard it a goblin, and we was close to it. But we worked our way before daylight and got close enough that we could see the tree it was in, and when it got daylight, we could see it had a lot of white on him. And it gobbled on the roost and stuff, and then when it finally flew off the roost instead of flying down, It flew out of there, flew out of sight, and we never did hear it no more.

And we wound up going back several times, and every time we'd go, we'd locate it, and we'd get close to it, but it would sail out and leave, and then it wasn't gobble after it hit the ground, and we would never know where it went to. We'd done the slate, and we'd done the box, and we'd done mouth calls, we'd done everything, and we hunted it for two weeks on the evenings after he'd come in from work and when he was off we'd go over the morning and evening and we went up our one Friday morning and hit was roosting on top of the mountain we'd come up that mountain and got under the tree but like I said every time he'd just sail out and sell to you couldn't see it so we went back on Saturday morning and hit was a goblin up on top of that mountain again and I told Scott I said I ain't going up there no more I ain't climbing that mountain for it and hit selling out of I said you can if you want to so he decided he is it going up our and I just stayed down there where we'd parked at and I walked around the road

till I got straight down under where it's at and went up in the woods and got me a place where I could still see the road but right under it and the process of hitting getting daylight and hit a goblin up by her, I heard this hand. And she was in a tree just 25 or 30 foot from me. So directly, that Tom sailed out of iron. I'd say it was 100 foot over top of the trees, and over top of my head, and it just sailed right on by me and just kept right on going to it went out of sight.

Well, I thought to myself, it was gone again, and I tried to call Scott on a walkie-talkie to tell him it was gone. But he didn't answer me. He didn't know whether it flew down up by her or what he'd done. He just noticed he come out of the tree. And I decided I'd just sit there and wait till that hen, see what that hen done. So I sat there, and after a while, she just eased off of the roofs and just barely sailed down toward the road and sailed around the road just like gliding and 10 foot of the road.

and going around the road the way the road lay and went out of my side around the curve. And when she did, I got up and got all my stuff together and thought I'd start making my way back towards a vehicle. And I got down there, but I was going to watch see if I could see that hen anywhere. And I was coming around the road, and I walked around the curve,

and I looked, and I seen that sucker strutting out there on the road. And I got on a little bit closer there, to the side of the curve where he couldn't see me, and I got just a little bit closer, and I could see that hen was out there, squatty, down out there on the edge of the grass, and that Tom was strutting around her. Well, I just stepped to the side there

and got all my stuff off and got ready, and I'd peep around over where I could see him, and when he turned his back to him and was strutting back away from me, I took two steps out in the road, and he strutted around and up the side of that hen, turned and strutted back down and started back around towards me, and I let him have it and folded him up right there in the road.

I went out there and it was a flopping. I didn't want to tear its feathers up, and so I got it by both back legs and held it up, and Scott was hollering at me on the radio. Did I get it? Did I get it? And I had to hold the turkey with both back feet holding it, And he finally quit our drink and I called Scott and told him I had it and he'd come down there. And we've seen turkeys spangled up and turkeys was white on them and stuff all been hens.

But this is the first time that we ever seen that was colored up with white tips on its feathers and white spot on both sides of its wings and actually a pretty turkey. and so I wanted to have it fixed because I know that I never could get another one fixed. And Mark Dufran up in Maine, a buddy of mine, he took it and fixed it, and he'd mounted a lot of stuff. And he actually said it was a prettiest one he ever seen, and I think it was. And that sort of ended my turkey hunting. I didn't think I could ever top it, so I just sort of retired from turkey hunting.

That white turkey put Mr. Roy into retirement. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but the goblers in East Tennessee are probably better off on account of it. Mr. Roy is a national treasure and a dear friend of mine. I got a kick out of how he said the boys that first saw that white turkey were out drinking, but he knew one of them was pretty truthful. That's good. On blood trails, the stories don't end when the hunt is over.

They just get darker. I've seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bag. And there was a full of blood. Oh my God, he doesn't have a hit. Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors. Where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence. Indications were he should be right there, but he wasn't.

This season, we're going deeper. from cold case files to whispered suspicions, from remote mountains to frozen backwards. Each story begins in the wilderness and ends in darkness. Because out here, there are no witnesses, no cameras, just fragments and the people left behind trying to piece them back together. He's not an honest person. He's incapable of being honest. Somebody somewhere knows something. I'm Jordan Sillers. Season two of Blood Trails premieres April 16th.

Follow now on Apple, Iheart, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Man, we got the stories stacked in here deep. Our next story is told by Mississippi native, author, former Ole Miss Football Player and Turkey Hunter extraordinaire, Mr. Robert Hitt Neal Jr. He's 81 years young, and this is an old story about his dad he calls the Flaming Turkey Hunter. On Woodstock Island, the hunting cabin that we had over there, which had been a sharecropper's cabin, is probably now 100 years old, made out of Cyprus.

And I was standing on the porch of the cabin because the weekend was about over, and my brother and I had killed turkeys, and I was sweeping the porch off, and Bo was inside packing and cleaning up. And my daddy, Big Robert, but Big Robert didn't look like John Wayne. John Wayne looked like Big Robert. He was about six, two and a half, big, wide-shouldered man, trim waist, you know, he was that kind of guy. And he hadn't had any luck the whole turkey season. This was the last weekend of the season.

Bo and I, that's my brother, Bo and I had killed seven turkeys between us, and so the pressure was really on daddy. He hadn't even gotten a shot. So he was still in the woods hunting. and I'm out on the porch sweeping it off, and then I hear the Jeep coming, and he pulls up into the yard, and he sits there, cuts the Jeep off, and he just sits there,

and you see his hands gripping the wheel, and so I put the broom against the wall, and went down the steps and walked over to the Jeep. I think maybe he wants me to help carry his turkeys in or something like that, you know, and got there and no turkeys. And he's sitting there, and his jaw just working, you know, that muscle comes out the jawbone, just working, and I said, is anything wrong?

He said, where's Bo? I said, he's inside, sweeping the cabin. You want me to go get? And he said, no. This story's too good to keep, but I'll be if I'll tell both of you at the same time. And he told me that he'd been out there in the woods, about 10 o'clock, hadn't heard of a turkey or seen a turkey, and Daddy smoked about three-packed cigarettes a day. And he's sitting there on a log, and he gets his cigarette out, and he puts his mouth,

and then he puts a cigarette package back in the pocket, and he gets the lighter out, and he lice it, and he's sticking the lighter back in his pocket when he looked up, and a gobbler standing about 20 yards away, just stepped out behind a big proscenry. And turkeys are real wary birds. He knew that you ought not to go breathing big clouds of blue smoke at them when they were standing there looking at you. and so he just froze right there with his hand in his pocket, put the lighter back, and didn't exhale until the turkey took another step or two, and got behind a tree, and then he exhailed and tongued a cigarette out the corner of his mouth

and put his hand on his gun. But before he could get it up, the turkey stepped out behind the tree, and he's walking real slow. Now, looking at that hen he's been here and call, and when the turkey gets behind the next tree, Daddy got his gun up and got ready, and the turkey's right there, and all of a sudden he smells something, smells warm, and then the left side of his chest starts just horrible pain, and he looked down and he sees smoke coming up out of his pocket when he had tongued the cigarette out of his mouth. It went down in his shirt pocket.

He said, you might be interested to know that pockets not only burn to the outside, they burned to the inside, too. And his chest is brawling, and he sees the first flickers of flame coming up from the pocket. I've actually still got the jumpsuit. He just got a hole in the pocket that burnt. And he's waiting. He said he remembered thinking at that time. Now, he's a dedicated turkey hunting, you know.

It's like one of those moments when everything happens, and yet afterwards it seems like you actually. thought it out, but it all happened in a split second. He said, I remember thinking at that time that I could either shoot the turkey or I could put myself out. And, of course, for a dedicated turkey hunting, no decision at all. He sat there and let his shirt burn and him in it while he waits for the turkey to come out behind the flame tree and the finally turned the stick, stepped out behind the tree, and he shoots and he throws a gun down and beats his chest, and he puts the fire out, And he had missed the turkey.

And he said the turkey didn't even run. He just stood there and said, what did he? You know, because flaming turkey hunters are very rare in the woods with Smokey the bear. It was enjoying the popularity that he had back then. And so he came on back to the cabin and the jumpsuit is still hanging up there. That's the flaming turkey story. That was good, man. That was good.

I wasn't expecting that. I can just envision flames flickering up in the corner of Mr. Neal's eye as he squeezed the trigger on that Mississippi long beard. I wonder if that's ever happened to another turkey hunter before. Our next storyteller is exactly 62 years younger than Mr. Neal. Coy House is 19 years old and he lives in western Arkansas. I grew up with his mom and dad, and he's a great young man for a lot of reasons, one of which is that he's a passionate turkey hunter. This story is about the first bird he ever killed completely on his own.

Well, almost on his own. Here's Coy. Well, I've been turkey hunting for a while. Me and Steve, my grandpa, you know, everybody knows Steve pretty well. If he's target hunting, I'm with him, nine times out of ten. I fell in love with it and we just love to do it together. Well, this particular story I'm going to tell you about, turkey season had opened.

I think it was that week. So I'd have been 14. The kind of kicker to the story is, so Grandma, Mom, Ma'all, Kathy, she was in the middle of having a heart cath put in, in the hospital. So Paul Ball wasn't hunting. He wasn't, you know, he couldn't go.

So I decided I'm gonna go. We had a private spot. We called Nelson's. We have some cows over there and stuff. So I went back in the cut. I had got there late. It was probably, I was breaking light. And again, I was 14.

Wasn't supposed to be over there, you know, driving but it wasn't far from the house it's just a little truck ride well i got back in there and i give out and i just let an old hoot out you know oh and he just right over there i mean he just like it was textbook so i get in there and i get where you know i've learned watching from pop ball get above the turkey get him off the roost you know call minimum on the roost he'll fly down to you so i get up there i get above him he's on the roost i hoot him again he gobbles so i get set up and i just let out a few yelps and he cuts me off right there he's probably 50 60 yards kind of thicker in there some pine trees well he gobbled he gobbled he gobbled and then all of a sudden he just kind of shut up

well i seen a hen pitch off and she pitched off down in the old cut in the logging road i've seen her here one another one and here one another one well he just i didn't hear him and so i figured he pitched off with them so i just called and sure enough he's down there in that road and he just gobbled right at me right here. So I didn't know what to do, really. I was kind of, man, I tried my techniques out at first that I thought was supposed to be right. And so I called Papa. He goes, hey, I'm back here with Mama. She's fixing him in surgery. And I said, I need your help. I'm on a turkey. He's down here in the road. I need to know what to do. And I can hear Mama on the background. She's getting ready there prepping her. And she goes, Steve, you need to help him with get that turkey.

You need to help him get that turkey. And so he says, well you need to get around that turkey figure out where he's going and get around that turkey and get up there above him cut him off he said do maybe little calling maybe if not any at all type deal just kind of let it play out let him come in well so by the time i had got back around i called and that turkey was already heading up the hill i mean he was gobbling he just gobble gobble gobble gobble gobble gobble gobble so i did what he said after the first time i maneuvered around and then once i realized the turkey was going up the hill i call him again immediately and i say pop-ball you got him to walk me through this. I need to know. So the turkey's already beat me up there. So what do I do? He said, you need to

climb the hill and he said, you need to get as close as you can. And I said, but Paul Ball said, is it like a two-year-old cut? I said, it's pretty open. I said, I'm, the turkeys going to see me. He said, well, you need to get up that hill right before it breaks off. And he said, you need to get in. He said, once you dig in, if he answers you, you know, he might break free away from them hands. He said, you might have sit there until 11 o'clock. So I got up there and I dug in and I called nothing, not a peat. Not nothing. So I called Poppa a third time.

I'd been sitting there an hour. I ain't heard of turkey in an hour. He said, you got to do. You got to be patient. I said, Bobo, I'm trying, you know. It was one of those things. I was just learning how a turkey hunt on my own. It's my first time.

So I was all fired up, didn't want to overcall, didn't want to undercall. He said, dig in. He said, just give him a few yelps here and there. He said, and if he doesn't answer, he said, your last resort is to call the hens. See if you can get the hens fired up and get them to come. So I sat there, there didn't hear nothing well this dove you know how a dove makes a noise that you know when it flies

off well it flew off and he gobbled about 50 yards 60 yards over the break i mean i heard him well so i called and he wouldn't answer me and i said he's with him i knew you know i knew enough about it i knew he was with hens so i just started i mean just going crazy just pucking and purring and just fighting purrs and i was you know i was giving everything i could well about not even two minutes later I see this head coming. Here it comes. Here comes another one. Well, here comes some hens. They started, you know, feeding off through there real quietly. And so I just turned my head and gave them a purr and here they come looking. Well, sure enough, here behind an old tree, kind of a dead tree leaned over. Here he come, full strut. He'd come through there. And I said,

oh, it's on. You know, it's one of those deals. I was getting fired up. Well, the hens started coming towards where I was at. And he was kind of circling off over there. The hens got so close they were probably 10 yards from me and I was in some brush I was I mean I couldn't even breathe I was afraid they were going to see me I didn't even I had my eyes closed had one eye close and one eye looking down to I mean I was just trying not to move as one of those situations well one hand she kind of threw her head up and she just about that time that gobbler threw his head up and kind of look that way he was every bit of I guarantee 60 yards and I knew I said it's my only chance so I put it right on him and I shot and he went to flopping and so I

I got on the phone and I said, Bob, whoa, I just killed him. I got him. You know, and he's like, oh my gosh. You know, it was one of those things. I was super excited. It was my first turkey, but, you know, he walked me through it on the phone. I mean, you know, it was just one of those things. It's kind of crazy at the same time.

But when I got up to the turkey, he had a 12-inch beard, not even lying. He had about an inch spurs. Still the biggest bird I've ever killed. Old bird. I mean, it's just one of those things. You just, you couldn't beat. I mean, it's just one of those mornings, fine crisp morning. You just can't topple.

So after I got up to the turkey and everything, I called Popo back. He had told me, Grandma had just got out of surgery. And she did. She just got out. And she actually, you know, I wanted to talk to her. And so I talked to her and she made it through. Everything was good. She's still doing great today.

I mean, she's just, she acts young and, you know, she just gets around good and everything's good. But she was beyond thrilled that I was able to get that turkey. She's not a turkey hunter, but she was so excited. excited, I was able to get that turkey. Now that's a good story, and there are two things that I thought were funny. I chuckled when he said, I ain't even lying, about the beard being 12 inches long. And did you catch that he drove by himself to his turkey hunting spot when he was 14? That gives you a glimpse into the non-hunting world of the storyteller.

And for all the Karens out there, which I doubt there are many listening to Bear Grease, I know about where he was and where he went, and it was just a short drive down a lonely country road. And in my book, that's some decent parenting. You know what? Really, I doubt Juju would have been too happy about that either. Juju's my mom. But Karens and Jujus are different. Jujus cast their disapproval out of genuine love.

And when the risk taker completes the task, despite their Juju's approval, it actually adds gravitas to the deed. I would even bet Coy's Ma'amaw wasn't thrilled about him driving by himself that morning, but as I understand it, Cairns don't want you to do stuff just kind of out of spite, kind of like they're the referees of the world. So it's okay to be Jujus and Ma Ma'aw's, and I apologize to all the sweet, genuine people of the world named Karen who've been unjustly trapped in a cultural catchphrase. Juju actually has a sister named Karen, my sweet aunt.

So sorry, Aunt Karen. Anyhow, our next storyteller is going to make you forget the last 30 seconds, because he's the antithesis of any cultural catchphrase. Hank Burdine is from Chatham, Mississippi. He's a published author and one of the guardians of the legacy of Hulk Collier. And kind of like Matthew McConaughey is a Minister of Culture in Texas, he got that whole playbook from the way Hank Burdine knows, loves, and speaks about Mississippi.

You're going to enjoy this story from Hank. I had a big hunting club place, family place down middle of the Delta, close to Leroy-Pershey Park. A couple thousand acres that was the north boundary of Leroyer-Perserick. And Leroyer-Pers Park was about 4,500 acres, and then that was attached to Yazoo Wildlife Refuge, about 14,000 acres. So we had a contiguous wildlife preserve.

And had a cabin right down there, and I had turkeys. And you got the way I'd leave the windows open at night in my bedroom, my cabin, my wife said, honey, why don't you, it's cold, close that window. I said, no, baby. She said, well, why you want to keep that window open? I said, well, one reason to make you snuggle up a little closer to me. I said, but I hear them turkeys in the morning that'll wake me up, and I'll go turkey hunting. Well, I got to where I knew my turkeys.

I knew where they were, knew what gravel they were, gravelling on for the gizards, and got known pretty well. Well, I had a flock that was easing over into the state park. I wasn't supposed to be hunting over in there. But I had a big corner that went right up in the middle of it. I said, well, I'm going to, I've been hearing from good turkeys down in the honor. So I got up and went and got set up. The gun and I was shooting.

My daddy was a goose hunter. He had a big boat back in 1938 and the 40s after they channelized the river. And he goose hunted, but it's called a Winchester Model 12 Heavy Duck. It was a three inch magnum, full choke, 30 inch barrel, a legendary duck gun and goose gun back then. Well, I didn't duck hunt with it, but I turkey hunted with it because with that full choke barrel, it was a turkey giddled.

So I get set up back down at that corner that morning. I'd gotten my blind set up, and all of a sudden, there was a turkey started gobbling. I never had a turkey gobble as much in my life as that turkey. He gobbled on the roost. He gobbled coming off the roost. When he hit the ground, he was gobbling his head off. A couple more turkeys were gobbling out there, too.

I was hooting like a hoodale trying to get them going. And all of a sudden, I looked up, and before I'd even really got settled in there, good, hear that turkey came, he all but jumped in the blind with me, gobbling his head off, stood and carrying on acting a fool like the turkey do in the springtime like that. And when I went to throw my gun up, he scared him, he jumped up, took off flying. I got one shot off at him as he flew into the park. And I knew I felt like I hit that turkey. I knew I had.

I hadn't been able to, but that gun's pretty tight choke. A tight, tight choke gun like that. Well, that upset me bad. I didn't hear him fall, didn't hear him flapping. I spent half a day looking for that turkey. Never could find him. Never could find him. I went back to the house, dejected, and wore out,

just upset that, because that was too good a turkey to lose. The next morning I said, well, I'm going to go right back where I was, because there's more birds in there. So I did. And I sat down. I hooted one time, didn't hear a gobble. Hoot it again, didn't hear nothing. Son started coming up. I went to yelping a little bit.

All of a sudden, I look up, and he'll come to Turkey with about a ten and a half, 11 inch beard. He's strutting, he got his feathers fanned out, he's doing all this stuff, his neck out. He ain't said a word. ain't said a word run right straight up within 15 yards to me I was able to get my gun up right on his head as he stuck it out

and he'd be sticking his head out like a goblin but he wouldn't say nothing he was just quiet he stuck that head out that last time bloomer got him right in the head didn't hit him anywhere but in the head well I went and got him I went back to the house and my wife came by

well you got you I said well yeah but this ain't the one I wanted I did dog it just I just still upsetting me so bad that I was going to lose that one from the day before. So I started cleaning that turkey. He had shot totally. Nothing in his chest, nothing anywhere. I went to cleaning the feathers off his back in. It was slap full of copper-coded number fours. That's the turkey that I had shot at the day before flying off, but it upset him so bad. When he came in that next morning, I didn't shock the job out of him. He was not going to open his mouth. That was

it, he was still as hot and ready to trot as he could be. But he knew what happened the day before when he opened his mouth, so that's the turkey I shot the gobble out of. And here's a fine one. Hat tip to Hank Bredin. I like the twofold reason he left his window open during the turkey season. That's a good one. Our next story is told by none other than the old Ozark Mountain Turkey hunter himself, Mo Shepard. They say one of his legs grew slightly. longer than the other because of all the side-hilling he's done, slipping around on these steep limestone hills chasing gobbles. His stories always have a turkey hunting lesson embedded inside of them.

Here's Moe. Well, this turkey story starts in late April. I was hunting the Ozark Mountains out on public land. It started on one morning, I went out of big mountain ridge and heard a bird gobble a couple of times. I just kept walking out this ridge top, but I only heard him gobbled two or three times that morning. I never heard him anymore, but the whole time I was out there that morning across the creek on the other mountain, there was a couple of birds. I don't know if they were answered me or if they were just gobbling, but I heard them several times, but it was too far

to try to go that morning. So I just stayed in there and hunted until midday, walked back out, ate me a snack, decided, well, I'm going to go over there on the side of the mountain. I knew, in fact, there was a logging road where they'd logged in there the year before that I could walk around. So I got over mid-afternoon and started walking around that road and I'd stop and call like I do. I do that a lot of Eden and when I hunt of Eden and I'll just periodically call a little bit see if I can get something to answer me. And what makes that good for me is even if it ain't good that day, you call an area like that if you don't overcall too much, just like a turkey moving his way around the mountain. A lot of times I'll go back in there the next day and Gobblers will

be in that area where I've done that call in the evening for. But anyway, this day, it didn't work like that. But once I thought I heard a gobbler across the creek on the side where I was at that morning. Well, I started making my way back around the mountain and started calling a little bit louder, see if I could get one to gobble on the side of that. Well, that bird on the other side of the mountain started answering me. And I'd call. Sometimes he'd answer, and sometimes he wouldn't. Well, I got pretty much straight across from, and there was a log land in there where they'd logged in there. I thought, well, this is a good place just to sit here for a little bit and see if maybe one comes in and I got set up there and this bird answers me cross the creek a long ways over there

but nothing on the side is on so I'd wait a little bit I'd call a little more and it's getting later then it's getting you know probably 45 minutes made any hour before the sun was going down so I got up and made my way down the logging road just a little piece something caught mine I looked out in the canyon there over the creek between me and another mountain and I could see something in there and then I realized it was a turkey flying then I realized it looked like a big turkey flying and then When it got close, it landed in that log landing, it was a big old goblin. It was the one that had been a goblin at me. I just froze.

I didn't know what else to do. Well, he lands. He just went into strut mode with that tail fan out. And he turned that tail fan toward you. I was probably 100 yards from that log landing. When he turned that fan, I just dove into the bushes there and got hid. And then I do know he started gobbling a few times. Well, it's getting later.

The sun's getting closer being down. I made a few calls, and he gobbled and straight out there, but he didn't come on in. Well, he got a little bit later, he walks to the far end of that log landing and sails up in a tree right below it. Just in a big old tree there, a big old pine tree. I can still remember it. And then that has them big pines, he got them big old crooked limbs coming down on. He just laid up on one of them limbs there and gobbled several times. And I still just stayed put.

I wait until he got plumbed dark. He gobbled several times. So I eased my way out there. I thought, I've got you buddy next morning. This will be real simple. So next morning I got way in there way early. But I knew right where I was going. I didn't use a ladder or anything.

I made my way in there. I thought, well, I'm going to set up at the end of this log land. I don't want to get on the end of where he's at because I might break a stick. It might spook him or anything. If they hear noise, I think they spook real easy in the darkness like that and won't come to wherever they hear the sticks break or whatever. So I set up on within gun range of the log landing,

and I sat there a while, and I sat there a while, and I didn't hear nothing. No gobbles, no nothing. It's just barely breaking light, but it was light enough that a turkey should have gobbled if they were going to. I thought maybe he flew out of here, or maybe something bust him out of the tree, a Houdel run him out of the tree,

or a bobcat or whatever, you know, may run him out of the tree. I thought, well, I'm going to make some really, this real soft yelps. And if he's there, he'll answer this. Well, I didn't even get the second little out. And that dude, I hear his wings pop, and he sails down that log land, and it's still so dark, I can't even see him. And he starts gobbling.

And there I'm sitting in a pitch dark nearly. I mean, it's light, but you can't see 20 yards in front of you. And I watch out there where he's at. I don't call anymore, because I don't want him coming to me, and as dark as it was, and I sat there, and I sat there, and he just gobbles,

and he gobbles, and he gobbles. He's on the ground. That's what I said. He flew down on the ground, and his gobbling, and I guess strutting, but I couldn't see him. And then all of a sudden I see something moving,

and it's the white of his head where he's strutting. And I can see a little bit, and he'd go away. He's probably in gun range of me, but it's still too dark to shoot. And I thought, just stay here. Just stay here. I thought, maybe I should call.

I thought, no, I don't need to call yet, because it's still too dark. I don't want him getting in gun range if he's not in there yet. Well, all of a sudden the white head disappears, and I don't hear anything. And he don't gobbling. I thought, he's leaving. So I got to do something other.

So I just made a few soft calls when I did. He answered me right back. But it's still fairly dark. But he's farther out away from me. He's probably out of the log landing by the end. And it starts getting light. Then I see him. He's plumb out in the road to pass the log landing,

the opposite end of the log landing for me. The log land is probably 100 yards across it, maybe 80, something like that. I thought, well, I got to do some sweet talking to him because he's been there strutting and I ain't. So I tried some of my stuff and started calling. And finally, here he comes. He turns and starts coming towards me. And by the time he gets the middle of that log landing, I can see him pretty good then.

It's plenty of light to shoot, but he's not in what I feel good range. He just stops there like they do. Stops and spins and turns and turns around and turns around and spins. I thought, do I need to do anything? No, I'm going to be quiet because if I say anything, he's liable to stay where he's at. So I sat there for probably five minutes, didn't say a thing. He just drops out of strut and just starts walking towards me. Get some good gun range and I raised my own gun I've had for 40 years I've been turkey hunting with

and shoot and get him and he's a big old mature gobbler. And it was a really memorable hunt because I've never seen a gobbler fly down when it was that dark like that. So, yeah, that was a heck of a hunt. That turkey flew all the way across that hollah to try to roost near that hen that he heard Colin. Little did he know that it was just old Mo. You can learn a thing or two from that story. On Blood Trails, the stories don't end when the hunt is over. They just get darker.

I've seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bag. And there was a full of blood. Oh, my God, he doesn't have a hit. Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, And the truth gets buried under brush and silence. Indications were he should be right there.

But he wasn't. This season, we're going deeper. From cold case files to whispered suspicions, from remote mountains to frozen backwoods. Each story begins in the wilderness and ends in darkness. Because out here, there are no witnesses, no cameras, just fragments and the people left behind trying to piece them back together. He's not an honest person. He's incapable of being honest.

Somebody somewhere knows something. I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 of Blood Trails premieres April 16th. Follow now on Apple, Iheart, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Our next storyteller is another born and bred Ozarkian, and he came by his turkey hunting passion, honest. From his house, he has a 360-degree view of some of the prettiest mountains known to man. He's grown up in the heart of some great turkey hunting, and he's a real woodsman and turkey hunter. This story, however, takes place in Kansas. Here's Richard Campbell of Newton County, Arkansas.

All right, so me and Mr. Brown, Mr. David Brown, we were out in Kansas hunting. It was probably mid-April, but we were out there hunting, and we were driving down the highway. Of course, they got a lot of lakes and coral land that you can hunt on around them lakes. And there was a park there on this one lake. And when we pulled in there, there was three or four big old jakes walking around in that park. And the lake wouldn't, he was probably 150, 200 yards wide there. And there's like either, it may have been an island, I'm not sure, but they land across there. So they rose and they flew across that lake.

And David asked me, he says, he says, now just what would you do if you shot a turkey and it got out in the lake. I said, I ain't going out in that lake after a turkey. And that's kind of how it went on there. Well, I don't know if it was that day or the next day. We were coming back up the road we'd been hunting. And across the road from this same lake, there's a big old farmland.

And we looked out there, and there's this big old gobbler out there strutting around out there, the middle of that field. And Dave says, let's pull off here at this ramp. There's a ramp that went down to the lake there. and just see if that old turkey a gobble. We got out there and we stopped, and I called, and here I meant the old turkey jarred down.

And, well, we stood around there talking, and the old turkey just kept gobbling, and I called another time, too, we were just fooling around there. And I told him, I said, David, I think that turkey is coming. And he says, I'll go on up the road. You get down here on this coral land and see if you can kill him, see if you can call him up. And this was a, he's right beside a big,

He's a busy highway. And I get down there over the hill out of the way from the highway and, you know, down toward that lake. And I was sitting there calling, and I could hear the old turkey over across the highway. He gothbbing. He's just getting closer and closer. And he gobbled here and a minute. And I said, well, he's over at that fence.

Here in a minute, he gobbled. And I looked up, and he was standing up there in the highway. And these cars were running up down the road. And I thought, well, so he walks down there. And of course, you know, he was up there at the highway, and he comes kind of down that off ramp. He gets down there to where I could shoot him, but it's real brushy and stuff. I thought, well, I'm going to have to wait. Don't even let him get on down here a little bit.

And so he just kept getting closer, and he walks down there, and it's finally, I've got to shoot or something. I find me a halfway open spot, and he's probably not 15 yards. And I shoot, and I hit him, but he starts to. trying to fly off and he tries to fly across the lake. Well, he flies out there probably 100 yards in the lake and lands in the lake. Well, the first thing that comes to my mind is, are you going to go out in that lake and get that turkey? David asked me that. I thought, well, here I go.

Well, the old turkey, he hit the water, and he starts swimming right back to me, right back towards where I'm at. I thought, well, this is great. I'll let him get over here to the bank, and then I'll shoot him, and I just walk down. and pick him up. And to top all this off, I just had, I think, I don't know if I'd just put one shell in a gun or two, but I'd shot the one. Well, he comes back and he hits dirt, and I shoot and miss him again, because he's hit to it, and he'll run him when he hits the dirt.

And I am without a shell. Anyways, he runs back across the highway, right out through the field. I never did, team, never did get that turkey. Now, that, that kind of, that'd be hard to make us. wouldn't it? That would be hard to make up, Richard. Can you imagine calling a turkey across a busy highway? When Richard's buddy David tells the story,

he says the turkey waited for several cars to pass looking both ways before he crossed, and then for the darn thing to land in the lake, just like David had thought the day before, is wild. And I hate it when they get away, but we'll hope that bird made it to another spring, and I bet he didn't leave that private land again. And before we move on, I want y'all to hear Richard's suite of natural voice calls.

He's really good. Hit it, Richard. All right, this will be by Bardell. Crow call? Yep. That's about as good as it gets. And once again, my theory on natural voice callers rings true. They're usually really good turkey hunters.

I want to end with a special story from a man that I just met named Garvin Gibbons. Like the storytellers before him, he's from deep in the Ozarks of Arkansas. I think you'll hear a humble, somber yet passionate tone in Garvin's voice. He's an extremely accomplished hunter. His wall is full of big white tails, and he's killed 23 elk out west with his bow. He elk hunted from 1984 until 2008. but I've got to let you in on something from the start. Since 2009, Garvin has been in a wheelchair.

Here's Garvin's story about his son's first gobbler, which happened before 2009. My son's name's Trevor, and he was eight years old, and I put him in for the draw, early permit draw, and he drew a tag, and so I went over before season and scouted one day and knew we were a few turkine. we're at so we get up and go over drive over that morning and we go down a one of the cut lanes there kind of like a fire break there and and we hear a turkey and anyway we get get set up and and the turkey comes right off the limb and he comes up and he gets probably maybe 30 35 yards and I can see the turkey really good and Trev can just get bits and pieces of him and finally the old turkey gets nervous and walks off but after I kind of surveyed,

what's going on here. I always set him right between my legs, you know, so I can communicate with him. And if we need to turn, we can kind of twist together. And that way I can just lean up by his head and kind of coach him, you know, he's not over to my side and stuff. But what I've got to realize is I'm setting up higher than an eight-year-old, and I can see things that he can't. So he didn't get a real good look at it, and it walked off. And anyway, we go on and a little bit, we hear some more. And we set up and I call it three jakes and I had them ride up in his lap and stuff but you know this is his first rodeo and anyway I kept him up there for probably five minutes and they was they kind of got nervous going back and forth and he never would shoot and so when they finally walked off I told him

I said uh son you know if you get it on his head just pull the trigger not all the times everything's going to be perfectly still and he was kind of down in his mouth and we went on and he it was getting up kind of end of the day and I struck a turkey and it was across a big hollow and we set up on him and I put a decoy out and it dropped off real steep in the hollow and the turkey was just on the other side and he was answering me good and finally there was a turkey back kind of to a ride and kind of behind us and that turkey really got gobbling well and so this turkey kind of got quiet and the turkey behind us kind of got gobbling a lot better and I could tell he was coming toward us so we got up and we moved probably 20 or 25 yards and and as we were walking this turkey

gobbled that was across from us and I asked Trev I said where was he at and the turkey was coming to us all the time and he got down low in the hollow there and so we sat down and and just a minute, he gobbled again, and I could tell he was just right under the break from us, and we sat there a minute, and I had to call, and a turkey didn't gobbled no more, but in a little bit, I seen him come strutting up. When he come up, he's seen the decoy, and he comes up, and he never breaks out of strut, and he walks right up to the decoy, and he might have been 25 yards from us. Anyway, I got Trev on him, and he straighted around the decoy a couple old times and finally the turkey got just right and he had a good beat on him and he shot and

he killed him and that was a pretty special day for me you know my son being eight years old and and he got his first turkey i think he weighed 22 pound had like a 10 inch beard that was a special day i asked garvin if he'd be willing to tell us what happened when he got hurt he agreed here's his story In 2009, we had a really a bad ice storm. There was trees broke down all in my yard and stuff. But anyway, I had a feeder up out at the guy's house that I worked with. And I had some tree stands up.

And I wasn't hunting, but I thought, well, I'll just go out there and take that stuff down. And I got out there, and it was a cold, snowy day. And there was snow on the ground, probably four inches of snow. And I walked up and I thought, well, I can get this tree stand down. but I didn't take my belt and when I walked up the tree I was kind of hesitant but I thought well I've done this forever you know I thought I can just snake up the tree here and walk up my climbing steps and take the stand down but I had a had a lock on the chain it was a lock on stand and I got up there and it was cold and I had on some gloves and I'd been in that stand probably a half a dozen times that fall and there was a limb that come out from the side of the tree there and and I got up on the, on the, standing on the steps, and I had hold the stand, and I thought, well, if I can just pull up just a little bit on this limb here, I can throw my leg over and set on top of this big limb and just unlock my stand and get my rope and let it down and

just step back over on the step and, and come down the tree. But when I was pulling up, I'm not sure exactly what happened, but, um, I don't know if the limb was frozen. I don't think the limb was dead, but it broke with me. And I had so much pressure, and I was a hold of the stand, but it all happened so fast. I pulled loose from the stand, and I had enough awareness to try to kick out from the tree because I didn't want one of those steps to catch me on the way down, you know. So when I woke up, I guess it knocked me out, and I'm sure it did.

I was just tingling all over and I wretch behind me and there was a little cedar tree and I got a whole it, but I tried to move but I couldn't and I had fallen about 20 feet. First thing I thought of was I left my cell phone in my truck. I remember pulling it out of my coveralls and I was dressed pretty well and thank goodness. And so when I left that morning my friend's house I told him I said I'm just going to be gone a little bit and I'll be back. So after I looked at my watch and it was about 10, 25, then you wonder, or you go to lay here and freeze to death before anybody comes, and I knew I was hurt bad. And I'd lay there almost two hours, and I heard Dwight on his tractor coming around, and I thought,

well, good. And I heard him come back, and I heard the tractor stop. And then about 10 or 15 minutes, I could hear him coming. He had two little fiesced, rat terrier fies mixed dogs, and they'd went with me that morning, and they stayed right with me the whole time. Anyway, Dwight came, and I told him I was really cold, and I told him to go get me some blankets and try to get me some help. In a little bit, the amylets came, and Dwight, in the meantime, it brought me some blankets and covered me up, and he never tried to move me or anything.

and they finally came and got me and worked on me and packed me out. I didn't know it, but I had a compound fracture in my leg. Anyway, they got me and started to the hospital, and I flatlined three times. I remember the ambulance stopping, but I didn't know what was going on. So anyway, they got me into the hospital in Harrison and then checked me out and then took me on the Springfield. and ended up, it paralyzed me from right above the waist down, and I had surgery. And then I went on to Craig Hospital out in Colorado, and I stayed 103 days in the hospital

in my rehab and stuff before I got to come home. Yeah, a rock hit me in the spine. It busted my vertebrae and bruised my spinal cord enough that it paralyzed me. Yeah. I just, you know, I just thank God for being with me and, you know, give me a second chance in life because I should have died being truthful with you. I was real hypothermic and I remember laying there and praying for God to help me, you know. I didn't want to leave my wife and kids, you know. And that's what I was really thinking about at the time.

After I got to come home and stuff, and I got home in June. And anyway, season come up. And it was a whole new learning experience, you know. I had to figure some things out. So I got me a couple of pop-up blinds. And I deer hunted that fall and stuff. And I was lucky I got to kill a deer.

But anyway, come spring, I was stronger and tried turkey hunting. And, you know, now I can't get up and go to the turkeys like I used to could. But I've got a few places that I can go and get my blind. And I mainly hunt around edge of fields and some down logging roads and some of the timber I can get to. But, you know, around some of the fields and where I can drive my truck or my side-by-side. in and throw the blind up and just roll in there in my wheelchair and stuff. But I've seen where patients really come into effect since I'm hurt, you know, because I figured out a lot of birds that I've walked off and left, you know.

And now that I can't move, I've sat there and I heard a lot of turkeys and turkeys come to you, you know. And I've been, I've killed a lot of turkeys now since I've got. I heard that I wouldn't have killed it before because I just wouldn't have given them enough time to come in, you know. So I've learned that patience is really a good thing on killing a turkey. Garvin is a fighter who's not let the tough hand he's been dealt beat him down. He's continued to passionately hunt. He's killed a lot of turkeys and even says he's killed bigger white tails since his accident.

Patience is a powerful thing. I'm proud to know Garvin. and to have been able to set across the table from him as he told me his story. I'd say he's a real hero. What happened to him could have happened to any one of us who've spent our lives dangling from trees chasing white tails and bears. Garvin's chosen to take the glass half-full approach and be thankful that he's alive.

I'd say that's an honorable thing. He was 49 years old when this accident happened in 2009. All these storytellers, some I've known my whole life and others I've recently met, carried the DNA of the American turkey hunter, which is characterized by a peculiar passion and dedication to this magnificent giant goblin bird which roams our woods and fields. I'm so grateful that the generations before us fought to save turkeys and their habitat. Despite some regions seen downfalls in numbers,

we've still got an incredible resource at our fingertips. I think it's important to stay active in the organizations dedicated to turkey conservation, like the National Wild Turkey Federation and the new group, Turkeys for Tomorrow. And I know there are many other groups helping wild turkeys. Long live the wild turkey, his habitat, and the hunt. I can't thank you guys and gals enough for listening to Bear Grease. Please leave us a review on iTunes and share our podcast with the best-intentioned but worst turkey hunter you know this week.

We'll see you next week on the render. On Blood Trails, the stories don't end when the hunt is over. They just get darker. I've seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bag. And there was a full of blood. Oh, my God, he doesn't have a hit. Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors,

where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried. under brush and silence. Indications were he should be right there, but he wasn't. This season, we're going deeper. From cold case files to whispered suspicions, from remote mountains to frozen backwoods. Each story begins in the wilderness and ends in darkness. Because out here, there are no witnesses, no cameras,

just fragments and the people left behind trying to piece them back together. He's not an honest person. He's incapable of being honest. Somebody somewhere knows something. I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 of Blood Trails premieres April 16th. Follow now on Apple, IHeart, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.