Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 345: BONUS Talking Turkey with Tony Peterson

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Ep. 345: BONUS Talking Turkey with Tony Peterson · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Mark Ken You all right, welcome to the wire Hunt podcast,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: brought to you by on X. Like I just said,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: we are here for our second bonus turkey hunting episode
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: of the month. We've got Tony Peterson back with us.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: You probably heard him recently talking deer with me. Now
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: we're back to talk turkeys, and in particular, we're gonna
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: cover a lot on how he bow hunts for turkeys.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: We're gonna cover some of his different tactics with decoys,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: in particular how he adds realism to them. We discuss
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: some different turkey tendencies and whether or not there's truth
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: to these myths or commonly hell beliefs. We're in talk
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: calling scouting public land, how to find good public land
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: turkey spots, and a whole lot more along those lines.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: It's a good one if you're ready to hit the
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: turkey woods. Highly recommend you give us want to listen
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: before heading out. So without further ado, let's just get
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: right into it, all right with me on the line
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: for our bonus turkey podcast conversation Tony Peterson, thanks for
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: joining me again for another one of these chats. And Uh,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: I had to get you on to talk turkeys because
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: the last time you and I talked turkeys, we somehow
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: got Spencer new Hearth to admit to something about bobcats
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: breeding with turkeys and all sorts of weird stuff, and
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: it was one of my favorite moments of twenty nineteen.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: So it was amazing. Spencer, is that dude's like a
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: legit alien or something. He's Can I tell you something
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: else weird about him? Yeah? He gets up every morning
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: at five thirty, I think, and he goes into his
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: hot tub in the backyard and he doesn't have a fence,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: and so he just kind of walks out into the
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: middle of his yard with all these neighbors around him,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: and he gets in this hot tub and he as
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: a weird morning ritual that I don't really fully understand,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: but he spends an hour kind of meditating, it seems like,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: in his hot tub every morning in Montana. Uh. He's
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: got purple like mood lights and stuff. It's a very
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: peculiar thing, but it does help me understand him a
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: little bit better. So I just thought you should know
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: that Uh that I believe that and not not to
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: totally derail this thing. Have you watched The Tiger King
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: on Netflix show? I just have started on one episode in. Yeah,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: so tell me if you don't think that Spencer new
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Heart might belong at that zoo. Oh he would fit
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: in perfectly. I could see him being like one of
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: the groundskeepers. He'd be one of the guys that kind
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: of was was reeled in underneath the Joe Exotics lure
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: and helps out with things. Yeah. In fact, I think
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: his new nickname should be Spencer Exotic. I think that's
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: that's not bad. We started calling him the hot tub
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Hunter within the med Either team and uh, and there's
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: just something about him that just is mysterious. Yeah, he's
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: he's one of a kind. He's he's actually we we
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: may even get together and hunt with him this year
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: if possible, and I think that'd be a lot of
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: fun if it works out. He's a character, he's a
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: good dude. But but turkeys, other than Spencer or what
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about today and what I've got
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: kind of planned, what we've been doing for this month
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: is kind of a series of bonus Turkey episodes where
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: we just kind of go rapid fire through a bunch
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: of different tactic topics and just kind of run down
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: all sorts of thoughts that you've got on hunting turkeys.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: I know you do a ton of it. You're very successful.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: I've enjoyed talking turkeys with in the past. So if
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: you're down, I I'm gonna try not to do the
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: weird rambling circle your conversations that I sometimes have. I'm
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: gonna try to just spit questions that you get ideas
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: and just go down the list and cover as much
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: actually helpful stuff as possible rather than me rambling a
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: out philosophy or some crazy thing like that. Well, this
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: is this is gonna be a hell of a challenge
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: for both of us that I know. I'm gonna try
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: to stick to my notes. So are you prepared to
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: do the turkey hunting rapid fire wired hunt challenge? Definitely?
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Fire away, buddy, Okay, Tony Peterson. How do you go
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: about finding public land turkey spots? Let's start their turkey
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: hunt in public land? How do you find spots? Are good?
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Get on on X and find some trees that usually
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: how I start yep, if if I'm heading out West,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: it's a it's a some kind of river bottom with
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: some trees. If I'm in the Midwest or the east,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: it's trees with some kind of field nearby. That's that's
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: how I start, and and is there is literally that
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: The extent of your scouting is just finding some things
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: like that, and then it all comes down to being
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: on the ground and listening and seeing or is there
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: anything I can do before I get on the ground? Um,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: you know, it depends on what I'm If I'm running
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: and gunning with a shotgun, I'm I'm kind of taking
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: the same the same approach I would for the white tails,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: where I'm looking for a big chunk of ground. So
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: I'm looking for those few essentials, right there has to
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: be some some trees from to sleep in and some
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: cover for them, and there has to be some food
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: around there for them. After that, it's going to be
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: a matter of like how much ground can I cover
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: and how how far can I get from the access? Okay,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: so then let's do that. Let's we're on the ground,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: you're covering ground. How do you actually scout a property
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: on the ground for turkeys? Is it a matter of
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: just walking field edges? Or walking through exactly what you're
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: doing on your first day. Let's say, Um, you know,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: field edges are good because they're easy, but the thing
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: that I look for a lot is rouss. If I
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: can find a roost tree, and I you know, you've
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you've ever hunted like Texas birds,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: but we uh. If you get into some of these
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: states where there's sort of admitted roost spots, you find
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: those year to year roost trees. And I always kind
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: of thought that was an anomaly that you couldn't find
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: in the Midwestern in in the East, and I'm realizing
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: it's not true. I'm finding those places where there's just
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: some trees that they're in every night of the year,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: just about and you know, it's easy to figure out
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: the food sources typically, and so if you can start
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: with where they're gonna be at first light and where
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: they're gonna go, and you know, maybe how they'll build
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: that circuit back in to come back around in the evening,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: it just gives you such a good idea how to
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: go through the whole day. So I feel like it's
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: maybe tell me if I'm wrong, but it seems pretty easy.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: How you go about trying to find the roost tree,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: which is either seeing something physically that looks like, oh yeah,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: that's like an ideal roost tree, or it's actually trying
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: to roost them at nights, like going out there at
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: last light and al hooting or crow calling or whatever
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: to to hear where they're at, where you find them
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: the next morning, whatever it is. So there's that way
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: of finding something like that, But is there anything else
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: you're doing to get that hub of the wheel or
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: can you expand on that at all? Um For me,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: it's not so much listening to them. You know, I
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: have bad hearing, and so I like to get out
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: and actually get under the trees. You know, I kind
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: of tie it into a bunch of shed hunting or
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: winter scouting for deer. But I'm just looking for those
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: piles of poop that looked like they've they've spent years
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: on the same limbs. And then I know exactly what
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: tree they're in, and I can look at the terrain
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: and go, they probably fly up from that spot or
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: that ridge, and so you know how the approach is
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: going to be. Uh in the evening, and you can
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: kind of look at the fields or the best landing
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: zones and go, okay, this is probably where they're gonna
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: land in the morning and how they're gonna walk away.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: So if I know exactly what trees they're using, it
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: helps me build a better plan. Have you found any
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: kind of trend with what that circuit typically looks like?
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: For a for a gobbler, is it is it usually
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: fly down to you know, a strut zone or some
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: food source, and they heng up or whatever, and then
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: they roam through some certain type of cover and then
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: they circle back to a field or I don't know,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: is there any kind of generic trend you've seen with
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: what a typical turkey circuit would look like. Yeah, well,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: for sure, a lot of it comes from fall hunting.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: You see, you see the circuit big time if you
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: spend a full day fall turkey hunting. But in the spring,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: what I'm what's going to make a circuit as the hens,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: they're going to have a pattern, especially the earlier in
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: the season you are, So they're gonna they're gonna do
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: the same thing today what they did yesterday, and a
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: certain amount of the times are going to follow them.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: And that's just like pretty much a given. So if
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: you know what they like to do throughout the day.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: That that sort of starts to disintegrate as the season
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: goes on and there's more bugs and they're they're nesting
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: and stuff. But for the first couple of weeks of
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: the season, in most places, if you're if you're opener
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: is an a role that's pretty reliable as far as
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: what the hens are gonna do and the toms are
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: gonna be with them. And then you run into those,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: uh kind of the two year olds and the jake's
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: and the roamers that aren't hanging tight with the hens
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: a lot of times, and those birds are just you
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: know there you kind of hunt those like you do
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: running bucks, where they're like they're gonna take that logging
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: road or they're gonna walk a certain route and go
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: from strutting zone to strutting zone or check in fields
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: and covering ground, and so there's two different things going on.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: But when you're talking about like starting the turkey season,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: paying attention to that circuit that the hens do, which
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: is way more predictable than a lot of people think,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: that just puts you in the right place to not
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: only catch like the top the dominant tom's but you'll
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: catch some of those satellite birds that are kind of
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: you know, they just got booted out of the winter flock,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: but they're not ready to go anywhere else yet. So
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: it's it's just a good strategy to start with. Do
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: you ever do you what am I trying to say here?
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: There's certain things that we know that mature bucks do
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: that are different than immature bucks than little dinkers, Like
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: there's some certain things we can assume that mature bucks
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: will travel differently in this way, mature bucks will bed
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: maybe a little bit differently this way. Um Have you
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: found any key things with mature Tom's as far as
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: some generalities how they'll operate differently, um Man kind of
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: like they're they're the ones who will start out with
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: the most hens and hold the hens the longest. And
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: so it's just a matter of and I don't know
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: if you've ever hunted the the really early birds, like
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: the late March Nebraska type of thing where you get
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: to see you might actually be hunting while the winnering
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: flocks are breaking up, and you'll have those days where
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: you watch them and you see like turkey fights break up.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Just they're they're just in such close proximity, and they're
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: setting that pecking order, and you can start to see
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: the two year olds peel off and the three Jake's
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: here will peel off and they're they're like settling that
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: stuff as you're watching, and it's pretty It happens pretty early.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: They'll fight later, of course, but you see those big
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: Tom's and the mature ones, they they really they just
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: win like they're they're the toughest, they're the biggest, and
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: those birds they're gonna hang with those hands tight. And
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: if you can find out what they're gonna do in
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: a day to day basis, he might be a little
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: harder to call off because he's already got his hands.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: But the way to kill that bird is with a
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: full strutter if you can, if you can get in
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: on his route where he's going to come through with
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: some of those hens, and you've got a full strutter
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: out there with a hen or two, that bird, that
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: dominant bird is not gonna put up with it if
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: you're close, if you're four yards away in the other
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: end of a field, it's probably not gonna happen. But
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: if you can figure out where he's gonna go with
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: those hens in that feeding circuit that can be just unreal.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: So decoit a little differently? Do you call differently if
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: you see a bird that you know is or you
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: think is a mature, big old tom versus a two
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: year old bird? Is there anything you do differently from
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: a calling standpoint? There isn't for me. I'm sure some
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: some people out there probably gobble at them more. Um
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: I don't because I've never had I've never once felt
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: like gobbling did me any favors other than just locating them.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: I mean, I gobble with a mouth call and so
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: like finding them in the tree if I'm running and
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: gunning or getting a getting kind of a shock, gobble response, gobble,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: It's awesome. But as far as like convincing that time
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: to come in, I've never felt like it was the
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: right choice for me. So, I you know a lot
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: of hand in calling, and I'm a caller man. We've
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: talked about this before, Like I I like to hold
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: a conversation out there. I'm not one of those old
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: school dudes who's you know, yelped three times and shut
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: up for twenty minutes. That's not my style. So what
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: on the calling front would you say is your signature move.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: Then do you have like that little trick like when
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: you got to get him over the hump and they
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: just don't want to go. They like, I'm gonna do
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: my little Tony Peterson trick? What is that out? I take?
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: I live off the mouth calls and slate calls, and
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: what I'll do is really try to tick the hands off.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: And I'll do I'll call with the slate call and
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: the yelp call, and I'll cut each other off, so
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: it sounds like two hens going at it. So it's
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: it's a yelping with one and then cut off yelp
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: with the other. And then you start that if you
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: if you fire that up right, it starts leading into
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: that like real loud cutting. And you see this This
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: is something you know you learn in the fall hunting
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: is those hens have dominance too. And if you've ever
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: you know, had that hen decoy out and had another
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: hand coming and kind of half strut and peck your decoy,
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: she's she's dominant. And once in a while you can
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: get those birds to like really get mad and those
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: hands will come in. And when you if you're out
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: there and it's like noon and you haven't heard of
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: goblin three hours and you get that live hand to
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: do that, you'll hear gobbles. I mean, it's it's just
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: changes the whole dynamic of the woods. And so I'll
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: try that kind of dual calling thing to get them
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: fired up. And I actually when it's early like that
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: and I'm I'm working what I think is going to
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: be that tom with a bunch of hens. I do
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: a lot of scratching too, because they you know, they're
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: just they're moving through in a feeding circuit at that
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: time of the year, and it just I think it
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: just sells the whole thing. How close do you think
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: a turkey has to be able to hear you scratch? Mean,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: it's like the range where you would try that, man,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: I don't I don't know how far away they could be,
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: you know, if the leaves are dry, they can hear
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: that quite a way. Is and I think it's just
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: a matter of I think, you know, like if you
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: think about calling deer, I think one of the reasons
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: calling deer is so hard is because it's hard to
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: make it actually sound like deer making calls, you know,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: like you're never making sounds in the leaves and there
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: isn't you know, It's just it's a different thing. But
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: with turkeys, you know, you listen to hens, they they're
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: calling to one another constantly, whether they're just kind of
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: subtly clucking and yelping and there's always scratching going on.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: And so even if it's only you know, a hundred
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: yard game or a hundred fifty yard game, it just
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: it I think it just helps sell the whole thing. Yeah,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: So do you not buy into the overcalling concern that
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: a lot of people talk about. Not really. I think
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: if you're a good caller, it's it's really hard to overcall.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: I think if you're not very confident or you're just
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: not you know, not very good at it, it's easy
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: to overcall. So then what's the what's the thing you
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: did to become a good caller? Because there any one
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: thing that makes you a good color in your mind?
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: Is it because you've master the yelp? Or is it
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: because you listen to so many birds? Or I don't know,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: is there anything you could you point to to what
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: makes you a good color? Fall? Turkey hunting? Go you
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: you hold? The hell has time for that? Dude? You
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: want you want to learn how to be a good caller,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: and you want to learn about turkeys and what they
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: say to one another hunt in the fall. I mean,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: it's it's amazing how vocal they are and how many
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: conversations you could hold with hens when you hunt in
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: the fall. I just I, I guess I've just never
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: thought about turkeys in the fine not ites a thing.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: I just have got my mind so filled up with
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: bucks and bulls and all that stuff that I just
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: haven't able to make time to think about it. But
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: that's an interesting point. So what about your tactics and
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: how any of this might change if and I think
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: this is what you mostly do, correct me if I'm wrong,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: But how any of this is different for bow hunting
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: turkeys because a lot of folks approach it with guns,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: but more and more and more people are out there
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: with stick and string. Um, what do you do differently
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: or what does your turkey hunting set up look like
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: differently because you're bow hunting versus the typical gun hunt setups. Um,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: bow hunting, you know, you you want to build in
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: as much scouting as possible so you're confident in that spot.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: You know, I think a lot of people you know
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: they they I think they sort of look at bow
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: hunting turkeys like a lot of people look at bow
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: hunting deer. It's like, well, there's a field edge, I
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: just gotta go get on and the critters will walk by.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: But there's so there's so many like little subtle things
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: they prefer. You know, you can see um if you
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: if you watch enough birds strut in a hundred acre cornfield,
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: you'll see birds strutting in the same spots and it's
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: like there's a subtle ridge there, like a little high point,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: or they can enter it from a certain way, or
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: there's something to it. And so bow hunting, yeah, you
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: you know, you might want to go out and put
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: your blind on the edge of the field, but you
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: want to be like on that spot, on a spot
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: kind of thing. It's kind of it's just like setting
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: up for deer. There's there's places they like to come in,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: there's places like to leave it. There's places they feel
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: confident feeding where they can see in more directions, and
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: so it's it's a matter of really putting yourself in
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: a place that you have a lot of confience because
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: you're gonna you're not gonna be mobile and then using
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: the decoys that are appropriate for the time of the
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: season and making them visible that that matters for bow
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: hunting so much. What is your bow hunting set up? Then?
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: I know last year we talked about some of your
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: favorite decoy setups, But walk me through, like exactly, and
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: not even just your decoy, but walk me through how
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: you best like to set up a blind or whatever
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: that setup is you're gonna use to hide and then
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: and then your deco is, um, you know, the blind.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: The blind just depends on where the birds are where
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: they're using frequently, whether it's a you know, a field
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: or a logging road or something. You know that that
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: just depends on the scouting. The decoy thing is so tough,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: and I should say this. I always brush in my blinds. Um,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: I don't. I'm sure there are lots of turkeys that
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: would ignore a blind out in the wide open still,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: but I don't hunt them anymore. I don't. I don't.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: I don't see that tolerant behavior in blinds. And the
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: one thing that I realized is even if a turkey
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: tolerates it, my dear won't. And so if I go
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: pop a blind out and have a bunch of deer
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: blowing and starting and run away. It does mean no
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: favors for turkeys, so I always brush them in um.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: And you know, when you think about access with that too,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: you're trying to be you know, if it proverbly you're
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: hunting close to the roost on the first food source
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: or the first travel route, but you want to be
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: able to get in there and not spook them. And
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: so there's a lot that goes into that as far
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: as planning and scouting, but decoys we don't I guess
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: we don't think about it very often, but you really
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: it's kind of like a match the hatch thing with
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: fly fishing. Like when you start the turkey season and
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: it's early, those birds are more flocked up. And when
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: you get into May and the back half of May,
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: if you're hunting that late, there's they're solo or there's
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: pairs of hens, and it's just the whole thing changes.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: And so when it's and they're less likely to fight
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: and be fired up later in the season. So when
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: you take the early birds there used to being around
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: a lot of birds and seeing flocks, and they're fighting
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: a lot. They're ticked off, like then the hands aren't
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: really coming in yet, and they've just spent close proximity
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: all winter to these all these dudes who are their
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: enemy now. And so that that full strut Tom in
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: the right situation with a bunch of hands is awesome,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: or that quarter strut Jake over the breeding hen with
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: a bunch of hens when you start out, It's just
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: that that's my favorite thing to use. I mean, that's
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: that'll bring in all types of birds. And then as
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: the season progresses, I start peeling off those hands, and
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: if I get into like probably about may t on,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: I'm like one feeding hen and no, Jake's nothing that
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: for me, that's been the best way to do it.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: I've read where you have talked in the past about
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: the fact that having exceptionally realistic decoys is pretty important,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: maybe more still than you used to think. Can you
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: just describe why you think that now, Because I when
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: I first started turkey hunting, I just started turkey hunting
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: about ten eleven, twelve years ago, and it wasn't something
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: that my family did. Kind of taught myself how to
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: do it, and I bought two like twelve dollar or
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: plastic decoys from Gayner Mountain that just have the very
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: vaguus similarity to what a turkey looks like, just the
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: basic shape, I would say, And that's what I was
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: working with for a whole lot of years. Why was
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: that the wrong decision? Um? It depends what you're doing,
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: you know. I mean that's what I started out on too.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: But we only shotgun hunted, and it really you know,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: there's been an education curve out there for the birds.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: Like we we killed off a lot of the dumb ones.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: And yeah, I'm not saying the turkeys that we have
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: now are smart, but they there maybe a little bit
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: less tolerant of this kind of stuff. And so if
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: you're shotgun hunting a running gun, and it doesn't really
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: matter a whole lot if you spend up for decoys.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: If you do, you you probably have a little bit
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: better of a hunt. But you only need that bird
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: in that forty yard range. And even if he comes
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: in there and he gets a little spooky, he doesn't
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: want to commit closer, it doesn't really matter, or it shouldn't.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: You can dust him at forty or whatever. Yeah, you
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: can shoot him right in the face when it when
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: it when you're bowing and you want that bird. I mean,
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: I literally want my birds like five to seven yards away,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: and I want them in that decoy trance where if
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: I shoot him. And I've had this happen like probably
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: three or four times in the last few years. I've
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: shot birds right through the chest and had him fly up,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: come right back down and keep fighting my decoy and
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: shot him again. And there's just you can see them
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: with those really good decoys that have the right body posture.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: It's not just you know, it's not just like a
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: paint job, even though the best ones look really good,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: but they're conveying something with the body posture. And there
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: you can just watch these birds. I mean, I'll never
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: forget I killed the bird and Iowa two years ago.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: This monster Tom late season, we called him in. You know,
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: it was like ten o'clock in the morning, ten thirty.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: Got him Goblin, and we watched him hit this field
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: edge and he probably hit it, I don't know, hundred
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: yards away, five yards away, started walking in and kind
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: of just slow walking but in our direction, and when
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: he just got close, you could just see that it
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: just flipped the switch and he just went full strut
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: right up next to the decoy and just like started
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: bumping it. And he was kind of like cautious on
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: the way in, but you just you could, like you
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: know how it is with a buck. Like sometimes they're
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: standing there and you'll make a call and he'll just
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: do something and you go, oh, it's one. He'll start
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: licking his lips or something, and you go, this is
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: just you just feel it, like you just saw that
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: change and it's gonna happen. That happens to me more
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: than ever when I use really good decoys, Like I think,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: I think spending up for decoys is better than than
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: it's the best money you can spend on turkey hunting.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: What's your favorite decoy Dave Smith's And do you have
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: like a specific if if I could only afford one
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: David Smith decoy, which woman to be the It's a
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: quarter strut. I think it's a quarter strut. J It's
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: the one. It's the Jake that everybody uses. I think
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: that decoy. Well, I've had more just amazing tom commitment
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: to that to the point where like just just as
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: an example, I went out last year in Minnesota and
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: I had this this scout spotted out or a spot
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: scouted out, and I I put that set up out there,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: and I had a couple of hens, but I had
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: that that jake decoy over a lay down hen, and
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: I called in a bird at like nine o'clock and
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: I saw him come through the woods and as soon
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: as he laid eyes on it, he ran in. And
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: that that jake decoy has like a pretty stout metal
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: um oversized steak. That tom came in and hit my
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: decoy so hard he bent the metal steak and he
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: started fighting and pushing that decoy around and I shot
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: him right through the wing button out his back and
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: he flipped up, ran down the road, turn around, and
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: came back and walked up to that decoy and I
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: shot him again. And I mean I I shot him
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: when I was like, I couldn't believe it. I got
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: it on film when when I cleaned that bird, I
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: had run a like a two inch mechanical basically from
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: his wing butt down over the top of his thigh
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: through his chest and he came back to fight. It
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: was just carnage. I don't I don't know how he
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: did it. When the second shot, he didn't have anything
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: left in him. But they just that that decoy or
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: those decoys. It's incredible, man. So what if I just
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: I don't have that kind of money. I'm not going
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: to be able to toss whatever it costs to get
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: one of those Dave Smiths. What if I have to
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: settle for a more formable model. But I'm a creative type.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: I like arts and crafts or I like to get
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: funky with things. Are there any little modifications or tricks
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: that I can do to make up less expensive model
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: a little bit more appealing. I know I've heard some
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: stuff about ways you add movement, different stuff like that. Yep, yeah,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: you can add movement. I I used to do that
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: a lot more um with with glue in some of
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: those those down feathers from turkeys on, like around the
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: head and the legs to add a little movement. But
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: the one trick that I've heard a lot that I've
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: tried it in the past, and I've seen this in
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: wild birds is you can paint your your jake head white.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: And that the theory is, and I don't know if
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: this is proven or not, I think it is, but
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: when they know they're about to actually breed ahead, their
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: head turns white, and so you'll see I actually think
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: Dave Smith has a new DECOYLT that has a white head.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure, but we've seen that in the past
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: where companies come out with that, and I think a
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: lot of people don't want to buy it because we
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: think tom head's a red like you look at him
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: on the shelf, you know, and Cabela's or wherever, and
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: you go that that doesn't look right. But if you've
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: ever been out there and you've hunted birds enough, I've
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: killed a few birds that their head turned white while
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: it was the whole thing was going down. And I've
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: heard that from people who are way had way more
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: turkey experience than me and observing birds. So I think
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: that's something that's that you know, it's worth trying out
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: because if you want to take off a gob or
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: show them that. Uh. One more thing decoy is you
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: said that you want those birds coming right in close.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: Exactly how far away do you like your decoy is
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: set up from a bow hunting blind or whatever you're
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: in that my jake is gonna be or if Jake
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: or the strutter is gonna be like five to seven
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: yards and I want it, I mean I want it
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: stupid close. I want it so that I can't miss.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: Speaking of can't missing, what are the shots you are
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: willing to take with a bow at a turkey? And
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: where where exactly do you like? Dame? Um? I like
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: them when they're not in full strut. If I can
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: help it, Um, I I have shot him. If if
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: I if I shoot him full strut, I like on
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: the side, because I can kind of aim around that
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: wing button, tell where I want to put it. But
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: if it's if it's a bird that's not in full strut,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: I'll shoot him anyway he's standing, because you can just
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: you know, you're aiming for that volleyball in the middle
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: of their body. And so what I really like is
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: at tom that's facing away from me, I can shoot
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: him through the back, through the vitals and not in
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: full strut, because then you just you could you have
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: a better chance of just breaking them down and running
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: it through a whole bunch of good stuff. How do
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: you what do you like? Walk me to that point
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: where you're gonna aim. So the turkeys walking straight away,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: you're gonna put a dead center mass, you know, from
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: left or right, but up and down? Are you going
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: a couple inches above? Like the where the tail meats
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: or I don't know, how where do you pick your
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: spot a little higher than that? Um? Probably you know
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: you're probably trying to hit like maybe two inches below
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: where the wing butts are somewhere in there. Maybe three
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: inches below kind of depends, you know. Sometimes they walk
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: low like a we think of like a tryand to
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: source rex walking. And sometimes they're up high, you know. Um,
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: but I like I like that facing away shot. And
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: you know, part of that's just because it's a little
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: bit easier to get drawn on, and but it's you know,
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: they're always moving and there's there's so much it's so
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: dynamic that you just gotta I really think the best
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: advice is to get a standing turkey three D target
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: and shoot it at a whole bunch of different angles.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: What about fixed versus a mechanical I'm I'm a mechanical
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: guy with turkeys. I like. I like big cuts fair enough.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: There's not anything too huge that you're gonna knock into
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: and have issues like a shoulder blade on a deer. Right. No, UM,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: I will say that I did. I shot a bird
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: one time. I don't. A couple of years ago I
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: shot a bird in full strut that was, you know,
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: maybe ten yards away, and you know, I shoot pretty
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: heavy stuff, and I hit that sucker directly in the
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: wingbone and got I didn't hardly get any penetration. I
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: was like, we just have I knocked him over. He
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: took off and ran and he died in the field.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: And so I thought, oh, it was better than I
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: you know, I thought my initial impression was just wrong.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: But when I went out there, I only got like
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: five inches of penetration in my arrow actually broke on him.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: And it made me wonder if there was already like
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: a crack in that arrow or something, or some kind
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: of somehow it was compromised, or if a turkey wing
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: could actually do that. I don't know. Um, So we
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: talked about setting up you know, decoys and the blind
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: and everything for your bow hunts. Will you ever run
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: and gun with a bow if you're set up and
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: it's just not happening, it's late morning and you want
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: to get Nancy, will you go wing it? Yeah? Yeah,
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: mostly I mostly regret it, but yes, I'll do that.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: It's just hard, man. I mean, I've tried the gilly
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: suit thing, and I've tried some of those little portable blinds,
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: and it's it's possible. I've killed a few that way,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: but it's just not very easy. Is there any one
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: thing that has made it a little more successful? Do
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: you have any like? Is there the best practice you
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: found yet? Yeah? Carry the good decoys with you because
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: you need them in that situation, you know, I mean,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: it's it's one of the things I actually kind of forgot,
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: you know. I grew up putting my back to an
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: oak tree and hunt with a shotgun out in the open,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: and I started doing that more in the last few years. Again,
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: there was a while where I really didn't. I was
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: mostly just bow hunting, and you forget, like, man, you
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: can't get away with anything out there when they're when
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: it's just you and the turkey, and it's fun because
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: you can. It's it's you know, there's there's a lot
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: at stake every little movement you make, and so bow
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: hunting you've got to think, all right, well, the you know,
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: the big movement you're gonna have to do. You really
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: got to plan around that. And it's that's not an
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: issue when you're in a blind. You know, you you
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: can draw, you can get your moment to drop pretty
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: easy when you're in a blind, and it's not the
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: case when you're out there in the open. You know,
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: you mentioned, um, you know how different it is versus
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: being in the cover versus being out in the open,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: And that that makes me think about one of the
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: other challenges I think that we often faces turkey hunters,
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: which is figuring out what to do when turkey is
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: not wanting to come towards you. They're hung up for
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: some reason or another. And you always hear these different
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: theories or wives tales about well, you're not gonna be
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: able to get a turkey to jump over a ditch,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: across the stream or do different things like that, like
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: physical barriers. Um, is there any truth to that kind
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: of stuff? Um? I've heard things about uphill downhill, like
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: they're not gonna want to go up hill, or they're
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: not gonna want to go down a hill or there whatever.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Um is that any of that kind of stuff stick
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: with you? Or do you just go of it and
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: be really good at calling? Well, you know, they're individuals, man,
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: Like some some birds aren't gonna fly across a little
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: creek or a river. Some birds will come across so fast.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: I'll make your head spin, you know. I mean, it's
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: how fired up are they? What kind of bird are
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: you dealing with? You know? And my thing if I
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: if I have those birds hang up, you know, because
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: sometimes it just happens. They get to like fifty six
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: yards and they're just not doing it, and I kind
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: of just let them go. Like it's sometimes I think
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: that's just what you're dealing with, you know. But I'll
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: never forget, dude. I was in uh I was hunting
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: public land in South Dakota a couple of years ago,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: and I was on this this top of this bluff
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: and I could see so far and I had a
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: big flock rooster close to me, and they all went away.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: And later in the morning, like six yards away, way
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: across the valley, I saw these birds walk in and
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: there was one strutter in there, and I could see
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: a jake and and some hens through my binoculars, and
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: I called, like I yelped as loud as I could,
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: and you could see when the sound of my call
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: made it all the way over there, that jake took off,
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: ran down the hill and sailed and flew right into
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: my decoys, and it was like it was like incredible.
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: I shot him right through the back. It was like
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: it was dumb and there was everything between us to
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: keep him away. And that was just the one burder.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: He's like, he's like hanging out and there's a strutter there.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: He's like, I'm not getting with these hens, and he
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: heard one and he's going, I'm I'm shooting my shot.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: You know. Yeah, you could just see it like there's
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: my there's my opportunity, and know, you don't know when
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: you're gonna run into that bird, and to think that
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: you're not going to run into it is you know,
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: it's silly. They're they're they're living things out there. They're
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: like they're the rules that we make up. They they
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: just don't. They're just not universal. It's the same thing
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: in the dear world, like they're gonna do stuff that
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: they're not supposed to. And if you're out there and
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: you spend more time watching them and more time calling them,
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: you just realized, like there's a certain amount of birds.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: They're gonna go uphill, downhill, through fences, whatever they have
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: to do. Yeah, when you find yourself in a situation
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: where he really won't though he really won't go over
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: the fence, or he really won't go across the creek,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: or you don't know why, but for some reason he's
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: hung up and you can't see him, but you just
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: hear him just kind of stuck. What are your go
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: to moves to try to unhang a turkey? Um? If
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: if I've tried everything in the book and you know,
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: like change my calling strategy and shut up on them
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: and got fired up, um, and I can still see
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: them out there and they're not gonna do it, I
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: I almost treat it like they're not there and it
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: more and try to work something else and just see
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: if there's something else going on, because you know, just
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: it just happens, like there's birds that just won't do it,
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: and you know, you could maybe add some movement into
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: your decoys. I've I've tried a bunch of stuff like
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: that and that, you know, the strutters you can spin
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: and you know, bring the tail up and down, the
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: tail fan up and down, and I've never really there's
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: just like something about it where some of those birds
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: you can just read them and go, this is not
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: going to happen, Like unless I move and re set
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: up somewhere else, this bird is not coming to this
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: setup today and you just I kind of just accept that. Yeah,
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: so do you do what you just described though, Well,
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: you sometimes get up and change position on them a lot.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: That's something that I've had some success with. Yeah, yeah,
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: for sure. I mean it's you know, it's so easy
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: if your gun hunting to to swing around and try
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: to call them into the woods. And you know one
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: thing that and you can do it bow hunting too,
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: and I have done it, especially if I see a
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: couple of birds and they're like, yeah, this is where
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: we're gonna be, not not where you are. But the
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: one thing that I've seen, and this kind of comes
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: from the deer world, is there you get a lot
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: of you get a lot of looks when you're on
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: field edges with turkeys, but you get those birds and
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: maybe it's just because you can see them and you
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: know they're doing it, but you get those birds that
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: hold up and aren't coming in. And I think there's
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: a different dynamic at play when you're in the cover
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: and you're on that little logging road or that little
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: tiny meadow and you're in the woods. A lot of
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: those birds seem more likely to commit in those situations.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: Because it's you know, the theory is, you know, they
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: got to get closer to see what's going on. But
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: I just think that there's less pressure in there. And
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: sometimes they're like, this is a place where I run
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: into birds a lot and not hunters as much. You
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: wrote an article for Mediator somewhat recently, UM about the
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: situation you just described, which was birds that are maybe
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: decoy shy or spooked by the decoy or something like that.
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: How do you do you do you do what you
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: just described, which is you just head into the woods
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: when you have that kind of situation or is there
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: anything else that you would think about when you have
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: that kind of scenario? Um, It depends what I have
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: about for decoys. You know, if I've got the strutter
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: out and I have a couple of birds that are
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: you know, they'll hold up at fifty six yards and
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: not do it, then that strutter is gone. Um. The
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: same thing with a jake. If if I have if
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: I can see long beards and they're not committing, I
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: go okay. Probably the first bet is to take the
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: tom or the jake away and then see if that
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: changes what's going on. And sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn't,
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: but I I had that happen a couple of years
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: ago with that strutter. I had a spot that had
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: a really big bird with a bunch of hens coming through,
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: and I put that strutter out on the hopes i'd
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: get him, and I kept having like nice good looking
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: birds come in and go I'm not I'm not going
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: to do that. I pulled it and replaced it with
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: the jake and the lay down hen and killed a
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: great bird, you know, the next morning. I mean, it's
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: just so it's kind of you're just you're just kind
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: of reading it and going, Okay, well this is this
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: is on today, or this just isn't doing it, and
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: you start changing things up and pulling things out of
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: the spread and going how can I how can I
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: get a different reaction? Is there a scenario where you'd
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: go decoy list completely um with shotguns a lot? Yeah,
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: I don't. I don't mind sitting out there and just
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: calling with bull hunting. Probably not. I'll get down to
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: a single feeding hen or a single they call it
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: a leading hand, there's walking hand. But I would have
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: a hard time bull hunting without decoy shotguns. Yes, you know,
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: what's I think we should wrap it up here. We're
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: doing these you know, kind of short and sweet episodes
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: for our for our turkey deal here. What do you think,
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: if if there is anything, what is one thing you
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: do as a turkey hunter that most other hunters would
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: think weird or crazy or just not in anybody else's book.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: Is there anything out there that you're just a little
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: different on? Um? You know, maybe my calling style is
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: is real aggressive. I think a lot of people if
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: they saw how much I called in the you know,
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: I put some stank on it, I think they'd be like,
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: that's not that's not what we're used to. I think that.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: I think the craziest thing that I do is I
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: spend a lot of days sitting dark to dark in
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: the same blind bow hunting turkeys. And you know those
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: those spring days are long, and that's that's when you, like,
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: you want to talk about being bored in a quarantine
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: right now, when you're in your house, go sitt in
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: a freaking turkey blind for you know, fifteen hours in
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: a day, especially on a day when you know you
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: maybe have some cold weather something coming in, and it's
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: just shut down. Man. It is brutal, that is it's
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: tough to do all day sits for deer. It's I
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: can't do all day sis for turkeys. That's that takes
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: a certain amount of stamina that I'm impressed by, Tony.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: It's it. It sucks, but it can be you know it.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: It came that came from hunting Nebraska a lot in
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: the early season, where you know, when those birds are
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: flocked up in the morning and they're all on a
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: food source, you might not have a workable bird until
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: six o'clock in the afternoon, but you don't know, and
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: so we'd go out and sit and you would have
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: just drudgery for like ten hours, and then all of
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: a sudden birded fire up in a new place and
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: you know, coming through the brush or something, and it
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: just change everything. And so it it's stuck with me
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: that it's it can be worth it, But man, it
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: can be torture. I guess that's sort of the name
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: of the game of hunting. Sometimes you gotta push through
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: the tough stuff to occasionally have those special moments that
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: you're rewarded with. Right, yeah, big time? All right, Well, Tony,
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: thank you for talking turkey with me here today. Um,
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: it's always a good time. It's always pleasure. Thanks for
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: having me on, buddy. All right, Well that is it.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: I hope you guys have enjoyed this second installment of
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: our bonus turkey hunting episodes. I think we mentioned it
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: towards the top, but if not, I just want to
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: remind you all that we have been putting out a
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: whole ton of turkey hunting articles over at the meat
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: eater dot com. I mean, we've got articles from Tony,
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: We've got articles from myself and a whole slew of
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: turkey hunters from all across the country, covering every imaginal topic.
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: How to kill a bird off the roost, how to
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: run and gun for turkeys, how to use different types
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: of decoys, different types of calls. I mean, we got
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: you covered, So I hope you're able to check those
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: out and put them to good use. Um. I know
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: times are tough right now for all sorts of different reasons.
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: You may not be able to get out on the
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: hunting trips like you used to be able to. But
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: I am hoping that you're able to find a little
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: time to get out there in the outdoors. Uh, for
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: no other reason than to just get back to a
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: tiny bit of normalcy um, a breath of fresh air,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: and a turkey galbl can do wonders for a person.
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: So I'm hoping you're safe. I'm hoping you're well and
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: that your family is is healthy too, And until next time,
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: stay wired to Hunt.