The Round Table Segment #3: Turkey Talk

Speaker 1: 0:03

Welcome. Welcome back to the garden state outdoors and podcast presented by boondocks hunting.

Speaker 1: 0:30

I'm your host, mike nitro I'm peyton smith I'm frank mistico and it is that time of year, it is the turkey talk segment. We are starting it. Well, actually, no, actually no, we're not starting. We just probably, by the time you guys are listening to this, we just dropped a episode with the legendary Peyton. Do you want to tell everyone who Because for you it meant a lot more who we had on as a guest and who we got on, where Peyton was even telling me that he was going to cancel work and he was going to call out of work just because we got the specific guest. He was going to make anything happen to talk to this specific guy. So, peyton, I'll let you know. I'll let you tell the guys here that who we had on and see if they know who that is.

Speaker 2: 1:20

First of all, yeah, so you know from an esteemed kind of member of the Doctor of Wildlife Ecology I believe it is Dr Mike Chamberlain from the University of Georgia had on which is awesome Wild Turkey Doc on Instagram, does a lot of great research, knows everything there is to know about turkeys. It's kind of like the was kind of, you know, kind of sounding an alarm for turkeys, kind of during this population dip, you know, kind of post its peak in like the early 2000s. So a really great guy. Like just a wealth of information and knowledge on everything that is turkey. So, um, it was awesome, I had a great time. Um, just you could, you know, really pick it that guy's brain for for hours. And you know he's a professor who teaches classes, so you know he's got hours of material ready to go. So, um, great guy and, and you know, wish you had more time with him. You know I feel like we didn't even make a dent in the surface. So that was great.

Speaker 1: 2:32

Definitely not. And you know, like that said, this is the talk. This is the start of our Turkey talk segment. Kyle, the, the OG in this, in this segment. I think he's been on our Turkey talk series more than than anyone else. Um, obviously, if you guys don't know who he is, you know he is the, uh, the Turkey man. He is a Turkey hunter who just deer hunts just to pass the time. I, I, I assume.

Speaker 1: 3:01

Um, then we have uh, quinton from Full Draw Pursuit. Welcome, quinton, it will be your first time on our Turkey Talk segment and also our roundtable segment. Welcome, I know you're going to be out in the turkey woods and you know you've been hammering away at all those posts and and everything like that. You're you're on those birds. And then you know, austin, welcome to our turkey talk and round table segment. I said I was gonna get you on. I'm very excited and just let you know, I'm very excited also when we do start our um, our game night, because you came in the minute I announced that. You came in with a lot of fire and I I'm pretty excited to see you. See you on that too as well.

Speaker 1: 3:45

And then we have american mike, who just walked away, but don't worry, it's all good. He is now the rookie in this group when it comes to turkey hunting, because I have always been the the one that has known least amount of turkeys and never really hunted them and never really pursued them up until like this year. So it's nice to no longer be the the rookie guy in this little chat that we're doing when it comes to turkey hunting. So I wanted his perspective and some questions for him as well, because what this is going to be your first time legitimately going after him yeah, all the other times, I've only ever just tagged along and watched and observed.

Speaker 1: 4:31

But I'm just going based off of the fact that I had one show up on trail camera and I'm like, yeah, give it a try, with nothing to lose, I guess so we have a broad different spectrum here from, you know, from kyle all the way down to american mike, and you know it's, it's, this is going to be a good one. Now we have two guys. Uh, quentin, did you start your season yet already, or it's about to start?

Speaker 5: 4:58

no, I start. My take starts may 1st and goes to the 7th, and then I can only hunt the fourth and the fifth of my turkey week okay, so way different than here.

Speaker 1: 5:12

And then, austin, you're in new york, so they start.

Speaker 6: 5:14

What a little after us yeah, the beginning of next month first.

Speaker 1: 5:19

Okay, first of may. So we already have two guys in the in this group right now that already started their turkey adventure, and Kyle why don't we lead off with you and talk about your successful trip that? You know, while I was driving to Maine, kyle and I were on the phone for like almost an hour and a half two hours just bullshit and you know the excitement that you know, of course, from him when it comes to killing turkeys. He got it done yet again yeah.

Speaker 7: 5:50

So I, um, after work last friday, drove out to kentucky. I got out there and met up with my buddy, zach, at his place and, um, pretty much I was like, all right, well, I'm gonna try to kill saturday morning and then, if he didn't kill saturday, we're gonna get him on a bird sunday. Then I was gonna turn around, drive home and he's had a curse for like the last five years, six years or whatever he's never killed a bird opening day. It's always that sunday. So in kentucky you can hunt all day long. You can hunt on sundays, like it's totally different than new jersey. So, going into it saturday, I didn't know that I had to stop at noon, which I was tagged out before that. But when I went back to the lodge I was like zach's like, oh, let's go out in the afternoon. I'm like, what are you talking about? Like we cut off his 12. He's like, not in kentucky, it's not. I'm like, oh, fucking, hey, dude, let's go, you know. So, um, I decided to hunt. I decided to hunt a farm that I had deer hunted this past season and I knew that there was a lot of birds on the farm. Um, it's a big mountain that goes up to the top and everything drops off into the drain just on both sides. So I didn't know where any of the birds were going to roost. I didn't know nothing about it. It was the first time turkey hunting that property. First time turkey hunting Kentucky overall turkey hunting that property. First time turkey hunting Kentucky overall.

Speaker 7: 7:30

Um, so I get to pretty much the top, right at the beginning of the field and let out an owl who had a bird gobble probably like 150, 200 yards to my right and I didn't know exactly where he was. So I didn't go after him super aggressive, I circled around all the way around. I set up across from him like 200 yards on the other side of the field and I was like, listen, if he flies down, he flies down. If he comes in the field, I'll work him in. But the problem is that when you sit on the edges of the field you're looking up because all the hills roll over at the top so you can't see the other side of the hill. So I was like, well, if he sticks his head up, you know it'll be game over. Well, that bird gobbled on a limb two times, then he shut up. So I'm sitting there and I had like four or five birds behind me on the property line. I mean, this is like 260 acres.

Speaker 7: 8:23

So I had birds behind me on the property line gobbling and then they, as soon as they flew down, they went quiet. They weren't coming to the call, they weren't answering. I was crow calling, nothing was going on. Then the airplane goes by and all of a sudden these birds are fired off. After that I'm like what the fuck? Dude, dude, like it was like such an odd opening morning. Like the birds weren't responsive right off the roost, like they normally are off the roost. So it was kind of like I was set back a little bit. I was kind of like confused, like what was going on and I didn't hear like any gunshots like the first hour. So I was like, oh man, like there's, I'm in for the long run this weekend.

Speaker 7: 9:06

So I decided to loop back on the west side of the property it worked more towards where I heard them birds gobbling. So I fired up two of them. Um, they were straight across from me on the neighbor's property went down all the way down this holler. There's a creek bottom up on the other side it's a big group of cedars and, um, those birds were in the strutting zone already. They weren't leaving. There was hens there. I was like you know what, whatever. So I hung out there, changed spots on them a couple times and then it was like 10, 30 and I'm like you know what.

Speaker 7: 9:41

By this time it was like 70 degrees, 72 degrees. I'm like you know what. By this time it was like 70 degrees, 72 degrees. And I'm freaking sweating, carrying all the camera gear around, lugging everything around. I'm like you know what. I'm going to wrap around the north side. I'm going to come back down the other side of the property On my way out. I'm going to make a couple calls, see if I can fire up that one bird.

Speaker 7: 10:06

So I get to the edge of the field call nothing, call nothing, call nothing. I'm like what the fuck man? So all my stuff is on the ground. I walk into the woods, I start kicking leaves, start kicking leaves. I purred, boom, this bird fires off and he's like 45 minutes or not, like 45 yards, right down in the holler. I'm like, oh shit.

Speaker 7: 10:24

So I ran back into the field, grabbed my stuff, set everything up and then the bird went quiet. I start calling to him again, nothing, calling him again. Nothing. I'm like all right, this is what we're gonna do. I took my wing out in the back of my pack start raking the leaves, raking the leaves he gobbles. I'm like all right, so I shut up for a little bit. So then I start purring, start purring, raking the leaves, raking the leaves he gobbles. I'm like all right, so I shut up for a little bit. So then I start purring, start purring, raking the leaves, purring, shut up, raking leaves. Again he fires off.

Speaker 7: 10:51

And then now I'm set up like towards a corner of that field and I'm probably like it's like a big nook in the field. He went right down on the other side, down in the holler, so I was kind of facing where he was, but like towards a field more. So when he gobbled he was to my 12 o'clock the first time. So when he gobbled the second time he was dead to my three o'clock. I'm like, oh shit, I'm like this bird is gonna walk behind me and it's kind of like flatter on that side and he was going to come up into the field on that side. So I had to like adjust myself super quick because he was within 30 yards at this point. But I couldn't see him, so I quick adjusted myself.

Speaker 7: 11:38

My shoulder is up against the tree, my camera is in between two trees and I'm like trying to get situated. I forgot to turn my GoPro on. And also, like I look up and I just started press record and I zoomed into where I thought he was going to be and all of a sudden his head popped out of the side of the tree. I'm like dude, this is game over. The sun was on him, he was strutting, it was beautiful, he was coming in and I had I'm I'm filming with my right hand, so I'm left-handed, I'm filming with my right hand and I got the gun with my left and the barrel was on the ground and I'm like trying to keep that in focus and try to do everything at the same time. So I was like, fuck it, he turns. I freaking lifted the gun up, boom, dropped him. That was it. He was on at 15 yards. So that was jacked up about that man I was, you know, didn't have big spurs on 10 and a half inch beard, but we went back to the lodge and, uh, that bird ended up weighing like 26.2 pounds biggest, heaviest bird that I've ever killed in my life.

Speaker 7: 12:40

So we fast forward to later that afternoon. Um, the birds shut up pretty much for the rest of the day. The next morning I take my buddy zach out on his farm. Um, complete total, different day and night. What it was. From opening morning to that sunday these birds were going absolutely insane. Like all morning long. There was multiple birds that we could have got on.

Speaker 7: 13:05

So we decided to get on the one bird that was like towards the middle of the property more, and the bird was like down in this bowl. So we try to work it them up on this side of the bowl, and he wouldn't do it. We circled around, try to get them on the other side. He wouldn't do it. So we went all the way around on this Ridge, kind of like in a direction where he was going. So we're on the back side of the ridge. He's over on the other side in the bull. So I start calling, calling he's. He's like hung up for some reason. Something's making me like, think, like he's not coming and something's going on. Well, on the downside of that ridge it's a bunch of cedars and there's a big briar-like wall at the bottom of this bull. So I'm like all right. So I put my camera down.

Speaker 7: 13:56

I talked to Zach. I'm like, listen, I'm going to get up, I'm going to go back like 20 yards. I'm going to start calling again to see if it pulls him up and over. We did back like 20 yards. I'm gonna start calling again to see if it pulls him up and over. We did that he was gobbling, wouldn't come over to my right. I'm gonna shut up on this bird for a while. So we shut up on him for like 10-15 minutes.

Speaker 7: 14:14

He fires off again and now he's probably like 40 yards further now and this is kind of like what I wanted to happen. I wanted him to like work away a little bit. So he did exactly what I wanted to do, because I had zach get up, go over the top of this ridge and he went down like 15 yards, just enough to where I told him. Set up enough to where you can see down this ridge, but the top of your head, like eye level, you can't see the bottom of it, like just where it starts to like roll over on the downside, get to where you can like just barely see, because I don't want him to pop his head up and you'll be skyline from. So it's like all right. So he did that.

Speaker 7: 14:58

I start calling again and I start. I'm probably at this. I'm probably like 25 yards behind Zach and I'm just purring, walking around, kicking leaves, purring, walking around, kicking leaves, purring, purring, purring, walking back and forth across the top of this ridge. Something made me turn around for a second and I turn around and I shit you not, it was a fucking coyote, 10 yards behind me, scared the living shit out of me, and also he takes off like a bat out of hell. Dude, my heart sank into my ass. It just.

Speaker 7: 15:32

He came in so quiet, like it was unbelievable, so that bird gobbled and at this point that that bird was facing us and he was a little bit closer. So I ran over the other side of the ridge. I got right next to Zach, I got the camera up. I'm like, all right, now let's see if he breaks this barrier. So I start purring, then I start cutting, cutting, cutting. Then I start raking leaves, raking leaves. All of a sudden he gobbles, and he gobbles way left a little bit and I'm like shit, like he's gonna go all the way around, I'm not gonna be able to get a shot. And all of a sudden I just we start hearing him spitting and drum, spitting and jumping. And he's coming up and he's zigzagging towards us and, uh, he ends up popping his head up, seeing the back of his fan. He takes three more steps. My buddy rolls him like it was picture perfect. He came up like spitting and drumming. I, I had a um. I just put all the videos on my uh on my computer and you can hear the spit clear as day on film, like it is freaking awesome. So it was a success.

Speaker 7: 16:40

It was a successful weekend. I didn't think I was. I mean not that I didn't think I was, I mean not that I didn't think I was going to kill a bird. But I could have bought another tag for Sunday. But I had to make sure that I was out on my way home by like noontime, otherwise I would have bought another tag. But I tagged out, he tagged out, I tagged out, pretty stoked about it.

Speaker 1: 17:05

Pretty hot start for you. Um, you know, and I I don't know if the guys have any questions. I've heard all the you know the background and everything like that. Boys, you guys got any questions? Anything on that? Before we move to to payton's very interesting start to his turkey season.

Speaker 2: 17:26

Yeah, I guess my question would be like so you have him hung up on the other side of that briar patch, which is something that I think I ran into today a little bit. What I ended up doing and it just was kind of too late was kind of trying to move circle kind of parallel to it. But I guess, why did you just kind of hang where you were at or just move down the ridge a little bit?

Speaker 7: 17:50

why didn't I move down the?

Speaker 7: 17:52

ridge, or why didn't you try to get like above the briars so that you know I was in between you, or maybe I'm misunderstanding the story so it was a giant ridge that went out like a giant finger and he was down in the bowl. But on the inside of that finger, where it gets closer to the field and everything, it's the thickest briars. Like you literally can't walk through it, like it's impossible. And the briars follow along the bottom of that ridge a little bit and it kind of like thins out. But that bird wasn't able to cross that threshold for some reason until he found a hole and he was able. He was like I'm coming, like I'm coming for that hen. So we didn't think he was going to. I wanted him to and he did.

Speaker 7: 18:43

But if he didn't, my next move would have been let him work out a little bit farther and then try to get down that ridge a little bit more, because once he was up higher than me, like that was it I wasn't even going to try to go after him because it's it, you can't, yeah, the you calling a bird down is not likely, it's very, very yeah.

Speaker 7: 19:09

I mean, if he's like, if you're at the bottom of a ridge and that bird is straight across from you and let's say like the elevation change is like shoot, we'll say like 10, 15 feet or something like that. Like, yeah, you'll call him down, you know, over whatever, but like, as far as, like you know, calling a bird straight down a ridge and then straight up the other side, the odds of that happening is very, very, very slim. That's why you see a lot of guys, I got a bird straight across from me. I'm gonna work this ridge all the way around and call him across down the ridge more, or up the ridge more that way, instead of going straight down and up, because, like I said, the odds of you calling a bird down is not likely.

Speaker 2: 19:56

Yeah, that's definitely something that I think it was part of my problem last year. I had a bird set up and I just misread that. I thought I was somewhere else. I had a bird set up and I just misread that. I thought I was somewhere else and I was just pointing the wrong way and he ended up being on a knob above me where I thought he was kind of across. But today I had the issue where I set up down in a.

Speaker 2: 20:14

We just kind of we're working down this trail along this creek bottom, sat down, called, had a hen talking back.

Speaker 2: 20:23

We're talking back and forth with this hen, uh, gobbler, fires up above us and we are all right, it's above us, we gotta, it's in this like corner.

Speaker 2: 20:33

We're gonna go around and we'll get back up and we'll get around and sneak above him, you know, through this field, and uh, we get up and we get set up, we're about to make set up and he fires off down where we were. We get up and we get set up, we're about to make set up and he fires off down where we were just talking. So we just kind of like went around each other, um, and then I think he ended up getting hung up in some briars and and wouldn't close the distance today, but and then you know, at noon time just ran out. It just seems like the last couple of years I've just had birds just like, like this close and then it's just that, for whatever reason, just that 11 o'clock time has been pretty good to me. But yeah, it sounds like you go through like a checklist in your head of like strategies that you've implemented over the years I do, I like how you kind of?

Speaker 2: 21:16

lay that out. You know it's like all right, he's not doing this, all right, we're moving on to the next thing. You kind of go through that pretty quick. It's like when do you decide to make the change? Like when you decide to like cross that off and go to the next. Is it like five minutes, is it five seconds, is it 15 minutes and so?

Speaker 7: 21:34

for everybody else on here. Um, I've been turkey hunting for over 20 years, so this isn't like something that I picked up like overnight or and I'm not saying that like I'm the greatest Turkey hunter that there ever was, because I'm telling you right now I'm not and I make more mistakes than a lot of people realize. Well, the problem or the thing is that I do is, you know, I hunt a lot of the same properties. I hunt in a lot of the same areas, and what you need to figure out right off the get go is, okay, like, look at your onyx, look at your hunt stand, look, or whatever, and see what the terrain is, see where the drainages are, see where the ridges are, see where the thickets are, see where the swamps are, and in my head, and you can like watch 100 videos on YouTube. You know you can watch the hunting public, you can watch all these guys and everything. And you can like watch what other people do and see, like, how they go about hunting a property that has turkeys on it.

Speaker 7: 22:32

So, like I look at my onyx and I'll look at it and say, ok, well, I'm going to go hunt this spot. I know that there's birds here. I don't know where they are. So I pull up on next and I look at it and I go, okay, well, if there's a bird here, if he's on the edge here and he pitches down, he's going to probably be somewhere in this area. So if I get there after the roost and he's somewhere down here, I have option a, which is to set up on the north side of it, option b, set up on the south side of it, or whatever. You know what I mean. So I go through scenarios in my head of okay, if there's a bird here, what am I gonna do? Am I gonna do this or am I gonna do this? If there's a bird over here, same thing. I try to figure out and try to make a plan prior to going on to a property. So then, when the time comes and I need to make an adjustment, I don't have to sit there and question myself like, oh shit, hang on, let me pull up my phone, let me zoom in, let me see where I'm at. Blah, blah, blah, like no, I already have a general idea of what I want to do and if all else fails and it doesn't work or whatever, then yeah, I'll, resort'll look at my phone, I'll see where I'm at, I'll see where the bird's at, whatever the case may be, but it's just over time and time spent in the woods and mess ups and you know successes like did I like that bird?

Speaker 7: 23:58

I knew that bird wasn't responding to calling, so I knew immediately boom, I'm purring and I'm raking the leaves. I always keep a turkey wing in my, in my vest, um, and a lot of the birds that I've shot I've raked, just solely raking leaves and purring, and I don't like to tell a lot of people that only because I want to kill all the birds in the world. So I'm about that. But you got to think of like what? What is everybody else doing? What's everybody else doing when they go to the woods? Everyone's yelping, everybody's on. You know everybody has the same tone.

Speaker 7: 24:41

Like I was talking to my buddy, david, uh, from tagging back yesterday, and I told you know he was explaining his hunt to me and everything, and I'm like you know he was having a similar, you know similar situation birds aren't moving, birds aren't doing what they're doing, blah, blah. So I told him yo take a. You know today would be a good day to rest because you're hunting the same birds. You've been hunting them for two or three days or whatever. Take a day off, you know they're going to be there, but, like, do you have another pop call? Do you have another diaphragm? Do you have another box call, something to change up, um, the pitches of the calls that you have? Because that might, that slight change, might be the difference between you killing him and you not killing him.

Speaker 7: 25:27

So there's a lot of different variables and a lot of different things that you can do to be successful and you just, it's just time in the woods, it's it's, you know, learning from your failures and you know just asking questions. That's, that's, that's, you know, one of the biggest things. Like, as much as the hunting community is like cutthroat with each other, like everybody knows how that is. But if you just ask a question, man, like, I'll try to help you as best as I possibly can. And again, obviously that goes for everybody Like. But, like I said, I just have, like you said, a checklist that I go through in my head the area, what calls I'm going to use and my last resorts are. You know, what am I going to do if all else fails?

Speaker 1: 26:24

Yeah, no, pay you're, you're muted classic.

Speaker 2: 26:29

Yeah, I know that's cool. I mean it's time earned in the woods, like you said. And I found that, like you're making quick and deliberate like, not like making wishy-washy, kind of like, oh well, maybe we'll do this, like, yeah, I don't know, maybe what's the next move, it's just like all right, we're going here, we're getting above it, we're circling up, we're going, and you really get like kind of analysis, paralysis, but you know, just do something and kind of do it with authority. I think helps a little bit too, and just that confidence, through your experience, that you probably get through 20 years of doing it yeah for sure.

Speaker 7: 27:03

Confidence, decision making, like a lot of people ask me like, oh, what do you run? Well, it depends, you know. If I know that there's a lot of birds on a property, if I know there's a lot like, if I know, like you know, there's two toms, a dozen jakes and a dozen hens on a property, like obviously I'm gonna throw out, I'm going to throw out, I'm definitely going to throw out a Tom, because that's more. Think about it this way you know the alpha males, the Toms, and you have all the jakes that are trying to kick their asses for the hens. So strength in numbers.

Speaker 7: 27:42

If you throw another Tom out there, it kind of brings them at ease. They're going to want to group up and go after the Jake's. So it's kind of like you've got to think about it like that almost. And there's situations where I won't run a decoy at all. It just all depends on towards the end of the season. I don't run decoys, like the last two weeks I really don't just because the birds have seen every decoy that was ever made at this point on sale and so it's at that point I don't even. I don't even run decoys later on in the season interesting.

Speaker 1: 28:17

Now, mr Peyton Smith, it is time to get into your hunt and, yet again, something you cannot get away from. Since you moved to new jersey, this certain thing has just been following you wherever you go, and I was actually shocked when you told us what happened to you, because I didn't know the how, the likelihood of this happening to you, being in a completely different state, especially the the more south you go. But let's, let's hear how, how your season has shaped up so far yeah, so, um, I started.

Speaker 2: 29:04

It's a week from tomorrow. I have a buddy that lives in Lynchburg, so we got on there and it's been a year or two now. Going down to Virginia Day one just went straight up the mountain, tried to get up on a bench that I'd heard birds the year before, had some good interactions, seen a lot of turkeys in there, scouted it the day before. You know a lot of sign, but it was so windy. I think that was part of the problem is just like calls weren't casting at all, like it was incredibly windy up on the mountain, so cover that and then switch to like more flat land, um, you know further east for the next day, just to just kind of totally go plan, just totally switch, like didn't hear a single gobble covered. You know 10 miles, just didn't hear anything. Um, so get in here, a couple gobble in the roost, um down in a corner, and then you know like getting into the field crawling, looking down, don't see anything. I think they must have gone up into the trees above the field. Uh, so circle around and then start to go up this little ridge down up from this creek bottom, get to the top and start to snake through these mountain laurels and bump a bear out of its bed, I guess at like 10 yards. Um, think it thinks it's running off. We're like, all right, cool, bear's gone, whatever. My buddy's never seen a bear like that in person. But, like mike said, I can't get away from the damn things in new jersey. They love me for some reason. So I was like, all right, cool, it ran the other direction. That's positive sign number one.

Speaker 2: 30:53

So we get set up. You can put the decoy out, um, and we're like we're just gonna sit down here for a second call and then see if we can't fire up one of these birds. You know getting above them and and uh, getting out on this good finger and get down start. You know firing off some calls and I hear something just running it and I look up and this bear is just sprinting into the turkey call, just like on a rope, and, um, it's like not a big bear, but it's like 120 pounds, probably, maybe more skinnyish bear. Um, and uh, it looks like in the front of it it's running in. I sit up and uh, like taking a video of it because I think it's, you know, whatever it's gonna wave off, wave at it. I'm just like I don't want to screw up the hunt, so I'm trying to still be like quietly, run the bear off.

Speaker 2: 31:48

My buddy stands up and it just starts running. It'll run in the laurels and we'll get up. And I was like, all right, let's get up and move again. And it just starts following us and it'll run at us and then it starts hanging its mouth open and then it stops running far and then it starts just charging us and then we'll get up and yell. And now we're just like whatever being quiet is over, we're yelling at it, throwing stuff at it and it's um, and you see, it'll turn around a little bit and it's got double ear tag. It's got like a yellow almost, like you see, in like cattle, in the back of each one of its ears and it'll turn around a little bit and then we'll back out and we start backing out back down the ridge.

Speaker 2: 32:35

So he's already followed us 400 yards up the ridge and it's kind of come around and it keeps following us back and we end up shooting a gun off in his face. I was like, just shoot in front of it at like 10 yards. We shoot in front of it in the dirt kicks up the dirt in its eyes definitely rang its ears, rang my ears runs 20 yards back and it starts coming again, clacking its teeth, just like pounding its paws, and we're like didn't. I think we probably had probable cause to put the bear down, but it's just I don't know. It's like you're worried against somebody else if you're going to do something like that, so I really wanted to avoid.

Speaker 2: 33:14

It Followed us down the creek, got back up the creek I'm throwing rocks at it, you know, and it's just pacing back and forth above us throwing rocks at it, you know, and it's just pacing back and forth above us trying to come down.

Speaker 2: 33:28

Then I like hit it with a rock, runs back up a little bit and clacking its teeth, like hanging its mouth open, um, and it's.

Speaker 2: 33:38

But on the side of the creek is laurels and I was like I'm not going into the thicket with this thing, um, so I've like kind of made up my mind that if it crossed this like arbor, this one tree that I was going to put one in it, um, as we walk along the creek edge, uh, because you had to kind of parallel it to get out to the road without going in the thicket and uh eventually gave up. Um, you know I didn't want to cross the creek for whatever reason, which was lucky us. But we got up to the road and called virginia dnr and I guess they talked to their bear biologists. They do a sow. They don't do any relocation there, uh, where that was. Um, which was interesting, they do gps collar sows, mature sows. But the other thing about this bear is when it was up on the hill and it kind of looked like it might've had mange like, the fur on its back legs was like real patchy and kind of like didn't look right to me.

Speaker 5: 34:39

But the bears right now be rubbing off all their winter fur, so they'll, they'll look, that's probably what it was then.

Speaker 2: 34:47

Yeah, okay, that's probably what it was.

Speaker 5: 34:50

And the way you're describing it. It's almost like where you kicked her up was a den and she had cubs in that den.

Speaker 2: 34:57

That sounds like a mama. That's what the biologist asked. But we walked right through it and there was nothing, and we walked back through it again. That's what the biologist asked. But we walked right through it and there was nothing, and we walked back through it again. That's what the biologist asked. Was there anything specific about that area? It was like no, it was just laurels. It wasn't a big patch of laurels either. It was maybe like the size of a classroom. You know, it was just this one piece of it. What's that, ian? The cones could have been up in the tree and you probably wouldn't have ever seen it.

Speaker 6: 35:25

It was just this one piece of it. What's that? Ian the Cubs could have been up in the tree and you probably wouldn't have ever seen it. That's true.

Speaker 2: 35:31

Yeah, I didn't think about that. They could have been up in the tree, but yeah, walked back through it and I didn't see anything abnormal. I didn't see it. She also said that they'll ear tag them and GPS collar it. I was close enough I could have seen a gps collar on this bear. Uh, I didn't see one, but it could have been. Um, but yeah, I mean, it didn't give a shit about anything.

Speaker 1: 35:57

Um, you know, clearly good thing you didn't go through the laurels because that's how it was pretty committed. The guy guy in Jersey died. He went and got through, got stuck in laurels and that bear tore.

Speaker 2: 36:06

Oh yeah, I decided I was like I'm not getting in the thick stuff with this thing, Like I'm keeping it where I can see him and I you know, and I know I can get a barrel on a couple of feet in front of him, so but who knows? We know that it might not have done anything to him, you know just what was your, what was your heart doing during this whole time?

Speaker 1: 36:30

Like every time did it charge? Did your heart rate just spike up like ridiculously?

Speaker 2: 36:35

It wasn't a big bear. I started off just like annoyed. I was like go away. Like I'm just trying to like you're just making all this noise, like I'm having to yell at you, just like leave me alone, like I cannot get away from these damn bears. And then it just starts, and then it like gets serious, because then it loses all fear. And after we shot the I thought our ace in the hole was going to be, you know, firing that warning shot. I was like that for sure, we'll take care of this problem. And then after that didn't work, then I was like okay, all right, there is a strong possibility. I'm gonna have to put one in this thing. So then we took it very seriously.

Speaker 2: 37:16

I was like you know, we were kind of like leapfrogging because we had to walk down a hill. So I was like it's kind of hard to walk, you know, with law, deadfall and stuff. I didn't want to trip. You know, be on my back and have this thing, you know, really kind of take advantage of the opportunity. So we were just like he would, we I'd actually really have to turn my back to the bear and have my buddy be off to the side watching it. And then we kind of had to leapfrog down the hill to get away from this thing. But yeah, I mean that was it was pretty intense.

Speaker 1: 37:43

You're a true new jersey outdoorsman at this part, a true north jersey outdoorsman, where it's like it didn't really seems like it didn't really phase you the fact that you're just more annoyed in the beginning where it was a bigger bear I would have been really scared.

Speaker 2: 38:00

now, I know small bears can still mess you up, but I think it was barely over 100 pounds, so that was my only thing. That was like all right, this bear is, there's two. And if I was by myself and I usually have a bow only in New Jersey, yeah.

Speaker 1: 38:18

How many times have you been stalked this?

Speaker 2: 38:20

year Stalked, I think, just the one time, just the one where they like actually my wind and crept up on me. Yeah, just that one time. Well, there was the one time in the tree, but I think it was just like saw me in the saddle and like check me out, and but just that one, one specific time there, that's when I bought the saddle, I was like I'm not sitting on the ground anymore. That's the end of this anyone listening.

Speaker 1: 38:46

If you want a bear hunt and you've never bear hunted before, just call peyton and go ask peyton to come out hunting with you and you will find bears.

Speaker 2: 38:57

You don't need the donuts or the ho-hos I'll just hang out you don't have to sit a hundred yards from me either you could use peyton as the bait.

Speaker 2: 39:08

It's all right, absolutely after that oh no, he got out of there too. I think that yelling at the bear, shooting a 12 gauge off in his face and, uh, you know, singing to it for a while, I think uh probably blew that spot out. So I didn't bother going back there the next day either. I kind of wrote down the bad part is we walked out and when we stepped out there's some guy's truck on this, this road, and I was like, oh, I feel kind of bad about leading this guy, this bear, right, right to the truck. But he didn't give me much of an option. So but we saw him later. He was all right, he made it.

Speaker 1: 39:49

Could you imagine? You see, you saw Barrett like you're on the news and there's a bear attack.

Speaker 2: 39:57

I would have felt a little bad, but at the end of the bear it really forced my hand there. The only thing I could have done differently was shoot it right in the face, but I don't know what I would have even done. Yeah, I don't know. I saw a bear I shot this year. I mean you guys all know I had a nine millimeter slug buried in his nose. It didn't go through. So I was thinking about that the entire time. That article had just gotten published on Friday and I was like that the entire time that article had just gotten published on Friday and I was like god damn it. No, this is like I that didn't go through this. Nine shots not going to do anything, that's just going to. I was like thinking like maybe it'll just blind, it won't be able to see me either way.

Speaker 1: 40:42

Oh god, yeah, that was the end of that day oh god, yeah, um yeah, that was the end of that day. And then now you're in virginia, right now, right?

Speaker 2: 40:50

or no, you're in maryland right now. You're in maryland. Right, yeah, so sat a small eight acre piece of private. Uh, I shot my buck on last year. Um, I know there's turkeys pass through there. I know there's turkeys there. Um, it's at the top of a drainage but it's just kind of the spot where you just kind of got to sit and wait and just know that they passed through. Um, didn't get lucky, just figured to try that out. So then I went to a 5 000 acre piece of maybe 5 000 actually I'm not really sure.

Speaker 2: 41:19

I think it is a piece of private um and uh, had a pretty good hunt today, had them gobbling on the roost, um set up you know early, you know they were, you know. But when they were gobbling on the roost and we were calling, it didn't really seem like our calls, that they weren't calling, they weren't talking back, like they were just hammering on the lid. So they flew down, went silent and then we just kind of circled around and we're like checked like these two fields I was like they're not in there circled back around and we like kind of got down to the river. I was like I kind of made up my mind. I was like I don't think they came through here because this is thick, there's this field down here with a lot of open timber and I don't think they crossed the river because it's thick on the other side. So I kind of like had kind of gotten between the river and them and I was like they have to be kind of like out in front of us here and that's what we kind of made.

Speaker 2: 42:12

That set up there and then had that hand talking and kind of worked that gobbler around for probably 90 minutes. Spent 90 minutes with him just like not cresting that hill and peeking his head up over the hill for us to get a shot. But it was frustrating but very cool experience. You know it was highly pressured area. There was another hunter actually probably a few hundred yards away, calling at that same bird, but just wanted was hammering back to every call we threw out, but for whatever reason, what nothing to do with whatever that person was throwing um. So that was kind of cool.

Speaker 1: 42:48

There's just a unique experience and that might be a testament your calling's better.

Speaker 2: 42:53

Your calling sounded realistic I don't know, I think I was just the flavor of the day. I don't think. Hopefully, hopefully, but yeah, I'm the champion caller by any means. But yeah, it was a good lesson learned. You know, it was good, it was like that. Yeah, I was running through that list and that was like today. That's why I asked kyle that question, because I was running through that list today and it was like my first time where I felt like it.

Speaker 2: 43:18

You know we didn't get the end result we wanted, but we were nine out of ten things, right, you and you know, just getting it past that that hang up point would have been a 10th thing. And you know, had it not gone up to that noon buzzer, maybe we would have gotten that. But it was cool. You know, making the decisive decisions and then working. You know, all right, get down here, get off the limb, cut them off, get above them and did all those things. They did what it had to do, just the timing of the day didn't do what it had to do. Got one more day in Maryland and then it's up to New Jersey. See what we can get up to up there.

Speaker 1: 43:59

Good feelings for tomorrow. I hope you get it done tomorrow. Obviously it's coming, it's definitely coming.

Speaker 2: 44:08

Unfortunately we're going to move spots because I don't want to hunt this piece of public on a Saturday. I mean it's a spot during deer season where Maryland has the straight wall cartridge that you can hunt during gun season. I won't go. Straight wall cartridge that you can hunt during gun season, I won't go. I mean, my dad's told me stories of him hunting there. You can hear the slugs bouncing off the trees. You know it gets hit hard, you know. Uh, during deer season, turkey season. So I mean it was a, it was a weekday and it was a full parking lot at the trailhead when we got there. So I can't even imagine when it's going to be on a Saturday. So we're going to go down to where I shot my bird two years ago. Um, a bigger piece of private, like 40 acres, bigger than the eight, but still not big. So there's a lot of birds in there. Got a lot of birds on camera so see what we can do there tomorrow. Gotta get up early, early up hour and a half drive you and this driving thing.

Speaker 1: 45:04

It's crazy.

Speaker 2: 45:06

I'm not driving tomorrow for the first, which is nice, good, good.

Speaker 5: 45:12

Good, good.

Speaker 3: 45:13

You got to bring me.

Speaker 2: 45:14

You are getting a show for.

Speaker 1: 45:16

You're putting miles. You are putting miles, I mean from driving to to everything, even when you come back home to Jersey, driving to to everything even when you come back home to jersey. How, how far is your ride going to be for for the first week?

Speaker 2: 45:31

over an hour just over an hour, an hour hour and 15 in the morning. Going back will be more with traffic and everything. But yeah, I, I was feeling kyle on that kentucky ride, you know, just doing that in a weekend I felt I felt bad about Virginia, so he's doing even worse than I am. I got in that Monday I had to leave the woods by like 9 am because I had to drive up to a family event in Jersey by 4. So I had to leave early.

Speaker 2: 45:58

I had to wash my hair in the little bottle of water in the trailhead and got on the road, put my dress clothes on while I was driving. But that time of year, man, it's like we talked to mike chamberlain about that it's just cool to travel and turkey hunt, for whatever reason. I think it's like integral to like kind of turkey hunting culture where it's just like you know you're not gonna like they're not always super unique, you know it's like all right, this beard might be a half inch, two inch longer than another beard, but like from 15, 30 yards away you're probably not gonna be able to tell that. So it's more about like the experience, who you shot it with, how you shot it, where you shot it. They kind of really make each bird unique than like rather than a bird themselves.

Speaker 1: 46:41

So it's cool to travel and do that I think I think the one cool thing that I'm gonna like is you actually get to shoot these things like in the face kind of you don't do that with the deer, you know it's frowned upon with the deer, you know, uh.

Speaker 1: 46:56

But to actually do it to turkey, like, yeah, you know, if you're bow hunting, then turkey, like yeah, you know, if you're bow hunting, then decapitating is is pretty damn cool as well. And I know steve that's looks like that. Steve's mission is to decapitate a, a turkey this year. Uh, those things are I. Quick question was it hard to cite in? Because I, I heard you know, getting that, all you know, fixed for your, for your bow, I heard it is a little, a little difficult. Did you have any difficulty? Cause that looked that was a perfect shot. I mean, it looked like you were right in that bullseye. We can't hear you. Oh, we're having a mic problem, so we'll, we'll go back to. No, we're having a mic problem, so we'll go back to steve in a second. Uh, quentin, austin and anything from you guys on on what your expectations are for for this coming year, I guess you can go and then, or, or, austin, you can go, whichever one wants to hit first.

Speaker 5: 47:59

I think my expectation is to kill a bird my first morning out. We kind of have a gist of what they do. They roost practically in the same trees. We kind of have them figured out. Every year they fly down kind of the same way. With the new spot we sit in and we're hoping that we can get a bird, a bird or two birds, down right away in the morning on May 4th we, uh, every time we hunt the bottom of the field, the birds fly to the top and then, if we hunt the top, they fly down to the bottom and then they stay in the bottom all day and if we sit the bottom they stay up top all day. We found a spot halfway in between and they don't know what to do. So they fly down right in front of us like 50 yards and then give out a yelp and they turn and come right in and then and then we're done. We're hoping again this year we can do that quick and simple. Yeah, yeah, gotta love it. Game plan this year gotta love it.

Speaker 1: 49:10

How about you, austin?

Speaker 6: 49:13

um, uh, I can't say. My expectations are high just because I am working a lot this spring, so I don't know how much time I'll actually have to dedicate. Typically I'd like to take three or four days off of work, but I just don't see that happening this year. If it works out, if it works out, it works out. You know I, I have a property that I, you know. It's kind of just one of those places you just kind of got to sit and call. You can't do much. You could kind of maneuver around within you know a certain distance, but it's pretty much just a patience game there. I'm not. I can get the job done, but I'm not a trophy caller by any means. Yeah, I get that I can't go out anytime soon. Turkey season for me is typically tough, but I do. I do usually devote, you know, good three or four days to it, but you know I just don't. I just don't have time this year. So you know I'm looking for a weekend. That'd be nice.

Speaker 1: 50:30

That's now one question I really wanted to ask you. You know and this is for I know you must be busy also starting with the, the new llc and everything like that uh, backwood plots, llc and everything, congratulations on that. Um, now say and I I know it's probably a little too late for this now, but say someone for for next year. They got a property, you know, and of course you know they're using for deer hunting too. But is there anything that you can, you know, share with us what you would recommend for for having, you know, creating a, a perfect, well-balanced um hunting plot or or um property that that you can recommend for for a turkey hunter, I mean?

Speaker 6: 51:16

uh, chicory is a big one for turkeys. I know that every plot that I've planted, they, they tear the chicory up. They love chicory. Um, if you start growing like ticks, that would be a good one. They love you know. I know they like to eat ticks. So you can create one of those environments where, uh, the you know, kind of counterproductive on yourself.

Speaker 3: 51:43

But I've always thought make sure they get them early. That's all it'd be fine.

Speaker 6: 51:48

Yeah, yeah, I've always noticed that they hammer the chicory a lot, um, um, you know they they do. You know burning is a big thing for, uh, you know turkey habitat. You know they're, they're big in, you know post burns. So that's kind of one of the things you might want to look into. Other than that, you know, I off the top of my head like I can't, you know, I off the top of my head like I can't, you know, I'm sure there's a bunch of other things and I just can't think of them right now yeah, um, and and that's pretty, that's that's you know.

Speaker 1: 52:33

The tick thing you know is kind of interesting because, yeah, they do eat a lot of ticks, but then it's like, at what cost am?

Speaker 7: 52:42

I, you know we really want to get yeah, is it worth it?

Speaker 1: 52:46

we really but for this, you know what, for the serious, serious turkey hunter, though, I think that would be like for like, maybe for kyle, who's like, who is the Turkey hunting guy, who this is what he, he loves to do. You know I'm you, give Kyle an option Would he pick Turkey hunting all year, or deer hunting? He's, he's picking Turkey hunting, so, like that might be like a, a pretty smart option for for a guy like that or or who's that serious and into his, his craft, when it comes to Turkey hunting. But for, you know, the rest of us out there, uh, yeah, I don't know if that's worth it, because I am. It's the one downfall to turkey hunting is gosh, they're just, they're just so many ticks and they're just everywhere, everywhere right now bugs too.

Speaker 1: 53:34

Yeah, yeah, just the bugs in general, you know yeah, bugs are bug, bugs are bugs are a good one. Yeah, let's, let's leave the ticks and but if you create a great habitat for bugs, you're creating a good habitat for for ticks and everything like that. Now, mr american mike, you are the new, the new rookie to to this turkey hunting thing. Do you have you're going out? Are you going out monday?

Speaker 4: 54:00

no, I only got the the permit for the weekends. Unless I don't know man like me and james, we're gonna go scout tomorrow morning. But unless, like I have some confident sign, which I don't even know, what the fuck I'm looking for. You know, I don't know man, I'm going, I'm just going with the flow and if it happens, it happens, if it doesn't, it doesn't. You know, I bought a turkey call today. Never have I ever used a fucking mouth call, but in order to hunt in new jersey you have to have a call. So I got it for that. You know james is going to be the one that's going to be calling, but just wanted to cover my ass on that end.

Speaker 7: 54:43

I was gonna say well, you bought the easiest one to learn, so you know go, get the call and put it in your mouth and try using it right now, literally do it come on all right.

Speaker 1: 54:54

So so go run out real quick, go run, I have a recording of it.

Speaker 4: 54:58

I think I have a recording of it. I think I have a recording of it.

Speaker 7: 55:01

I can tell you exactly what you're doing wrong.

Speaker 1: 55:05

Yeah, Kyle's good when it comes to this stuff Um.

Speaker 3: 55:08

Oh man, I should get my call. Hey listen if everyone wants to get their call I might.

Speaker 1: 55:14

I will embarrass myself with Mike there too, so I sent it I will embarrass myself with Mike.

Speaker 4: 55:18

there too. It deleted, I sent it over to Justin and I sent the trash can emoji Go get it, go get it, mike Go get it. If I get it, you got it too. I have mine right here.

Speaker 1: 55:32

I have mine right here.

Speaker 4: 55:33

The keys to my truck is all the way on the third floor. All right, you got time, we'll all the way on the third all right, you, you get, you got time, we'll cover.

Speaker 1: 55:40

We'll cover the conversation on something else um you know I I'll, I'm truly excited for this turkey season. You know, I was definitely like mike in the years of the past. I'd be like, yeah, like I'll go. But I wasn't really. You know, I listened to Kyle and Justin like hype it up and I was like, ah, like can't be that cool. You know, it can't be that like awesome, right. But I'm never scouted the way that I have now and you know I, peyton and I have gotten on an insane amount of birds, you know, and yeah, right now it's fingers crossed because we screwed up, we did not get a week and we cannot hunt it and we got b-week, so fingers crossed right now.

Speaker 1: 56:29

But I mean, I have never been so jacked up and fired yeah, they're going wild discovery channel on mulchltrie.

Speaker 1: 56:40

It really does I'll be posting a video tomorrow of of some of the action and um, you know, just scouting, like I was fired up, peyton and I went out and we, you know, we, we saw a lot of good sign, um, and then I've gone out twice without without peyton, to to move some cameras and stuff like that, and I mean just the amount of sign just everywhere and it's like to to actually do it yourself and kind of see it. That's what has already hooked me to to turkey hunting, because you know it's with deer. The difference with deer is I can hit any damn piece of wood and I'm gonna find deer sign. Let's be honest, I don't even have to go to the woods and I'm gonna find deer sign. I can go straight to my backyard or I can be driving on, you know, the parkway or whatever, and I'm gonna see deer. But turkey it it's. It's just to me it's a lot different. You don't really see that.

Speaker 1: 57:40

And to you know, hunt, some of the areas that I hunt the Turkey sign is so limited that it's really discouraged me from hunting and I would always try, but I just couldn't get anywhere. Right, I didn't know what I was really looking for, didn't y'all was hunting it, like I was hunting deer, and you know, for me that was, that was a huge. You know that's a, that's a mistake, and you know, now this year it has kind of all come together and the the last thing I need to do is to pull that trigger and shoot a Turkey in the face to get my first bird down. That is the next goal and I'm going hard this year for the first two weeks. That's the only thing.

Speaker 1: 58:22

I haven't deer scouted. I haven't done anything for deer season. No deer prep, which I'm usually already deep into my deer prep, none of that. I've only focused on Turkey for this. The next finish, the next two weeks, weeks, it's just turkey here on out, nothing deer, nothing else, that's it, and my goal is to shoot at least one turkey in the damn face, hopefully too so all right, mike, what are you going?

Speaker 1: 58:50

to use five weeks not just two yeah, well, you, I got to get back to work, I got a wedding to pay for. I got a, I got a, I got a wedding. So, uh, you know, two weeks and then, listen, knowing my myself, if I shoot one and I get really hooked, that might be it I might be hunting the rest of the damn season, you know. So, right now, I'm, I'm, I'm sticking to two weeks and then we'll, we'll go from there, um, you know, and steve for the first one. It is going to be a shotgun.

Speaker 3: 59:23

I'm not, I'm going to simplify the hell out of it oh yeah, no, no, I just meant, are you gonna go with like some long beard xr, are you gonna go full tss?

Speaker 1: 59:31

no, no, no, no, no. We. We actually shot right, payton. Didn't you shoot that um and you didn't? It did not pattern as well as um, no as all the other loads like a pattern, master.

Speaker 2: 59:46

That was just the full choke that came with my beretta, uh, but yeah, the tungsten, just the pattern, I think. I think I need a special choke tube or a different choke tube or whatever for it. The pattern did not look good but I shot the uh xr, the winchester, like 1300 feet per second, five shot and that pattern was very, very good. So just gonna keep running with that, running with what I know works. It's tempting, you know, to throw one of the, the fancy shells in, but the pattern's just not where it needs to be and I think that's the most important part.

Speaker 1: 1:00:20

Let's just say, when Peyton first took that shot, the difference in just his shoulder went boom.

Speaker 2: 1:00:30

That looked like it hurt so badly, they got a little extra thump. It takes a little more powder to get those things up to velocity. So yeah, yeah, no, I mean I've shot shotguns my entire life. You know, the first time I shot a shotgun I was in kindergarten, so I mean that I've never felt anything like that. Shot slugs shot every 12 gauge. Slugs shot everything at tungsten and it's like the density, I think it's like 19.7 grams per cubic centimeter, then lead's like around 11, so it's a considerable difference.

Speaker 3: 1:01:06

It's double the pellet.

Speaker 6: 1:01:07

Pellet count most cases you can notice the difference in the tungsten. Even out of a 410 like, even even out of something that small, you can feel the difficulty, whoa.

Speaker 4: 1:01:18

That's not what a 410 is.

Speaker 6: 1:01:20

That's not what a 410 is, what the hell was that?

Speaker 2: 1:01:23

They're a little spicier.

Speaker 1: 1:01:25

Yeah, a little spicier. But boys who wants to do some calling, we should do worst to best. I know Kyle can do it just without the mouth. Call and just do it straight up, frank you, you got a call with you I gotta run out to my truck and grab it yeah, go grab it all right, let me go grab it anyone else that want to grab their call go go go grab theirs while while we entertain.

Speaker 1: 1:01:54

Um, this is gonna be listen. Don't worry, mike, I'm bad too, but I've been practicing, but I am still nowhere, even.

Speaker 4: 1:02:04

I don't even know what it is. It's from Primos, I don't know. It's got this little cut into it.

Speaker 7: 1:02:11

I don't even know you're going to have a hard time with that one.

Speaker 4: 1:02:15

I don't even know which way is the way you're supposed to put it in.

Speaker 7: 1:02:19

Like kyle, teach him real quick kyle let me see, that goes to the top of your mouth. That right there, that goes to the top of your mouth. This one right here, that push that up to the top of your mouth. Take it out. Take it out a little bit. Grab the side of your call and you want to just bend it a tiny, tiny, tiny bit. Okay, just bend it a tiny, tiny bit. Okay, put it in the top of your mouth and make noise with it.

Speaker 1: 1:03:06

That's awesome.

Speaker 4: 1:03:12

Right, is there something special you're supposed to do with your tongue? Your, your throat, the air that you're using, yeah, your throat it comes from your diaphragm.

Speaker 6: 1:03:23

It doesn't come from. It comes from your diaphragm. You can't blow. It comes from down here.

Speaker 4: 1:03:30

Where do you rest your tongue? Is it up against the call? Is it down?

Speaker 7: 1:03:33

in your mouth it's up on the call your tongue, like regulates the airflow across the call.

Speaker 7: 1:03:42

A couple quick things. When people like, if I hear guys calling and stuff, like 99% of the time I tell them like exactly what they're doing wrong. So you have to what I tell like a lot of new guys too that are just getting into it and it and like calling and stuff, especially using a diaphragm go watch a live hen, go watch and see what she does. And the number one thing that everybody does, the number one thing, is that when they want to make even making sounds out of their call, they're going pop, pop, pop. Right, a hen doesn't go pop, pop, pop. She opens her mouth and then close yourself out.

Speaker 7: 1:04:29

Uh, that's how she, that's how hen calls. She's not going pop, pop, pop, pop. You know pop. You know what I mean. So that within itself, you'll hear the difference in your diaphragm. By just even doing that, and that all comes from your diaphragm, you're not just filling your lungs up with air and filling your mouth up with air and go like no, like you're using your whole body. Your whole body should shake up and down when you're using your whole body. Your whole body should shake up and down when you're using your call. That's how you know you're using it the right way that's funny, that's what like every call same thing

Speaker 1: 1:05:07

like hell no it's a good learning lesson, mike. Let's all right. So let's hear it one more time. Mike, try, try one more time, yeah using your diaphragm listen, don't be embarrassed, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do barely bad too.

Speaker 4: 1:05:24

I suck at calling yeah, and it's like he said it's a help now what kyle said about you have to open your mouth and close your mouth. Now that's like playing in my mind, because exactly what he said with the like, even when you watch those YouTube videos, you know they, when they're imitating a turkey, they're going like like that's how they, that's what they heard, that's the imitation that they're making. So that's what I'm thinking to say, but you know, like I said, that was really good tips that he just said there now I'm gonna, I'm gonna go.

Speaker 1: 1:06:08

It's gonna be bad too, don't worry, I'm still the hang on a minute.

Speaker 7: 1:06:12

I I told you what you were doing wrong before Listen. I tried.

Speaker 1: 1:06:19

I tried. I don't know if I got better or not, but I tried. It's still a work in progress.

Speaker 7: 1:06:34

You're doing it the right way. I can. I can. You just got gotta position a call. Do you have a batwing? Oh shit, let me get close by the way, a batwing calls you just call to run for a diaphragm a batwing explain.

Speaker 4: 1:06:54

Stop moving it, mike, yeah.

Speaker 7: 1:06:58

I can't fucking see because it's red. Yeah, me neither. I think ghost cut.

Speaker 1: 1:07:02

Oh yeah, I recommend getting a bat wing yeah bat reads are mainly double reads.

Speaker 7: 1:07:15

Once you start getting to like triple reads, which is like a lot of ghost cuts and stuff and combo cuts and whatnot, those are harder to use.

Speaker 1: 1:07:23

No, it's a V cut. Is it a V cut? Yeah, 2.0 read V cut. Okay, I just read the thing. Frank, you want to go next? Yeah, if you want me to, I'll try it.

Speaker 4: 1:07:44

I can't hear it Is anyone here, let me turn this up.

Speaker 5: 1:07:54

His headphones might be cutting out.

Speaker 4: 1:07:56

Yeah, they're probably cutting it out let's see here so, kyle, is that what you strictly use, or do you use the box and the slate also?

Speaker 7: 1:08:11

I don't use a box call. I have a box call. I don't use it. Um. I don't use glass either. Um, I use this old, old, old, old primo slate. This thing came out in like like earlier on in 2000, like it's an old pothole and that thing is gold. And then I have, um all my diaphragms that I run.

Speaker 2: 1:08:38

Why don't you use the glass? That's something I've actually been looking into, because I think it's supposed to be so much louder to cast it further. But why don't you like it?

Speaker 7: 1:08:50

That's exactly why, exactly what you just said Because it's too loud, because it's so loud, a turkey doesn't go in the woods and scream its fucking head off. And that's another thing that people mess up on. And I catch myself doing it too, like I get aggravated because the bird isn't gobbling so I'm hammering on my diaphragm. It's like yo, that's not what, that's not natural, that's not what a turkey does. A turkey doesn't scream because it doesn't get what it wants. You know, know what I mean. So you got to like think about that too, like you don't want to sit there and be like screaming at the top of your lungs trying to get a bird to answer. So, on the checklist, what am I going to use next? Okay, I'm going to use a locator call. I'm going to use an owl.

Speaker 3: 1:09:43

I'm going to do an owl ho, use my crow call to try to find a bird, because then you can get loud with them and that don't matter at all. You know what I mean. So I think we see that so many times on different you know videos and whatnot. People are just screaming their heads off and it's situational.

Speaker 7: 1:09:48

It might not be them that's drawing the birds in or whatever it is, but I think people get used to that, like, oh, I gotta be as loud as possible yeah, I've caught myself doing a lot of times I mean it's different, like if you're out, like if you're out on a point in a ridge and you're you're calling over the whole bottom and on the other side of the ridge. Okay, you know, you can get a little loud because the echo it'll travel a little bit. Yeah, I get that, but like as far as like you know, hunting regular hardwoods or like whatever the case may be, um, I'm not gonna get super, super, super loud gotcha all right.

Speaker 1: 1:10:26

Who's next? All right, frank. Do we figure it out?

Speaker 6: 1:10:29

try one more time, frank, and then we'll move on to austin or quentin yeah, then I'll probably turn these headphones off for the sake of keeping my head on my shoulders and not hold up.

Speaker 1: 1:10:42

I'm gonna have to pay okay. Yeah, it makes sense, makes sense okay.

Speaker 3: 1:10:46

I got you. I'm pulling the wife card too.

Speaker 6: 1:10:51

I'm pulling the wife and the kids card. I wake the kids up. My head's coming off.

Speaker 3: 1:10:56

I'm definitely not going out tomorrow if that happens.

Speaker 6: 1:11:03

You want to mess around with those turkey paws. Let's see how it works. Why don't you go roost at them? That was pulled out of your throat.

Speaker 1: 1:11:12

Frank, we could not hear it, so we'll have to hear you another time. All right, sounds good. Quentin, you want to give it a try? Yeah, I'll give her a try.

Speaker 5: 1:11:31

The reed's not wet enough, but it sounds a lot better if I break it in a little bit more. It's a brand new call. It just got made a few weeks ago.

Speaker 6: 1:11:44

Better than me.

Speaker 1: 1:11:46

Regardless better than me.

Speaker 6: 1:11:48

Yep, kyle, what's your opinion right here, man?

Speaker 4: 1:11:51

I'll say so on this. What's that? You need to rate each person's. Why me?

Speaker 2: 1:11:58

I'm just a dude, not just a dude. I'm just a dude being a dude hanging out with dudes.

Speaker 7: 1:12:06

There you go.

Speaker 1: 1:12:08

That was good Anyone.

Speaker 5: 1:12:16

I can't clock your purr with it but it does, once you work it a little bit more, it sounds a little bit better. That one did sound better.

Speaker 4: 1:12:27

What was that? Can someone demonstrate a purr? What is a purr?

Speaker 1: 1:12:32

That's Kyle.

Speaker 7: 1:12:36

I don't have a call. The kid's sleeping.

Speaker 4: 1:12:38

I'm thinking have a call. The kid's sleeping. I'm thinking of the cat purring Like what the fuck? How does a bird purr?

Speaker 6: 1:12:50

Hang on.

Speaker 2: 1:12:51

Hang on, it's like a coo, like a pigeon, coos Gotcha.

Speaker 4: 1:12:55

Gotcha coo like a pigeon coos, yeah yeah, gotcha, gotcha okay, like in normal noises. Yep, gotcha, it's hard to be hard to do that that's gonna be hard to learn, yeah I would.

Speaker 1: 1:13:17

I I definitely will say turkey calling is one of the cool, like doing a diaphragm call. It's one of the coolest methods to to hunting and interaction. Like, of course, everyone here is elk calling, and elk calling is that just loud, just bugle is. There's nothing like it. But I think just with turkey kong there's just so much more that you can do and it just seems a little more personal than than a bugle.

Speaker 1: 1:13:47

And bugle is already pretty, pretty personal if you're, if you're elk hunting, but like you got the purrs and you're you talk about what you're, you're scratching and everything, use the feathers and like it just gets so much more in depth where it really makes or or breaks your, your hunts. And that's a cool thing that I'm starting to learn about. Turkey is like I'm pretty interested to see and, mike, I think you're eventually going to get hooked on the whole Turkey thing. You said, oh, I'm not going to go do it, and now you're like I want to kill one turkey and I think once you same thing with me like, once you kill that one turkey, it's like all right, this is yeah, this is what I want, what I'm gonna do.

Speaker 4: 1:14:27

I think I want it more this year than any other time, because this is my like welcome back year. I got the bear, I got the deer, I got the buck. You know, this is my, my year to do it, and that's the last thing I'm missing, yeah, well, waterfowl.

Speaker 1: 1:14:42

You didn't, you didn't, you didn't shoot a waterfowl this year nah, but then you know you say that, you say listen, you say that now and then you do it and it's very addictive. I am telling you.

Speaker 4: 1:14:55

I don't want to get addicted because here I am, like you know what. I'm going to message kyle and be like can you send me the list of some calls to purchase good now, if I get into waterfowl, I'm going to need to get decoys. I'm going to need to get waiters right out, right out.

Speaker 1: 1:15:07

Well, yeah, you need waiters, you definitely need waiters. You don't need decoys yet because, like, look at me, I haven't used decoys, but now I plan on getting decoys because I'm getting that invested into it. But the first couple of years there were no decoys. There's no calling now because I like it so much. Now I'm going to start getting into it and, yes, it's probably going to drain my bank account all over again.

Speaker 5: 1:15:34

When you go waterfall hunting, definitely take out at least two or three mortgages, because you will get addicted your first time out and you're going to go and spend a bunch of money. Like when I first got into waterfall hunting, I was like, okay, I could do this, and then I shot my first duck and then it turned into an addiction and last year I dropped fourteen hundred dollars on a brand new shotgun.

Speaker 6: 1:15:57

So it's like oh man, I'm gonna do the same thing I've got like six or seven dozen mallard decoys.

Speaker 5: 1:16:07

I've got diver decoys.

Speaker 3: 1:16:09

I've got waiters I had a whole field set up.

Speaker 5: 1:16:12

I had at one point in time I had 14 dozen field decoys and yeah, yeah, I was all in it. I got caught in the morning and deer hunt at night. I was nonstop Go. It would be up three, four days waterfall hunting in the morning, go get lunch, go up to the deer woods and then turn around and get up at midnight one o'clock, get to the water and all over again. Friday through Sunday.

Speaker 1: 1:16:40

It was nuts. Oh, oh god, that's insane.

Speaker 4: 1:16:42

That's like my you know where. Uh, so we did the course online for the trapping class. So tomorrow is our class and the only thing that like sunk in my brain for the trapping course is that you're only allowed to dispatch an animal with a 22 short or a pellet gun, and both firearms have to only carry three bullets maximum right. So I'm like I don't have a gun that fits that criteria. I need to buy a new gun. Like that's the only thing in my mind.

Speaker 6: 1:17:17

Like I need to go look for a new gun absolutely yeah, that's funny checking to one of those, those, those uh air pellet rifles, those like a homer x shoots 50 cal, those that's.

Speaker 5: 1:17:31

Yeah, that'd be the way I'd go does anybody in here spring turkey hunt with a bow set up?

Speaker 3: 1:17:41

this is gonna be my first year, okay I shot one, uh, years ago I think, with a bow.

Speaker 7: 1:17:50

Um, it like did nothing for me, like it. There was not really like, for me at least I didn't get that excitement really and I was like, oh, like it was a bucket list thing, like I've always wanted to kill one with the bow and I did. And I was like, oh, like it was a bucket list thing, like I've always wanted to kill one with the bow, and I did. And I was like, okay, like you know, it's awesome, like I, if if anybody's seen my I just posted on my story the other day um, like I have jacked up, I get every time I kill a bird, like that's literally how I get every single. I've killed in my lifetime probably over 50 birds I know for a fact over 50 birds and I get that jacked up every single time. But I don't know, it was just kind of like different with a bow. Like it was like a satisfaction, like yeah, you did it.

Speaker 5: 1:18:31

But like I want to like blast their fucking heads off yeah, so when I do archery setup, what I do is as I set up golf ball, up golf tees in the yard and I set ping pong balls on them, and then I sight my bow in to hit the ping pong ball every time, and then I use my normal broadheads and I just start flinging arrows at turkeys' heads. Honestly, the one year I actually surprised myself, the bird was at 30 yards and I pulled back and I'm like I bet you I can hit its head and I shot and all of a sudden you've seen something go flying off to the right. I'm like what the hell was that? You're like boy got it in the head.

Speaker 1: 1:19:18

I'm like, yeah, perfect see, it's, this is, this is the cool thing. You get to shoot them in the face, yep, and and I think after kyle said that, because kyle said that to me the other day and I was like I was thinking about, like I definitely want to kill one to bow because, like that's my thing, I'm a bow hunter but turkey might be that one thing where it's like you just want to take a shotgun and just shoot it directly, like in the face, like the power of the shotgun too, I think that's a little bit like I think deer hunting, when you bow hunt deer, like that's the ultimate adrenaline rush, like it. It is definitely different, you know. But with turkey you you always kind of think of shotguns and you know it's. It's just this thing where you just you blast it in the face and I mean, yes, you can get the. You know it's. It's just this thing where you just you blasted the face and I mean, yes, you can get the. You know bow, and you could decapitate it, you could get it, which, trust me, is is pretty sick on its own. But, like, when you think about turkey hunting, there's two things People non hunters always think why is turkey hunting in the spring and not during november, because it's thanksgiving.

Speaker 1: 1:20:27

That is always like. I've heard it so many times now this last couple weeks from my patients and it's like, oh, but it's not november, yeah, that's not. That's that. That's not how it works. That's not how it works. And then you think of a shotgun. You know, you think of shooting with the shotgun, but you know I can't speak until I actually shoot one. But you know, once I of Shooting with the shotgun, but you know I can't speak Until I actually shoot one. But you know, once I shoot one, then it's going to be the bow and then I will. Then I will give it a comparison. But I don't know, I'm just jacked up, I'm fired up, but Kyle is sitting outside, so that must mean he's ready To do some.

Speaker 7: 1:21:03

Other calls that I had. Oh, okay, I thought you.

Speaker 1: 1:21:04

Snuck outside to that's the bat to do some other calls that I had. Oh, ok, I thought you snuck outside.

Speaker 7: 1:21:08

That's, that's the bat wing right there. Ok that's the call.

Speaker 1: 1:21:16

I see Mike studying it, mike's like all right that. That's not what I have. He's writing down in his notes get bat wing call. I don't know what this is but Kyle says to get it.

Speaker 7: 1:21:35

That's, that's what you want, right there.

Speaker 4: 1:21:38

Okay, so what would you say is the easiest to start with? That's, that's the call.

Speaker 7: 1:21:42

Yeah, batwing for sure.

Speaker 1: 1:21:47

Look at that he's the call. Yeah, that way, for sure. Look at that he's taking notes already.

Speaker 4: 1:21:49

Is there a certain brand that you prefer?

Speaker 7: 1:21:52

um, so, uh, not really. Um, I get my calls from, uh, my friend anthony verga, and anthony actually makes all of the bone collector calls, so these are all straight out of his house, these are his calls and those are the calls I've been running for years, years, years, years, years years.

Speaker 3: 1:22:24

Is there anything to the difference in the millimeter thickness of the latex? Um, because I know some guys recently have been counting like oh well, thicker, thicker latex is better for durability, longevity, tone stuff like that. Is there any truth to that?

Speaker 7: 1:22:41

um, I do not know. I'll be honest with you. Um, I can imagine thickness wise. Do I believe that there are thinner calls and thicker calls? Yes, because some of my calls are a little bit thinner and they're more like um, more high pitched, kind of more like a Merriam. You know what I mean Like, kind of more like a merriam. You know what I mean like. So you can, obviously you can, hear the difference between an eastern and a merriam. It's, it's night and day, um, easterns are more raspy, merriams are, but it's more like um it's, it's, it's more high pitch, more than anything. So, yeah, I do think that there is um like as far as like the latex, I'm, you know, thickness wise. Yeah, I do believe that there is, but I I'm not 110 positive. No, I was just curious.

Speaker 1: 1:23:37

Thanks, I just uh. Two we'll do two topics so we can actually have a round table segment um. One I just checked my trail cam and I'm pretty can actually have a roundtable segment. One I just checked my trail cam and I'm pretty sure I have a double or triple bearded bird on my camera, which is pretty sick. I will, I'll send it to you, to you guys, to confirm, but it looks like it. And so, real quick, I wrote down to two quick roundtable table discussion discussion topics. And, kyle, you, you mentioned that you called in a coyote and I know calling in predators are pretty common during turkey hunting and Peyton had called in a or bumped a bear and it charged his decoy. Do you think, as a turkey hunter or anyone going out for turkey hunting, do you have a higher chance of calling in a predator than you would during the deer season or having an encounter with a predator during the turkey season season, vice versa with with deer season 150, 000 percent.

Speaker 7: 1:24:50

You're not going and from september to january february and grunting the whole time, you're not calling in anything. You know what I mean. Like I can't tell you how many times I've called in coyotes. I honestly couldn't even tell you how many times, and I've tried to talk to biologists about it. I've tried to talk to some of the game wardens and seeing if there's like in the future, if there's going to be changed to the predator season and I don't think that there is, there might be, I don't know, but New Jersey needs to be in New Jersey, like Kentucky, and have IOD season 365 days a year. That that needs to happen.

Speaker 7: 1:25:42

If, if, you know if, if people want to get serious about you know population control and you know preserving, uh, turkeys and even fawns, and you know there needs to be, it's it starts. What's the biggest common denominator that kills all that and that's old enough and big enough to kill that fucking coyotes, okay. So instead of having a season that's short of shit and you can only night hunt from january to mid-march, like, okay, how about we change up the regulations a little bit? But this glory, glorious state we live in won't do anything besides give you another buck tag next year.

Speaker 1: 1:26:26

I definitely agree and it's, it's something that we talked about with Mike Chamberlain. He said is a huge. You know, nest predators, coyotes, you know, I know in Newark Jersey we, the bobcat population is growing rapidly. Just the amount of bobcats I see now every single year. They're on the camera and those are a big killer to. You know, the cats are known to be some of the ultimate, ultimate predators and everything like that. And then something I was very interested about, that I that I read and it's they actually said owls, owls. I don't know if this is in New Jersey, but in and I know a bunch of other states, so I would imagine if it's another state owls are actually one of the biggest leading killers to to turkeys, or birds of prey, at least you know. I know we have bald eagles and stuff like that and that's what. That's what the article said. I don't know. You know what. You know what that goes into.

Speaker 7: 1:27:20

Or Kyle, what what you think, or or Austin or any of you guys, what you guys would think on that. I want to be honest with you. I think it was definitely at West. I want to say a couple years ago it was one of those groups that they put the cameras on the bald eagle nests and stuff and they watched the eggs and they watched the nests and stuff and like they watch the eggs and they watch the nest and stuff like that. They put a camera on a um on a turkey nest and there was I saw a video of an owl flying to the nest and standing over the eggs like it didn't, like it wasn't like messing with the eggs, but the owl did fly right to the nest in the middle of the night and I I honestly never would have thought that like an owl would do that. But, um, that is that's. That's actually interesting.

Speaker 4: 1:28:15

I have a question yeah, I'm not sure. Do turkeys nest in a tree or on the land?

Speaker 6: 1:28:22

On the ground.

Speaker 6: 1:28:25

They're a ground nesting bird. I know that birds of prey in general are big nest raters. I know raccoons will do a number on turkey nest populations. Coyotes do numbers on them there. Definitely, coyotes, you know, do numbers on them. Um, it's, it's. There definitely has to be some sort of management, but you know to what extent can you? You can't manage the. You know the birds of prey you can't manage. You know you could trap raccoons. You know you do all that stuff. But I I just think that as trapping is concerned, we've fallen too far behind, so to speak. I don't think we're going to be able to make up for what has not been trapped over the course of the last let's call it 50 years. Raccoons kill turkey populations, kill them like. That's what I face a lot now. I have trail cam pictures of raccoons and you know we'll go 35 plus pounds, probably the size of a small labrador. You know what I mean. They're huge and you know they're sucking up turkey eggs left and right. I know it yeah, they should.

Speaker 3: 1:29:42

They should just institute like uh, you know, instead of earn a buck, it's uh earn a turkey gotta kill raccoon before you. Uh can kill turkey either one man come on, fish and wildlife get it together. Should have been on the survey we all just did imagine every single hunter in new jersey they had every.

Speaker 7: 1:30:07

Every time you bought your license you had you had to fill your coyote tag. You had to kill two coyotes a year and five raccoons a year and you need to bring them to a check-in station, otherwise you can't hunt the following year could you imagine that's something?

Speaker 1: 1:30:24

how many imagine how many people wouldn't hunt that?

Speaker 6: 1:30:26

would be, awesome. You put two coyotes on somebody. That's a hard task, Even one.

Speaker 7: 1:30:36

That's hard for a lot of people. Yeah, there would be a lot more turkeys in.

Speaker 6: 1:30:41

New Jersey, because there would be people who could fill that quota.

Speaker 3: 1:30:45

You can do a trade-up program. You could just do three raccoons or one coyote, yeah, yeah, whatever. Man Coons are awful and we do ourselves no service whatsoever putting corn out for them so that they do get to that 35, 40-pound level, like you're talking about hey, but has anyone in this chat tried raccoon?

Speaker 4: 1:31:07

meat? Yes, yo, you couldn't fucking pay me to.

Speaker 3: 1:31:12

It is delicious.

Speaker 4: 1:31:14

It is fucking delicious.

Speaker 5: 1:31:16

Yeah, the one year my dad's got a buddy who he knows, a meat processor who specializes in that type of style of meat, like raccoon and whatnot, and my dad's buddy had texted me and he goes I think you could get me like a bunch of raccoons. I'm like, yeah, I could do that. So the one morning raccoon season started in Wisconsin like October 17th, and October 17th right at daybreak there was like a train of raccoons coming and I had six arrows in the quiver and I shot six raccoons that morning just all right in the line. It was like boom, boom, boom, boom, all stuck right there and I brought them to him and he's like, could you get me more? And I'm like sure, that night here they all come back the ones that I didn't get. I got the rest of them and they made coon sausage out of it phenomenal, like it was the best sausage I've ever had well, as long as it's something, I can pretend like I have no idea what it is and yeah I guess it's so good, listen it is, it is.

Speaker 1: 1:32:23

If anyone comes up to to to bear camp next year, I'll make sure Mike his dad, like listen, phenomenal cook, it is going to be high, high up on the request for the game. Dinner is going to be raccoon. I am going to make sure that raccoon is on the menu next year. Listen, yeah, I thought the same thing until mike didn't even tell me that he gave it to me. And then, once he did, I was like that shit was good. Like he was like what do you think? What do you think's in that? And at the minute he said that, I was like it's got like crazy like it's got to be right and it was phenomenal.

Speaker 1: 1:33:04

First of all, his dad knows how to throw down, and mike knows how to throw down too as well. Don't get me wrong, but pops knows how to do it like it is. He gave me a guano once. That was so it fell right off the bone. Just so much flavor, like if you're out in the woods and you need to survive, and as long as mike's dad's around somehow he's going to make it work where? You're going to be eating like a five course meal yes and you're not gonna die of starvation.

Speaker 1: 1:33:35

You're gonna be good like he's gonna do his thing. It doesn't matter what you catch, from fish to to any type of mammal reptile. Listen, this man throws down. I got, I got to give him all the credit in the world. The bear was was gone within, like within seconds. So raccoon is definitely going to be high up on there next year to have at the at the game dinner. But real quick, one more, one more for you guys and then then we'll let you guys go. We're starting to get get on the long end here. This is personal. We're all deer hunters here. All right, we all turkey hunt, some of us more than others. Some of us love it, some of us are new to getting into it. What do you guys think? What's harder to hunt, a mature buck or a turkey, turkey, turkey, turkey?

Speaker 7: 1:34:28

well, I say turkey, but I also, you know, my killing department on turkey is here I'm gonna say a buck and I'll give you one reason why I'll say one word, and that'll be the reason let me guess it's nose wind game over. That's it.

Speaker 3: 1:34:52

You can't even argue that yeah, I think I totally agree you can play the wind you can you can work around the wind.

Speaker 2: 1:35:04

I'll give you.

Speaker 3: 1:35:05

I'll give you another one, though. You can roost turkeys the night before and at least know where they are. You got a better chance. You might not see a buck for a week or longer.

Speaker 7: 1:35:13

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:35:18

Very good point. I think what may give why I struggle with turkey or why I say turkey, is it's the dedication. You're going to have to hunt turkey. You know you're getting up even earlier. You have so much less time to hunt um. Their eyesight is phenomenal now, then yet again deer.

Speaker 1: 1:35:45

Their nose is is phenomenal. Well, and yes, of course, I think being on the east coast or being in jersey, I can speak for jersey the nose isn't nearly as what it would be like in the midwest or up north or in canada, you know where, if we're there a hundred percent you know what. Yeah, you know, and I know Kyle can talk, cause Kyle does hunt the Midwest and I know Quinn's out in Wisconsin. So it is a definitely different ball game where you have predators. Like you know, on a unreleased episode that will is coming.

Speaker 1: 1:36:20

You know we're talking about wolves. You know we're we're. We're talking about the apex predators. You know we're talking about wolves. You know we're talking about the apex predators. You know we're dabbling in the mountain lion conversation in his episode. So you're talking about apex predators that are making these, these deer, a hundred times more skittish and a hundred times harder to hunt than it would be New Jersey. So I think also depends where you, where you know where you are, and things like that is going to play a factor as well so I said turkey would be probably the hardest for, in my eyes, hardest to kill one here in wisconsin over pressure.

Speaker 5: 1:36:58

I mean you get seven days to hunt. That that's all you get is seven days. So your season starts on a Wednesday and it ends the following Tuesday. So you've got. I don't know I think that I forget how many turkey hunters Wisconsin has and you, they break the state up into five or six different zones and you cram thousands of people into small zones all in seven days.

Speaker 5: 1:37:28

So these birds hear really shitty calling. They hear really good calling. They see decoys. They get shot at from the road. People are shooting them with rifles. People are, you know, they're waging war on turkeys here in wisconsin. Like if they could fly a helicopter with a 50-caliber minigun on it, I guarantee it someone in Wisconsin would be doing it.

Speaker 5: 1:37:50

But like I've noticed, like where I turkey hunt, we can't use decoys. The minute the birds see a decoy in the field, your hunt is over. The rest of the day they will fly, they won't roost there, they won't talk, they won't show up near the field Like, they just disappear. You take the decoys out of the picture, the birds will be in the field. You call too much, birds go away. You don't call enough, or you call less, the birds lose interest, they go, go on to the next property you call just right and you got to find what's right for that bird. Like I have high expectations for this spring because, like the birds, we kind of figured out the last two years what the birds like. So we're banking on the past experiences for this year and hopes that it works out the way it does. But, like for us, the birds fly down. They have endless amounts of ways that they could fly out of that tree. They could fly straight into the tree, hit the ground and fly away again like they can do practically practically whatever they want to do.

Speaker 5: 1:39:03

And for us, we've noticed that everybody on every property around us turkey hunts. So you have to figure out who's got what tag, what they're doing. You sit and watch. So it's like you know. Like Kyle said, for deer you got the wind. I can kind of outsmart the deer with hunting the off, like figuring out the wind and the directions and kind of figuring out bedding, because I have endless amounts of months to study this deer and how he travels, what wind he uses.

Speaker 5: 1:39:42

You know, whatever else turkey, they're, they're doing whatever a bird likes to do, like they're they're gonna do whatever. Like one day they could be in this corner and the next day they could be just not there. And it's kind of what we've noticed is just over pressure of hunting, like in the last few years, has really either hurt us or helped us. If we stay out of the property from scouting, we know the birds are there. We can get in, kill a bird right away. But if we scout and we notice everybody's out and about scouting or hunting, the pressure's so high that the birds kind of just lock down and they don't talk all spring. So that's that's why I said turkey's probably hardest.

Speaker 1: 1:40:33

Well, for me personally it's probably harder to hunt yeah, no, I listen, I, I, I agree right there with you. You know, it's, for me it's. I'm still going to give it to Turkey, um, but I think it depends on who you are, where you're hunting, and a lot of factors go into it. But you know, whether it's the nose or the eyes, they're both very, both tricky animals. But you know, I like, how you said, the time factor and the time factor with deer for Jersey, we have what? From September to February, mid February, you know it's, it's a long, it's a long game. You know, when we start rolling cameras, basically all year long, you know, with Turkey we're not, we're not really doing that. So it just depends, you know, and it's, it's, it was a interesting, you was interesting to hear everyone's point of view. But, guys, I think that's going to wrap it up. We are on the long, long run.

Speaker 1: 1:41:32

I wanted to do like an oh, do you want to say something, mike, or are you saying goodbye? He raised his hand. Look at that.

Speaker 4: 1:41:40

I have two questions actually. My first question is if you had a property that had like 20 to 30 turkeys during deer season, would you go towards that property comes turkey season?

Speaker 7: 1:41:56

I was waiting for this question. I was going to say something about it earlier and you want my honest answer. My honest answer is no, and the reason why is because the foliage that's on the ground, the accessibility of what turkeys eat in the fall versus what they eat in the spring. Now you got to figure this. Now everything is growing, everything is coming back to life in the spring, so these birds are gonna go and do whatever the hell that they do. I, me personally I don't deer hunt my turkey spots and I don't turkey hunt my deer spots and I don't. I rarely have turkeys on camera in the fall at my deer spots. Could they be there in the spring? Sure they could be, but I've never been to a spot and they were back in that area.

Speaker 3: 1:42:54

I have never seen it. I've had the opportunity.

Speaker 7: 1:43:02

They could be for sure, but me personally.

Speaker 3: 1:43:03

I personally haven't seen that. I've had a different experience where during rut I have the same flock of turkeys in one of my spots. This is the third year in a row that I've got like 13, 14 hens that come through and they just scratch all during the morning of rut and they come in all the time but they're never, ever there in the spring, ever it's funny you say that cuz my dad's house and one of my spots that I used to hunt growing up.

Speaker 7: 1:43:38

It was always the end October, beginning November. I always had a flock of hens that would come in, they would hang out, blah, blah, blah, and then they would move off, but there was never any times with them and it was only that time frame. Like they, and to this day they could probably still be doing that. I haven't been back in a while but um, but yeah, I, I've had that.

Speaker 3: 1:43:59

Um, I've had that happen before as well yeah, yeah and, and when I'm coming out of the tree stand, you know we have our fall. Turkey is one week and it's basically the first week of rut and uh, they don't care, you can get within. You know, probably 20 yards you could. You know, if you wanted to stalk them, not that you're allowed to in Jersey, but they don't even care, I don't even care that you're there.

Speaker 4: 1:44:22

I done it many times so next question is so the property that I've had a bunch of turkeys on is actually being worked on. So the guy is building a pen for pigs. He plowed a field to put some christmas trees up. You know there's a lot of good shit going on now for deer. I know that will spook deer. Would that spook turkeys as well?

Speaker 7: 1:44:49

what do you mean?

Speaker 4: 1:44:50

he plowed the field like he completely leveled the field like a part of the field is plowed and he planted christmas trees. Why? I don't fucking know why, but that'll probably bring the turkeys in there

Speaker 6: 1:45:06

yeah they're turning something like that and it's going to bring bugs.

Speaker 3: 1:45:09

It's going to bring, yeah, they'll probably always in there yep, I've always seen a lot of turkeys, especially when people first like disc the field or whatever, it's always loaded with them yeah, good, good, oh that, look at that.

Speaker 1: 1:45:24

That mike just got a big. Yeah, he's like. Yeah, all right, he's like first, you're mad at this ass, like what the fuck is he doing that for?

Speaker 3: 1:45:32

like god damn he's ruining my turkey hunting.

Speaker 4: 1:45:36

Yeah, right in front of my tree stand. This fucker planted six rows of christmas trees. For what? And they're all like? He's got like this electrical line going through them. I'm like what the fuck is going on now quick, quick question on that.

Speaker 1: 1:45:53

I, you know I've seen the property and everything like that. I know I know you get. You know the club leases and everything like that. So it's Christmas trees, is it for Christmas tree? Is he making a Christmas tree farm or he just, he just made it just just to do it?

Speaker 4: 1:46:09

OK, so for my knowledge, in the state of New Jersey if you plant pine trees on the on your property, you get like a tax exam. So I'm pretty sure he did that for the taxes. Because it's only like six or eight rows, I like I don't know maybe 20 to 30 Christmas trees in each row. It's not like his whole entire property is covered in Christmas trees and they're little fucking things like this. And do you know how slow Christmas trees grow?

Speaker 6: 1:46:37

yeah, yeah exactly what the fuck is he doing listen if these are the big big are they the real Christmasmas trees or they just, I don't know I'll take a picture and I'll post it on my instagram you. You should be pumped about that, depending on what kind of tree they are okay, and what that's going to do to what's that what that's going to do to the day? Yeah, that's, and that's what I was exactly thinking I was thinking this.

Speaker 1: 1:47:06

This might be a good thing. Listen, mike, I could come up, you know if you take a picture, but I I also have an app that will tell you exactly what it is. You take a picture of it and it'll scan it for you and it'll tell you exactly the plant or the tree and it gives you all the details and it'll give you the name and everything like that. So if it is the correct one, you definitely should be pumped now. Yet again, it is a very slow growing thing to me. Yeah, say yeah, send it to austin, he'll. He'll tell you. Hopefully, you know it is the good one. It's exactly what you need because, listen, that that is exciting. It is exciting. It's something that you, you should look forward to now. Hopefully you'll be hunting on the property long enough to see. You know them, them grow in and everything like that. But you know we'll see.

Speaker 5: 1:47:50

But, um, anything else from you guys, yeah and like with him planting all that stuff and doing the work and stuff out there. I grew up farming and I cannot tell you how many times we've actually had to run deer out of the way of the tractor while working our fields so that way we didn't run them over. Like we'll be baling hay and the deer will be picking hay in front of the tractor and we actually had to get out and like swat at the deer with our hats to get them out of the way out and like swat at the deer with our hats to get them out of the way. Or like in the fall we were cutting corn and we get done with one swatter on the field and the deer are already lining up with their meal tickets waiting to get into the cornfield and then you stop the tractor because something happened with the combine or with the cutter and they're just standing there looking at you like yeah, we're, we're gonna share the field with you. So it was like they're not, they're not. Like if it's a new noise or a new thing they'll be spooked by it, but it's a continuous thing so they get used to it.

Speaker 5: 1:48:59

Like the one property I used to hunt that my grandpa would farm, he'd start up the tractor and the deer would run to the field and meet you there to see what you were doing out there. So and like here in wisconsin they do a lot of logging. If, if you guys are out cutting trees, shit, you not fire up the chainsaw, cut one branch, guarantee it. You'll have a deer come in and look at that branch that you cut and we'll eat on it while you're out cutting either more branches or just running a chainsaw. Because I've had it happen to me. Loggers will actually go through, log off a property and it's like, well, deer hunting's over, but that's the where I would go and sit, because we can't bait in wisconsin. So I'd sit clear cuts like that and we'd harvest deer eating on that fresh cut that they just they were literally in five minutes ago and the deer just palmed in it yeah true, I mean that's that's like that here in new york.

Speaker 4: 1:49:56

That's pretty similar to the way like the bears work. Because, uh, like three, four years ago when you were able to hunt bear on private property over bait, you know, me and my girlfriend, we went in there earlier to sit and it was just dry all day. But I realized, like on trail camera, after you're done baiting, you're making noise, you're flipping that bait barrel. You got chains connected to the bait barrel. It makes noise, that's a dinner bell to them. So I got up, I refreshed the bait barrel. It makes noise, that's a dinner bell to them. So I got up, I refreshed the bait. I'm flipping the barrel, I'm talking just as loud as I normally will, would do while refreshing the bait. And I'm telling you like within 10 minutes, 10, 15 minutes of refreshing that bait pile, she had a bear come in and she shot that bear. So I I believe it, I definitely believe it I, I have that same experience too.

Speaker 5: 1:50:50

I'll run baits and I'll actually have bears come in and sit next to me while I'm freshening the bait and they sit five, ten yards away and I throw them a donut and they pick it up, walk away, and then they they come back for another piece. So like it's just a routine thing, like if it's something that they're accustomed to, like hey, that noise is dinner, it's not going to spook them, it'll be accustomed. So you can kind of find the loophole in the system and you can actually get them to come in when you actually want them to.

Speaker 3: 1:51:22

Yeah, All right guys, oh sorry, oh, last one, last one so I was just gonna, I was gonna mention with the field that you were talking about, that that farmer just plowed up um and this next week, if you've got period e, go out there between 9, 30 and noon and into that field, especially if there's rain, if we have morning rain, or into the afternoon. You, if there's turkeys in the area, they're probably going to be in that field. You know come. You know if it's a still a fresh power, fresh disc, because they want whatever's coming up out of that soil because of the rain. So it's probably be a good option for you too.

Speaker 4: 1:52:03

I appreciate that because I looked at it and I was like, damn, I'm fucked no no, not at all, man telling you oh yeah, rain

Speaker 1: 1:52:11

rain is a. Yeah, something I learned is rain is a is actually a pretty good good thing, and hit those fields when it. When it rains, I was like the first thing I learned about about turkey hunting Guys. This was absolutely amazing. We can keep going on and on and on. Look at that, that thing is sick. That thing is sick. I'm going to make that for Bianca. I'm going to make her a fan, just so when she gets hot in the summer she can fan herself off and there you go, Mike.

Speaker 1: 1:52:40

everyone has been drinking all night. How many beers did you finish, Mike? Mike everyone has been drinking all night. How many beers did?

Speaker 4: 1:52:44

you finish, Mike?

Speaker 1: 1:52:48

Eight and he's got to go for his trapping course in the morning.

Speaker 3: 1:52:54

He's just trying to settle his nerves.

Speaker 1: 1:52:56

That's awesome. I will say the only bad thing I can say about turkey season right now is the scouting is. I have poison ivy all on my, my right arm and I don't know if you guys could see in a triangle. Can you guys see that?

Speaker 4: 1:53:21

oh oh shit, that's my, I do not know how the hell that happened.

Speaker 7: 1:53:28

My boy got branded seriously. Bianca was looking at me one day and I was stretching and I was like yo, this shit is so.

Speaker 1: 1:53:36

She's like how the fuck do you have a triangle on your like? It is a like, almost a perfect triangle.

Speaker 4: 1:53:46

Fun fact about poison ivy. Do you know that two in ten people actually have a reaction to the reaction? So just like mike, okay, you have a triangle. There's other people that when they have poison ivy their whole body would break out. Did you know? That no, but that's not surprising, that's not surprising.

Speaker 4: 1:54:08

I am one of those people. If I get poison ivy on my arm I'm talking about from my neck, all the way down the private products, the private parts of everything it gets covered in poison ivy. Wait, whoa jeez. The only way to get rid of it and the only way to get rid of it is to go to your dermatologist and get a shot in your ass I've gotten that before.

Speaker 1: 1:54:33

Yeah, my wife, I was gonna get it on this one, but this my wife had it, so bad, she got it.

Speaker 3: 1:54:41

She was weeding, weed whacking in the front yard in our old house. I got it and she got it into her face and eyes and was rubbing it. She wound up in the hospital for three days. It was awful, it was absolutely that's rough.

Speaker 6: 1:54:54

I can go roll in it and be fine so I used to be like that.

Speaker 1: 1:54:57

I used to be like that. I used to never get it, never I could roll, everything was fine. I never got poison, ivy, never covid hit and I don't know what. Something just changed, the whatever changed in my body, and I got it for the first time in between my fingertips I'm a fishing and I got it and holy hell.

Speaker 4: 1:55:18

I'm an outdoorsman. I love the outdoors. I hunt, I fish, I do all that. I went and got an allergy test done. I am allergic to six different trees.

Speaker 1: 1:55:32

At least you're not allergic to. I always feel bad for people who are allergic to deer dandruff that sucks You're allergic to what I'm allergic to the deer dandruff I get like my skin gets super red and it burns.

Speaker 5: 1:55:54

So what?

Speaker 1: 1:55:55

you have to wear gloves and everything like you have to be like yeah I use.

Speaker 5: 1:55:59

What I usually do is I just wear. I just wear sleeve my sleeves, my long sleeve shirt and just deal, just go at it with my hands. I don't really do uh gutting with t-shirts on anymore because I am allergic to it and my it looks like I've got. I was laid in a in the sun for hours and my arms are just red and they're on fire and they itch and and I'm like man it sucks.

Speaker 1: 1:56:25

Yeah, shit, that sucks, you're like I think you're one of like two or three people that I know I I recorded with this guy. Um, he goes by cam S on Instagram I think Mike is introduced us cause on the uh freezer fillers and he said that uh, he said that, uh, that he learned out he learned the hard way, that, uh, he was allergic to, to deer dandruff and everything like that, where I think he actually needed, uh, an epi pen and everything like that. Um, I believe, I believe I can't remember this was back like when the podcast first started. But, um, guys, again we could keep going. I, at some point I gotta cut it down, it's the midwest.

Speaker 1: 1:57:02

Goodbye. It's great to get the turkey talk segment going full swing. This is episode number two, um, and you know, the first one of that we're doing ever of the turkey talk roundtable segment. We will be doing another, of course, roundtable segment, probably later in the after turkey season or whatever. I would love to get you guys back on, everyone on and see how they did and maybe even get more people.

Speaker 1: 1:57:26

We are going to be moving to StreamYard at some point. Teams is we're almost done with teams. We're going to be moving to StreamYard where it will actually record everyone separate, and that's the good thing. And then, yes, we can go on Instagram and everything like that. The game show which on instagram and everything like that. The game show which I think the first episode of the game show, if I am not correct. Let's just double check that real quick before I is going to be damn, where the hell did I put it? It is. It will be thursday, may 30th at 7 pm. That will be be streamed on Instagram, youtube, it's going to be on everything, and we're still going to be dropping it also as a podcast episode. If you did miss it Now, austin, you're not going to be in the first one, but you will be in the second one.

Speaker 6: 1:58:18

Go ahead and give me my title belt.

Speaker 1: 1:58:20

You guys.

Speaker 6: 1:58:21

The first one, unless you want to challenge.

Speaker 1: 1:58:24

Austin if you want to challenge, because I think the first one, unless you want to challenge Austin. If you want to challenge because this I think the first one's going to be all New Jersey hunting and fishing and outdoor facts, now if you really want to challenge, you're more than welcome on the first one and I won't hold it against you for the second one that we do where you could still come on for the second one.

Speaker 6: 1:58:40

Or you can do my belt Right.

Speaker 1: 1:58:41

All right Then we'll be in the first one and he's going to, he's gonna, he's gonna hold true to to a bunch of guys and you know quentin will get you on and everything like that. We'll we'll get, um, well, I think we're gonna do it, I think three times, you know every three months, and then see how everyone responds to it, and then we're going to do that again. We are going to be doing our second annual meet and greet in bow shoot. That is going to be coming this summer. The details are going to get hashed out soon and we'll let you guys know ASAP. Our website is almost done. That's going to be done soon too. We just got she just got new shot glasses from boondocks honey.

Speaker 1: 1:59:21

I know it may be a little. Hey, we just got boondocks hunting. I know it may be a little. We just got boondocks hunting. Shot glasses, that's going to be going on store. We got frank's uh line that is going to be hitting the store as well, where you can get all our merch and everything like that. America mike, do you want to talk about what you got going on? That's yep. America mike, let it go yeah.

Speaker 4: 1:59:41

So on j 29th actually, the place that I'm staying at right this moment, this beautiful place look at this chandelier made out of antlers. This is a lodge out in PA that I've been part of since COVID actually, and the owner passed away recently and we're hosting a fundraiser on June 29th, just trying to keep the lodge open. You know, it's just one individual that's running it right now. She's the most adorable littlest old lady you'll ever meet. Her name is Carol. I wish she was here. I think she's probably in bed right now.

Speaker 4: 2:00:18

But you know I would appreciate any and all support to this fundraiser, because not only is it going towards the lodge, it's going to all of the members. That's part of this lodge and everyone's pretty similar to me. They all live in the city and they come out here to just get away from it, and we all know how that is. So all the support is needed and wanted and thankful if it could happen. So June 29th there's a fundraiser. Dm, me, dm, mike, dm, anybody in this conversation I'm pretty sure they can point you to the right direction. It's in Stroudsburg, pennsylvania, so let me know.

Speaker 1: 2:00:58

Yeah, definitely, and that's a big thing for us here. We talked about it at the game dinner and that's something that I may not be able to attend, but somebody from boondocks hunting will be hopefully attending and we will. We are going to be given away, raffling off a mulchery edge pro and then probably some other stuff as well. Mike, do you have another question or another topic do you want to talk about?

Speaker 4: 2:01:20

yep, go ahead yeah, I wanted to talk about the cookies that was at your game dinner. Those are the best fucking cookies I knew that it was coming. Those cookies were the best. My sister is a baker, she's a cook, she's a chef, she does all that shit. Yo those cookies, phenomenal, phenomenal yeah, quitting and awesome.

Speaker 1: 2:01:43

We're definitely gonna have to get you guys next year. I mean, it was. It was a hell of a time. The food was phenomenal. Um, you know, and I want to thank you know, anyone who's listening, who did, did come out and support guys. Whoever couldn't make it listen, we completely understand. We got plenty more events that are going to be coming. This is going to be a yearly thing that we do all the time now. Um, I I think it a great time. Steve, I know you got to go out for youth day. Good luck tomorrow. We're going to end it right here. Everyone, I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and we'll see you guys next time.