00:00:02 Speaker 1: So we come to Covenan County Hospital at a hurry and got him minee poolish clothes off shot? What ever were on that tile floor? 00:00:17 Speaker 2: How would you like to hear some turkey stories from Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and even Old Mexico. Well, my friends, if you said yes to that, you are in luck. This is our annual Turkey Stories episode. We've rounded up some of the best, most unique stories that we could find from a completely unique set of Homo sapiens, both old and young, both men and women. But what they have in common is a love for spring mornings and wild turkeys. I've said this before, but you can learn a lot just from listening to stories. Today, we're gonna hear from college sophomore Holly Newkirk on our first solo turkey It's good. We'll hear from a man who got attacked by Bobcat. We'll hear of a man getting shot. We'll hear one bizarre story of two shots fired at the same turkey. We'll even hear from Wild Turkey Dot biologist Mike Chamberlain. But sadly, one of our storytellers, mister Claude Strawther of Alabama passed away in January of twenty twenty six. We recorded a story back in the fall, and we'll be posting it posthumously. I really doubt that you're gonna want to miss this one, And hey, you can do me a solid by checking out my new film about hunting mountain lions in Utah with some legendary houndsmen and mule men. It's up on the Media to YouTube channel as part of our new twelve and twenty six film series. It means that aside from our weekly releases on that channel, every month, we're releasing. 00:01:55 Speaker 3: A full scale film. 00:01:57 Speaker 2: Watch and comment and let me know what you think about line management and about riding those mules. My name is Clay knucom and this is the Bear Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the story of Americans who lived their lives close to the land. 00:02:26 Speaker 3: Brought to you by to Covi's Boots. 00:02:28 Speaker 2: I'm a cowboy boot man and I've been wearing to Covis for years. They're the most comfortable boot I've ever put on. Good boots for good times. Here we begin found ourselves in the spring. The cyclic nature of this life and the hunter's connection to the natural system of the earth are astonishing to me. All towered by the turning of this globe, the changing of the seasons. What it does is it makes me grateful that I've been given another spring. Our first story is told from the Heart of the Ozarks by auctioneer and squirrel dog man Deluxe, Gary Farmer. 00:03:23 Speaker 3: But he's also a turkey hunter, Deluxe. 00:03:26 Speaker 2: This is a story of when his friend Frank recruited him to help double team a gobbler, and the conclusion of their hunt is so wild it's hard to fathom. 00:03:38 Speaker 3: Here's Gary Frank. 00:03:40 Speaker 4: He used to lived out the road here a few miles was. 00:03:44 Speaker 5: Raised up with him. 00:03:46 Speaker 4: He's a big turkey hunter, big hunter of any kin, and so he tried to call this turkey up for quite a while, and he could never get it killed. And I ran in to him, and he said, I've got a turkey. I can take you right towards Goblin. I can make him gobble. And he said, I can't do a. 00:04:07 Speaker 5: Thing with him. 00:04:08 Speaker 4: If you'll go with me, I think we can get him. 00:04:12 Speaker 3: So I go with him. 00:04:15 Speaker 4: We go to this spot, and he said, he'll be all right over there on that hillside and he'll go And he called that turkey gobble, just like he said. And I said, if you'll give me a little bit, I said, I'm going to go around him. But you know how this country is. You may have to cross a deep holler to do it, you know. But I made a big circle and I got around him on the other side, and that turkey's never heard me call. A lot of times. You can change calls on a gobbler and he will come. Lot of times you can change directions on him and you can call him in. So anyhow, I'm going to try to hit the other side of him. We didn't even discuss this, but we were thinking the same way. I got over there and I called, he got he'd start going the other way. When he did, I'd move in on him. Frank would call, he'd start coming my way. He would move in on him. We didn't even discuss doing that, but I knew what I was going to do. He was thinking the same way. We filled with this turkey for thirty or forty five minutes, and I'm talking I wouldn't crawl but maybe ten steps at a time. 00:05:51 Speaker 5: And tuck forever. 00:05:54 Speaker 4: But finally we both closed in on him, and he'd go to him, he'd come towards me, back and forth. Finally I saw him. I saw the gobbler, and he was good, and I pulled in on him. I sat up there and he come to me, and I saw him and I shot him. And while he is flopping, we both ran to him opposite directions. I mean, I was on one side of the gobbler, he is on the other. And he said, I got him. I finally got him, and I was all confused because I shot the turkey. 00:06:36 Speaker 3: Well, I said, did you shoot? 00:06:39 Speaker 5: What you mean? 00:06:40 Speaker 3: Did I shoot? 00:06:41 Speaker 5: Y'all killed the turkey. 00:06:42 Speaker 4: We shot at the exact same time. 00:06:46 Speaker 3: He didn't know that I shot. 00:06:48 Speaker 4: I didn't know that he shot, so I just left it that a way, And he was so tickled that he killed that turkey. 00:07:00 Speaker 5: And I didn't even try to claim the turkey. 00:07:03 Speaker 3: But we shaw at the exact same Now, did you tell him that you shaw? I finally told. 00:07:08 Speaker 5: Him that I did shoot. 00:07:10 Speaker 3: Yeah, that is unbelievable. 00:07:12 Speaker 4: That's an honest truth that happened. 00:07:16 Speaker 2: I think the statistical probability of two guys working a turkey to the exact spot in shooting at the exact same moment such that it sounds like a single shot. Is astronomical. And yes, it does make one think about safety in the Turkey woods. And that's exactly where the next story leads us into Lake Pickle of the Backwoods University podcast right here on this feed recorded this story for me. It's of his friend mister James Quick, and Lake describes mister James as an old school Mississippi turkey hunter who is turkey hunting in Covington County when the turkey hunters were in the single digits. And this is the coolest thing. He only uses his natural voice to call turkeys. He once forgot his turkey call and realized that he didn't need one. He never turned back. Here's mister James Quick with a scary story. 00:08:16 Speaker 1: We went to jeff Davis County one morning and I let him out. He went to one field. I went on down the road. I let my other hunting buddy out and I went to the bottom. It was a sixty ac or saw a bean field I walked across that had just been chisel plowed. I ask you play about that day before you can't hardly walk in it's rough. Well, I heard a turkey. I headed towards Lewis, walk just as hard to towards the river, as hard as I could go. Well, I heard the first my buddy shoot. I took him out two or three step and this fellow he weighed probably two and forty five fifty pounds, need about five ten. You could hear him holler from here to Jackson just about it. Well, he hollered. I said, oh, he's got that big turkey. He's been after. I took through four more steps towards my turkey, and he hollered again. I said, well, shoot, what did the world's going on? I said, you could be quiet, let the rest of us go to our turkey and get one of you where you hollered you? Well, he hollered again the third time. I knew something had happened. So I turned around, I broke, I run till I couldn't run no more, and I which I was going back to the truck. I knew that I knew their second hunt buddy would get to him before I could. I knew I figured he'd slipped and filled his gun barrel full of dirt. And his gun barrel blowed up on him. Well, I find him to the pickup. I blowed the horn, let him know I was coming, and I took home. Got up there and I started down the log road with my pickup, and just before I went over that hill, I saw him coming up it. My buddy had him by the arm leading him out. He got shot in the back. This fellow that had just got out of Partsman the week before had decided he's going turkey hunting. Well, my buddy was calling the turkey. He was behind a bunch of bushes, but he opened over to the right. He knew that he's gonna come out in that open, so he just changed positions. When he did, this fellow that had just got out of Partsment saw him move and shot him at the back. 00:10:53 Speaker 5: Thought he was the turkey. 00:10:54 Speaker 1: Well, he just shot movement. Saw movement, He saw movement and shot him. My gracious hunting. But it knocked him completely over. He got him in the right shoulder all from a waist all the way up to his ears loose. But he had that much of him stick it out, you know, out by the tree. It knocked him out for a second, but he turned and looked up. He saw the man walk up to him and look down at him, and the fella says, oh, my goodness, I've killed a man. Well, he broke and ruined and he stopped at the first house that he could get to, and he called the law hisself. But in the meantime we got to him and got him into truck and we started the hospital callings with him. It was cold that morning. He hat on army field jacket. We didn't pull it off. We didn't. We're just trying to get him to the hospital. And we got on the road and he says, now, Jamie eat dying. I don't think, but says drive safe, but don't waste no time. So we come to Conan County Hospital in a hurry and got him in there, pulled his clothes off, shot went everywhere on that tile floor. Luckily he shot it for seven and a half bird shot. But I was in there in the emergency room and the nurse and doctor Davehead got the other nurse cut his t shirt off. You can hold it up, and it looked like a screen off of a windows and she said, how many shot is in that shell? And I said, ma'am, I don't know. She says, well, you help me. Just a minute had him laying on the table on his stomach. She said, I'm all count and you cover up. When I get through, count and I'll count some more. We counted between one hundred and seventy five and two hundred shot that went in him. 00:13:04 Speaker 6: Oh my goodness. 00:13:07 Speaker 1: But all I'm says the good Lord was watching over him. I'd say the man it shot, he wasn't called along. Game warden got there, got his gun. Guess what the second shell and his gun was buckshot. 00:13:20 Speaker 5: Oh my goodness. 00:13:22 Speaker 1: I mean if it had it been up, if had that been the first shot, it would have killed him. But he could never go back over there. He the rest of the turkey hunt, and he done. He does it on his own land. He couldn't go if he thought somebody else was gonna be in the woods with him. 00:13:40 Speaker 3: Scarred him. 00:13:41 Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't blame him, and shake anybody, shake anybody up. And when he died, they were still getting he would have shot. It would work to the skin and they could pick out. No way, that's wild to shame it. 00:13:57 Speaker 2: He didn't get the turkey. 00:13:59 Speaker 1: Well, he told me where turkey was at and he told me. He said, I can't go, honey. He said, you go get him, said, he said, I've seen him that he's he's the biggest that over here. Well, I went over there one morning and went to him. He wouldn't gobble. All I could hear was a big old turkey. Sound like a jake, I said, Well, I called to him, see what it is. I called that turkey up. That's the biggest turkey that I've ever seen. At the biggest beard on a turkey. I blowed leaves all over him at twelve steps. Oh no, I just I clean missed you. Never did I never did go back, honey anymore. Yeah, never did go back, honey anymore. 00:14:54 Speaker 2: This guy had over one hundred and seventy five pellets in his back, and almost all ti of hunting involving firearms. 00:15:02 Speaker 3: We wear hunter's orange or. 00:15:04 Speaker 2: High visibility colors so that others can see us, except turkey hunting, because those rascals can seek color, so you got to be camoed out. That's also why they don't let us use rifles. Because shotguns are close range guns. You really got to be able to identify your target before you shoot. But that doesn't always happen. Turkey hunting can be dangerous, but don't let that keep you out of the woods. I think the key for all of us is to be a little paranoid, not of getting shot, but of shooting someone. I think the responsibilities got to be on each of us individually. It sends chills down my spine to think of shooting someone. My dad, Gary Believer Nukem, was once in a camp where a guy got peppered in the back and it really ended up being kind of inconsequential. It didn't do a lot of harm to the guy, but just scared everybody. But with today's loads, it could be serious. And sorry to get serious so quick, but I've got a question for you that's going to solve your little conundrum of being stressed out about getting shot while turkey hunting. And that is what is a Bear Grease Turkey Stories episode without a story from Arkansas's Andy Brown. 00:16:17 Speaker 3: I mean, really here, he is our buddy Andy. 00:16:21 Speaker 2: He's got a short story he told me about hunting with one of his best buddies back in the nineteen eighties when it was legal to kill two birds in a single day on a three bird limit. 00:16:33 Speaker 7: Me and my old buddy Wayne. We cracked thousands of miles after turkeys. But but anyway, me and Wayne, we went up on the mountain one morning and parked the rig right on the highway and we went south off the mountain. We knew where there was a couple of big saddles. We got off down there at daylight and went into the first saddle, and I mean it was a fine morning, man. You could have heard one five miles probably that morning, but nothing. And so we just went right on through that one and dropped on off down into the second saddle. And when we walked through it, we got out on the south end of it there and just as far as you could hear, I mean, at the bottom of the mountain, there was a couple of turkeys. 00:17:26 Speaker 5: Got one down there. 00:17:29 Speaker 7: And Wayne and said, what are you gonna do? I said, Wayne, that's a long that's a long ways. I mean, that's that's a long ways down there. He said, well, we ain't got nothing else to do. I said, well come on, And that's when I said, you know, I said, that's probably my thirties. Then, you know, it didn't really matter. It was all downhill. And so we get off there and those turkeys are in an old road at the bottom of the mountain that we could have drove to if we didn't. If we didn't do they were there, but I mean it's a long ways off the top of the mountain. And we get down there and we got set up, and anyway, I put in calling those turkeys and they were just they just they were in the road and I knew they were, but they just here they come. They were just they were just turning handsprings down there, I mean this Coppinger tail off. And they came up there and Wayne was sitting to my left and anyway, has gun up and I can't remember Wayne shot a I think it was a eleven hundred and three inch magnum, which in those days was the gun, you know. Anyway, those turkey I seen this soul God were coming up the leg down there, and I thought was way too far. And about that time of Wayne just curl wham, you know, And when he did, I seen a turkey fly and I seen Wayne he shot again, you know, and I said. 00:18:59 Speaker 6: Why in the world did you shoot at that dirty so far? He like, kill two? What do you want me to do? He said, you know? 00:19:18 Speaker 3: And so we go down there. 00:19:19 Speaker 5: And he killed two biggins. 00:19:21 Speaker 7: I mean, I'm talking about them that had feels like they got the brick in their chest. You know. Of course, it was one of them warm April mornings, and in it was I mean, it's just straight up, and I mean you got to go back through two saddles, and once you get through them, it's still. But we finally pulled out of there. I mean we slathered up to hot. 00:19:45 Speaker 3: Kwam and he said very usual. 00:19:49 Speaker 2: Edy's story involved intimate details of the cardinal directions, sound effects, and as always, a hearty laugh. That was a good one, and our next story will probably also get a hearty laugh from you, or at least a smile, because it is from the University of Arkansas College sophomore Holly Newkirk. She has such a fresh, energizing story and she did something that was really hard. I think you're gonna hear a passion in her voice that's real and genuine. And I also want to note that this isn't her first gobbler. She's killed many, she's a veteran, but this is the first bird that she killed completely solo. I think you're gonna see what I mean this is a great story. 00:20:40 Speaker 8: I'm Holly Newkirk and I'm from Devallswaff, Arkansas, but I'm a student at the University of Arkansas. And last sprink, I killed my first turkey by myself or moved to Faville in the fall and didn't really like it up here because there wasn't enough honey going on. And so when spring came around, I was like, there's a bunch of mountains up here. I'm going to find her turkey honey land. So during like January February ish, I started looking on on X. I was trying to find like big chunks of land where I thought it'd be good. And I found this one person and he had like probably around two hundred acres and so I put his address on my phone and I drive down like four miles of gravel roads by myself, and as I pull up to his house, there is ten strutters in his yard and I'm like, I have hit a gold mine. He ends up giving me the permission to hunt his land. I call my down the way home. I'm like shaking of excitement. So turkey season comes around. I have gone to his place like three different times since then to scout where I think the turkeys are, and I found a spot that I thought was ideal. So opening morning comes, I go to his house. He wants me to stop by his house and talk to him first before I go out. He's like, hey, there might be somebody hunting this side of the property line, but you hunt this side, like you have all that land on that side. And I'm like, okay, sounds perfect. So day it's already cracking daylight. I'm scared of the dark, scared of coyotes, so I wait to live it for daylight. I get to where I was trying to go and they immediately start gobbling and I'm like, oh my word, like they were closed. I'm like they're on coping me already and I'm not where I'm trying to get yet. So I just kind of sit down by this tree and I'm like, okay. So I have my dcoy beside me, and I'm like, maybe I should put it out, but I want to be able to crawl around if I want to. The turkey's like going different direction, so I get my gum beside me, have my dkoe beside me, and they're just hammering, just non stop the whole time. So I sit there. I don't really make any calls. I'm kind of quiet, want to see what they're gonna do when getting daylighter closer to fly down. I make a little call here and there. They cut me off every time, and I'm like, oh my word, and so I thought I was in the money. I put my dakoy like ten feet in front of me and just like set it out a little way so they could see it in case they needed to. And I kind of hit behind this tree a little bit. And I'm sitting there and I'm ready. Fly down comes. I see a hen fly down, and I hear another one down. That's all I see. I see them fly the opposite direction, and I'm like, that's not ideal, but maybe they'll come around. They kind of shut up for a minute, and I'm like, oh no, okay, So I make a little more call. Nothing happens, and I'm like that's weird. And so I start ooching around a little bit around this fence line and then they start cranking up again, and I'm like, okay, I know where they are now. They're across this draw from me and a beautiful pasture that's over there, and I can get to them, and they're goblin again, just NonStop, NonStop. So I get over there. I get closer. As I'm walking through the woods, I booger two hens and I'm like, oh no, and I kind of freeze for a minute, and then they like put off, but not anything too serious. They just did a little putt off and ran away a little bit. I get to where I want to be, by this tree right where I can see over this pasture, you know it like has a little crest over the pasture, and I'm calling they're cutting me off. I see two heads, bright red heads, coming at me, and I'm like, oh, this is perfect. They're coming. I'm shaking so bad. And I hear another one gobble off to my left a little bit. I'm like, okay, so there's three long goods right here. This is a great I have a laser on my gun, so I get my laser on. I'm sending up I got I'm sitting there. I'm sitting there and I'm like, okay, I need about twenty more steps twenty yards or so, and they're gonna be like ideal. They're on the edge of range then, but a little bit. But I just wanted them to be close. I didn't want to risk it. They're coming into good Send. There, somebody besides me shoots. I freak out. I'm like, won the world. I see the turkey what I thought flopped, and then I see the other one running and I'm like, oh my gosh, someone just shot my turkey right out from under me. And I'm like, I know I'm on the right property line. And I see two guys from this tree line that's just like fifty yards for me, running towards the turkey, and I'm like what in the world. And then I like immediately duck down back into the drawl and I'm like hi because I was scared, and I'm checking on neck. I'm like, I know ONEm we're supposed to be calling my dad. Freaking out, and I'm like crying at this point because I'm like, I had these turkeys in my lap and someone just shot my bird, and I'm like trying to ease over and see them, and I see them, but they're walking away and they don't I'm a bird, and I'm like what happened? And then it starts drizzling raining. At this point, I go under a big cedar tree. I kind of hide from the rain a little bit, kind of get myself together. I'm regrouping, like I'm just gonna wait a minute there. The shot shouldn't scare them off too much, Like there's still two other birds around, I know, and sit there, wait for the rain to pass, and then I start like just easing around the fence lines, going up and down the draws on the fence line. Everything for probably about an hour and a half, calling every now and then, crow calling every now and then. Nothing was happening, nothing was cranking up. I was sad. I was on the phone my dad and my dad this is just heartbreaking, and he's like, Holly, stay with it. And I'm like, okay, Dad, I'll stay with it. And I'm like, it's been an hour and a half, two hours, i haven't heard anything. And I look at the property line. I'm like, okay, he told me to stay on this side, but somebody else was hunting this side and shot my bird out from under me already, So I'm gonna go to the side that he told me I shouldn't go to because somebody's gonna be hunting there. Seeple that were hunting apparently didn't know what side either. So I'm like, okay, I'll just go to their side now, and I'm like, he really didn't. He just said they'll be there early morning, but he said they wouldn't be there long. So I'm like, okay, I should be clear. Nobody should be out here. And I hadn't scouted this side yet because I was like, it was thick, it wasn't really pretty. I was like, no, this is not ideal. I kind of giving up, and I'm like, I'm sad. I've walked miles now, up and down everything, and I'm just kind of open pasture, not really hot, and and I have to move this gate. And as I move this gate, I drop it and I hear what I thought was a gobble, like a shot gobble from the gate dropping, but I wasn't for sure. So I'm like, no, I'm just hearing stuff because I want to hear something. And so I picked the gay back up. I'm not being quiet. I go and stand by this tree that's like probably thirty yards from the gate, and I just do a slight little yelp on my slate call and immediately right on top of me, and I'm like, WHOA Like, I like froze and I'm like, wow, that's right on top of me. I threw my decoy down. I threw the fan down, and I'm like, okay, I can't sit here. I'm not going about to see where he's coming up from. I have trees right in front of me, and there's an opening over here. So I run to this tree and there's like a bob while I wrap around the bottom of the tree. I'm like, that's gonna hurt if I sit against it. So I sat a little bit in front of it, and I wasn't very like comfortable where I was city. But this tart he had already gobbled two more times just for me to run fifty yards from one tree to the next tree. And I was like duck down trying to run in this tall grass. And I'm like, okay, I have my die frapping my mouth so I could call if I needed to, sou I didn't want to use my hands, didn't want to make too much movement. And he's just gobbling again. It's like he's worked up. He's coming and he's getting closer. I'm messing with my laser on my gun. I can't get it on and im freaking out. Like I'm sitting there pushing my laser trying to get it on, can't get it on. He gobbles again, and I can hear I've never heard drumming in my life, and I hear drumming, and I'm like, this bird is on top of me and I just can't see him. Yeah, I finally get my laser on. I get set up. I'm like kind of free balling cause I didn't want to get against the tree. So I'm sitting there, have my arms on my knees, and I hear drumming, like loud drumming. He gobbles again, and like it shook me the way he gobbled. It was shaking my bones. So I looked to my left and I see the very tip of his head and I see it and I'm like, oh my gosh, he's right there. So I try to like easily move and I'm like beating up on him, and I get on him and I just want him to talk a little bit more because I didn't want to, like shoot just too much of his head. And I see his fan. He's in complete strut and I'm like, this is beautiful. And I sit there and he's stilling strut. He pops his head up just a little bit and I shoot him and he falls immediately, and I'm like ah, and so I jump up immediately. I'm grabbing my phone in my pocket, trying to call my dad, trying to FaceTime him because I want him to be there with me, running to the turkey, and I trip. I fall over on the ground to get my phone. I'm like, face up with my dad. He immediately answers. I start crying. I'm just so excited, and my dad's like in the parking line in front of his office in literal because he works in the little he's front of his office and he's like, no way, Holly, no way. And I showed the turkey. It was beautiful. It was just the most awesome thing ever. I'm on FaceTime with him, and he starts in the parking lot crying because he's so excited for me too, and it's just the best thing ever. I sat there with that turkey and prayed for a long time how thankful I was, even though it started I as a bad hunt, ended up being so good and so awesome. Sit there and pray for the turkey for a while. Dad was on the calling my sisters. It was the best thing ever. Just got my first turkey by myself with just one call. 00:29:08 Speaker 3: All I say to that is dad gum. 00:29:10 Speaker 2: That was some good work, Hollie, incredible good job on the a ax hustle and hanging in there after a disappointment and even a little scare at daylight. This wasn't done on purpose, but there seems to be a pretty legit safety theme in these episodes. We've just got to be careful out there, and what the heck. I'll give you another hot tip for turkey hutting safety that I learned from old Gary believer Nukem myself, and that is he likes to wear glasses when he turkey hunts, and so do I. I wear contacts, I sometimes wear glasses. I like to wear glasses because you never know, it's possible to get peppered, and you want to be able to protect your eyes. Our next story is from Old Mexico and involves a twist that would be hard to predict. But it would also be hard to predict how unique Zoe Kaywood is. She's from Oreagle, Arkansas, and is a veteran turkey hunter. She's in her seventies and she only uses a flint lock musloader. 00:30:12 Speaker 9: I'm Zoe Medland Kwood from war Eagle, And you know, I was thinking about this the other day, about what happened when I was going for the World Slam and I went down to northern Mexico to hunt the Goulds turkey. You have to get a military permit to even get a gun in, even though it was a black powder gun, because I was going for a World Slam with a black powder gun, and it wasn't just a percussion cap. It was a flint lock. So when we finally got all the papers, which are Kentucky turkey biologists, he helped me with all this and we finally got that gun in, and there were so many turkeys before I got there. Isn't that typical of turkey hunting, though, But when we got there, we hunted for three solid days. Of course, my guide was a Mexican and he didn't speak any English at all. He was a very congenial guy and really respectful of me, but no English at all, So if I wanted to ask him anything, if he didn't understand my sign language. When we got back home to the lodge, then the outfitter there, he would, you know, have to explain to translate. So I told the outfitter to please explain to him that this was a flintlock. So if he was gonna hunt close to me like he did on the very first day of the few hours we were out, he needed to sit away from the either on the left hand side of me, or several feet back or a couple of feet back away from the right otherwise he was going to get sprayed with that flint when it went off. So it really put the fright in him. It frightened him so badly that whenever he sit behind me from that time on, he would be like twenty twenty five feet back. I mean I could I couldn't talk to him or anything, you know, because it couldn't communicate. You didn't want to do that in the Turkey woods and make any noise because he was so far back because he's afraid of that flint lock spray. So we hunted for three days, and on the evening of the third day, we heard some birds going to roost and we thought, oh, maybe this is it because it had been so dry around there as far as birds for us. Completely three days and The thing about Mexico that I just love is there is absolutely no sound when you hunt in Mexico. You don't hear a train, you don't hear a plane, You certainly don't hear a car. You don't hear the clop clop of the horses and mules that they used in the village. You don't hear anything. Perfect silence. It's just absolutely wonderful. So where we roosted those birds was a big, long valley and the next morning, of course, we were out there way big early, so we get all set up and we hear gobbles and it's a big bird, I'm sure, sounding off. And I looked back there to see where he is, of course, way far back, as I said, and that I started calling, and he was calling as well, And now I was calling, he was calling, and that bird then flew down off roost and he was coming my way. And when I saw him, I saw right behind him was a bobcat, And I mean this was a big Mexican bobcat. And it just I was so concentrated on that bird that I didn't even think about that bobcat from then on. When that when that bird got within my range, I pulled that trigger, and that spark blue and that that kwood gun just went off. 00:34:12 Speaker 8: And I looked back to see. 00:34:14 Speaker 9: Where my man was, and he was completely he was flat out on the ground. He's just kicking his feet with joy like this, but his heart was just pounding, and he just goes. He goes like this in sign language, and he says, the bobcat, the cat, the cat. And what had happened was I was so concentrated on that bird that Bobcat actually jumped and tried to get that gobbler when I shot, and I actually splattered him was shot at the same time. But I didn't get to all this translate until we got back home and back to the little village and the outfitter could translate it. So we took that man out though, and anybody that wanted to after I had got my bird the next day and see if they wanted to shoot a flint lock, because none of them had. They hadn't even seen a flint lock before, you know. So we went out there and when he shot that flint lock, when he pulled that trigger, his head went like that. Of course, he completely missed the target, but it was so much fun and he loved the experience of least trying to shoot that fire bomb. 00:35:28 Speaker 2: What are the chances to shoot a big Mexican gobbler at the same time a bobcat is about to pounce on that exact gobbler. 00:35:38 Speaker 3: That wasn't that gobbler's day? And what a special lady. 00:35:42 Speaker 2: When we met her, we found out that she killed a mountain lion with Warner Glenn and Kelly Kimbro Warner's daughter, back in nineteen seventy one. 00:35:53 Speaker 3: That is crazy. What a small world that we live in. 00:36:00 Speaker 2: Our next story is from a well known turkey biologist, Mike Chamberlain. And this man can't open his mouth to talk about turkeys without teaching folks something. Here is one of his stories from way back in Virginia, before he'd ever killed a gobbler. Way back here's doctor Chamberlain. 00:36:19 Speaker 10: I was at Virginia Tech. 00:36:20 Speaker 5: I was a student. 00:36:21 Speaker 10: I was new to turkey hunting, and I screwed up so much. And I had hunted this bird on National forest land and he was roosting on the way up on the side of a mountain, and it would take me about an hour ish to hike up to him. And every day, he would fly down onto a bench, but I could never figure out and once he got on the bench to saddle if you will, he would predictably go one direction or the other, depending on the day. But I could never get to him in the dark to really pin him down to where if he went left, I'd be there. If he went right, I could never figure out exactly where he was going. Well, one afternoon. Now this is like ten hunts in my grades are suffering because and I get up and I'm there in the afternoon, and I hear and I'm like, all right, and so he flies up, and I know exactly where this joker is. I wait till pitch black. I ease myself down the mountain. I get back to campus in the dark, dark way after dark. I'm stoked, dude, I'm so I'm gonna kill this bird. I get up the next morning, up in the dark. I think I got up at like two thirty because I want to make sure nobody got to the spot. I get there, I hike nobody's around, I get perfect, I'm like one hundred and fifty yards. I'm like, as soon as I'm do a tree, yelp and he gobbles and I'm like, perfect, I do a slick call of time and do a real soft yep and he cut me off. I'm like, oh, this is ballgame. And I even my dumb self knew to shut up now now, so I didn't call again. Well, he sits there, and he sits there and he never got out again. And it gets daylight and I'm really starting you've been there, and You're like, I'm gonna call one time just to see where he's at. And I hit a soft yelp and I hear I hear him fly out and I'm like oh, and I get on the gun. I'm like, here he comes. I look to my right, that joker is flying down the mountain. That bird sailed completely out of my sight down that mountain and I never saw him again, and I came back to hunt him several days later. 00:38:35 Speaker 5: And he was gone. 00:38:38 Speaker 10: I was so deflated that I just like I quit. 00:38:41 Speaker 6: I can't do this. 00:38:43 Speaker 10: And I'd never killed a spring turkey at that time, and I was like, I can't do this, like I'm not capable of doing this, and that bird made me so upset and I've never gotten over it. I was like, that bird should have come down that gun barrel when he cut me off, and he literally knew something was wrong, and he flew off the mountain, not to return. Once I started really fall hunting, we fall hunted a lot. Once. I killed a few birds in the fall, which was before this point. But I killed a few birds in the fall, and when I started the spring hunting, I realized that it was a different ballgame completely. I ended up killing a few more birds in the fall, and then I got lucky. I called a bird in the following season after this happened. I called a bird in but he was filling a hen and she was very content, and I watched her approach me, and she was feeding along and she would call back to me. She wasn't agitated at me, but I listened to how she was behaving, and I watched her, and I listened to the noise that she was making in the leaves. I soaked that in and I watched his reaction to everything, and I just shut up, and I sat there and listened to that bird and watched how And it took her over an hour to get from the bottom to where I killed him. And I can still, I can close my eyes and I can still see that joker strutting up behind that hen, and the realization that she's going to walk right past me. And if I just sit here, he's dead. I'm gonna kill him. And I, of course, I was literally hyperventilating, and then you know, sweating and falling apart, and I was staring at him so hard, you know, you get the spiders in your eyes, and I'm starting to have to twitch my eyes because I've been staring at him so intently. And when I shot him, I was so elated. I like fell apart. I ran up to that bird and was on him so fast that I probably should have gotten injured. Like I threw, I dropped the gun and took off running towards him. And when I got to him, I didn't even know what to do. You know, you watched it on videos and stuff in VHS. I didn't know whether to grab his legs or his head or to lay on him. 00:41:08 Speaker 8: I didn't. 00:41:09 Speaker 7: I was lost. 00:41:09 Speaker 10: I was just I was dumbfounded. And I can finally remember, you know, of course, he's flopping around everything, and I can remember trying to keep him from flopping off. And then I saw a feather come out, and I was like, oh no, no, no, no, no, I don't I don't want to lose any you know. And there was no cell phones and I didn't have a camera to take a picture. 00:41:28 Speaker 3: Of him or anything. 00:41:29 Speaker 10: But I didn't want him to lose any of those feathers so I could admire it. And so I finally like, I'm gonna lay on him. So I laid on that bird to keep him from flopping. And once I realized I knew he was dead, I just sat there and admired him. And I still do that, but I learned from that. I was like, if you just slow down and try to sound subtle and calm and use the vegetation, use your intellect, use very very very subtle calls, and you just go slow, that you can be successful rather than just running all the time. And that is how I have turkey hunted ever since. And I sometimes it works for me and sometimes it doesn't. That day, that day hooked me, but she taught me if you just just wait, slow down and be patient, and I'll get him there. Slow down and go fast is what DY learn. Art once said, sometimes you have to slow down and go fast. 00:42:28 Speaker 2: Slow down to go fast. That's some good advice. Our final story is unique for multiple reasons. Our storyteller, mister Claude Strather, was attacked and injured well Turkey Huddon. But secondly, mister Claud passed away in January of twenty twenty six, and we're releasing this story in celebration of his life. 00:42:59 Speaker 3: Here's miss your clock. 00:43:01 Speaker 5: Claudestralla Gasterberg, Alabama. I started hunting, I don't know seventy one or two, maybe seventy, and uh if hunted ever since? Done real well, I've I think I've caught up eighty three for other people and killed two hundred and forty seven myself, and uh, I've just been steady. I got them all catalog and read. Let you read about any hunter I ever been on, because I got it in my books. Whether I kill a turkey or not, we're gonna talk about my bobcat attacked. My daughter made me famous for this because I had a great picture with a lot of blood. But uh, I wasn't supposed to be out of the house reading. My wife had gone to Eastern I told her I was too sick to go. She left, and I down in the wood, roll down. I knew it was some turkeys there, and I sat by two small trees because I couldn't find a big one that was clean enough, perfect camouflage heading it, and was sitting and the only thing yep was my head moving back and forth, real slow every now and then, and all of a sudden, it was like a baseball bat drove me forward. I blinked and raised my hand and looked back, thinking it was a baseball bat somebody, and it was just kind of a glaze back to the beautiful park, looking no track. And then I looked back around and shook my head and there was a big bobcat walking off about fifteen yards from him. He hit, thinking my head was a hootile or hawk or smaller animal. 00:44:52 Speaker 8: And. 00:44:54 Speaker 5: What saved me. He caught right above my eyes but bit the back of my neck, but so hard it stunned him also, and so he didn't go all the way in as he hit. It stunned him and he released and kind of and came over my head. Or he really could have done some damage. But I had a good picture of blood everywhere, just scratches, superficial scratches here and back of the head. Yeah, nothing didn't go away pretty quick. 00:45:25 Speaker 3: He was just done. 00:45:26 Speaker 5: He was trying to get some deep I didn't I wouldn't have shot him, for he'd a walk back up, you know, unless he was foaming at the mouth, you know, But he was just. 00:45:36 Speaker 3: Doing his thing. 00:45:37 Speaker 5: I love bobcats. I shoot cows, and I will shoot the armadilla. They walked in here. Bobcat's been here forever. So if foxes beavers, I don't see anything that was here before me. You know, they got a right to be here. Hunted David Brown now hunted all over the country together. Seven we went south Dakota, and he came seven jakes up the hill and two big gobbles about a hundred yards behind. We're trapped. We're laying flat down on top of on the gray. I told David he'll come seven monsters, got monsters. They popped over here. I said, kill him. David. The monsters, well, he blasted away, and it was a jake I knew, and I said, now stay still. I went back top and those two big gobbles never slowed down right, hold up. I swung a little to the left. He's around there and killed one of them, and David said, I killed her jake. 00:46:42 Speaker 3: I said, oh no, really. 00:46:45 Speaker 5: You, he said, you pull that one off of me. 00:46:49 Speaker 3: I did. 00:46:51 Speaker 5: I snaked his butt on that one. But we hunted Indian reservations also, and this was on the end of the reservation, and turkey's further west. You gets easier all to kill. You can kill a turkey out there now. It ain't like Alabama, majority of Mississippi. It's a whole different world. But I had had some great trips, and I had a good year this year. I had a little having some health problem, but had a little break, felt good a few days and actually killed three and called up one from grandson he killed and one for his girlfriend. And had to get help getting one of mine out the woods. I went down a hill too big, and I couldn't get up to hill with two weak to try dragging him, and I couldn't even drag him. I made it up, sent somebody else to get my gun in Turkey late. I don't have much win in right now, but h and hopefully I'll be in the woods again next year. Maybe Lord Willis. 00:48:00 Speaker 2: Mister claud didn't make it back into the woods this spring. But what joy you could hear in his voice as he recounted the stories of hunting the wild turkey. But what stood out to me was that he seemed to love and value all the people that he hunted with, and it seems like yet a lot of people around him at the end, even keeping track of every turkey he ever called up for other people. I keep seeing this more and more with greater clarity. Our experiences in wild places get so much of their value and the people that we share them with, and the people that we have relationship with that even want to hear our stories. The best thing that you can do today is to build strong and healthy relationships with the people that God has placed in your life that are within arm's reach of you. How many turkeys you kill in your lifetime doesn't matter unless you've got people around you care. 00:49:00 Speaker 3: And that's the truth. What a great set of stories. 00:49:06 Speaker 2: I cannot thank you enough for listening, and thank you for listening to this feed with Lake Pickles, Backwoods University and with Brents this Country life podcast. These guys are so talented in what they do. But the theme of this episode seems to be be careful in the woods this spring. Another hot tip from Gary Nukeom he always told me not to wear anything red blue or white, even like a white undershirt, the little v that might be in a white undershirt or even white socks that might be visible when you sit down and crouch by a tree. 00:49:40 Speaker 3: Be cautious and conservative. 00:49:41 Speaker 2: When hunting public ground or any place you think others might be, and also where you can do your part to restore some quality turkey habitat, whether that's doing a burn or timber thinning on your land that you hunt, or by joining one of the turkey conservation organizations like Turkey's for Tomorrow or the National Wild Turkey Federation. Some of my buddies just started a group called the Wild Turkey Archives, which is a wild Turkey history organization. There's a lot that we can do to keep the wild places wild because that's where the turkeys live and the bears

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