00:00:08 Speaker 1: This is me eater podcasting in you shirtless, severely bug bitten and in my case underwear listening past, you can't predict anything. Did you see the note the email from a guy about his his some guy who was camping with getting mauled by a northern pike. No, yeah, I didn't catch that one. Washing dishes in a lake off at the end of a dock, and the Northern must have been shiny plates or something. The Northern came up. The Northern came up, and it was like a barracuda came up and gashed the dude's hand real bad. And then his hands started faster and about up being a pike tooth stuck in there. No ship. Oh my god, it's interesting, isn't it. No, You're never safe. I think you're just washing dishes mould by a fish, by a northern. You're feeling feeling all safe in those northern woods. You're like, there ain't no griz here, no mountain lions, and all of a sudden I might have talked about this fort you know what haw to my brother in law. Um, he would you know, remember when skiing, remember water skiing? Um? Yeah, but water skiing lost its uh lost its cash a with the advent of the wakeboard. When I was a boy, people water skis, well, if you were really good at it, you would barefoot you guys know what that is skiing with? Yeah, like you lay on you put a wet suit on or not. I think I think barefooters will typically wear a wet suit. You put a wet suit on, and you lay on your back and kind of like like so you lay in your back and take the ski, hold the ski handle obviously, and you grab the rope with your feet. Oh, like you'd hold the rope so you're supine that means laying back right, and you got the you got your feet touched together and so like the curves on the inside, your feet are are sort of holding the rope. And the boat takes off and pretty soon you're skimming on your back, laying on your back, bracing the rope and your feet laid out feet towards the boat, head back and you get to where you're skimming along. And then he would just all of a sudden, through like this little bit of magic, he'd pop up and there he was skiing with those skis, and he'd be like digging his heels into the water, like that's what would brace you just toled your toes curled up, and then the thing of it is then you you have a wet suit on, so you're able to roll around and spin on your back and it's like your breakdancing on the end of a rope. So he's coming around. This is the lake I grew up on. No, I think it's a lake, the lake next to the lake I grew up on. Um and hit a sunning blue gill. Oh my gosh, drove the dorsal fin into the bottom of foot he had surgically removed. Oh my gosh, poor blue gill. What are the chances you can look at it either way? I guess so. Yeah, you're never safe there. You are sixty three miles now or whatever. Bind some boat and you can still get hurt. Um. I want to return before we talk about what we're going to talk about. Mostly, I want to return to you observing Tracy. You want to introduce yourself. Sure, I'm Tracy Crane, okay. And then Maggie, I'm Maggie Smith Seth Morris and of course yeah, and it's beautiless. You're observing that Janice is driving habits are off brand, pretty honest, what is brand? I was just surprised, having spent multiple days driving behind Joannice, the speeds at which Joannice drives. I think Janice's brand is buttoned up conservative. He's sitting here in a nice button down with a Kashmir sweater over reckless and I could almost classify his driving at moments reckless is extreme. But Mario and Dretti style, like, I was like, whoa, he guns it? Well, you know what we call him. I was trying to because that was in the morning, right at the time you followed us, and so we were trying to get to a roosted turkey before like, yeah, you definitely had your eye on the prize that we had our eye on the prize, and and we were not driving quite to that degree, but you guys didn't have as far to go, and we were leaving at the same time. See, but there was a weird exchange we talked about a fair bit. We pulled up to you because we had to talk about something real quick, and I commented on your fast driving, yes or maybe not, but anyways, you said, why don't you go ahead because you'll be driving faster than me. Where in the world would you get that idea? Oh well, the whole time coming down, I felt like you were tailgating me, and so I was That's why I thought you pulled up next to me. I was trying to keep I was struggling to keep up. And then after he made that comment to you, Steve, he started to roll the window up and he gave a signal with his hand and burned out. Yeah, And that someone was like, yeah, he's a little spicy this morning. It's been said before. You guys aren't the first group of people that have noticed that I drive maybe a little bit more aggressed to leave the most. But I can tell you, man, I haven't had a speeding ticket in no no, but because on roads where there's speed limits, I don't. I feel like when I'm on dirt road, I feel like I should just be driving where I feel safe and in control. But I don't know how you kids in the car all the time in good conscious on that on that dirt road, it was a little old lady I gather just by her decorations, who has out a sign. I thought it was interesting that her sign is aimed up towards the National Forest, not down towards the highway. She's alerting drivers coming from up. Yeah, but that says something like drive slow, please respect our roads coming there. That direct is because people are coming downhill, so you're naturally going to be driving faster going down the hill than up the hill. It's what it is, that's well thought out. It's real quick. I don't want to bore people to death. I want to return to Yanni's brand. This is not how he dresses because what the what's the first thing I said to you this morning? Why are you so dressed up? Every time I wear a collar shirt? He said that he's going to uhum. His daughter's got a little routine she's doing. I gotta go to one of those this Sunday. Sunday Spring concert and art auction is what we have tonight, No Saturday. Last year. Last year, somebody that must have a little uh hobby farm uh donated a peacock, and by the time I was done googling can you eat a peacock? Eat peacocks? It already solved. So this year I'm prepared ter than spending because the whole deal is met peacock. Huh. I don't know is there. I didn't know that there was two different things. I don't know. I just feel people have him as I feel like they're an ornamental. I do, and I'm guessing that that's what it is donated for. But I don't need an ornamental peacock, but I would rather because the deal with with this art auction is that they're basically saying like, hey, it's great fun, we're all gonna get together do the little spring concert, but really we need three hundred bucks from every for each kid, from every parent, right, So if you have two kids, you gotta drop six hundred bucks for the art program. Someone articulated this to you. Yeah. Yeah, they're just saying, hey, we don't have enough funds for like the art program that we want to have here. Right. Funds are for funds for art and music all that stuff are cut nationwide. Right, So if you want to keep this going on, it's a problem. This is what it did. Approximately costs US three hundred dollars per kid. So I like to take that as I've got two in their stroking a check for six hundred, whether I walk out of there with some piece of art that yeah, so this here, I'm coming for aired and if that peacock shows up again or one of his offspring or her offspring, I'm I'm bidden. So can you eat peacock? And that's what you're gonna do with it, buddy. We'll probably keep it around for a little bit. It's gonna be cool to have peacock in the yard for a week. And you're gonna wake your daughters up one day and say, girls, oh no, I don't know where I keep the hatchet. I've already talked it through with them. They know the deal. We're gonna have peacock dinner party. I look forward to being invited there. A little daughter have one of the feathers after you. Exactly. They were a little suspect. I'm like, dude, let me tell you the feathers. You think these turkey feathers are cool, Wait till you have like a bucket full of peacock feathers. Man, you're gonna be stuck. That can make a little business out of that. Yeah, every year they could sell what dozen peacock preathers. I feel like you're gonna be ostracized from the the community. I don't think so at all. If he were to kill the peacock after after winning it in the auction, when you walk up, when you walk up to get the peacock, let's say there is one for sale, you purchase it. When you walk up and you get and you get a chance to speak into the microphone and you say, uh, thank you everyone for turning out. Support. Um, I'm gonna eat this peacock, watch and see watching and try to gauge the audience response. Okay, I will do that. Maybe I'll pose it as a question. I'll say, is anybody ever eating one of these things? And I'll throw him off. They'll be like, you think that guy might eat because I'm like, oh, he's just joking. He's drunk. No, there's no drinking that goes on at this event. Well you look good either way. Hey, thanks well, and thank you for the compliment. I liked it my how you described my brand? Oh, goodhead, I'm glad we do that a little more. What's seth brand? I quickly? When I do you feel like in high school I was often definitely part of the trouble making that was also I feel like the person that was like, okay, we're going to cross over the threshold right like this, this is the part where if the cat pops catches like, we're gonna be in really big trouble, so let's just take it back a notch. That's a nice balance, right, and I think that fits my brand now, I would agree with that. I think that's a good evaluation. But those going to curb it back. That's why he follows the speed limit only on paved roads, not on dirt roads. You know, that's a we'll button us up, But that's a I think that's called type one morality. Not doing it because you're afraid of getting caught, not doing it because you fear the punishments. Like I think there's like these degrees of morality interesting. So it's like you don't there's a thing you like, you don't do it because you don't want to get in trouble. And then the top morality is you do it. This would be civil disobedience. The top morality is doing it knowing you'll be in trouble, like that's the only reason you're doing it, is basically like so you get in trouble. No, I think it goes and I'm not looking at it right now, but I think it goes like the thing being like rolls of parks, right, So she's doing it wrong. She's committing it wrong, you know, according to civil civil law, committing it wrong and there's trouble. But that's like a different type of morality. It would be like like, oh, I'll break a law so long as I know I won't get in trouble. And since there's no police on these back national forest roads, what are the odds, So therefore it's okay. And then on the main road it's like, oh, no, I drive the speed limit here because I don't want to get in trouble. So he's the type one moral guy. There's pluses and minuses to that. I think, uh, real quick, this is a return to the brand thing, and then we're gonna get on. Um. Does Seth have a brand? Absolutely, because everybody has a brand. What's my brand? Um? Your brand? You don't have to tell Seth Brandon. Here's what Seth brand is. Seth brand is he's vivacious. He has a little bit of um, kind of liking to push the envelope. Dare devilish um, but but tones it down with kind of that warm smile, that willingness to help that um, you know, is a great turkey finder. That is the biggest redeeming quality in my mind. And also the fact that he's a he's a DP is also a winner in my mind too. Not the kind we'll get to that. We're not gonna cover that. Okay, I don't want to destroy your career. I appreciate that. Um, Okay, you guys, here's what we're here to talk about. You guys recently Maggie and Tracy, Um, you gals, not guys recently embarked on a life's journey. I would definitely say it was that who wants to do? Which you would like to do? A quick rundown of what exactly you just did? Go for it, Maggie, you go forecau. Tracy already branded everyone. Well, we went on our very first turkey hunt. But would you have to do to prep um, we had to get our hunting license, do hunters, d do some shooting practice days and learn a little bit about turkeys as as adults as like very literate adults who went through hunters that. Um, can you give me some uh the what's your impression just you know, casual impression about that process? Extensive? That's exactly what comes to mind. I'm not sure. I I'm not sure. I thought much about it in advance, but I did not think it would be as robust and as beefy as it is, and it took a long time, understandably. So now kind of sitting back on the other side, reflecting on it, I completely understand why it's as extensive as it is. Totally, I totally agree with that. I mean, I don't know. Was there ten topics and the like? Within each topic, they were between four and seven sub topics, and then within those sub topics topics there are chapters. I mean it was. It was lengthy, but it almost like, I don't know, kind of freaked me out a little bit in some sections, just like talking about injuries and they're saying, like turkey hunting is the number one like situation when you're out in the woods where hunters get injured, and I was like, WHOA, Okay, He's like hunting was the easy way. Again, like the thing with the different types of morality, it would be easy to go find this out. And I'm gonna say a thing that might be demonstrably wrong, but I feel that the most common hunting accident is swinging on a bird mm hmmm. And peppering someone with a shotgun. You guys probably heard about that too, right, Yeah. They talked a lot about your shooting zone, like what hamed with what happened with Dick Cheney. He's hunning coil in Texas. You're in thick brush, right, a bird jumps you kind of focused on the bird. The birds a little low, you know. And in the times that I've been shot by a shotgun, never bad enough to even puncture my skin, but I've been peppered. Uh, it was same thing hunting up bird. I don't know if they said it was number one, but they definitely said it was in uh in the you know, one of the most um often injuries they see because obviously you're in full camo and you're hiding, so you're buckled down and you're calling, and so people mistake when I when I took my hunter safety back in Pennsylvania, they showed a video of this guy calling to a turkey and he would like move in on it. And as he was calling, he was using a mouth call. He would wipe his mouth with a white bandana. Why was he wiping his mouth just from like I don't know, spitting and stuff. When he's calling using a mouth call, when he wipe his mouth and he like keeps getting like getting closer and close to the turkey, and all of a sudden, like a shot out of nowhere and the dude ends up getting shot. Oh my god, who is filming this? It was It was like a a simulated video, but it was just a show like that's the most common honting accident in Pennsylvania. So that's that they had someone and they're like, let's have it be that you're out calling wiping your mouth with a handkerchief as a handkerchief as a way to demonstrate how one might get in a hunting accident. Yeah, I don't know if it was just a way to get into the conversation that like turkey hunting is like the number one thing that where people you know, No, I got that. I just don't know that I would have. Yeah, I don't know. But what is the one thing that like stuck in my head about that? For well, of course, you know, I know that that's one of the arguments against and states were allowed to use a rifle hunting spring turkeys. Um, that's one of the big arguments against it. Against that it's just no. There's a couple states that allow you to use the right phone let you hunt rifles in spring turkeys. And there's a story we don't have. We probably talked about this. I had to take even get into it, the story about what happened when they tried to make it that you couldn't use rifles in Florida for spring turkeys. Like where they got resistance from where it's coming from turkey hunters. Turkey hunters were saying, you know what, we're all wearing camo, We're making turkey noises. This is a flat country. We use turkey decoys. We feel that to be in the best interest of turkey hunters and turkey hunting if you we're not allowed to use rifles because they carry obviously they going a straight line for quite ways, and people were uncomfortable with it. And my understanding of this story is that it got turned into like a gun issue and not like a hunting issue, and it was it was misconstrued in a in a in a weird way. But that's one of the reasons why in most places they limited shotguns, probably something to do with efficacy to right. It's like, yeah, get a lot closer, but there's just the safety concern. Um, do you guys realize, like, haven't gone through hunters safety. What do you think when I tell you that there's sort of a movement across the country to ease up and make it easier, too easier to get licenses and removing restrictions and allowing people to hunt multiple years with a mentor before needing to do their hunters safety or simplifying hunters safety, having done having kind of not been raised around this and having done it, And when I tell you that that's true, that's surprising to you or you see that like, oh, I could see that. It's surprising to me to lower the goal being to lower the barrier to entry. I mean, I see why there would be a push, but I don't agree with that you fell those useful information. I didn't. I mean, some of the videos were pretty funny. I think we could do a better job in our department, but no, it was very educational and personally, I really liked the section all about conservation at the end. I mean that really struck home as being someone that studied ecology and biology, I mean that was I loved that they put that in there. And I was like, you're not gonna necessarily, depending on who your mentor is, get that side, you know, or there's other things you might not get from a mentor that are probably in there. I don't know, I appreciated the extensiveness of it. You guys had coursework and field work. We did our coursework online and then you had a field day in person, got a test, and you did some shooting at field day. We didn't actually, and I think partly there was an option. It was you could volunteer if you wanted to participate in that section of the field day, but the majority of the field day was focused on There were different stations that were set up and you basically had to attend every single station, and each station had a different kind of objective of what it is. It was teaching you, and then you could stay after if you wanted to shoot, but we didn't because we knew we were going to be doing practice work with you guys anyways, and it was an interesting group of people that were there. I don't know. I just was like, I'm not sure I feel terribly comfortable staying here and shooting. They were like, I don't know, how older, youngest, kid when you can get your hunting license. Yeah. The majority of the attendees were definitely children, children, and they were already the way that they were handling the firearms during our stations, I was like, OK, yeah, and I was like, how did they pass is questionable? Is that a puny dynamic being in there with the kids? Oh? Yeah, And we got partnered with the kids and yeah. It was kind of cool though at the same time because all of the people who were facilitating the field day were adults, obviously, and the majority of the people at the field day we went to was in a small community. It was very family oriented, so they had just passed on the gentleman had been doing it for fifty years, had just passed on kind of the leadership responsibility to his daughter. So it was really like special to kind of see that dynamic and um them talk a little bit about how kind of important this has, you know, how important this has been in their life. Um. But yeah, interacting with the kids, it was like trying to get them to talk what are you most excited about? What have you learned? What stuck with you? It was like quiet. They wanted nothing to do. You not my mom, You're not the teacher. That was until where it got out that we were part of meat eater, and then they wanted to talk to us and they thought we were really cool, and so did the parents. The parents then start flogging over and we're like okay. So then the next stage is right down for people. What you're um exposure to firearms and exposure and impressions of firearms. Well, I grew up in a very large city, so and I was never exposed to firearms as a as a child, as an adolescent, even as an adult, so like had no experience. I think you guys were shocked to learn that. But I've never shot a gun, thing like how would you get through life? And you know, I was like, like, is that that's not necessarily, you know, representative of everybody. But I'd never I'd never held a gun. I never shot a gun, Like I'd done nothing within the realm at all. The more I thought about it, there's more people that I have gone are in tracy shoes than have gone through life and have shot a gun. I think in this state, I think, in this state of households at that I'm not surprised something like that. I don't know here I am like, I keep shouting off like figures and stuff that I don't know. I'm sure you're in a lot of so go on, but I remember um and I've never even really been in situations where I had been able to see a firearm, you know, like I wasn't in situations where besides like on a police officer or something. I remember when we first bought our place in Montana. I remember seeing one of the farmers who has property neighboring us, and he was like driving around in his I think it was his his pickup truck and he had his rifle or shotgun, I don't know, one of the two like hanging in the back of his truck. And I was like, oh, okay, like where WHOA Like I was like, now I feel like I have you know, my my perspective has completely changed. But I was like, oh, this is a different I am in a different world. Yeah. Do you see that there's a cover it's kind of a startling cover of a New Yorker magazine from some time ago in the last year, where it was like two cars pulled into a turnout like a like a river launch, and there's a pick It's like it's like an atypical campsite. Yeah, it's like a campsite. I think. There's a pickup with a shotgun in the window, so he's got his like shot gun in the window rack. And there's a guy getting a boat. He's got his little kids with them, and they're like getting their unloading inner tubes or whatever. And the guy's kind of like looking very uneasily because this shotgun is like aimed over as he's unloading his car with his kids, and it's kind of this a little bit of eerie cover. Ye didn't see it. I think it's like a certain you know, people who don't I think that that's people don't have exposure to firearms don't really like understand like how they function and what purpose they serve in people's lives. It's kind of like yeah, totally. Well, and then you add on top of it what we see in the quote unquote news, and I think that doesn't contribute in a positive way to how people who don't have exposure view firearms. Yeah definitely, yeah, absolutely so, um, well never shot one, no, and oh no, I know you're baffled by that, but like I never had a chance, like I would never have had a chance. I grew up in New York City, Like I walked to school every day. We didn't leave the city that often except if we went on vacation and stuff like That. Was not the life that I had as a as a child. And then the first time you shot was with the honest and what talk about that a little bit. Well, I was fortunate enough to not go first, Maggie, go first, because I think I was a little apprehensive, Maggie exposure impressions prior to your your new found bill. Yeah. Not in my family was I ever presented the opportunity like my immediate family, my cousins. I want to know how very much grew up hunting with my uncle, But my family was just not on that page. In Minnesota. I mean, I know there's a huge honey community in Minnesota, but my family it's very liberal, I would say, And it was just never presented to me. So I did it to shoot one time with my cousins because my uncle wanted me to go out and do that. It was important to him. Yeah, it was important to him. And the first gun I shot was might get this wrong? No, Uh, was your military grade a R fifteen on the ground, which was just like, holy moly, this thing's kind of fun. So that was your first shooting experience the most people. Well, then they handed me I think it was a twelve gauge or twenty gage shotgun and they didn't tell me about the kick, and man, I flew back on my ass. How old were you when that happened? I think I was like sixteen and then and then after that that was it. Yeah, curious about him at all? Did you ever think, like, you know, I'd like to buy one of those things? No? No, never. I don't think my boyfriend like go out and like every time we're in a sportsman's or something, he wants to go look, and I was just like, oh, not going to I don't know. He's a carpenter. Yeah, but he doesn't own any No, he hasn't own any He's he lived in Waomi though for a while and did some hunting. But yeah, and then when you went to shoot, what was that like? I was scared of the unknown? Yeah, just I didn't know what to expect. It's been a while. I don't know why I was scared, but I just was. My heart was like racy or your last experience with a shotgun. Yeah, it wasn't a good knocked on your ass you said so and laughed at So you got mocked and knocked yea, Um, so you went you, you went shot, and you were scared, but just scared of whatever, like not not necessarily the noise, not necessarily the kick, but yeah, just apprehension. I think about the whole situation. Was there any self loathing? No, no, no, I was wanting to get it right. I think, like, not mess it up, not hurt anybody. There's like a lot of respect I've gained. And also like I think that's partially wise intimidated, Like I don't think a firearm something you just mess around with, you know, So I want to make sure he's doing it right, not hurting anybody. And then when when you shot, was it, um like, did you enjoy shooting or does it more seem like it's just a thing that you have to do in order to then go out and go hunting. Um, I think I enjoyed it for sure, after I got used to it. For its own sake, Yeah, for its own sake. It was fun to see like where I hit on the target and everything, But it was totally different though, like when it came it comes down to actually setting up and like getting in that moment too. That's a totally different feeling as well. But I got more comfortable with it and the more we shot and felt better about it. But the first one in the video, you screamed, I like screamed. I was like, I think she's like. That's also why I got the benefit of like witnessing her doing it first, because she like felt the kick, like, but she's tiny, and you could see the impact on her body because I don't think she was expecting it to be as much as it was, so you weren't like prepared for so your body like really reacted. Yeah, and the noise just scared me. But I get spooked easily. So you made a strange little sound, yeah, scream or I don't even know what as you as you pull the trigger after no not as they each did a clip, a five round clip out of my Yeah, not that. But then I was like, what do you guys want to do that? Some more? Okay, but hold on hold that. What did you guys like shooting the twenty two? Well, I find it to be easier for me too. It's a smoother and more seamless experience. Right, Oh yeah, totally. So it was like this was a very mild report. Yeah, so I was like, oh, this is what we're talking about, the recoil and report or minimal. Yeah, it was lovely, kids love shooting. I can see why. Totally. I was saying. I screamed not when I shot the twenty two. Okay, so go on. Oh yeah, like I said, they only did each a clip of that. I'm like, hey, you want to do that some more because that's I figure, that is a great way to get into it. At least you're getting to do all the same motions. Almost the loading is a little bit different. You realize you're gonna have a lot of guys being like this that a clip. It's not a clip magazine. What's the difference. There's like a thing called a clip that's not that's not what that one is. And I know what you mean, and everyone knows what you mean. But people will right in and well good, and I'm glad that you're addressing it down. And these people don't have to write in. They'll write a note that sounds like this, Now you don't have to um so A five round magazine and uh I thought we would, you know, run through a box each so's difference? What is that actually different a clip in a magazine? Well, I don't don't know if there's a difference, but I know, um My, my body and roommate Rick, who was in the Marine Corps, like, if I call it a clip, He's like, what what? What? What? Hell is the clip? Because it's like this little thing that used to be like a clip. We always grew up calling them clip. I never called him. I called him clips too. But yeah, it's like, but then I noticed people are always correcting you about it. Oh, here we go, right? Am I right? Or am I right? You can put in difference between MG and it will auto filed magazine and clip. An amiation clip as a device used to store individual rounds of ammunition together as a single unit that is then ready for insertion into the magazine of a gun. Yeah, we used to call you Yanni Van's wall man. You're supposed to know this stuff. Interesting. Well, we learned something new today, Yanni litt something about firearms. Feels good. He's usually pretty, he's usually pretty. His brand, his brand is known about firearms. Anyhoo, that twenty two wasn't exciting. They wanted to jump right over exciting. I think it was more at least fro my perspective. I was like, come on, we're not going to be using this. Let's practice what we're going to be using in this situation. You want to get the real world training, Yeah, totally, we didn't. You know. I wanted to be as prepared as possible and utilize as much of the time as we could. So you want to switch over to smooth bore? Do you guys you've run not comfortable with lingo yet? I mean, like you wouldn't uh Like he said, Seth mentioned someone grab needing to grab their iron and you didn't know what he's talking about. I could kind of figure it out, but I did one of those you know, those awkward pauses, and I was like, all right, so you don't get to like, you don't run around saying you're twenty two like a double dude. Old Betsy, there's a whole new vocb Nelly Bells. That's what I call my shotgun. Old Nellie tell us the origin of that name. Um, I don't know. I'm not working. I have a friend that that used to use that term just like like old goodness for like general good firearms. What do you mean like it just not a unique one, just firearms in general. He would I just grabbed old nellye bells, just like people would say grabbing my smoke poll. You're gonna go hunting? Yeah, I don't know what kind of just stuck with my shotgun. I don't call my rifle that quick quiz for you goodness? Um? Do you when I say a smooth board, do you know what I'm talking about? Yes? I do. Mag Ahead, you took hunter safety bars and a shotgun and a rifle. It's called a rifle because the boar is rifled. There's like ridges in there. What are the ridges called? Oh, the land like the land and the yeah, lands and grooves, lands and grooves. Yeah, you know why. They originally started cutting those in to help the bullet travel in a strai line to prevent fouling. Black powder's messy. M So you shoot and it would be so much fouling um that it would be hard to load it. And so they originally started cutting grooves in their as a place for all that powder to go, all that powder residue. And then you realize you could get along, You could get more groove by cutting them in spirals. I started throwing a spin on that bullet and then people were like, uh huh, comes out very stable. I just learned, and then again that I didn't know before and didn't know that that was the original intent. I started podcasts called gun Talk. Um. Okay, so you want to switch over to the smooth boar. Yeah, because I wanted real life practice. Yeah, we were getting close to game time. We gotta get the skills pumping And what was your impression of shooting? Um? What was your guys impressions of shooting turkey targets with shotguns? Fun? Not fun too much like loud noise and kicking. No, it was fun it I mean I liked it better than just the regular target. That's one of the heftiest kicks out there. Yeah, turkey load twelve. Are you shooting twenty gauge? But like, shooting a turkey load off of shotgun is one of the healthier kicks on the market. Yeah, and I've shot those same shotguns. They're shooting those same loads, and it's that's not a walk in the park. Even though it's twenty gauges. They pop you my brother's old girlfriend. I told you this. She was shooting turkey loads and she had a hammer cock shotgun, punched the whole right, blow her eye through her skin with it, and then his wife her collar bone shooting turkey loads. I was so glad those those guys, both of those guys missed the turkeys. Yeah, that's like say that like lingering in the back of your head right for crying out loud? What if I got myself into So you enjoyed shooting at the targets? And what frustrations did you have? What the I thing was like throwing me off because I'm left more left eye dominant. I know you, yeah, really are really struggled with that. Why why did you Van's Wall want you guys to shoot if you're left eye dominant. Why was he wanting you to shoot right handed? He gave us the option, like when we started to share with him what the frustration was and not being able to keep that left eye close. It's my issue is it takes a while to set up right if you're not used to the position you're supposed to be in, how to hold the gun, aiming, and just getting comfortable before you shoot. So my left eye would be closed for a while before I was like ready to shoot, and then by the time I was ready to shoot, my left eye was like fighting me so hard to open that I felt like it was interfering with my ability to like effectively aim. And he was like, well, you can shoot left handed, but the idea of shooting left handed felt a little bit intimidating to me because I'm technically right handed, so the idea of like switching over to the other side felt like I'm learning something new altogether. Let's not throw like an entirely new factor into the situation. Let's just figure out how to like make this left eye cooperate a little bit more. Yeah, And then you didn't weren't comfortable shoot with both eyes open. No, I can't like see what I mean, you can see with Boza is open, but you can't like narrow in in the way that you want to be narrowing in. Because he would tell us exactly where we were supposed to be aiming, especially as we were like initially patterning the shotgun like and with both eyes open, I felt like I couldn't get to that specific of a spot totally. I could only get there and both eyes open would only work if they were shooting left handed, being left eye dominant. We even toyed around with Tracy. We toyed around making her a special pair of sunglasses. I feel like I would like that, Like I feel like the idea of like the fight, the battle with that left eye, like like with a patch over it. It like creates an ease. It's like I don't have to pay attention to that fight when I'm when I am. I don't know why I fight with it so much, And maybe it would just get stronger and better over time the more I do it. It would mostly I think most experts would tell you, though, that since you're at this beginning stage, you should be going left hand. And I think that's really She's got the same thing going on. And we did it this past time turkey hunting. We just I did a pair of sunglass and just put something I did tape. We did something anyways to cover her left eye, and she shot great. You know, but I think I'm just gonna tell her she's gotta she mother left him probably more advantageous to get her into it while she's yeah, the same for you, it's like you only shot a gun now times. It's weird though as an adult this is like an overarching thought, but like as weird as an adult getting into something new, especially something like this that is so um specific and so nuanced and like it's not it requires like a really built out specific skill set. Like it's very unnerving because the idea of like starting something as an adult and like, am I going to be able to do it? Am I not going to be able to do it? Nobody likes the idea of failing. Like you want to start something and be good at it right away. And that's like a whole mental journey that I went on me too, not letting you guys down, wanting to like, you know, live up to the expectation ends, all that kind of stuff. I didn't have any expectations. Of course you did, no, he told me. He said, I expect nothing from these people. Um we Yanni, who was it? No? I proposed, no one of us did that you'd block your eye out. M Yanni thought you'd have a patch so cute that you'd carry an eye patch. And I proposed maybe will take and make you, um take your shades and block the eye out. But then I thought, did you, but you like shooting like that, right. I liked it a lot, a lot, But then I thought there's so much going on in the Turkey Woods that I felt that it was um did it was just like yet another thing, Oh I need to put my special glasses, Like, hey, he's coming, and he's coming hot, where's the eye patch? Hold on? Tell him to just stay right there, hold on. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, you didn't like that idea, which was a little heartbreaking and disappointing. I understand why you you vetoed it. It just was so nice to shoot, not battling this blinking thing that kind of keeps opening. Yeah. Yeah, it would give you a headache when you're sitting there blinking. And yeah, just like every now and then you'd see more, I'd see less, and then I felt like I'd have to like readjust my aim because now I was off a little bit. Like it just it flustrated me a little bit, honestly. And when you're shooting is different too, because you're shooting at the range. You have on your protection which you're supposed to actually hunt with two interesting because they never really cover that and and hunter safety and you don't see that in real life application, you're supposed to have your protection on. You know, I just put plugs and you wouldn't put like a headset on your shoot with headsets, you're shooting with glasses. It's just different. In Europe they always everybody's got like actual muffs on their they're like not hunting, but when they decide to shoot, they put them once they decided. When I guide it, I used to just wear a pair I think they made by Howard Light. It's like a a lot of guys wearing like on the job site, like an orange band that goes around your neck like a shoe. And I just got plugs and I used to wear that on my neck and then you would put them in before as soon as the client was about to shoot. I just could Remy and cal Remy and Kell are very good about your protection. Remy, Uh, where's one of those old You know, it looks like a headset, but it's you know what I'm talking about. It looks like what am I getting? Net man, It's like your plugs on a spring that you wear around your neck and what I just described. But what is the world? But what is that? If you're gonna look him up? What would you describe it as, oh boy, they call it your pro or is that something totally different? You know? I'm saying, like, well, how do you describe a headset that plugs your ears? Yeah, it looks like a big plastic horseshoe that has ear plugs. I'll just just like an industry word for it. He's real good about putting those in, and Cal wears him around his neck. And when we were turkey hunting in Texas, he sits down and no joke, we're calling to a turkey. He don't know joke, puts the turkey, puts the ear plugs in his ear? He does, but then can he still like, that's why I can't do This' got special high end ones that don't change. Yeah, Like you go to a shooting range, man, it's rules. At a shooting range, he protection rounded by a ton of people who are shooting. Hearing protection, I protection. Now, we always like I always wear my regular sunglasses and not but I've never got in trouble for it. But they make like ballistic sunglasses. But we were rightliar sunglasses And you need to talk about what happened to you. Yeah, Howard Light just calls it They're Quiet Band is the name of their products, be honest. Um, So here's the thing where we're in a little bit of a tricky ground because they're not meant for this. But I don't know, like is it We don't really know. They just say I protection, Yeah, it's certainly better than not having any on as in my case, certainly, you know, and I would think that you definitely want to wear the plastic lenses and not the glass lenses because glass could shatter and hurt you. But um, yeah, I was shooting a gun while back, and uh, I don't want to get into details about this because it's like a chance that I'm a little bit to blame. Like I'm like, I'm not blaming yet I have to blame, yeah, but I'm mostly to aim because I'm the one that loaded the rifle. But I put a seven mm O eight into a two seventy w s M, and uh, the difference in caliber and dimensions of those two bullets is uh not much about a You're going from I put to eighty into two seventy point to eight zero into point to seven zero. The bullets still exited the gun, actually still hit the target. It wasn't. I mean, it was only I don't know, eight inches off of bulls eye um. But that created enough pressure to you could say, blow up the gun that I was shooting. And it happened to be a left handed gun. I was shooting it right handed and had a shot a left handed the all the blowout of the gun would have gone away from my face. But because if you think about the way a rifle is built, the you know, the bowl opens on the right hand side of a gun, that's for a right handed shooter, and it's made that way, so if you do have a blowout, it's going away from your head and your face right and so in this case, it was made to go to myself to the left of the gun, and that's where my face was. And so basically like the trigger assembly snapped, the stock had two big cracks in it. It blew out the bottom plate um and then yeah, there's actually a chunk of it. Was a Model seventy and one of the bars that runs along the bolt came was dislodged and actually raked my shoulder. There's a picture of that man there, and came off smoking hot. I got a scar on my shoulder. My blame is this well kind of finish, Yeah, but I feel like you're like you're absolving me a little bit. Okay, no fish story. Well, thank goodness that. Um. I try to I try to always wear glasses when I'm shooting, right, but I didn't have my for some reason. My range bag didn't have my eye protection, so I was wearing my coast of sunglasses and it ended up when I went to the doctor just to get checked out. Later, the picture looks a lot worse. I definitely had a puffy face from it, but there's a lot of like carbon blast is sort of like how I've been describing it, that it kind of pockmarked my face. One side of my face definitely made it swell up a little bit. But the doctor couldn't find actually any chunks of anything embedded in my face or my neck. I can tell you that my coast is definitely I feel like, I don't know if I would have lost any vision, but they had a scratch and a and a and a crack in them, and when I took them off, you can very clearly see the outline. And I'm just very happy that my eyes did not take that shot, you know, like the way that the rest of my face did when we were shoot. Was I wearing my souped up yellow lens coasts? You were wearing some sort of coast you are I think you were wearing the ones that are like kind of like a camouflage patterns. Yeah, but the light lens I can't remember. That's those are like, that's meant to be my hunting ones because the lens isn't that dark wearing in low light conditions, for low light conditions. But then when I got him in Camo, just so I think I just saw this. I have a bunch of the aren't camel got him in Camo and got the light kind of yellowy lens. So it's like if the camel was property functioning, you'd think that I just had yellow lenses. The yellow lenses were just floating in the middle of what are those? That's yeah, that's what I have. Though I typically just wear um, I typically wear regular ones, but wearing and at the range, I've never gotten grief for having I think it was glad to have something on. But the plastic lens glass lens thing isn't something I thought about too much because I have both. But my camel ones have a plastic lens, the glass lens, I like. But then when your kids fire them across the tile floor. Yeah, I think, And as far as I've always understood, because I owned glass coast Is back in the day when I was guiding a bunch um they, I think that the lens itself is a little more durable like it just you just won't get that um sort of that buff that kind of happens on on a plastic lens eventually. Um. But again, yeah, if you drop them, those plastic lens is oftentimes bounced back and you put them back on your head and go on about your business. Where you dropped those glass onto the tile floor, like you said, and you're probably gonna be out a lens. You know. I was in Mexico once and I had my glass lens ones and one of my kids just dropped my tale flour and I sent them back in. Um, send him back into coast. So they fixed him and send him back to me. No problems where him for however long Again, then one day my kids just standing there holding them with a broken lens, like I didn't get to see, like how he did it? Different? This is a different kid. This is my younger one, Matthew, just like like walking around with broken sunglasses. So he probably took a hammer and hit him, sent him in like for the sent him in for the warranty. They sent him back. Still have them, and you know it's like, bro, take care of your glass. Didn't get any grief about it, um, But now I have. Now when I'm going on trips, bring two pairs smart my glass lens which I just like to look through, and then I bring some plastic lens ones after to man, especially on like the trips that we do when you know you're gonna be out and about whether it's the beach or the mountains or whatever like. And I think that I've heard is this true that like lighter colored eyes or contend to be more sensitive, very sensitive. I don't know about very but like I definitely feel again, I've been wearing nice sunglasses now for probably close to twenty years of my life, and if I get caught out there without them, it's no. I have the same problem, Like I cannot if I have to drive and it's sunny out, it is impossible for me to keep my eyes open, like they want to close the sun kills them for some reason. I always have to have sunglasses on. Oh I think, yeah, I think the more you wear the more it's painful when you don't know. Maybe that's what it is. You just adjust appropriately. Remember the first time everybody says closet, but it used to say coose to del Mar, which is still the name, but that people used to say it. I remember the first time I had a pair of the nineteen six I think, long as time ago. But yeah, I can't stand it now. But you can't get kids to wear them. And I feel that kids. Uh you know, I was every parent now I was all worried about sunscreen on their kids all the time. No one thought about that before. Now you're supposed to put sunglasses on your kids, put sunscreen on your kids. And I kind of like fight against that a little bit. It's like bike helmets. Always feel a little guilty not putting it on them, but a little guilty putting it on them. I don't. I would wear my bike helmet when I got blocked away from the house, take it off and ditch it in the woods. Sony, ow um, there we are. We're gonna make you a blocked out pair of shades. Yeah, but you xenate it. It just made you tough up and learn how to shoot. That was that was a you know a little a little taste into what the future. I think one of the hardest parts was just the positioning. That was just like I did not expect it to be such a like I can't even like a slunchdown. Yeah, it didn't took a long time for that to feel comfortable, but Sneaky Peet made me feel very comfortable after like the twentieth time. Yeah, let's get into the hunt, the big hunt. Who wants to go first? Well, what's the question? What did you feel about it? I asked you what you felt about hunter safety, how did it go? What you felt about learning to shoot? M hmm, Okay, let me let me do this. Let's let's enter into the hunting part. Like this, you just wanted your first hun correct? Is correct? Tracy successfully somewhat? Tracy successfully, Maggie had a great success, and that it was a great time. But no dead turkey. Okay. Um. If I asked you, let's put it this way. If I asked you five years ago, do you think you'll ever be a turkey hunter? What would you have said no. If I said, what if I said, do you aspire? You aspire to be an American hunter? Probably now that would be a no. And if you asked any single person who knew me at that time, who know me at some point, their answer would also have been no way. I would agree with that. And when you pictured it, No, I'm not asking you to go back at the time and think and then imagine your impressions five years ago, but leading up to this and you pictured it, it'll be like this and this is what happened. This is what'll feel like. How um, how accurate was your How accurate was your pre assessment or whatever I'm trying to say that, like how accurate like your your mind movie, your vision of it? How accurate was your vision of it? UM? I would say there were there were some parts that were accurate, and there were some parts that were vastly inaccurate. Like I don't think I had an expectation that, um, like everybody says it's it's hard to find turkeys, I don't think I had an expectation that we would be challenged as much as we were. Like actually hearing a gobble like it was rigorous, not only into fault. We're the because no no blame set um. But more also in terms of like for those first couple of days, I also felt like there were moments where I was like physically challenged in ways that I didn't expect to be physically challenged. Like I'm not sure I expected to be climbing up you know, trying to keep up with you as you're running, Like I I thought, where did I run? You were running, but you're just so like you you do this all the time and you're so strong, and like I don't do a lot of this stuff very often, And so my physical capabilities were tested in a way that I probably didn't anticipate or expect to be tested in that way, Like climbing over deadfall, I was like getting blow it down, like we had we had to cross to like blow down. Yeah, Like it was just like wow, like there is you know, you have to really be in like strong physical shape to be able to be successful at it was like a hillside. And I even said, you, when people talk about dog hair, this that's what they're talking about. And when people talk about blowdown, that's what they're talking about. This dog hair blowdown, which is like a hillside of Lodgepole Pine where they're like still like very densely packed, and then they get leveled in a they get leveled in a windstorm, and man it makes a mess. Well and I just was like, he makes it look so easy. So I like, you know, headed in thinking, oh, I'm just following Steve, and then I was like, oh, my goodness, is not that easy. So you didn't picture that part? No, Yeah, there's nothing in yoga class that prepared No. No, it's defferent. It's a completely different type of physical demand or straight and it's not like it's just for a short period of time like there were times where from you know, first thing in the morning until the evening, you're out and about. Yeah, and it's not like you're just walking flat, you know, like you're really kind of experiencing, you know, a really diverse terrain, or at least we did. I feel you experienced a very you know, a western turkey hunt where people back east are gonna hear you talking about this. And sure there's places in West Virginia and you know, part of other parts of Appalachia that you know, people climb some hills turkey hunting, but like, well, you guys went through, especially the first afternoon we went out. I mean we pretty much did like a little Elk hunt, you know what I mean, you've been same kind of country and same stuff you would have covered going on at Elk in the afternoon, you know, we slid on my belly, so yeah, we had ye cut across a couple of creeks. I was crawling on the way back up Steve hillsides up and down. Maggie, you're a marathon runner. Have you ran You've ran marathons and like mega trail runs. Did you didn't find those hard walking around for turkeys? Did you know? I think the physical part I was. I felt like, yeah, I'm excited about this, but I want to see if I keep honest and legs. Yeah, I was excited about that. I think I kind of had an idea in my head about what that was gonna be. But I have an advantage, I'm like Tracy does because I edit. You know, I've edited hunts. I've seen what you guys do. So I was like, I think I know it kind of goes into this, you know, like I don't know everything, but physical part. I was like, I think I got for the most part. And I know you like chastise me for saying, like everyone says they're always prepared for and they're not. And I was like, oh, yeah, well that's like the two things. The two things everyone says they're gonna do and don't that they're going to break their boots in when I wore them to the office. Always they're gonna like their boots and they're gonna like whatever. Get in shape means I probably it was in pretty decent shape. Oh yeah, you were. I mean you and I were waiting on the two camera was impressive. What was the thing that was most um, what was the thing Maggie that was most surprising about actually going out hunting, Like something that as much as you had exposure to it, Like what was the thing And you're like, oh, I get it now or I didn't picture this being like this. The emotional side to it, Like, I mean, I was drained. Every emotion I had in my body was put out there. Tell me more. I mean, it was excitement, then there was like disappointment at certain points, frustration, then I felt pressure. Then when I had my opportunity, I felt guilt and sadness. But then they were like came back and I was like one of vengeance. I mean, and then there was times too, but I was like I just loved it, Like I really was out there and I was like, this is like not on a trail like hiking. I don't know if I want to go to like a trailhead now and just go for a hike. Like I loved it. We were just like off trail just moving through country like that was just listening but then stopping and just looking at stuff because the trail is such a different experience and out there and immersed and I like loved that part about it. Like that was just because like you learn you see how the animals are running contours and like the animals don't move across the landscape and asked backwards way they very much like go with the flow of the landscape. You know. It's cool to see totally and just like learning from the honest too. I was like, wow, you know so much, you know, and like a lot of this stuff you don't get to see when you're editing. You know, you can get a really capture emotion. You have to feel it when you're having emotions. Did you remind yourself that like we're like, but it's just a game, or did it feel sort of more real? You know? I mean, because how do you untangle it? You know, it's like a pastime, but but it brings out emotions that a lot of pastimes do not. I mean, people who play golf get pissed whatever they miss a shot, can get really mad, and they like bend their golf clubs. So it's like legit anger. But I feel like it doesn't have that. It doesn't and not being a golfer. Maybe I'm wrong, but it's hard for me to picture bringing about the full suite of emotions that come out. Yeah, I didn't expect that. Definitely, not a hundred rounds in my day and there's no not even close. I can tell you running a marathon. I was like when I did that, it's like, oh, it's the hardest thing. Is just an emotional journey. No, So what do you think gets attributed to then that it's so vastly deeper and more complex. I don't know if I can really answer that for you. I don't know that it just surprised me. I'm still processed. Yeah, totally, I did. That is just like came out of left field. Yeah. My brother describes it, um that he has that he gets very lusty. Yeah, he wants like because he's trying to find the right word to sort of capture how badly he wants success. Oh. I definitely felt that. It's like he feels that the word lust almost does more justice. Yeah, I would agree. So lusty for like elk or turkeys or whatever. It's just you just want to get that thing and be successful so bad. Yeah. And I think what added to that is the turkey beer Tracy. And I mean, there wasn't very many gobbles, but we heard him on the first day and I'll never forget that. And I came back and it's like I heard him, and you guys we're like, are you sure. I don't think there's any other noise. It sounds like a turkey out there. But I'll never forget that. Talk about your opportunity, tell us about your opportunity. It's like still heartbreaking. Um, we got their first light a little bit before a little bit before for sure, you guys had named the turkey m hm, sneaky. Yeah, we'd already been I think that was the third morning that we have been on him. We had hunted him like literally almost most of the prior two days. I mean, and you know where he roosts. He makes noise from the roost, hits the ground, does some gobbles, but will never come in. Yeah, we knew like his general zone. We sort of like we knew where he dusted himself even, I mean, we like knew his territory. But you hadn't had to experience yet at a distance. Maybe I think you did well, No, you did that first morning you saw him down. He saw a glimpse of him cut across the hill. And that's you know, knowing that information and knowing like the layout of where he was roosting. We knew that at least twice he had gone, you know, looking up the hill, he had gone to the left and kind of gone down into this bowl. And that, you know, that's why we decided to set up there as opposed to on the ridge like the morning before, because he didn't come down the ridge towards us, kind of cut across the toe of the hill and went down into a into a bowl. Yeah, he evaded us. Oh man, he's good at evading. Yeah, so your opportunity there we are out in the woods sitting all set up. Honest, has got the decoys like how far? Yeah, like right where we know he's gonna walk, and it's just the waiting game. Now. My heart is just like in my throat, I'm like sweaty much over a hundred yards from his roost tree. And it was a full hour until and luckily he got He would gobb well every five ten minutes from where he was, so we knew he hadn't drifted off in a different direction. Were you calling him or he would We had already I had already called enough the prior two days, and I was not gonna make his peep. So how were you playing on him finding you? Because we knew his direction to going the other way off this this ridge? Um, it was kind of hellhole ish, like there was more blowdowns, it was steep. It just wasn't And we had heard him in this bowl and wash him go into this bowl and just had like he's been spending a bunch of time in this bowl. So they just seen the natural path he's gonna eventually take. You were ambustion them, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yep, we're all set up and just give him the silent treatment. Yeah, yep. Yep, yep, yep, he's going to go off in some other direction. We at this point I figured he was probably a little smart or like new something. Yeah, but I will never forget when I first saw the hen come and she was I mean two hands and they were huge and puffed out, and I was like, oh my god, and she were like no, like you're like kind of fenders. They were like big. I'm just remembering like they were side by side in front of him, basically like and I was like, oh my god, is that the collar. I didn't know. I hadn't seen him at that point, and you you remember he said you will know. And when he came through, I was just like in my head, I was like, I could not believe that that's how they strutt around the forest when we are not around, Like this is just like what these animals do. That like weird to me, thought, But last spring I called in a turkey for a guy who never hunted turkeys, and when the turkey showed up, we couldn't see very far, like off in one direction. All sudden he's just like there and remember before he shot, he goes, Oh my god. That's kind of how I felt because also, here's this like absurd blue head coming through the you know. Yeah, yeah, it was. He's all puffed up, you know, with his ladies. And then he came in and est was like, are you ready? And he called and the hens looked at directly at us, did not give a shit about the decoys. Yeah, that was my mistake. I mean, retrospectively, I should have not called. You know, we always we talked about not shooting him in strut because the head is more compact. He's kind of tucked into his body, right, and so if he's just standing there and his head is wrecked and up, the targets bigger. It's it's clear away from the body. It should be easier to hit, you know. And he's at twenty yards coming and strutting. And at the time when I said so, he just happens to be coming through the woods at twenty yards. Well, dude, like I said, moving quicker slow, I mean, understand what you're saying. He's like they're just fake walking, like they're gonna feed. Well, once he saw the decoy, he was probably moving a little bit quicker at the decoy, and you tried to give him a call or an alarm putt oh, no, I just gave him just a couple of the alps, and the hands were like, I'm out of here. Yeah, the hands heard that, and we're like, that didn't come from those two hands I'm looking at. That came from up the hill twenty yards, you know. They just spun one eight went back the way they came. And of course he's sort of following gobbling the whole time. And every time I call, I'm like, I continue to call now because he's but again, there's a stump that when I set the decoys, I was didn't see like see the stump and go, oh, that's going to cause an issue. But he went behind the stump, came out on the other side. I called, and he I mean he turned and got behind that stump so fast, and then coming out on the other side of the stump, he was he had like definitely had some giddey up going, And in hindsight, you feel like you should have gotten a couple of cracks off. Maybe yeah, maybe isn't he was strutting? Sure, No, I should have just had you shoot him. Listen, I know about that whole thing. Not doing that. I think that is just I think that is some b s personally twenty yards Yeah, just shoot? Yes, I knew it. I mean I was sad and upset. Did he feel your head full of that? Not to shoot him when he's in strut? We had talked about that, of course. Yeah, why do you think we're in this predicament right now? I don't know if she can't she arrived at it naturally. Oh no, no, no they didn't. They didn't teach that her safety Like, oh, one last thing class, never shoot him in strut? Are you aware of this seth the whole not shooting him in strut movement? Well, I always tried to like not shoot him in struct you know, but why well just because like, um, I don't know, you have a better chance of hitting me press me, um, And like I've I've shot turkeys in the strap before and just like totally blue there, fan apart and like all sorts of stuff, you know. But if it comes down to it, I have no problem with it. Yeah, no, if if everyone knows what's up. Like while I was something, my friend Jared Faint because he you know, he's a he's been he's a seasoned turkey hunter. And we had a turkey come in, and I knew that he was getting ready to shoot the turkey and turkeys in full Stratt and I gave the turkey up an alarm put and he lifted his head up and he shot. But that's because I know that he's like a guy who's been shooting turkeys his whole life. Yeah, this year, I was calling a turkey in for Rick, and uh he the turkey never left Strutt except for when he would gobble, which is all that's a risk a little, that's a risky shot, you know, just shooting when he when he gobbles. But I made a call in a turkey gobble, and Rick shot him when when he gobbled, just because it was the only time his head would leave, you know, being tucked up against his body. Yeah. But so there he wanders off unscathed, and you had an emotional outpouring. Pull my hat down over my eyes and to adrenaline left my body and I was vibrating. Did you get a chill? Adrenaline left your body? Man? But you know what's real when you get the chill. And in my head, I just kept replaying and be like now now, now, now, I just like which someone would have just whispered like now, but that was just my you know, it was everything I did not expect it to be. I thought I was prepared after all the setups in your mind, in your mind movie, you didn't picture that being something that would happen. And then Tracy had something happened in her thing like even just you saying that makes my heart began beating fast again. Okay, talk about your opportunity which you capitalized on. So we had been I mean this was this was basically the first day. I think it was day four, the first day where we actually had heard a gobble like we had been kind of trying to find birds for a long time. We hunted three I think we hunted three days. I heard one gobble in three days. You heard zero gobbles. Have we hunted three days? Yeah? I think so. And we went to we handed three days on all on forest land, national forest land, hunting three days on national forest I never heard of gobel. And then went to a private parcel, went to a private farm parcel and behold and behold, lo and behold, we we found some birds, which I mean, having spent that amount of time without seeing any birds, like the change and emotion and the change and feeling that you feel physically. I was like, oh my god, we're here, this is we're getting close. This is go time. And I think not only like do you start to think about how is this going to play out? Am I going to know what to do? Thinking about what you guys had taught us, like just making sure that like everything was like in check. And I think you anticipate that it's all going to kind of happen exactly like you anticipated happening, and I'm prepared, and then you know that doesn't happen, and you know you're kind of in this situation where, um, you know, you're outside of your comfort zone and the intensity of it all is a lot to handle. Our turkey we we we were actually about to head inside because it was starting to pour rain, and I was shocked actually that Steve had kind of said, you know what, I think we should go inside for a little while. I was like, really, Stephen, I wouldn't say we should go inside for a little while. Yeah, Well I didn't wanna. I'm trying to you know, I don't want to sell you short, but I'm trying to make it be that you're having a decent time, right, which I absolutely was. And then literally upon completion of you finishing that sentence, we heard a gobble. Oh, the hen came in. Hand started and we started communicating with the hen and she came out and she was a little feisty. She was a little feisty bad. I was shocked. She she marched right up to the decoys, kind of had our little moment with them, like she was like, what's happening over here? And then she was like nothing, I'm not interested in and off she went. She's like, hey, you're not alive, but she didn't. I was so surprised because she was like, you're not alive. I'm moving on. She wasn't like what is this? She was like, this is a little different. I've seen him be baffled by it sometimes, like kind of birds will attack it totally. And I also last year had this really amazing experience of watching the hand come up to one and just purring at it and pecking at it. Really yeah, five minutes, really five minutes. That must have been incredible. The stage interest saying yeah and got irritated with it. Fascinating. Yeah, she was. She had bigger, bigger things. Actually, five minutes, felt like yeah, yeah, yeah, And that was the first bird we had really seen. We'd obviously seen some birds and other capacities, but like that was the first bird we'd actually seen. Where we were set up, we were kind of in a different mindset, if you will, Like I felt like we were kind of in go time. So then you know, it starts to get real. Then all of a sudden, and I'm thinking through my head because the day before, Steve was like when you see a turkey, you do not move an inch, not an inch. So I'm like, you know, I definitely don't want to be the one that f everything up. So I'm thinking in my mind all the things that you told me that I'm making sure, I'm I'm good, I'm prepared. And then we've been here to Gobbler Kindest and he was obviously with some hands. Can you kind of hear him go back and forth and you never got closer. You can make him gobble, but it didn't do any good. And I never knew exactly where it was, Like We're all kind of like, where is that coming from? Like you weren't totally like some couple hundred yards away some direction. But then all of a sudden, he's like, it's like, oh, he's coming. Oh yeah, And then all of a sudden there was one gobble where literally he could have been sitting in my lap. Like I was like, that is so close. I was loud as anything but double heard around the world. Absolutely yeah, And it was so loud. There's where guys, I want to like talk a little bit because I'm a big part of your mishap. It wasn't even a misshap. We keep calling, I keep calling to miss that, but we felt to me, I felt, but it wasn't. Actually I can think he's going to take the line of travel and come from our to our left, like the hen did sort of kind of like calling from where she was calling um and then the gobble herd around the world felt like it was in my lap literally, but he wasn't in my lap, and I couldn't see him in front of me, and I was so confused. And the only place I could think that it was was like clear across the fielding, So I'm like, how could it start? A blind sign behind us is solid and to the right is blind side. So it's just like it feels like he's like yelling in my ear. But Mike, where is he right? And I'm like, he, is it at all possible that it is somehow across this field? And it sounded like that, and so I'm staring trying to find it. And then out of the corner of my eye here running at us, running at us as a turkey like sprinting, Yes, as fast as the turkey runs yeah. And then and I like and sets down there. We got a camera guy down there. A turkey running is not a good sign. Typically, typically not a good sign. And in the second that I registered this happening instead of there's there's two thoughts, and like they're racing, and there's a thought in my head that was behind in the race, which is the true thought that he's running up to the decoy. He's so jacked up that he's literally running to the decoy. But that thought is lagging behind in this race. To the four of my mind, it is losing the race. The thought that's like that turkey is out of here because something spooked it. But he's extremely close, close close enough where I say shoot the turkey. And all all we had prepared for was this stationary, this turkey that's standing there at thirty yards perfect to a box, right exactly as prepared to its perfect scenario. I knew exactly what I was supposed to be aiming. I feel like I would have a little more time. It didn't really work out. It's hard to recreate the running turkey in you know, well, maybe somebody should come up with that, because it would be nice to have some experience with a moving target. That was my hardest thing too. It was like, wow, setting up and trying to move would not move a lot. Because if you're trying not to speak him. Yeah, if you have met anyone, they'll tell you never shoot at a moving turkey. But I got I have the lust. I have the lust, and I can see why, Like I kind of felt like I even had the lust, and this was my first freaking time, Like I can see where that that's like a very real reality totally, especially after you feel like you've spent so much time grinding for this moment. Like I was like, here he is, and if we had waited a second, he would have stood there for thirty seconds a minute, strutting, kicking that thing, nuzzling it. But instead I just like, but I will tell you, just it doesn't even make sense that I miss judged because he didn't have his head positioned. How spook Turkey does. His head was tucked. I just screwed up, but I was grateful I screwed up to though, Steve, because I didn't shoot as well as I would have liked to do. That was a chip shot. I am. I am working on my status, but it is clear that I am not at that level. I'm working now, come on, you'll get there, But um, you know what you gotta do to get there, and you don't want to do that. Probably not we told you? What? What how you tell true outdoors? I don't think you told me that. Yeah, we we distilled one single thing. Lay it on me. I wasn't there. I don't want to remind you. You can't talk about it, so honest, and I know this secret. We told you. We told you. I did hear about it. Told about trapping. No no, no, no, no, no go on no. Okay, a seasoned shooter. You in ten years okay, you in ten years? Would that would be not a bad shot? Next year? Okay? So you're going to practice? You take over whatever I'm saying. You were agitated. I can tell you I've been in that position before, buddies. He's scream, whisper in your ear shott. It is not cool. But but on the flip side, I actually feel very grateful that he was doing that because a shot on your own, I'm not sure like I shot it standing there, but I I appreciated the guidance, you know what I mean, Like it was it was an intense guidance. Don't get me wrong. It was not like Tracy shoot the birds time. It was shoot shoot the bird, you know. And I was like, Okay, it's a real problem of mine. It's a real problem of mine. Um. I feel that that when I'm mentoring new hunters, I typically let them down at at at at the moment of truth. I don't feel like I was let down. I think I'm running out of different uh I am. I'm not sympathetic to the pacing that they that they feel as comfortable. Well, I want to force them to a more quicker pacing, right yeah. But I mean for me personally, like I actually think it was helpful because I like to be pushed a little bit, Like I I like that challenge. So I didn't mind that it was more a matter of because he came out from the right so unexpectedly, and I think you had us on him slightly before I even did. And then I was like, oh my god, there he is, Oh God. And then you're like, shoot the bird. And then I was like, this is time that I felt like I couldn't really like get my good shot. Obviously I didn't get as good of a shot as I would have wanted. Walked through the shooting, but you have to use the word blouch instead of bang. Okay, I feel like some of it is like very foggy because it was all It's all happened so damn fast too. So okay, So I'm set up, I'm hunched down, I'm ready to go, and I see this bird come like shockingly out of my right hand side, and then you're like, shoot, shoot the bird. And I was like, hey, so I I pulled the trigger, blouch, and I'm like, oh yeah. The bird flies up in the air. The wings are kind of like and I was like, and I at that moment was like, Johann has told me that when you sometimes when you kill a turkey, that they can like flounder flap for a little bit before they die. Is that what's happening, Steve, I don't know at that point, I didn't know. Okay, take it to farming for a minute. Okay, in the old days and still today, in some cases, people will dispatch the chicken, say by beheading it. Ye, and what do those chickens do? Did they just fall over? Never even twitch? No, they kind of like doing they run around the barnyard. Oh yeah, Okay. So when you get a direct hit on a turkey, it doesn't like the best direct hit on the turkey oftentimes doesn't immediately register to one as a lethal hit because there is a lot of activity that happens. Our action his head is his head has been like effectively removed right by a direct shot from a shotgun. But there's a lot of movement. So that's what I was thinking was potentially transpiring. For a split I think you said something. You were like, yes, you got him or something like that, and I was like, oh, really, Like I was a little taken aback by shot, and then literally you were like shoot again. Yeah. It's funny how fast they can go from flopping too having their legs underneath them. You have their legs underneath them, and that's what Steve said he was like, I saw that he was getting his legs underneath him, and it wasn't a lethal shot. And at that point, I think my mind was so flustered that I was like, oh goodness, gracious, Like I was a little bit a wreck kind of that. I don't think I could focus enough to like regroup and like shoot effectively. Again, I think that was the issue because I was stressed and I was panicked, and I was like, I've hit him, but I haven't lethally hit him, And now we have an issue. And we had two more shells in the old clip, that's correct, the old tube. Neither one of them touched a bird. I shot them, but they did not touch the bird. And I was like, this is a disaster. Then it started to like sink in and I was like, this is exactly what I was most fearful would happen. That I would injure a bird and not lethally shoot him, and then I would cause pain and suffering into an animal. And that was exactly what happened. So but like you don't really have a chance to like process at all, because you're like, we gotta go, we gotta go find him. You know what I mean, Like you're like, we gotta go, we gotta go to find the bird. So it's like you're trying to process all of what just transpired, but like no time because you're off running across the field looking for tracks, trying to locate him, trying to find him, trying to find where he went. Like while that all is happening, like you still have a lot of adrenaline going but I couldn't help but like in my mind, think about what that poor bird was going through, which probably isn't necessarily realistic, but that was exactly where my head went. It was like he's in pain, he's suffering, Like, you know, he didn't expect this. This isn't fair, Like I was going through all of those types of emotions, couple with the fact that I was like, goddamn it, why did I suck so bad? Like I was annoyed that I felt like I had not capitalized successfully and like impressively on the moment. Let's say we had had your first hunt. We had decided was going to be a uh deer hunt mm hmmm, rifle deer hunt m hm, and we knew that in the best case, like how it typically goes best case scenario, we would instruct you to when we get a chance at a deer, we're gonna shoot behind the front shoulder so that we punch a hole through its lungs. We don't waste to either shoulder meat. Okay, And we knew that what would happen would be you hit the deer, the deer is gonna run off ten yards a hundred yards and runoff, bleed out, pile up and die. And we knew going to new that's what it was gonna look like. How would you feel that happened? Because effectively, you shoot a turkey, it has some moment a panic, runs off, dies, there's a little bit of time expires, but runs off, gets in the brush, dies, and sometimes some whatever minutes elapsed. Um, But it wasn't what we thought what happen because we thought the typically shoot turkey just dies. If I like, how much of it was disappointment that it didn't go as we planned, and how much of it was the whore of it having this brief moment of confusion and pain. So I think it's the second That second point was probably what I was struggling with the most. But then after I kind of processed those emotions. I was like, oh, the disappointment of not having it go exactly as I had hoped or as you guys would have wanted it to go. That that was secondary. So we had shot a deer and I was like, perfect shot, but the deer ran off and we see it like going, it crosses the creek and goes and runs over a hill, and You're like, oh my god, I'm nervous, and I'm like, no, no, it's perfect shot, and we gold narrat is dead. Would you have been really upset about the distance? The time and distance that elapsed not upsetting to you know, I think it would have been upsetting to me. However, Like, given the fact that we were in I was in a situation with you kind of guiding me and providing your expertise and your experience and perspective. If you had counseled me in that situation to say this is quite common, I guarantee you that you know we'll find him, you know, very close, or would have you that would that would ease my concern? Well, I was shocked that we found it. That's why I think I could eat that from you. And I was like, this is a tricky like we now have it a very tricky situation. You guys got lucky people. When bird gets out of sight of you, they don't leave a blood trail. I it was a range of emotions because we got the first thing we did went and checked the river bank and couldn't find running turkey tracks crossing it, and Seth had had enough experience. Even though Seth behind the scenes said that enough experience where he's like when they hit the stick stuff, they yeah, it seems like that were like most birds, you know, when water fell hung like, their defense is to fly away. So when they can't do that, they just find a spot of talking and they just sit very still. And I've seen turkeys do that before. So no, I feel very grateful that we were able to recover him. Honestly, it took a while to process at all emotionally. But had that not been a final outcome, I feel like I would have felt very differently about my whole experience. Have you eaten a needed turkey yet? I have? What did you do with it? I made turky schnitzel, just like you told me to. It was a huge success, and I'm going to make some more turkey schnitzel this weekend because Jeremiah's dad and brother are in town, and so I figured it would be fun to cook up some turkey your future father in law, future brother in law. Yeah, and walking to you how you made your schnitzel? I followed your recipe? Okay, oh absolutely, I'm not just like singing my turkey schnitzel. I followed the expertise recipe by the book. Did you put saran rap that? When he hammered it out? It was awesome? The lemon makes all the difference in the world. Lemon is is is critical? Um here in this How do you feel about this, Maggie? That that um that you haven't had any I just want to go back out there and get one, did you guys? You guys notice, but um you should probably Tracy pass a little bit of turkey. Did Steve give me a little more crest than that? She did? She shared with me. So I'm very grateful for appreciative after our after our hunting, and our surprise about the turkey, not just pile them up dead? Um, I thought for a couple of minutes later's a zero percent chance Tracy will be doing this again. And then an hour later I put it to you and you were already at ninety yeah, and I would tell you I'm at a hundred now, like even with further distance from it and the reflection of it, and just the um kind of respective that I have on the whole experience and how magnificent it was, and also just the connection to the outdoors and spending that time kind of connected to nature. Like even probably if I hadn't got a bird, I would probably tell you now I'd be a percent likely to do it again that I want to do it again. And partly there's this mentality of like I want to do it again better, like I want to improve upon my previous experience. I want to get more comfortable, I want to be more accurate and effective, like I want to get better at it. Where are you at, Maggie? And it's funny that it's weird to see this in you. Where not that it contradicts something I thought about you, but it's weird to seeing you. There's sort of like a um like a friendly sort of vendetta kind of thing going up. I mean, like because you're competitive, you obviously competitive, and so you I can see that you don't like, like you don't like the feeling of having not been successful, but not in a powerty way, but in a way where you're this isn't over. I'll figure this out. Yeah, definitely. And I mean I think that's what draws me to running and individual sports and then get go and I'd say, huneting, it's definitely falls. I mean, it's not sport necessarily. I mean there's more to it than that, but you do it and like you're going out there for a purpose. There's a thing you want to happen, and you're gonna and you're wanting to make that thing happen. Yeah. And I think that's why I was a decent athlete in college is that I didn't get down if I didn't perform well in a race. It was not like that's like the end all be all. You know, there's a room to improve and reflect on that and get better. And I don't know, I came away with just so much appreciation that just and fun, Like I had so much fun it makes me just want to go do it again. Maggie went to Josh Pristine when we got home and order yourself up a O eight. I didn't that synthet just got worried. I'm getting it. Yeah, so the drive is there? Seriously, is this gonna be the first firearm in your household the first time? My mom's probably hearing about it right now. American gun owner. Yeah, I think I think to our experience just from like chasing that one bird and having it be so intimate. Like we tried other places. I was always like, yeah, let's go here, Sure, be honest, whatever you think, but that intimate moment was just I don't know. That's addicting. You gonna up, You're gonna ring up safe place in your house to keep it. You gotta you guysn't have kids run around them. M hm, I need your help. Yeah, tell me what to do. Um of grown ups. I mean it's different, but no kids, that's exciting. Yeah, what are you gonna hind deer this year? If you guys will help teach me? Sure? Okay? Any final thought? Mm hmmm, I don't know. No speaking, he's still out there. I mean Turkey still live. Checked another day he were he oh man, did you make a fool of me that day? Um? But set's going this weekend. I think he's gonna we're gonna go. I'm gonna I'm gonna check on him. He should see if you're still around. I'm out of days. Man, he's too he's a little too far away. If he was like ten to thirty minutes away, i'd probably work something out. But he's two hours away. So yeah, you're going camping for the whole weekend up there. Yeah, so you can put some time in. Yeah, it's just beautiful too. Oh, it's gonna be a good Turkey weekend in Montana. Man. Yeah, yeah, Tracy. Got any final thoughts too, Final thoughts that I want to share. One is, you know, I feel like a lot of people talk about the importance of like having a mentor as you get into hunting, and I never really understood. I mean, of course, you always want to have somebody that can help teach you or you kind of show you the ropes. I never really understood the real value of being able to try something new with people who are so experienced and so um so much of an expert in kind of the the area. Um and I feel like I would have never been able to kind of embrace this new adventure without that. So really grateful, honestly for you guys taking the time to kind of introduce us, because the knowledge that was imparted, the experience that was imparted, the level of security that I felt knowing that I had somebody next to me who is an expert who could help guide and navigate any situation that would potentially arise was monumental. And I would say to anybody who's looking to kind of try something new, especially in the world of hunting, finding that is so valuable, like that is that was a critical part of UM me being able to experience this and wanting to experience it again. And then two, I would just say it was really grateful to be surrounded by people who are just badass people that really like to just also have fun. So like, while things were really tough, had there not been the laughter that there was, I would have been a whole different ball game. And so being able to infuse a little bit of that fun and that laughter, like, I felt like I had a really awesome group around me supporting me even in my worst moments, because you guys saw a lot of ship that you probably would never you know have seen. UM that was really grateful for that. Thank you, Thank you. Take you back on that too. I mean, how many times you try something new and it's like an expert trying to show you totally not willing to come down near your level, or like they make you feel dumb in that situation and you don't know what they're talking about. I mean, this was like eye opening, and I don't know, very appreciative and grateful for the experience and knowledge that's like bestowed at me. I mean, that's not laws on me. I still think about turkeys when I'm going to bed at night. What what's fun? What what's fun about? Uh? Going out with you guys and showing you some things there is that you're open about, kind of open about what you know and don't know. And it's nice to see things through new eyes, you know, and for people to be like have the sort of self confidence and willingness to kind of like fess up about what they aren't aware of or what they haven't seen before, because it helps you sort of guide someone and understand what they're going through. And I think there's a lot of times there's a way that some people get in new situation, they feel like they kind of want to bluff m their way along, and that bluffing along can actually be a real impediment to a kind of meaningful progress because they're sort of a posturing someone might have like, oh this is nothing new to me, and oh yeah, and it just it gets awkward and weird. But to have to to be with people who have that self confidence to kind of like to express marvel or express interest and what you don't know and do know, what you're comfortable with and not comfortable with, makes the whole thing pleageable and easy. And there's never there's no um weirdness or tension that arises yet from someone who like from someone being a bullshitter, right, totally, totally yes, Yeah, hoping a year from now, you guys just roll in about eleven one morning. You guys are like, dude, there he was have like some real good, you know, hunting stories that you guys weren't with Steve or myself. Drag and a couple of rope greggors behind you. We're coming in and yeah with dead turkeys come checking out, um behind my desk. Yeah, I hope to see that. No. I was gonna say, Tracy, you should really play up the like the provider role when you are serving this Turkey this weekend to your to your soon to be in law us, because this is great. I just like, I just I want to like imagine that you're in there and your father in law and your brother in law and you're like, yeah, well you know, someone around here's got to bring home to me. Serve it up, guys, guys do that? Well, well, little lady, what do we have here? Like just something nice shot? It's a little something nice shot out in the woods. Yeah. I think they're all just a bit shocked. You're like, oh, it didn't expect this out of you knew you were moving to Mount Canada. I got a lot of hats and a lot of gusts bloods for Christmas year, but we did not expect this. I just keep getting shocked from everyone too. So I leveled off Old Betsy really Nellie Bells bells, and old Nellie bell barks. Alright, so next time we'll talk with you, guys, we'll talk after we do hunt this fall. Come down, let's do it. Okay, I'm game. I gotta get some practicing in the meantime so that you got any final things would be good. Go ahead. I was just one of the most memorable. I think meat eater shoots that I've been on just because of laughing and like the just seeing like two people have never done this thing before. Um, we're a lot of fun. We laughed a lot. It was a good time. We need to frame that, Ninja Ninjammer. Oh I fo you weren't a true outdoors and that's right, the beaver trapping thing come dark. That one night you wanted to go to bed. I was like you because YA was gonna like you canna go outside a little steel and you wanted to go to bed. I was down, but you advised me would not be a good idea. All right, thank you. Everyone stops offstros Past Control feat