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

the best turkey hunters. I know. It's mid March. The days are getting longer, the sarvice berry blooms are popping, and the stories are flowing like clear mountain streams. Turkey tales aren't just for entertainment, but they export, in words and spirit, a picture of the dedication of a unique band of brothers, a tribe of people bonded together by a ground nesting gobbling bird. These stories give a glimpse into the joys, tribulations, and passions of the American turkey hunter.

It's an odd thing that a feathered beast would grip a heart so tightly it really doesn't even make sense. But a goblin spring turkey is as dynamic of a combination of audio, sensation, challenging the hunt, and visual imagery as there is in the natural world. A strutton gobbler rivals in beauty and mystique of breaching humpback well in the North Atlantic, a big horn sheep on a mountain crag, or even the great scenes of the African savannah teeming

with migrating herds of ungulates. A goblin turkey is the real deal. Add in the backdrop of the spring woods metamorphizing into brilliant hues of green, and it's almost unreal. On this episode we're celebrating the wild turkey and the hunt. We'll hear about a white turkey in Tennessee, a story where a hunter caught on fire it's not a joke, and a turkey that had the gobbles shout out out of him, and will end with a story that might

bring a tear to your eye. I really doubt that you're gonna want to miss this one and one more thing before we get going. You can go to the meat Eater YouTube channel and check out three videos that I made called the Bear Grease Road Show. There is a video that we did about Warner Glenn, who we also did a podcast about. There's a video about the Fulsome Archaeological site and a bear hunt that I did with a folsome point. Also something we did on a

Bear Grease series. And lastly there's a video about plot hounds and Appalachia. Go check all that out. Daddy got his gun up and the turkey's right there, and all of a sudden he's he smells something smells warm, and then he looked down and he sees smoke coming up out of his pocket. He said, you might be interested to know that pockets not only burned to the outside,

they burned to the inside too. My name is Clay Nukem, and this is the Bear Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the story of Americans who live their lives close to the land. Presented by f HF Gear, American made purpose built hunting and fishing gear that's designed to be as rugged as the place as we explore.

I love turkey stories and always have. The telling of stories is an important part of the culture where I grew up, and maybe it's the same where you came from. A good story is like money in the bank. You can withdraw it when you need it, and it draws interest with time. It gets better the more that it's told. Being a good storyteller, to me, isn't about flashy details and oratory pizzas. It's about a payoff being delivered to the listener, and it can come in a lot of

different ways. Some great stories I've heard come with a monotone delivery and with minimal hand gestures, but the frequency omitted by the teller confronted the listener with the display of moral character, the execution of wit, or the joy trial and tragedy of the sliver of time described. Some storytellers carry a contagious passion and their personal investment in the story is sensed, and all the very best ones

have a high degree of that. We all want to listen to folks that have a zeal and passion for life, someone who can describe with clarity what it feels like to look through their eyes. We learn when we see what someone else sees. We want to hear someone who's willing to tell the truth and authenticity Trump's pizzas. Every time we learn how to communicate by listening to other people's stories. Communication is everything in the successful execution of

being a human. If you are looking for a great self help area to focus on in twenty twenty three that would improve every area of your life, increasing your communication skills would be hard to talk and it isn't just a sequence of words. AI can produce words and sequence, but the passion, energy, spirit, and intent behind words give

it life and meaning. You're about to hear eight different stories from turkey chasers from the ages of nineteen to eighty one, and before we get going, just be patient. Here my brothers stories delivered different kinds of value. Sometimes a turkey story describes a tactic, the behavior of turkeys, or introduces us to a new skill. The story is really functional and it helps us. Sometimes we don't learn much,

but we're highly entertained. But one of my favorites is when a story exposes the broader life of the teller. It's usually a small window, but they'll show their cards to you if you're paying attention enough for ambling, and you boys know I love to do it. I want to hear some turkey stories and we're coming in hot with this first one with none other than a Bear Grease favorite, Andy Brown of Western Arkansas. He's a masterful woodsman and turkey hunter, and his passion shines through in

every story he tells. I know you're gonna enjoy this one. You know, I have been fortunate. I have really been fortunate in my life to be able to have hunted with some really really good turkey hunters. Of course, had a lot of fun. I mean, yeah, we were serious about what we did, but I mean we kind of like to gig each other and you know, have a little fun with each other. But one story, Jim fight, and he was a dear friend of mine. He always

called me Andrew. That's what he always at. Andrew wanted to go turkey hid never been before in his life. That's back when I was I mean I was really eat up with it. And of course where we lived at that time was right in the heart and soul of it. I mean I could stand on my deck any morning from the tenth day of March till May one and hear turkey's gobbling from my deck. And what was funny about that? I had all those turkeys out

there and I'd drive twenty miles to go hunt. You know, I've had this stupid stuff like that, But but I had places I liked to hunt, and guys I'd like to hunt with it. But anyway, Jim one to go, and he'd never been and he did have some camouflage and I think he barred a pair of gloves and a face mask. Farm me and he come over one morning and I can remember this just like it was yesterday. He had he had a sweet sixteen browning shot down.

But he shows up and we go in there north of the house and pulled it on the side of the main mountain on the north side, and got up in there. And that back in those days, that's when there wouldn't be a leaf on the side of that mountain. It wasn't turned over by turkey scratching. I mean there was people would not believe it, that didn't know it, that was slacking. We moved out there in eighty four, but that mountain it just like you took a tiber

in there and just till the leaves. But anyway, we pulled it there on the mountain where I thought we weren't going to be in the chips and of course naturally, you know how that goes. You're trying to be the big bad turkey hunter and you take somebody's never been you get up there and that the turkey's ain't goble. But no, there's just mornings that they're over the hump, you know, you're on one side of the mountain and they're on the other side of the mountain, or some

mornings they just don't want to gobble. But anyway, we hadn't heard a thing, and I told Jim, of course I had to go to work. It was before work one morning, and I said to Jim, we'll just have to done here for day. It's just not working out. So we had back off this long leg and down at the end of it as an old whale down there. And we got to the whale, I heard a turkey gobble down in the floor woods kind of northeast of it's over, And I said, you hear that, and he said,

I thought it did. By the time he gobble again. And man, is about probably eight thirty that dude putting in over, I mean gobbling every breath. And I said, come old, let's go. If I said, we're gonna kill that dude, I mean, he's just one of them. You tell the way he's gobbling, you're gonna kill him. And when we got down there where he was at, he was an old road. There's a kind of a big ridge in there, and there's no old road come off the south side of it there, and I got Old Jim.

We didn't. We didn't stay on the maid road. We kind of got off the road. I didn't there wasn't really a place you could get and shoot down the road. But I knew that turkey's gonna come down that road. And so right off the road there was a little old kind of a dry branch there in the hump, just a little old ridge there, and I got Jim out there and he laid down on his belly. Of course I put it on that turkey, and he just gobbling every breath, and I mean I was, of course,

I showed down a little bit. I was hammering him, you know, and he was Everything was just like you wanted it just come just drumming and gobbling. And I got behind a little old white oak probably wasn't ten inches in diameter, and I knew I didn't have to hide. You know, this is gonna be short and sweet. Anyway, I look out there, here comes that turkey down the road.

He's all blowed up. He comes right in there, and there's a trail that comes in and Jim's sitting there or laying there on his belt, and he's guy's gun on that on that turkey. And that turkey just kept coming right too. Mean, he got delf done and that that little old deal there, and I don't know, Jim moved or something, and of course the turkey went to clucking, and about the time he went to clucking, he went to flying. And I knew then that Jim wasn't going

to shoot. And so anyway, of course I cut drive at him, never cut a feather on him. And uh, I said, I has been out of shape, you know, because I mean it's it was a sure enough deal. I said, Jim, how come you didn't shoot that turkey? He said, Andrew, He said, all I could see was his head. I said, well, Jim, that's what she's supposed to be shoot a but yeah, that's all I can see was his head. Oh my goodness, all I could see was his head. It's hard not to laugh with

Andy when he hits the punchline. Of his story. On this next one, we're in for another treat because it's being told by none other than Bear Grease Hall of Famer Roy Clark of East Tennessee. Mister Roy is in his mid seventies and he's as good a hound breeder and bear hunter as God ever made. As a matter of fact, I just made a video about him and his plot hounds that just came out on the Meat

Eater YouTube channel. You should check it out. What a lot of people wouldn't know about mister Roy is that he's a dang good turkey hunter. He doesn't talk about it much, but a few years ago I asked if he'd had a good spring, and he told me he'd killed five gobblers, three in Tennessee and a couple in North Carolina. Here's mister Roy's story of the white turkey. I'm just gonna tell about a East Tennessee turkey hunting

event above home. I heard about this white turkey to my brother, and I know the two boys that opposing has seen the turkey, and they was out drinking and uh, and I know both of them, but I know one of them was pretty truthful. So I went and talked to him about it, and he told me what they're seeing and were they seen it? And so I told my son in last got childress about it, and meant him went up there to see if we could see

it or find it. And we went up our one morning, poor daylight, and we heard it a goblin, and we was close to it, but we worked our way before daylight and got close enough to we could see the tree is in, and when it got daylight we could see it had a lot of white on him and hit gobbling on the roost and stuff. And then when it finally flew off the roosts, instead of flying down, it flew out of there, flew out of sight, and

we never did cheer it no more. And we wound up going back several times, and every time we'd go, we'd locate it and we'd get close to it, but it would sail out and leave, and then it wouldn't gobble after he hit the ground, and we wouldn't never know where it went to. We done this slate, and we'd done the box, and we'd done mouth calls, we'd done everything, and we hunted it for two weeks on the etning and said after he'd come in from work, and when he was off, we'd go over morning and eating.

And we went up our one Friday morning and Hit was roosting on top of the mountain. We climb up that mountain and got under the tree, but like I said, every time, he'd just sail out and sail that you couldn't see it. So we went back on Saturday morning and it was a gobbling up our on top that mountain again, and I told Scott, I said, I ain't going up our no more. I ain't climbing that mountain

for it. And he'd sailed an all our said you can if you want to, So he decided he isn't going up our, and I just stayed down Therefore, well, we'd parked at and I walked around the road until I got straight down under where it's at, and went up in the woods and got me a place where I could still see the road, but right undry, and the process of hit it get in daylight and hit

a goblin up hour. I heared his hend and she was in a tree just twenty five or thirty foot from me, so directly he that Tom sailed out ire and I'd tell you it was one hundred foot over the top of the trees and over top of my head, and it just sailed right on buy me and just kept right on going to it went out of sight. Well, I thought to myself, he's gone again. And I tried to call Scott on the walkie talking to tell him he's gone, but he didn't answer me. He didn't know

whether it flew down up what he'd done. He just knowed it come out of the tree. And I decided I just sit there and wait till that hen see what that hen done. So I sat there, and after a while she just steezed off of the roofs and just barely sailed down toward the road and sailed around the road, just like gliding, and ten foot of the road and going around the road the way the road lay,

and went out of my side around the curve. And when she did, I got up and got all my stuff together and thought i'd might start making my way back towards the vehicle. And I got down there, but I was gonna watch see if I could see that

hen anymore. And I was a coming around the road, and I walked around the curve and I looked, and I seen that sucker strutting out there in the road, and I got on a little bit closer there, stayed to the side the curve where it couldn't see me, and I got just a little bit closer, and I could see that Hen was out there, squatted down out there in the edge of the grace, and that tom

was a strutting around her. Well, I just stepped to the side there and got all my stuff off and got rid and i'd peep around ore where I could see him. And when he turned his back, tom In was strutting back away from me. I took two steps out in the road and he strutted a rounding up the side of that Hen, turned and strutted back down and started back around towards me. And I let him have it and folded him up right there in the road, and I went out there, and he was a flopping.

I didn't want to touch feathers up, and so I got it by both back legs and held it up, and Scott was a hollering at me on the radio. Did I get it? Did I get it? And I had to hold the turkey with both backed feed holding it, and hit finally quit our drink, and I called Scott and told him I had it, and he'd come down there.

And we've seen turkeys spangled up, and turkeys was white on them and stuff all been hens, but this is the first time that we ever seen it was colored up with white tips on its feathers and white spot on both sides of its wings, and actually a purdy turkey. And so I wanted to have it fixed because I knowed that I never could get another one fixed. And Mark duff rained up in mine, of buddy of mine. He took it and fixed it, and and he mounted a lot of stuff, and he actually said he was

a burdish one he ever seen. I think it was, And that shorder end of my turkey hunting. I didn't think I could ever tap at. So I disorder retarded from turkey hunting. That white turkey put mister Roy into retirement. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but the gobblers in East Tennessee are probably better off on account

of it. Mister Roy is a national treasure. The dear friend of mine, I gotta kick out of how he said the boys that first saw that white turkey were out drinking, but he knew one of them was pretty truthful. That's good man. We got the story stacked in here deep. Our next story is told by Mississippi native author, former old MISSUS football player, and turkey hunter extraordinaire, mister Robert hit Neil Junior. He's eighty one years young and this is an old story about his dad. He calls the

Flaming turkey hunter on Woodstock Island. The hunt cabin that we had over there, which had been a sharecropper's cabin, is probably now a hundred years old, made out of Cyprus. And I was standing on the poech of the cabin because the weekend was about over. My brother and I had killed turkeys, and I was sweeping the poech off and Bo was inside packing and cleaning up. And my daddy, Big Robert. Big Robert didn't look like John Wayne. John

Wayne looked like Big Robert. He was about six two and a half, big, wide shouldered man, trim waste, you know. He was that kind of guy. And he hadn't had any luck the whole turkey season. This was the last weekend of the season. Bow and I, that's my brother. Bow and I had killed seven turkeys between us, and so the pressure was really on Daddy. He hadn't even gotten a shot, so he was still in the woods hunting,

and I'm out on the porch sweeping it off. And then I hear the jeep coming and he pulls up into the yard and he sits there, cuts the chief off and he just sits there and you see his hands gripping the wheel. And so I put the broom against the wall and went down the steps and walked over to the jeep. I think he maybe wants me to help carry his turkeys in or something like that, you know. And got there and no turkeys, and he's sitting there and his jaw just working, you know, that

muscle comes out the jaw bone, just working. And I said, is anything wrong? He said, where's boat? I said, he's inside sweeping the cabin. You want me to go get And he says, now, this story is too good to keep, but I've been if i'll tell both of you at the same time. And he told me that he'd been out there in the woods about ten o'clock, hadn't heard

of a turkey or seeing a turkey. And Daddy smoke about three packs cigarettes today, and he's sitting there on a log and he gets his cigarette out and he puts in his mouth, and then he puts a cigarette package back in the pocket, and he gets the lighter out and he lights it, and he's sticking the lighter back in his pocket when he looked up and a gobbler standing about twenty yards away just stepped out from behind a big supersymmetry. And turkeys are real weary birds.

He knew that you ought not to go breathing big clouds of blue smoke at him when they were standing there looking at you, And so he just froze right there with his hand in his pocket, put the lighter back and didn't exhale until the turkey took another step or two it got behind a tree, and then he exhaled and tongue a cigarette out the corner of his mouth and put his hand on his gun. But before he could get it up, the turkey stepped out behind

the tree. And he's walking real slow now looking at him. He's been here and call. And when the turkey gets behind the next tree, Dad, he got his gun up and got ready, and the turkey's right there, and all of a sudden, he's he smells something smells warm, and then the left side of his chest starts just horrible pain. And he looked down and he sees smoke coming up out of his pocket when he had tongued a cigarette out to carn of his mouth and then went down

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

dedicated turkey hunting. You know. It's like one of those moments when everything happens, and yet afterwards it seemed like you actually thought it out, but it all happened in a split second, he said. I remembered thinking at that time that I could either shoot the turkey or I could put myself out. Of course, for dedicated turkey hunting and no seasonal. He sat there and let his shirt burn and him in it while he waits for the

turkey to come out from behind the flame tree. And the found stepped out behind the tree, and he shoots, and he throws the guns down and beats his chest and he puts the fire out, and he had missed the turkey, and he said the turkey. He didn't even run, He just stood there and said, what you know, because flaming turkey hunters are very rare in the woods, was spoken. They enjoined the popularity that he had back then, and so he came on back to the cabin and the

jumpsuit is still hanging up there. That's just a flaming turkey story. That was good man, that was good. I wasn't expecting that. I can just envision flames flickering up in the corner of mister Neil's eye as he squeezed the trigger on that Mississippi Longbeard. I wonder if that's ever happened to another turkey hunter before. Our next storyteller is exactly sixty two years younger than mister Neil. Koy House is nineteen years old, and he lives in western Arkansas.

I grew up with his mom and dad, and he's a great young man for a lot of reasons, one of which is that he's a passionate turkey hunter. This story is about the first bird he ever killed completely on his own, well almost on his own. Here's ky. Well, I've been turgy hunting for a while, me and Steve, my grandpa. Every you know, everybody knows Steve pretty well. If he's turgy hunting, I'm with him nine times out of ten. I fell in love with it, and we

just love to do it together. Well, this particular story I'm gonna tell you about, turgy season had opened and I was thinking was that week, so I'd have been fourteen. The kind of kicker to the story is so Grandma Mama Cathy. She was in the middle of having a heartcat put in in the hospital. So Pauba wasn't hunting. He wouldn't you know, He couldn't go. So I decided I'm gonna I'm gonna go. We had a private spot we called Nelson's. We have some cows over there and stuff.

So I went back in the cut. I had got there late. It was probably I was breaking light and again I was fourteen. Wouldn't supposed to be over there, you know, driving, but it wasn't far from the house. It's just a little truck ride. Well, I got back in there and I give out and I just let an old food out, you know, and he just right over. I mean, he just like it was textbook. So I get in there and I get where, you know, I've

learned watching from Papa. Get above the turkey, get him off the roost, you know, call minimum on the roost. He'll fly down to you. So I get up there, I get above him. He's on the roost. I hoot him again. He gobbles. So I get set up. I just let out a few yelps, and he cuts me off right there. He's probably fifty sixty yards, kind of thicker in there, some pine trees. Oh, he gobbled, he gobbled, he gobbled, and then all of a sudden, you just

kind of shut up. Well, i've seen a hen pitch off, and she pitched off down an old cut in the logging road. I've seen her here one another one and here one another one. Well he just I didn't hear him, and so I figured he pitched off with them. So I just called, and sure enough he's down there in that road, and he just gobbled right out and right there. So I didn't I didn't know what to do, really, I was kind of man. I tried my techniques out at first, that I thought was supposed to be right,

and so I called Papa. He goes, hey, I'm back here with Mama. She's fixing the me in surgery. And I said, I need your help. I'm on a turkey. He's down here in the road. I need to know what to do. And I can hear Mama on the background. She's fit, you know, she's getting ready there prepping her. And she goes, Steve, you need to help him with get that turkey. You know, you need to help him

get that turkey. And so he says, well, you need to get around that turkey, figure out where he's going, and get around that turkey and get up there above him. Cut him off, He said, do maybe little calling, maybe if not any at all type deal, just kind of let it play out, let him come in. Well, so by the time I had got back around I call him, that turkey was already heading up the hill. I mean he was gobbling. He just gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble gobble.

So I did what he said. After the first time, I maneuvered around, and then once Eliza turkey was going up the hill, I call him again immediately and I say, Papa, you got him wife to walk me through this. I need to know, said, Turkey's already beat me up there, so what do? What do I do? He said, you need to climb the hill and he said you need to get as close as you can. And I said, what Paula says, just like a two year old cut? I said, it's pretty open. I said, I'm the Turkey's

gonna see me. He said, well, you need to get up that he'll right before it breaks off. And he said you need to get in. You need to dig in. He said, once you dig in, if he answers you, you know he might break free away from them hens. He said, you might have sit there till eleven o'clock. So I got up there and I dug in and I called nothing, not a pete, not nothing. So I called Papa a third time. I've been sitting there an hour. I ain't heard of Turkey in an hour. He said,

you gotta do You gotta be patient. I said, oh, I'm trying, you know. It was one of those things. I was just just learning how turkey hunt on my Oh it's my first time. So I was all fired up. Didn't want to overcall, didn't want to undercall. He said, dig in, he said, just give him a few yelps here and there, he said. And if he doesn't answer, he said, your last resort is to call the hens. See if you can get the hens fired up and get them to come. So I sat there, sat there,

didn't hear nothing. Well, this dove. You know what a dove makes a noise at, you know when it flies off? What flew off? And he gobbled about fifty yards sixty yards over the break. I mean I heard him. Well, so I called it and answer me, and I said, he's with him. I knew, you know, I knew enough about it. I knew he was with hens. So I just started, I mean, just going crazy, just pucking and purring and just fighting purrs. And I was, you know, I was given everything I could well about. Not even

two minutes later, I see this head coming. Here, it comes, Here comes another one. Well, here comes some hens. They started, you know, feeding off through there real quietly, And so I just turned my head and gave him a purr. And they here they come, looking well, sure enough, here behind an old tree, kind of a dead tree, leaned over here, he comes full strut. He come through there. And I said oh, it's on. You know, it's one

of those deals. I was getting fired up. Well, the Hens started coming towards where I was at, and he was kind of circling off over there. The Hens got so close, they were probably ten yards from me, and I was in some brush. I was, I mean, I couldn't even breathe. I was afraid they were gonna see me. I didn't even I had my eyes closed. I had one eye closing, one eye looking down to it. I mean, I was just trying not to move. It was one

of those situations. Well, one hen she kind of threw her head up and she just about that time at Gobbler threw his head up and kind of look that way. He was every bit I guarantee of sixty yards and I knew. I said, it's my only chance. So I put it right on him and I shot and he went to flopping. And so I got on the phone and I said, bah bah, I just killed him. I guide him, you know, and he's like, oh my gosh. You know, it's one of those things. I was hooper

excited as my first turkey. But you know, he walked me through it on the phone. I mean, you know, it's just one of those things. It's kind of crazy at the same time. But when I got up to the turkey, he had a twelve inch beard, not even lying. He had about an inch spurs. Still the biggest bird I've ever killed, old bird. I mean, he's just one of those things. You just you couldn't beat him. It's just one of those mornings, fine Crisp morning, you just

can't top him. So after I got up to the turkey and everything, I called Papa back and he had told me Grandma had just got out of surgery, and she did. She had just got out and she actually, you know, I wanted to talk to her, and so I talked to her and she made it through. Everything was good. She's still doing great today. I mean she's just she's young. She actually young, and you know, she just gets around good and everything's good. But she was she was beyond thrilled that I was able to get

that turkey. And she's not a turkey hunter, but she was so excited I was able to get that turkey. Now that's a good story. And there are two things that I thought were funny. I chuckled when he said I ain't even lying about the beard being twelve inches long. And did you catch that he drove by himself to his turkey hunting spot when he was fourteen? That gives you a glimpse into the non hunting world of the storyteller.

And for all the Karen's out there, which I doubt there are many listening to bear grease, I know about where he was and where he went, and it was just a short drive down a lonely country road, and in my book, that's some decent parenting, you know what. Really, I doubt Juju would have been too happy about that either jos my mom, but Karen's and jujus are different. Jujus cast their disapproval out of genuine love, and when the risk taker completes the task despite their juju's approval,

it actually adds gravitas to the deed. I wouldn't even bat Koy's Mamall wasn't thrilled about him driving by himself that morning. But as I understand it, Karen's don't want you to do stuff just kind of out of spike, kind of like they're the referees of the world. So it's okay to be jujus and mamas and I apologize to all the sweet, genuine people of the world named Karen who've been unjustly trapped in the cultural catchphrase. Juju actually has a sister named Karen, my sweet aunt, So sorry,

Aunt Karen. Anyhow, our next storyteller is gonna make you forget the last thirty seconds because he's the antithesis of any cultural catchphrase. Hank Bird Die as from Chatham, Mississippi. He's a published author and one of the guardians of the legacy of Hulk Collyer and kind of like Matthew McConaughey, is a Minister of Culture in Texas. He got that whole playbook from the way Hank Burdine knows, loves, and speaks about Mississippi. You're gonna enjoy this story from Hank.

I had a big hunting club place family placed down middle of the Delta, close to le Roy Percy Park, a couple of thousand acres that was in the north boundary of Leroy Percy Park and Leroy Purse Pars about forty five hundred acres, and then that was attached to Yazu Wildlife Refuge about fourteen thousand acres, So we had a contiguous wildlife preserve and had a cabin right down there, and and I had Turkish, And you got to wed Leader. Windows open midnight in my bedroom my cabin, and my

wife says, Honey, it's cold, clue that window. I said, no, baby said, well, why you want to keep that window? I said, one readon. Make you snuggled up a little closer to me. I said, but I hit him turkeys in the morning. That will wag me up my gold turkey hunting. Well, I got the way. I knew my Turkish, I knew where they were, I knew what gravel they were graveling on for the gizzards, and gotten know him pretty well. Well. I had a flock. It was easing

over into the state park. I wasn't full be hunting over in there, but I had a big corner that went right up in the middle of it. I said, I've been here from good turkeys downing Yona. So I got up and when got set up and the gun I was shooting. My daddy was a goose hunter, had a big boat back in nineteen thirty eight and the forties after they channel as the river, and he goose hunting with them. It's called a Winchester Model twelve heavy duck.

It was a three inch magnum full choke thirty inch barrel, legendary duck gun and goose guns back then. Well, I didn't duck hunt with it, but I turkey hunted with it, because it was that full choke barrel. It was a turkey gett. So I get set up back down at that on it that morning, and I'd gotten my blind set up, and all of a sudden there was a turkey started gobbling. I never had a turkey gobble as much in my life as a turkey gobbled on the roof.

He gobbled coming off the roof. When he hit the ground, he had gobbling his head off. A couple more turkeys were gobbling out there too, out hooting like a hood out, trying to get them going. And all of a sudden I looked up, and before I'd even really got settled in there good here, that turkey came. He all but jumped into blind with me, gobbling his head off, stood and cairn on, acting a fool like turkey do in the springtime like that, And when I went to throw

a gun up, he scared him. He jumped up, took off, flying I got one shot off at him as he flew into the park, and I knew I felt like I hit that turkey. I knew I had I could, I hadn't been able to. But a gun for a tight choke jack, tight choke gun like it. Well, and I've sent me bad. I didn't hear him fall, didn't hear him flapping. I spent half a day looking for that turkey. Never could find him, never could find him.

I went back to the house dejected, wo out and just upset that court out that that was too good a turkey to lose. Or next morning, I said, well, I'm gonna go right back where I was. Of course there's no birds in there. So I did, and I sat down. I hooted one time. Didn't hear a gobble. Hooted again, didn't hear nothing. San started coming up. I want to yelp in a little bit. All of a sudden, I look up, and he'll come to turkey with about

a ten and a half. Let means beard. He's struttling, he got his feathers, fans out, he doing all this stuff. He isn't there, got he ain't said a word, ain't said a word. Run right straight up within fifteen yards and me I was able to get him a gun up right on his head as he still get out and he'd be sticking ahead. I low your goblin, but he wouldn't say nothing. He well, he just quiet. He stuck that head out there, ladtime bloom. I got him right in the head, didn't hit him anywhere but in

the head. Well, I went and at him. I went back to the house. My wife came back, well, you got your acid. Well yeah, but this ain't the one I wanted, I doge. It just just still upsetting. It's so bad that I was gonna lose that one from the day before. So I started cleaning that turkey head shot totally. Nothing in his chest, nothing anywhere. I went to cleaning the feathers office back in it will slap full of copper coated number four. That's the turkey that

I had shot at the day before, flying off. But it upset him so bad. When he came in the next morning, I've been shocked at the gobble out of him. He was not going to open his mouth. That was it. He was still is hot and ready to trot as he could be. But he knew what happened the day before when he opened his mouth at esther. That's the turkey I shot the gobble out of. And here's a final one hat tip to hankberg Die. I like the twofold reason he left his window opened during the turkey season.

That's a good one. Our next story is told by none other than the old Ozark Mountain turkey hunter himself, Mo Shepherd. They say one of his legs grew slightly longer than the other because of all the sidehilling he's done, slipping around on these steep limestone hills chasing gobbles. His stories always have a turkey hunting lesson embedded inside of him. Here's Mo Well. This turkey story starts in late April. I was hunting the Ozark Mountains out on public land.

It started on one morning. I went out a big mountain ridge and heard a bird gobble a couple of times. I just kept walking out this ridge top, but I only heard him gobble two or three times that morning. I never heard him anymore. But the whole time I was out there that morning, across the creek on the other mountain, there was a couple of birds. I don't know if they were answered me or if they were

just goblin. But I heard him several times, but it was too far to try to go that morning, so I just stayed in there and hunted till midday, walked back out, ate me a snack, decided, well, I'm gonna go with on the side of the mountain. I knew, in fact there was a logging road where they'd logged in there the year before I could walk around. So I got over the mid afternoon and started walking around that road, and i'd stop and call, like I do.

I do that a lot of eating and when a hunt of eating, and I'll just periodically call a little bit see if I can get something to answer me. And what makes it good for me is even if it ain't good that day, you call an area like that, if you don't overcalled, who must just like a turkey moving his way around the mountain. A lot of times I'll go back in there the next day and gobblers will be in that area where I've done that call in eating them for But then anyway, this day it

didn't work like that. But once I thought I heard a gobbler across the creek on the side where I was at that morning. Well, I started making my way back around the mountain and started calling a little bit louder, see if I get one to gobble on the side of that. Well, that bird on the other side of the mountain start answering me, and I'd call. Sometimes he'd answer and sometimes he wouldn't. Well, I got pretty much straight across framing. There was a log landing there where

they'd logged in there. I thought, let's play a good place, just to set here for a little bit and see maybe one comes in. And I got set up there and this bird answers me across the creek a long ways over there, but nothing on the size on. So i'd way a little bit. I called a little more, and it's getting later. Then it's getting you know, probably forty five minutes made any hour before the sun was going down. So I got up and made my way

down the logging road. This little piece something caught mine. I looked out in the canyon there, over the creek between me and that other mountain, I could see something in there, and then I realized it was a turkey flying. And then I realized it looked like a big turkey flying. And then when it got close it landed in that log landing. It was a big old goblin. It was the one who had been a goblin at me. I

just froze. I didn't know what else to do. Well, he lands, he just went into strut mode with that tail fan out, and he turned that tail fan towards you. That's probably one hundred yards from that log landing. When he turned that fan, I just dove into the bushes there and got hid. And then I do know he started gobbling a few times. Well it's getting later, the sun's getting closer, being down. I made a few calls, and he gobbled and straight out there, but he didn't

come on in. Well, he got a little bit later. He walks to the far end of that log landing and sails up in a tree, orright blow it just in a big old tree there, a big old pine tree. I still remember it. And them that has them big pines, got them big old crooked limbs coming down. And he just let up one of them limbs there and gobbled several times. And I still just stayed put. I wait till he got plumb dark. He gobbled several times, so I eased my way out there. I thought I've got you, buddy.

Next morning. This will be real simple. So next morning, I got way in their way early, but I knew right where I was going. I didn't use a light or anything. I made my way in there. I thought, well, I'm gonna set up at the end of this log now. I don't want to get on then and where he's at, because I might break a stick, it might spook him ringing if they hear noise. I think they spoke real easy and in the darkness like that and won't come

to wherever they hear the sticks break or whatever. So I set up on within gun range of the log landing, and I set there a while. And I set there a while, and I didn't hear nothing. No gobbles, no nothing. It's just barely breaking light. But it was light enough that a turkeys should have gobbled if they were going to. I thought, maybe he flew out of here. Maybe something bust him out of the tree of hoode'll run him out of the tree, or a bobcat or whatever you know,

may run him out of the tree. I thought, well, I'm gonna make some really this real soft yelps, and if he's there, he'll he'll answer this all. I didn't even get the second little out in that dude, I hear he's wings pop and he sails down that log round. It's still so dark, I can't even see him. And he starts gobbling. And there I'm setting in a pitch dark daily. I mean, it's light, but you can't see twenty yards in front of you. And I watch out

there where he's at. I don't call anymore because I don't want even come into me, and it as dark as it was, and I sat there and I sat there, and he just gobbles and he gobbles and he gobbles. He's on the ground. That's why I said. He flew down on the ground and it's gobbling, and I guess strutting, but I couldn't see him. And then all of a sudden, I see something moving and it's the white of his head where he's strutting, and I can see a little bit.

Then he go away. He's just he's probably in gun range on me, but it's still too dark to shoot. And I thought, just stay here. It's just stay here. And I thought maybe I should call. No, I don't need to call yet because it's still too dark. I don't even getting gun range if he's not in there yet. Well, all of a sudden, the white head disappears and I don't hear anything, and he don't gobble. I thought he's leaving, so I gotta do something other. So I just made

a few soft calls. When I did, he answered me right back. But it's still fairly dark, but he's farther out away from him. He's probably out of the log landing by the end. And it starts getting light, and then I see him. He's plumb out in the road to pass the log landing the opposite end of the log landing of me. The log land is probably a hundred yards across, it may be eighty something like. I thought, well, I gotta do some sweet talking to him, because he's

been there strutting and I ain't. So I tried some of my stuff and started calling, and finally here he comes. He turns and starts coming towards me, and by time he gets the middle of that log landing, I can see him pretty good. Then it's plenty of light shoot, but he's not and what I feel good range he just stops there like they do, stops and spins and turns fins and turns around and turns around and spins.

I thought, I need to do anything. No, I'm gonna be quiet, because I say anything, he's liable to just stay where he's at. So I sat there for probably five minutes, didn't say a thing. He just drops out of strutton it starts walking towards me, gets some good gun range, and I raised my old gun I've had for forty years I've been turkey hunting with and shoot and get him. And he's a big old ma Tera gobbler.

And it was a really mermorable hunt because I've never seen a gobbler fly down when it was that dark like that. So, yeah, that was a heck of a hunt. That turkey flew all the way across that Halla to try to roost near that hen that he heard Colin. Little did he know that it was just old mo. You can learn a thing or two from that story. Our next storyteller is another born and bread Ozarkian, and

he came by his turkey hunting passion honest. From his house, he has a three hundred and sixty degree view with some of the prettiest mountains known to man. He's grown up in the heart of some great turkey hunting and he's a real woodsman and turkey hunter. This story, however, takes place in Kansas. Here's Richard Campbell of Newton County, Arkansas. All right, so, uh, me and mister Brown, mister David Brown,

we were out in Kansas hunting. It was probably mid April er but we were out there hunting and we're driving down the highway. Of course, they got a lot of lakes and core land that you can hunt on around him lakes and there was a parker on this one lake and we pulled in there. There was there was three or four big old jake's walking around in that park and the lake wasn't he was probably an one hundred and fifty two hundred yards wide there, and there's like either it may have been an island, and

I'm not sure if they's land across there. So they at rolls and they flew across that lake, and David asked me. He says, he says, now, just what would you do if you shot a turkey and it got out in the lake. I said, I ain't going out in that lake after a turkey. And that's that's kind of hat went on here. Well, I don't know if

it was that day. The next day we were coming back up the road we've been hunting, and across the road from this same lake there's a big old farm land and we looked out there and there's this big old gobbler out there strutting around out the middle of a field. And Dave says, let's pull off here at this ramp. There's a ramp that went down to the lake there, and and just see if that old turkey

of gobble. We got out there and we stopped and I called and here, I meant, old turkey jard down there, and uh well, we stood around our talking and the old turkey just kept gobbling. I called another time too, just just fooling around there, and I told them, I said, David, I think that turkey is coming. And he says, I'll go on up the road. You get down here and on this coal land, and it's if you can see if you can kill him, se if you can call him up. And this was a we's right in the

side of big he said, a busy highway. And I get down the road of the hill out away from the highway, and you know, down toward Jet lake, and I sitting there calling, and I hear the little turkey

over our car, so highway government. He's just getting closer and closer, and he gobbled here him in and I said, well, he's over at that fence hearing him, and he gobbled and I looked up and he stand up here in the highway and these cars running them down the road, and I thought, well, so he walks down there, and of course you know, he was up to the highway and he comes kind of down that off ramp. He gets down there and to where I could shoot him,

but it's, uh, it's real brushy and stuff. I thought, well, I'm like to wait, don't leave him, get on down here a little bit. And so he just kept getting closer and he walks down there, and it's finally I've got to shoot or something. I find me a halfway open spot and he probably not fifteen yards and I shoot and I hit him, but he starts trying to fly off, and he tries to fly across the lake. Well, he flies out here, probably one hundred yards in the

lake and lands in the lake. Well, the first thing that comes to my mind is, are you gonna go out in that lake and get that turkey. David asked me that. I thought, well, here I go. Well, little turkey, he hit the water and he starts swimming right back to me, right back towards where I'm at. I thought, well, this is this is great. I'll let him get over here the bank and then I'll shoot him. And I just walked down and pick him up and top fall

this off. I'll just had I think. I don't know if I just put one chill in the gun or two, but I shot the one. Well, he comes back and he hits dirt and I shoot and miss him again because he's hits there and he's a run him when he hits the dirt, and I am without a shell. Anyways, he runs back across the highway, right out through the field. I never did team and never did get that turkey. Now that that kind of that'd be hard to make up, wouldn't it. That wouldn't be hard to make up, Richard?

Can you imagine calling a turkey across a busy highway? When Richard's buddy David tells the story, he says the turkey he waited for several cars to pass, looking both ways before he crossed and then for the durned thing to land in the lake, just like David had thought the day before. It is wild and I hate it when they get away. But we'll hope that bird made it to another spring, and I bet he didn't leave

that private land again. And before we move on, I want y'all to hear Richard's sweet of natural voice calls. He's really good. Hit it, Richard, This will be by bardowl o clow Yep. That's about as good as it gets. And once again my theory on natural voice callers rings true. They're usually really good turkey hunters. I want to end with a special story from a man that I just met named Garvin Gibbons. Like the storytellers before him, he's

from deep in the ozarks of Arkansas. I think you'll hear a humble, somber, yet passionate tone in Garvin's voice. He's an extremely accomplished hunter. His wall is full of big white tails, and he's killed twenty three elk out west with his bow. He elk hunted from nineteen eighty four until two thousand and eight. But I've got to let you in on something from the start. Since two

thousand and nine, Garvin has been in a wheelchair. Here's Garvin's story about his son's first gobbler, which happened before two thousand and nine. My son's name is Trevor, and he was eight years old and I put him in for the draw early permit draw, and he drew a tag. And so I went over before season and scouted one day and knew where a few turkeys were at. So we get up and go. We'll drive over that morning and we'll go down to one of the cut lanes.

They are kind of like a firebreak there, and we hear a turkey and anyway, we get get set up, and the turkey comes right off the limb and he comes up and he gets probably maybe thirty thirty five yards, and I can see the turkey really good, and traffic can just get bits and pieces of him. And finally the old turkey gets nervous and walks off. But after

I kind of survey what's going on here. I always set him right between my legs, you know, so I can communicate with him, and if we need to turn, we can kind of twist together, and that way I can just lean up by his head and kind of coach him you know, he's not over to my side and stuff. But what I got to realize is I'm setting up higher than an eight year old, and I can see things that he can't. So he didn't get a real good look at it. And it walked off.

And anyway, we go on and a little bit, we hear some more and we set up and uh, I call it three jakes and I had him right up and he's laugh and stuff, but you know, this is his first rodeo. And anyway, I kept him up there for probably five minutes, and they was they kind of got nervous going back and forth and and he never would shoot. And so when they finally walked off, I told him, I said, uh, son, you know, if you get it on his head, just pull the trigger, not

all the times. Everything's gonna be perfectly still. And uh, he was kind of down in his mouth. And we went on and it was getting up kind of end of the day and I struck a turkey and its across a big hollow, and uh, and we we set up on him and I put a decoy out and uh, it dropped off real steep in the hollow and the turkey was just on the other side, and he was answering me good. And finally there was a turkey kind of to a ride and kind of behind us, and

that turkey really got goblin well. And um, so this turkey kind of got quiet, and uh and the turkey behind us kind of got goblin a lot better than I could tell he was coming toward us. So we got up and we moved probably twenty or twenty five yards, and um and as we were walking, this turkey gobbled that was across from us, and I asked Trev. I said, where was he at? And uh, the turkey was coming

to us all the time. And he got down low in the hollow there and uh, so we sat down, and in just a minute he gobbled again, and I could tell he was just right under the break from us. And we sat there a minute and I called, and turkey didn't gobble no more. But in a little bit I seen him coming strutting up. When he come up, he's seen the decoy and he comes up and and uh, he never breaks out a strutt and he walks right up to the decoy, and he might have been twenty

five yards from us. Anyway, I got Trev on him and and he straight around the decoy a couple of times, and finally the turkey got just right and he had a good beat on him, and he shot and he killed him. And that was a pretty special day for me. You know, my son being eight years old and he got his first turkey. I think he weighed twenty two pound, had like a ten inch beard. That was a special day. I asked Garvin if he'd be willing to tell us

what happened when he got hurt. He agreed. Here's his story. In two thousand and nine, we had a really a bad ice storm. There was trees broke down all in my yard and stuff and anyway I had. I had a feeder up out at the guy's house. I worked with him, and I had some tree stands up and I wasn't hunting, but I thought, well, I'll just go out there and take that stuff down. And I got out there and it was a cold, snowy day and there was snow on the ground, probably four inches of snow.

And I walked up and I thought, well, I can get this tree stand down, but I didn't take my belt, and uh, when I walked up the tree, I was kind of hesitant but I thought, well, I've done this forever, you know. I thought, I can just snake up the tree here and walk up my climbing steps and take the stand down. But I had had a lock on the chain. It was a lock on standing. I got up there, and it was cold, and I had on some gloves, and I'd been in that stand, uh, probably

a half a dozen times that fall. And there was a limb that come out from the side of the tree there, and and I got up on the standing on the steps, and I had a hold of stand, and I thought, well, if I can just pull up just a little bit on this limb here, I can throw my leg over and and set on top of this big limb and and just unlocked my stand and get my rope and let it down and just step back over on the step and and come down the tree. But when I was pulling up, I'm not sure exactly

what happened. But I don't know if the limb was frozen. I don't think the limb was dead. But it broke with me. And I had so much pressure and I was a hold of the stand. But it all happened so fast. I pulled loose from the stand, and I had enough awareness to try to kick out from the tree because I didn't want to want little steps to catch me on the way down, you know. So when I woke up, I guess it knocked me out. I'm

sure it did. I was just tingling all over and I reached behind me and there was a little cedar tree and I got to hold it, but I tried to move but I couldn't and um, and I had fallen about twenty feet. The first thing I thought of was was I left my cell phone in my truck. I remember pulling it out of my cover oz and I was dressed pretty well, and thank goodness. And so when I left that morning my friend's house, I told him, I said, I'm just gonna be on a little bit

and i'll be back. So after I looked at my watch and it was about ten twenty five. Then you wonder or you go to lay here and freeze to death before anybody comes. And I knew I was hurt bad, and uh I'd lay there almost two hours and I heard I heard Dwight on his tractor coming around, and I thought were good, And uh I heard him come come back, and I heard the tractor stop, and then about ten or fifteen minutes I could hear him coming.

He had two little fist rat terrier fast mixed dogs and they went with me that morning and they stayed right with me the whole the whole time. Anyway, Dwhite came and I told him I was really cold, and I told him to go get me some blankets and try to try to get me some help. And a little bit the amalyst came and Dwight in the meantime it brought me some blankets and covered me up, and he never tried to move me or anything. And they finally came and and got me and worked on me

and packed me out. And I didn't know it, but I had a compound fracture in my leg. Anyway, they got me in and started to the hospital and I flatlined three times. I remember the amulets stopping, but I didn't know what was going on. So anyway, they got me in to the hospital in Harrison and then checked me out and then took me on the springfield and

ended up. It paralyzed me from the right above the waist down and I had surgery and then I went on to Craig Hospital out in Colorado, and I stayed one hundred and three days in the hospital in my rehab and stuff bef where I got to come home and yeah, a rock hit me in the in the spine. It busted my vertebrae and bruised my spinal cord enough that it paralyzed me. Yeah, I just you know, I just thank God for being with me, and you know, give me a second chance in life, because um, I

should I should have died. Being truthful with you, I was real hypothermic. And I remember I remember laying there and praying for God to help me. You know, I didn't want to I didn't want to leave my wife and in kids, you know. And that's what I was really thinking about at the time. After I got to come home and stuff, and uh I had to I got home in June, and anyway, season come up, and uh it was a whole new, whole new learning experience. You know. I had to, UH had to figure some

things out. So I got me, I got me a couple of pop up blinds, and uh, I deer hunted that fall and stuff, and and I was lucky I got to kill a deer and and uh but anyway, UH come spring, I was, I was stronger, and and uh tried turkey hunting, and uh, you know, now I can't get up and go to the turkeys like I used to could. But I've got a few places that I can go and and and get my blind and I mainly hunt around hedge of fields and some some of down blogging roads and some some of the timber

I can get to. But you know, around some of the fields and where I can drive my truck or my side beside in and throw the blind up and and just rolling there and my wheelchair and stuff. But I've seen where patients really come into effect since I'm hurt, you know, because I figured out a lot of a lot of birds that I've walked off and left, you know, and now that now that I can't move, I've sat there and I heard a lot of turkeys in turkeys come to you, you know, and I've been, I've been.

I've killed a lot of turkeys now since um I got hurt that I wouldn't have killed before because I just wouldn't have given them enough time to come in, you know. So I've learned that patience is really a good thing. On killing a turkey Garvin is a fighter who's not let the tough hand he's been dealt beat him down. He's continued to passionately hunt. He's killed a lot of turkeys, and even says he's killed bigger whitetails

since his accident. Patience is a powerful thing. I'm proud to know Garvin and to have been able to set across the table from him as he told me his story. I'd say he's a real hero. What happened to him could have happened to any one of us who've spent our lives dangling from trees, chasing whitetails and bears. Garvin's chosen to take the glass half full approach and be thankful that he's alive. I'd say that's an honorable thing. He was forty nine years old when this accident happened

in two thousand and nine. All these storytellers, some I've known my whole life, and others I've recently met, carried the DNA of the American turkey hunter, which is characterized by a peculiar passion in debtiction to this magnificent giant goblin bird which roams our woods and fields. I'm so grateful that the generations before us fought to save turkeys and their habitat. Despite some regions seeing downfalls in numbers,

we've still got an incredible resource at our fingertips. I think it's important to stay active in the organizations dedicated to turkey conservation, like the National Wild Turkey Federation and the new group Turkeys for Tomorrow, and I know there are many other groups helping wild turkeys long live the wild turkey, his habitat, and the hunt. I can't thank you,

guys and gals enough for listening to Bear Greece. Please leave us a review on iTunes and share our podcast with the best intentioned but worst turkey hunter you know this week. We'll see you next week on the Render