FFOD319 : The 10 Commandments of Turkey Hunting - Part 1

After the overwhelming response to my NWTF Convention talk, I figured I’d bring the “10 Commandments of Turkey Hunting” straight to the podcast. These aren’t hardcore how to rules… they’re the tongue-in-cheek lessons and humorous truths you only learn in the turkey woods. In Part 1, I’m sharing the first five commandments. They’ll hopefully make you laugh, nod your head and probably remind you of a hunt that didn’t go quite as planned. Whether you’ve chased gobblers for decades or you’re just getting started, these stories will hit home. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to Fistful of Dirt, the official podcast of Monte Oak Properties. Whether you own a small farm, lease land, or just love hanging in your backyard. We're all about the outdoor lifestyle and how to get the most from your time in God's great outdoors. Now here's your host, Ronnie Cuz Strickland.

SPEAKER_05 0:24

It's in my life from the Camo Cave.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

It's my life.

SPEAKER_05 0:27

Let me ask you a question. Have you ever been trespassing where you knew you were trespassing?

SPEAKER_01 0:33

No comment.

SPEAKER_05 0:34

No comment.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Why would I answer that?

SPEAKER_05 0:37

It was so funny when I did my thing at the NWTF, the Ten Commandments of Turkey Hunting, tongue in cheek, and uh my my first commandment was going to talk about, and you you named that one and said, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's turkeys. I asked everybody, I said, I no, I won't embarrass anybody and ask if you've ever been trespassing. So I said, I'm gonna word it like this, and I need a show of hands. Have you ever been standing at that bob wire fence and they were gobbling on the next property over? Have you ever thought about crossing over and boy every hand in the room went up? And uh and I said, Okay, we can continue on. Got a big laugh.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

Yeah, it was funny.

SPEAKER_05 1:23

And I immediately got comments when we uh I mean, I wasn't even home from the NWTF, and people were like, You gotta do a podcast, you gotta do and I'm like, and I and Lauren said, You gotta do a podcast. I said, Well, it's kind of hard to do a stand-up routine and ain't nobody standing up.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

I'll laugh.

SPEAKER_05 1:42

Yeah. But uh anyway, we got a lot of comments about that, and I see the NWTF posted, and I saw it on a YouTube thing, but I couldn't hear it good. And it was like, and you swear, and everybody in the comments they just continue to say we love stories.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

We do.

SPEAKER_05 1:59

And the whole the whole premise behind doing the Ten Commandments was telling stories that go along with that. So I guess Lauren cracked the whip and we're gonna do the Ten Commandments of turkey hunting.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Can't wait.

SPEAKER_05 2:11

Well, you you've already had to sit through that once. And the funniest thing about this whole deal, and uh, and I found this out afterwards because I had you were there, Yaya was there, my bride, all three of the grandsons were there, Walker, Matt, and Ben, aka Cranky. You know, crank cranky now is like getting close to six foot and two hundred pounds, and cranky don't fit. I've been calling him Ben a good bit.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_05 2:39

I really have, and I think he likes that. But anyway, Cranky was sitting next to my wife, and I would tell the story and people would laugh out loud, and Pam said he would lean over and go, Is that true? You you can't pull nothing over on him.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

No, he's pretty slick.

SPEAKER_05 2:57

So in anyway, I and you know, to their defense, they sat through that whole thing and laughed and all that. And you know, sometimes lighthearted comedy is a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Yep, we need some of that.

SPEAKER_05 3:09

Turkey hunting's getting pretty uh serious. And you know, I had to make a post after the turkey convention, and boy, it it stirred up some you know, comments. And uh because there was people throwing shading in somebody's by well, there wasn't any real turkey killers there, and it was a fashion show, and there was too many you know influencers. It just went on and on. So I made a a pretty big post about it. And anyway, calm down. Everybody just calm down.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

There's room for everybody, even the influencers.

SPEAKER_05 3:43

And here's what I like to concentrate on is the fun part.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 3:49

The the the other day we went turkey hunting, we went out there with David Allen on his place. And he had his little four-year-old grandson Rhodes. Rhodes, who it was the funniest thing, and we went to the waffle house and all that. Well, David took him and they just went and sat in a deer stand and used a push-button call. I sent that clip to Chris Kirby, by the way, and he loved it because and uh anyway, we went to another spot and we pulled up there on that little quiet buggy, and I told Cranky, I said, the combination is whatever it was, four digits. I said, unlock that gate and kind of be quiet about it. And because we're gonna go up in here. And that that it this thing had a chain on it that you could pull a log truck with. It was huge. And he he was rattling that chain and dropped it, and uh and and Matt was giving him fits and all that, like, what do you and uh it's like what hey, you want some pots and pans to hit together? Bing, bang, bing. And I told Matt, I said, See, this is how you get your own hunting stores, you gotta go hunting.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 4:53

So anyway.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

Oh, that makes me happy.

SPEAKER_05 4:56

Supposedly people like stories.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Well, let's give them what they want.

SPEAKER_05 5:00

Well, anyway, all right, so we're gonna bust this thing up. I don't know how long it'll take, and if you get tired of listening to it, send me a PM and we'll maybe we may only do half of 'em. So the first turkey hunting commandment, I had it worded a different way, but Lauren reworded it said, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's turkeys.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

That's a good one.

SPEAKER_05 6:17

That is a good one. And I can't tell, I I can't I don't even know if I did this up there or not, but I can't tell I can't even go into this tongue in cheek without talking about and I don't know, I f I think I've talked about him before about the guy who really taught me how to kill turkeys.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_05 6:34

Jay Brown.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Jay Brown.

SPEAKER_05 6:36

And you know, he's not a uh a a household name or anything like that. Jay Brown sold copy machines.

SPEAKER_04 6:44

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_05 6:44

Wore a white shirt with a black skinny tie every day. You would look at him and and the last thought that would come into your mind is this guy is a killer.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 6:54

He was I'm telling you, I'd been doing it for a couple of years with no success out in the Homiteta National Forest. And looking back, he kind of took me under his wing. And again, like I said, I I think I said talked about him before, he was so far ahead of his time. He had a vest, it was like a fly fishing vest he had modified to make a turkey hunting vest out of it. And he could cut on a mouth, it was crazy. And looking back, and I hunted with him pretty heavy for about a year. And when I was writing this up, I got to thinking about it, and I said, you know what? I'm pretty sure we were trespassing about half the time.

SPEAKER_04 7:31

Oh no.

SPEAKER_05 7:32

I didn't bring it up, didn't think about it at the time. I was so enthralled and so enthused about learning and watching everything he did, it never it never gave. And I'm not saying we did, but looking back, I was like, I'm thinking, yeah, we probably did. Now there wasn't one, there wasn't any on X back then or social media or phones or none of that stuff, and not that many people were turning out. But anyway, I'm pretty sure we were pushing in line a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

Sure too. As a new turkey hunter, you kind of don't know what you don't know. And when you first set out doing that kind of stuff, property line and boundaries, like you just assume the person you're going with has covered. Like, that's such a basic. You just assume we've covered that.

SPEAKER_05 8:17

Disclaimer, nobody's saying go poach a turkey on anybody else's property. I would never do I that's why I love I'm just saying, I got on X now, no other property lines. I don't need to do that. I'm just saying, looking back, there's a chance that that happened. The funniest poaching story that came to my mind was that that actually happened while we were shooting the truth. And it might have been the second year of the truth, it could have been the first year, but anyway, there was a guy out there in Natchez that had a marvelous place out by the trace. And he wanted me to take his son turkey hunting. This guy was like the DA or something, but anyway, and he had the most beautiful, it was out there in the hilly part of Natchez. A lot, lot more terrain changes down there than it is up here in West Point. It's pretty flat up here. You could stand on a coat can and watch your dog run off for three days up here. It's flat. But down there it was a lot of hills and gullies. But anyway, he had three or four kind of connected pastures through the woods that were just clover.

SPEAKER_04 9:23

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_05 9:24

And uh he had some kind I seemed like he had a special breed of cows. Anyway, it was just beautiful and full of turkeys.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 9:32

And one day we and it was a series of three pastures, and we were all the way at the back one. The first two was kind of in the middle of his property. You got to the back, and the property line's probably, I don't know, five hundred yards, you know, straight north, whatever it was. And we were sitting there, it was an afternoon deal, kind of thinking maybe roost one, whatever, but we were gonna call anyway, had set up and had that. I think that boy at the town was about 13. Something like that. We were sitting there, and I had thought I had made a turkey gobble, but anyway, it was 3 30, 4 o'clock in the afternoon, so you're not exactly on point. No, but pretty soon a couple I saw a couple of hens come down in the shady part of the clover field, straight across from us, 150 yards or so, imagine that, come out into the shade. And uh, I had seen a couple of things and thought I heard a turkey gobble and all that. Wasn't paying much attention, and all of a sudden one of the one of the hens actually flushed. And I don't mean alarmed, I mean, and the other one took off running, kind of came across the field. Anyway, I'm looking over and I'm seeing movement, so I got the camera rolling. I was like, coyote, bobcat, something like that. Here comes a dude.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

A guy.

SPEAKER_05 10:46

A guy. And I I that that camera back in the day, it wasn't as high quality as my phone is, or your phone is now, 4K and all that. But anyway, it had a magnificent zoom lens that had a gear on it.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 11:00

It had a giant switch at the front, you could run it forward with your little finger and back with your index finger, and it would zoom. And I zoomed in on this dude, and he had what I'm positive was a 22 Magnum with a scope on it.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

Whoa.

SPEAKER_05 11:16

And he had on a uh denim shirt and blue jeans, but a face mask. I'm like, dude, that's what is going on. Snuck out into that field, crawled, and all that, and I filmed him for three or four minutes. He would look around and look around and all that, and finally he left to the right, went back in the corner, but he was on that property for 15 minutes. I filmed every minute of it.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

Spooking turkeys.

SPEAKER_05 11:41

And went and uh and told the landowner guy about it. And he said, Really? I said, Yeah. I said, I filmed it. Can I look at it? Well, back then I didn't have the capability, but the viewfinder was so big I could rewind it and he could look through the viewfinder, which was as big as a softball, and he looked at and knew the guy.

SPEAKER_04 12:00

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 12:01

I've been trying to catch these I've been out there for years and all that.

SPEAKER_04 12:04

Oh no.

SPEAKER_05 12:05

So anyway, we figured out I had to take the tape to Jackson and I had it downloaded to a VHS or something like that. Gave it to the sheriff and all that. And I guess they just gave the guy a citation. Well, he challenged it and they brought the VHS and a TV to court and played the video.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Oh wow. Your first evidence submitted into court.

SPEAKER_05 12:28

Yeah, I was like the first gone cops. You know, sh didn't the guy never knew he was there. And I and anyway, I wasn't in court. I was just getting this secondhand from the DA guy. And he said, of course, they found him guilty and he had to pay the fine. And he said, I looked straight at him, told him, said, Now look, I got them cameras all over my place now. Wow. Yeah, that was uh that's pretty cool poaching stories. I got a couple more, but you know, to keep from incriminating myself, I'm not even gonna tell them on the air. I might have told a couple of them up there, but you know.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

If you have a good poaching story, you should send it to us.

SPEAKER_05 13:05

Yeah, yeah, that'd be good.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

We'll omit names.

SPEAKER_05 13:07

Yeah. The uh trespassing thing, I'm I'm I guarantee you people were doing it back in the day, and there's probably some matter of fact, uh Saturday when we were hunting with David Allen and Rhodes, we went to the uh Waffle House, and my phone buzzed, and it was Bubba. Uh-huh. And my boy Bubba, just Bubba from the Turkey Tugs. You hearing any? And I'm answering him, heard one way off. Have you ever heard that before? Yeah. I said, We heard one way off you with a question mark. He said, I had one goblin really good, and a poacher shot him. I'm looking for his truck as we speak.

SPEAKER_01 13:49

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_05 13:50

Yeah, and I checked with him later afternoon, he didn't find anything, but and I said, Was he clearly on your property? He said, cuz he was a hundred yards away from me when he shot.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

That's scary. That's that's how people get hurt.

SPEAKER_05 14:03

Yeah. Well, the thing about poachers, good ones, you you ain't gonna catch them because they just know what to do. They know when to drop the turkey and lay down and be whatever, but it's you're right, it is very dangerous. So thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's turkey.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

That's wild. I'm thinking about the guy in the blue jean shirt and the blue jean pants with a face mask. Thirty years ago. Forty. Forty years ago, no trail cams, like none of that. And thinking, I'm just gonna deny this. It's my word against it. Like, no clue in the world that you were getting videoed.

SPEAKER_05 14:39

I watched something on my phone last night, and this guy was pulling it up. He had a screenshot of this statement, and I don't remember which trail camera company it was, but it was a sale camera company of a real popular name, and he said on their thing there, it said they get 70 million photos a day. Not a week, not a month, not a year. So you think about how many trail cameras, sale cameras are out there now, you you can't get away with anything.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

And they used to think though, well, I'll pull the card out. I if you see it, you'll just pull the no, that they went to somebody's cell phone nowadays. Yeah, you can't pull that card out quick enough.

SPEAKER_05 15:23

Yeah, you used to be turkey hunting or whatever, and man, you'd stop and use the bathroom, whatever, and now I'll wait. There's probably a sale camera around here.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

It's crazy. But whatever it takes to keep folks in line, just keep them in line.

SPEAKER_05 15:39

Yeah, just I whatever you're doing, just I I used to tell these young videographers, the field producers, just act like your mama's behind you.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

Right.

SPEAKER_05 15:48

Before you do anything, act like your mama's watching, and you won't have to worry about cell cameras or nothing else. Exactly. All right, the second commandment. Thou shalt not nap in public. There's a couple of reasons I did that. I'm always in uh I'm always thinking about how certain people portray outdoorsy people, especially people who don't hunt, have never hunted, don't care to hunt, and love to find some kind of ammunition to make fun of people.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

Dig on them.

SPEAKER_05 16:21

Yeah, so seeing uh somebody sitting in camouflage at the movie theater or in their truck or whatever, sound asleep, they'll they'll think he's drunk or something like that. But it's like thou shalt not nap in public. And napping during turkey season is kind of like, you know, cheese grits and barbecue.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

It's inevitable. It's gonna have to go together.

SPEAKER_05 16:43

And I always tell the story of when uh we were shooting the truth that and I told this story up there, this true story. Uh the last day of the season, and you gotta remember back then, and the camera gear was so big and so heavy, and it wore me out. I actually lost almost 30 pounds that spring lugging that stuff around. But the last day of the season, we were gonna hunt half a day, and I needed that. I needed to get back home and start taking care of some honeydews and stuff, because your mom was just I was I was not present for for however many days.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

Right.

SPEAKER_05 17:21

Absolutely not present.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

Right.

SPEAKER_05 17:24

And I was gonna do this and that and this and that. So I planned this big thing. I said, all right, I'm I gotta film this hunt, I'll be home after lunch. We're going over to the sand bar to eat nights. Yeah, and then we're going to the movie, blah, blah, blah. And I met Jimmy Primos, and I remember it was somewhere up by Rolling Fork, which is north of Vicksburg. It was his spot, and we hunted and hunted and hunted, and I don't we didn't kill anything. So anyway, said goodbye and all that, and I loaded up the silver bullet, which was the truck I was driving, it belonged to Primos. We went, he went and bought that truck at East Ford in Jackson. It was a silver Ford F-150 with a four-speed on the floor, brand new, with a camper shell on the back, and I built this big wooden box and put foam in it so I could just take that whole heavy camera and tripod and lay it back there in its casket. You know, that's what it looked like. Anyway, I left Rolling Fork, started driving. It's like one o'clock, something like that. And I get to Vicksburg where 61 South hits that, that goes straight to Natchez. And man, I just kind of I kind of nodded a couple of times, and right there's a bunch of turnarounds and pull-offs and all that, because 61 South wasn't a big, big road, and that's where it was starting. So I just pulled over and said, and I cracked the window a little bit. I said, I'm gonna I'm gonna take me a little short nap because I don't want to fall asleep. That's dangerous.

SPEAKER_04 18:43

Right.

SPEAKER_05 18:43

And the next thing I can remember is uh and when I opened my eyes, it was pitch black.

SPEAKER_04 18:51

Oh no.

SPEAKER_05 18:51

And there's a highway patrolman with a big mag light shining and he's doing his finger around and round, telling me to roll the window down.

SPEAKER_04 18:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 19:00

And it spooked me then. So I rolled the window down, he said, Are you by any chance Mr. Strickland? I said, Yes, yes, sir. Call your wife. Oh it was like 7 15 at night. I pulled over just to shut my eyes for a minute and fell asleep for six hours. Let me tell you something. When when you're that tired, you're too tired.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

You're too tired.

SPEAKER_05 19:21

You are just absolutely too tired. And uh needless to say, no date night, no, you know, catfish dinner, it was not good. Anyway, I you know you can build a tolerance for that too. I don't nap now during turkey season.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

It's just not but you think about it, especially in hunting camp scenarios when you were filming and it's for TV, there were a lot of chances that you were also the camp cook. You were entertaining people, they were wanting to stay up late because they would only do this on the weekend or this was a vacation kind of thing for them. You had done it however many days in a row, late nights, early mornings, covering all that ground, carrying all that equipment.

SPEAKER_05 20:06

Like it's a lot.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

How do you not fall asleep in the middle of the day?

SPEAKER_05 20:12

Before that happened, one time your mama had some of her guests, her cu her kin folks came for something, and it's when we were living down in Natchez on uh Woodwell Drive over behind uh Shoney's and all that stuff. And anyway, I was cooking, I I grilled something outside, and she was cooking all the stuff, and we got inside, and I brought my stuff and sat down at the table, and they were still moving around, and it was right in the middle of turkey season.

SPEAKER_04 20:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 20:39

And uh anyway, I sat in that chair and it was kind of hot that day. The air conditioner vent was blowing on me, and uh, I had just had a shower. I didn't want to look like a redneck in front of their company. Anyway, I got real comfortable before they got the table served, and I was supposed to say the blessing. And I kind of, you know, when you get in rim sleep and you're kind of there and you're kind of not. I can remember people gathering and all that, and I get this elbow to the ribs. I mean, it was like Ric Flair hitting somebody going crying, bam, it was your mama. Uh, and I opened my eyes, she said, Are you gonna say a blessing? Oh, yeah. I was like, Out. I probably made some sounds when I was, you know, like that or something. But it's like, do thou shalt not nap in public.

SPEAKER_01 21:24

Oh, bless them, bless the turkey hunters.

SPEAKER_05 21:27

I can't tell you how many, how many videos and pictures I snapped of people sleeping in the woods. I got hundreds of shots of cranky.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

Before we went to the convention, when you were gonna give this talk, you would do you would tease a couple of the commandments and on the thou shalt not nap, you did a little montage, and I was like, There, he has so many pictures on his phone of veterans, cranking my kids. Just uh it was it was funny.

SPEAKER_05 21:55

Yeah, you look, you put somebody that doesn't turkey on a lot and get them on that schedule for like Like three days.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:01

And then set them three o'clock in the afternoon in one of them turkey chairs in the shade. It's happening.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

It's it's on.

SPEAKER_05 22:09

And it's gonna happen pretty quickly.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

I was in the montage. I get it.

SPEAKER_05 22:12

Yeah. Thou shalt not nap in public. Number three. Thou shalt not seek praise. This one kind of hung everybody up. They can they didn't have any idea what I was talking about. When I say thou shalt not seek praise. Everybody's got this this person. This person that it don't matter if it's uh preseason, uh maybe you're you're at a calling contest, maybe you're at the sporting goods store hanging out, maybe you're playing golf or something. It's getting close to turkey season, but there's uh there's always this one person that's gonna be calling.

SPEAKER_01 22:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:50

And he's gonna ask you how's that sound? How's it sound?

SPEAKER_01 22:55

And this is my favorite commandment.

SPEAKER_05 22:58

And look, it ain't gonna be Dave Owens, and it ain't gonna be Paul Butchke or Chris Kirby or none of them guys who they they pretty much know how they sound. Not typically if somebody's squawking and asks you how it sounds, it probably don't sound good. Probably. And that's like you just can't say it sounds that's like telling somebody their baby's ugly. You can't do you cannot do that. It is not allowed. So, first off, to keep anybody from in that situation, thou shalt not seek praise. Don't brag on yourself. Exactly. Do not brag on yourself. But I did come up with some here's some ways to get out of that. Because I I'm pretty big on getting along with everybody.

SPEAKER_01 23:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 23:44

Try not to hurt anybody's feelings. I'm I'm I'm a nice guy.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

I've already used a couple of these.

SPEAKER_05 23:50

Huh?

SPEAKER_01 23:50

I've already used a couple of these since we got since we got back from Nashville. I've already used a couple.

SPEAKER_05 23:56

This was your favorite part. I love it. Because you hadn't heard this.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

No. I had no no no. I had heard you say these things. Oh, okay. So you recognize but I didn't have the whole context of it.

SPEAKER_05 24:07

Yeah. I was up in New York one time, the state of New York, and the Catskills. I don't remember who I was filming. But anyway, we had a guide, and this is anytime you get in the mountains, your guide's gonna look, he's gonna be about 5'8 and weigh about 120, soaking wet, flat bellied, long legs, can run up down.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

Well hard to keep up with.

SPEAKER_05 24:30

Yeah, and this guy was he was about as bad calling as they it you remember when Fred Law on the Secret Sauce talking about his how bad that call, he said his his reeds were welded together, and he forgot what he said it sounded like. Oh sounded like a a dog with his foot caught in a trap.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

It was so funny.

SPEAKER_05 24:50

Yeah, but anyway, this this guy's and then this guy insisted on using a mouth call. And I, you know, I'd say, You got a box? It'll get out a little bit loud and all that. But and it was just terrible. And we'd sit there and take a break, and he'd be doing it, and he would ask, you know, he'd say, How's that sound? So anyway, I came up with a list of how you can get out of this or actually answer the question without offending anybody.

SPEAKER_04 25:16

Here we go.

SPEAKER_05 25:17

Here we go. So here's your out without offending anybody. Especially it works on mouth calls, mainly for mouth calls, and they're squawking on that thing. And he says, How's that sound? You can say, Man, that's raspy. That's safe.

SPEAKER_01 25:33

That's non-offensive right there.

SPEAKER_05 25:35

Because if it sounds that bad, it's on probable booby.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

Rasp.

SPEAKER_05 25:39

Raspy. Here's another one. You can say, Man, that here's a big word in uh turkey hunting calling is cadence. You can say, Man, that cadence is good. Which is, I guess, the rhythm.

SPEAKER_01 25:53

That's right.

SPEAKER_05 25:54

That's a good answer.

SPEAKER_01 25:55

That's a good answer.

SPEAKER_05 25:56

Uh, here's another one right there. And this was one when like when it's really bad. And he goes, bah, blah, yak, whatever. So just ask him, but how long you had that call? Because then they go on into the history. They're gonna forget all about, yep, and they're gonna tell you about where they got that call, how long they've had it, and how he stores it, and he puts toothpicks. You are that's that may be the best out ever. How long how long have you had that call?

SPEAKER_01 26:24

Oh goodness.

SPEAKER_05 26:25

Yeah. Uh the la next uh last my favorite. Yeah, is when they make that squawking sound, just kind of tilt your head and say, Man, I heard a turkey like that one time.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

Sounded just like that.

SPEAKER_05 26:38

Yeah. Which is probably a lie, but you know, you ain't offended anybody.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

It's a little white one.

unknown 26:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 26:46

And the last one, which is my favorite, and it's hard to do this without video, is uh I call it the tight lip head nod. So when you just, you know, if you put both your lips together real tight, like somebody just like you stepped on a tack or somebody hit you something like that, and just nod your head up and down and don't say anything.

SPEAKER_04 27:09

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 27:10

So thou shalt not seek praise. And it ain't just about calling. Some people will be, you know, bragging about how far they crawled and all that kind of stuff. Let me just tell you something. There's so many deadly great turkey hunters out there that have figured out you don't need to just go on and on and on about how cool that hunt was. Now, if it's a good story, it is, but don't talk about the prowess of what you pulled off. Just kind of tell the story. But thou shalt not seek praise.

SPEAKER_01 27:41

That's a good one. Maybe my favorite.

SPEAKER_05 27:44

The tight-lipped head knot. I use it all the time. Old timer's more than just a knife, it's a timeless tool meant to be passed down. The USA made generational series of knives are crafted to last generations, so they become memories made, lessons learned, and values taught. Old timer knives built for generations. There's been a few times I can recall when I've been on a burn there and didn't get him. Couldn't go back the next day or maybe even that next week, but I got a buddy, maybe it's old Bubba. I can send him a waypoint on Onex. Or the gobbler was, maybe where he was gobbling or where he went. Something you can hold over his head when you need help. Fixing your truck, working on your house project, or maybe you want to know whether crappie or biting. Give the gifts of a gobbler, send them a waypoint from ONEX. From the bunkhouse XL to the lodge package, Basecamp Home Series delivers modular, high-quality homes designed for outdoor enthusiasts. Large kitchens, multiple bathrooms, gear storage, plus scenic outdoor living sections. All customizable to your lifestyle. It's comfort without boundaries. Visit BasecampHomesteries.com for more information. Hey, this is Cuz Strickland.

SPEAKER_01 29:19

And I'm Laurreen.

SPEAKER_05 29:20

And you're listening to a Fistful of Dirt Podcast.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

The official podcast of Massyo Properties.

SPEAKER_05 29:26

Hey, if you don't laugh out loud, we'll give you your money back. Ten Commandments. This is number four. Thou shalt not pass judgment. In parentheses, out loud. I used to do these, I did so many turkey seminars back in the day. You know, I worked for Will and I did moss yolk stuff, and everybody, every sporting goods store where we were trying to sell whatever it was, moss yolk or whatever. We're gonna have a turkey day. Will you come to a service seminar? Sure I will. I did hundreds and hundreds. There ain't many people alive. Maybe Preston Pittman or Eddie Salter, who's done more turkey seminars than I am. But the name of mine was the theme or whatever my mine was there are no absolutes.

SPEAKER_01 30:12

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 30:13

People do it different. And the magic number is three. I always talk about that all that time. And uh before you pass judgment on how somebody does something, just remember they're probably successful. Just because they don't do it like you. It's like I tell them boys, one of them grand the grandkids all the time, hey, you do you.

SPEAKER_01 30:32

You do you.

SPEAKER_05 30:33

That's why when I take them hunting, I love for them to go with somebody else. Because all they had ever been with is me.

SPEAKER_01 30:39

Right.

SPEAKER_05 30:39

And I got a certain way I do things and other people have but until they go with them other people, they gonna they don't they think what I do is how you do it. That's it. And that ain't the only way to do it.

SPEAKER_01 30:50

Right.

SPEAKER_05 30:51

My way's real different. But uh you you gotta go with other people, see how they do it. Some people are more patient, some people are more aggressive, some people use mouth calls only, some people never use a mouth call. You know, Bo Presters was like the box call guy.

SPEAKER_01 31:06

That's right.

SPEAKER_05 31:08

That's his go-to and all that, and it worked well for him. Yeah, for 50 something years. Did you hear Cranky's box call on the video?

SPEAKER_01 31:16

It sounded so good.

SPEAKER_05 31:18

Cranky's killing it on his box call.

SPEAKER_01 31:20

He's been practicing a lot.

SPEAKER_05 31:22

He's got a little medicine bottle, he keeps three different kinds of chalk in. I said, Why do you keep your chalk in a medicine bottle? He said, I don't want any grid on it. Can't get grit on your paddle. And he didn't learn that from me. I don't even carry a box call. He learned that from somebody else. Uh you know, the the the problem with passion judgment is you don't know how successful somebody's been. One of the chapters I wrote in the book The Magic Number. Well, the magic number's three. And the point being, once somebody's killed three turkeys, you can't teach them anything.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

They're an expert.

SPEAKER_05 31:58

And and they probably ain't gonna change because if you hunt like I did, home into the National Forest and all that kind of stuff, you kill a turkey out there, it's like you you feel like you did it perfectly. And it might have just been his windows open, you could have called him in with a Coke bottle, but you know, it's so hard to be successful a lot, especially if you're hunting on public ground and all that kind of stuff. So and the story that came to mind when I said thou shalt not pass judgment, and people are judgmental, especially on social media, people that throw stuff out there so quick it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 32:32

That's right.

SPEAKER_05 32:33

But I was on a panel, and I don't even think this I'm sure it was a turkey thing, it might have been a deer hunting thing. But anyway, I was on a panel at a big show where they come in as like the extravaganza. It wasn't that one in general, but it was one like that in another state, and there was five of us up there, and they were taking questions from the audience and they did it right. They had a microphone up in front of us, and if somebody had a question, they would get up to the and there were ten or fifteen, twenty people in that line asking questions, which I thought was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_04 33:04

It's cool.

SPEAKER_05 33:04

And some guy got up there and his question, he looked right at the whoever the five people were up there, me and four others, and said, if you could outlaw or completely do away with one piece of equipment in the hunting industry now, what would it be? Well, the guy to my right, it was his turn to go first. They were going down the road. And he didn't hesitate a millisecond. He said, Pop up blinds. And he gave his reasoning and all that about you're not teaching anybody anything, you're not teaching people this, and it's he just went way down this rabbit hole about you know, old school this and old school that. And anyway, and I was trying and I didn't say anything, and I'm I'm assuming the moderator was looking at my face. And as soon as he got through answering, that guy looked at he had a microphone too. He said, Cuz, what are your thoughts on that? Now he hadn't done that to anybody else. Usually it's one question, one answer from one member of the panel.

SPEAKER_01 34:04

Right.

SPEAKER_05 34:05

And uh anyway, there was one microphone up there, and I had to take it out of the guy's hand who just spent 15 minutes telling me about why he would outlaw pop-up blinds, and I was like, Well, I kind of like pop-up blinds. And I went into s you know, I just I went into, you know, like last spring down in Florida, we'd roll that we had disabled veterans, eight out of ten that year were in wheelchairs. And if we could get them into a place kind of close where we needed to be, I'd take the blind, completely pop it, and just set it over. And man, we're hunting.

SPEAKER_04 34:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 34:41

I didn't have to do anything like that. And I went over uh Cranky, Matt, and Walker. All three of them killed their first turkey when they were either five and six, and guess what they were in?

SPEAKER_04 34:53

Real blinds.

SPEAKER_05 34:54

They were in a pop-up blind because they couldn't sit still that long. Now they they did good.

SPEAKER_01 34:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 35:00

And you know, at one point they may have a toy truck down there or whatever it is, but if something's happening, they're up and they're getting imprinted, right? And you still have upped your odds. If you you can't always have time to build a blind, and I love building blinds, don't get me wrong. Sometimes it's the perfect thing.

SPEAKER_01 35:18

Right.

SPEAKER_05 35:19

So don't be judgmental. If uh Bo Preston said it in his thing, he said, Man, I'm not anti-technology. He said, if I need a pop-up blind and a chair, and I said, I'm going there. The main thing is to get out there.

SPEAKER_04 35:32

That's right.

SPEAKER_05 35:33

Here's another thing. I went with this guy in Texas one time, and back in the day, there wasn't anybody turkey hunting in Texas. You know, I told you the hundred stories about Ben Lee and got interviewed, he'd call one up squeaking with the bobwire fence and all. I was two or three after that, you know, the things get more I went out there with a guy in Texas. It was the worst call I'd ever heard. And it wasn't just his mouth call. Everything else he sounded, everything he had was terrible. He had an aluminum call, a pod call that sounded like somebody was working in a body shop. It was just tingy, pingy. It didn't have any semblance of a yelp. His box call, I guess, was about the closest thing to a turkey sound, and it was horrible. The rubber band, it had a rubber band on it that was way too loose and it would rattle when we was walking and all that. And the bottom line is over the period of two and that guy told me, he looked at me and we were on his boss's property and said, I'm gonna do all the calling. I'm like, knock yourself out. I'm cool with that. I don't I don't care. I'm sightseeing and all that. And I bet you he called up like 10 turkeys in two days.

SPEAKER_04 36:44

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 36:45

Now give it, yes, they were Rios, but you know, whatever he was doing sounded enough like a turkey to come up in there.

SPEAKER_01 36:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 36:53

And at the end, I was like, don't, you know, don't pass judgment.

SPEAKER_01 36:57

Don't pass judgment.

SPEAKER_05 36:58

It worked for him.

SPEAKER_01 36:59

You do.

SPEAKER_05 37:00

And I'm telling you, you and I thank God for this all the time. You don't have to sound like, you know, Dave Owens to kill a turkey.

SPEAKER_01 37:07

Thank goodness. Thank God.

SPEAKER_05 37:08

That's why I thank God every day, because I don't. And uh Tom Kelly's about the best line I ever heard about calling when he was talking about Jim Hart Andrews, his best friend, turkey hunting buddy for four years, and he's explaining how good he was. He said his calling was proficient. And I'm like, that's all you need.

SPEAKER_01 37:30

Just get it done. Get the job done.

SPEAKER_05 37:32

Your calling needs to be proficient. Still the big mystique, and you know, people they they you know, right now it's trumpets. Every post you see on social media is about a trumpet. And everybody wants to know how to use a trumpet. I I ain't going down that road. I just don't see the need. But if that if that fascinates you, makes you happy, yeah, go down that route. Go get you one. And it's like if that's the mystique part of you, go for it. But uh anyway, it's it's it's fun to do all that kind of stuff. You know, uh Mr. Bedwell, I told you the story about Jim the Butcher Bedwell at Bent Creek Lodge. Yeah, he's in that big picture behind my desk, and they called him the butcher for a reason. And after I hunted with him one morning, he clucked two or three times, like Tom Calyp a little bit, and I'm like, I'm not I'm not going back with him. That that was the most boring, it was torture hunting with him. Had Mike Handback with us, we I had to go back with him that afternoon, 4 30, boom.

SPEAKER_01 38:38

Killed a turkey.

SPEAKER_05 38:39

I'm talking about a real turkey too. I'm talking about one, a limb hanger that hooks would hang up on anything and all that, and he was sitting over there, Mike Handback was taking pictures and all that, and he had a toothpick in his mouth. He looked at me and said, cuz you just gotta cluck them out of the clear cut.

SPEAKER_01 38:55

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 38:56

Don't don't be judgmental.

SPEAKER_01 38:59

Don't. I think the best evidence for not being judgmental, especially when it comes to the calling, is how many weird hens we've heard on hunts that you you look at me and you're like, have you ever, if you called, would you want to sound like her? And I'm like, no, she it sounds fake.

SPEAKER_05 39:18

I watching uh the latest uh Dave Owens Pinhote project video. You know, he starts putting them up this time of year. And I watched one yesterday. I I I kind of I was on the phone back and forth, but I was watching it much as I could, and he was set up on this turkey. It was a wide open clear cut in front of him.

SPEAKER_04 39:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 39:37

And there was two turkeys gobbling down there, and he said, at one point he said, Man, there's hens there. He was a little disappointed. Could be Jakes and all that. And of course he was doing his magic, and that thing started moving out, moving around to the right, and he said, I'm thinking they're gonna come up that hill right there. And then this back behind him to his left, you hear this hen that don't sound like him, and he just drops his head. Somebody's come in, somebody's coming in on me.

SPEAKER_01 40:06

Yeah, it's a person.

SPEAKER_05 40:07

Yeah, and it and that kind of what it sounded like. He went on and on, and he's just like shaking his head, because that kind of stuff happens to him. He's a public land guy. And turned out it when it comes around, he's like, Well, that wasn't somebody, that was a real him. So you don't ever know.

SPEAKER_01 40:23

You just don't know.

SPEAKER_05 40:24

Just be truthful about it.

SPEAKER_01 40:26

Yeah, just be self-aware too.

SPEAKER_05 40:30

All right, halfway through. Halfway through. This was this was one here that that will never go out of style. Ten commandment number five, thou shalt not have loose lips. Most of you already know this. Because turkey hunters are the good ones, and I say this all the time, they're either uh conveniently absent-minded or polite. That's it. They ain't gonna offer anything. What'd you hear? Might have heard one way off. Well, you know, part of part of turkey hunting, the cult and the fun and all that's playing the game.

SPEAKER_04 41:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 41:06

Happened to me in Florida down there, you know, to the at the second ranch where Keith Kelly and Bubba know way better than me.

SPEAKER_04 41:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 41:12

Because they not only did they get to it before me last year, they had already been on this place through uh one friend of Keith, so they knew it a little bit better. And I got stuck up on the front of the place by the main county road. And I asked Bubba that morning, I was like, What'd you hear? Well, I think I heard one that was between me and Keith. Well, hell, they're five miles apart. I'm like, and that's all he would say.

SPEAKER_01 41:42

You don't say, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 41:43

I think it was between me, and and you know, after the fact, I know Keith heard like six. Yeah, Bubba heard three or four. He was done at 7:30. I finally got it out of him because I took my guy back in there the second, you know, the But it wasn't until after their guys had turkeys. Yeah, the loose lip thing. And look, there's people at it that are good.

SPEAKER_01 42:04

And uh tell a story.

SPEAKER_05 42:06

Yeah. I'm as good at it. I can I can tell you about everything that happened that the morning of and won't give you any idea how many I heard, and I can spend 45 minutes doing it. I've just had a lot of practice. I can tell you this when I get through telling you, you ain't gonna want to go back there. I will guarantee, and most people that are good at it can do that. They'll walk off going, well, let me think of somewhere else I can go because I ain't going to be able to do it. Yeah. The one uh the the example that came to mind for Thou Shalt Not Have Loose Lips. I worked at a place called Rex Sporting Goods for a long time. Down in Natchez, I was the bow guy, and I'll, you know, well, that's where I met Will. He came and got all this kind of that's where he was we were selling his calls at the time. He was making by hand and packaging them in like a sandwich bag with a printed logo. It was crazy. But anyway, I was big into turkey hunting at that time. I'd already been down to the Jay Brown School of How to Kill Turkeys. I was getting better and better at it. And I had actually had a pot of coffee going every day during turkey season, and we would go out and video, and I had a TV up there, and I would just put the VHS tape in. People come by to see what we had found that morning and all that stuff. And this young boy came in, he was probably 20, 19, 18, something like that. And I knew we would hunt it. He had just joined us this club. And uh he came in and he was telling me all about his hunt. And there was two or three people in there, and he was talking about what happened, and he was giving specific landmarks. You know, it's out there by the airport, blah, blah, blah. And he just went on. And this is what happened, and this is where I heard him, and I got to hear, and he shut up for twenty minutes, and the next time I heard him, he was over there. And he just went on and on and there was a one of them three guys over there sipping on his coffee flapping through a magazine was a member of that club.

unknown 44:10

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_05 44:11

And uh taking notes. Yeah. And I I I don't think I knew that at the time. I was just the kid was so excited, it was one of his first hunts. And he I guess he was asking me, you know, what would you do? And he was drawing on a napkin and we didn't have onyx and all that kind of stuff. Well, come to find out the guy that was getting all that information, he went back. The kid was going out there to try to roost him that afternoon. I told him that's what I do, I wouldn't get too close and all that. And about 515, you know, about two hundred yards from this kid's boom, that guy killed him. And it was the guy that was sitting down there taking all that information in. And uh I got a little aggravated because the guy that killed the turkey, he was one of the few people I knew in Natchez that turkey hunted a lot. And uh I mean they ain't no telling this guy was probably in his early fifties by then, ain't no telling how many turkeys he'd kill. Now had it been me, I would have offered if I hunted the same place as this eighteen year old kid, I'd offered to go with him.

SPEAKER_01 45:11

Go with him.

SPEAKER_05 45:12

Even back then, it's never been it's like as long as I'm in the game, I don't care.

SPEAKER_01 45:17

Right.

SPEAKER_05 45:18

But anyway, uh big lesson on loose lips. And that kid learned it. Now I think that kid's a good turkey, he's a grown man now, and he was a grown man then, but he was just young and very inexperienced. We had a uh we had a a and I learned look, I got caught up in that.

SPEAKER_01 45:37

Really?

SPEAKER_05 45:38

Oh look, I I look, and I'm telling you, I'm I know how to play the game.

SPEAKER_04 45:42

Right.

SPEAKER_05 45:42

I know how to play the game, trust me. I've had to do it my whole life when you don't have any place to hunt other than the game reserve. You guard and covet information and all that. But one of our leases we had out in Texas, this is back when I mean nobody was hunting out there. And the reason that Central Texas land was so good is because most of them out there were sheep farms.

SPEAKER_04 46:06

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_05 46:07

And the sheep guys just they don't put up with predators. They trap and kill them and all that, and it's just the habitat was perfect. And there was reels everywhere, and it wasn't that hard to kill 'em. And it was just a fantastic place. And we use that and we bring customers in just three or four hunts a year, six, eight, ten people at a time, because it was we had five or six ranches. They were I mean, it was a ton of acreage, a lot, and it was all good. And uh one at one of the hunts, we had it was all stores, you know, this this store and that store guy, and we brought either the store owner or the manager in. And on that particular hunt, the the guy that oversees all these ranches, Leeson, was there with his son. I had invited him to supper.

SPEAKER_04 46:56

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_05 46:56

And we were cooking something out there, steaks on mesquite wood or something like that. But anyway, I was introducing him to everybody. This is the guy.

SPEAKER_04 47:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 47:05

He runs all these ranches, he runs the oil stuff, the cattle stuff, the hunt stuff. This is the man.

SPEAKER_01 47:11

Networking.

SPEAKER_05 47:12

Networking a little bit. And one of the customers that we had invited in here like made friends with him and not unbeknownst to me after turkey season took him on a like a red fishing trip down there on the Gulf Coast and all that, sent him a son, a gun for graduation. Bam, guess what?

SPEAKER_01 47:31

Took your lease. Man.

SPEAKER_05 47:34

Right out from under my nose. And I caused that one. Now looking back, you you can't tell if anybody in the room's gonna be like that.

SPEAKER_01 47:42

Right.

SPEAKER_05 47:43

But I'm just telling you, when it comes to turkeys and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 47:46

People aren't in their right mind sometimes.

SPEAKER_05 47:49

We uh we actually lost our lease. So uh Yeah, you gotta hide you gotta hide that ego. But the the loose lips thing is funny. And uh I have enjoyed so much watching your boys deal with that and come to terms with it. 'Cause I I can I'll I ha I'll be around all of 'em walk or two and somebody'll start talking and they'll they'll either lean their eyes that way to get some information or or like give them the look like you need too much. You need to shut up like right now. It is it can be, if it's handled right, the most fun thing in turkey hunting. Learning how to do that. Bob Dixon was one of the masters at weaving his way onto a place. And I'm telling that. Yeah, he could do it. I'm telling you, he was as good as anybody. I've been pretty good at it too. The the deal with Bob, I used to do it with a camera. And people were just enamored and enthralled with what's going on, and I could get an invite anywhere as long as I was filming, because I didn't care who I found. I say, You come.

SPEAKER_04 49:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 49:01

This is your property.

SPEAKER_04 49:02

Bring your kid, whatever.

SPEAKER_05 49:04

I could get on any place.

SPEAKER_04 49:05

Right.

SPEAKER_05 49:06

I'm talking about primo. But I did it with uh you know the thoughts that hey when I film this, I'll show it to you, you know. Bob didn't have no camera with him, he just did it. He was slick. And uh I can tell you the the turkey hunting success depends on a lot of things. And the main thing is where are you doing it? And I've answered this question a million times. It's like somebody I don't forgot, I was on somebody's podcast, I don't remember who it was, it wasn't a fistful of dirt. I was answering questions and like I this guy's like, Okay, I have this much time because I work and I do this and I do that and I have he he did it in hours per week. I forgot what it was. I said, Okay, if you got ten hours a week between now and turkey season, spend nine hours and thirty minutes looking for dirt. Talking to landowners, finding a place, and don't roll your eyes when I say, if there's turkeys over there, go up there and knock on the door. Say, look, maybe you can fix fence, cut firewood. People think those days are gone. Well, they're getting harder, but they're not gone now, they're pretty much gone in Florida. Oh if you want to kill an aciola, you gotta know somebody. You got you gotta pay somebody or you gotta be able to do what Dave Owens does, and that's go in the jungle for a week. And buddy, if you think hunting public ground in Florida ain't hard, you you're wrong. I'm just telling you. But spend most of your time finding the places. You'll figure all that other stuff out.

SPEAKER_01 50:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 50:41

It don't matter if your calling's good or bad and all that. You can be the best caller in the world. If there's no turkeys in your woods, you're not you're not gonna see any.

SPEAKER_01 50:50

That's right.

SPEAKER_05 50:51

And uh good point. Yeah. Spend your time getting on that dirt, finding the dirt, finding a place to hunt. And don't have loose lips. Once you find your place That's your place. That's right. That's your place, and if you if you decide to share it, that's okay. If you decide not to share it, that's okay too. Right. So anyway, that's uh commandment number five.

SPEAKER_01 51:15

Part one. That's five out of ten.

SPEAKER_05 51:18

That's five out of ten. We're gonna do the next five, uh six through ten, and they get better than they're just getting better and better. Yeah, and it look, if you like stories, that's good. But I I gotta tell you a story. And uh about again, like I said at the front of this thing, what matters most to me, and it ain't about uh an Instagram. If you waiting to watch my Instagram for grab and grin, I killed a turkey photo.

SPEAKER_01 51:41

It's gonna be a minute if it happens at all.

SPEAKER_05 51:44

You probably ain't gonna see it. But I'm gonna have a lot of turkey content on there because I'm around it all the time.

SPEAKER_04 51:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 51:51

And I don't search out to the uh the most popular influencer and you know, I don't bug Toxie to go on his places and all that. I've I've done it a lot back in the day. And you know, here's what I'm looking for every year, and my circle gets a little I wanna go with somebody who's the most fun.

SPEAKER_01 52:13

Right.

SPEAKER_05 52:14

Who's a great teacher, who's got more stories and all that kind of stuff, and it's like you you don't get that many opportunities.

SPEAKER_01 52:22

Right.

SPEAKER_05 52:23

And just know this there's a lot of people in the world who know how to kill turkeys. You ain't gonna reinvent nothing. Don't keep score, and don't think like you're gonna be the best because you're posting more pictures or you hit your limit every time.

SPEAKER_04 52:37

That's right.

SPEAKER_05 52:38

I'm just telling you there's great turkey hunters everywhere. And I've never claimed to be great at any of it. What I enjoy doing is sharing it. Telling them stories, having some laughs, having a great encounter, having a good experience. And the most important step in doing that is uh having a good place.

SPEAKER_01 52:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 53:00

And there's lots of ways to get on good places, you just gotta figure that out. Again, Florida's gonna be tough because the Oceola things just went nuts.

SPEAKER_04 53:08

That's right.

SPEAKER_05 53:08

And it's hard. I I you know, the place we were going, I saw two trucks parked across the fence this year, and I was like, man, there ain't never been anybody hunting over there. But here's what I want to tell you. This is this this made my turkey season. We went out there and went turkey hunting with David Allen, my buddy, the guy that helped me lose weight. You worked for him for a while when you were in college. Chiropractor's degrees and nutrition, all he's just a fascinating guy. But his grandkids are finally getting old enough to go. And he he said, Hey, I want y'all to come go with us opening day, youth, not youth, adult season. He's got a good lease out there. And he said, I'm bringing roads. He's four years old. I said, That'll be awesome. He said, Now look, you y'all just take the boys and you can go on this half and I'll go down here. We're just gonna go sit in the shooting house. So I brought him a decoy.

SPEAKER_04 53:58

Some boots.

SPEAKER_05 53:59

Yeah, David Allen's not a big turkey hunter, he's a big deer hunter and a gun guy.

SPEAKER_04 54:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 54:04

But and he knows how to do it. But anyway, I brought a decoy. I brought, we got the little, your mama, yeah, yeah, I got the little kid some boots. He already had a moss heel cat. I got him a had him a Quaker boy push-button call.

SPEAKER_01 54:15

And he ran the heck out of it, didn't he?

SPEAKER_05 54:18

He had a crow call and the owl call. I was filming this stuff and all that. And anyway, we and then we went to the the Waffle House. And the Waffle House, so you'll know, here in West Point, Mississippi, right there by Walmart. Um, when they were I was a I've always been a big Waffle House guy. I knew the CEO and all that stuff, and he called me. He said, Now they're we're building a Waffle House here in West Point, and I was so excited. He said, Now when we open it up, I want you to be the first customer. I said, I'm your boy. And you know, they're gonna have the grand opening on this day. I think it was a Saturday morning, and I was there early. Yeah and went in, and this waffle house actually has mossy oak fabric on the booth.

SPEAKER_01 54:59

Yeah, the seat covers are mossy oak.

SPEAKER_05 55:01

And I bought the first meal and handed them cash money and they took a picture.

SPEAKER_01 55:06

And put and frame that dollar bill.

SPEAKER_05 55:07

They framed that first one dollar bill and it's my picture. And it's my booth. They call it Cousin's booth down there. Of course, I don't go that much during turkey season. I'm traveling a lot, but when we got back with David Allen and Rhodes and your two boys and all that, and there was a lot of people at the waffle house, I was like, we're gonna have to wait. We walked in and they were wiping our booth down. Somebody had just got in. We got to sit in our booth.

SPEAKER_01 55:32

I love it.

SPEAKER_05 55:32

And I was like, that's a sign.

SPEAKER_01 55:34

That's a perfect day.

SPEAKER_05 55:35

And uh this little four-year-old dude, he got like two giant glasses of chocolate milk and was taking them down, and we just had the best time, took a bunch of pictures. Well, I went and made a post, I think later that day, made a little video. Twenty twenty seconds.

SPEAKER_04 55:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 55:51

And uh it had the Waffle House song in there and all that kind of stuff. And I said, I hope your opening day was as fun as ours.

SPEAKER_04 55:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 55:58

Nobody got close to killing a turkey. We didn't even hear one.

SPEAKER_01 56:01

Right.

SPEAKER_05 56:02

They did. Cranky s and Matt said they heard one, I didn't hear it. And I had my Tetris full blast. Anyway, when I got that, you know, I put the post up, forgot about it, got busy and looked at it that night, and his mother Peyton.

SPEAKER_01 56:17

Dr. Allen's daughter.

SPEAKER_05 56:18

Yeah, Peyton had made a comment. This made me cry.

SPEAKER_01 56:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 56:21

And I was like, Mission accomplished.

SPEAKER_01 56:24

She said it said something about little men learning from men, or something like that.

SPEAKER_05 56:28

It said some comment about next generation of little Allen's learning to hunt from my dad and you. It don't get any better than this. This made me cry.

SPEAKER_01 56:36

It made me so happy.

SPEAKER_05 56:38

Buddy, on a scale to one to ten for opening days, that was a ten.

SPEAKER_01 56:41

Yeah. And then Wyatt, her brother, yeah, commented, I can remember doing this when Matt was that little.

SPEAKER_05 56:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:48

And that made me want to cry.

SPEAKER_05 56:50

It's good stuff, man. That's that's what turkey hunting's all about. And if I ain't your cup of tea, I'm sorry. But anyway.

SPEAKER_01 56:57

What are you doing here?

SPEAKER_05 56:59

That's right. That's right. This is all about stores and keeping it happy. So that was the first half of uh The Ten Commandments of Turkey Hunting. Tongue in cheek. So next week we're gonna go through six through ten. So for me and Laurene up here in the Camo Cave from Mossy Oak and Mossy Oak Properties, God bless you all.

SPEAKER_01 57:16

We'll see you in seven days.