FFOD321 : God Bless Texas | Rios Recap & a Sit Down with “Cranky”

God bless Texas. In this episode, I’m recapping a special trip down to the Lone Star State, starting with a hunt alongside the winner of the Foxhole Shootout Auction and then heading to Heart of Texas with my three grandsons.

The highlight? My youngest grandson Ben (better known as “Cranky”) joining the brotherhood.  He was able to harvest his 2nd Rio, but this time he called all the shots. This one’s special.

Stay connected with Fist Full of Dirt: 

Instagram: @ffodpodcast

Instagram: @moplandforsale

Twitter: @FistDirt

TikTok: @originalturkeythug

Instagram : @CuzStrickland

Twitter: @CuzStrickland

Facebook: @CuzStrickland

YouTube: Cuz411

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to Fistful of Dirt, the official podcast of Monty 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 Cub Strickland.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

Testing one to semi live from the Camo Cave North.

SPEAKER_03 0:27

Semi Live, welcome back.

SPEAKER_02 0:29

We are in the throes of turkey season.

SPEAKER_03 0:32

Yeah, it's my favorite time of year.

SPEAKER_02 0:34

Yeah, I saw a uh First, I gotta tell everybody about your April's food.

SPEAKER_03 0:40

I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

I'm telling you, I hadn't been got but a couple times in my life.

SPEAKER_03 0:46

You're hard to get.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

And anyway, we don't have turkeys out here on our farm. Occasionally, you know, you'll get a trail cam picture of one walking, but it's not an issue out here. We just don't, we just don't have it's not a place where we go turkey on. We had one here last year. Lauren disposed of him really quick. He picked the wrong spot to move into in late April. Anyway, I'm at the office and I didn't even think about it being April the 1st, whatever, because I'm I'm I'm packing in between trips. Just got back from this and that and this and that. And Lauren sends me a picture, and it's her on her new house on her porch. And I recognize that immediately with a big long beard, and she said, sorry, couldn't help myself.

SPEAKER_03 1:30

He was gobbling up by a road.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

Yeah, he was I was like, I got so flustered and fired up. I was throwing questions back. Where where'd you sit? Did what'd you how did you call and all that kind of stuff? And then my phone vibrated, looked down and said, April fools, and I was like, I don't know how you made that picture.

SPEAKER_03 1:49

I photoshopped it. I just took one of our hunting pictures from last year where I was like head-to-toe camo and then just photoshopped in one of my old turkey dispatched turkey pictures, and I just put it on my house so that it would look current.

SPEAKER_02 2:04

You getting way too good at that because I stu and you know, I never when I saw your house on there and the front porch and the column and all that, I was like, golly, because we ain't even been talking about it out here, you know. We have to go somewhere to turkey hunt. But anyway, I got got that's like the second time the you know, I told the story about Keith and Bubba and Greg Brug getting me down there in Florida three or four years ago with the blue lights, but I was like, okay, I bit that one hook, line, and sinker. I was so excited. I was about to jump in my truck and come home and do a photo shoot.

SPEAKER_03 2:41

Oh, goodness.

SPEAKER_02 2:42

You got me good.

SPEAKER_03 2:43

Sorry about that.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

That's okay. But anyway, two trips to Texas under my belt now. Toxie and crew, Chris, Chris Hawley and them, they auctioned off a hunt at the Foxhole shootout back in September. And David Nugent, who's a Mississippi resident here, he was the high bidder on that thing. And he brought his wife and his two sons. We went out to one of those ranches in Texas that Bossfield's been visiting for a long time. And buddy, it was uh welcome back to Texas. I just love going to Texas. Now, it was first off, it was it's it's a lot of fun hunting with Toxie. Now, Toxie's a little uh, I ain't gonna say he's extreme. He's extremely careful, but he's also extremely good. We make a good team because sometimes I'll charge a little hard and he'll wait. That's right. And man, it's so much fun. And we were riding out there. I picked up David Nugent and and his family, the two boys, and uh nicest family, by the way.

SPEAKER_03 3:44

They're so sweet, those boys are so polite, and great hunters, too.

SPEAKER_02 3:49

But I was asking him, I said, now how you want to do this? Because there's two boys and it's me and Toxie and all that. And he said, Well, you know, I said, Look, here's what I'd do. I said, let's just all go together.

SPEAKER_03 4:00

That's more fun.

SPEAKER_02 4:01

And he just lit up. That's exactly what I wanted to do.

SPEAKER_03 4:05

Good.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

So uh first morning out, we uh we took off. It was and we had some MRI. We had uh, you know, the camp was already set up, and uh Norman Sneed was there, who knows that place like the back of his hand.

SPEAKER_03 4:20

And it's also fun to have in camp.

SPEAKER_02 4:22

Oh my word. I made a post with uh had a picture. He he got to sneak off and hunt one morning, but I said, Bandy has taken the camp cooking hospitality thing up about 50 notches since I used to do a lot of that because it was always spaghetti or chili or sausage pie. Man, he is a shit and so much fun.

SPEAKER_03 4:46

I can tell you were impressed because that was the thing you continued to talk about when you got back. We ate this and we ate that, and Mandy fixed this. I'm like, he was a really good cook.

SPEAKER_02 4:55

He he left from the airport about 45 minutes in front of us because David's plane was a little bit that the next flight came in late. And by the time we got to the camp, he had supper and he made enchiladas from scratch. That second night he made uh he had elk tips and gravy gravy with rice and some kind of bread. And I was like, I was just ashamed. I was like, from this point on, I ain't never telling nobody I was a cook at the Mossy Oak camps. But anyway, he's good at it and he enjoys it. That's awesome. He's fun. So it was a great camp. First morning out, you know, Norman had kind of given Toxie a little MRI. So uh we're easing down there, and we stopped the truck and we're gonna cross this ditch, and and the turkeys are supposed to be way down to the right. One gobbled real close, and Toxie just hung his head, said, We're dead. There's no way he didn't see us. And I just cause they're real don't mean they're idiots.

SPEAKER_04 5:51

Right.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

So we made a big loop away from him and came all the way back to him from the other side, and he he gobbled, and his partner gave us a couple of them. They gobbled a little bit on the roost and then they just shut up. And it was dreary and windy and all that kind of stuff. So you know, now we sat up on him and probably stayed there half an hour or an hour or so, and Toxie finally he gets way back behind you, which is not a bad tactic. And he'll tell you I'm he'll we'll either sit down where we couldn't possibly see him straight behind us. He's gonna say, I'm 30 yards straight behind you. It's not a safety thing, but and he you know, he sounds like a hen back there. So that's a good thing. Calling through. That's what night and hell call it. Mark Drury and then they used to talk about calling through. Anyway, that didn't work. And uh so anyway, now we gotta walk all the way back to the truck because we've made a big loop and we're gonna kind of change territories. Tysies walking up in front, tipping, being real quiet, and all of a sudden he just hits the ground, turns around and giving me that fist out sign, he heard a gobble. So we he's up there and there's a little opening, a lot of cedar bushes, a lot of mesquites and stuff. We found a pretty good opening. And uh I said, Well, me and uh I think it was John David, I don't remember which one shot first, but he uh we sat up there and Tox and him got way back behind us, and the first time Toxie yelled, this thing was close. And I'm filming I got this on video.

SPEAKER_03 7:20

Nice.

SPEAKER_02 7:21

And uh that Turkey gobbled two or three times, walked up in there and boom.

SPEAKER_06 8:26

Holy cow, you know, they usually grind them off on the water, they don't get like that much. I couldn't run something stuck in a tree. You talk bad to me early on. Don't do that, guys. Oh, they're so beautiful. He heard that one, he heard it, he was calling.

SPEAKER_02 8:53

Someone done. And uh anyway, we took pictures and all this stuff, went back to the truck, changed areas, and you know, looking at on X, looking at on X, and all this kind of stuff, and Toxie's like, let's stop and yep on that tube call right here. And luckily we stopped just I mean, if we'd have gone another 50 feet, because when I blew that tube call, he blah blah blah right there. It was like they took off to the left, and me and David were standing by the truck, so we just hit the dirt. And they got over to the side, and that turkey come kind of trotting, half strutting down the road, boom, both of them's done.

SPEAKER_06 9:36

Hell we help me, help me, right, let me run, leave me, right, let me run. See, shoot him go get him, go, go, go, go!

SPEAKER_02 9:57

Here we go, son. That was a a really fun morning. We went the next morning and split up. I took Will and Toxie took the older brother and and they killed quick, and it took us till almost 10 o'clock.

SPEAKER_05 10:12

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

It was I don't know what happened, but Wendy and we heard them, and when they flew down, I could see through this mesquite flag, there was a bunch of turkeys, and they moved off to the left. And it was dead silent for two and a half hours. And I just kept going. I was I'm gonna hit that two call. Everybody had the multi groves by then. I was like, because we're leaving. I was like, Don't give up, we're gonna hunt till ten or eleven. And uh looked up, my hen was looking. I don't know if she was hamstring me or whatever, but back behind her was that fan, and he rolled right up in there, boom. So both of them, both the Nugent boys got their turkeys. Came home and dumped my duffel bag and loaded it back up.

SPEAKER_04 10:53

Turn and burn.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

Turn and burn. We drove we drove all the way to Texas and we didn't leave till Friday morning because Walker in college and he has a tough class on Thursday, and his mama kind of said he ain't missing that class. So we left here at 3 45 a.m.

SPEAKER_03 11:10

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 11:11

Drove straight to Melvin, Texas, heart of Texas Bohan, and uh met up with uh Kevin Burleson and Mark Bradbury and you go out there as a turkey hunter. You've been listening, roosting, cuz and he's like he just grinning here, just relax. You remember last year that's where I went, I was in Jake jail.

SPEAKER_05 11:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 11:31

As bad as I've ever been, so I wasn't asking many questions. I was like, I just kind of like to go back where I was last year, and he said, Okay. So uh Mark takes uh Cranky and Richard and he said, I'm gonna put them out in a good spot. And I was like, Cranky, can you handle it? He's like, I got this. I said, okay. And uh because it's windy that day.

SPEAKER_05 11:54

Right.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

And me and uh Walker and Matt, Kevin just kind of dumped us out. No service, but you know, your your son's taught me how to use the satellite option on mine, and I told uh Kevin, I said, I'll text you when it's time. So we just took off walking, and it had rained there the day before. There was turkey tracks in the road, and I kept looking at them. I said, you know what, let's just sit down. I found a good place to hide, and I put Walker to my left and Matt to the right on that one. I said, Whichever, if they come from the left, that's Walker's, and if they come from right, it's Matt's. And we sat there and they kept I I was calling as loud as I could because the wind was howling, and they would both sh jer jerk their heads to the left, and I was like, I'm hearing one straight out in front of us. I knew I did. And uh, no, Pop he's to the left, he's to the left, and all that. And finally I, you know, I hit that tube call, one gobbled, and they both snapped their head to the right, and I looked down there and here they come.

SPEAKER_05 12:54

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 12:55

They're coming straight down that road we've been walking on. Two big long beards, no hens. So they're in the road. The road's probably 30 yards in front of us. And I I glance, I'm looking through a bush and I can see them. I thought they were way down there. Apparently they weren't that far because I turned to Walker and said, Walker, spin this way and point to the right. Maybe we can get both of 'em. And I looked back and boy, that lead one was raising that head up. He heard me. He clearly heard me. So they made a big circle around us, and that was that. Next morning it's raining. It's a tick it's a typical Texas storm. You can feel it coming, hear it coming, and then about four o'clock in the morning it let loose thunder and lightning and winds howling. And uh they got Wi-Fi there. I was watching that radar. I said, it's gonna be out here about 10 30. And sure enough, it was moving pretty fast. So eleven o'clock, we back out.

SPEAKER_04 13:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:55

We ain't had a morning yet, but anyway, I and I told Kevin, I told the boys, I said, Y'all put a snack in your vest, because we ain't coming back.

SPEAKER_03 14:03

Might be a late, long day.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

Well, what was gonna happen is even though it was so windy, those clouds were moving out, and there's a blue sky here and blue sky there, and sure enough, uh I I wasn't with Cranky, and we got to get him in here in a minute, tell his story. But I told Matt and Walker, I said, We're gonna go to a place where we can all three hide close and just sit it out. And it was the most amazing thing. We sat down about 1115 and it was blowing at one point it blew my hat off my head, which is a big target, but that's a whole nother podcast. But I had to jump up and run, catch my hat, it was blowing like tumbleweed, that's how bad it was. But as the wind went from whatever, 30 to 25 to 20, and the sun starts coming out, you can hear birds. It's like you heard one, 20 minutes later there's two or three, then a dove, and I told I leaned up and told him, I said, We're fixing to hear a turkey.

SPEAKER_04 14:57

Right.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

And about I guess 30, 40 minutes after that, I had Matt in front of me to the left, and walk in front of me to the right, and a real pretty opening out of it in front of us. And Matt snapped his head to the left and said, I heard one. And he told me, he said, I started not to say anything because it was so faint.

SPEAKER_04 15:16

Right.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

And wind's still blowing. I said, Well, if you heard it, you heard it.

SPEAKER_04 15:20

Right.

SPEAKER_02 15:21

And uh we hit the time, the time and getting out there was just perfect as far as I'm concerned. Anyway, I got the tube call out yum, yep, loud as I could, boy, boom, boom, boom. I said, I think it's three.

SPEAKER_05 15:32

Three.

SPEAKER_02 15:33

Yeah. And uh they didn't answer anything but the tube calls, probably simply because they couldn't hear anything else.

SPEAKER_03 15:40

That's why I love it so much.

SPEAKER_02 15:42

It was about 20 minutes, nothing. I'd yelp on a mouth call, I'd try to do right, you know, but finally I hit that tube call again, and they gobbled and they was they were you could tell they were way closer. So we're rehearsing now. I was like, all right, now here's the deal. Here's how you do the one, two, three. I said, I'm gonna I had my hands on, I didn't get all this on video because I was busy.

SPEAKER_05 16:04

Right.

SPEAKER_02 16:05

But they're coming in, it's two hens coming across that flat, just feeding, pecking, and the and the long beard, there's four of them.

SPEAKER_05 16:12

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 16:13

And they're behind the hens about 50 yards, and the hens walk right in front of us about 35, 40 yards. So I said, All right, here's the deal, Walker. You're gonna get the the lead one, the one on the right, Matt. You're taking something on the left and don't shoot till I say three. We're gonna go one, two, three. And when you hear me start saying that, you shoot. And they came right behind the hens, paying zero attention to me. Of course, I'm not calling at that point, because they're on a good path. But anyway, they get they got right out there in front of us, and I had to wait and wait and wait, because they were all, you know, fooling with each other, running at this one, trying to catch up with him. They finally stopped out there.

SPEAKER_05 16:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:50

Cause I started, I had my mouth calling, and I was just loud as I could. Bam, bab, bam, bam. And they stopped. I said, All right, y'all ready.

SPEAKER_06 17:14

Alright, you on the right, Walker. You're on the left. You ready?

SPEAKER_02 17:20

Y'all tell me when you're ready. One, two, three, boom! And it literally sounded like one shot.

SPEAKER_03 17:27

Oh, that's so awesome.

SPEAKER_02 17:29

They executed the one, two, three perfectly.

SPEAKER_03 17:32

I love it.

SPEAKER_02 17:33

And uh man, they were fired up. And I'm talking about these weren't no two-year-olds either. Matt, both of them had over-inch spurs. Matt's turkey, one of them spurs were between an inch and three-eighths and an inch and a half long.

SPEAKER_03 17:48

It's the longest spur I've held in my hand in person. I I told him that. I was like, Matt, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 17:52

So they were fired up. And in uh the midst of all that, you know, while it's it's been it was like 20 minutes from in between the last two gobbles, I looked down, satellite message from Ricky and says, Turkey down.

SPEAKER_05 18:09

Oh man.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

And I was like, Holy cow, Cranky's done killed a turkey at two o'clock in the afternoon. And then 2 20, whenever it was, they killed theirs.

SPEAKER_05 18:20

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 18:21

So we were done. We hunt we basically hunted maybe an hour the first afternoon, and a couple of two or three hours that second afternoon, and I that was it. Now they could have killed, but I I was just gonna let them kill one turkey. Plus, we had to get back home.

SPEAKER_04 18:36

Right.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

And uh, but cranky was a different person when he walked up.

SPEAKER_04 18:41

Really?

SPEAKER_02 18:42

I'm telling you, I could I've been around him as much as anybody, and he was just he was telling the story like it's different telling a story when you were just like a participant versus you calling all the shots, and I was taking all that in. I was like, God, thank you for this weekend.

SPEAKER_05 19:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:01

And uh Matt and Walker, we had a great session out there in the woods calling on their mouth calls. I said, Boys, y'all need to yap on them things all the time, but they have they've kind of hit another stage.

SPEAKER_05 19:13

Oh, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 19:14

But I am dying, absolutely dying to get cranky in here and let him tell his story because I wasn't there. So let's round up Ben aka cranky and talking about entering the brotherhood. Let's get his play by play. Oh, that's not a big big big big big big big big big big big big big big big big big big big cranky, did you uh do you see the video I posted back in deer season when you're walking off by yourself to go hunting? Did you see it or did you have Instagram back then?

SPEAKER_01 20:15

I saw it, yes sir.

SPEAKER_02 20:17

You think that made me sad?

SPEAKER_01 20:19

Maybe a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 20:21

Well, that ain't nothing compared to watching you call up your first turkey, which I didn't watch it, but that's uh I don't know if you realize what a milestone that is. And we're gonna talk about that because uh we on the ride home you were talking about you never had a feeling like that.

SPEAKER_01 20:39

No, sir, I haven't.

SPEAKER_02 20:40

All right, we're gonna get to that. We're gonna get to that. But uh let's just recap what happened, you know, when we got there, and I I'll talk about the trip and all that later, but when you were just literally Union Dad dumped out down there in the heart of Texas with First Day. First day.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

So we're we're riding to the spot he wanted to drop us off at, and they had just clear cut a whole, like they said like three thousand acres or something like that for cow pasture. And there's one spot like part of the field by the tree line, and we see four four turkeys strutting and like four hens with this is like five in the afternoon as soon as we got there. Very late. And they're out there and we go about three hundred yards into those woods, and then g find the biggest tree we can because there's not a lot of places you can roost. So if you see a big tree, that's probably where they're gonna be. And we go get set up about twenty yards in front of that tree.

SPEAKER_02 21:40

Who picked the spot?

SPEAKER_01 21:41

Me.

SPEAKER_02 21:42

You running the whole show.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

Yes, sir. I was having to make all the decisions. And then we get set down and it is just like gnats, just everywhere, getting in your ears, all over your gun. Just it was crazy. We didn't know that was gonna happen either. So on top of that, there's Turkeys everywhere. They're surrounding us gobbling like crazy.

SPEAKER_02 22:04

In the afternoon.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

In the afternoon. And I just I call some every twenty or thirty minutes. And we had a few coming, I'd say, with at least forty or sixty yards, but nothing nothing really got any. I never saw a turkey other than we were going and leaving. And we were leaving, we left at like eight o'clock and the sun was just setting. And we thought we heard them roosting. We're leaving, and the same ones that were in that field were still out there at like eight o'clock. Sun's just barely out, no light, crazy.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

When they're uh they're in that window, sometimes they'll stay till just about dark and you'll just see them take off running. They wait till the last minutes like they hate going to bed like a little kid. So anyway, the wind was pretty bad that afternoon. So talk about the next morning and that storm.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

So next morning, we weren't able to go in the morning, which kind of messed up our plans, but I I think it all worked out in the long, long run. But it stormed pretty raining sideways, wakes you up just like crazy storming in the morning. So instead of going hunting, we just went down to Jacoby's, got breakfast that morning, and kind of had a slow morning and got out there around I'd say twelve, one o'clock.

SPEAKER_02 23:23

Stop stop right there. Tell me what you had at Jacoby's.

SPEAKER_01 23:26

Oh. I got a two-stack. I I got I usually get like two or three pancakes because I'm like, oh, it's just a pancake. They're pancakes are about an inch thick and big and round is my head. And I get those, wasn't really able to finish them because that's a that's a lot of pancake to take down. I got some bacon on the side.

SPEAKER_02 23:47

The reason I bring up Jacoby's, because if you do ever go to heart of Texas, you gotta go to Jacoby's. We ate there three times, but I so anyway, our only morning there, our first morning there, and we didn't have but a Saturday and a maybe a Sunday, but uh it was a washout. So we headed to the woods when about eleven o'clock, right? Yes, sir. All right, pick it up there.

SPEAKER_01 24:08

And we get there and we go a little bit not as far up in the woods as we do because we know they they don't leave that field. They're in that field for most of the day. And we want to try and get as close to the fence as we can, but it's like it's like playing a game when you get in those woods because it looks really dense from the outside, but when you get in the middle, it's just like a tree here, a bush here, just like kind of scattered about. And you'd see a a hen here and you'd have to sneak from bush to bush, and there'd be another one and another one. And it's like we eventually make it to the fence and we they're not in the field. Even though they there they were when we were going up there, they weren't right now.

SPEAKER_02 24:48

It's not a high fence, just a barbar fence where they're traveling up and down it to go from that field, but you're you're looking for a spot and you're still making all the decisions. It's just you and your dad, and he's just filming with his phone. He's like me now, he's an Uber driver when he goes on a turkey hunt, but go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 25:07

So we get from like big bush to big bush looking for a spot and we're me and my dad are not some not the best team working together because we're about the most impatient turkey hunters there is. We can't really sit for too long. And we there's no gobbling, never we only heard one gobble that whole hunt, and we'll get to that.

SPEAKER_02 25:28

Well the wind was 30, 40 miles an hour, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_01 25:31

It was cra that's the highest winds I've ever experienced. But but it blew the gnats away. It did, no gnats, which was a blessing. And we we finally find a good spot and it's like this is perfect. And then we hit a lull. No birds, no turkeys, nothing making noise. So we're like, this wind's going crazy, and we're on the top of a ridge, and there the bottom of the ridge is on our right. Let's go see if we can get to the top and look down in there. We get we get there, no turkeys, and then we kind of left all our stuff in the the blind that we had made, so like our turkey chairs and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 26:08

Now wait a minute, you went to sneak down so you could look down in there because you figured the turkeys were getting out of the wind.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 26:14

And you just thought of that on your own. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

Go ahead, brother. And then we we decided there's no turkeys here either, so I don't know, they must have just disappeared. So we're walking back to our blind. And there's a a turkey in our blind.

SPEAKER_02 26:30

Which is not a blind, it's just a space you set up and had a little cover.

SPEAKER_01 26:36

Mm-hmm. And there's a turkey in there just like scratching around doing its thing. And and we kinda didn't weren't expecting that. So we kind of were walking up and then we noticed it, and then we just kind of stood there, it looked up at us, went back to scratching, and then walked off. We got back in our blind and then this is when the turkeys picked back up. There would be a hen walking across in front of us, and then there'd be one walking behind us, and then walking on my right side.

SPEAKER_02 27:03

Just going out to that wide open field.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

Just place to place. We're on like at the turkey interstate is where we were.

SPEAKER_02 27:09

No feeder, none of that that new ground was popping up some chutes, is what it was. You see. And they were feeding out there, so but you you you felt like you were hitting good. What what pattern did you have on? Tell me about your gear real quick.

SPEAKER_01 27:22

Uh, so I've been rocking some green leaf, but uh we kind of had a wardrobe problem. I got my I've been wearing these overalls that were green leaf, and they got a nice thin material, but I got my brothers, because we have the same kind, and they were a little big on me. So before we left, I found these pants in my room. I was like, these are pretty nice, and they're bottomland. And so I packed them, and that's what I wore the whole trip, and then I just have a green leaf old Tom Hoodie in my vest, and that's about it. Went and it was pretty cold, but I was fine. Never really got chilly.

SPEAKER_02 27:55

Hashtag better and bottom land there now, your lucky pants.

SPEAKER_01 27:58

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 27:59

All right, you got back and you got set up and you're not in the blind, you just picked a good place that had some cover. Were you using your little turkey chair?

SPEAKER_01 28:05

Yes, sir, we were. And well, before we actually sat down in a different spot when we first got there that day. Mm-hmm. And then that's when we were trying to get we just left our stuff there because we were like, We haven't heard of turkey, let's just go see if they're in that field. And that's when we found that spot where we could set up and we're like, we need to go get the turkey chairs, this is it.

SPEAKER_02 28:27

You found the spot.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

And so we go get our turkey chairs and come back there. But so all that turkey movement, the interstate was fired up. Somebody opened the turkey gate and they were flowing through. And so we actually sat for a few hours and just turkeys passing by, no nothing gobbling, no jakes or anything. Winds howling. Howling.

SPEAKER_02 28:48

And I don't know how I heard it, but to our left, my left, there was Tell me about what you was yelping on, because you found two things you really liked.

SPEAKER_01 28:57

I got I forget the brand, but it's called the Dominant Hen box call, and it's probably one of the best box calls ever made.

SPEAKER_02 29:06

And your daddy said you was rocking that slate.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

And then I got a slate, it's the brick house by Pistol Creek, and then I'm using some striker I found laying around. And it it's pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 29:16

And a loud and a wing bone that you're running, you sound like Dave Owen.

SPEAKER_01 29:20

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 29:21

But you said it was too windy for the wing bone.

SPEAKER_01 29:24

Too windy for the wingbone, it wasn't loud enough. So you was calling on both the slate and the box. Yes, sir. And then so I start to hear the scratching. I just went to go use the bathroom behind us, and I'm like, it sounds like something's walking around, and I don't really pay any attention to it, and I get set back down and it doesn't really stop. So I start paying attention to it, and it's kind of hard because the wind's going crazy and you can't hear anything. And I'm listening and it starts like and then it turns around, and it was a turkey full straight dragging its wings back and forth. So I start doing a little bit of clucking on my slate, and then I hit the box call one time and mid-box call it gobbles.

SPEAKER_02 30:13

He cut you off. Cut me off. And what'd we talk about going out there?

SPEAKER_01 30:17

We were on the ride up there, and Papa's like, now if y'all hit any type of call and they gobble, like in the middle of it, cutting cutting you off, they're coming. Probably probably. Probably. You remembered that. Yes, sir. No Mississippi turkeys doing that, so I'm like, that's pretty cool. In Mississippi, if you hear a gobble, you're just like, there's turkeys here. And that's about it. That didn't really that's the only information you get. But he gobbled mid-call and he was a little bit on my behind over over my left shoulder. And so I'm able to I get turned around and I'm looking at this little gap, and I'm like, this is gonna be so cool. He's gonna walk right out and just full strut, just be right in front of me. And he doesn't. He and then I'm I'm looking at that gap, and I hear a drum just like and then I I kind of glance to my right, cut my eyes to my right, and he's just sitting there looking at me, just like full strut, just looking at me. And then kind of starts walking. And he's in front of our blind and our bright I or where we were sitting, and where we were sitting, you couldn't really see out the front. It was really thick, tall bushes, which it wasn't that bad because you could still see through it. But he couldn't see us, and I was able to turn 180 degrees and he was walked out from behind this wood pile and boom, that's when I got him. How far was he? Probably about 15 yards.

SPEAKER_02 31:44

Yep. Did uh how how long for it to sink in that you'd actually made all the decisions and did the calling and calling up by yourself? Now your dad was there, but he was just filming with his phone. By the way, we're gonna put what we can together with that, edit it with a phone, but we're gonna show that. But how did it sink in immediately or were you just going through the motions of, hey, I just killed another turkey?

SPEAKER_01 32:08

I was kind of going through the motions, and then later that day I'm like, I I call that turkey up on my own, and it's just like kind of haven't stopped thinking about it since then.

SPEAKER_02 32:19

That's uh you've been you've been in the brotherhood, your whole family is, but when you do that, make the decision. Yeah, Texas is a good place, especially the Ford Ranch, but still doing it on your own. Uh I got nothing else left to teach you.

SPEAKER_01 32:34

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 32:35

How cool was that? Crazy. Are you are you still in a little display? 'Ca you you've been around a lot of turkeys getting shot. You've shot a lot of turkeys. Yes sir. But that's the first and only time you had to make all the decisions. All the yep, and did you wait when the when the wind was blowing so hard? 'Cause we were over there too. Did you wait for the wind to make you hit a little lull and then hit that call?

SPEAKER_01 32:57

That's exactly what I would do. I'd wait for it to stop blowing and that's when I would Because we thought the way the wind was blowing, 'cause we thought they were down on the bottom of that ridge, and I would think that wind's helping us so much, but they were all on our left, I guess, and that's where everybody was heading, so you can't trust them, can you? No, sir.

SPEAKER_02 33:15

Well, buddy, I couldn't be more proud. We're gonna make a a worthy post about that. I threw a little one up there and uh let everybody know, but we're gonna we're gonna do it justice, and that's that's a big deal. I had your brother and Walker, the other two grandsons, and they were we were sitting there in that high wind, and I I may I gave them a class or they gave me one on yep, but I made them get their mouth calls out, and by the time we left, I was like, y'all need to yep on them things all the time. And basically Matt, I'll I'll tell Matt's story, but it's like I want them I want them to learn everything they can and figure out how to do it on their own. So congratulations to Ben A.K.A. Cranky Ellis. I'm I'm I'm tempted not to call you crank anymore. Make this make this a uh kind of a pathway to where you just been. No, I won't stick to cranking cranking in bottom land pants. All right, buddy. Well, congratulations. Thank you for visiting with me and your mama in here at the Camo Cave.

SPEAKER_01 34:15

Yes, sir. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 34:18

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. 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 where the crappie or give the gifts of a gobbler, send him 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, or scenic outdoor living sections. All customizable to your lifestyle. It's comfort without boundaries. Visit Basecamp Homeseries.com for more information. Hey, this is Cuz Strickland.

SPEAKER_03 35:49

And I'm Laurene.

SPEAKER_02 35:50

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

SPEAKER_03 35:53

The official podcast of Mosteo Properties.

SPEAKER_02 35:56

Hey, if you don't laugh out loud, we'll give you your money back. So different person than Turkish?

SPEAKER_03 36:06

He's just so mature.

SPEAKER_02 36:08

Yeah, thinking about all right, let's go look down in that valley because they're probably out there out or you think they're just hanging out for a road trip, but they're sponges. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 36:18

He told me last night when he was telling me his story when he talked about um when he hit his box call and it was pretty loud and the turkey cut him off. He was showing me clips on the phone that Richard filmed, and he was like, he gobbles right here. You can't hear it on the phone, but he gobbled, he cut me off. And Pop said, when they do that in Texas, they're probably coming. So that's when I had to like put my stuff down. And I'm like, he was paying attention.

SPEAKER_02 36:43

He uh closed the deal by himself, and good for your husband being good sport. He just sat there and filmed the whole thing, and and he's just like me. I'm good with that.

SPEAKER_05 36:52

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 36:52

Me too. And I asked Matt and Walker, I said, look, if y'all want to just get dumped out, as long as your phone's working, yeah. And Matt's like, uh pop, whatever raises the odds in our favor. I said, Well, I might can help you a little bit. So they they allowed me to go, but I I don't have any issues with that. I let them do a ton of calling and all that kind of stuff. It's like I say, it's it ain't about us, it's about them. Because I've been there and done that. And uh bless his heart, Kevin Burns, and we got done real quick. He said, Cousin out of morning's gonna be awesome. And I know you have a Texas license. I said, Oh I said, Bless your heart, brother. You and Mark both, but I said, I've killed enough.

SPEAKER_03 37:37

What a special place.

SPEAKER_02 37:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:39

And being able to double with your cousin, he was telling me that story, and he was like, Mama, that was so special. Have you ever doubled with anybody? I said, almost. I was close. I was supposed to. And he said, Who? I said, Yah, yeah. He is what? I said, it was when we had a couple turkeys at Kipper County. We actually there were three.

SPEAKER_05 37:59

Three of them.

SPEAKER_03 38:00

And they pop called him in, and we had even made the plan. And he said, I'm gonna count to three. And when I say three, shoot. And I said, What he called him in. I was like, it was just, it was gonna be the most perfect tonight ever been on. They gobbled, they blew up, they strutted, they drummed, they did everything. And when they were within range, and Pop clucked and got them to pop their heads up real tall, and he's like, one, two, boom! I was like, Yaya barely let him get two out of his mouth. And Matt was like, you gotta shoot right when he starts to say thr. And I was like, Yeah, I know, everybody knows, except Yaya. Yaya don't play. Yaya wasn't gonna not get her turkey.

SPEAKER_02 38:42

Yeah, one is two, and two is too damn late.

SPEAKER_03 38:45

Too late.

SPEAKER_02 38:47

But uh they got the biggest kick out of that, and I said, Well, you can't you don't get that out, and they they they just did it perfectly.

SPEAKER_03 38:54

It sounded like one gunshot.

SPEAKER_02 38:56

And uh I posted a little picture from there in front of the sign, and you know, just because we had a 13-hour ride home, and and I've one of the first comments that came up was, Well, it must be nice, you know, talking about buying and I was and I just deleted it. But it's like, you know, here's the deal. I've been talking about heart of Texas forever.

SPEAKER_05 39:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:18

And the reason I fell in love with that place and how Kevin and now Mark are doing business is it's affordable.

unknown 39:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:24

If you can't afford that hunt, yeah, I mean, you you you know, save money for six months, whatever it is, it's the cheapest thing out there. Yeah, and it's like you've gone to the best place you could ever go with a super high-priced outfitter. Now, a little of it's DIY, and 99% of turkey hunters don't want a guide anyway. They just want a map and a little MRI. It's the coolest hunt ever.

SPEAKER_04 39:48

Perfect.

SPEAKER_02 39:49

And uh that's why I've decided while I'm still able, I want them to go out there. Now, we've been out there two or three times. Cranky killed one there like three years ago. Matt didn't, they hunted all day and didn't kill one. So it's it's not a shooting fish in the barrel thing, but it's so different and so much fun. I tell people all the time, for me, for first time I went out to Texas, not there, it was like I went to Africa. It's so different.

SPEAKER_04 40:16

Right.

SPEAKER_02 40:16

And the turkeys are abundant, a really good year this year, and apparently gonna be another good one next year.

SPEAKER_04 40:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:22

But it's like, if you want to do it, do it.

SPEAKER_04 40:25

Right. Make it happen.

SPEAKER_02 40:26

Yeah. My suggestion, if you want a turkey hunt out there, you better get your name in the hat. Because he don't let many people turkey hunt. He holds that number way down because he loves them. They don't hunt them, but buddy, they got them. And the Ford Ranch is legendary and it's just a really good place. I went out there last year and guided a guy for two days, and we didn't kill him on.

SPEAKER_03 40:48

Yeah, it's not guaranteed.

SPEAKER_02 40:49

It was Jake Jill. Jake. Never seen that many, and that's the way turkey hunting is. It's very fluid. You know, one year's good, the next year's down, two years in a row is great, and then they're then everybody's screaming the sky is falling, blah, blah, blah. But if you want to do that one, that one's doable.

SPEAKER_04 41:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:08

And uh my like I say, my suggestion is if you want to do it, you better call 'em early because it they got a nice place you can stay there. And it's uh I gotta tell you about this. You know, he Kevin and Mark they moved some kind of portable buildings in there and then renovated them and they put they boxed up in around 'em where you got a big kind of uh opening there and all four or five doors are right there. And it's comfortable. There's something about sleeping with a window air conditioner and a sleeping bag. Okay. I I mean it was the best it was just the best sleep ever, but uh it was it was such a cool thing. And you go down the road three and a half minutes to Jacoby's and it may be the best cafe slash restaurant ever.

SPEAKER_03 41:53

My kids will not stop talking about it. The buttermilk pie is what Matt keeps talking about, and cranky and the pancakes.

SPEAKER_02 42:01

Yeah, and they had steak fingers and they got onion rings down there. I'm telling you, would win any kind of award in the world. And they they offer 'em as appetizers and you can get them as appetizers, and then everybody gets them as a side. But it's just a it's a it's a a lifetime event for us to go out there. If you like Texas. Some people, you know, they don't like Texas and because you get sticks and stuff. I've got, you know, cactus needles in my hand right now from dragging through the woods with them boys, but what a what a special thing. And so much fun. We get one water burger. And I don't know how many I drove by. We stopped at one on the way out there, but once you get out there, there ain't any. There's not any in Brady and there's one at Brownwood, but that's you know, 40 minutes away.

SPEAKER_03 42:49

Pretty rural where you're at.

SPEAKER_02 42:50

Yeah, and when you can walk up to Jacoby, literally could walk up to Jacoby's and get that breakfast up there, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 42:56

Why would you go anywhere else?

SPEAKER_02 42:58

Why would you go anywhere else? That's right. But I would say this one uh kind of separated the boys from being guided to being their own.

SPEAKER_03 43:07

Man.

SPEAKER_02 43:08

Yeah, it's it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03 43:09

That's a milestone.

SPEAKER_02 43:10

Yeah, pretty cool to see that. But uh anyway, heart of Texas a good place to go. You know, their their business is bow hunting whitales, and I don't tell I can't tell you how many we saw. Of course they don't have their antlers this time of year, but the way they run that place out there, and you would think it was overrun with pressure, but it's not. They make you park in this place and you have to walk in, and it's just like no gun hunting. That's why those deer just continue to flood in there.

SPEAKER_03 43:38

Right.

SPEAKER_02 43:39

Texas is a uh very special place. I used to tell people all the time, if I didn't have grandkids, that's where I'd be living.

SPEAKER_03 43:46

I love it. I love Texas.

SPEAKER_02 43:48

I used to say when I retire I was gonna be either a greeter at Walmart or a Winnebago test pilot. Now I tell everybody I'm gonna be the PR guy for Texas tourists, 'cause I'm talking about all that. And hey look, God bless Mississippi. I could not wait to get back home.

SPEAKER_04 44:03

Right.

SPEAKER_02 44:04

But it's fun to go out there and and stay in turkeys and hear 'em in the afternoon and have some respond 'cause you get back here to the real world and they just beat you to death.

SPEAKER_03 44:13

Ghost.

SPEAKER_02 44:14

Ghost.

SPEAKER_03 44:14

They're ghosts.

SPEAKER_02 44:15

They're absolute ghosts. So anyway, I was uh very proud of Cranky. And uh like I said, I got one comment guy like it must be nice. And I started to just say, you know what, it is because uh it's uh that's a very affordable hunt. We drove out there uh stayed in those little cabins and they got bedding and all that kind of stuff. It ain't you know the the Hilton to me is better. It's better. And there was a group out there, you remember Max Rowe, him and his partner had the TV show Just Killin' Time.

SPEAKER_05 44:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:50

He sent me a text, he said Hey, some of my buddies are gonna be out there while you're there. He had other hunters in camp.

SPEAKER_05 44:56

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 44:57

And they were all from Virginia the nicest bunch of guys you have ever been around.

SPEAKER_03 45:02

That always makes it more fun when there's like fun good people in camp.

SPEAKER_02 45:06

There, uh Tim, I don't have his car, Tim, I don't remember his last name, but he's a school teacher slash coach.

SPEAKER_03 45:12

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_02 45:13

And he was talking about me and I said, Dude, what you do for a living makes me humble. Yeah. And but they were turkey killers. They were done pretty quick, I can tell you that. They had a great time. We took pictures and I had three or four extra books and sign them all books. So that that trip right there will go down as uh maybe it's certainly in the top five for me anyway.

SPEAKER_03 45:38

Definitely in cranks, I can tell.

SPEAKER_02 45:40

Yep. So congratulations, my Texas run has come to an end, which is kinda sad.

SPEAKER_03 45:45

It is kinda sad.

SPEAKER_02 45:46

We always play a little game when we're going and coming. I was like, All right, whoever spots the last pine tree on the way home gets a milkshake. Whoever spots the first one, you know, the last one going out there, because if you get to a point you don't see any more pine trees, you know you're getting close.

SPEAKER_03 46:02

Right.

SPEAKER_02 46:02

And uh they uh they're kinda getting a little old for that. Everybody gets the difference in road trips now and back then is now everybody gets on their phone.

unknown 46:10

Right.

SPEAKER_04 46:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:10

And uh at some point I'd say, put them phones down, let's let's talk. What y'all want to talk about? So anyway, God bless Texas and uh a couple more big trips coming out and working on a couple of guests, but y'all seem to enjoy getting caught up. I could not resist talking to Cranky about his first actual independent. I did it all myself.

SPEAKER_03 46:33

That's special.

SPEAKER_02 46:35

Everybody remembers that.

SPEAKER_03 46:36

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 46:37

It's uh it's one thing to kill your first turkey, it's another thing to kill your first when you called up when you made all the decisions. And I asked your husband every thing, I said, how far how far y'all walk? He said, a long a bunch. He said he couldn't he didn't decide where he wanted to sit. Not enough cover in front, not enough cover on the right, because he he likes to sit down and get camouflage and he knows he wears that head net the whole time he's out. He knows how good Mossio works, he understands and when he finally picks his spot, you you he'll sit it up, he'll be there for a while. So apparently they've been paying attention.

SPEAKER_03 47:16

That makes me feel good.

SPEAKER_02 47:17

So good for them. Thank y'all for bearing with me. I wanted to hear Cranky give his rendition. I hadn't heard the whole thing myself, and I wanted to tell where y'all could hear it too, because a lot of you people have uh been following them since they were little bitty tiny fellows.

SPEAKER_03 47:32

Little bitty.

SPEAKER_02 47:33

Cranky killed us first one when he was six, I think.

SPEAKER_03 47:36

I think all of them started hunting when he was way younger than that. It just took him a long time.

SPEAKER_02 47:42

Yeah, he got hung up on the devil.

SPEAKER_03 47:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:44

So anyway, quite a quite an event. Wanted to share that with you. Uh big congratulations to Cranky. Thanks to uh Heart of Texas. Cranky and I both broke our new vest in from old time turkeys. And uh he loves his and I love mine, made a post about it, and I said it was hard to set that Dixon vest down, but I just felt like it was time and back to back had great hunts in it. I said, Okay, you have you have you're getting two thumbs up from me.

SPEAKER_03 48:13

Nice. You don't want you that other one needs to go up and like somebody said it should be in a shadow box, and I'm like, that's true. Like it's been through a lot, and you just don't want to run it into the absolute ground, and it had already been patched and repaired. It was uh it was a Franken vest, is what it was, because you just kept putting it back together and I'm like, he's got to give it up, he's got to find a replacement.

SPEAKER_02 48:36

You know, the first trip I took to Texas, I folded it up and put it in my duffel bag.

SPEAKER_03 48:41

Just in case.

SPEAKER_02 48:42

Just in case.

SPEAKER_03 48:43

I don't I that don't surprise me at all.

SPEAKER_02 48:46

Yeah, I took it with me that when I got back, I did take it out and I handed it to your mom. I said, put that up somewhere. So maybe we'll auction it off one day if it's worth something to somebody. But you're right, it was a Franken best. But hopefully this one will be half as lucky as that one was. So big thanks to uh Mossy Oak, Heart of Texas, everybody that took part in that. We're gonna uh I'm gonna here's one I Laureen's rocking and rolling, she's got a lot going on. I'm gonna make Ricky airdrop me all his video clips and I'm gonna work on a little video. I don't know how much he got, but at some point we're gonna post some of that stuff from out there so y'all can look at it too. Uh if you're dreaming about going to Texas, all I can tell you is pick up the phone.

SPEAKER_03 49:26

Pull the trigger.

SPEAKER_02 49:27

Pull the trigger, just like Cranky did and Walker and Matt did. So from me and Laureen out in the Camel Cave North, thank you for bearing with us of that. That that was a a little prideful, but I wanted to share that with you. So from Mossy Oak, Mossy Oak Properties, God bless each and every one of you.

SPEAKER_03 49:45

We'll see you in seven days.

SPEAKER_00 49:53

Your favorite place.