4-12-26 - Turkey Talk with Matt Fulkerson

Tonight's show was "Turkey Talk" with Matt Fulkerson, five-time NWTF turkey call making champion. We discussed the various types of turkey calls, their advantages under certain conditions. We also gave a forecast of this season's conditions, challenges and how to deal with them.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
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(01:25):
Jim Straighter outdoors right here on news Radio eight forty
w h as.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Good their body. Jim Straighter here, and we are talking
turkey tonight, Scott and I've got a fantastic guest find
up for you. His name is Matt Fulkerson, and Matt
is a five time National Wild Turkey Federation Turkey Callmaker Champion,

(01:52):
and he also happens to be a turkey killing machine,
pat Uh. Matt's one of those guys that likes to share.
He takes a lot of kids hunting, and he's hunted
a lot of states, and he's a very special guy.
Tonight as a callmaker, he's gonna go through the various

(02:13):
type of turkey calls and as he does so, we're
gonna discuss why certain calls are more effective. Some of
them people use for nostalgia, but you know, windy days,
turkeys that are shy. You know, we're gonna go through
all that, and then we're gonna spend a lot of

(02:34):
time telling you about current conditions. Matt and Scott have
been hunting a lot recently, and they're gonna tell you
what they're seeing because obviously the season is around the corner,
and so we got red hot on on the spot
information that we're gonna share with you tonight. So it's
gonna be an interesting show. Scott, I know you're you're

(02:56):
fired up about it because you have already harvested a
bunch of gobbler, and obviously so as Mad and it's
different out there. We're gonna talk about that at length.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah, man, anytime we can talk turkey and you know,
figure out what strategies we can use to not only
make ourselves more successful, but the folks that we take
a field with as is always good and you can
never stop learning about turkeys or deer any other species
that you chase. But seems like turkeys with the dynamics

(03:30):
of the numbers in the last few years, and there's
been a surge of people getting out and hunting public
lands become a lot more popular. Again, there's been some
changes and that's changing how.

Speaker 4 (03:42):
We have to hunt them.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
And one of the things that people put into a
priority of turkey hunting is turkey calling. And I'm interested
to hear some of Matt's advice tonight too, because sometimes
the best turkey call to use is no turkey.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
Call at all.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
And then you know, we've all got those bags of
turkey calls that we like. And sometimes the best callmakers
and the best callers will tell you that it's not
making noise that kills a lot of turkeys sometimes.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yes, sir, woodsmanship is always, in my estimation, the top
priority that separates the men from the boys in this
particular sport. I've never met anybody that I consider a
true killer that wasn't a fantastic woodsman before. They you know,
really relied on the call when to move, how to move,

(04:33):
all those things. And we're going to discuss all that tonight.
But I'm particularly interested in Scott. I know you've hunted
a lot, you've already harvested how many gobbles.

Speaker 3 (04:43):
Well, myself, I've just I've put the tag on two
with my name on them. I've taken a few other
hunters out during the U season that had some success,
and I've got to hunt with some friends and watch
them kind of do the old turkey dance, if you
know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (05:00):
But it's it's been good. I've hunted.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
I've hunted two days myself with a shotgun in hand,
and I've killed two turkeys.

Speaker 4 (05:08):
I killed one in Illinois with a really good group of.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
Friends, Dave Berry and Jim Dawson out of the Louisville area.
We went over to Carmia, Indiana and did some hunting
earlier this week, and then I was able to harvest
a turkey yesterday in a great state of Tennessee. And
to say things are ahead of schedule is an understatement.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
Cool and Matt, you've hunted Fort Knox and you took
several youths out and had called birds up for them
for successful hunts. So we're gonna go this day to
ze really tonight on turkey talk, and so sit back
and enjoy this as these are two veteran hunters, and
obviously I've been chasing these birds for longer than I

(05:55):
care today. But we'll be back right after this break.
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(06:16):
always treat you like a champion. Go see him and
remember you never get soaked by my friends at SMI Matt,
I bet with you when you were a little bitty feller,
as I recall, I think you were in the fourth grade.
You're I think I'm correct, forty two years old. Now, yep.
You won five NWTF Grand National call Making contests because

(06:41):
of your passion for the sport. And you grew up
around myself and Pat Cardon. A lot of people remember
Pat he was a regional director for the National Altturnkey
Federation for many many years. But he was also the
producer of My Honting and Fishing ex Bowl. And you
were a neighbor as a kid, you uh got to

(07:03):
hang around. Uh. You got to meet the national callers
like Mark Drury that came to Max Bowl, Harold Knight,
David Ale. UH shooting list goes on and on and uh,
Walter Parrott. Yeah, you know, I tried to integrate all
the uh uh Paul but Ye and you got to

(07:24):
hear all that, yep, and uh that led to you
becoming a turkey hunter pretty quickly.

Speaker 5 (07:32):
Yeah, I got the disease pretty pretty early on. You know,
I do contribute that to uh, you know, obviously Pat
Cardon Charlie Wooton also took me as a kid, but uh, yeah,
it was it was you know, being at your show, Jim,
you know, as a as a young lad and uh,
you know, being you know, just in awe of those people.

(07:54):
And you know, I think my wife can attest to this.
You know, I still have those old HS tapes of
watching the Herald and David and you know Mark Drury's
and you know, Walter Parrett and you know Paul Buttsky
and you know all of those callers that were just
gentlemens of the sport early on, and really, you know,

(08:15):
in my opinion, they put turkey hunting on the mat.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
Well, no question about it. Now. I know Scott's got
a question about you know, your career path and stuff.
Go ahead, Scott.

Speaker 3 (08:27):
Well, I think it's interesting because so many people start
off behind this call or that call they everybody tries
to perfect, you know, how to per how to yelp.
But something had to happen differently with you because instead
of this buying call, something drew you to build calls

(08:49):
and kind of create that special in So what happened, Matt,
that evolved in a process over time that made you
want to become more than just a turkey caller and
and turkey hunter and become a call builder.

Speaker 5 (09:05):
Yeah, I think I think I got to go back
to my childhood. It started with, you know, obviously, hunting
with Pat and UH, Pat had an old pens Wood's
true tone box call that you know, I still remember
UH and he still hunts with today and and you know,
to to say that call is killed its fair share

(09:26):
of birds is an understatement, but you know, so I've
always been attracted to uh a box call for for
for that particular reason. And you know, as it as
it as time grew on, you know, my my love
for the sport and and hunting turkeys, you know kind
of clashed with you know, me being just an entrepreneur

(09:50):
at heart and wanting to you know, make things with
my hands. And I was always just fascinated with you
know that you could take two pieces of wood would
and make something that mimics the wild turkey. And uh
I quickly, you know, started turning my attention toward you know,

(10:12):
specific custom call makers within that realm of style of
box you know. So the Pins Woods was a Turpen
style call made after you know, the originator, Tom Turpin,
back in the late twenties. And uh, you know, so
I was just always thought that that box call sounded

(10:36):
more like a hen turkey to my ear than anything else.
So as I gravitated you know, uh in I would
say my experience with turkey hunting.

Speaker 6 (10:47):
Uh, you know, I I started to.

Speaker 5 (10:52):
Lean heavily on how good can you make a box
call sound? And uh and you know that led me
to you know, reaching out to certain custom callmakers that
had an influence definitely in my journey to start trying
to make them myself. I made my first one back

(11:14):
in twenty sixteen, and it's been a long journey from now.
But you know, to answer the question in a short
it's it's a pursuit of sounding like a true hen.
That's something that my hands made. I've always been infatuated
with that and the gratification of you know, I've got

(11:39):
customers all over the all over the world, you know,
even internationally that now have you know, my boxes, and
the gratification that comes from their enjoyment and their success
really just put me in a hyperdrive to make it
as best as I could.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
In box calls out all that you may.

Speaker 5 (12:00):
No, So I've I've really leaned heavily into the box call.
I'm just I'm a perfectionist at heart. I love to
you know, figure something out, but definitely, you know, I've
I've made my share of UH air operated calls, which
is you know, a termed barrel trumpet calls.

Speaker 7 (12:20):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (12:21):
I've made a few Jordan Yepper's, uh, you know, Henry
Davis stall call with with hind bone mouthpieces, uh, and
some of those traditional uh styll air operated calls.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
And we're going to give you an opportunity to, yeah
to to do that, and Scott and I will chime
in and you know, kind of not critique, but put
an amen on on about how, when and where and uh.
That's gonna to me be a cool part of the
program because there's not only a lot of ways to

(12:54):
hunt her, because there's a lot of ways to call her. Okay, So, uh,
you've got a credo or a mantra that you operate
by and you you use use slate, you use you know,
aluminum calls, you use the wind bowl style, you use

(13:14):
the little bitty push pulls, you use all of that
and have and kill turkeys with all of them. But
I'd like you to share that that that saying you've
got because I think it's so cool.

Speaker 5 (13:26):
Well, regardless if you're a beginner, I think what's what's
so unique about the sport of turkey hunting is there's
an opportunity for everybody, regardless of the experience.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
That you have.

Speaker 5 (13:38):
And I tend to you know, there's a custom call
maker by the name of Zach Farmer, and mister Farmer
you know, as well known as probably one of the
best operated callers in my opinion ever, and he's blessed.

Speaker 6 (13:56):
So he's he's gone on. But he he said, you know,
a hein speaks when she needs to speak, and she says.

Speaker 5 (14:11):
What she says when she needs to say it, And that,
to me is what we are trying to mimic out
in the woods. And regardless of all of the all
of the different styles of calls that are at your
disposal here, and we're going to talk about air operated calls,

(14:33):
glass slate calls, box calls UH, and even locater calls UH.
And it's Scott mentioned earlier, you know, even no calls
at all. You know, what can you do with the
leaves on the ground? You know that is an effective uh,
just as an effective call that turkeys used to locate
one another as anything.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
So well, and that I just love that quote because
it's very illustrative. And Scott and I talked a lot
about the program tonight prior to as we always do
because we want to obviously hot to use a guest,
and we want to make sure we do the best
we can for the audience. And we talked a lot

(15:18):
about less is more, Scott chiming in here anyway you
care to. We talked about, you know, too many people
expect the best caller in the world. I'm not talking
about the best killer in the world, but the guy
can run a call. The best may not necessarily be
the guy that's going to harvest the bird, because it's

(15:39):
about when to say, how to say to your point
and that quote. So I'm really looking forward to to
discussing that as we go through these calls. You're going
to talk about it, Scott and I will chime in,
and I think it's going to be very very interesting
for the honesty here and again we're going to talk

(16:01):
a lot about how calling his need to change, how
you call, when you call, how much you call, has
changed tremendously in the last ten years because of hunting pressure.
But I personally think more importantly and I think both

(16:22):
of you will agree with me on the amount of
predator pressure that's on these birds. You know, we've talked
a lot about this used to be bird of gobble
on the roost, he'd hit the ground, he gobbles head
off and give you time to position and get in
and get on him, and Scott, you and I and
of course Matt's right there with us today. Scouting and

(16:45):
getting on that bird quick where he wants to be
is probably three times four times, maybe five more important
today than it used to be.

Speaker 3 (16:58):
And there's a lot of times that you don't want
that bird to gobble a whole lot, especially if you're
on public ground, so you can get him killed. The
better off you are, I mean, it takes you need
to be that nasily hen. You need to be that
really crisp and clear in you need to be the
squeaky hen, the raspy hen.

Speaker 4 (17:16):
You need to be the old jake sometimes and the gobbler.

Speaker 3 (17:19):
And man you can you can do so much from
wing beats, discratching on the ground to you know, different
types of surfaces and how you call. And I think
people don't understand how important turkey calling is.

Speaker 4 (17:37):
But it goes back to what you're saying. You got
to know what to say when to say it. If not,
you can cost yourself.

Speaker 3 (17:44):
From harvesting that birder, possibly even put that burden somebody
else's pickup truck to go home with them.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
Yes, sir, you know on this mordered era, I'm gonna
close with this before we go to break more than
ever what kills turkeys patient of course, witchcraft first, patient second,
and no one when to be quiet. And we're going
to discuss this in depth when we go through all this,
and again we're gonna talk a lot tonight back current

(18:13):
conditions and what we recommend in the season that's about
to happen, because things are different, all right. This break
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All right, Matt, let's dive in here. Let's talk about

(18:34):
box calls, and I want you to give us a
few notes and explain, you know, why you like them
so much. And there's different places and times and different
ways to run them. So take off, fair, big boy.

Speaker 5 (18:48):
I think I think a box call and one of
the reasons why I build the style of call that
I do, which I build two different styles. I build
a one with a handle on it that's called a hndbox,
you know, and then I build a non handled version,
which is just a Turpen style call. These calls are
separated by what are the traditional Neil calls design.

Speaker 6 (19:13):
Which is, you know, they've got a spring under the lid.
You know.

Speaker 5 (19:16):
Those are pretty much your your mass produced style call
these days. But these top these Turpin style boxes really
are super versatile. And one of the things that I
like is, you know, with these dollars a call, I
can work a bird all the way from the tree
limb with soft tree.

Speaker 6 (19:36):
Calls all the way to the gun, you know.

Speaker 5 (19:39):
Or I can go and locate a bird with them.
You know, I always try to pride myself into again
building a call that mimics the wild turkey. And again
we'll get into the hunting scenarios as it as as
we move along here. But you know, off of the limb,
you know, I like to give, you know, just very little,

(20:01):
and that's personal preference. A lot of people, you know,
they don't call to a bird on the limb. Some
people call a lot to a bird on the limb.
With my experience, I found that, you know, less is
more with a turkey.

Speaker 6 (20:14):
On the limb, let him know early on that, you know,
just maybe just a couple of soft clocks, maybe even
just a.

Speaker 5 (20:42):
And you know, a lot of the times he'll let
you know he heard you on the limb, and you know,
from that point, you know, I'm typically going to set
the call down, you know, and I'm not going to
engage with him very much. And to Scott's point, you know,
I hunt a lot of public land, you know, whether

(21:02):
it's in Kentucky or Indiana or even out through the
United States. And to his point to hunting public land,
if if if there's a if there's a gobbler gobbling,
everybody can hear it. It's just not only you that
can hear it. So, uh, I'll start with that, that's

(21:23):
say midday. You know, I want to ratchet up and
I'm wanting to reach that gobbler long far out or
use it as a locator called.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
You know.

Speaker 5 (21:32):
Then I'll start getting aggressive with some of the cutting here,
and this is one of my handle boxes.

Speaker 8 (21:38):
But uh, you know, and then I'll.

Speaker 5 (21:53):
Oh and he'll you know, he'll let you know he.

Speaker 6 (21:58):
Heard it, you know.

Speaker 5 (21:59):
So I make a box call. But again, there's no
such thing as a perfect call. You know, that's gonna
work every single time that you hit the woods, you know,
And that's just my opinion.

Speaker 2 (22:12):
But well, and there's other styles about and to talk
about that a little bit and run them for.

Speaker 5 (22:21):
So I also make a this is a non handled version,
you know that. You know, typically I try to I
try to get you know, a distinct rollover in a
box call, you know, one that's got you know what
I call three notes to it. You know, it's got
that high front end like you hear in a wild turkey.

(22:59):
You know, this call is a little bit higher pitched, yes,
than than you know, you're my handled version. Uh And
and again you know that can play to your advantage
in a windy day or you know, up in the
afternoon when sound's not carrying as far, you know, So again,
it just gives you another tool in.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
Your tool belt there, yes, sir.

Speaker 6 (23:21):
And then uh, I brought a good friend of mine.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (23:25):
This is a call style box you know, they're typically
you know, going to be higher pitched to more shrill.

Speaker 6 (23:33):
And again you know it has its advantages, you know, but.

Speaker 2 (23:51):
That's pretty sweet.

Speaker 5 (23:52):
Yeah, So again, you know, I like I like a
box call for the realism. I like a box call
because you know, you can introduce We talk a lot
about cadence in a in a hen in there, yell,
I think cadence kills turkeys, yes, sir.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
You know.

Speaker 5 (24:12):
And and a box call allows you to really nail
down a cadence. And and oftentimes Scott, I know you've
probably done this too. Is you'll get into a war
with a hen, you know, and I'll try to mimic
her cadence back to her.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
That's where a box call.

Speaker 5 (24:28):
And and and really start to just match her match
her cadence step first step you know she's.

Speaker 6 (24:36):
Cutting, you know, matching her cutting her clucks and and
a box call just allows you to really, uh, you know,
engage in that scott.

Speaker 2 (24:46):
You're a big box call fan, give us your thoughts there.

Speaker 3 (24:50):
It's a whole nother gear in turkey hunting once you
realize that you're not going to bring the gobbler to
you until you bring his hens to you. And everybody's
looking for that lonely two year old bird.

Speaker 4 (25:07):
Everybody's looking for that hot gobbler.

Speaker 3 (25:09):
But most of the time, most of the time more
days and not more hours and not that you can
hunt gobblers are going to be occupied with hens. So
when you really get into turkey vocalization, if you'll ever
watch turkeys, especially in the fall, even if you're not

(25:31):
a fall turkey hunter, if you're a deer hunter, that
hen that will control the flock will be the one
that's that squeaky, nasty box call sound. And as you
travel and you start hunting different species of birds, and

(25:51):
you start hunting in different terrains, I mean, different turkeys
have different feathering, different colors, different gestures, but they have
a different sound. And I remember being a kid and
listening to copper calls are certain box calls, thinking like
that sounds horrible because It didn't sound anything at all

(26:13):
like those names you mentioned at the beginning of the show.
It didn't sound like the Grand National calling champions. But man,
when you get out and you get hunting, I realized
when I started going out west, like that's why high
pitch matters, because those birds are having to cut through
wind all the time, this not every once in a while.
And that's why someone buys a copper call, because they

(26:36):
hunting Wyoming or Montana all the time. Where you would
think I would never use that at Fort Knox, I
would never use that. It land between the Lakes, I
would never use that. In the Who's Your National Force?
I've never heard a hin sound like that. But when
you start to control the emotion of that hen and
and it boils down to this, you're either gonna make

(26:56):
them feel comfortable and they're gonna come your way, or
you're going to basically piss them off. And if you
can do one of those two things, and if you
can visually see birds, why you call to them.

Speaker 4 (27:12):
That's to your advantage too.

Speaker 3 (27:14):
A lot of times people are talking about always setting
up with the terrain to where it's like hide to
hent or you know, the bird can't find you until
you know it's in range.

Speaker 4 (27:24):
That's all fine and good sometimes, but sometimes.

Speaker 3 (27:26):
You've got to watch and get the visual of those
birds too. And you can tell by the speed and
the rhythm and the cadence of the natural birds whether
they're in that fired up, you know, passionate position, that
they're coming to you out of aggression, or whether or
not those birds are coming to you and comfort to

(27:46):
feed and mingle and socialize. And it's very important too
as you start to learn these box calls and you
hear this rasp and you hear this pitch, it's very
important onunderstand how how much more now in the last
few years, gobblers are yelping and Jake's are yelping in

(28:12):
the group of birds. And a lot of times people
may hear a yelp, but they maybe don't They don't
know that distinctness, that rough, longer drawl of sound. And
so that box call can give you a lot of
that too. And I think a lot of times, believe
it or not, when people call really slow on a
box call, like it's almost painful to listen to them.
I don't think people realize how much that sounds like

(28:34):
a gobbler yelp. And I think there's a lot of
people that think that they're yelping like a hen, but
at the same time they're not.

Speaker 4 (28:41):
They're actually sounding like a gobbler.

Speaker 3 (28:42):
And I think that's where the folks when you hear
them talk about where they were sitting in the woods
and they were reading the directions why they were calling
the turkey up with a box call, and they made
like three you know, drawn out notes it. They thought
they were hen yemping, but what they were really doing
was that ya, yeah, yeah, that oh gallery up and
that that's that's what pulled the bird to him.

Speaker 4 (29:03):
So you just need to know know your language.

Speaker 3 (29:06):
And but that box calls so versatile and and yeah,
I'm a firm.

Speaker 5 (29:13):
Believer and put and putting emotion into your calling. You know,
a hen doesn't sound the same every time she yelps.
I mean, a hen turkey has you know, a contempt
you know, uh, you know, when she's just out milling around,
you know she's she's.

Speaker 6 (29:38):
Just and then you know, and then a challenge all
sounds like you know, she'll start cutting, like excited hand cutting,
and then.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
You know, yes, sir, well those are those are the
really really good examples of the box call situation. All right,
I'm gonna take a quick break. Here break is presented
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(30:27):
help you tremendously with putting electronics on and teaching you
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Let's move on to friction calls, which there's a lot
of them, and they're in many ways some of the
easiest to use. My goodness, are they deadly?

Speaker 5 (30:49):
I use them a tone, So yeah, I think, uh,
you know, everybody has the opportunity and this is where
you know, I think, you know, for a beginner and
even all the way up to an experience.

Speaker 6 (31:02):
I mean, I know, some of the best turkey hunters in.

Speaker 5 (31:04):
The in the country that you know, their friction pot calls.
Uh that's exclusively what they use, you know. But there's
different styles of to the to the friction stuff type
pot calls.

Speaker 2 (31:17):
You know.

Speaker 5 (31:18):
One of my favorites is, you know, if you get
a bird that's hung up, you know, let's say, or
even just in the middle of the day.

Speaker 6 (31:25):
You know, you know you're in an area where there's turkeys.

Speaker 5 (31:29):
You know, I like to go to a slate call,
you know, and and and a content hen. Again, this
is this is the art of mimicking a live hen turkey.
So we're trying to we're trying to convince the gobbler
that hey, I'm over here, I'm content, I'm over here feeding,
you know.

Speaker 8 (31:48):
And uh so this is a slate call.

Speaker 6 (32:11):
But that hen, that hen is content, she's she's there feeding.

Speaker 2 (32:23):
You did sweet talking what I call sweet talking.

Speaker 6 (32:32):
So that's what they that's a that's a slate call,
what they call pur pot.

Speaker 2 (32:37):
You know.

Speaker 5 (32:38):
Generally, you know, if you get a bird that's hung
up eighty yards from you, he's not budgeting. You know,
he's not tolerating a lot of calls. He's not gobbling
at you. You know that right there is a very
effective strategy with scratching in the leaves for him to
close the distance.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
Yes, and Scott, I know you're keen on that. That's
scratching and leaves together with that soft callumn is is deadly,
especially in ares where turkeys are pressure because it's their
day to day You know audio way of connecting with
that one and now run this other one.

Speaker 5 (33:16):
So this is a glass call. Obviously it higher pitched,
much much louder in volume. Again going back to the
box call scenario. You know, I'm using a glass call,
middle of the day, high winds, whatever it is.

Speaker 6 (33:30):
This sound is going to carry so much further, much

(33:52):
more shrill, much more aggressive.

Speaker 5 (33:56):
You're gonna cut through the wind and cut through the
middle of the day a lot of times.

Speaker 6 (34:02):
Tone it's got that, it's got that double.

Speaker 5 (34:05):
Tone and a lot of times you know he won't
answer nothing else but that in the middle of the
day or in a high wind scenario. So that's a
that's a very effective uh pop call too. And again
these calls are user friendly. You know you can pick
them up and with a little bit of practice, you

(34:26):
know you can you can be effective with them.

Speaker 2 (34:31):
How about the middle side of that scenario.

Speaker 5 (34:35):
So this is an aluminum call, and again just a
different pitch, much more rasping.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
But again it can h and I was like to say,
both of those hurt my ears. Yeah, but they're effective, Scott,

(35:08):
I know you rely on on them a lot.

Speaker 4 (35:12):
I'm a big anadized aluminum guy.

Speaker 3 (35:14):
In the last few years for a lot of different reasons.

Speaker 4 (35:20):
One of the things that you.

Speaker 3 (35:22):
Need to remember when you have somebody like Matt and
to give him some credibility. Let's not take away from
the legends, right, Let's talk about a couple of Kentucky boys.
How many old Yeller calls have killed turkeys? A bunch,
but how many old yeller calls have been heard on Taylorsville, WMA.

Speaker 4 (35:43):
How many hs struck?

Speaker 3 (35:45):
How many hs strut outhitters have been blown from a
fiberglass or an aluminum boat out on the middle of
a lake trying to hunt the core redline.

Speaker 4 (35:56):
It's about being a little different.

Speaker 3 (35:59):
And these turkeys kind of have their pecking order, and
you know, you're not just firing up that turkey, You're
you're you're possibly firing up the gobbler or the girlfriend. Uh,
maybe you're firing up the young guy, the jake. Because
when we talk about getting these birds fired up, whether

(36:20):
it's off the roost and they're starting their day the
middle of the day, up in the day, there's different
age structures and different genders. There's ways to strike up conversation.
And you may walk into a bar and you may
have a totally different conversation. And if you walk up
and talk to a group of people, let's say in

(36:42):
a nursing home or at the bowling alley, and that's
what your turkey call needs to be doing. You're you're
keeping all of those calls in your vests and all
those different sounds, because we sometimes will get too dependent
on the calls that workforce for so many years, and
we go to them too often, and sometimes we were

(37:02):
too dependent on them.

Speaker 4 (37:03):
And it's it's hearing that new sound that can kind
of throw that turkey a twist.

Speaker 3 (37:07):
That's why it's always good to take a buddy with
you on your farm after you've been chasing the bird
for tier three days and let him call. I think
even if he's a bad callers, he'll sound down, you know.

Speaker 2 (37:19):
Yeah, well there's a lot of truth to that. It's different.
It worked, Yes, sir, Yes, sir, absolutely, all right, we're
gonna go to break folks and you're coming back. We're
gonna around out the type of calls. We're gonna talk
about locator calls now they work and why, and then
we're gonna give you a ton of information about where
we're at now, moving into the season and some of

(37:42):
the variations that honestly peculiarities about where we're at. You know,
birds have changed, the weather's weird, We've got a lot
of foliage. There's all kinds of things we're gonna share
with you, all right. Going to break is presented by
this and my marine. Remember we never get soaked by
my friends. It has some all right, Matt, We've talked

(38:03):
about several types. Let's go with the one that honestly
for the beginners. But there's a lot of people like
David Hale. I've watched David Hale kill dozens and dozens
of cobblers, but he's put probably hundreds in the grave
with a push pull. Yep. Why he's the guy that

(38:25):
loves to get in tight. He's a very aggressive hunter
and o my.

Speaker 6 (38:32):
Very very effective, very easy to use.

Speaker 5 (38:38):
You know, these push pulls I've seen like you, like
you said, I mean, David Hale, this is.

Speaker 6 (38:45):
All he would run. I mean time.

Speaker 5 (38:50):
But for a kid to get him introduced to calling,
I don't know of a better a better tool than
their in their arsenal to get them started. But it
does everything to mimic a hen.

Speaker 9 (39:02):
Turkey and It's.

Speaker 2 (39:17):
Limitation is volume. Yep. You know on a windy day,
you're pretty well, you know, at a situation where you're
not going to reach out and touch one somewhere, you're
not going to and you turkey or out at three
hundred yards, my boy, early in the morning, or you
gotta you know, you close in on a dribble on
a roost. There, they're prop deadly. I mean they really

(39:40):
truly are. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (39:41):
And David always used to say, you know, he would
run his palm on the top and you know that
allows you a little bit more control. But if you
come down here at the bottom to increase the volume,
you know he'll he'll take it and he'll kind of
torque it a little bit on the sound on the
soundboard and here you know it'll it'll amp it up

(40:08):
a little bit.

Speaker 2 (40:09):
Yes, absolutely, all right, let's move on to one of
my favorite I call him winging bone and style calls.
But you've got a different term.

Speaker 5 (40:17):
So probably the oldest air operated calls. Air operated calls
have gained popularity over the last five years, but the
fact of the matter is air operated calls have been
around longer than anything else. Uh, The Indians, Americans, used
back in the back in the day, they would take.

Speaker 2 (40:38):
And I don't a guy that uses a lot, and
I'm looking at him. One of my favorites. Definitely affected.
And I want to add in something here. If you
get good at it, it's got you. And I discuss
this a lot. Turkeys don't hear this much. You know,
they hear diaphragms a lot, but the stout calls, they

(41:01):
don't hear them a lot. They've got a different sound,
a different.

Speaker 9 (41:06):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (41:08):
Describe them.

Speaker 4 (41:10):
It's I'll tell you how to describe it.

Speaker 3 (41:12):
If if you watch YouTube and you watch humans blow
turkey calls and run turkey calls, then you're gonna sound like.

Speaker 4 (41:19):
A turkey call.

Speaker 3 (41:20):
If you get out into the woods and pay attention
and listen, turkey sound like turkeys.

Speaker 4 (41:27):
They don't sound like humans running turkey calls.

Speaker 6 (41:31):
And that's a good point.

Speaker 5 (41:34):
I like an air operated call just because of the
you know, the tone, and again the goal here's to
mimic a while turkey. Yeah, each call is going to
give its own realism to what that sounds like.

Speaker 6 (41:46):
But definitely, you know, as.

Speaker 5 (41:49):
It as versatile as all of these calls are, uh,
an air operated call can be super versatile as well.
I'll give you a little demonstration here, h you know,

(42:22):
so very versatile. You can amp it up, you can
get excited with it and excited clocks.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
And then you know, the thing comes to my mind
hearing you run that it's got to jump in here.
It sounds so much like a turkey. But it's a
totally different total carrying capacity and or weakness than the
other types of calls in a certain days where changing

(43:05):
it up comes into play, and I much bound upon that,
and I say it, but Scott, uh, your thoughts about
those those type of calls.

Speaker 4 (43:15):
I think it's natural.

Speaker 3 (43:16):
I think I think when you listen to turkeys that
it's easier to say, well, that hen sounds like a
wing bone, or that that that hen sounds like a
little bit of a slate, or that hen sounds like
a box call. Like very rarely do I ever sit
there and say, well that that that sounds like a

(43:39):
a three and a half read, you know, tombot, you know,
or and and and something too. To give credibility of
what Matt's doing. Matt is a craftsman. He's an artist,
and he's he's mimicking turkeys, and he is taking a
piece of wood or a piece of slate or glass,

(44:02):
and he's that's a custom call, that it's one call
that he's making.

Speaker 4 (44:08):
And you've got to.

Speaker 3 (44:10):
Remember, turkey call companies are in business and they have
latex and a frame and a piece of tape, and
just understand that that call costs less than a dollar
to make, and it sells for eight ninety nine to
fifteen dollars on the shelf, and so so so so

(44:32):
profit margins. YouTube videos are going to be full of
diaphragm calls. And and let's just go ahead and say it.
When you listen to the Grand National Champions on stage
and they're running a ghost cutter, they're running pro for
whatever it is as far as their material, they are

(44:53):
a turkey.

Speaker 4 (44:55):
But when you're standing and I'm just I'm just gonna
I'm going to talk.

Speaker 3 (44:59):
About four Fort Knox a little bit because you talked
about hunting there at the beginning of the show. You
shouldn't be seven hundred and eighty two yards away from
another hunter on Fort Knox and be able to tell
that his box call has got smoke coming off of it.
It's running so hard, and you shouldn't be able to

(45:21):
tell that somebody needs an oxygen tank because they're cutting
and you open on their diaphragm so hard like you
have leaves, you have soil, you have humidity that changes.
You have all that hard and soft mass that's in
the forest. You have an open field, you have some
fields that have.

Speaker 4 (45:41):
A lot of vegetation. You have haulers, you have rocks.

Speaker 3 (45:45):
Acoustics is the word that you're looking for there, Jim.
You're trying to find the acoustics of a turkey. And
when you start putting.

Speaker 4 (45:53):
Together that wingbone and that box.

Speaker 3 (45:55):
Call that when you can put acoustic sounds with cadence.
Now you're in the game with turkeys. And it doesn't
take making a bird flop in the middle of the
hardwoods or on the in the back.

Speaker 4 (46:11):
Of a corner of a field.

Speaker 3 (46:13):
Sometimes just getting the work birds is a very satisfactory hunt.
And when that timber is shaken from a bird gobblin
and that's spitting and drummings going on, and all you
need is just another five yards or just a bird
to crest over, and you don't kill those turkeys. The
calling game is some of the best hunts that I've

(46:36):
ever had with birds.

Speaker 4 (46:37):
That never made it back to the truck with me.
And when you can get in there.

Speaker 3 (46:43):
And I've always been a firm believer that when a
hen starts talking in the woods versus meat is dry calling.
I feel like I'm a better caller because I hear
that wet, nasty, nasal.

Speaker 4 (46:57):
Clarity out of that hen.

Speaker 3 (46:59):
And that's when I'm sitting there, grinding into that tree,
just being like, you're not gonna beat me, old girl,
and I'm gonna make you. I'm gonna make you look
so bad because I'm always gonna be I'm just gonna
get that.

Speaker 4 (47:14):
One more note than what she gets.

Speaker 3 (47:16):
I'm gonna get that last word in on her every
single time. And I want to be as nasty and
gnarly and naisily as I can be, just like her.
And when you have those turkey calls in your vest
or your pouch and you can mimic how they sound
in one of them, by god, it don't take long

(47:38):
to know what that means. Being around one woman and
another woman. One's trying to out talk to the other one,
she's gonna come over and take a look. And the
gobbler likes it too, because, let's face it, we're hunting
birds in the middle of a social season where reproduction
is occurring. So you're trying to be the sexier girl
in the woods, you know.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
And I'll tell you something Harold Knight taught me. This
mix it up in other words, sound like two hens,
three hens. And to do that you need different calls.
In other words, I'll tell you what I do a lot.
I run a slate and then I run a diephram.
I'll run a box call, and then I'll run a

(48:21):
slate because that tells that gobbler oe there's a party
going on, and I need to be over there because
they want to be where the girls are.

Speaker 3 (48:33):
And before we go into that break, you can call
to the point where you actually push hens away from
you and they'll carry you the gobbler. And the next
day you may call to that same group of hands
and bring them to you.

Speaker 4 (48:45):
So you need you need to know.

Speaker 3 (48:47):
How to read them, whether you can hear them talking
back to you. You need to be able to know too,
that you can control whether or not you're creating a
good exchange of language, because you can.

Speaker 4 (49:00):
A turkey call can work against you.

Speaker 3 (49:02):
A hen will be competitive and drag her gobbler off
on you just as much as sometimes he will come
to you or she will bring him to you.

Speaker 2 (49:11):
And that's where you're going to school, yep, because they're
gonna teach you that day. You will learn something when
they beat you. That's the best turkey hunt of all, honestly,
because that's where you sharpen your skills a little bit.
All right, gotta go break. The break is presented by
it SMI Marine. I promise you, folks, you take your
boat over there. You got problems, that will figure it out.

(49:33):
They're great at putting electronics on your boat, showing you
how to use them. You want to learn about front
facing sonar, they're the guys to do it. And they
have used boats and used boats for sayingem. So go
see him and remember you never just sopd by my
friends at SMI. All right, gentlemen, we talked about calls

(50:01):
and different conditions where they're effective. Let's move on to
what's happening and what I like to hear. And now,
because things are really weird different, I think I'll start
off with what I think is most important is changes
in Turkey behavior. And this is a free for all, Okay.

(50:23):
In other words, Scott and Matt, you'll you'll dive in.

Speaker 4 (50:28):
But I would like to be dominant takeover on this far.
My average hunting.

Speaker 3 (50:39):
On a ten year average, I average hunting twelve states
a year in the spring, and everywhere you go. It's
more consistent that bird your goblin, less than ever before.
Gobblers are running together in pairs and groups. Jake groups

(51:01):
and gobblers are pretty common. It's really common to have
a lot of jake interference these days. It is easier
now to kill turkeys than ever before without calling. It's
called trail cameras, decoys, blinds. We're killing a lot of
turkeys on new methods. That's a topic, and that's a

(51:24):
conversation and a whole road radio program for another day.

Speaker 4 (51:29):
But it's hard. I've worn them all.

Speaker 3 (51:32):
I wear lacrosse, i wear crispies. I've worn lace up
boots and rubber boots. I've covered swamps and ridges, bottoms,
public land, private land. Striking birds is harder than it's
ever been. Getting birds too, fire off on their own
is harder than it's ever been. Temperatures ninety degrees this
coming Friday, hot weather, hot springs, delayed seasons, you name

(51:59):
it predators, hunting pressure, the setback, the changing the pecking order,
the dynamics of turkeys. It's very rare for me to
cover hundreds of miles, thousands of miles on my feet,
on my feet.

Speaker 4 (52:19):
It's rare to find hot turkeys anymore.

Speaker 3 (52:22):
It's hard to find birds to work to a call.
Scouting is more important than ever before. Nothing against Matt
and what he does. I carry less turkey calls in
my vests than I ever had before because I have
to travel lighter, I have to find birds that are
visual on fields. Those are easier turkeys to kill, especially

(52:42):
with youth. Decoys are much more effective. Blinds are important
because you have to sit and wait a lot of
times in places that don't have good cover, and you
don't know really which direction to birds are going to
come from. You kind of got to wait a mint out.
A lot of people have talked about deer hunting turkeys.

(53:03):
That's because turkeys make us deer hunt them more now
than ever before. That's what is so good about these
LBL hunts and the Fort Knox and the Fort Campbell's.
And because there's acres that we can travel on. I
don't have many farms that are four and five and
six hundred acres that I hunt by myself, that I
could just.

Speaker 4 (53:23):
Go through and blow up with a box. Callar diaphragm call.
So yes, this is a huge soapbox for me.

Speaker 3 (53:30):
There are people that I know that listen to our
show that are phenomenal turkey hunters. But things aren't the same.
In Nebraska they're not the same. In Texas they're not
the same. And a lot of other places birds are
still really active. Bird populations are really growing, and there's
pockets I hear about Breckenridge County and all of these

(53:51):
places that just got great bird numbers that man here
in western Kentucky and different parts of Indiana and.

Speaker 4 (53:58):
Tennessee where they're not birds.

Speaker 3 (54:01):
You don't hear birds and they and they do not gobble,
and they don't get fired up.

Speaker 4 (54:07):
Yeah, you can push and go and go and go
and go. But yeah, I took over. I was dominant.
But I wish turkeys would gobble like they used to.

Speaker 3 (54:15):
That things were better in the past as far as
a turkey hunter when it comes to gobbling.

Speaker 4 (54:20):
And I'll shut up.

Speaker 6 (54:22):
Well, I'll say this.

Speaker 5 (54:24):
I was talking to Gym kind of off break and
the Turkey's got three priorities, and in this order, they
need to stay alive. First of all, they've got to eat,
and they've got to reproduce. And the way in which
they do those three things has certainly changed over time,

(54:46):
whether it's from habitat, whether it's from increased predation, whether
it's from you know, the impacts to you Brewed habitat
and their diets. You know that has changed. And ultimately
it goes to what you just said, Scott, which is

(55:06):
the way in which they navigate their day and do
all of those three things has ultimately changed. You know,
with the increased of predation, you know, they're not gonna gobble.

Speaker 6 (55:19):
As much, you must say, leaves the roofs.

Speaker 2 (55:22):
They they realized that they will continue to evolve this
way by opinion, with the competitors we got on the
ground to understand that you gobble, somebody's gonna try to
kill you. You know, you let that joker know that
there's meat on the table. Yeah so, and well you
don't round that out a little bit. Coming back from

(55:42):
the break here, this break is presented by s in
my Marine Tim Addington, with staff experts and everything from
troubleshooting your boat to put the electronics on it, or
selling you a boat to suit your specific needs. Remember
you never gets hoped by my friends had sked? Am
I all right, gentlemen, this year is going to be different, Matt.

Speaker 5 (56:07):
What do you see it after well, after being in
the woods the last few weekends. And I've said this
to several people, it's been a long time since I
can remember seeing a dogwood blooming at the end of March.

Speaker 2 (56:22):
Let me tell you something. In all my years, in
my decades, I'm in my seventies, I don't think I've
ever seen it. Yeah, it's and here's the weird part.
The red buds of dogwoods were only about four or
five days apart, and they're normally two or three weeks apart.

Speaker 6 (56:40):
You go ahead, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 5 (56:42):
And you know what that's what that's lended itself to
is you know, you've got the foliage of late April
early May out there in the woods right now, and
definitely as the breeding process, you know, has has taken on.
You know, you've got you've got single hens already sitting
on a nest and you know, so the.

Speaker 6 (57:04):
So the gobblers are full breeding right now.

Speaker 5 (57:07):
I mean and the hens, you know, they're they're sitting
on the nest and you know, coming out and you know.

Speaker 6 (57:14):
Getting bread middle of the day, just you know, like
you would at the end of the season. So I
think you know right now what you can expect in
terms of the woods is I mean, you've got a
lot of foliage out there, which is definitely going to
change the game in terms of how a gobbler navigates
his day, uh, and even you know what he declares

(57:36):
as his particular area, and and you know in mating zones.
So I mean, I've I've seen already them changing roosting spots.

Speaker 2 (57:47):
I was going to say, used to be, you know,
a big seed or pam would be roosted early in
the year, but now they can fly up at any
big old heart would tree and be as secure and
feel comfortable as they normally liter early in this season.

Speaker 5 (58:01):
Absolutely, in terms of goblin activity, I've seen in you know,
some sporadic gobbling. You know, they're gobbling on the limb
early in the morning, not giving you a ton uh,
and they're flying down and they're shutting up. So that's
been my experience over the last few days hunting and uh,

(58:23):
you know it's it's still pretty typical for a turkey
to fire back up. They're killable right now. You know,
they're definitely vulnerable, but you definitely gotta You're gonna have
to change your initial tactics, you know, over the last
few years.

Speaker 6 (58:40):
To be successful.

Speaker 2 (58:41):
Well, I cannot over emphasize how in this modern era
of predation on these birds and what they've learned about
colt and bobcat numbers and couts. You know, they've been
around a while, but they're they're increasing. But the number
of bobcats is believable. It is. It's stupid, and these

(59:03):
game officials need to pay attention to that. There's too
much attention being paid to predators instead of the game
animals that pay the bills. I know that's in a side,
but I think it's appropriate to say it. So what
I'm getting at is a gobbler and the evolution of gobblers.

(59:25):
Going forward, we're going to be like Florida. I'll give
Florida's example. Scott, you'll chime in here, and I know
you will. Man, those Florida gobblers they know better. They
go belong the roost and then when they fly down
they're pretty hush mouth because there was too many bobcats

(59:45):
and here we got lots of bobcats and couch So
what I guess what I'm saying is it's more important
than ever. And Scott, you mentioned earlier scout norway birds roostered,
nor where they go when they fly out, and getting
close and tight as best you can, And this year

(01:00:09):
with the poliage, you could do that real easy.

Speaker 6 (01:00:12):
Yeah, I go back to previous years.

Speaker 5 (01:00:15):
You know, a gobbler is very intentional about going through
his day. Remember the priorities I just spoke about. He's
got to stay alive, he has to eat, and he
has to breed.

Speaker 6 (01:00:27):
Right now, he's doing those three things the best that
he can, and the latter part of that where he's
he has to breed. Right now, we're seeing him very intentional,
and this is where scouting comes in. He's very intentional
where he's going to be, why he's.

Speaker 5 (01:00:44):
Going to be there, and what he's going to be doing,
whether it's those three things. So if scouting is super
effective right now, you've got to lay eyes and know
exactly what they're doing and why they're doing it, whether
it's going to food, whether it's going to a certain
space and place where he can watch and breathe, and

(01:01:05):
that's where his hens, you know, are nesting in that area.
They've got the appropriate habitat to do all of those things.

Speaker 2 (01:01:13):
Well. Situations like this, I cannot over emphasize the importance
where those hens go to feed yep after that early
morning ritual, because in many cases that's where the killing
can be done.

Speaker 4 (01:01:29):
Let's talk about some killing real click.

Speaker 3 (01:01:31):
Let's talk about conditions and not look at what the
latest edition is and outdoor Life where it's just free
formatted print number one.

Speaker 4 (01:01:39):
We're hot.

Speaker 3 (01:01:41):
We're looking at possibly getting up around ninety degrees on
Friday before our opener in Kentucky, which is the eighteenth.
We're opening later than normal anyway, We're opening the latest
that our season can.

Speaker 4 (01:01:54):
We've got an.

Speaker 3 (01:01:54):
Early clot spring on top of it, we're in early summer.
Conditions is gone, so we just need to recognize that
our wind is changing. We have more wind than ever before.
We have high wind conditions coming for Saturday. We have
quite a bit of rain into the first week of
Turkey season. Agriculture is well ahead of schedule and these

(01:02:17):
fields have been sprayed and planted a lot of ground
that was traditional. No till has been disc up. There's
more acres of ground turned over. Folks are going to
be cutting hay before Memorial Day weekend.

Speaker 4 (01:02:31):
Promise you this will happen.

Speaker 3 (01:02:33):
Hay is to the point where, if the conditions get
right after this next little wet pattern, hay will be
on the ground for the quality of Hey.

Speaker 4 (01:02:43):
Bugs are up.

Speaker 3 (01:02:44):
And out, mosquitos, any type of wasp activity.

Speaker 4 (01:02:50):
Be prepared to have hydration. It's hot walking. Be prepared
to sit.

Speaker 3 (01:02:55):
Down and not be able to see what you used
to see. Think about if you use decoys that you
use a decoy with maybe a little higher stake, or
use a ground bline so that you can get elevated,
especially if you're hunting with older people or kids, because
the vegetation is real. Now, what are some other things
that are going to help us with this season? The

(01:03:18):
fact of the matter is, I have been in southern
Indiana where lone hens are traveling to the nest. I
have scouted in Indiana where hens are traveling to the nest.
I bumped hens off the nest in Tennessee this morning,
walking out, you're going to find some birds that are lonely.

Speaker 4 (01:03:42):
Stick with them, don't leave them.

Speaker 3 (01:03:45):
Nine o'clock ten o'clock is going to be really productive.
Pay attention to your weather forecast and plan your hunting,
and you're scouting together. Make sure that you realize go
back to those old fashioned things of like, hey, if
it's on the rain, birds are probably going to get
out into the area, capitalize on thunderstorms that are going

(01:04:05):
to be coming, and birds shot goblin to that thunder.
But you need to make sure that you realize and
understand that this heat wave and this.

Speaker 4 (01:04:15):
Drought, we are in a drought. Don't think that we're not.
We're in a drought.

Speaker 3 (01:04:20):
So a lot of areas that birds tend to typically
roost over creeks or water, it's not there. And so
these birds have changed not just off of the vegetation,
but based off of that security and that factor. When
these temperatures get above sixty five degrees and they start
creeping up into seventy five and eighty and eighty five

(01:04:43):
and close to ninety, you need to know the shady
spots of the field.

Speaker 4 (01:04:49):
You need to know the creek bottoms that are cooler.

Speaker 7 (01:04:51):
You need to know what fields have high vegetation, because
those birds will tend to stay off that higher vegetation
until that dew burns off from that sun.

Speaker 4 (01:05:05):
So pay attention to the.

Speaker 3 (01:05:08):
Routes that these birds are taking. Birds are making big
loops or making big swings.

Speaker 4 (01:05:13):
I don't care how good your habitat is. Right now.
There's a lot to forage on.

Speaker 3 (01:05:18):
There's a lot of insects, there's a lot of seedhead,
there's a lot of good quality forbs out there. And
these turkeys, these hens are walking and buddy, they're not stopping.
It's not uncommon right now for three or four farmers
or farms to be sharing the same flock of turkeys.

Speaker 2 (01:05:37):
Yes, sir, I've not seen evidence that they're actually incubating
eggs yet, but they're definitely going in in laying eggs,
which they do over a period of time before they
sit on that clutch, so that all those poults come
off that nest at the same time. But to your point,

(01:05:59):
they are there in that latter stage of that process,
and folks tend to get a little bit disappointed about that,
but you know what that does. It's still a time
of year deal, and those gobblers are fired up, you know,
they're they're ready to breed, and the lack of breeding

(01:06:23):
hens that come to them creates a situation where if
you know where to be, especially like mind morning later
in the day, they're vulnerable. And that's one thing I
want to point out, because let's face it, they're like
any other critter. They're like a buck deer. I put
it this way up towards Thanksgiving, where most of those

(01:06:45):
are bread they're not interested anymore. But boy, they're gonna
ramble and they're not gonna talk much. You know, we
talked a lot about that tonight. But they're they're vulnerable.
So this is where you need to adjust your tactics
and understand. And that's where scouting, scouting and woodsmanship comes
so important. You know, it used to be that was

(01:07:09):
one of my number one priorities going forward because I've
always been a steward of how creators operate. But as
we move forward through this process where there's extra hunting pressure,
there's predator pressure, everything starts to point towards how important

(01:07:29):
it is to understand in your area, on your honting ground,
where they're going to roost, what they're gonna do if
they come off the roost and how long they're going
to stay there and where they return to scouty is
as much or more important in modern day turkey unity
as it is in deer honting.

Speaker 3 (01:07:49):
Correct, guys, I think that I think that people also
don't don't understand how important it is to pattern turkeys,
and I think there's a big difference between what we
all hunt.

Speaker 4 (01:08:02):
It's really tough.

Speaker 3 (01:08:04):
To explain to a guy that only has ridges and
big hardwood tracts of land to hunt compared to somebody
who's in and around agriculture. But in those areas that
you can get those visuals, it's important that you get
those visuals. In the areas that you can get in
and walk and visually see that fresh scratching, it's important
to get in there. One thing that is important as

(01:08:27):
we come to a point where we need to take
a break, is that you can't not the.

Speaker 4 (01:08:33):
Way that another hunter hunts.

Speaker 3 (01:08:36):
Because turkeys were blessed to have turkeys and a lot
of different terrains in a lot of different environments, and
you pick how you like to hunt turkeys and go
after it and try to change it up because there's
more than one call and there's more than one terrain,
and there's more than one way to hunt turkeys, and
that's what makes them so unique. To chase all across

(01:08:58):
this country. And you can chase them all across this state.
I mean that the terrain in Tennessee, Indiana and Kentucky
what it has to offer. You can hunt the best farmland,
or you can hunt some of the steepest and most
mountainous terrain that your boots can try to catch grip
on without ending up in the er.

Speaker 4 (01:09:17):
So it's it's up to you how you chase them.

Speaker 2 (01:09:21):
Yeah, I used to hunt those er turkeys a lot.
I'm beyond that. But but I think the important thing
to the part is things have changed. Scott. You and
I talked about this. A lot you cannot expect I'll
put it this way. A lot of people expect if

(01:09:43):
they can't hear a bird that either either're not going
to gobble that day so they can't kill them. Let's
a or B that it's not worth staying out there.
That's just not the case. If you've done your scouting,
if you've done you're you know your homework as best
you can, or if you know the places that they've

(01:10:05):
used during the current conditions. And Scott, you did a
great job of saying this. This is almost like the
end of season condition, both of you guys. We are
we're like end of season conditions this year.

Speaker 3 (01:10:21):
The spot we'll find themselves with Kama coze turkeys on
open in the morning. The turkey season this year, if
we have decent weather, because a lot of these birds
are looking for hims. They're lonely, yes, you know. And
and and stick with it, you know, like this, just
stick with it.

Speaker 4 (01:10:37):
And go after them.

Speaker 3 (01:10:38):
And I'm glad a lot of our birds have got
to be bred. And if before we went on the
air tonight, if all is true, Tennessee has had a
record harvest for open day a turkey season yesterday.

Speaker 4 (01:10:49):
So that's a good thing. Think about what we've been.

Speaker 3 (01:10:52):
Talking about the last two to three years, the climbing
birds in areas well, some areas are really flourishing.

Speaker 4 (01:10:58):
So you know, Kentucky's same way.

Speaker 3 (01:11:00):
It should be. It should be a good time. It's
easy use the cover to your advantage. Hide in the
extra cover. Like try to work birds, you can get
away with a lot more. I much sure to work turkeys.

Speaker 4 (01:11:11):
With vegetation on and I with vegetation off. I'm not
complaining about that. I mean, I mean it's gonna be.
It's a great way to tuck down and hide. I mean,
it's not.

Speaker 3 (01:11:23):
A better place to eat peanut butter trackers than a
forest full of green polage.

Speaker 2 (01:11:26):
I mean, come on, well, all three of us are
in agreement. The amount of foliogs we got this time
is a tremendous asst Once he gobbles on the roost,
get on in there, get close as you can without
busting him. Don't do anything stupid, obviously, but being close
when he's on the roost and giving him a little

(01:11:47):
sweet talk, there's a key that more times than not
will let you walk out with a bird on your shoulder.
All right, gotta go to break break presented by as
By Marine. Remember you never get soaked by my friends
at SIMA Sounds. I think we all need to re
emphasize this is gonna be a different season. There's hens
that are, you know, going and peeling off. They're going

(01:12:11):
to lay eggs, gobblins aren't gobbled as much, et cetera.
But what we have not talked about is the bright
spot in many areas, not all areas. We're still hurting
in some areas, but pretty good hatch, good number jake's
young hens, et cetera. And uh, I like girls thoughts

(01:12:36):
on that.

Speaker 6 (01:12:38):
I just I'll just kind of kick us off.

Speaker 5 (01:12:41):
I think overall, you know, the areas that I hunt,
we've seen a tremendous amount of of of jake population.
And you know that those younger birds I know for
a fact, I've seen that the last two years.

Speaker 6 (01:12:59):
I know doctor.

Speaker 5 (01:13:00):
Chamberlain, you know, advises us against looking at turkey harvest,
you know, to be the judge of Turkey populations.

Speaker 2 (01:13:08):
Yeah, I agree with him on that one hundred percent.
But you should not manage by harvest, right, And that's
just my side.

Speaker 4 (01:13:18):
But last year is a prime example with the flood.

Speaker 2 (01:13:21):
I mean, oh, yes, exactly right, Yes, sir, with the flood,
all that goes out to window.

Speaker 5 (01:13:27):
But Scott, I'm interested in the areas that you've hunt.
But I've seen some very good positive sign that, you know,
the last couple of years have produced some positive results.

Speaker 2 (01:13:38):
Scott close out.

Speaker 4 (01:13:40):
I'll just say this, there's still a lot of spots
that are hurting really bad. Birds are not utilizing.

Speaker 3 (01:13:46):
Fields as much as they used to. We talked a
little bit about their goblin. Get in the timber, do
good habitat work, and you'll have turkeys. And travel and
find where the birds are utilizing the habitat that they're in,
and you'll have a good spot a turkey hunt. Being
a good turkey hunter and a consistent hunter is finding
the birds.

Speaker 2 (01:14:05):
Yes, sir, Yeah, Well we've talked about that, and I'm
gonna close on this. If you don't scout, and you
don't do your wisdomanship a to z, you might be disappointed.
So I'm gonna close with that, all right, folks, Very
very appreciative of you guys. You've been in a lot,
feel a lot, and gave a lot of information at night,

(01:14:27):
and now we'll see where it comes with the season
ahead of us. And be safe out there, God bless everybody.