Ep. 438: Render - Turkey Girl on the Sorority Lawn

This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. Ahoy, Turkey Hunters. Turkey week is on now at the meat eater store. To help you get ready this spring, we've rounded up some of our favorite gear for chasing gobblers from Miriams out west to hard goblin Eastern's. We've got brand new meat eater logo wear and seasonings, turkey calls from Phelps, camo from First Light, decoys from DSD, packs and accessories from FHF gear, and a whole lot more select products are up to 20% off from the field to the kitchen. Everything you need this spring is all in one place. We've also teamed up with First Light to create the ultimate spring turkey giveaway worth over $13,000. From now until Sunday, you get double entries for every $25 spent. That's 20 entries for every $25 spent at the meat eater store.com. Check it out now through April 5th at store.themeat eater.com. My name is Clay Newcomb and this is a production of the Beargrease podcast called the Beargrease Render where we render down, dive deeper and look behind the scenes of the actual Beargrease podcast brought to you by Tacoba's Boots. I'm Clay Newcomb and this is the production of the Beargrease podcast called the Beargrease Render where we render down, dive deeper and look behind the scenes of the Beargrease podcast brought to you by Tacoba's Boots. I'm a cowboy boot man and I've been wearing Tacobas for years. They're the most comfortable boot I've ever put on. Good boots for good times. Welcome to the Beargrease Render. We have a skeleton crew today, but we knew that it was going to work out because of the hard hitting guests that we have. That's right. That's right. We have, we'll go counterclockwise, actually clockwise, and we'll introduce our special guest at the end. Sounds good. Who is sitting in a Tacobas hot seat. You may not have known that. If you've noticed, there's boots on your chair. You are in the Tacobas hot seat. But to my left, I have my wife, Dr. Misty Newcomb. It's so great to have you here. Always good to be here. Yes. We've got Josh Landbridge, Spillmaker. I'm here. I'm here. Yep. Who randomly, I have to, I have to tell people why his nickname is Landbridge. Yeah. I did it earlier today on a different podcast, but 20 years ago, Holly, I'm not introduced to you yet, but foreshadowing our special, special guest is named Holly. Holly, 20 years ago, Josh Spillmaker had such a great mustache that it inspired me to learn about the Bering Landbridge all in a flash. It was like, it was like, it was like a revelation moment. I looked at Josh. Was it like an aura around my mustache? It was like that. I don't know that I'd ever thought about the Bering Landbridge in my life. And I looked at Josh one day and the stash, it was like, it was like connecting two continents. And I went and ordered a book called Beringia. Yeah. And it was, it was not great. You read it and then passed it to me and it was unreadable. It was, yeah. And, and that kind of set my life on a trajectory to be really interested in like anthropology and human history in the Americas and stuff. So Josh Landbridge, Spillmaker. You are welcome America. But our very special guest is Holly Newkirk. Yes, I'm happy to be here. Yes, it's great to have you. And Holly was one of our storytellers on the Beargrease Turkey Stories episode that was titled Bobcat Attacks. I got, I got shot or getting shot, Bobcat Attacks and Flintlocks. Yep. Yeah. It was a good story too. A really great story. Yeah. So we're going to get in, we're going to talk to Holly in detail in just a minute. But there's first off, this is, this is Meat Eater's Turkey Week. So during Turkey Week, we're, we're having a bunch of turkey related content. We're having sales. I am wearing a hat right now that is a Mossy Oak build hat with a meat eater logo. And we've partnered with the National Wild Turkey Federation and the Lost Hat Company and like just they made a short run of a bunch of different styles of hats. And I got them right here. They're pretty cool. Yeah. Holly, this is just one of the surprises today. Would you like one of these hats? I would love to give you one if you, if you, if you saw one that you liked. I actually really like this one. Yeah. You like that one? Yeah. OK, we're going to give you that one. Ah, thank you all. Yeah. Yeah. I like this one a lot. I saw when you, when I first walked up to you, I was like, well, I like his hat. Oh, cool. Well, that's the one I'm wearing, isn't it? Yes, sir. OK. Yeah, I can't see. Awesome. Big win. So turkey week. Man, you know what? That are they doing a turkey call contest? I haven't heard anything about it. OK. I think I think you've just put the hammer down so many times that may have just given up. I think so. That's where I was going to go with this. Yeah. Is that I have one, the meat eater, turkey call contest the last two years running the only two times with your turkey call. Yes, both years. No, no, no, just like a mouth call. I wonder if if I could win against Clay with Alakal. Oh, just. Oh, well, natural voice. I have a decent turkey. Let's hear it. Well, OK, I've got this microphone here. Pull the microphone away from here. Just go for it a little bit. I'm being told two things at the same time. Listen to the boss. OK, OK. Well, and I haven't practiced. So sometimes it's the second time that's really good. But let's just try. No, it's a second time. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Just slow it down. Just slow it down. You do. Natural voice. Misty's got a good tone, like a good raspy, any tone. Yeah, that's good. Oh, that's really good. Can you call with your mouth, Holly? Not naturally. That was good, Missy. I've got a couple. I've got one skill set. I'm impressed. I've got one one really good wilderness skill set. So education policy reform and OK. Voice turkey calling. So Turkey Week two. Phelps turkey calls. Yep. So, man, this is this. This is cool. This is actually the third year that we've had this meat eater, Phelps. Three pack of prime cuts. And there's a me and Jason Phelps designed one of the calls on here. Jason Phelps has a call and Steve Rinella has a call. And the biggest validation that I've ever received about this call was Lake Pickle. OK. Requested specifically the nukem prime cut. I pray. Could he be playing me like a fiddle? Yes, probably. He could. I mean, like if a guy had his name on a turkey call, I'd be calling him up and be like, man, that's the best call I've ever heard. Send me one. Yeah, I mean, that's pretty much what happened. But like I believe him. I believe like I think he actually likes it a lot. Let's see this. So it's a. So anyway, Holly. Wow. I hope you bought a gift. Wow. This is a huge day for this. You had no idea. Would you would you like this meat eater prime cuts? Diaphragm calls. You use it. The bottom ones yours. It is. Yeah. That one out. Hey, these are awesome. What's special about your thing? I mean, those are normal size. You said you'd like the smaller. These will be fun. My other one. Trim them down. You can cut the tape, like take a pair of scissors if it's too big. But I mean, there's a youth diaphragm call that the actual, you know, like the metal in the call is smaller, but you're probably not using one of those. Are you the one I already said, many, many, many, whatever. What would I just say it was? Woodhaven. Woodhaven. Woodhaven. Wood as a mini woodhaven. Okay. I think these will be fine. Well, this one looks small. Trim. This is awesome. Thank y'all. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What did you when you were designing your turkey call? Yes. What specifically yours does look different than the other two? What specifically? Well, so in the turkey call business, guys that make turkey calls, you could tell them what you wanted the call to focus on. So some guys want a call that's just like really loud and raspy. Say like, that's, that's the main thing they're interested in is just just really well on one. So a call maker would then use a style of latex and a cut on the reeds that makes that happen. Other guys would want something that was soft and subtle as we say in the business. All right. And soft and subtle would be a lighter, a lighter latex that would you could, you could just make little purrs and clucks. And I went to Jason and I said, I want both. And he was like, I've been just waiting for someone to tell me that. He said, I don't know why anyone's never thought of this, that you could actually have both. No, there's some, so it's a bat wing cut. So all these cuts, Misty, if you look at them, all the cuts on these calls, it looks random, but it's very specific and produces a certain sound. Oh, super interesting. And Jason Phelps is one that knows all that. Yeah. I mean, it's really impressive. That felt, hey, the Phelps calls now, I mean, full disclosure, Phelps is owned by a meat eater. Like this is a company that we, I mean, it's, it's our company. Right. But I've blown every call known to man and there are some great calls. Woodhaven is great. I'd be using Woodhaven if it wasn't for Phelps, honestly was before. But the Phelps calls uses quality of components as any call company. So there's all types of grades of, of, of materials that they use in those things that actually make them last longer, make them sound better, richer, easier to use. Anyway, it's a, it's a, it's a legit call. It's a good legit call. But calls do are people like certain brands just because they fit their mouth. I mean, so it's possible you could use a call and speak like, man, I blow this one better or that one better. So that, that happens for sure. Right. But, uh, yeah. So get yourself some turkey week. Yeah. Turkey week Phelps get that prime cuts. Yeah. Uh, just little housekeeping as well before we move on. The, the lion film. Let's go. Came out. Yeah. Yep. Last week. Um, so I went lion hunting in Utah with Hunter and McLean, Meekum and Ty Evans. And if you hadn't seen the film, you should watch it. It's a, it's meat eaters 12 and 26. And so they're in, in, I described this in detail earlier. Um, 26 stands for 20, 26, 12 stands for the months of the year. So they're going to make 12 films this year that are full length films. So meter usually makes like 20 minute episodes. Uh, these are 12 full length films. Yannis had one last month. This one, this month is mine. And, um, anyway, they're cool. I thought, uh, I think we should give a shout out to the graphics design on the thumbnail for this one because they made Clay's eyes look like a mountain light. Oh, did y'all notice? I didn't notice that. Go back and look. I, uh, when I looked at it, he looked, he was like, you're like me out. Well, they did something that made it, but I don't think they were trying to mirror my eyes to look like a lion's eyes. Cause the lion's eyes are brown. Maybe your eyes just look like a lion's eyes. I don't know. You kind of look similar to that mountain line. Let's all stare. We'd have to ask. Asked to ask Hunter Spencer. Clay's got good eyes. You know, I wish the world could meet Hunter Spencer. Yeah. Hunter Spencer is, uh, he's, he's media's graphic design guy and he lives in Virginia. And he, he is like his, his, his wife's a veterinarian. He's just like a super smart, educated, delightful person. And he says, I dear, I dear, I got an idea. Yeah. I thought you were saying like, I dear. I didn't know where you were. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, but when he says, cause, cause we, we talk about, he used the word ideas a lot with me cause he's a graphic designer. So when we talked to him, we're like, Hey, I got an idea. And he, he's, he says, I got an idea. I'm just like, let's go. Yeah. I like it. I like it. You can trust the person who says idea. I got a good idea. And then when he can do what he does, anything that's graphic design by me is, is going to be designed by him. But he did that. He did the I thing. Yeah. I'd like to talk to Hunter about how like, does clay just have a natural I think he's a portrait of him in your house. The mountain lion. Cause I've got a mountain lion over here and then Clay's got this like real like serious look and the mountain lion's got a serious look and they're both looking and it's just kind of like, oh, make sure we get a thumbnail of this popped up on this video podcast. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't, I don't even think I actually looked at the camera like that. I think it's probably like, no, no, I don't think. So yeah. I don't think so. Well, you can check out the film. It was cool. The film was great. The film was great. I really enjoyed it. It was great the second time. I think we have to address the elephant in the meat eater room. No, they, they, they uploaded the wrong video at first. So it was kind of a bummer. So for like five or six hours, there was, it wasn't a bad video. It was just the wrong one. I mean, it was my, it was, it was the video of a lion hunt. But there was no narration. It was the exact same video. It just didn't have the narration on it. Right. Which, and some people dramatically compromises the story. I think we should release both in the future and you can choose your own adventure. Yeah. I think that's a good idea. I think that's a good idea. Cause some people said, oh, you know, I really liked that. I like it was just a little. It played us off in this mouth. It happens. There was like a lot of really long, like cinematic, yeah, like drone shots across the landscape. With no music and just like nothing. And then so in the, in the correct version, there was voiceover. So I would like, I'd be like, we were in Idaho for five days and we were doing this and doing that, you know, so you kind of take the story along with narration. And so the first version of it didn't have that. And so like at midnight, it was like the real hunt, like the raw hunt. Yeah, it was just, yeah, yeah. It kind of, yeah. When I hunt, though, there's narrators. When I'm in the woods, it's like, turn to the left. Turn to the right. I can actually attest to this. There's always clays, always narrating. Like I feel like my life has narration. Yeah. Just I have a narrator and an interpreter who's always trying to. Yeah. True story. It's a big benefit of being married to clays. You just get like narration. Interpretate. I like to think it's just interpreting life for those around. Yeah. And I, I appreciate it. Oh, I only talk a lot on podcasts. Like it's pretty true. That one must have been a big lie. She's your mom and dad. Do they, do they, do they get laugh at each other and make fun of each other? This is OK. We established earlier that we are the. Oh yeah, her sibling structure is identical to our children. All of their siblings and their kids are the same age as my siblings. But you have three girls and one boy, right? Yes. Yeah. That's that's so we've got two girls and two boys, but basically the same ages. All the same age. Yeah. Within a year. So that's a great, that's a great time to talk to Holly. Yeah, we have an interview. Oh, no, we did, we did. I did. This is Holly Newkirk. She was, she told a turkey story. Yeah. But Holly, you're a sophomore at the University of Arkansas. Yes, sir. What are you studying? I'm doing ag business with a minor in entomology. And then soon hopefully you'll be a master's in entomology. OK. Entomology. I really should know that word. Study of bugs. OK, that's what I thought. So is that going to be used in like crop science kind of stuff? Like bugs that are bad? Yes, sir. Yep. For the crops this past couple of summers, I've worked through the university's research station in Stuttgart and we do trials all across Arkansas, spraying chemicals and trying to get rid of the bugs. OK. All the row crops. What's your what's the worst bug out there? I think it's the army worms because army worms come in so fast they eat it all down and they're gone. And what do they what do they eat? What do army worms eat? They eat from the like the leaf part of the plant all the way up. They then power things. I don't think we have army worms in northwest Arkansas. All right. Any of the crops I have that I'm aware of. What do they what do they eat in Southeast? I could they I don't know if they're up here. I've never come up here. Yeah. Down south. Yeah, that's the big groups. But they're like if you have any wheat field or rice, OK, it's just going to look like you mowed through it. Really? It's going to look like it's completely mowed down in like sections. That's still a real issue today in modern agriculture. Oh, yeah. Army worms fall army worms are really bad. So the army worm is does it turn into a moth or a butterfly or something? Honestly, I should know this, but I know this. I should know this. We don't we don't get past this. What's your professor's name? There's basically a test here. Yeah. Well, I should know. No, well, I just I don't I don't I don't know either. But if it's a worm, it just make me think. I wonder if it's a larvae stage of like it is. It is. No, I'm thinking of a different bug now. I don't know. I should know this. Just call it. We don't know. She's just a soft. Hey, will you look at it? We look it up, Josh. This is going to be back because my sister's boyfriend's going to listen to this and he's a PhD. So I work under him. Oh, no. I'm going to get it on now. Oh, man. Sorry. We can edit. Sorry. Let me ask you something. Bullweevil. Is that still an issue? No. No, they're not issues hardly anymore. Oh, really? What happened to them? They got they started. There's some sort of like moth that went out. They breed of these army worm army worm moth. Basically, basically. Prodenia is another name for genus spot up. Spot up Tara, a group of moths in the family. Not to eat a commonly known as army worms or cut worms. They do turn into a moth. They do turn. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I've never dealt with them as a moth. Okay. So the bow bow weevils used to be made. It used to be major issues. Yeah. I hope I'm telling you all the right facts here. Oh, it's okay. Just say it really confidently. I know there's bull. How do you think this whole thing works, Holly? I know there's bull worms and stuff that we do in cotton, but I'm trying to make sure I'm getting the right facts here. I work as there's so many bugs that go on at one time. But if I'm thinking of the right story that I got told, I think they I'm a professor. So it wasn't even the one I worked with. So I'm a professor. He could be wrong here. Yeah. This is on him. This is on him. Don't even know his name. I can't even put the blame on him. I don't know his name. But they had these multi-deal that they bred and they went out and ate the larvae of the bow weevils. Okay. If I'm correct, that could be a total different bug. I'm thinking of, but I'm pretty sure it's the bow weevils. But I think I have heard that the bow weevil is not what it used. Yeah. It's not the the it used to be like the thing. Oh, yeah. And then now it's not that big a deal. Kind of like I haven't seen a single bow weevil. So it's never seen a bow weevil. I've never caught one or seen one while I'm working these past. No, or bull weevils what you'd find in your flower sometimes. Like your red flower. Where do you get your flower, brother? I feel like when I was a kid, you'd find bull weevils. Really? Were you getting your flower more? Back in 1930. I am about to be 50. So yeah, it was a long time ago. Do you know, I didn't know this, but you can't grow cotton in Arkansas unless you have a permit for it. Really? I didn't know that, but there was a. This podcast has just taken a complete direction. I wasn't anticipating. I love it. Let's go. I think we should do it. I was an ag too. Okay, we're going to get there, Holly. Well, I think the one thing that you guys should know, because since you're in ag, you probably would never be on like a gardening Facebook page. It is can be a little bit of an unhealthy environment. The gardening Facebook pages. It's brutal. Sometimes they're really helpful, but like you put up a non native plant, someone does that and I'm like, oh, no, that person's about to get eviscerated. I mean, they're and they just like go at them in the comments. And so anyway, rolling on the garden pages. So someone, someone put out a request. They were like, hey, I'll drive. I'd like to grow some cotton. I'll drive, I'll drive anywhere to go get it. And boy, the comment section lit up and I had no idea. Everyone was, everyone said, that is illegal. We're going to have to take this post off. And then they made like a statement that because you're not allowed to have a press release illegal plants on the gardening page. And I didn't know that, but it's, it's illegal unless you have a permit because I may be disease, maybe bugs that can come in with plants. I don't know. But it's right. It's somehow regulated. Highly regulated. And that was interesting to me because Lewis Joplin, my great-grandpa one time my dad and I, he, my great-grandpa loved to grow like weird stuff. Like he loved to grow just for the sake of being like, you know, purple broccoli and things like that. He loved to grow things that no one else said that you could, everybody else said you couldn't grow. And we lived in the washetals and one day we drove up to his house and he was just staring, only person there outside at his garden, just staring at it, smiling. And my dad said, what did he grow? And we walk in there and he knew he had grown something and we walk over there and he was not, he didn't talk a ton, you know, like he was not a man of many words and we walked over there and he didn't even look up at us. He just sat there smiling and he said, they said, you can't grow a cotton in the washetals. And he pointed at it and he had grown four little plants of cotton. Anywho, so he probably broke the law. He's a law breaker. Yeah. He probably broke the law and would have been not, I don't think you would have in trouble on the gardening page. Yeah. I think he would have gotten in trouble a lot on that gardening page. Well, uh, you know what we need to do right off the top though, is the, the big thing for Holly, big reveal that Josh was trying to, about to spill the beans on. Yeah. So because you're in the Tacovas hot seat, if, if you would like, we, we would love to give you a pair of Tacovas boots of your choice. Wait, that's, yes, you would. Yeah. I don't know if you wear cowboy boots much. They have a lot of different kind of women's, check this out. Women's shoes that, that additional to like boots, but, um, yeah. So we're going to, we're going to give you, we're going to give you a gift certificate that you will be able to go to. There's a Tacovas store here in Rogers in Rogers. I think it's the only one in Arkansas or you can order on. Well, I might just go check that out today. It's already in town. You might as well. Yeah. But, uh, awesome. I thought that somehow Josh asked like, of all of our guests, what size shoe they wore when you said we've got a pair of boots for you. See, that's the, that's the challenge we, Tacovas is so awesome to us. They're, they're really, they're really, they're really, they're really give everybody boots. They're like just everybody that comes in the door, get them some boots. And, but it's kind of, it's hard. Hard when you don't know what shoe size is that, you know, you want to try up hair boots on. Yeah. That's very generous. And, and Tacovas is great. Like if you order online and you get a pair of boots that don't fit, just well, and they also have a bunch of gear. Like that's a, you could, you could, I'm kind of, sweater, Tacovas shirt, Tacovas shirt. Boots. Yeah. Awesome. Thank y'all. Yeah. Oh, okay. I'm excited. All right. I hope you brought, I hope you brought a bag. I did. I got a whole car. I can pack anything. Anything else we want to give you, you can put in your car. Um, so, so you're a, you are an entomology student at the University of Arkansas. Yes, sir. And what will you do with that degree? Um, right now the plan is to be a chemical sales rep. That's the goal, but anything can change. I'm open anything. I'm not open anything. Now, why would you, this is, this is not, this question could sound like I was trying to like dig at you. I'm not. Why would you want to be a chemical sales rep? Um, I just want to be in sales. Something in sales and chemical sounds. That's what we've been working with a lot is just chemicals, trying to mount, testing them. Yeah. And it just sounds fun. And my cousin, Turkey, I'm a lot. He told me to give him a shout out. So shout out Trevor. Um, but, um, he, he got me set up through this whole entomology path. And I was only been on the phone. He made it like, oh, like, you don't have to do chemical sales because I told you, I'm like, no, that sounds awesome. And it's basically just cause he set me up on the path and he knows he will. And he's hooked me up the whole way. And I'm like, thank you, Trevor. So I'm just following his footsteps right now. And so you grew up in the Arkansas Delta. So for people, and he grew up even in Stuttgart. So he was right there. There you go. They kind of the heart of it. So like in Arkansas, I've said so many times, but the eastern side of Arkansas is where the lot of ag land, Mississippi river, Delta, flat land, lot of ag. The part that we're in right now, Northwest Arkansas is no ag. I mean, we're hours from any kind of row crop agriculture, to any degree, but people that live over in the East kind of know that world. So you kind of grew up around row crop agriculture. My front yards are filled. Okay. Side. Everything around me is just filled. Do you live in Devalls Bluff? Yes, sir. Which I would know Devalls Bluff, not because I have duck hunted there, but you hear people talk about duck hunting and that part of the world. It's just right beside Stuttgart. So it's there you go back and forth. Yep. All right, everybody. If you're getting fired up for spring turkey season, you're going to want to hear this man. I'm telling you, I'm fired up. Well, anyway, right now we're running the ultimate spring turkey giveaway and it's packed with over $13,000 in prizes, including an incredible turkey hunting experience, gear from SIG, a shotgun from Benelli, a $1,000 gift card from First Light and a whole big pile of gear from other partner brands. One lucky winner is going to receive a spring 2027 Rio Grande turkey hunt in the Texas Hill Country for you and two of your buddies or family members brought to you by Bird Dog. And during the giveaway, the more you spend at First Light, Phelps Game Calls, FHF gear and the Me-Eater store, the more entries you'll earn for a chance to win the entire prize package. Getting entered is easy. Just head over to the First Light contest page at FirstLight.com. Fill out the entry form in your in. Remember, for every 25 bucks you spend, you get 10 additional entries. One winner will be selected to win the whole damn prize pack. But don't wait around. The giveaway ends one minute before midnight on Monday, April 13th, 2026. So you got all day that day, but it ends right before midnight. Gobble, gobble. Are you duck hunter? I am. I am a duck hunter. I don't do, I don't do very good, but I do really enjoy it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Can you call, you duck call? I actually told myself I would not learn to duck call just so I always have somebody to go with me. I told myself to not learn to duck call because I don't like going by myself. So I'm like, if I don't learn, somebody's always going to go with me. They're going to have to. And if I wear my dow, dow long enough, he's just going to be like, okay, let's go, let's go, let's go. But I have a family friend that he goes with me most of the time and he calls for me all the time and I just, I just stand there and I'm just trying. You know what, me and you have the exact same philosophy. Exactly. I, I, I can't duck call. I just like going with people that can. I started to learn. I was like, nope, this is not for me. I'm a girl. A guy should always be hunting with me if I'm going duck hunting anyway. But Turkey, it's different though. You know, it's different. Yeah. You guys, that one alone, I did that one by myself. Very impressive. Yes. With Turkey, you have to go further and travel further. Okay. It's not just about backyard. So I have to learn that one on my own and be able to find it out myself. Okay. Man, when I heard your story, I mean, I was, I was like, I was probably like your dad. I was proud of you. I was like, dang, that's to go out and find land. And then number two, I mean, I'm a grown adult and it's intimidating to go ask like cold call on someone and ask them for permission to hunt on their property. It was so scary. I, we, it actually, the reason I even went to their house was like, I wasn't supposed to be going that direction. I was delivering flowers. I did some side job delivering flowers and she sent me way out there. And it was one night I had plans and I was so mad. I did not want to go up there. I was like, dad, this lady's sending me out like 50 miles out of town. I do not want to go. And I was so mad to go out there. And then I like, get out there. I'm like, oh, it's so pretty. So I dropped a pin on my, on an X and I started looking at land all around. I'm like, oh, let's see what has big set of big chunks of land out here. So like three days later, I go back out there and start knocking on doors with everybody. I probably knocked on like 10 or so doors in this one. Oh yeah. It was scary. And he was actually the second guy I knocked on. He was like, yeah. And I was like, wait, really? Cause I just knocked on the door and he's like, come in and I'm like, oh, shoot. Like the first thing he said was come in and I'm like, he does not know who I am. And I'm in the middle of drove down dark roads forever. Like, I don't know who you are. So what did you go in? Oh yeah. I went in. What did your dad say about that? Don't we got to do that next time? Open the door and I'm like standing at the door thing and they're going to get up and like come greet me and there's just two old couple in the wife. So the wife was there and like, you're, you're, you're. Well, I opened the door and I'm like, easy. And I'm kind of like, see what I'm looking at. And he's like, they're both sitting there and he's like turning his head to me. And I see his, okay, they're both here. So I walk in like better, better. Yes. Like I'm hauling. They're like, take a scene. I'm like, oh dear. I go in and I take a seat and I talk to him for like 30 minutes. They're like, you can hunt this whenever you want. Like have Adam. So proud of you for doing this and coming out of here. To sell them some chemicals too. I did not sell them chemicals. No. So, so you're, you were, you discern the situation correctly. Like that these were genuine, decent people. And they became that. Oh yeah. I go and visit them. I've visited them a couple of times as you're already not going to be in Turkey season just to keep the relationship and because they're so sweet to be around. Wow. That's awesome. But, but. What makes people really sweet sometimes is when they have 10 strudders in their front yard. Oh yeah. Is that what you said? Pulling up and I was pulling up that day. I was like, this has got to be a joke. I thought I was being pranked or something. So he's got decoys out there. They knew you were coming. I was like, I've got to be pranked. Like what's going on here? I'm looking around. I was like, my eyes were like as big as my whole face. And I was like, what am I looking at right now? And it was awesome. I was like, my heart started beating as soon as I walked up and I was like, okay, if I don't get this one, I'm going to like be heartbroken. And it was the only land out of any of the doors I knocked on that I saw turkeys on before I knocked on the door. Wow. It was the only one I got a yes to. So, so they would have been, you know, sometimes when you meet ranchers or landowners that aren't hunters, they have like little awareness of what's on their land. But I assume driving there, seeing turkeys, like they knew there were turkeys. They definitely knew there were turkeys. They, he told me as soon as I said something about turkey, I got those everywhere. And he was, he thought I was like, no, he's like, you send me that pin. No, I'm going to keep that one. But I said something, or I said something about turkey. Like, I got them turkey. And he goes, we got turkeys everywhere. Like, you just send us back, Porta shoes. So I'm like, oh, like I like to put a little effort in. I'm going to send your back door and shoot a turkey. The day I finally killed the turkey, I went up to his door and told him he's like, okay, I was like, wait, this is a big deal. Like, I'm saying, you're celebrating. Oh, he didn't think much. He did. He went like pumps. Cool. Like he just thought it was casual. And I'm like, yeah, he's never, I found out there's a couple of weeks. Oh, he's never even been turkey hunting. He's got elk hunting in Colorado and bear hunting. All the hunting deer hunting duck hunting, everything except for turkey hunting. But in turkey. Wow. So he didn't miss an ounce. He didn't. He is missing out big time. He didn't understand the significance of it. Hopefully he doesn't listen to this podcast. And then he'll be like, oh man, I need, I need this. Well, okay. So the surprising part of your story to me and the scary part and the part that kind of built a little bit of a storyline in the whole episode, which was completely unintentional was this issue of safety. Really? Like your first part of your story. That was terrifying. So you're sitting there, you know, she's sitting there calling in this bird, sees the bird. She believes she's the only one on the property, at least on this side of the property that you were on. And like, you're about to shoot these turkeys. Oh, I was gun up. I was dead on these turkeys. I was like, I, they were pretty much in range whenever they were there. But I'm like, there's no need to stretch it. And I was like, they're coming. They're coming. Like there's nothing stopping them here. Like, yep, I'm not, they can't see me. I've got, I'm on the behind the big tree and I'm like, they can't see me. I can see them. Yeah. I was chilling and they were coming in and they were gobbling just at themselves and everything. And I'm like, this is ideal. So I'm just sitting here waiting on them and yeah, out of nowhere, the guy shoots and I'm like, what? And I like jolt back when he's shooting. Where was he in relation to, so like you're, you're pointing your gun at like 12 o'clock, let's say like on a clock. Yeah. If I'm shooting this way. Okay. I'm going to go right here. Cause that's in front of me. Yep. Yeah. Just go shoot. Yeah. She's, she is pointing at me. She's the, she's the turkeys coming at me and I'm sitting this way. They're literally like right here. They are just to my right, probably 45 50 yards. And there's like a little, it goes up right there and there's trees. I couldn't see over that. It's just a tiny little up, but I couldn't see over that little bit right there. And so they shot and I was like jolted back because it sound like it was me shooting. I knew I didn't shoot. They're so close. Right. And I'm like freaking out and I see the turkey. I thought like it fought for a minute, but I guess it did later got up and run because as soon as they shot, I dug down, I didn't know what was going on. That's good. I got scared and I'm like watching them. And I see these two guys. It's like an older man. I guess a younger guy, probably guessing like a 12 year old with him. And cause I thought at the time it was older guy finds out cause I thought it was two older guys and I was like, oh, that one's really short to be an older guy. But I'm like, they wouldn't bring a kid out here on opening day. I don't know why I thought that, but for some reason my head, I thought that. Um, but anyways, ends up being a 12 year old cause I knew he was short and they're running, they're always short and they were running to it. And I was like, man, this is awful. And I was like heartbroken. I'm like, what do I do now? You didn't. Okay. It surprised me a little bit that you didn't like address them, but I guess, I guess I took my dog, I took my tail and went straight down that hill. I like hid from him. I never gonna let the new one. That's probably smart. I didn't know. I didn't even know they were allowed to be on this land because I was like, okay, surely they would not cross the line that he told us not to cross with him. Say if somebody does come, which is low chance they'll be on that side. I'm like, no one's going to cross it. They're going to listen to the land owner. So did you figure out who they were? Yes, I did figure out and it ended up being, um, the guy that he thought would be coming and it was his son with him and they missed the turkey. They didn't even kill the turkey and it was a little son that shot and that was his first time hunting. Okay. The son's first time hunting. So were they on the wrong side? They were definitely on the wrong side. Yeah. I told the landowner and he's like, Oh, they should not have done that. I'm going to call them and I was like, yeah, I mean, don't be in my trouble. I don't mean to get him in trouble, but like that was dangerous. Like I thought I was getting shot out at that point. Yeah. He was like, Oh, that won't happen again. Like next time you'll have it to yourself. We're not going to let this happen again. Well, no, I was like, okay. Wow. Well, it, it, it really is, um, an issue. I mean, when you're turkey hunting, you know, I mean, I said it on the episode, but like all other types of firearm hunting, you pretty much are wearing hunters orange. Now squirrel hunting and stuff. You don't have to, but squirrel hunts a little bit different because you're, you're shooting up, but, um, but, but most firearm related hunting. There's a lot of caution. You, you, you're using hunters orange turkey hunting. You don't. Yeah. I was surprising listening to the podcast, all the, just one story after another of, of some of the, yeah. And, and, and well, and then the first, the first story on there, which it was a great, well, I don't want to get into it too much, but we're going to get into it. But yeah, the first story was two guys shooting at each other towards each other, like at the single turkey, which is wild. I wonder how far, how far apart were they? Like how far was perky away from each person? So I don't really know, but I know that it was, um, just turkey shotgun range. I would imagine inside of 40 yards. I mean, I don't think they were shooting at this bird, like 50, 60 yards away. I think he didn't say, but I feel like they were 80 yards apart, shooting at a turkey at 40 yards, you know, something like that. That's crazy. But so, okay. So when you, when these guys scare you and shoot your turkey, a lot of people would just gone home for real. I mean, sometimes there's been a lot of times when something negative has happened in the woods that sometimes, and I've seen people react this way, where it's just like, I'm done for today. Let's, let's go back. We'll try tomorrow. Like if something negative happens, like someone shoots a turkey, scares you, not supposed to be there, but not holly new Kirk. No, going home really never crossed my mind. The only reason like it's like went through my mind saying, I was like, Hey, maybe they're still hunting. Like that was the only words that they still might be hunting. But I was like, no, like they're not going to sell it. They've tried. And then I also knew like if you shoot that doesn't scare the turkeys away the rest of the time. Cause we've tried, I've shot a bird and then like my sister was shooting a bird a little bit later. I'm like, I know that doesn't mess with the turkeys the whole day. So I'm like, there's still a chance. I know there's plenty of other birds around cause I heard them all gobbling off the roost. They're going everywhere going crazy and all that. So I knew there was plenty of round. So I was just going to wait, let them cool out. Rain came through, let that go by, called my dad. Dad's like, totally do not leave. Like what are you thinking? You've been waiting for this moment your entire life. Do not leave. And I'm like, I'm not going to leave. Like it's really annoying. Um, so yeah, then just walked and walked. Was this last year on opening day? So it was 2025. So I mean, like one year ago. Okay. Yeah. Exactly one year. Now you had, uh, you'd killed other turkeys before. Oh yeah. I've killed several turkeys. We go to Tennessee every year and we always turkey hunt there. And I've killed turkey and Arkansas almost every year too. We normally go to Batesville, but I've gone back and forth between those states. I even got to Idaho, my favorite time, turkey hunting. Really? So you really have, when I said you were a veteran, I was stepping a little bit on a limb cause I didn't know exactly, but you're a veteran. Oh yeah. I've been to a lot of places. I love it. Okay. I think I'm, I finally got a green light to Oklahoma this year. So that's exciting. Okay. We're going to try to make it all everywhere. So you, you, you go to the other side of the property, you get a bird goblin. Yeah. And you just call it right up. And it's probably about like mid morning by then. Oh yeah. It's probably around nine o'clock, I think eight, 39 o'clock ish. Maybe it was probably like nine 30. It has been a little bit, I feel like, and I had given up hope. I was like, this lane's not even that pretty on this side. Like I'm just going to do it just to do it because I don't want there to be any mystery. And anyway, so I go through the gate, make loud noises doing that. Like I said, I dropped the gate. I thought I heard gobble like, no, I'm hearing things, put the game back up, just lollying around, wasn't hiding at all. Like I was just walking and I stand by this tree and I'm getting by this tree. And I'm like, okay. Cause in my head, I always know, if you're going to, if you're going to call be somewhere, if you need to, you just sit down immediately. There you go. And in my head, okay, I'm going to sit down immediately because I'm by a tree right now. But in case I called, I did like just a slate call. It was a real simple slate call, a little yell. He immediately, and he is like, it's like straight drop off. He immediately just cuts it off. Close. He is right close. Like, but the drop off is so thick. I knew there was no way he's coming through this. Cause I couldn't see down the drop off. I was doing a straight drop off. It is thick. Like it's all trees right there. So like maybe 40 yards, not very far, 40 yards, 50 yards away is where the opening is where the tree stop. There's a little tall grass over there. So I, as soon as he got, I'm like, whoa. And I'm like, I freeze for a second and I didn't know what to do for a second. I dropped my decoys. I don't know why I did that. I dropped my decoys, dropped the fan. I run to this tree and I'm like, hunched down running cause the grass is tall. So I can hide under it. I get over there and he's, by the time I got from that tree to that tree, 40 yards, maybe max or 50 yards, he gobbled two more times. And I was like, oh my gosh. And I was like, I was like, what do I do? I put my, I already had my diaphragm in my mouth and I was like, okay, I'm called. He did like, if he starts acting weird, but I'm going to be quiet. Cause I know not to over call. Cause you've already called once. I called once and that's it. All at one time. That's all you need. And the way he's gobbled, and I'm like, he, I can already tell that he's moved cause he gobbled over here first and he has already moved his second or his third gobble was like straight in front of where I'm sitting now. Okay. And so it would have been diagonal from our first gobble, where my first call was. Okay. So I'm sitting down and it's like tall grass. It's like a straight drop off on the other side of tall grass and he's sitting there and he's just gobbling. And I'm like, what do I do? Like he's going to come up this thing. Like if he comes up, he's for sure in range, like without a doubt. So I'm sitting here where I hear his gobbling and I've sitting there and I'm like, okay, in my head's like taking forever. It's taking forever. I feel like I'm there for like 10 minutes and probably took a two minute for the whole hunt or five minutes, not long at all. And I'm sitting there taking things forever and I'm sitting, I'm sitting, I'm sitting, he gobbles again and I'm like, okay, maybe I should call. And I'm like, no, don't call. Don't call discipline. And then, and then he's drumming. I was like, the drumming like shook me and I'd never heard drum before. So I'm like, it like shakes me. And I'm like, oh my gosh, like he's on top of me. And I'm like trying to look and see where he is. And I'm like, okay, but then I heard drumming. Yeah. I thought it was more this way. I think it's just the way I was like going, but I was like looking more this way. And I'm like, no, I can't move. But I wanted to keep looking by side me and everywhere. And I'm like, I was like, this is the most nervous I've ever been on a turkey because I was by myself. I didn't have anyone telling me what to do. I'm like, I have to make all this to my myself. And, um, anyways, I heard the drumming, heard him gobble again. And then finally I see just the tip of his fan, like a very tip. And I see his head, the tip of his head. And I'm like, oh, there he is. For me, I see him stepping a little bit closer. I see him. Was he where you thought he was? He was a little bit, just like a couple of feet to the left of where he was. So he was right where he should have been. Yeah. He came up just where he's supposed to. He did it. He did it. I rise up one of it. Yeah. And anyway, so he's coming up, I see him and he pops his head up just a little bit more while he's still in strut, like sticks his neck out. I guess probably looking for the hen that hadn't made a peep sense. Yep. And shoot him. And it was like the happiest moment of my life. It was so awesome. Okay. And so the, the coolest part of this story, which I guess we didn't include. Is that you took the turkey back to your sorority house and like the strip in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where the University of Arkansas, there's a, what do they call it? They called the. It's on Maple Street where it's all the sorority houses, just sorority road or sorority road. Sorority road. Yeah. Like all these sorority houses. And so you take the turkey back. I take the turkey. My, well I'll call my sister and I tell her when I kill the turkey. She's like, Holly, get it to try it out right now. I'm at Tridale. I'm right at your picture. And quick question. Had any other girls from Tridale brought turkeys that day? No. I don't think half these girls from Tridale even knew what a turkey was. I didn't even know what the animal was. So I, I go to Tridale and I meet my sister on the lawn and we're sitting there getting ready to take the picture and she's like, people walk into class like the middle of the day. Yeah. Yeah. They're really busy street. Oh yeah. They're shopping and cause it's right in the middle of like ride across where all the classes are. Tridale is and they're stopping and they're like looking at Tridale. Like what's this girl in Camo? Camo'd up. I've got my Camo. Got this turkey fan out and the grass. So is your grass. I see them there holding my turkey. Smiling so proud. And everybody's walking down like, oh, this is so like awkward. Everybody's staring at me right now. Yeah. People are walking by taking pictures. I don't know if you all know what Yik Yik is, but Yik Yik was going crazy. Like a turkey girl on Tridale lawn right now. A turkey girl on Tridale lawn. Like somebody figure out what's going on in Tridale right now. Yik Yik. What is Yik Yik? Social media. Yeah. It's like, it's like a, yeah. K-Bus has it. It's like where you just go and talk about random stuff. Everything's anonymous. So he's like put a chat in and like the whole universe, you can see it, but it's all anonymous. You don't know who puts it. Turkey girl at Tridale. Yeah. It's like, uh, has anybody seen the girl in Camo on Tridale lawn right now? Like what's going on? And anyway, so then we've been, we're there for like five minutes taking pictures and our house mom comes out and she's like, what is this? Holy, what have you brought to our lawn? And Hannah, my sister, she's a Tridale too. And she was like, jump mom, Jody, look, she's got a turkey. She's got a turkey. And Hannah is like going crazy. Like so happy for me. I'm like, yeah, I got a turkey. Like, is this okay? I'm going to take a couple of pictures. She's like, well, well, what is it? Like, why do you have this here? Like, what's going on? What is so hard to understand about this mom? I'm like, mom, Jody's a turkey. I just killed this. She goes, like, okay, but like, why is it here? Like, what are you doing with it? And I'm like, I'm just taking pictures with it. This is where we're going to eat it. Yeah. And she, well, she did ask a little bit of shows. Do you eat these? Like, do you plan on like skinning it here? And I'm like, no, no, no, I'm not going to skin it here. I was like, taking pictures with it. She goes, okay, can I touch it? I was like, well, yeah, you can touch it. I don't care. So she goes down to touch it. She like just points like barely tabs it. She goes, oh, it's soft. And I was like, yeah, it's feathers. And she goes, she like brushes her finger. She's like, well, this is weird. Why is it bigger than I thought it would be? And she's like, oh, she had a lot of questions. Oh, she had so many questions. She was like, well, do you want a picture? She goes, um, I'm not touching it again. So I'll hold on this side of her. She gets on this side of me and we take a picture with it. And she was hilarious. She thought it was funny. She even stopped me a couple of times when I went to the house, she goes, you had another turkey? And I'm like, no, no more turkeys are coming to the lawn this year. You get a reputation quick. Probably turkey girl on the lawn. Turkey girl tried it. It got spread very fast. Oh man. Yeah. So yeah, when I heard that, I was like, I was, I was proud. I was like, I was like, probably like your dad. I was like, yeah, Josh told me the story last year. Whenever we interviewed, he's like, this girl took the turkey to like downtown Fayetteville and took a picture in the lawn. I was like, really? That's great. It was, it was talked about for a while. It was really funny. Yeah. When Holly was telling me the story, I was just sitting there kind of with my mouth open like, it was funny. Yeah. Yeah. Well, so the theme of, uh, I was going to talk about, um, yeah, sometimes these themes kind of build themselves, but, uh, like safety and Gary Newcomb, Gary believer, new come my dad, he, how'd you like the hot tips of safety in there? I did. Yeah. They were legit. Hey, people. I Gary Newcomb, a long time ago told me not to use bright colored mouth calls. And back in the eighties and nineties, people would make red and blue mouth calls. They still do. Mm hmm. They still do. Think about having this, if this was bright blue and you had it in the corner of your mouth, walking around the woods, I mean, like, just like your turkey, when it came up over the hill, first thing you saw, well, you saw the tip of its fan, but a lot of times the first thing you see is its head. Right. And they're looking bright red or white or blue. And so, you know, a turkey hunter is automatically key in in on a bright, odd color, you know, when a turkey's coming. And so anyway, Gary Newcomb was always like, do not use a blue turkey call. And I actually told Jason Phelps when we were designing this call, these calls, I said, don't make them bright because they were making them sharp truths and some of these colors. And I was like, I don't even want sharp truths. Yeah. Cause it's just bright. And like somebody's, you know, got a bead on a shotgun thinking a turkey's coming and you're walking and they just see something bright. I mean, I'd say you're, it's not good. Okay. But Gary also taught me, he was like, don't wear a white T shirt and have like, you know, a little, cause a couple of times I did when I was a kid, had a white shirt or something underneath camo. He was like, nope, go change your shirt. And the other thing, now people may have used to war high water pants a little bit more than they do today, but they're back in, but like a priest, like when you, if you'd sit down by a tree and your pants would kind of pull up and you were wearing like lower ankle boots or something, you'd see white socks. And I mean, maybe that's a little paranoid, but Gary was like, nothing white, nothing bright. Whenever I was taking a kid to Turkey on for the first time and he had like, just like his pocket had like something white on it. Like it's camo's T shirt or camo shirt. But I had like white. I was like, you can't wear that. He's like, it's very little. Nobody's gonna see it. I was like, no, you're not wearing any color. Just camo, only camo. Yeah. Like no color on your shirt. The turkeys see Turkey's see and other people will see it. That's not happening. Yeah. Yeah. And then, uh, so the guy got, so the Gary farmer story where they call the turkeys. Now, okay, here's a behind the scenes thing that you wouldn't have known. It would have just made the, the Turkey stories a little too heavy. Okay. Two episodes ago, we did a, we made a series called American loggers. Okay. Yep. One of the best series we've done in probably six months. And on American loggers, Cody Vellans told us about Frankie Dale. Yeah. Okay. Frankie Dale was a logger and they had some wild stories about Frankie Dale. Yeah. Okay. Frankie Dale got killed. Like in the podcast, he tells me that Frankie Dale died. Right. I didn't know that. The Frank that is with Gary farmer and they're working the Turkey is Frankie Dale. No way. No way. Yes. Frankie Dale. So. Wow. So two people on this podcast. Yeah. So, so Gary farmer, before he tells the story, I'm sitting there with him. Yeah. I don't know the story. And he goes, yeah, I was with Frankie Dale and he said, Frankie Dale died. He's, and he told me the whole story of Frankie Dale dying. And then he tells me the story that you heard. Wow. And I just didn't, I didn't want to have to explain who Frankie, who Frank was and refer, but it was just a little too complicated. So I kind of trimmed that down. And so you hear him talking about Frank. Well, that was Frankie Dale. Wow. That's, and that's what the renders for. And that's right. Frank Dale. Yeah. And the more I learned about Frankie Dale, the more I wish I could do like a whole bear grease on this guy, Frankie Dale, from over in Newton County. He's, they all just love the guy. Yeah. Pretty, pretty unique guy. But, but I love that story. Just a probability. If, if you were a mathematician and not a, uh, I, entomologist, you can tell us the statistical probability of two guys going out in the woods, working a turkey, shooting at the exact same time. I mean, and he said he waited till Frank that he shot to, didn't he? He didn't tell Frank that he shot until later. That's right. Those guys, I noticed that about Gary and that whole bunch of guys. Yeah. If it would have been me, I would have been like, if Josh shot and just claim the turkey, I wouldn't have tried to fight him for the turkey, but I would have been like, I shot too. Yeah. Yeah. But Gary just was like quiet about it. That's crazy. Just kind of like, and then later was like, I shot at the exact same time as you. That's wild. So yeah. He didn't tell it right then. I would have like straight up said at the same time, like we felt crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I thought the same thing. Yeah. And then the story that like pickle did down in Mississippi with James quick. Those are always scary when somebody gets shot. And I'd say that was a pretty severe. Yeah. Lot. You hear a lot of, I mean, it's, it's, it's not great, but you, you hear a lot of stories of guys getting shot and thankfully most of the time they're inconsequential, would get in shot turkey hunting. Yes. Is that what you mean? Okay. But there's, there's something new into the equation that hasn't been here before. But, but this guy must have been pretty close from to get 200 pellets. Yeah. That's a lot of going through a jacket. He was shooting at him. And, and he was close. I mean, he had to have been like 20, 25 yards. And, and then it, it was interesting. And now this was a long time ago. I think people would maybe, well, people would have had cell phones today. Right. And, but like this guy runs up to the guy that's laid on the ground and says, Oh, I've killed a man and then just takes off running. Yeah. And the guy's like perfectly alive. Yeah. Bless his heart. I mean, I felt bad for him. I, at least he went and got that, you know, at first I thought they were saying he ran off. I was on the same day he ran off and like just left him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was just, that was, I felt, I felt bad for the guy who shot him. Oh, well you heard what I said. And I think it's, I think it's important for Turkey hunters to be paranoid. Yeah. It's okay to be paranoid. Oh, shooty. You know, yes. It's not about getting shot. Like, yeah, go ahead and be paranoid about getting shot so that you're conservative in the way that you communicate or you're not conservative. You're, you're, you're conservative in the way you maneuver through the woods. And if you know somebody's over there, just like going way around or whatever. But I'm paranoid about shooting somebody. Yeah. I mean, when I, when I carry a gun and I've taught my kids this their whole life, when you, man, I probably scared them to death when they were like nine years old started carrying a gun. I mean, I vividly remember telling your son and my son, I'm going to give you this gun and by me doing this, it could change your life. Yep. Because you now hold in your hand something that could kill a person. Yep. If you kill somebody, you cannot erase that. Yep. I mean, like put the fear of God in them. Yeah. And, uh, and I also heard that and I do not like to hold guns. I gave my kids that same lecture when they started driving too. Yeah. Cause it's the same thing. It is. All right, everybody, if you're getting fired up for spring turkey season, you're going to want to hear this man. I'm telling you, I'm fired up. Well, anyway, right now we're running the ultimate spring turkey giveaway and it's packed with over $13,000 in prizes, including an incredible turkey hunting experience, gear from SIG, a shotgun from Benelli, a $1,000 gift card from First Light and a whole big pile of gear from other partner brands. One lucky winner is going to receive a spring, 2027 Rio Grande turkey hunt in the Texas Hill Country for you and two of your buddies or family members brought to you by bird dog. And during the giveaway, the more you spend at First Light, Phelps game calls, FHF gear in the meat eater store, the more entries you'll earn for a chance to win the entire prize package. Getting entered is easy. Just head over to the First Light contest page at firstlight.com. Fill out the entry form and you're in. Remember for every 25 bucks you spend, you get 10 additional entries. One winner will be selected to win the whole damn prize pack. But don't wait around. The giveaway ends one minute before midnight on Monday, April 13th, 2026. So you got all day that day, but it ends right before midnight. Gobble, gobble. My dad was always like, treat every gun like it's loaded. If it's not loaded, it is loaded. Every gun's loaded. Never even like we're walking. Yeah. Just in right here. But guns like later here, if it was like pointing to interrediction, he'd be free. I was gonna be pointing away from everyone. I'm full of times. Yeah. That's good. Everything's always loaded. Yeah. Even if it's not loaded, everything's always loaded. Yep. Yep. Yeah. Well, and then to the story that the guy had buckshot. Yeah, that's crazy that he didn't have it in first two. Well, he would have it in second. You know, I think it was so long ago. Turkey loads probably were maybe people just didn't know. I mean, that guy clearly, if he was using number seven birdshot and a buckshot, right, God didn't know anything about Turkey. No, he didn't. And just shooting at movement. Yeah. I mean, he probably, it probably was, I don't know when it was probably in the seventies or eighties is when it was and got out there went out there. Didn't know much about it. Um, Gary Newcomb was in a camp one time when a guy got shot. We were at that camp. We were hunting, but we were out hunting. That's right. I forgot about that. Yeah. We were actually, we were actually lost. Like when we went, there's a couple stories about one time we got lost. Okay. Oh, is that the same story that river was telling you? Twice I've been lost. And it always comes up about this time of year. Um, no, we, we were 20 years ago and we were hunting and, uh, probably being successful out there and, uh, we came back to camp and they were like, boy, you guys aren't going to believe what happened. And, you know, somebody had, so there was a doctor with us, Dr. John Mesko, who I need to have on this podcast some, for some reason, I got to get John Mesko thought about it for years, got to pull the trigger. John Mesko was in our camp and dad was there and guy got shot and knew that Dr. Mesko was camping down here. And so he drove and found our camp and he had like 17 pellets in his back. And, uh, John told him to take his shirt off and John pulled out his pocket knife no way and, and starts plucking pellets out of his back. Oh my God. Think, think, think. And the guy that shot him had seen the old, it was an older man. He had white hair and he saw tough, the white hair. Thought it was a turkey head and shot. Oh yeah. Yeah. And then, and then most of the pellets, the pellets that were too deep to pluck out with a knife, uh, John just said, don't even worry about them. Just, wow. I'm not even sure the guy, I would have to get the story from John. Wow. I'm not, I don't even know if the guy went to the doctor. Oh my God. That's crazy. Yeah. That's a good, that said next year's. Welcome to Polk County. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We gotta have John Mesko on there. Um, okay. So your story had some safety elements. Gary Farmer's story had safety elements that getting shot had some safety stuff. Um, the other stories were so cool. I wish we could have had zoe Kaywood. So the lady, uh, that had the world, Turkey slam. Yeah. She seems very interesting. Yeah. Yeah. You know that commercial with the most interesting man in the world. I think she might be the most interesting woman in the world. She sounds really. As far as hunting and outdoors is concerned. She wore a big turkey spur necklace. She had a big necklace on it. Beautiful amber beads with huge, probably inch and what she said, inch and seven sixteenths. Yeah. Turkey spurs on them. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, she, she lives over here at War Eagle, which is like just east of town. But, uh, yeah, I thought, yeah, the, the, that was cool. Are you, yeah. So she shot at a turkey and there was a bobcat coming in at the turkey. Like at the exact moment she shot and like she probably peppered the bobcat. Yeah. When she killed the turkey. I heard that one. With a flintlock shotgun. Yeah. Her husband, her husband is nine. I think he's 94 and he spent his, he spent years as a custom gun maker, but he builds, um, flintlocks, trade guns. And oh, he's, he's building her guns. He built, and there's a video too. We may need to post it at some point, but he has made her some incredibly beautiful ornate rifles that are just at, and he handforges the, not the, not the flintlock mechanism, but all the, all the work on the rest of the gun. He handforges and I mean, just an incredibly gifted man. And she said, she said, when I met Charlie, his name is Charlie K. Wood, I put up my cartridge guns and she has only shot flintlock since then. Wow. That's cool. And she's killed a turkey world slam with a, with a flintlock. Wow. Yeah. That's really cool. Yeah, that is cool. Speaking of, uh, killing turkeys with non-traditional weapons. Okay. Uh, like Pickle, my, I, I kind of, I mean, you could debate, there could be a debate of who would be the mentor and who would be the mentee. He's like a son to you. On, in Turkey hunting, it could be a debate of, uh, but I'd say Lake is kind of my mentor. Ish ish. Lake's listening now. Lake, don't let it go to your head. Like, don't let it go to your head. No, Lake, Lake is like a, like a, a kid I mastered Turkey hunter. He and Jordan, bless it. Yep. Lake is so funny when it comes to people bow hunting turkeys or using four tens or using any weapon that is any sort of limitation. He's just like, no. No. You just, and he learned that from Will Primos. Just like quit the cute stuff. Turkeys are made to be called up and killed. He's like, don't bow hunt them. And, and, and, and part of having your own podcast is that you can divulge information about your friends that they tell you. To the world. If they tell you stuff. To anyone with internet access. They just know that you're probably going to say it. They need to say it off the record. If it's a prior Lake and Brent and everybody just say off the record and I might not say it. Brent Turkey headed with Lake last week and Brent had a four 10. Oh. And, and Lake was like, no. He, it was a joke, but and, and what happened? There was a turkey at like 50 yards that my dear friend Brent couldn't shoot because it's four 10. Now why are you defaulting everybody's dirty laundry? This is not really dirty laundry. Okay. No, no, no. But like his philosophy is just like carried the best gun. And I say that in relation to the Flintlock and I kind of believe that. There, I don't, it's not like. Wait, you kind of believe what? It's not, it's not bad to use a bow or a Flintlock. That's not what I'm saying. When I call up a turkey, I just want it to come home with me. Yeah. Right. Other animals. Yes. Other animals. You don't feel that way about everything. No, not at all. Like I want to use a traditional bow for different things and I'm okay with limiting myself with, in, in, in other ways. I think it's because turkeys are so scarce. Like it's so hard to get one. It's hard to find one. It's hard to, and you think that's why it is? Yeah, it's hard. Yeah. I mean, really like turkeys around here are prized possessions. They are. And, and Lake is so good. He's given us a couple, but it's, so it felt a little bit like feast. Now, wait a minute. Lake didn't give us a turkey, Misty. Because Clay had something to do with it. Because Clay couldn't get one. You had to get something. Well, I don't know. I think Lake actually did give us some extra turkeys that he had. Oh, you actually mean gave us turkey meat. Turkey meat is what I'm talking about. Yeah, turkey meat. This is the, this is the part I care about. I thought she was saying that when I went hunting with Lake, that he gave me. He presented. With one knee bound. That's about the way it happens. Clay closes his eyes and Lake just moves his shotgun. So it tells him when to pull the trigger. Exactly. Exactly. But it's, it's, it's so, it's, I mean, you, it's kind of like you've got just a little bit of turkey meat every year. Yeah. So it is around here, like a real special thing when it comes in. There's probably more turkeys up here than where you're from. Oh yeah. There's like, oh really not hardly where I'm from. Really? Yeah. Yeah. It's all flatlands down there. Yeah. Row crop stuff. The other day I was driving in the river valley, part of Arkansas, and I was in a neighborhood and there was a man outside in pajama pants. And there was a turkey in the middle of the road. I took a picture and sent it on the family thread, but you were, you were, I don't know if you saw it because of where you were. And this turkey and this man were having a standoff. And the turkey was in the streets and I mean turkeys are pretty rare sightings and this was downtown, you know, like in a, in a busy part of the, it's a small community, but still a busy part. It surely was a tame turkey. Was it a pet? Yeah. I was wondering. I don't know. It was to the man perceived as a violent turkey and the man had like a broomstick or something and the turkey would stand up and the man would go out there with his broomstick. What city was this in? You can tell me. It was in Alma. It was a, it was a tame turkey. And the turkey would, when the man would hold up the broomstick, the turkey would hunker back down and I tried to film it, but the man was in his pajamas. And I didn't want to, I didn't want to like, how did I not hear about this? Well, you were, you were in the Arctic. I put it on the family thread and I was like, Hey, this is a bad video. You didn't send that to me. Because you were worried about this guy and his pajama pants? Well, I mean, I did video. I put the video, it just wasn't high quality. The guy seemed to have a lot going on and, and he was very, uh, and I, I came back around a second time to, oh, wow, you did a, you know, I did. Yeah. And I think the second time the guy was starting it, because the first time I was like real sensitive and didn't want to get, but I was like, my video is running off a turkey with a broom. Well, he never ran it off. I was setting stuff. What color was it? Was it like, it was a turkey. It was like black, like dark color. Yeah. Like, yeah. Okay. Just want to make sure we're in a white charcoal. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. No, I mean, it was a, it, it looked like it, it could look like a wild turkey. It looked like it could have been a domestic. We used to have a bunch of wild turkeys. We had, we had domesticated wild turkeys here. They were violent. I mean, when I saw what that man was doing, I was like, I know. They prayed on the wheels. They prayed on the wheels. Yeah. They did. So Holly, I got to tell you this. So we had like seven, we bought them, you know, from a, When they were babies. But they were sold as wild turkeys. They, they weren't wild, but they were the strain of wild turkeys. And as a, yeah. And two of them ended up living and for a long time, they were monsters and they would pray on weakness. So if you, really, if children, children, old women and people that limped or had cast on, like there was, there was, I mean, that's how they lost their life. So the turkeys would see a car drive up and they would, they would strut up to the car. And if like a grown man and a kid got out of the car, they'd go straight to that kid. They would come across the yard. That's how I remember it is they would be, they had a little roost and when they had a little cage and then they would see, like, oh, this, we had, we had a neighbor that walked with a limp. And when they would see him get out of his car, they would just be line over to him and just attack them. They were monsters. They were monsters. They don't mean they died. They died. They needed to be shot. Yeah, that's right. That's right. That's why she went and hunted one down. I'll just save that old man out there. I'll save him. Or the guy in his pajamas. Oh, wow. Wow. I got to see this video now. I'll probably put it on Instagram. No way. No, it's not a high quality video. And we don't know that person. And he was petrified. The thing is, is that there was a lot, I was there for an event and I went inside, I came out and he was there. You're still fighting the turkeys. Yes. Wow. And you could tell. That's a standoff. And the turkey would go and drop down. The turkey was semi-intimidated. But. Do you think he needed help? I did. Like should we go check on the guy? I tried to actually make contact with him. But that's what I'm saying. I felt like a lot was going on. And he, I could tell he didn't appreciate that. The spectator. The attention. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. That is something. Wow. That would have been funny. Well, so let's see. Yeah, Zokewood and then Mike Chamberlain. Yep. His story. Freaking out. Turkey doc. He was great to hear him. And then Andy Brown story. Andy Brown. I mean, what a guy. Story teller laureate of Bergeries. I mean, really, he, I actually was listening to it on fast speed. And I stopped it and rewound it and listened to it on slow speed. So I could. So Andy was the guy that told the story of him and his best buddy going hunting, walking way off the mountain, killing the turkey. And he thought his buddy shot way too far. And he shot twice. And he and the guy, the punchline of the story was, well, I killed two. And he said, well, watch your shoot. They said, I killed two. Andy. Andy has probably had a turkey story on every episode of Turkey stories. And that story would have been like way down the list. Right. I mean, when I first started going to Andy to get stories, you know, he kind of told me his, what in his mind would have been top tier stories. Yeah. And usually, so I've been doing this long enough that you kind of know people that have stories and you'll go to them. And, and I find that most really, even really good turkey hunters that are older, maybe have two or three, like really great stories. Maybe they have a hundred stories of like calling up a turkey and killing it. And it's a wonderful thing that happened, you know, right? But, but maybe they just have a handful of stories of where something really unique happened. And, you know, you kind of get those stories from them and you call them back the next year and they're like, man, I mean, I killed a turkey last year, but I mean, it just kind of, just kind of came in and killed it and not much to it. Man, you go to Andy Brown. I think probably been going to him now four or five years. And he just keeps giving the stories. I've decided that it's less about him having an inordinate number of good stories as it is just him being a good storyteller and a good laugher and a great, great. He builds the story every single one. This takes you by the hand right till the moment when he just, he barely got like his part, like the part that he wanted to say out before he just started dying. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's that was a that was a good story. Yeah. But, well, we're going to do one more turkey stories episode. And man, we hadn't even talked to Holly about trot lining. You were supposed to go trot lining today. Yes. Well, I didn't get to go Dave. I did the past two days was trot. When we, when Josh invited you here, you were like, you're like, I'm on spring break. I'm like, oh, are you at the beach? Are you skiing? She's like, no, I'm trot lining. Yeah. Yeah. He called me and he was like, can you come next year? I was like, I'm kind of down south Arkansas, but I'll figure it. I'm going trot line, but I'll move it up some. So yeah, we went down there and went down South Grant, like Gerd in Arkansas. And we were on the river. I had a family friend with us and then his grandson, who I have since taken, I take him to Turkey hunt now. And we have a lot of interesting stories with him. But he is eating up with all the hunting and he's probably 13, I think. And we were down there trot lining and we actually on the first day, I only, I don't really think I've ever been trot lining. I mean, this was probably one of my first couple of times going. And if I did, I was younger. And so we were reeling them in. We got like three or four, like smaller ones. And then we get to one and Greg, the older guy, and he was like, oh, wait, this is a big one. This is a big one. Like you get on the front of the boat, you get ready. And so I'm like, okay, do I do me a nether? Do me to pull the line and Harper's like, no, Holly, you net it. You net it because it's going to be more fun than that. So Harper's up here pulling this lineup and he can't even hardly pull the line. And I'm like, oh dear, this is a huge one. And he's like leaned over the boat and I'm like scared that he's going to fall in the water. And so I'm like, oh crap, he's fixing to fall over. And so I'm working out, I'm watching Harper instead of the fish and Greg's like, get the net down, get the net down. And I'm like, what? I didn't know what to do. So I'm like sitting here like trying to get the net under the fish. Well, I didn't get deep enough because the fish was so long. Oh, wow. And so it almost got off the hook and Greg goes, Holly, it's a leaf. And I'm like, oh, so we like scoop it as it's like barely even on like barely hung on the hook. Like it had gotten its boats the way off. Oh wow. And we get it in the boat and Harper and I are both like teamwork and get it in the boat. And we're looking at it, I was like, wow, this is awesome. Like it was like a 27 or 28 pounds. It was awesome. And I was like, wow, this is so fun. Catfish. What kind of cat? Flathead. Flathead. Flathead catfish. It was awesome. And we caught nine that run and then went the next day and we had more. Our boat was so full the next day. We had three, he went his other daughter and her three kids and they're all young like under 10. Oh, wow. And so it got crazy that day. Fish were getting off that day. We didn't get all of them that day. Yeah. Um, we only got like three or four that day and then went this morning and I was reeling in or I was pulling up the last line and I was like, it starts pulling me. And I'm like, oh, we got one. We got one. And it ends up the, we see the fin of the fish and it's like a big one that dies down our log and gets itself unhooked under a log. So we didn't get that one. Oh, that happened this morning. That was this morning. Oh, wow. You were pulling a big fish out of the water this morning. This morning I was pulling it out and it got away from us. But cause we were trying to get around the boat. Was it a big flathead? Oh yeah. We were trying to get around the boat, switched around cause we had all the kids at the front and we needed the, we needed Greg in the front, not the kids to get this big one in and it ended up getting under the log before you get everybody switched around. Man. But yeah, it was a lot of fun. A lot of fun. That's cool. It's fish fry fish. Yes, we did eat the past, the past two nights for dinner we've had the fish that we caught. Oh, it's nice. So did they have a camp down there or something? Yes, they have a nice cabin out there. They do cattle out there. They have a whole cattle farm and everything. So you're on the Wash-Taw River? Well, I don't know if that one's a wash-taw, but it is right next to the Wash-Taw. Wash-Taw River's over there. Yeah, there's. I've got to tell a story about Gerdon, Arkansas as we close, as we close. So I, in high school, had a friend in Gerdon and I went down there a couple times and hunted with him and fished with him and frog giggled with him. Okay. I met him at Boy State. I just went to Gerdon a couple of times. My freshman year at the University of Arkansas, well, I would have been on sophomore year because I went to Tech first. I was in this huge auditorium in one of the big class, I don't know where it was, University of Arkansas. And I'm, you know, I'm sitting looking this way and I don't even know who's behind me. And I hear a guy talking right directly behind me. And I just, just over here what he's saying. And he's not talking about anything that I could knew anything about. But I just turned around and looked at him and I said, you're from Gerdon, Arkansas, aren't you? And he went, yeah. And he said, how do you know that? And I said, I could tell by the way you talk. Wow. That kid's accent. Really? Yeah. How was it? It's true story. It's hard. I don't know. I find, I mean, it's, it's, they're different accents. They're different accents everywhere. I mean, you go from, Interesting. I would say the guy that, I'm talking about Greg that lives down there, I would say he does have an accent compared to most other people. Yeah. Yeah, he's got. I don't know what it might have been. I'd just been down there and, and heard my buddy, you know, just been in that community. And it was different enough from my, where I grew up that I just, my ear caught it. And I, I didn't even, I didn't ask him. It was, I just turned around and I said, you're from Gerdon, Arkansas. Aren't you? And he was like, yeah, how can you tell? I, I just tell by the way you talk. Well, that's. And that's the last time I heard of that guy. Did you ask him his name or anything? I mean, I probably did. I don't remember. I, I, that's all I remember is just called him out and he was like really surprised, you know, this is before social media and stuff. And you know, and what's the, what's the social media? Yicac. Yicac. Yicac. This is before Yicac. It's way before Yicac. Yicac is a weird thing. Well, Holly, it's so nice to meet you. Thank you for telling your story. It was awesome. Go, go gather up another story and you can come back. There's plenty of stories. Yes, I'm excited for the booth. I'm so excited. Is there anything else that we needed to talk about? I think we covered it all. Holly, anything you need to tell the world? Any more shout outs? You need to shout out to dad. And you should have my dad. You should have my dad. He taught me everything, obviously. Yeah, I could tell. I could tell. You gotta get dad. You need to shout out to our family friend, Paul. He's like, taught me all the other hunting minus turkey. OK. All of them. Shout out, Paul. Shout out to Paul. Shout out to my mom. Shout out to cousin Trevor. And dad. And Greg. And that's it. And that's the end of the story. And Greg. All right. Yep. All right. Well, it's turkey week at MeatEater. Go get you some Phelps game calls. Man, the dead gum first light turkey line is good. Yeah. They've got new dark water in the first light. That's what I'm going to be wearing. It's good, man. Yep. Got a new first light turkey vest, too. But keep the wild places wild, because that's where the bears live. Ahoy, turkey hunters. Turkey week is on now at the MeatEater store. To help you get ready this spring, we've rounded up some of our favorite gear for chasing goblers from Miriams out west to hard goblin Easterns. We've got brand new MeatEater logo wear and seasonings, turkey calls from Phelps, camo from first light, decoys from DSD, packs and accessories from FHF gear, and a whole lot more. Select products are up to 20% off from the field to the kitchen. Everything you need this spring is all in one place. We've also teamed up with first light to create the ultimate spring turkey giveaway. Worth over $13,000. From now until Sunday, you get double entries for every $25 spent. That's 20 entries for every $25 spent at theMeEaterStore.com. Check it out now through April 5th at store.themeater.com. This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.