FFOD316 : The Secret Sauce : Fred Law

Welcome to Fist Full of Dirt, the official podcast of Mosse Oak Properties.

Whether you own a small farm, lease land, or just love hanging in your backyard.

We're all about the outdoor lifestyle and how to get the most from your time in God's great outdoors.

Now here's your host, Rodney Cove Strickland.

Test tests in my life from the Camo K. North.

I love.

Yeah, we started getting a little scatterbrain this time here.

30 seasons open.

It's starting early.

Yeah, and I know we had a little interruption in the secret sauce, but I felt like it was justified.

That was important.

Talking about Mr. Fox, you know, at length.

And I told some stories about him the other night we had the Mosse Oak Properties had their convention.

Yeah.

I forgot what they call it, but it's, you know, all their...

Like a summit.

Yeah, the land summit.

That's what they call it.

And everybody's got a Mosse Oak franchise.

It comes over the start.

And I'm always emceeing the awards tonight because they got the right agent of the year and

the office of the year.

And they give one way called the fistful of dirt for whatever reason.

Since I was emceeing it, I got to talk a little bit about Mr. Fox.

And Toxie was sitting over here with Diane and Chris Holley, who runs properties and all

that.

And I was sitting there.

And I was just telling happy stories about Mr. Fox.

And I looked over at Toxie and he just had tears streaming down his eyes.

And I thought while I was staying up here, at that time, you know, it's still there.

It's only been a couple of weeks, you know, two or three weeks since Mr. Fox passed.

But I'm glad we did that.

And, you know, we didn't...

You know, everybody, you know, that has faith.

They know Mr. Fox is looking down on us and all that.

And it was like, I just wanted to tell happy stories, stuff to make your life.

Cause I tell the story about, I'm the only guy that ever got called in on a carpet.

But Mr. Fox was the good story.

But they got a kick out of that.

Yeah.

But I can't tell you how many of those real estate agents and, hey, it's sponsored by Mosse Oak

properties came up with their favorite podcast, or their favorite and wine.

Oh.

From a podcast and it's like, I can't...

I follow this kid on YouTube called Putin's Fab Shop.

I've been following him since he had 600 followers.

Now he's got 300,000.

But anyway, I'm just about every video at the end.

He'll say, I can't thank y'all enough for watching.

Yeah.

And that's literally how we feel.

I can't thank y'all enough for listening.

That's a big deal to us.

And it is.

And I say it all the time.

It's a mystery to me.

Did anybody listen to it until I get ready to roll one out like we got today.

You got no idea.

Let me tell you, we're right in the middle of the secret house.

I think this is number three or something.

If it's number three.

And this guy's name is Fred Law.

And you're not going to see him, you know, on a call and package.

You ain't going to see him up on the stage at the Grand Nationals.

And I'm not going to see him hawking product and all that.

When I tell you, this was one of the best turkey killers I ever hunted with and I hunted

with him a good bit, you just, you just got to believe me.

Trust us.

The guy.

Other than maybe fibbing about a turkey location, I don't think he's ever told a lie on his

life.

Just a good guy.

Oh, he is.

He was the best I've ever seen, probably at sneaking and getting in position and getting

close and changing his tactics and do whatever.

And I was like, we got to get Fred Law to be part of the secret sauce.

Look, there's all kinds of great turkey killers out there.

I meet him.

I've been with him some of them are well known, some of them are not, but I say it all

the time.

You ain't going to never know who the best turkey hunter in the world is.

But I can tell you this, if I was about to start a search for that, I might go to Fred

Law's house and start there.

He was not only was he so good, had all the calls, had all the tactics and all that.

He was so much fun and funny to hunt with a blast just make you comfortable instantly.

Yeah.

And you can learn a lot by listening to him about how much this means to him, and he may

be one of a few people out there that's actually taking more people than me and that's a big

number.

And I'm going to ask him, I'm going to ask him, hey, were you any less excited because

you weren't carrying a gun, I didn't tell you he was just as excited.

You just got to trust me when I tell you he was one of the best and there's some, I'm

telling there's going to be some nuggets in here.

So if you're interested in turkey hunting, maybe your season hadn't opened yet.

I cannot think of a better way to pass the time before your season starts or if it's

already open to listen to this and maybe make your bag of tricks a little bigger.

So let's go visit one of my favorite people on the planet.

He was a professional guide for decades over at the end of the plantation and Union Springs,

Alabama, Mr. Fred Law.

When my seals grow tall, we find the turkey hunters who've heard and seen it all with

holes in hand and tails to share.

We sit and swap secrets in the crisp morning air.

It's the secret sauce, you know it's true, 20 down and dirty tactics, straight from

those who do the legends of the turkey woods, their wisdom handed down in the quiet morning

silence where the goblers make their sound.

They speak of early mornings, the misty break of day, when turkey start to gobble and

the world is painted grey, where shotguns boys are ready, they wait inside and

grey, they're every move, a testament to the thrill of the chase, they're every move,

a testament to the thrill of the chase.

Fred Law, can you hear me, we're having some phone issues over here, we're still red

next.

Are you sitting there where you got a good sale service?

Yes sir, I had to relocate because crazy sales hours are normally where it's full service.

I went to the first spot and it was one to two bars and I'm not going to chance it.

Another direction, I'm sitting here with good service by a tower now.

You seeing any turkeys?

A few, not a whole lot, the weather's been pretty, slain some strutters towards the end of

deer season, a little bit of goblin that you normally hear at that time of year, but

what about you, you see in them already?

You know I had a couple hanging around here during deer season, they left and I hadn't

seen any, but I don't get too far it up, I have to travel to go turkey hunting, believe

it.

Everybody thinks you got all, man, because got all that dirt, no he don't and I sure

didn't miss coming over to that part of the world, Union Springs hunting with you.

I was talking before this, before we hooked up with you about, we had our toughest time

deciding if Fred Law was going to be a deer thug or a turkey thug and we ended up flipping

a coin, but, man, some of the best turkey hunting I ever been around was with you and

we brought one over.

I told a little bit of the story about that was the worst day ever.

It was, I don't know how much you remember that.

It was cold and distinctly remembered and because you and I and it rubbed off on lawns

chip off the old block, we came from the mentality that no matter what the weather, some

weather, face of turkey wouldn't be polite.

We just got to find that turkey and I remember on that particular hunt, we were persistent

and we stayed with it with income, the weather, rain, some wind and you know, we located

it wound up being an ice hunt and we got the deal done.

Yeah, well that's, that's the, I tell people all the time, here's a deal in the turkey

hunter and a turkey killer is, it's not about what kind of call they got in their hand

and it ain't about the stuff they got in their vests is what's between their ears.

Some, some people, some people to get to, some people to get to a creek, knowing there's

probably turkeys over there and they don't, I'm going to wait till the water goes down

and turkey kills.

They got their wallet in their mouth and they're hanging their gun up over their head

to waste through that stuff and that's why I wanted to talk to you about turkey hunting.

I've been there, done it with you and you know, I tell people all the time, you won't

ever know who the best turkey hunting in the world is because he ain't talking, he's

some guy driving a gravel truck or whatever, you know, I mean, the great turkey hunters

are everywhere.

So I appreciate you taking a little time to answer some questions.

This is a very popular series, we've asked some of the best turkey hunters around

the same 20 questions and some of the answers are similar and some of them are a little

bit different.

But I'm going to pick your brain if you good for it.

I'm good for it, boss, just follow away.

All right.

All right.

First questions, do you still scout preseason because I know you got your places, your

older now and all that, but do you still scout any before the season opens?

Yes, sir.

I do and I'll expand on that a little bit.

Like you said, I'm hunting some of the same dirt I've been hunting for 50 plus years

and I need to scout that and know.

I know the weight, although, you know, your shoes, all your creeks, I know how to get

in and know how to get out.

So, you know, I might drift through there and just look for some signs that far's, you

know, really scouting that, no, but new or property for if I'm only going with somebody

else to take up the kit or something, I like to get out.

And I do it very low key, well, when I say low key, I'm going to stop at the gate for

daylight.

Now, I'm going to listen from the gate or if it's a black top where you can stop a couple

of places and listen, I'm going to listen.

And then I want to put boots on the ground.

I don't necessarily have to hear the turquoise goblin.

It's nice to know different merges russians, so you've got an alternative plan when you

go to that property.

But I like to get in there in the middle of the day where I don't bugger anything and

just ease around and see how everything awaits and connects if there's any obstacles

or like you talked about the creek, water, slew, anything that'll make a bird hang up.

I'd like to know about that, rather than have to spend a day and him teach me that, well,

I'm saying on the other side of this slew and you can't get to me.

So I'd like to know if I want to wade that beaver slew or whatnot, but I try my best not

to interrupt the turquoise whatsoever.

And I don't have to hear them because if I can see that tracks, mostly hand and go

up the tracks going both ways through gates or up and down roads or whether it's a loading

ramp or whatever, mostly dust and spots with hands, droppings, see some feathers.

I know they're there, so I don't have to hear them.

Yeah.

And my second question was, let me, let me, I got one of, I got one other thing I won't

expand on.

I just thought about that's why we're here.

I, some people may say, well, that's not exactly kosher, but I don't want to scout my property

or prop down hunting.

I scout the neighbor's property, not only now, let me, let me clarify, I want to ask

out the neighbor's property.

I got to.

I want to know who's barking at what gate, how regular this guy's turkey hunting or if I

got competition on the, or join in property, I want to know it.

And then if I got a piece of property that I know I got competition and this guy only

hunts on the weekend or something like that, I may let that place slide and hunt a different

place and, you know, hunt that there in the week.

If, if I got some turkey thugs hunting next to them, that gives ear markers, hit that

place, you know, open them on and go on in there and try to get, get what you need done,

done there.

And that's what I mean by scouting the other property to know what you're up against.

Spoken like a true turkey, though, I've always felt like I made a mistake making you a

deer, though, not a turkey, though, but then, but that, but that worked out good.

Now, you was talking about low key, talk about what you do when you're scouting, when

you're moving around, because I know you are as stealthy as they come and talk about

not disturbing the woods and all that, how does Fred go from this slew to that hill top

and back?

Are you real careful with that?

I'm very cautious, I don't want to speak anything.

I'm going to go to all, all possible steps to, I don't want them to know I'm there.

If it's after, if it's early morning, I don't have to necessarily, I like to hear turkey

gobbled, but if I'm going to try to make one fire off, I'm going wild in the morning,

just naturally, that's what I'm going to do.

But then once it's up in the day a little bit and I'm moving around trying to see how

the property lays or whatnot, I'll use a crow call.

I want to, you know, use that to get a bird and to answer.

And if I feel like I've got to get one to gobble and it won't gobble to the owls early

or the crow's when you're moving around mid-morning or whatnot, then I will reluctantly

go to a boat paddle type call or a loud slate, but I hate to do that unless I absolutely

have to because, you know, turkeys, they pick up on stuff real quick and there's some

people that may be that guy on that property next to you and you hear him over that two

three weeks photo season comes in, he's there every weekend, just soling away with calls

or you'll see him and talk to him or something like that, oh yeah, I call one up this morning.

I mean, there's no need in calling turkeys up preseason.

You've got one or two good opportunities to call in, I expect, you know, old to bird

and when you, if you call him in preseason and booger, you better get that bird back in.

That's just I am, I am very cautious not to, I don't want them to know I'm in the game

till it's season's open and we leaning against the tree and we there to accomplish the

goal of bringing a turkey home, that's when I go to my turkey house.

Gotcha.

It says job to stay alive and your job to shoot him and both, both people need to be really

good at their job.

Let me ask you this, we're talking about South Alabama now, but people listen to this thing

all over the country, but in South Alabama, you've been there your whole life and I know

how good you are.

Do you think the turkeys on average here start gobbling about the same time or do you think

it's weather related or temp or whatever, do you think they kind of start up about the

same time?

Because you've been doing this longer than I have and you know the answer, but you're

asking me, they absolutely start up the same time, year in and year out, does weather

play a part, absolutely.

You can have an early early spring and then they give a little hotter earlier, but for

the most part, you can set it, you look on the calendar, you can just set it, it's ready,

but there's some years that it'll be cooler and you let season open and they're just

not quite gobbling as good and you know it's because it's cold, but for the most part

year in and year out, towards the end of the dear season on 30th morning, you're going

to hear birds gobbling and nowadays with all the technology, everybody in their brothers

got strutters all around the turkey feeders and stuff, you know from the last two or three

weeks of their season, turkey's there, everybody starting it, switching their mind all for

deer and on the turkey's and the turkey's already with the pretty weather already to make

it their switch getting ready.

Yeah, I had a guy, a good guy, a turkey kind of guy and he let's know that he's waiting

all of them maybe, but he said, you know, he said they open in the season toward the end

of the breeding season and I said, well, you know, it just is what it is.

I'm going to ask you some hunting questions now, this is what people love and this

answer gets answered a bunch of different ways, you know, I've had everybody on their

hair all night and Chris Kerber and Dave, all in people, but do you ever call to a, this

is hunting season now, you got you going, you ready?

Do you ever call to a turkey while he's still in the tree, right?

It's sunrise, daylight, you got in a good spot.

Absolutely.

All right, go ahead with that because I call to him.

If I know the turkey, like if I match which with him on a prior hunger to, if he's just

hemmed bird that gobbled on the limb, but maybe he's done had a little bit of hunting

pressure and I know that he's not going to go for the calls.

That's the only time I won't call.

And I'll set up on him the same way just like if I was setting up on a bird that was

red hot, but when I set up on that hemmed bird, that I know it's going gobbled, but if

I call to that bird, he's going to hush and then he's going to walk down the limb on

the backside of that tree and when he pitches out, instead of pitching bridgeway, he's pitching

360 degrees down the direction.

So I don't call to him.

I'll set up on him and I'll wait till, you know, just about time, let the hands get going

if they're still hands around and all of them not nested.

But then I'll do a fly down.

I'll do what I call a vocalist fly down.

No cackle, no nesting.

I'm going to try to do it.

I don't know if they're coming through, but I just pat my, my both hands on the side

of my pants just, you know, in the fly down just to mimic the wings popping.

I'll do that and then when you stick the land and I'll just do that little wide scratching

of the leaves on each side.

And I have absolutely had birds more than once that will gobble to that fly down and

all the leaves scratch.

And if they ever do that, just scratch every now and again.

And a lot of times that bird will just not even fly down, he'll just hop right down

in front of you and blow up in a strut and then it's, I've had them, you know, readily

fly down and you can shoot them when they hit the ground because I set up, the way I set

up on the bird that I know where he is, I use a couple of tactics.

The one tactic I always use is I get their son.

And when I meet, when I say get their son, I mean, get there in the cover of darkness

and get set.

Once I get set, I'm ready for him and if he will pitch down and I'm going to be in his

grill as the second part of that one, I mean by in his grill, I'm going to be 50 yards

from them in the tree if I can get that close, if it ain't, you know, a bunch of popping

nosey tight.

You know, it's tough to walk across hardwoods, you can pick your way straight in there

with no trouble.

But if it allows, I'm going to be in his grill to where I'm in the game at the get go

because like you said, while I go, it's, they objective to escape us.

It's our objective whether we're hunting for ourselves or we're guiding somebody is to,

you know, get the bird.

And so if I can get him on the ground and crack a daylight, before I have that neighbor

old young of this got that yon, yon, yon, yon, it's walking.

If I got a turkey keel and we walking out while he's still wondering where he's going

to set up, that's even a better deal.

I'm going to reckon say as far as slipping in on something, you may be the best I've ever

been with.

And some people say, oh, you can't get that close to a turkish red log and get that close

to a turkey.

Give me, give me, I have, I have sat down under the trees, I actually roosted in.

You missed him by one tree.

I don't have a problem doing that, but I let the bird pose back to the part about how

much you do you call to a roosted bird.

I call it test in his temperature.

There you go.

I see how he's responding and how he's acting.

And that dictates how much I'm going to call to him.

Sometimes you're in a crunch for time, whether it's work or you've got places to be.

And if you can get him on the ground before the hands fly down, you've got a better chance.

So if I got a bird fired up, I'll jump on him with both feet and try to get him right

on on the ground.

And, you know, as soon as I can see to kill him, but I, you have to be careful.

I've had, especially in England, while we did all that burning, they would fly down

out there and the dog, they'd fly down and be in gun range because you couldn't see

the turtle.

Why?

It'd be that dog.

Yeah.

So you have to be careful.

Don't get him down on the ground too early.

Well, you know, the old times I tell you, you never call to one while I send a tree.

And I was like, I did all these seminars and the name of my seminar there are no absolutes

because I've been with some of the best and everybody does it a little bit different.

Let me send some, some hints on the difference in setting up opening weekend when they ain't

no foliage or nothing.

And then later in the year, when you got plenty of cover, how are you, how are you more

careful early in the season when they can see and I was so good?

Now, I, early season is because I believe in that what I call soon, I had rather be 30

minutes early than five minutes late because we've all had that muddy that we spoke to

me, chate the gate or me, chate this station and you're going to grab a couple of cough

in here and they're awake and then when you get to the property, you're supposed to hunt.

There's no way to walk across that crop field or that cow pasture.

There's just, you hear the birds, but there's no way to get out of them.

So I want to be there.

I'd rather be 30 minutes early, setting darkness, but that way I can use that cover to get

there and you can get away with so much more.

But also, perilla head is a good example, naturally satyrs is green and pines is green, but

I keep in my turkey vest a good pair of little lockers, little shorts that you use in garden

and stuff, little wrap that's got a little flip on them.

And most pasture gates has got perilla head just some type of little greenery.

I'll clip a handful of just, you know, three full foot columns, switches, whatever you

want to call or greenery on them and I'll talk that in where I'm going to set up and

then I'll just stick that up just a little bit around in front of you when I get back

against the tree and then those, those little clippers come in handy.

There's always a saw briar or some type of vine or maybe two or three little old cane

break, something else is in the way that you can just sniff to move out of your way when

you're getting set up to just make you morn and sit more comfortable and then to be

able to, you know, maneuver you're going or whatnot.

But that's how I get in early season is I go in early and I rely on my camouflage, but

if I can care some greenery with me, I always, you know, will sniff and care a little greenery

with me.

Toxie Hays does that and he invented Mossy Oak, right?

He always says, he says, man, I don't trust him and I don't either.

So that's a, that's a, well, like mine's like a like and, and you know, good time with

large help.

She, I remember when I first started turkey hunting on Monday, and of course turkey hunting

has changed a lot over the years, but I was told that you had to, because this is full

face mask, full people had, you know, way before Mossy Oak College, when you found any

kind of camouflage, my mom made my camouflage, because there was no kid's camouflage, and

things.

So she made it, but my dad's mom told me was you had to hide and I'm telling my kid

being, Bramber, you'd be so heated and turkey call her up and you couldn't see the turkey

through the brush and then we, you know, we started learning that, hey, if you get your

back against the tree and you put a face mask on and you're such steel, yes, they can

see, but you can, you can get away with a lot more than what we used to think possible.

And you just had a little bit of that greenery and stuff to break it up more and it just,

it just helps.

You don't trust me either.

They do.

I mean, let me ask you this, because I got to go with you when you're in your prime

and I ain't saying you ain't in your prime now, but do you do anything different at this

age or have you become what you think is a better hunter or you're more patient or you

still roll just like you did when you was in your 20s?

All right.

You just hit one key word there, patients.

I am definitely more patient, but that's kind of too prong.

You hadn't been with me in quite a few years, but I'm sorry to report, but I'll turkey

numbers around here have taken a good hit.

Yeah, everything.

So everywhere, but they coming back, I feel good about it, so the number of birds are

not out there.

And so it depends on the property that I'm hunting is if I know there's not but a couple

of birds there, and then I know the way of the property.

If I can move on them or whatnot, I will, I'm more patient to sit there and wait and

I've got her going, I've given up on you, too, I'd be on the go for growth mentality,

a lot of, you know, I've got a lot of people that were only in for, you know, a couple

of three days.

And so you had to push that envelope trying to get them a turkey.

And so I would push them, I try not to spook turkeys, you know, but I would, if I need

to try to cut one off from maneuver to a strut zone or whatnot, I was going to quick

to move.

So I'm a little more patient, but if I'm on a bigger tractor property and there's birds

there, even at my age, can I run and go, I have no problem in 10, 15 miles a day, I'll

wear the boot leather out, traveling.

And I mean, I love it so much, you know, I just, if that's what it takes, and I want

turkeys all day.

Some people, they want turkeys in the morning, want turkeys quick, yoblin or whatnot, they

go on fishing or they've got all the stuff they're going to do.

When I go turkey hunting, brother, I go turkey hunting.

I'm there for the duration.

Seen it, been there and done it with you.

That's awesome.

I love it.

And there's a lot of people, you know, some states you can't hunt them until just noon

or one o'clock.

Right.

Man, that afternoon can be great.

We're going to talk about that here in a minute.

Now, let me ask you about this, going back to, you got one in a tree and you got where

you needed to be and you got there earlier and all that, and you decided you're going

to call this ain't one of them old bad turkeys.

What's Fred's start with is a mouth call, slate, you don't done you, leave for off

them.

But if you're going, if you're going to be up at one, what you usually start with, what

kind of device?

I almost always start with a slate call.

Yeah.

My mouth calls in and ready to go.

I'm highly proficient with a mouth call, but there's something about a good crystal slate

just the tone and the early morning woods and whatnot and just those little bitty, you

know, purrs and just, it's just so sweet, but sometimes we're on a combination of both

and I let the professor in that tree or once he hits your ground, I let that professor

tell me what he likes and we've all been there hunting with, you know, sometimes there

will be two or three of us together hunting.

And everybody's good, everybody's good at the calls that you, but they'll be one call

that a turkey just seems to hit the lows that one call way, but he'll answer it, way better

and more often and get hotter and so I don't have calls laid out on both legs when I'm

sitting in the morning, I haven't laid out where I can switch and I try to find what

that turkey, I want to feed each individual turkey, what he wants and when I figure out

what he wants, he's going to get a steady dose of it and some birds we hunt, you know,

two or three days before we, you know, match which and checkmate and I used to love

touching the turkey or having a hunter punch to take it, but now it's almost sad because,

you know, you don't get to match which with that one no more, but you just learn what

they like, you know, and if I fed one some calls yesterday morning and he's skating, but

it didn't quite, I may go back after that saying bird, if I don't have another place or

another spot tomorrow morning, just on when you information, but I may handle him totally

different. I mean, I start quite as early on the limb with him or I may use total different

calls and not even use any of the calls that I used the day before on him. I just let them tell

me what they want to hear and then go from how they act. That's, that's about as good advice

as you can get right there. I'll tell people all the time, I'll tell them my 80 solter story,

the difference again in a turkey hunter and killed her and me and him was hunting some

riders over there in Alabama. Big, big property. So we had the luxury of going from spot to spot

to spot and a way that could cut on a mouth call about lay as loud as anybody. So I was just filming

letting him run and show he'd get out. You know, down that holler and anyway, we stopped one time

and he cut and he went around behind the pickup truck there. I guess to use a bathroom

and I walked that two call out and I went, and a turkey gobble and man, he snapped his head

around. We went down there. We didn't kill that when I forgot what happened. But the next every time

after that we'd stop, he turned around and look at me and and pumping his face. He's telling me,

cut at him. He didn't care who made him right. He could care less as that turkey gobble at that

two call because it was louder. He just wanted to own the turkey and I was like, some people are like,

no, I call my own turkey as well. Maybe you ain't got to call they like. You just

ride and check the ego at the door. It's one thing I loved about hunting with you is like,

whatever it took, that's what we did. Right. And I want to expand on two things if I can keep my

training the thought because we're moving pretty quick. But just what you just say it about,

you hopped out with the two. It's always good to have that second opinion because they may prefer

the other one. And then you were talking about y'all didn't get that particular bird.

It's in my anandage when we had so much vast property and birds.

It's always very healthy if when I had to use the the called blue cake mid-morning. I call it a one

hit wonder. You know, a lot of times you'll stop and that one will just

right off the bat. You go out there and he'd give you that one hit and you don't hear him anymore.

You'll say, all right, we're going to make him gobble twice. He can gobble again for we go after him.

But, you know, you have to be careful because if he's ready, he can be coming at you.

But back onto the sound and what turkey's like. I was hunting with a gym neighbors one time,

was right on the edge of a creek, band of a creek. And I had left my calls. They got thrown up

whatever reason on the dash of a truck. And I call it when when my calls get so stuck together,

I know it's not true. They're not literally welded. But that's what I say. I said,

but that young call was all welded together. And so I was trying to, we were trying to get a turkey

going. And I was trying to call and it wasn't worth a hoot. And I saw it in the creek. And we had

this one bird that didn't don't like me talking about. Gobble once or twice, but he really wasn't

interested. And so we were trying different stuff, trying to make up a man. And because I flew in,

I welded up my off call and it sounded like a five-dog who get up my wire band. I was fishing a

pole set into the creek. And that turkey double gobble. So I hid him again with that screechy thing.

And he fired right off. And we ended up killing that turkey. And Jim, Jim tells the story. He

just put his go up me said, I let that screech out. I'll call that turkey.

You just, look, you don't ever know. I tell people, you know, every season, no matter how old we get,

it's like, man, if we can just hear that one, we're going to take, he gobble one time. Let's go.

And by midway, the season, you stand in there and you've been getting up at three,

going four o'clock. It's like, if he'll gobble three times, I'm going to, I'm going to move 100 yards.

And by the end of season, it's like, all right, he's answering. But if, and if I see him, I'm

going to move that way, but it's like that, that first guy was, you talk, you show out. You'll be like,

he ain't gobbling. He ain't gobbling hard enough. I ain't going to that one. But that was,

right. That was back in the good old days.

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Share the gift of a gobble this spring. There's been a few times I can recall when I've been on a

burden there and didn't get him. Couldn't go back the next day or maybe even that next week. But I

got a buddy, maybe it's a whole boba. I can send him a waypoint on own eggs. Or the gobble was maybe

where he was gobbling or where he went. Something you can hold over his head when you need help. Fixing

your truck, working on your house project, or maybe you want to know what a crop you're biting.

Give the gifts of a gobble. Send them a waypoint from own eggs.

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I'm going to pick your brain a little bit here. You got set up good and you got one on the

roofs. He worked a little bit and he flew down and you know, he got quiet. How long and what

dictates, how long Fred's going to sit there until he gets up and move. What's going through

your mind when he ain't coming in off the roost? All right. I'm on I'm on a soon right now and this

you might have asked me a little different. I'm on soon. This is early season that we're talking

about. He's been fired up but he's the hands flew out. He flew out and they kind of moved away

and it's quiet now. I refer to this as a time that Turkey's are being turkeys. Most of the time

they hadn't left the area code sort of speak. They still on you don't see them but they're still

relatively close but there's so many hands that aren't actively already nested and so

they may be two or three golfers and some jakes but there's not more enough hands around there so

they're just they're doing what they're supposed to do what they do every day in the spring.

Yeah. They're out there strutting and so I sit there. I know what's going on. I call it

letting turkeys be turkeys. I let them do that thing. I'll sit there a couple hours before I move

and I'll just one thing I do to kill time is I keep them a turkey vest. I make custom

strikers and I'll keep purple heart blanks and I'll keep two or three blanks and I have a couple

of different stages in the back of my turkey vest. I'll pull out and I'll go to whittling on them.

You know I'll blank that a little it down or if I got one closer where I want it I'll get on

it with sandpaper and I'll sit there and work on it and I'll listen and I'll wait and you know usually

when they free up the first thing a bird's going to do when he frees up he's going to gobble yeah

whether it was one of the same birds but then sometimes what actually happens is it's a bird

that has come off of other property and all he's done is worked into your hearing range you hear

him gobble and so you either call from where you are to see if they're going to come back or if you

know where that where the gobble is coming from you might relocate and set up for that particular

bird but I'll spend a couple hours usually being patient. So you agree there's a low

after they fly down and make a little racket and all that you agree that there's a low.

Absolutely yeah there is a low and what I what I say it is is when they fly down they got one

thing on their mind and that's taking care of hands and doing their thing and when there's plenty

of hands there early season they even have that low I think the low happens more early than it does

late I don't I don't seem to experience it as much late because they'll either fly down and come

to you gobbling or they'll go out of here and gobbling it's not that fly down in 15 minutes at

the daylight then the woods just sigh like for a couple hours I think it's just because all these

hands aren't nesting and they they got plenty of girlfriends right there whereas later season

most of them either already sitting on their nest or as soon as they fly down they're not

studying the gobblers they had a straight off to lay that egg and that's my take on it anyway.

Yeah I agree 100% take it a different direction they you heard one you're not sure you got

close enough and anyway they flew down they shut up and you ain't got no idea it's kind of

end of the law you don't know what you're going to say if you're going to keep hunting so you're

going you're going to move and try to strike one if if you're doing that what is your routine

do you move and you blow a crow call first or you start with something loud how do you go to strike one

mid morning mid morning strike one when I'm getting up to move if a smaller track said that I'm

walking on I'm going to use the lay of the land still we all the property we hunt we know where

the heals are and we know they're tend to be out we got different things going on

that we we know what for to call from and so we move to those spots and call that I'm going to

use a crow call if in all possible yeah look cold if I can get him to gobble to that crow call

then he's not expecting a turkey he's not looking for a hand or or if he were to turn and come

my direction you know a lot of times you'll get one to gobble and before you can set up he's

already done come in there and saw you before you can get set up so I don't warn him if I if I

get him if I keep myself as a hunter for him to not be thinking he's coming to see a

hand if he'll answer to that crow he's not coming to that crow then I can do whatever I need to get

to the spot get set up what without him suspecting anything but if I'm on a bigger track like

like you mentioned when we'd hunting and then stuff I'm going to travel with the truck it's just

so big you know you you cover more ground but I've got certain spots that always would stop

under a hill and I stood in a doorway of a suburban a menu day one foot in the truck one foot

on the side the door and I'm between the doors down and make the call and we've literally got

now lead the doors open so you don't shut a door for one fire so or what not we didn't then call

before that we needed to push the truck back we wouldn't crank it we'd knock it in neutral and

roll it back down the hill all kind of things you encounter but you know you just learn the

property that you hunt and and go from there and then when you totally go to a new property

where somebody else that they don't know the property or they don't know turkey hunting then you

have to fly by the sea to your pants you you look for the open ends and you ask of course nowadays we

got own acts and stuff that the game is totally changed you can pull up you can see obstacles on a

piece of property yeah that we used to we had to learn them or even old top on map we're not

they would help you but you couldn't look at them in the spur at a moment on the fly like in which

you know that's legal someplace to some places it's not legal but you know if it's legal to use

I say use it yeah take nothing wrong with technology we live in a different world nowadays but I've

seen I've seen the one foot in the suburban one foot on the door routine you're real good at

something else you was real good at and I talk about this all time is how good

during dear season how good you were at hanging a stand that that had either had cover or had

covered in front of it or as a triple butter true you was a big proponent of hiding I don't

talk a minute about how important it is where you sit down because there's a lot going on

that ain't happening at day like this happening mid-morning there's sun there's all kinds of

sun angles there shading all that what do you look for when you when you go to sit down at 10 30

11 o'clock you don't stroke on what's Fred do to hide himself a little bit okay you mentioned the

song that is uh anybody that's hunted knows how the song can shine through the woods and light up

if an old possible and which sometimes the angle you can't get it just call what what the song and

what the bird is but if you can if you can use that song like an old western if you can put that

song shining in his eye and on him coming in as opposed to on you because if you don't believe

even a great camouflage set up or set somebody up and walk on the other side and look and see the

perspective that a turkey or a deer or whatnot is seeing how sunlight can if it's shining on

you can light you up so i try to i try to use this on for my advantage and he's this advantage

but the most important thing and we've all had to plot we've all been right there standing there

and just one funders that we wouldn't expect and everybody just got you got to grab what you got

right there it worked sometimes and you know some of the funnest hunts but look for that proverbial

knot that's going to stick you in the back if uh you don't sit down on no paws and flu mac or

paws and ove and lean up against it and then be scratching like a dough with leaves three weeks uh

be smart about the tree try to pick one that's broader than your back what i always tell

everybody's it's not always possible sometimes trees smaller and you just got to go with what you

got but if you could get one that's wider than your profile then that'll help and in the shade too

will make it even that much better but i love a tree or two if possible it's in front of them

not so close that i can't it's going in a fear if i need to reposition the gun barrel or what not

but if i got one or two trees in front of me that i can let that turkey go behind and i know

when his head goes behind he can't see me because i can't see him if i do need to relocate the gun

position or or shoulder the gun if i hadn't got it up yet it becomes them but i just prefer having

something in front to break up your outline because as he's coming in and looking at you and

you've got a couple different trees and breakups and in that tree your leaning against

is wider than your profile it makes it tougher for for him to pick you out

staying in the shade that's a big deal do you have you used one in turkey chairs yet or you

still sit on a cushion when you're trying to get comfortable i still use the vast colors with a

heavy bottom cushion but i'm taking it a step further you know most turkey vests has got a

real narrow little you know styrofoam insulation that runs right up not don't even cover all

you back is if i've got another heavy cushion that actually with the bottom cushion off of a vest

it goes in the back of my vest where i have a little bit more comfort leaning back against the

tree but i've never hunted a chair i i feel just love the fanny on the ground and back against the

tree and and you know both knees up and the gun setting on the knee and under my you know my

form the butt of the gun my gun stays three quarters in shooting position just about all of the time

unless it's just totally going to be it you know we've all been called sort of feet with our

fritches down to work we got complacent of got a little lazier we thought they wouldn't come in

and all next thing you know a knee is right there and you're going to lay in a lift can you

sign all that i don't like getting cold that way yeah well then yeah i switched over to one

in little turkey seats it sits way down low i took my cushion off and i put a shotgun sling on

this thing and ain't that heavy but i i'm telling you i am way better i can sit in that chair for

two hours because i can lean back and i don't have to have a tree it's made i think it made me a

better hunter but i got a little bit more downforce in some people so maybe you know i suppose you

well i suppose i suppose yeah being comfortable you can sit longer and the more comfortable

you've you've got to countless people and you know how you get mixed bags with

what people you take and being still and when you say somebody go to fidgeting and reposition

and at least rathlin and you know a comfortable hunter can be wage failure and you'll be a lot more

sick so whatever whether it's a seat whether it's cushions just don't sit on the roof don't

don't sit and bend your legs the where they go to sleep and then you feel like you got needles on

them or whatnot and you just wind up in a bind so just try to get comfortable when you

on that initial plop down when you start that hunt try to be comfortable and you're going to be

more successful how many turkeys you think got the have spotted a hunter at a hundred yards

because he was moving that leg or readjust and they never knew he was there when you try to tell

people happen every day you got to be it's like i was trying to explain the guy about being quiet

i said now there's quiet and turkey quiet and some people just they can't comprehend that but

that being uncomfortable is a big deal this next question i could answer it for you because

i've been with you but i want to talk about early season you so far it up and it's got it's

raining a little bit i don't mean a tropical hurricane kind of storm but you deal with some some

moisture and some precipitation what does Fred do different if it's a bad morning to spit

the rain sprinkling how do you change your tactics because you may not well yes you believe it

because you know it already i'm not talking or cold like a winter type rain we encounter that

sometimes in the spring i had rather hunt turkeys with a light springtime drizzle when it stays

overcast cloudy and rain these turkeys stay in these egg fields and these cow pastures all day they

don't go in yep they stay out you can move all the the understory so much quieter you can walk

the leaves you don't still move all right the rain is falling it's hitting these leaves so if you

just picture everything is moving it's at our advantage those turkeys are in edge of a field and

if we're trying to make our move up there to get closer a reposition they can't pick us up

as quickly when it's raining and everything's moving it's we're just like a glove just blending in

but they they stay out they stay active uh turkeys the black feather nobody knows that they know what

mid morning in the hot sun it's not that the turkeys don't want to gobble it's not that the turkeys

they still go strut and do that fine but take a one in the shade in the cool and comfort of

when i say it i hot turkeys all day i kill them many turkeys in midday you know yeah but it's

because i know worth to hunt them to go worth their and and hunt them in their environment

he's not gonna get out in that egg field or that cow pasture at 12 30 but if it's raining

he's gonna stay out there all day yeah but you just you have to know and the one other thing i do

different when it is raining if i start the day off and i know it's raining there's some

calls and i'm particularly crazy about that i'm gonna pull them out and they're coming out of the

vest i don't want them wet i don't want them to sit there and get but if i get out there and in

the rain starts i keep a couple zip locks gallon zip lock bag and i i'll take a few calls that i

don't want wet and i'll put them in that zip lock and then fold the zip lock and slip them back

into the compartment that they go in and i will pull them out to use though just because i don't

want them wet and then that also that tactic with the zip locks comes in handy for that that

creek we were talking about earlier ball it in your mouth and you're gonna hold your head is

having zip locks come in handy for some calls like that or and you know like other stuff in your

vest i keep my chop from a friction call i keep it in a 35 millimeter fan canister for two

reasons keep it dry and keep grit that you get in your pockets or or what not from getting on it

you get grit on chop and try to put it on a smooth on your paddle or what not you know i well

that it works so just just some little things i do that maybe other people got their own deal but

if somebody takes something from what i'm all for enough or younger hunter or what not maybe

to help them out absolutely now the last for me and you when Lauren killed that turkey with you i was

there i was just filming i was a journalist on that hunt but we had to deal with some rain we also

had to deal with high wind so you got a day of this like you got the day off that can be kind of

rare but that winds whipping 20 miles an hour what's what's Fred's tactic for that

kind of kind of like that particular hunt you're talking about my go-to thing

cause to start with is visual yeah i want to ride i want to ride the high ground i want to

which we located the the one she got was in a group of birds but we located them off of a

ridge stop looking down into a field and then maneuvered around to get set up and once we got

set up on those birds the where they could hear they gobbled in it was a quick hunt but had we

not located them know where they were and then knew exactly where to drive and where to park where

to walk to get set up you know we might not have had that look but i used visual if and all possible

if i can't locate something from checking the fields or the usual suspect spot from the vehicle

then i'm going to go to what i call hangout spots or hold up spots what this is is kind of like

at that particular hunt it's a spot where ridges and heels it's places that i know that the

turkeys go to to hold up because they can get there and it knocks the wind off of them

and we've all seen turkeys strutting and and the wind almost blow the strut down yeah they'll

steal strut but they don't particularly like it if they can get out of it then they're going to get

out of that wing end but once you do locate one and which if you you're going to those spots and you

got to you try your your crow call first if it don't work then you got to go to something loud

when it's windy you got to go with your loudest call you got for them to hear you because

i've hunted the turkeys a lot in the wind i'm going hunt them if it's raining i'm going

hunt if it's windy i've hunted them in the snow when you have a freak snow stone i'm going turkey hunt

so i'm going to hunt them with whatever the good lord you know blesses us with that day

but i'm going to tell a story of a particular turkey and then we can draw some

correlations from it all right we located this bird mid morning and all we located

off the black top on them one of my grandad is pastures and it's a big peacon orchard

it's got a roll in heels and there's old farm terraces and stuff that go around and turkeys

a lot of this particular place well it's a single goblin he's out there right by see you

you were to drive and park you were to get to so we parked we followed the woodline we get to the top

of the ridge and use you know the ground and everything to get out we got set up next to a big peacon

tree and we got visual on this turkey and we couldn't get any closer in about 300 yards because

this is a big open peacon orchard we called to this turkey as loud as we could call

we looked at him he'd raised up and we so we nearly was here we called and I think he got

but couldn't tell you i pulled my binoculars out and got hooked with us i said call to him

he called to him loud and you could see that with the binoculars you could see him just

throw that goblin i say he's answering his head started changing color so with that point in the

game we just went with the loud call but i kept binoculars on and i would relay the goblin response

that normally we rely on our ears to tell us what's happening but i was able to relay so we

knew how much to call and then he started working his way and we called that bird in from about

300 yards but have we not spotted him visually i don't know that you could have heard him

if we just went the tree line going down and you know calling because he had to get

because i'm gonna say that bird was with 150 yards so you could really hear him it was so windy

that day yeah but we actually killed that bird on a on a we killed him on a on video he wound up

being a movie star wow and you had them behind us always people asked me about that high when i said

nothing i did and this is back when i had to get video i was pretty relentless i'd say double

everything you cover twice as much ground you call twice as much and call twice as loud and just

hope but uh speaking of pulling you binoculars out other than your calls what's in frid's turkey

vest when he rolls out there i bet you my turkey vest weighs 20 25 pounds tell me about it

that thing has got everything but kitchen sink in it brother i guess uh you pay me to it there's

a few must-have that uh that i i'm not hardly going to the woods without uh first and foremost

first and first and foremost uh i got to have cough drop or some hard candy yeah or something

all like that we've all been there where you get just that itchy that scratch and you can't

can't get rid of it so a little piece of peppermint or something comes in an opinion yeah and that's

especially in the spring everything's blooming right all that pollen and stuff and so i got to have

that and anybody that says they don't care this they don't been called for trouble before but

i care about a half roll of toilet paper and i get one from the house when it gets down small

and i crush it i put it in a ziplock bag and it goes in the back of the bed that's man i've got to

have i care of thermoslayer with me cause so i got to got to have it and i keep in one of the

little compartments i keep this fair wafer and the fluid for it i'm going to keep the can i'm going to

ski this fray yeah um i mentioned a little earlier i got to have my nippers in there uh that i use

those nippers daily you know whether it's pruning up and then when i go in in the afternoon you want

to talk about carrying a little nester greenery or grab it along the way while i'm getting the

where i'm gonna set up this afternoon you've got to be comfortable so you know i i brush it in

of where you can take that little nap if you need to but afternoon you usually got a way to good

while before the action goes yeah that i have uh back to the turkey vest and i'm sorry i'm going to

keep a a couple of granola bars gotta have a couple of bottles of water to boot off in there

yeah i'm gonna have a cigarette lighter uh never know when you might need it or might not and

then some people with particular towels they use a cigarette lighter to get the pay ready on

them a lynch gets late but i keep the i keep a small extremely bright flashlight yeah rarely ever

use it but i have it if i needed an emergency or this is one particular time that i will always

use it if i'm fixing to walk a foot log or beaver down i don't care if it's going in in the morning

or if i'm been in there and it's after dark and i got to get my way out i'm going to give it a quick

look on that log and that beaver down for i step on the cotton mouth going across that

hey i got to help that hey man i got to have that flashlight in there yeah and that out and then i

mentioned uh you know i'll put it on some strikers during the load try to cure sometimes so

the bottom of the back of my turkey vest i have you know two or three of that purple heart cedar

blanks and i keep a longer knife and then i keep a few extra sheets of sandpaper and it's in a

zip lock so it won't get wet or whatnot where i can either use it on my strikers i'm fiddling

with or if i need to tell a little piece you know you wear it out on you you slate calls so if i

need to need an extra little piece i've always got some in the back of that vest i can reach

him yet but and lastly uh i i care a couple extra turkey shells uh you know you time to time

you out how to kill a snake or nowadays we run into those hogs and so if the turkey hunt old

with and i need to take care of some hogs what not i hate to use turkey shells but if it if it

gets rid of them things i'll fire a couple of them all yeah that's a southern thing they can

show me show hunt up speaking to turkey shells uh it's Fred carrying a 20 or a 12 gauge each day

get all the pants cuz where i'm hunting uh these guns have changed so much yeah i mean i've

got a custom eight sadness that i had i had a lot of work done on and i had it specifically

brought down the plantation in that burn because if people hadn't hunted a burn before hunting

or ag feels one thing hunt the cow pasture is the thing but when you hunt and everything is burnt

down to the bare ground you got to use the lay of the land and sometimes the difference in

getting that burners a few extra yards you needed to go in like that and so i had it that i'd use

or i'd loan it to the clients to use as well uh no time for how many birds that gun kill but nowadays

i don't have to tell you there's four tans and 20 gauge guns that'll fold a turkey up 45-50 yards

like a walk into park and the older i get that less recoil is a lot it is nice a lot of weight

gun shorter gun to maneuver and carry uh shoot i ain't think back time like that shorter or lighter

mid-80s i went through a phase birds were clinical and i wanted to put more challenges on myself

i went back to my very first shot gun that i was given as a kid as a little short

14 and mid-80s i started carrying that 14 and because most of the turkeys i don't know if you'll agree

with me but most of the turkeys i feel are called in for other people to kill you could have

killed those birds with a 20 gauge would would dole feel 23-40 inch feel eight yeah i mean most of

the time you're talking about a 25 to a 30 yard shot most of the time they will come closer but

you know a lot of these guns are are really overkill my dad spent when jarthia his life hunting

with a sweet 16 and he killed as many turkeys as anybody in there i'm talking about killing

graveyard day you know he wouldn't go and shoot 165 yards with it but you know when you start

talking 40 yards on in and just about anything a full one especially with the the shells that we

have up today i remember that eight saving you i think you were the first guy ever to know that

had a had a gun worked on and built for turkeys that was impressive and now like you say you can

buy something off the shelf and get you an aftermarket choke and some TSS if you shot any of that

TSS loads or you're still going to old school i have shot some of it because but i still got

old school ammo i used to buy some of our company they still make it and it's not don't confuse

it with them okay to talk about i ain't trying to get nobody applaud but uh don't confuse it with the

old rimmington nitro mag that was some good ammo yeah but this company is nitro ammunition and

they make they make shells not just you know with different shot but they use different powders and

stuff and they make the shells for the gun for the brand the gun you shoot whether it's a

Mossberg or rimmington or browning and i don't know if i still do this or not but you should

do you could send them your barrel not the whole gun and just send them your barrel and they

would create a recipe and a load for that particular gun they would try and what you've

already had a choke they just created one for your choke in your system but if not they had

an array of custom chokes and they would run through and they would sell you a choke and then tell

you which ammunition and send it back they would do that for a fee for you but you know that's

really getting technical but hey a lot of stuff's gotten technical these days yeah now i catch

a little shade from now and then about i got 20 gauges for them grandsons and we shoot TSS and

them and i tell them look i've never even patterned the gun over 40 yards i like it for the density

that pattern holds together like a basket ball out there at 40 yards and that's why i do it but

you know some people are uh they're real old school and they get fired up about that but

to me you know the guns are the last thing i think about and i know it is you too and that's why

this next this next question you may you may be one of the people on the planet who's taking

as many people as i have i've very seldom ever go without somebody and back when we were hunting

together and you were guiding all that you had a genuine enjoyment with that do you still enjoy

why do you why do you like taking people especially turkey hunting

because not just turkey hunting but hunting in general yeah it's just it's just a way of life for me

uh i can't imagine not being able to hunt or whatnot just the the wonderful people that being a

hunter has allowed me to meet and then the places that the hunting and hunting industry

care this old country southern boy is unfathomable to me now later in life just to realize

from the kid that grew up reading ever outdoor life and field and stream and they put your hands on

because you didn't have the tv shows and stuff so i would get magazines and read from cover to cover

and i just visioned all of these grand places and these hunts people went on never ever

believing that one day i'd be to some of those destinations and i would be hunting and that

that would be me it is it's a passion and for people that don't hunt cuzz or have a

hunted i would you and i wonder why do we do it why do we hunt i would challenge them to get

up one morning early and just go wild and see what god's created for us it doesn't matter

if you're setting on the front of that bass boat or if you're on a deer stand or if you're in that

woods waiting for that first gobble and when those little rays of sunshine start to hunt and

the birds start singing and it makes you feel so alive and that that precipice of breaking day

and everything it makes it changes my perspective and my outlook for the whole day just to see

what the lord created and what he painted for me to look at and that's why i do it and i want

other people you don't have to be a hunter you can just be a outdoor enthusiast to get out and

enjoy nature but i want to help protect what i've enjoyed my whole life that's reason i like

trying to you know teach or a nurse alone younger hunters or men or them so that they will enjoy

and then hopefully join organizations like the nwtl or stuff like that to help promote the future

to protect this is a renewable resource if we band together and protect it and do it and i just

want future generations to be able to go out in the morning and experience a breathtaking sunrise

and you know hear that that first gobble or that that elk doodle or set the hook on a large mouth

but whatever you're doing in the outdoors i want more people to get involved it's just a good

clean healthy way alive to get kids involved in and if they'll tear it throughout their lifetime

and that will be better on a count of hunting and what hunting offers as opposed to a lot of

devices that kids nowadays can get trapped up in you know in inner city and and you know what i'm

saying it's just it's a good old hope some american cultures just to hunt and i just don't

nothing to happen to it i want our heritage to stay true and i want it and future generations

to be able to enjoy hey man let me ask you this have you ever been less excited on a turkey hunt

when you wasn't carrying the gun if you were just guiding somebody it feels the same don't it

it feels the same because as i get later in life and like i've told you all our bird numbers are down

used to early on and especially when i was carrying people because i was being literally paid

to get that person or help them ever way possible to get them a bird legally and so that was my

job to do and so i was pretty far at it and i tried to get it accomplished i hated to let the turkey

wing i didn't look to touch it to beat me as i'm older in life now i can leave those woods i'm proud

for the birds to wing and i'm proud yeah in fact some people won't believe me when i say this because

i go to some places and i know there's one or two birds that i'm not going to kill those

one or two birds left on that plate just trying to regenerate i'm hoping they're going to get better

because i go there and enjoy that turkey me and those one or two birds i do the same things like

if it was in 30 years ago in the heyday when it was plenty of them i call him up if i call him up

because i'm more yeah but i don't have to pull the turkey on him i've even just said bang

before to a turkey when he comes up back and don't take it the wrong way some of these places that i

know need help i'll shoot right beside the turkey just to flush him away to give that turkey one more

experience so that he you know trying to make him yelp mark wise so that if when he goes off

with a property of yonder maybe he uh he's not so quick you go into the gallon where he can

can make it or make it a little longer and serve us a few more him and that uh well i don't

know i don't need to ask you do you love it as much as you did when you look like and feel that but

do you know that the term yelp mark was coined over there with you at enim plantation did you

know that i didn't know that that's where it was coined that's sir i remember i remember me and

you talking about it and and you're you're the man the first man i ever heard with the yelp marks

and i went on from that particular hunt till i pointed it out to you know a lot of people what

what a yelp mark is the bookmarks and the road where somebody has stopped the strike one and

and it's a real thing and that's a cost-trickland name and turkey and hunt this amount unless but a

yelp mark uh that that's cost-trickland 100% and it it'll it's true go down in history that way

well it was coined over there i wasn't who i was with but there were some footprints in the road

and they was deeper in the front end i said somebody was standing here yapping so loud they

was leaning forward i said that's a bad yelp mark right there but that was that was so very

with you at enim alright look i'm i'm i got one more question for you i want you to tell me one of

your favorite hunting stories and i can't imagine how many cool turkey hunting stories Fred

Laws got but i want you to share just one more story with us because that's the toughest question

in the day they're all special i know even the ones even the ones you don't don't get anything i'll

tell you what i'm gonna do i'm gonna give you a couple and then let you decide which one you like

there all right this is one this is one that uh it doesn't end with a turkey uh sadly but hey

that's all right too yeah i was guiding them new to the world of turkey hunting and which when

you guide people you always try to figure out exactly y'all try to do a tutorial on the way

to watch what you got yeah i thought i had a little education with this this particular

individual and i won't call any names i'll protect you about you know what we needed to do

went to a couple of birds and i know these birds i know we're gonna peel he's gonna get his

bird we don't we at least don't shoot it one this morning yeah or the two is right where they

were supposed to be we set up perfectly because i had them fired up on the land the pitch right

down in the clean burn and i had the guy i put him out in front of me at about 35 yards just for

cold and that burn they'll come so close and then they're gonna bear or hang up and so i put him

out 35 so when they were to start their beer i hang up with in gun range well i'm seeing them

from the time the pitch down i'm expecting him to be seeing them well they're coming right down

as gun barrel and this guy turns around if you can picture it he turns around who two fingers up

in there and then there's two of them just in that forest just like that

no he did that way i mean you just you can't help it he didn't know no better oh

but uh there's two of them yeah there's two of them like i didn't know it but anyways uh i got

another one this would go my phone and it when he was my younger son when he was younger and he

get all excited and it happened to be one of them morning trying to get the kids ready and get

them to go to the woods is we were running late one of my pet peeves i hate being late but we were

going down the side of a creek and i there's a ditch it butts into the creek and i had win roads

some trees and stuff off of not tall but just you know maybe three foot tall or what not in

the little piles right up next to the ditch so they could just rot or whatnot or these turkeys

were jobbed and jobbed and jobbed and we were still in the tree and it was foggy that morning

and we were working our way down and we really should have been set up but we hadn't got there

well pop that time they started flying out so we just had to pile up right against that not

the creek but the ditch i had these little single shot four ten level off over one of the logs

and we were behind the logs and they were like three long beards and five or six of jakes and a bunch

of hands and they were fired i'm talking my way up my authority calling to them they coming

I see that little gun barrel it's just vibrating leaning against that log and his breath is going

and at the time he's he's already done you know he's been with me a good bit he's still turkey so

well let's come in and cause that about a hundred yards but they come and I mean one of the

golfers you're seeing how they're getting a groan and get out to the side and a scrub and he's

going he's going to cut them off and get that he's coming and then then them jakes just trying to

cut him off well about that time will be not expected anything that little 14 cracked off he got

so excited he done shot at a hundred yards it's just turkey so hopped up a little but they did a

crow hop off the ground they were so in such a frenzy because I just cut at him and they

went up and gobble and then jakes started running and running around in the circle I reached up

and popped that little fourth in open and slid another shell in there jump right back on him and

even though he just shot at a hundred yards and just feel that he's turkey they were in such a

frenzy I call that hole on to Raj and he he wound up killing or two year old had like a nine and a

half inch beard but I'll never forget that hunt long as a Leo man that's that's just the fact

that was your boy that's just price I'm jealous of him because he's getting the hunt with you and

I can't tell you how much I miss hunting with Fred Law because I look I've been up that road

down that road and I know who turkey killers are and I know who's a you know people on social media

or years old schools solid good woodsmen as they come and I could not wait to let everybody hear

Fred Law's tactics man I appreciate you taking a little time I know you're busy just getting

over the fluid and all that so thank you for some time Fred Law I sure do miss you brother

brother I miss you too because and I hope that we get share of tree together sometime man you

and miss Lauren and I look forward to doing so again and I enjoy this than with you today and call

me anytime brother thank you God bless you and your Fred Law have a good spring my brother

you too God thank you man see you man see you from the bunkhouse XL to the lodge package

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this is Kevin Van Dam and you're listening to a fistful of dirt with Cuzz Strickland

he's not much of a fisherman but he knows some people approved by anglers hunters food plotters

and mums everywhere it's kvd approved

Lauren you just laughed the whole time you finally turned your mic off I told you he just tickles me

to death I just love listening to him he's the only person that makes me feel like he's got more

of a Southern accent than I do I could listen to him all day he is a unique individual I'm stealing one

hit wonder there are a couple things he said that I was like that's so true I'm stealing that

you know he does have that Southern draw but he's very well spoken oh yeah he throws some word out

I was like holy cat I love listening to him yeah man he was he was so good so much fun to hunt with

and the operation over there you know back when we would go there to make tv

at in implantation and we would it was my he was that was a bow hunting only operation in a

quail thing so yeah you know and it's and don't anybody take this wrong it's so much harder I don't

care if you get offended or not it's so much harder to get on a big buck with archery gear

in the deep south and it is in the Midwest I'm just as you see it I don't know if it's a geography

or whatever maybe they don't grow and Fred could deliver that time after time and how yeah whether

the deal got closed or not I don't know that part wasn't on him that part was not on him and

man so much fun looking back and and you heard him talk about one of his boys I'd put him up

against anybody he's the best I was like well look who he learned from absolutely why wouldn't he

be yeah look at his daddy yeah and of course he's he's not as old as me but he's close he was

he was back there hunting for we had moscow can choke tubes and TSS and all this stuff so it's

fun to get that take and you know again we're not living in the past it's just like man there's

some harder knowledge back there because you had to do it different you had to get them closer you

didn't have a special gun you didn't have this or that and and some of them hard knocks turn

into gold nuggets as far as I'm concerned I'm at the hard way so my thoughts going into that

episode because we've had we're getting close to double digits on how many people have been on

the secret sauce deep down I thought of all the guys we've interviewed I feel like Fred's going

answer these most similarly to the way you would because I've been lucky I got to hunt with him

before and like I kind of knew a little bit about his tactics and whatnot but I was like I've

had a lot of their answers are going overlap well he's he's a good guy and it's different you

know everybody's different you know hunt them out west different you know I was from South

Mississippi he was in South Alabama and maybe that's why there's a lot of similar ways it's

different they're very evil and you can't trust them and they're evil yeah it's just so much fun

to hunt with somebody like them and let me tell you something if I was going to auction off

a hunt of a lifetime at the end of the year for the the most fun you could ever have I would I

will let somebody buy that and take them back to 19 whenever it was oh man it ain't in plantation

with Fred Law because it was entertaining and usually successful special he's uh he's uh he's

he's just uh so honest and when you don't care what people think yeah you speak your mind yeah

and he's about he's about a secure in that turk hunting world is anybody ever met as he should be

and we'll have another one right behind him I'm just telling you you might not know the next one

coming up but let me tell you when I tell you his turkey beard collection it's just stupid and I've

known him forever and we're gonna we're gonna finish up with another great turkey and this guy's been

everywhere you know he's got all the grand slams and world slams and all that stuff but turkey hunting

is turkey hunting and it's very very special so big thanks to Fred Law uh I'm gonna put it on

my bucket list to get them grandsons to go hunt with him on these days we'll see where that goes

wherever you at if your season's open congratulations good luck if it ain't that clock's ticking

so uh get ready taking every day enjoy it every single day as a gift you heard Fred talking about

that uh if you want to pass it on do something good start trapping join in WTF do whatever take part

and uh with that said from me and Lauren out here to Camel Cave North from Marcio can Marcio

properties God bless each and every one of you we'll see you in seven days

your favorite place visit Marcio properties dot com

oh

oh

Down in the bayou, where the mociots grow tall, we find the turkey hunters who've heard

and seen it all, with holes in hand and tails to share, we sit and swap secrets in the

crisp morning air. It's the secret sauce, you know it's true, 20 down and dirty tactics,

straight from those who do. Legends of the turkey woods, their wisdom handed down,

in quiet morning silence, where the goblers make their sound.

From long till dusk, they stalk the wild, with patience and precision, drawn out mile by mile.

There are sharp as a hawk, their ears keen like the breeze, they live the hunt, they breathe

the hunt with such expertise. It's the secret sauce, you know it's true, 20 down and dirty tactics,

straight from those who do. Legends of the turkey woods, their wisdom handed down,

in quiet morning silence, where the goblers make their sound.

We ask about the best spots and which calls to make, how to blend into the shadows,

which ammo should I take, their voices low and gravely, like the rumble of the earth,

each tip of revelation, each story full of words.

They speak of early mornings, the misty break of day, when turkeys start to gobble,

and the world is painted grey, with shotguns poised and ready,

they await in silent grace, they're every move, a testament to the thrill of the chills.

We ask about the best spots and which calls to make, how to blend into the shadows,

which ammo should I take, their voices low and gravely, like the rumble of the earth,

each tip of revelation, each story full of words.

They speak of early mornings, the misty break of day, when turkeys start to gobble,

and the world is painted grey, with shotguns poised and ready,

they await in silent grace, they're every move, a testament to the thrill of the chills.

They're every move, a testament to the thrill of the chills.

We ask about the best spots and which calls to make, how to blend into the shadows,

which ammo should I take, their voices low and gravely, like the rumble of the earth,

each tip of revelation, each story full of words.

We ask about the best spots and which calls to make, how to blend into the shadows,

which ammo should I take, their voices low and gravely, like the rumble of the earth,

each tip of revelation, each story full of words.

We ask about the best spots and which calls to make, how to blend into the shadows,

which ammo should I take, their voices low and gravely, like the rumble of the earth,

each tip of revelation, each story full of words.