Hunts On Outfitting Podcast
Stories! As hunters and outdoors people that seems to be a common thing we all have lots of. Join your amateur guide and host on this channel Ken as he gets tales from guys and gals. Chasing that trophy buck for years to an entertaining morning on the duck pond, comedian ones, to interesting that's what you are going to hear. Also along with some general hunting discussions from time to time but making sure to leave political talks out of it. Don't take this too serious as we sure don't! If you enjoy this at all or find it fun to listen to, we really appreciate if you would subscribe and leave a review. Thanks for. checking us out! We are also on fb as Hunts on outfitting, and instagram. We are on YouTube as Hunts on outfitting podcast.
Hunts On Outfitting Podcast
Ep.24 From Moose Tags to Turkey Dinners: A Hunter's Journey
What if the secret to an unforgettable family adventure lies in the heart of the wilderness? Join us as we explore the captivating world of hunting with Jeremy, a seasoned outdoorsman from Carleton County, New Brunswick. Growing up surrounded by a family rich in hunting and trapping traditions, Jeremy shares his unique experiences, from hunting in a converted school bus to the modern advancements with baiting techniques. His tales of introducing his son to the sport and the importance of responsibly mentoring new hunters are both heartwarming and insightful.
Imagine the exhilaration of receiving your very first moose tag! That’s the experience Sean recounts as we dive into the camaraderie between him and Jeremy. We hear about their year-round dedication to scouting, baiting, and preparing camps, culminating in thrilling turkey hunting adventures in New Brunswick. The duo’s stories not only highlight the strategic patience needed for hunting but also underscore the deep, lifelong friendships fostered through shared outdoor pursuits.
Finally, we turn to the culinary delights of wild game. Jeremy offers a fascinating look at the dietary habits of turkeys and the unexpected challenges of preparing wild turkey meals. From delicious recipes to the joys of family barbecues, this episode celebrates the rich tradition of wild game cooking. We discuss the profound satisfaction of providing organic, free-range meat for our families and the invaluable life lessons learned through hunting. This episode is a heartfelt tribute to the traditions, friendships, and culinary joys that make the hunting lifestyle so fulfilling.
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this is hunts on outfitting podcast. I'm your host and rookie guide, ken marr. I love everything hunting, the outdoors and all things associated with it, from stories to howos. You'll find it here. Welcome to the podcast, Alrighty. Welcome to Hunt's Unoutfitting Podcast, the only podcast brought to you by Harley's Hardly scratched new auto glass. Yeah, it's scratched Hardly, Harley's, Alright, thanks.
Speaker 1:One of the great things, in my opinion, about this pastime obsession sport, industry, recreation, hobby, whatever hunting is to you is that it's an easy thing to bring others along and introduce them to what we love so much. We can share that experience that keeps us coming back to the woods and field year after year as outdoorsmen and women. I feel it is our job, no, our duty, duty to try and bring as many people out to this enjoyment as we can. Whether or not they stick with it or like it is up to them, but at least we did our part to bring more people out, to educate them in what we do, why we do it, and also that we as hunters play a vital role in animal management and conservation. Also, without getting too political, we need as many people on our side as we can, because the anti-hunter groups are always trying to work against us and spread misinformation.
Speaker 1:Now, while they're rambling, well, today's guests have a great turkey hunting story for us. But without his brother-in-law getting him into hunting, this story might just involve one person Instead. As you're listening to this, you'll be able to tell how these two gentlemen really enjoyed telling the story together, and you can tell the fun that they had during this adventure. To me, that's a big part of what hunting is all about. Share and enjoy it. Now let's get to it. Jeremy, welcome to the podcast. Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, if you don't mind? How you got into hunting and the outdoors?
Speaker 2:Yeah, sounds good. Ken Grew up in Carleton County, born in 79. Grew up hunting, trapping. My dad was a I guess you'd call him a renowned trapper. He's unfortunately no longer with us so a lot of old legendary stories died with that. But he received a lot of awards for his quality of skinning of wild animals and you might say that he was the first or one of the first to trap a fisher and send it to auction here in New Brunswick back in the late 70s.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so of course, growing up in that kind of household, I was kind of bred into it. We had a some people might know the Benoit family. We also had a school bus that I kind of grew up hunting. Out of that we drove around Crown Land. You could park one of those rigs on Crown Land for up to three years at a time and that was our hunting camp full-size school bus with bunk beds and wood stove and everything you kind of needed to to make you survive. Um, a lot of memories out of the old buses you could have a whole podcast on the bus, the bus, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the buck bus, yeah, but uh, um, yeah, so I grew up with that. Uh, hunting big woods in New Brunswick. Um, um, yeah, so I grew up with that, uh, hunting big woods in New Brunswick. Um, you know, back in the day we didn't hunt or we didn't, uh, we didn't bait deer. Uh, we just kinda we tracked. We did a lot of still hunting back in. I was just a kid at the time but from what I remember, back in the late seventies, early 80s, mid 80s and up to the 90s, the deer population was strong enough that we did a lot of still hunting, even when there was snow on the ground.
Speaker 2:And you just literally walk hardwood ridges, you come across a buck track. You didn't necessarily follow it because it took you kind of in the middle of nowhere. You didn't feel like dragging a buck five miles over hardwood ridges and um, uh, you would, uh, you would kind of stay close to camp because it wasn't really when you were going to shoot a buck, but it was more how big was a buck going to be when you shoot it? And so I got a lot of memories of my dad, my uncles, bringing big bucks back to the camp and from there. I, you know, like most people most guys went to school kind of went to college, got away from it. Always had that in my blood. When I come home to visit, I would do a lot of hunting uh, probably fish as much or, if not more than than hunt.
Speaker 2:Um, but then, uh, you know, kind of my early thirties when I moved back full full time in New Brunswick, uh, got back and had the time, had the time, the money to invest in some good hunts and pretty sure, I shot a deer, shot a buck and a bear every year since then. So, you know, back here in New Brunswick, canada, we're allowed to bait deer. I'm not going to lie, I shot my fair share of spikes and four points off of bait piles. But 2018 kind of changed that when I shot a 222 pound dressed buck, while a combination of still hunting and tracking off our property here in New Brunswick Changed that for me.
Speaker 2:And ever since then I've kind of used a combination of baiting deer as well as still hunting and tracking to get a deer buck ever since then. So my son, I got him into hunting and it's a little easier, I feel, uh, to get a buck off uh off a bait. So that's how I introduced him into to hunting Cause I feel that, uh, you know, you do have to get a certain amount of kills under your belt before you, um, overcome that buck fever, trigger panic, and uh, I think overbait's a great way to do that, as long as you do it responsibly. But I still, for myself, when his tag's filled, I leave the bait pile and I go chase snow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you find it more rewarding. There's more of a challenge to it than sitting there twiddling your thumbs waiting for a deer to come into a mountain of apples.
Speaker 2:It's pretty cold sitting in a deer stand over a pile of apples, apples. It's pretty cold sitting in a deer stand over a pile of apples. Um and uh, you know, like, if you have a an issue setting still and you'll like to see country, then you know tracking deer, still hunting is, is the way to the way to overcome that and um, it's doable here. You know, every year it seems like the, the uh, the snow comes a little bit later in the year.
Speaker 2:So, the biggest issues that we have here in New Brunswick is when are we going to get snow and where is it going to be? Is it going to be good enough to track? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:A couple of things there. Thanks for introducing yourself. One what's a fisher? For people that might be wondering.
Speaker 2:And then the second thing you said you got away from the hunting and all that when you went to uh college, but you, you took an interesting course that still pertains to the outdoors, right yeah, so I, when I went to college, um, I um moved from the farm, you might say, to the big city and, uh, I get into other other types of outdoor sports, um, competitive rock climber, ice climber for 15 years, so that took up a big part of my time. And then, when, kind of you know, your body wears out from that you're gonna move on to something else. And yeah, um, the type of hunting I like to do now still feel feeds the need to explore and you know, hunting the big woods in new brunswick it, it fills that that need. Um, you never know. You know. The great mountaineers always said why do you climb mountains? They say, well, I climb mountains to see what's over the other side. Well, you're tracking a deer over hardwood ridge. You never know what's on the other side of that mountain.
Speaker 1:So, um, yeah, that's good. And then a fisher. Would you say it's like a weasel on steroids, fisher, a lot of steroids I should know this.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna get made a fun of if I give the wrong definition because of my forestry background, but fisher is the largest member of the weasel family. So basically picture, uh, the worst Tom cat you've ever encountered. That's 25 pounds, and once rip your face off. That's what a Fisher is.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Don't get mixed up with a black Panther because, we do not have black Panthers here, but uh, if any of your buddies said I saw a black panther, they didn't see a black panther, it was a fisher could have been a fisher.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right. Um, so then with you here today is your brother-in-law, who you introduced to the outdoor world, sean. So had you been, I'll let you introduce yourself. Had you been hunting before you met Jeremy here.
Speaker 3:Very limited. When I was a kid, you know, and I was 14, I did my hunter safety course, I got some bird licenses and then, you know, I joined the army. I went away, I was gone, I was all over the place, did that, you know, retired out of that around 2017. You know, jeremy and I were always close but I never took that initiative to hunt with him. He was always hunting and fishing but I just, for whatever reason, I didn't go with him and I think I secretly had an urge to, but I was shy, maybe.
Speaker 1:Oh, you didn't want to ask for his help, exactly so you know one thing led to another.
Speaker 3:I ended up getting a moose tag and it was like okay, let's go hunting and from and the rest is history. I can't follow the story he just told. He's told an amazing story. My story is very short. You know, it started five years ago and everything that I have done, you know I don't want to, I don't want to prop them up too big or maybe his hat will get a little bit bigger. But everything hunting I can attribute to Jeremy he's, he's exposed me to it and I've run with it. That's now. That's all I do when we're together. That's all we talk about. Um, like he mentioned earlier, hunting for us is 12 months of the year If we're not actively hunting during a season. We're scouting, we're looking, we're baiting, we're getting bait. We're doing something for for the hunting cause yeah, yeah, cutting firewood for the hunting camp cutting firewood for the camp we're going to be this weekend in
Speaker 1:39 degree weather celsius it never ends it never ends. Yeah, it's interesting. So there's no bus in your story, just jeremy. No, no, no, no, no, I've been to the bus.
Speaker 3:I know where the bus is. Okay, I've never spent any time in the bus.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:That was before my day, before I started hanging around.
Speaker 2:The bus is now buried under five feet of dirt. Yeah, it's done, it's retired. Yeah, it retired.
Speaker 1:So, jeremy, you were saying earlier that I mean, and why you got him and Sean into hunting, was someone else to apply for tags here? And then that turned into a good hunting friendship and everything brother-in-laws Part of that was. So you guys have been on a few moose hunts but you guys had a great turkey hunt this year and here in New Brunswick you do have to apply to get your tags for turkey as of right now. But we were talking earlier and thinking that maybe in some areas it won't be, you'll just be able to buy your tag, but as of right now you have to apply for it.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:So you guys, you had a great turkey hunt.
Speaker 2:Yeah, some people might say we have a horseshoe up our rear end.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, if you look at our history of moose hunting and turkey tags over the last five years. But um, um, to go back, you know, to getting Sean or, you know, getting a new hunter into hunting. You can't push it on someone. They have to show interest. You can't push it. It's like if when you have, when you have a child, a son, a daughter that you want to take hunting, it's not something you're going to push on them. They have to show interest and you have to give them enough rope that they can learn, but not too much rope that they're going to hang themselves.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:You know, what I mean. So when Sean, you know he's a veteran from the armed forces, and when he had the time to invest in hunting and you know, I guess you could say he jumped in with both feet. Um, but uh, yeah, to go on to your the, uh, the Turkey hunt the Turkey the Turkey hunt of 2024, New Brunswick. Um yeah, we both drew tags in.
Speaker 1:New.
Speaker 2:Brunswick and but, to be honest, it's not our first turkey hunt. I was successful in 2020, the first year that New Brunswick came out with a turkey hunt and prior to that, I did a turkey hunt in Maine as well, where I got a couple of toms down there and Sean's also had his license before here in New Brunswick.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I got mine in 2022. Yeah, and I harvested a turkey then.
Speaker 1:So this is where the horseshoe talk comes in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, pretty, much, pretty much. Yeah, yeah and but yeah, if you want to hear the 2024 story that was, that was yeah, that was that was pretty good so so you'll have to start the weekend prior to the season, so earlier we talked about that.
Speaker 2:We literally got our birds. Uh, first 10, 15 minutes of the season. That's not how it works. We did.
Speaker 3:We shot our birds like the first 15 minutes, yeah, we we literally scouted probably five full days before that, seeing where the turkeys are, seeing where they are the next day, seeing where they are the next day, how far? Are they moving? Are they staying around whose?
Speaker 1:door. Do we need to go knock on? I thought you were going to say you scouted for full five minutes.
Speaker 3:No, so we kind of had things narrowed down and there were turkey. We saw a lot of turkeys over those five days. But we kind of got to the point that, okay, we're going to go knock on a guy's door because there's there's turkeys close, that we'd like an opportunity to hunt them. And you were talking to him, I wasn't talking to him. What did he say?
Speaker 2:He said two other parties already had written permission to hunt his farm.
Speaker 2:Right, you know, which is understandable. But you know, the way I like to scout turkeys is the same way I scout moose, is you know, three days before the season opener, you broadcast your area to a certain size, and usually it's a pretty big size, and then two days you're going to narrow that down in and then the day before you're going to narrow that down in even more and then, if you're not successful the first day, you're going to keep fine-tuning that area, narrow it down smaller, smaller it's a good strategy, yeah.
Speaker 2:So that's exactly what we did this year. It's a good strategy. The season opener, we were literally driving back to our camp on our, our property we own, and there was a field full of turkeys and uh toms and uh and hens 500 yards from our, our camp. So we were like, uh, all right, forget about those other fields, you guys really yeah, but yeah, we narrowed it right to a pinpoint.
Speaker 3:You gotta you gotta remember too, though. Remember, we went and talked to that guy and he said he had two other parties and we kind of invested ourselves already into that area and said, oh, we're going to come back here in the morning and he's going to give us permission. We didn't. I didn't even think that somebody else could be hunting there, because we didn't see anybody else out scouting. We were the only ones driving around, really.
Speaker 3:Yeah, driving around really yeah and then all of a sudden there was no, we can't hunt here. Oh, what are we going to do? Kind of our stomach sort of fell out. It's like oh, what are we going? This was saturday, I think.
Speaker 2:The season started monday, and uh, no, it was sunday, it was the night before.
Speaker 3:Oh, oh, yeah, okay and it was like oh my god, what are we gonna do now? And we just happened to be going. It must have been 45 minutes before dark and we came across that field and there they were. And there they were, so we knew where they went to bed. Yeah, and that's what you want to know. You want to know where they go to bed, yeah, so we, we, we, we didn't literally roost them.
Speaker 2:We didn't wait till they flew into the tree, but we backed out.
Speaker 3:Cause. Obviously that's where they were going and it was a small field. Did they roost in the same area every night.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, they can, they move okay all right yeah yeah, uh, I think there's a bit of a pattern to it. But yeah, they're going to move around, they're so. They're so weary of an animal that anything will spook them out of a field. Okay, you know what I mean. So once you spook them out of a field, well, they're not going to go too far, but they're going going to stay in the same area. But you just got to roost them, got to find them, got to find them the night before, roost them, put them to bed Whatever you want to call it and be there before daylight the next morning. Yeah, so that's what we did.
Speaker 3:I think daylight the next morning was 5.30. What time did we get up?
Speaker 2:Shooting light was 5.30,.
Speaker 3:I want to say oh yeah, Something like that.
Speaker 2:We get up at like 4. 4, 3.30.
Speaker 3:We probably had.
Speaker 2:And remember the camp's only literally 500 yards from this field. Yeah, so we didn't have far to go, no.
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 2:You want me to tell how it went.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So we, you saw, you want me tell how it went. Yeah, yeah, so we literally drove like this is a place where, like I grew my, I grew up.
Speaker 1:That's where I grew up.
Speaker 2:She's stomping grants this might literally I used like literally. Where we parked sean's truck that morning to hunt the turkeys was the first place I uh caught a wild mink while trapping okay when I was like 10 years old, on my bicycle.
Speaker 2:I wasn't even old enough to drive a on a big red three-wheeler yeah, because we didn't have four wheelers back then. So this is literally my stomping ground. So, um, we knew where we had to set up and uh, you know, you, you gotta, you gotta go with something the opening morning, and that was definitely. We had a good feeling, but you gotta, you gotta make a decision.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we knew that. We knew that the turkeys were around there somewhere. Yeah, and we get up at you know stupid dark 30 in the morning and we drove out there and, okay, they're in this field. But where are they? In this field? It's dark. Well, let's go set up in in a wood line somewhere. So you know there's four wood lines in the field. There's four.
Speaker 2:You know it's a square field, yeah, and Put it into context, it's probably a three acre field.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pretty small. Yeah, pretty small Right.
Speaker 3:And we just walked up probably half the distance. Oh, I don't know, it'd be 300 yards from where we parked the truck. Where?
Speaker 2:we parked the truck. Yeah, probably.
Speaker 3:About 300 yards and we just walked into the bushes. I had a camp chair. I set it up. What were you sitting on?
Speaker 2:I just had a little thermarest cushion.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay, so we were sitting in the bushes and of course when you go through the bushes you're not really quiet.
Speaker 1:We're trying to be quiet In the dark, in the dark.
Speaker 2:Yeah, head, and smashing and crashing. Maybe a little feeling the night before celebration.
Speaker 3:Yeah, stumbling through the bushes, so anyways we get all through that and we get all set up and it's nice, it's a beautiful morning and we got the decoys set up and we got the call out there in front of us, about 20 yards in front of us, 30 yards in front of us 20 yards and our decoys are to.
Speaker 2:To be honest, they're not anything special. We got a. We had a couple hen decoys, I think, like canadian tire brand I think I got 20 bucks yeah, but she wants there, but the killer is the killer is the uh, the real fan that we had, yeah, from a previous tom that we killed okay on a stake on a goose decoy stake you took.
Speaker 1:You took the tail feathers from and put that out spread it out with the hen decoys.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it looks like there's hands in a tom. Okay, that's.
Speaker 1:That's the key yeah, that's the secret. I shouldn't be saying but yeah, that's the key secrets out yeah, so we were sitting there and now, okay, it's.
Speaker 3:You know, we're kind of talking amongst ourselves Okay, what's going on? Like something should be happening now, like the sun's going to be coming up, something should be happening. We're waiting for the cause. Again, we don't know where they are in this field.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like they should be gobbling on the roost. They weren't. And we're like, oh, we've effed up, we Wrong spot yeah maybe they're not here.
Speaker 3:And Jeremy, just I had my call out there.
Speaker 2:I whispered over.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just send a message on the call.
Speaker 2:Electronic call yeah electronic call.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I don't think it. I just touched the button. It didn't the call.
Speaker 1:From the call, or the turkeys From the turkeys. Okay.
Speaker 3:In the same woods. We're in about 40 yards down. They're right there.
Speaker 1:We walked past them, so you guys were in the right spot.
Speaker 2:We were in the perfect spot yeah they were roosting in some white pine trees just to our right. We literally walked by.
Speaker 1:Here's a question Do you find they have a preference of trees to roost in?
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you were a turkey, would you want to land in a balsam fir tree? Or would you want to land in a nice yellow birch or white pine that has some big open branches?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I suppose. So you find big open branch.
Speaker 2:That's what they like.
Speaker 1:They don't need the cover of all the branches. They don't want cover, they're too big.
Speaker 2:They can't land in a tree like that.
Speaker 1:All right, so they're it they want a nice roosting branch.
Speaker 2:They act very similar, like people that raise chickens. They act very similar to a chicken. They're going to want to roost on a nice open roost and not have anything touching them, bugging them as they're, you know, sleeping through the night. They don't want branches brushing up against them, they want to be, you know, kind of undisturbed and their eyesight is horrible.
Speaker 2:At night, like a chicken, and you know. In the morning they don't want to be hindered by branches in their face. They want to be able to see what's around all right, you know that's fair enough.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've never heard anything about that before, I guess, but that makes sense, yeah so they so getting back to the story, so we hit the call.
Speaker 2:We it didn't even make a noise. Yeah, it didn't. It didn't finish the call, no, and they were called and they started goling and we could hear them coming down on the ground.
Speaker 3:And it was at that point. We all hear that thing you can't over-call, don't over-call. Whatever you do, the worst thing you can do when you're hunting is over-call. Well, all of a sudden we heard a hen. Well, what we thought was a hen, it was a hen and it went on forever and ever. And I looked at Jeremy and I said is this real Cause? Then we thought that maybe somebody's up on the other calling yeah.
Speaker 3:Calling and it was like this can't be real, but it was the longest time. It must've been 10 minutes, 10 minutes, I was going to say 10, 15 minutes Really. Never stopped, Never stopped. So where we were hunting where we were.
Speaker 2:Where we were was agriculture land, so we figured somebody else wanted these birds. Yeah, and they were just on the other side of the brook in another field and trying to call our toms away from us to them. We thought it had to have been a human. Like they say, don't overcoat.
Speaker 1:Going on like that. We thought it had to have been a human Like they say don't over call.
Speaker 2:Going on like that, yeah, it never stopped 10, 12 minutes straight, this hen call. Bam bam bam Never stopped. We were like that son of a better not call our toms away from us. Because at this point they already flew. We got to call them off the roost and they landed in the field, but on the very edge they were still a couple hundred yards away from us. So we knew they were on the ground Four mature toms because they were there the night before.
Speaker 2:The four horsemen, the four horsemen yeah, so we were like who is this son of a trying to get these toms off of our field? No, it was.
Speaker 1:So did the call sound like somebody could be making it. Did you think it was that realistic?
Speaker 3:Well, it was very realistic. It sounds exactly if you were to Google a turkey call identical Like if you were to have a mouse read in and make a call identical. If it was a human they knew what they were doing. Oh yeah, so it was convincing.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it was continuous, but the fact that it didn't stop for 10, 12 minutes. We were like what is happening over there? A lot of hot air. It didn't work for him, though.
Speaker 3:So, and try to put it in context too, the sun's just starting to come up now. I think we're into legal shooting time now and Jeremy can see them. He can see them down off to the right, but I can't see them yet. I'm sitting, I don't know, six feet away from him on his, on his right side, but I've got a tree about, or two or three bushes and alders I don't know about, a foot away from my face, so I can't focus beyond these alders. And he keeps saying can you see them? Can you see? I can't.
Speaker 2:He could. Sean could see the decoys, I could see the decoys, but they they they see, turkeys, just not not the real ones, yeah exactly, and I know he was getting a little frustrated.
Speaker 3:You got to be able to see them now. I said no, I can't see them because my eyes won't focus yet, and uh, anyways, they followed.
Speaker 2:So the hen that we heard in the oh yeah Up on the hill, I was like Sean, there's a hen in the field now, so I can see these four Toms for like 10 minutes, and he can't see them because they're over his shoulder, and uh. And then I was like Sean, there's a hen in the field. That was a real hen, and uh. And then a second Tom in the distance, to be honest, really close to our camp, oh yeah, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3:And he was.
Speaker 2:He was hammering over there, but he, he never did come in.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:And it's close enough. It might've been on our private property, like it was that close. Yeah and uh, yeah and uh, but yeah. So I was like we just gotta wait him out. And the field was like I said, it was like three acres in size but it was like a rectangle. It was kind of long and skinny. They usually turkeys, will work across a field, work their way across, like geese will do the same thing kind of start on one side, work their way across.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and our decoys are right in the middle grazing, or they're just packing away just like, just like cattle, though just like a tree is the walk through, you know yeah, just just like you would see a chicken.
Speaker 2:Yeah, chickens walking across the yard. They're just pecking, eating grit.
Speaker 1:They need grit right bugs, yeah, to break up the rocks to break up what's in their gizzard yeah, yeah, yeah, like doves, and yeah, yeah, like all this yeah and uh, and finally they step out far enough to the towards the decoys.
Speaker 2:They see the decoys like they they could the.
Speaker 3:The toms actually saw the decoys when they hit the ground that's right, because they were going towards it, but they went back 15 towards the hen 15 minutes 15 minutes before this.
Speaker 2:When the toms hit the ground. They saw the decoys they were coming. That frigging hen started barking up on the hill. She called them off, they turned and they started going back. And that's what I was. Like that better not be a person, because they are literally calling our toms out of this field. And then, all of a sudden, the hens pop their head up in the field I'm like, oh, it's on now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's on, and the hens started going towards our decoys, which is perfect because now and now it's getting a little lighter and, you know, I can see. Now I can start to see these toms coming into view. But for some reason, I've got a window that my, my shotgun's going to fit in. It's about, oh, I don't know, 18 inches between two trees. That's all. I've got a window that my, my shotgun's going to fit in. It's about, oh, I don't know, 18 inches between two trees. That's all I've got. Yeah, because I've got alders, and then, of course, jeremy's off to my left side.
Speaker 2:We set up in the dark.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we set up we didn't really know what we're in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah and then with the hunting turkey. You cannot move no hunting turkeys. Like you can't exaggerate that enough. You cannot move while hunting turkeys, that's right.
Speaker 3:So any movement we had. We use the darkness and we use the mat the fact that they were out of sight. They couldn't see us and we got our guns up and well in advance, well in advance.
Speaker 2:So they're not really in the frame yet and we've got our guns up and we're we're getting ready, and they just slowly worked their way into view and yeah, they came, the hens kind of worked their way past the decoys and uh, four toms, they came right to the decoys and at first I was like I said safety yeah, and we'd first.
Speaker 3:And then you just hear click, click. Yeah, at the same time click, click.
Speaker 2:We're both running Benelli's, so you hear the big safety. Click on the Benelli Click click yeah.
Speaker 1:So what are you guys shooting for guns? Loads guns.
Speaker 2:I've got a Super Black Eagle. Mm-hmm uh, turkey load is three and a half inch. Number five okay, it's browning.
Speaker 1:Ammunition here is kind of hard to find for that so yeah, I went with brown half inch number five, number five, yeah yeah, I had the same loads, but I'm running a benelli uh, supernova okay, all right, yeah, yeah so we're safety's off at this point.
Speaker 3:We're waiting for him to come in my 18 inch window and we had.
Speaker 2:We had a little bit of a talk. While we're sitting there for half an hour waiting for things, that's kind of come alive. We had a bit of a safety briefing. I'm like sean, you're sitting to my right and slightly behind me, please do not blow my eardrums when you pull the trigger because we knew if it was going to happen. There was going to be opportunity for both of us.
Speaker 3:Yeah absolutely.
Speaker 2:And uh, and I was like, do you have any earplugs? Neither one of us had earplugs. I didn't have any toilet paper to jam in my ear, so and anyways, uh, uh, so yeah, the four Toms come up and they come right to the, actually, before they get to the decoys, what did I tell you?
Speaker 3:What did I tell you? You told me to shoot the one on the right and you're going to shoot the one on the left.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but the other thing I told you before, that was this is going to work.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:When they started coming, when they committed you know it's like. The plan was going to come together. When they committed, I said sean, this is going to work, yeah, and and then, and then I was yeah, then we pick you shoot whatever one.
Speaker 3:You don't know which one's going to be on the right, which one's on the left? Yeah, exactly, but the way they were because they were kind of lined up oh, they were lined up. We had to wait.
Speaker 2:we had to wait because their heads were all all four heads were were lined up. I was like don't shoot right now, Wait, because we would have blasted all four of them Getting a few more tags to come out, kind of thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we didn't want that, so we had to wait until they got lined up, and then it was. I can't remember if I said you shoot left, I'll shoot right.
Speaker 2:That was the obvious.
Speaker 1:Or something that was the obvious.
Speaker 3:And I don't know. You must have said shoot.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And all hell broke loose.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And then we were like whoa stop, because there was four, two, four birds, two rolling around in the dirt. Whoa stop yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I it, it. I wasn't sitting very well in my chair. I was kind of leaning back, kind of back a little way, so I ended up firing twice and it pushed me right over in my chair. So I was, I was off balance, I was giggling, it was, there was two birds flying towards the wood lines, the two birds we didn't shoot, and then there was two birds in the dirt. So you know, something worked. Oh yeah, it was flawless. And you know, I'm looking at my watch and I don't know if we're five after six at this point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it almost took more time to tell the story than the hunt.
Speaker 3:I know, yeah, it was perfect turkey hunt.
Speaker 2:But yeah, no, it worked out. And then we were like, well, I had all week, well, he's Sean's retired, I had the week booked off work. This is Monday morning at 5 55 am. I'm like, well, what do?
Speaker 3:we do. Now we were done. Yeah, that was it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we had our turkeys but you know we saw a lot of birds. You know the turkey population here in new brunswick really exploded especially in the western side of the province, because that's they are moving in from maine, you know they were.
Speaker 1:They were introduced here. Do you think the agriculture, land where you guys are in, is really helping them establish better and bigger numbers?
Speaker 3:I think it's a mix of both the ag ground and then the woods that they can get in and be safe.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they need cover, they need water, they need I don't know to be honest agriculture land. I'm not a biologist. I don't believe they're really into agriculture destroying crops. I'm not a biologist, I don't believe they're really into agriculture destroying crops. But what we see around our area is burdocks. Believe it or not, they live off burdocks in the winter, the burdock seeds.
Speaker 1:Really yeah, that's great.
Speaker 2:So if you're eating burdock seeds, you need water, because you imagine trying to swallow burdocks.
Speaker 1:Really, those burdocks get stuck to your clothing. Everyone hates turkeys' level.
Speaker 2:We get trail camera pictures. I've seen trail camera pictures up home with turkeys covered in burdocks all over the back, because that's what they're eating. That and sumac seeds.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Bundles of red sumac seeds. They love those.
Speaker 1:Huh, yeah.
Speaker 2:So yeah.
Speaker 1:So that's what to grow if you want to keep turkeys but burdock that's that's crazy. I didn't think those were useful for anything really, except for, like you know, throwing at your sister's hair or something like that, getting your wool sweater.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah yeah, no wow, the turkeys seem to love them and we have a great population. And you know what? Like as much as I love to hunt, I think I love cooking while game just as much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right. Any turkey recipes you care to share.
Speaker 2:Yeah, breast a turkey out and slice it up into chicken fingers.
Speaker 1:Slice it up into strips Turkey nuggets yeah, oh, that's cool, don't?
Speaker 2:deep fry it. Don't deep fry them. Salt, pepper, garlic. Sprinkle them in breadcrumbs. Cast iron frying pan with butter, cook them hot fast and eat them right away. That's so good I never thought of that that does sound good. And yeah, and then the legs. Legs are really really good as well. What I did this year with the legs is I deboned the thigh of the leg and crock pot 10 hours on low. Whatever you want to put for spices, it's really really good. Yeah, it is good.
Speaker 1:That does sound good, yeah.
Speaker 2:If you like grouse, like a lot of people are familiar with grouse. Yeah, very similar to grouse, that's right yeah a partridge breast tastes the exact same as a turkey breast.
Speaker 1:So wild turkey is it a white meat. The breast is the same color as a turkey breast. So wild turkey, is it a white meat.
Speaker 2:The breast is the same color as a grouse okay, yeah rough grouse partridge. Whatever you want to call them, you know we call you. Shoot them on the ground, they're a partridge. You shoot them in the air. They're gross yeah, but uh, we're all familiar with that breast meat and, uh, turkey's the same thing, just 20 times bigger yeah, okay, all right, so it's real good eating then. Yeah, it is good my wife my wife, that's of all the wild game. I bring home turkey and partridge breast. That's what she likes the most.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's good to see you guys were successful in bringing that home Absolutely this year. Yeah.
Speaker 3:It was just a lot of fun and everything leading up to it, like we were talking earlier, and it's not about necessarily harvesting the animal, that's part of it, but it's everything leading up to it. You know, it's the social thing of Jeremy and I going out to the Canton, spending time at the camp, doing a little bit of wood, going out and scouting. It's, it's the whole package.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's my favorite part of hunting really with you know a lot of small game. Like I said, it's just the social aspect of it.
Speaker 3:It's fun you know, it's fun to share that with somebody else yeah, that's right, and you're filling your freezer at the same time or hopefully, you're filling your freezer, yeah, um well, if you want to talk about moose season, my freezer's been full for five years now yeah, I like our daughter's 13, and she's raised on wild meat Like literally.
Speaker 2:I can count on one hand the times that we've bought burger in the last five years.
Speaker 3:Like ground beef burger. We're the same Like it's….
Speaker 1:There's no recalls on the wild meat. There's no recalls on wild meat.
Speaker 2:What do they say it was organic before.
Speaker 1:Organic was cool yeah, yeah, exactly yeah, you know that's free range, is free range, could be, and everybody in my family.
Speaker 3:We all eat the wild meat. My daughter loves bear meat yeah, she loves bear hunting too. Uh, she loves being out with the bears and I love taking her out. Yeah, to expose her to that, yeah yeah he uh.
Speaker 2:A little trick I play, like when my you know my daughter, teenage daughter. She brings friends over and they're like, oh, barbecue up some burgers and stuff. I don't tell them that it's wild meat. They've, half the girls in the frederton community has been eating wild meat and they didn't know it they're all going to listen to that.
Speaker 3:Go, they're not coming to your house anymore.
Speaker 1:Yeah oh well, or they might get into hunting because of it.
Speaker 2:Oh, you never know you know, my daughter. When I asked her, I said what do you want to get If you get into hunting? What do you want to hunt? She said the first thing I want to kill is a bear.
Speaker 1:I was like no, it's good Guys. I really liked your story. It was great. It just solidifies me wanting to go hunt turkey myself and see what all the fuss is about. Sean Jeremy, can't thank you enough for coming on.
Speaker 3:Well, thanks for having us on. We really appreciate it.
Speaker 1:I plan on having you guys on again.
Speaker 2:Sounds good. We got lots of good stories, lots of good stories.
Speaker 3:Some we can tell on air, some we can't.
Speaker 1:I.