Gamekeeper Podcast

EP:431 | Ernie Calandrelli Talks Turkeys

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On this episode we are joined by the turkey hunting legend Ernie Calandrelli. Big Ern has been around for more years than he cares to admit and he shares some great stories, wisdom and insight. We discuss how the gobblers head coloration explains his mood plus how his hunting style has changed through the years.

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SPEAKER_00

I'm Jeff Foxworthy and welcome to Gamekeeper Podcast. If you want to learn more about farming for wildlife and habitat management, then buddy, you are in the right place. Join the Gamekeeper crew direct from Austrian Land Enhancement Studio as they discuss the latest wildlife and habitat management practices. News, and of course, honey. There's no telling what you'll learn, but I'm going to tell you. I bet it's interesting. Enjoy. All right, let's do this.

SPEAKER_01

We're live in three, two, one.

SPEAKER_03

How about that, right? What are we doing over there? So this is uh, you know, welcome everybody, West Point, Mississippi. We're uh solidly in April now. Yeah, April. April 1st. And we've got it's April Fools. We've got the best guest we could have for April Fools with Mr. Ernie Callendrell, a turkey hunting fool.

SPEAKER_06

He is. Yeah, he gets the pizzoons because he's one of us. That's perfect.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, and he signed a call for me. So Charlie, that's not for you. No, this that's right. My grandson Charlie, shoot him in the face. Shoot him in the face. How about that? I hope he does. Yeah. We got several. We got to get uh we're not far.

SPEAKER_06

Maybe next year.

SPEAKER_03

No, it's gonna be a while.

SPEAKER_06

He's like four months old.

SPEAKER_03

No, ten months old.

SPEAKER_04

So we got we got at least I've got to start walking first, and then you can worry about that.

SPEAKER_02

I got my grandson Leo. He's he'll be uh well he just turned four, so I'm figuring next year. Oh yeah, probably he's gonna be able to lay one down somewhere.

SPEAKER_03

That's a that's exciting.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, the little the little Holly youngins are laying them down early, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_03

It's the next one. We hear a lot of that. You know, Daniel and it and his father were were here. They we did a show with them about hunting pigs.

SPEAKER_05

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

The Dawsons. Yes. Fox killed a turkey. I think he's like four or four and a half. He's he's about the youngest person I've ever heard of shooting a turkey.

SPEAKER_04

Some kids just kind of mature that way a little earlier as far as being able to hold a gun and and whatnot than others. Yeah, some of them have the want early, then others develop it later. Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_03

So while we're here talking about this, thank you for being here, Ernie. We appreciate you driving all the way down here to be on the podcast. Oh, yeah, I drove all the way here just to be on this show. It wasn't because it's turning season here. Yeah. No. So, but let's talk about, you know, we used to do blood on the biologic. Now we've kind of morphed that to blood on the Jake's vest, blood on the strap. Have you seen those strap vests they've got at the store? I like it. They are really nice. And they've got this new Ernie, have you seen the leafy flodge, the tops and the bottoms? Oh, yeah. That is good.

SPEAKER_02

It's good stuff.

SPEAKER_04

You can take a nap in that and move around a little bit and still get away. Still get away with it.

SPEAKER_06

There's no doubt about it.

SPEAKER_03

So what have you? I've got a couple, uh, but Lenny, I'll let you go first.

SPEAKER_06

Uh, local fella here. Uh actually, right here down around the corner, it's Steve Roberts. I think he killed. That was his first long beard, wasn't it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

First Longbeard.

SPEAKER_06

He might have had a from what we've heard, we he had a a little bit of a uh maybe uh uh an assist, I guess it's an assistant. An assistant that doesn't want his name revealed.

SPEAKER_03

Oh Ken Ivey doesn't want his name revealed. We got nobody talking about it. But anyways, yeah, so we want to take Ken Ivy.

SPEAKER_04

That's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Uh manager down at Golden Triangle Tire, I may add. That's right. Steve's a local guy, been around a long time. We uh so congratulations, fellas.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Well, I've got Wyatt Jackson out of South Carolina killed his first turkey. Here's a friend of mine from over in uh in uh East Alabama, Joey Hunter, and his son Easton Hunter, uh killed his first turkey this past weekend. So that's pretty cool. And then a young lady got on the board, Harper Wiles, seven years old, killed her first turkey. Excellent.

SPEAKER_04

Seven years old. Um I've got Gray Jackson. He killed his first, and he's only six. Good grief. Yeah, congrats, Gray. And then two brothers, the bros, Walker, and Zane Bellew, uh, on South Carolina's Youth Day. They they both got a bird. Uh, Zane's first, he's six years old, and Walker, I think he's just a veteran by now, but uh he's thirty he's 13 years old. Um and Brady Lee, uh, I I think he's from a little bit south of here. Uh he got his first turkey not too long ago. So hey, love the young ones in the first ones for sure.

SPEAKER_03

We love that. Y'all let us know about them and we'll get them mentioned then. We I like I like to think that we're making them uh, you know, we're adding a little air, a little lift under their wings. Yeah, making them validation to what they because it's it's not easy to kill a turkey. All right. No, it's not easy. Especially down here.

SPEAKER_02

It's not supposed to be easy. That's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Little Dud was excited about his. Uh he every once in a while he'll ask me to send him another picture of it. Oh, that's cool. Send to a buddy or something. So that is good. It's fun bringing them up in the woods.

SPEAKER_03

So I mentioned earlier that this is April Fool's. And what a perfect guest to have on April Fools, Ernie Callandrelli. But do you guys know where April Fools came from? The origins of April Fools? Origins? I'm assuming you do. It had to come from a coal. No, it didn't come from a cole. But Richie, would you bring us up to speed on your educational? Our listeners are getting this for free. This is some education. They're not even having to pay for that. Not at all. Not at all.

SPEAKER_01

I'm not even though it's worth paying for. The exact origins of Vapor Fool's Day is considered a mystery by historians and multiple theories suggesting it grew out of various European traditions going back to the 16th century. But it is considered here is the primary theory guarding the origin. Back in the French calendar shift in 1582.

SPEAKER_06

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

The most popular theory is that in 1582, France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as a mandate by Pope Gregory the Thirteenth. Under the old system, the new year was celebrated around April first. People who are slow to get the news are refused to accept the change to January change to change to January first, continue to celebrate in late March and April 1st, becoming the butt of jokes being called April Fools.

SPEAKER_06

Well reaching on back to 15, what? 62. 82. Big difference.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, a huge difference. All right. Ernie. Let me just let me set Ernie up just a little bit. Ernie doesn't need to setting up. Here is a guy, Ernie Callangelli, worked for Quaker Boy Game Calls for so many years. He's killed turkeys in 37 states, Lady. Oh, the Bobby Mom. He's killed turkeys with nearly every caliber you could kill a turkey with. Or gauge, I should say. He's with crossbows, with vertical bows. He's in two Hall of Fames. He's got three lifetime achievement awards. He's got a Grammy. And he's up for an Oscar this next year.

SPEAKER_06

He's the Turkey Whisperer.

SPEAKER_03

I was married to a life. Maybe his greatest accomplishment. Helen, his wife. I don't know. She may be blind. We don't know. But he has had a life in the turkey woods. It's just. It's amazing. And Ernie, we just celebrate you being here. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02

Listen, I I am so blessed to have that was able to do what I've done for all these years. It's just incredible. I mean, I got paid to do things that people do on vacation. There you go. That's a great way to look at it.

SPEAKER_06

You know what I mean? Ernie was the first, like one of the first Turkey people I ever met. He really was.

SPEAKER_03

So and Ernie, you're from this like this part of New York that's just very Turkey-centric.

SPEAKER_02

Well, where I'm from, you know, I I've had people even tell me, oh, isn't Mississippi beautiful? Yeah, Mississippi is beautiful. But New York's beautiful too. It's not just skyscrapers. I've never been to New York City and I've lived it'll be 73 years in a couple weeks that I've I've been born and lived in in New York. I ain't never been to New York City.

SPEAKER_05

That's a statement right there.

SPEAKER_04

Look at that. That should be like a t-shirt. Yeah. I ain't never been to New York City.

SPEAKER_06

Been in New York my whole life and never been to New York City.

SPEAKER_04

You never want to go.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, I don't blame you.

SPEAKER_04

But I've always heard I don't know. There's a good pickle place there.

SPEAKER_03

I would go to a Yankee game. I would go to a Yankee game. So he's saying there's a chance. Yeah. So I've also always heard the New York turkeys up there were hot blooded, gobbled great, just were amazing.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, you're talking to the wrong people.

SPEAKER_03

You're not going to be honest with us here?

SPEAKER_02

I'm going to tell you right now, I never heard of turkey in New York last year.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02

Is that right? New York turkeys are it's like any other place I've been. Wherever I've hunted it all these years, every place I go, they always, oh, we got the toughest turkeys you'll ever hunt. Wherever I go, everybody says that. You come to where I live, I'll show you some tough turkeys there too. It's the same thing wherever you go. You get the right turkey. Yeah, he gobbles his head off and he comes in and you kill him. But there's every turkey, I mean, where wherever there's the hot ones, there's the ones that ain't so hot. That's all.

SPEAKER_03

Well, that's I do know it is beautiful up there. Yeah. So were y'all turkeys in a decline? Or what's going on with it?

SPEAKER_02

Well, yeah, I for from what I heard, they went down some, but no, I think the last two or three years we've had a pretty good hatch and they're coming up. But uh I'm serious. I mean, because I know a lot of good turkey hunters at home, and there's many, many mornings. They don't even hear one. And I mean, they're out there every morning. These guys are good and they're good at what they do, but they just can't stir one up, and I'm out there too, and a lot of times I can't stir one up.

SPEAKER_03

If you went back in time 20 years, would that have been the would you have been having that same?

SPEAKER_02

20 years was good. 40 to 50 years ago was better. You know, I I would I'm gonna have to leave my camp. I sit under my pole bar and hear seven, eight goblin just from there and just go to the one that was gobbling the most. That's what I used to do. Where was gobbling the most? That's the one I went to. Yeah. Well, 50 years ago, Lane, what were you doing 50 years ago?

SPEAKER_06

I I was I here?

SPEAKER_03

Yes, I was barely here. 50 years ago. This place is when you say here, you mean on the planet. On the planet. Yeah. Yeah, you were yeah, you were I was probably still in yet.

SPEAKER_06

This is gonna be, yeah, I was probably still in Tennessee. You didn't know I was born in Tennessee, did you? I did not know. Yeah, now we know. Now we know. Was that Memphis? No, uh Union City, Tennessee. And then I uh moved, I think I was a couple weeks old and uh moved in with in Mississippi with uh my uh dad's parents while they built a house, been here ever since. So how about that? I knew you were a little different. Yeah, a little Yankee in me, don't I?

SPEAKER_03

Tennessee is not Yankee. Now, where we're we were looking at, that's pure.

SPEAKER_02

This is Yankee. So are you Italian? Well, I I'm Italian and Ukrainian. My mother was Ukrainian, and my father was Italian, but I grew up Italian pretty much. Uh we did eat a lot of Ukrainian food. My mother was a hell of a cook. And uh, but my we live with my grandmother and she was a good Italian cook.

SPEAKER_06

So well, I hear you've got this famous turkey camp pasta dish, don't you?

SPEAKER_02

I got a few famous dishes. I get wherever I go, I know as soon as I get to camp in Texas, they're gonna say, What night are you doing? Geno Beef's.

SPEAKER_06

That's what it's called.

SPEAKER_02

Genna beef. Yep.

SPEAKER_06

Sounds good.

SPEAKER_03

What what what is that?

SPEAKER_02

It's uh I I try to use all wild meat with whatever I cook, but it's ground venison, ground deer meat, and uh olive oil, onions, a lot of onions, a lot of garlic. Making my stomach right. A little bit of red pepper and uh pasta. I use either rigatonis or uh pinnae and just mix it. Them guys eat it up out there now. Yeah, my wife was talking about it this morning.

SPEAKER_04

So it sounds like that's irony about the yeah. I think Vandy's been cooking that around here and claiming it as well. Oh, is that well?

SPEAKER_02

He got it from me. He will steal your recipes, there's no doubt about it. Genevieve.

SPEAKER_06

I'd like to steal some of Vandy's recipes. Hey, his lasagna recipe is next level. So shout out to Vandy. That man can cook. I would make us a lasagna. I was thinking donuts. His donuts are great too.

SPEAKER_03

All right, look, here's where I want to start today. I want to mine some information out of this man's head. I mean, look at those gray whiskers. He's got it. He's got it. It's in there. So let's pretend you're hunting somewhere, somebody has given you permission. You walk in someplace by yourself, and it's an afternoon, and you sit down and you can look across some rolling hills and you see a you see a gobbler out there.

SPEAKER_06

A strutter?

SPEAKER_03

No, he's not strutting. You just see a gobbler. And you're worried, maybe he saw me, I don't know. But you just ease down. You just sit down, you're kind of glassing him, and you notice his head is white. What is the first thing that goes through your mind? White? It's white, that that kind of white white I'm good with. I'm good with white.

SPEAKER_02

That's all right. But what's that telling you? Well, that's telling me that he's all calm and relaxed, and he's just doing his thing, and he he did not see me if his head is white. If his head is red. Yeah, if he said red, we got a problem.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

That's when you got a problem, when they're red. And the other thing about and I've I I couldn't tell you how many times this has happened, you know, you're calling and a turkey's gobbling, and he's gobbling, and he's gobbling. He's got a red head, but he's gobbling. So what's going on with him? I don't know, but I guarantee you one thing, he ain't coming. Them redheaded turkeys, when they're gobbling for me, they don't come. But if you can get it to flip that red, white, and blue, now you're gonna be in business.

SPEAKER_04

So those patriotic turkeys can't be able to do it. Patriotic.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, well, well, so that's what I was gonna go. Well, but when you got a blue head, what what's going on there? What does that is that telling you that turkey's mood, those different colors?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, but you know, a lot of it is body. You're looking at his body, what's his body doing? You know what I mean? When you call, does he puff up or does he start to puff up, or is he looking your direction, or is he not even paying any attention at all to you? But uh the head coloration is is is of course very important. Uh, but you know, body, what what their body is doing, uh is is pretty important to me, too. You know, if I can get him to puff up a few times, I know he's got a little bit of interest, and I'll wait him out.

SPEAKER_03

So White is telling you calm. What would you say?

SPEAKER_02

Red is a he's uh he's a red red, he's he's concerned.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, got some reservation.

SPEAKER_02

Like he yeah, he he ain't quite sure. Uh and you know, any turkey you see running away from you, more than likely their heads red when they're running away. So, I mean, most of the ones that I've seen do it, and I've seen a few. And then when you see some blue in there mixed with that red. And you get that blue around the eyes and all that, and it's more of the breeding color. So I think they're still pretty much relaxed then. I ain't no biologist, you know, I just hunt them.

SPEAKER_06

So I'd love to know the physiology of how that works. Yeah. Um, Dudley, how does that work?

SPEAKER_04

Uh, I'll give you my best tree expert answer. Um, yeah, I think white is uh, like you said, calm, just doing this thing. Blue, I think, is when they're kind of fired up and you know where the ladies at.

SPEAKER_06

They're getting there.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

But I mean, is it I guess it's gotta be blood flow. You would think, and it can it can happen right before your eyes.

SPEAKER_02

Right, absolutely happen like that. All of a sudden, boom. That coloration changes and their mood changes, their body postures change, everything changes, and it could just look that quick.

SPEAKER_06

I got a scenario for go ahead. You would you can relate to this.

SPEAKER_03

Is it one where you yelp at him and he doesn't respond at all? 100%.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, so uh just say you're you're in a uh in a turkey area, not much gobbling on the roost whatsoever. You sneak up to a uh a field, and even though you were in here in distance, uh you know you're in here in distance where these turkeys were. They didn't gobble on the roost, but they're uh in and not not a big field, but in the opening, and there is uh two to three hens and a strutting turkey. Um what what do you do?

SPEAKER_02

Well, I'm gonna see what the hens are doing first, what they're talking, if they're talking back to me, or you're talking about setup and calling our yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah, and I mean if they're talking back to me, I'm gonna give them what they're giving me and and hopefully maybe aggravate the boss hen of the group, and they'll start cutting at her, see if she'll cut back, try to fire her up, and because she's gonna come and try and run me out of that area.

SPEAKER_06

And hopefully he follows her.

SPEAKER_02

Well, if she's coming, he's coming.

SPEAKER_06

So if you're in there and and you and you put your your your best Kiki flackle kai down on him and and he never comes out of strut. Never comes out of strut, never acknowledges you, and his hens just stay around him and they won't say anything. What do I do anymore at my age?

SPEAKER_02

I wait him out. You do? Cool. I left.

SPEAKER_07

I wait him out.

SPEAKER_02

Eventually, I mean, because I I've seen it happen more than once, or all of a sudden it's just like you flip the switch, bang, here they come. Now I should have waited this turkey out for sure.

SPEAKER_04

Uh but you know sometimes you don't have time to wait them out. Well, I didn't want to see at the office or something.

SPEAKER_06

It was still that, you know, that still that gray light. I'd been watching him for and yelped at him a few times and he didn't move anything. I'm like, I'm going to find another turkey that wants to play. So you maybe gave him 10 minutes.

SPEAKER_05

What did you say? I I'd say I'd say at least nine. Yeah, yeah. Very patient. Very patient. I was like, all right, I get him out of here.

SPEAKER_02

You know, I mean, honestly, yeah, years ago, I I mean, I was mad at him. Yeah. You know what I mean? I was mad at him, and if things weren't working right, I was gonna try and make it work right. And I've just learned over the years, and and and I'm not as mad at him anymore. And I like seeing him out there sprutting and all that. But now you're gonna go try and find a turkey where you don't know whether another one, you're leaving one.

SPEAKER_06

Not yet, you know, you don't leave fish to catch fish. No, it's a bold move. It was a bold move. It's a bold move. I had a very limited time, you know, so I had to make call in sick. Yeah, I should have.

SPEAKER_04

All right, I've got a little scenario. Um, let's say you're you know, you're going in pre-dawn, whatever, uh, you go down this drainage or holla, uh, and you get down to the bottom, you start hearing turkeys, you know, they're kind of on either side of you, whatever. Uh do you uh but they're in the next drainage over, you know, so there's a ridge between the two of you. Do you set up to where they come or do you think they're gonna come around the edge of that ridge and stay in the bottom? Or do you think they're gonna cross right over that ridge to get to you?

SPEAKER_02

What's on the bottom of that ravine? I mean, is there water in there? Is it a big wide open ditch?

SPEAKER_04

Uh it's it's a you know, trees, hardwood bottom.

SPEAKER_02

Can they walk right through it with no problem? They can. Well, normally they're gonna come straight on, normally. But I mean, if there's a snag or whatever or something in their way, you know, that they have to go around, they're gonna come around. You know, they're gonna come probably the easiest way that you know that they can get to you. Well, that's what I would think.

SPEAKER_04

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

You know, but you gotta be whichever way they're gonna come, you gotta be ready.

SPEAKER_04

Well, if it was me going hunting, they would probably come the way they weren't supposed to.

SPEAKER_06

Wherever way my gun was pointed, they would not come that way.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. The one I shot uh the one I shot Monday, I had shoot I'm a I shoot left-handed, I had to shoot him right-handed. I had no idea that turkey was gonna come from that direction. But he went all the way around behind me and he'd come up. Uh he, you know, he came up on this side. So I had to flip the gun over and everything, and you know, and shoot him right. And I've shot many of them right-handed. Yeah, but I mean, things that things happen. You know, that's where red dots are good.

SPEAKER_04

I was just about to say that. This, you know, you really don't have to square up with a red dot. You can just kind of almost roll over on your side and and aim with the red dot.

SPEAKER_03

So going back to the scenario Dudley described, they're over a ridge. Wouldn't wouldn't a guy, if you could get almost to the top of that ridge.

SPEAKER_02

I want to get to the if I can. Where they get we've got to look over. Yeah. Yeah. I don't want to stay in the bottom on the on where they gotta walk over one and down to you. Yeah. That that I don't want to do.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

You know. And sometimes that element of them not seeing you may make them want to come to you.

SPEAKER_02

Well, if they see you, they sure as heck ain't coming.

SPEAKER_04

But they gotta, you know, if you got that hill or that ridge in shooting range, you put that in between you, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But how many times have you done that and had that little ridge up above you and right on the other side of it where you can't see him and he's just gobbling his head off? Yeah. Drive you up the wall right there now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

That will do it. Now, Ernie's not gonna he's he's not gonna say this himself, but I'll go ahead and say it for him. Would it surprise you guys to learn that he had been involved in Nearly a thousand turkey kills. That's calling them up for other people.

SPEAKER_06

That would not surprise me.

SPEAKER_03

That is a lot of hunts. And that's the truth.

SPEAKER_02

That's quite a as far as I could figure, I never totally figured it out. But yeah, I know it's over 900.

SPEAKER_06

We'll call it.

SPEAKER_02

But I don't and I'm not a numbers guy. You know what I mean? I just do it because I love to do it. You weren't the accountant at Quaker Boys.

SPEAKER_03

I was the flunky. Oh, well, uh still, that's a lot of mornings, Lanny. Oh, that is a lot of mornings.

SPEAKER_02

That is that's a lifetime of target hunting right there. Well, I I used to say that I, you know, I I hunted in in a month with people, a lot of a lot of people, five years. You know what I mean? But what as I said earlier, too, it was much easier when I was getting paid to do it. That's right. When is your job? That's right. Now it's all on me. But I don't care. But that just tells me that I still love it because I foot the bill.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I better buy my own licenses now. I got to buy my own fuel, but I have my own food, but I still do it. And I don't do it like I used to, trust me. But I'm still hunting, you know, four or five states a year uh the spring, where I used to hunt nine, ten, eleven states of spring.

SPEAKER_03

So, Ernie, think about when you started where you've seen turkey populations change and hunting pressure change. And the uh it did there was a point probably there probably wasn't uh a limit, you know, you paid attention to limits, obviously, but how many is enough now? Do you for you personally?

SPEAKER_02

My own personal feeling for anybody in this country, and you know, hopefully people won't get mad at me. But if you go to a state, you can kill two turkeys, you ought to be tickled to death. That's that's my opinion. Two is good. Somebody, I mean, what when I first started hunting Alabama, the limit was six. Six turkeys. Uh, you know, that's incredible. And I I think uh I don't know if it's Rhode Island or one of them states up in New England, I think the limit's seven. I to me not necessary. Uh, you know, but two in every state, I'd be a happy guy, you know. And even here, like I come to Mississippi every year, I kill one, I'm good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And a lot of states are doing that with like non-residents. You just get one. And I I I think that's probably smart.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, I think so too. And we're learning to self-regulate. Ernie and I were talking about in the parking lot before we got in here. You know, the the how we define a successful season has definitely changed because of the uh not, you know, there's not as many of them anymore, I guess is the best way to put it.

SPEAKER_04

I mean, a successful season to me is having turkeys gobbling on your on your place.

SPEAKER_06

That's right. That's a great point. And I think you know, a successful hunt needs to be viewed that way too. We used to talk about this, Bobby. We wouldn't say did you kill one, we'd say did you have a hunt? Yeah. And if you had a hunt, you know, and he gobbled and you got to play the game, then you're then it's cool, man. Yeah, you know. Did you have a hunt? That's exactly. You have a hunt. So um, you know, we need to keep manage the resource so we can keep having hunts, you know.

SPEAKER_02

You know, the what I used to notice too was when a new state had opened, or I remember uh can uh northern Kentucky. I've been hunting there since the second year it opened. And when we first went there, I mean it was just lights out. I mean, you'd hear 20, 25 gobblers on a roost in the morning. It was nuts. And then as you know, four or five years down the road, it kept getting less and less and less and less. And you know, and again, I'm not a biologist, but I always just figured that that population blows for a while, then all of a sudden it comes back down and it levels out to what the area can hold. That's the way I always looked at it. That makes sense. Yeah, we have discussed this several times. It's happened in in so many states that I've hunted that are like uh like Tennessee. When Tennessee, oh my god, everywhere you're hearing 25 turkeys on a roost in the morning, Missouri, 25 on a roost in the morning, you know, Iowa, uh Illinois, all but then they seem to settle down some.

SPEAKER_04

It reminds me of a farm pond. So you you know, you stock a lake, and like for you know, that year four and five, it's just amazing. And then it it kind of slowly tapers off to go back to normal.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. Yeah, and and I I mean I think a little bit of that is hunting pressure related, but then maybe some habitat loss, fracturing of the landscape, those kind of things that might add to it.

SPEAKER_03

Well, and hunting pressure's got to figure in there somewhere. Absolutely. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_06

I think Chamberlain's conducting a study now about that, isn't he? With with the isn't that right, Richie? No. Probably a good question. Something about goblin um Oh yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

It's like they've got recording devices in the trees. Right. Yeah, they've been doing that for a while. In private lands.

SPEAKER_06

So there should be some research coming out on that pretty soon.

SPEAKER_03

So, Arnie, what's different about the way you hunt today than with the way you back when you were running a gun is so hard? Has anything changed? Your strength?

SPEAKER_02

I got old and fat. That's the main reason I got bad knees. My right knee is just killing me, not right now, but uh and and when you age, you have to change. When I was younger, I might not as walk as fast as the long-legged guys, but I could walk as far as they could, and I never thought that would ever change. I never thought it would change. But once I hit 70 years old, everything just it just went downhill from there. And it's it's hard for me now. Uh uh, I I don't want to walk. Uh uh, I it was uh we had my kid and he was younger then too, and and we were in Georgia. No, we were in uh Illinois, and uh so we're going in the morning, and the guy that's with us, I'm not gonna mention his name, but when you were with him, you ain't calling. But anyway, I don't want to mention who it was, but anyway, two turkeys gobble up on this ridge up above him. He's going, Come on, come on, we gotta get up there. I said walking up there, I ain't doing it. I said, We see these things? We that's we make these to make them come to us. That's what I told him. He's looking at me, he said, we gotta get. I said, I ain't going up there. We sat down, start calling. Within 10 minutes, both of them were right in our face. I said, See, we didn't have to go up there.

SPEAKER_04

Work smarter, not harder. There you go.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. There you go. That yay, I'm not gonna run in there and do this. I'm gonna try him first. You know what I mean? I'm gonna give him the chance. Let's see what he's gonna do. If he's gonna come, why should I walk all the way in there?

SPEAKER_06

Well, and that's the whole thing about it. You want him to, you know, to engage it. Because I mean, I think like a lot of young people starting out turkey hunting, I was trying to get as tight as I could, as quick as I could, you know, but over uh as I age, it's it's more fun to get them to come from a longer ways. You know, it really is.

SPEAKER_03

So have you I'm trying to pull some nuggets of wisdom out of you, Ernie. And uh have you learned to call a little different through through the years?

SPEAKER_02

I I used to call a lot more aggressive, like like me and Butsky, Robbie Rome, we'd hunt together a few days every year. And I mean, you talk about making some noise. Now we made some noise in that woods, and we I mean, and and we did good, especially gobblers with hens, and and uh two of us would sit behind, or one that got whoever's gonna shoot it sit up front, and all three of us would start, and as soon as that hen start getting crazy and coming, the front guy'd shut up, and it was me and Paul sitting back there, or me and Robbie, and we'd just keep pounding. And eventually, you know, she'd suck that gobbler right up into us. And that happened, I couldn't tell you how many times. But now, uh, and and even to get him to gobble, you know, like mid-morning or whatever, you know, you gotta throw something, you know, you gotta throw a shocker out there once in a while. But I don't even do that a lot anymore. One thing I've learned, and and I've sat with guys, I got warned one time, don't go with them. Don't I said what? He don't quit calling. I said, No, I said, I've been with guys before that call a lot. No, no, I'm telling you right. And I went, and it was I says, My God. He never stopped, uh never stopped.

SPEAKER_03

And then was that Norman?

SPEAKER_02

I don't want to say Norman, I don't want to say who it was because you know him. And uh, so anyway, he's got to go to the bathroom, right? I thought thank God. Go to the he stands up and he's going, he's going to the bathroom. I said, Good, I'm gonna get like a minute of silence anyway. Throws a mouth collin. I said, Oh my god, I like it. So when I got back to the camp that night, I want to say the other guy, actually it was Hart. Hart said, How'd you do? I said, Never again. Oh my goodness. Oh, because Hart's the one that warned me, bud.

SPEAKER_03

Well, uh you know, we we we're gosh, we don't get that many opportunities to sit down to turkeys, and I'm just I I love having a chance to pick somebody's brain like yours.

SPEAKER_02

But let me get back to that last question because I really didn't answer it. Yeah, at first I was aggressive all the time, this and that, but now I'm so happy to be out there. Now I don't I call sometimes every 20 minutes, you know what I mean? But the other belief that I've come to over the years is if you hear a turkey, then he shuts up and you call a couple times and he don't gobble, I wait and I wait and I wait. Because a lot of times he's coming and he'll gobble when he's close. He's not going to gobble at that distance anymore, but he'll gobble when he's pretty darn close. He might be right on top of you, and all of a sudden, yeah, I'm sure it's happened to all of us, and all of a sudden, so I feel that when you run them Yelps or cut at them when he's cut that distance way down, that it kind of shocks him, but he fires one back at you. That happened in actually the one my cousin killed with me in Florida uh a week or two ago. That's what happened there. We we never heard one, never heard one, then all of a sudden one I call and one gobble right behind us. And I don't I just don't think that you know some of them they don't gobble till they get close. Yeah, he's easing on in there. Yeah, he's easing in there and you shock them a little bit. But I now I call a lot less aggressive. I do call a lot less aggressive than I used to. Now, if I got one that's gobbling at every at every yelp I throw out there, that's why I'm there. So I'm gonna make them gobble. Yeah, I mean, I want to hear it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

If if you've got a perfect scenario and you've gotten in on a turkey and he's still on the limb and you're 150 yards away and you're you've sat down, he can't see you, you're feeling good, he's gobbling. Uh when you go through your sequence, is a fly down cackle gonna be in that sequence?

SPEAKER_02

It depends on him. You know what I mean? Like a lot of times, I'm just gonna if he's cutting that off, I don't need to fly down cackle at him. You know what I mean? But if he hits the ground, I might get a little bit more excited just to let him know, yeah, I'm ready. Come and see me. You know what I mean? But I I don't do a lot of fly down cackles anymore. I just and I used to do it every morning. I why I changed or don't do it, I don't know, but whatever I'm doing seems to still be working. So I I I don't know. I actually uh and I remember like like when the turkey's coming, and the cuz was asking me this when I did his deal. He says, Yeah, you go to Moscow. I says, No. He says, Well, what do you use? I said, use the push button. Are you kidding me? I said, no, I'm not kidding you. They love these things. Why wouldn't I use them? I got my gun up and everything, and I just I got that right next to me, and I'm good. Yeah. Why do I gotta blow a mouth call at them? I've used a mouth call less this year. And I've I don't, yeah, I that's I used to go in the woods with two mouth calls and a shotgun. That was it. That's how I care now.

SPEAKER_06

That's all I care in their hat. Now look what I got. I mean, who doesn't carry their turkey calls in their hat?

SPEAKER_03

I don't know if anybody else should put it in the brim of their hat like that. Are you the only person I've ever seen? I had one of them things that you stick it up in there.

SPEAKER_06

Stick it in the hat band.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, that sweaty hat band. My sweat.

SPEAKER_06

I mean, yeah. I'm not you're not yipping on my calls. No, it may have been one of Bobby's old calls, though.

SPEAKER_02

Just added some rats to it, yeah. But anyway, I guess I've changed and changed and changed, and I I I just I'm still having a good time. So that's all that matters.

SPEAKER_03

Wouldn't you say, wouldn't you would you agree with this or not? One of the hardest things to judge or decide, especially when you're a new hunter at this, but if if you've been messing with one and he has shut up, and and chances are he's probably gotten with his hands, is probably what's happened. But when they get quiet, then you think, well, he's lost interest, he's moved on, he's gone. And oftentimes he's still right there. But how did you did you how did you kind of learn that to be to just say I just need to stay right here?

SPEAKER_02

Well, 30 years ago I wouldn't have been staying right there, I'd have been moving or try to get another position on him. But if he's gonna, if he's gonna come a hundred yards, this is my belief. He's gonna come, I mean, if he's gonna come a hundred yards, he's gonna come 400 yards. I mean, that's my belief. Uh uh, why why not? It ain't nothing. He he walks that much every day. It ain't nothing to him. And uh uh I s anymore, um I just had the patience. I I don't when they used to gobble, and I mean, you know, and the snots flying out of your nose, and you're just I remember I dragged this guy up a mountain one morning, turkeys gobbling up there, and he had I it's heck, this was so many years ago, and he lost his glasses, he sweat just pouring off and we get up there at top, right? So I said, God, get out right there. I mean, we're breathing so hard. That turkey come in, neither one of us could have killed him. I mean, we couldn't hold still then, but anyway, he says, he made sense to me there. He said, Why did we have to run up the hill? And I says, because that's what we do. Yeah, yeah. And and then he says, Well, the turkey lives here, he's not gonna leave. He lives here, you know what I'm I got to thinking about that. I said, you know what? He's right. That turkey, why am I running up here? I could ease my way up there, and then if he did come in, I'd be steady enough to shoot him. Right. So, I mean, I guess there's a lot of different ways to look at it, and I probably look at it different than a lot of guys do, but I just do what works for me.

SPEAKER_06

Well, I know one thing, patience kills more turkeys than aggressiveness kills.

SPEAKER_02

I got more patience than anybody I know. I'm telling you right now, that's why you'll you get me in one of them turkey chairs, the only thing I gotta do once in a while is roll over to the side. That's it. I mean, I I can sit in them things all day, and I've deer hunted out of them too, not just turkeys. I've deer hunted out of them too.

SPEAKER_03

They're yeah, we there's one or two sitting around here that we're giving away as prizes. That Newcomb Company makes a real nice one. Oh, do they? I don't have one of them. So uh so we might give you a chance to win one in a trivia question here. But so uh that when you mentioned that one guy get in front and the other two would get behind, did y'all come up with a boy that the ideal distance is 50 yards or 75 yards? What what did y'all find?

SPEAKER_02

We we never we just we just did it, whatever. We got we we didn't go back far enough where one of the other two couldn't shoot. I can tell you that. In case that turkey came off to the side or something. But most of the time, would it have been 40 yards? No, I wasn't that far, maybe 30, 30 at the at the most. Okay, 20, 20 to 30 yards, but we split off a little bit, you know what I mean? So he knew that there was more than one in there.

SPEAKER_06

I think or she knew it's gotta be one of the most effective strategies in Turkey, even if you'll pull the hunter, yeah. So they're looking past the hunter instead of hanging up at seven.

SPEAKER_02

I've had times where I've got a hundred yards behind a guy, eighty yards behind a guy. I walk off. I mean, the turkey stand, he ain't coming, he ain't coming, he ain't coming, I just go. And you know, it had didn't work every time, but it has worked a few times.

SPEAKER_06

I think they call that what the retreating hen or something like that.

SPEAKER_03

I think that's the strategy, yeah. And and it sounds good when somebody's walking with a mouth gall.

SPEAKER_02

Walking off. Yeah, I don't know about you. I like that retreating, retreating hen. I like that.

SPEAKER_04

Uh when I'm by myself, I I like to, you know, some I I'll come into a new area and I'll I'll call and then move up about 20 or 30 yards and set up.

SPEAKER_06

That's smart. Look at old dud. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, well that that's that's a good strategy. How do you know you're moving up though, if you don't know where the turkey is? Or you could be moving well because if you were if you were uh you would have bumped everything that you walked coming in, right?

SPEAKER_02

Oh, you didn't hear them gobble, you just called and then moved up.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, like just blind, you know, maybe you're on private or something and you don't want to booger the place up. You you move into one spot and uh call and then move up about 20 or 30 yards and set up. You know, maybe you're in a drainage or something.

SPEAKER_02

I've done that, but the turkey was gobbling. You know what I mean? I I Yeah, that too. I don't think I've ever done it when I didn't hear one, but I usually yelp behind me.

SPEAKER_06

I will think about it. You know, if I'm there's I think the turkey's in front of me, I'm gonna yelp behind me to make it seem like I'm always going that way.

SPEAKER_04

I don't know if it that ever really works. It's almost like they're so good they can't. They know where it's they know within it's crazy how they can.

SPEAKER_06

But you know, uh when a hen's calling, she's turning her head. You know what I mean? And you know, a turkey gobbles that you can tell which way he's walking, which way he's going.

SPEAKER_04

So trying to it definitely adds realism to it.

SPEAKER_06

Oh, yeah. Bob Walker.

SPEAKER_03

Ernie, what you if we ask you what's in your turkey vest as far as calls, what what what what are you uh you've got it laid right there. What what are your the calls that you've gotta have?

SPEAKER_02

Too many.

SPEAKER_03

It looks like he's got them all. I've got too many. Well, demonstrate some of them.

SPEAKER_02

The calls that I gotta have is I I mean some of my favorites anymore is you know, slate calls. Uh you know, and what I'm out there doing, I'm trying to not try to win a contest. I'm trying to make that turkey goblin come to me. So whatever I think I need to do or whatever he jumps on, that's the one I'm gonna stay with. But I always have a lot of different strikers.

SPEAKER_06

I like that hot pitch. How they'll respond to certain calls one day and then different calls the next. Yeah, no doubt.

SPEAKER_02

But my favorite when nothing's going on before the two calls and my boat battle.

SPEAKER_06

I mean, these are don't leave home without you get that high end on there, and you can see the chalk bowling out of it when he hit it. It was coming from the side. I just chalked it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But that's the other thing, too. People take a box call and they and they're rubbing that chalk. You don't need to do that, just a light coat. And this call a run. If you just take a scotch bright pad and clean that, you don't even need chalk on it. I mean, chalk gives it a little extra grip, but but this is my absolute all-time favorite box call. You'll see this one's been pretty beat up. Yeah, that thing's uh yeah. Dick told me one day, this is uh his 25th anniversary, 25th Grand Slam box calls. What the 25 Grand Slams, that's what it is. And they're all laying on the table. And he said, You want one of them box calls? I says, Yeah, I'll do it. He said, Go ahead, go through and pick you one out. You want one? I said, All right. And I went through about 90 of them. But that's like one of my favorites right there. And he wrote all this stuff on there, and it's a shame, but you can barely read it anyway. Well, I mean, I'm sure he's really that's a shame. But I'm gonna be hungry with it that way. That's I did. That this one is always with me. Always. This is a new one we got. You want to hear this one? It's and the side, this side is higher than that side. Oh wow. It's a little I'm a I'm not a left-handed knock guy. I'm a I'm one of them guys. But anyway, you know, they get them two different, for sure, two different sounding yelps on that box call. And that's gone over real well. You know, we call it the high rise. And favorites, I'm telling you. The turkeys love them, they eat them. Up. They don't need them up. You want some more volume on? Just lay your finger on there. Then this is this is an old we don't sell this one anymore, but we still have uh the other uh another version of it. This one's just been in my vest, and you see there's nothing sticking out, which and I told Chris, I says, What why did you and I says, why are we selling more? Look at I'm only I help them with the pro staff now and then I'm retired. He said, because they won't buy them without what he says, yeah. For some reason they can't get the concept to stick their finger in there. When you're walking around, this thing's it's making noise, and this one don't make no noise.

SPEAKER_04

That's a pretty yell. That makes a lot of sense. So that's a push button where the the push button is not. There's no push button. You just insert your finger.

SPEAKER_02

And then the other one, of course, is the uh drum roll here now. The two calls. You can pretty much do anything on them. And this one here, every time I use this one, I get rough down my lips. I had one of those.

SPEAKER_06

I mean, this thing is. I love that one because it's got the little hat and it you can taste terrible.

SPEAKER_02

You know, they jake yell extremely well.

SPEAKER_03

That old style, the last one that gets rust on your lips. So that is that style still available to Quakerboard?

SPEAKER_02

No. No. Now we got these, and this one here. Like I said, I I broke the cap on this one. Normally this has got where you can lay your lip against uh, but I don't I just stick my lower lip inside of that. But yeah, but uh they they do still make that one right there. And trust me, this one will bark. It'll get out there.

SPEAKER_06

How often do you use Jake Yelps or or gobbles?

SPEAKER_02

I'll I'll use it when you're getting toward the last resorts. You know, and and of course, if you got one of them years where where the jakes are coming in and beating up the gobblers, then of course you don't want to use them. But there are times uh when I've Jake Yelped a couple times and she's got a Jake with them and they don't like that. Oh no, I'm coming. They don't like that.

SPEAKER_03

So Yeah, the decoy people always say a Jake decoy is I wouldn't know. I don't have a Jake decoy. But I hear them say that Jake decoys are very effective. Would you speak to that just a second?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, Jake decoys are very effective as long as there aren't a lot of jakes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

I don't know, man. On the decoy thing, I seem to spook. I mean, you know, it seems like they spook as much as only ones I've ever used are hands.

SPEAKER_02

And and that's just a lot of times with the hands, and it's happened to me, they'll put that ring around just 60, 70 yards out, you know, or they're now they want you to come. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

I was just gonna ask, I mean, we've answered some of the other ones I've written down, but uh, do you see folks like in your area back in New York? Uh, is it a lot of folks just showing up to hunt or are people getting on board with the whole habitat thing?

SPEAKER_02

Um, is that is that kind of become I'm happy about that, that I'm seeing more and more of that. I mean, we got NWTF chapters, you know, that that are doing some work, uh, you know, as as far as you know, the banquets and generating some money, and and I'm seeing the interest more now than I did years ago. I am seeing more interest in that. More chapters going, uh, more banquets going. So that's a good thing.

SPEAKER_04

Do people burn up there?

SPEAKER_06

I was gonna ask that, Greg.

SPEAKER_04

No. And that I don't, you know, historically, I don't think there was nearly as much fire on that landscape. On that type of landscape as what we have down here.

SPEAKER_02

The only person that I well, my son, he burns what we got. I mean, but we we don't have much, but he does burn that.

SPEAKER_04

That's cool.

SPEAKER_02

A lot of times I tell him that what are you doing burning that? Because you're gonna burn the whole woods down.

SPEAKER_04

People probably think you're crazy, you know, when you you burn in an area where it's not that common.

SPEAKER_03

Well what part of New York are you from?

SPEAKER_04

Uh uh Niagara Falls. Like the finger lakes kind of thing.

SPEAKER_03

No, well, more uh more west. Okay. A little bit more west. You know, Lanny and I went to a meeting in up upstate New York one time, and they it was where they had invented the buffalo wings. That's right. Yeah, well, that's where I live. Yeah. They say the sky used to be dark with them back then.

SPEAKER_02

There's buffaloes flying everywhere. Buffalo, yeah. They uh they they're easy to hit though.

SPEAKER_06

That must be what happened.

SPEAKER_03

But did somebody up there just say, why are we wasting all these pieces of a chicken wing?

SPEAKER_02

They used to throw them away up there. I mean, they threw them away, then uh the anchor bar in Buffalo.

SPEAKER_06

That's where we went up.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, we sure did.

SPEAKER_03

We had some chili.

SPEAKER_02

I live right there, man. You should have called me.

SPEAKER_03

We should. Well, why did we call Ernie? I think we did, and I think he didn't take our call. Oh, is that I'd have took you fishing or something.

SPEAKER_04

Come on. Yeah, I think a lot of folks fly into Buffalo. That's it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, Buffalo. I live actually I I live in Lewiston, which is uh like seven, eight miles north of Niagara Falls. We were in Batavia.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, that's uh that's east a little bit.

SPEAKER_06

Isn't that the same place they had the juicy Lucy or the No, that was in Minnesota. Oh, we've been so many places.

SPEAKER_03

We have.

SPEAKER_06

I forgot about that.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, and and we dine, we we try to find some interesting place to dine every time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

That was a restaurant. Yeah, Bobby loves a good chain buffet. That's one of his favorite places.

SPEAKER_06

He loves what's the tell him your favorite Italian place. Uh, Saboros. It's uh quaint little Italian eatery.

SPEAKER_02

You should have called me. I love their spaghetti. You should have called me.

SPEAKER_03

I'd have showed you some Italian food. We've got a trivia question that I labored long and hard just for you. Uh-oh. Mr. Ernie Calandrelli.

SPEAKER_06

Well, let's turn it over to Ernie Callandrelli.

SPEAKER_01

All right, so Richie.

SPEAKER_06

Turn it over to Richie.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so uh we have a listener who left a review on YouTube. He listened to episode 428, uh, Lamar Williams. Oh. Uh Outdoors with Triple C. Uh, he left a review. This is one of the finest episodes I've ever watched. Keep it up.

SPEAKER_06

Hey, how about that?

SPEAKER_03

On YouTube.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so what did uh Outdoors with Triple C win?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, he's got a nuke emblind and possibly a Quaker Boy signed call from Ernie if we can twist his arm into doing that. Oh, that's pretty cool. Get that out there. Ernie, when you're up there in New York and you're between cooking Genevieve and catching fish, you ever listen to our podcast or do anything like that?

SPEAKER_02

Whenever I can catch it, I will listen to it.

SPEAKER_03

Do we enter we do we entertain you from time to time to do that?

SPEAKER_02

You do, because it's good because it's there's nothing no set pattern all the time. I like it.

SPEAKER_05

Definitely not that. I like it.

SPEAKER_02

I like it. I like it. You just kind of have at it.

SPEAKER_03

Wing it. Yeah, we're the king of winging it. Wing it. Yeah, put your put your thinking cap on now. We're coming at you.

SPEAKER_01

So, in between eating buffalo wings, do you like uh boiled peanuts?

SPEAKER_02

Ooh. You know what? When I first sat here, when I come in, I looked at that over there and boiled because I asked my wife when we're in Florida, I said, You ever eat boiled peanuts? No, she said, Well, I ate them one time, and I love the South. You can keep the boiled peanuts.

SPEAKER_04

That is that is so interesting to me how some some people just don't care for them. And I I don't I don't get that.

SPEAKER_02

Like rubber. I I want my peanuts to snap when I'm eating them. It's a texture thing then.

SPEAKER_01

Well, we might have to send you a can or two from the peanut patch. Couldn't live without them.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I don't know how you well, maybe I never had a good one, uh good ones. That could be.

SPEAKER_04

They're actually kind of snappy and crunchy. Well, that's what I want when you buy it into the meats. We'll have some.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, we'll after after we finish this. If he gets his question right, we might send him home with a okay.

SPEAKER_01

Here's our uh trivia question today brought to us by Bobby. Why was the Guinness Book of World World Records created? Huh.

SPEAKER_06

Why was the Guinness Book of World Records created?

SPEAKER_03

And without giving the what year we're talking about? It was 1800s, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_01

It was uh 1955 is the first year. Is it the same Guinness as the beer?

SPEAKER_02

Laney, would you please?

SPEAKER_03

What? This is his question.

SPEAKER_02

You know what? You know what? Believe it or not, I heard that. And I heard the I heard the answer, and I can't remember what it was. Laney might have helped you out there a little bit.

SPEAKER_06

Guinness beer. Beer. Beer. Because of beer.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

It's because of beer. Well, it was to sell more beer. Oh, of course. It's an interesting story. Go ahead. I heard it off.

SPEAKER_04

To showcase people that have world records. Yeah, I did that.

SPEAKER_01

So uh 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver, uh manage managing director of uh Guinness Brewery. Oh, Hugh Beaver. Yeah, was in Ireland, was hunting in Ireland, and ended up missing a shot. It created an argument about what was the fastest game bird in Europe. Sorry, I was reading Bobby's handwriting here. And so that created the idea of the Guinness Book of World Records.

SPEAKER_03

Well, what I read, he started talking about it got into be an argument in the pub that night. And so they kept they just kept arguing and they kept drinking. They were drinking more beer. So he had the idea. What if I created this book that had all these world records in it? Who's the what's the tallest? What's the widest river? Yeah. That people or would drink beer in pubs and talk about it.

SPEAKER_01

How many bowl peanuts do someone eating one day?

SPEAKER_06

A world record. I looked at that thing a lot growing up. I love it. Remember the one with the longest fingernails? Yeah. It's the guy from India, what?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Oh my gosh. I never until today connected Guinness Beer with the Guinness Book of Records. Look at me. I never did either. But Lenny did. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Are you sure his name was Hugh Beaver? Sir Hugh Beaver?

SPEAKER_06

Sir Hugh Beaver.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, that's what you wrote here.

SPEAKER_06

The five-star restaurant.

SPEAKER_03

That was going to be our next trivia because I've got to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_06

Well, maybe we can answer it. Well, well.

SPEAKER_03

So what did Ernie win? All right. Uh Ernie won some boiled peanuts. All right. All right. I'm all excited now. Ernie, what's we it's rare that we get to sit down with you. What should we be? What's interesting about your life that we would that you we would should know?

SPEAKER_02

Well, I got three grandkids, love them to death. Uh, that's what my wife, I I left my life with my wife in Florida. So so I don't know how happy she is, but she is gonna meet me in Kentucky when I get up there after this Texas deal. But uh what's interesting in my life is is uh I wake up every morning. That's uh that's about the that's about the blessing. It's about the best I could do right now. And I'm happy. I mean, you know, I've been I didn't want to be one of them guys when they retired. They they need to make it a year, they're dead. I didn't want to be one of them guys. Yeah. And now I'm going on, I think nine years, even though he did, Chris did hire me back to to do a couple of I work a show or two, and and uh and he did hire me back. I take care of the pro staff. But uh, you know, it's the retired life is a good life. I mean, no doubt, but you have to work into it. Uh, and then for a while you you're busier than when you were working, but now I'm getting out of that too. So I learned how to I learned how to get around that.

SPEAKER_06

So do you go to Florida with your wife, so you give you permission for turkey season? You don't spend a bunch of time down there.

SPEAKER_02

I went to turkey hunt and uh she went to visit her cousin. Gotcha. So that's a good move.

SPEAKER_03

Land, he's a lot of fun to follow on Facebook. Yeah. Until because he posts a lot of hunting pictures and fishing pictures, until a few months ago he posted this picture. Guess what I'm getting today? A pedicure. Oh, yeah. I had his big old foot up there, and some lady and you know.

SPEAKER_06

They're going dumb and dumb when they get the grinder out. You know, that lady was like, Oh, I should have called in sick today.

SPEAKER_02

You need a side cutters.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Is there any place around here that does that?

SPEAKER_03

Uh that I know of. Oh, there's a first car. Would we do that to anybody around here? Or do we have a pet?

SPEAKER_02

Send Ernie to one. Let me tell let me tell you something. Have you ever had one? No. You need to get one. You'll be back. I'm telling you right now.

SPEAKER_06

There you go. Have you ever had one, Lenny? I hadn't, but I never had a massage, and I said I'd never get one of those. And the first time I got one, I'm like, I'm gonna have another one of those. So Dudley, I bet you've had a pedicure.

SPEAKER_04

Never had a pedicure.

SPEAKER_03

You guys don't know what's going on. The Wallace is have uh pedicure. Maybe it's a southern thing. Famous. You know, maybe we're just a little tougher down there.

SPEAKER_04

I know, you know, the ladies often go and get their nails done and take, you know, take their kids and whatnot.

SPEAKER_03

Ernie, we're busy. We're doing things. We don't have time to go have somebody.

SPEAKER_06

Did you bite your toenails, Bob?

SPEAKER_03

Uh yeah, when I when I was limber enough.

SPEAKER_02

Well, you thought about limber enough. I'm gonna tell you what I did. This is why I need one of them places. I'm okay bending one way, so I cut all the toenails on my right foot. I can't get to my left. So I need to find so maybe they give you a half price. Yeah, just do the luck late side.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, oh maybe we can find them more well.

SPEAKER_04

Does insurance cover that?

SPEAKER_06

Sure.

SPEAKER_03

Well, so uh what else? Is there anything else we need to ask you?

SPEAKER_06

Oh, it's just a good great conversation.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, we but we always enjoy being around Journey. Yeah, I enjoy doing this. You're just uh like one of these little treasures of turkey hunters. It's a lot of fun to see you at the show. Do you still make wing bone calls for everybody?

SPEAKER_02

Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. How many of those do you think you make it? I got a bunch of them with me, too. Uh I wish I knew. You know the story on the first one. You know the story on the first one?

SPEAKER_03

Well, Dudley told us the other day they were sitting around a fire and somebody was sucking on a no, no, no. The first one I made.

SPEAKER_06

I India, how'd they figure that out? Uh we we've talked about it.

SPEAKER_02

We think they were the kids were eating the marrow out of the bone and made a well, I think they were smoking a peace pipe or something in a peace pipe and going around the fire and all of a sudden it yelped and it got man, that sounds like a turkey. And I think that I mean, you go to the to the to the museum, or whatever, I mean they got wing bones in there that are over 400 years old. It's incredible. Four, five, six hundred-year-old wing bones.

SPEAKER_04

I think they found them in caves that are you know more than a thousand years old. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_02

So, what's your story with your first oh so anyway, so I you know, I kill this turkey. Actually, Busky was with me, and uh, I said, I'm gonna make a wing bone. So I, you know, I'd seen it on in outdoor life or whatever, just 50 years ago, probably 45 years ago anyway. And uh I said, I'm gonna make a wing bone. So I and I made one, right? And it works, you know. It trust me, it was I still don't make great looking ones compared to like a lot of these guys, but they're mine, they're from the heart.

SPEAKER_07

Yes.

SPEAKER_02

And uh, so I make this wing bone and I threw it on a dresser at my camp, right? So, you know, a few couple days ago by and I said, Oh, my wingbone, and I grabbed my I, you know, you gotta suck on it to make it work, and there was a dead fly in there. I suck. So now before I even the new ones when I make them, I'm always looking there. You never know what's gonna crawl into one of them things.

SPEAKER_03

All right, well, uh Dudley probably has a pedicure place they can tell you about when we get off air. So yeah. We can go together. That's awesome. All right, guys, this has been a lot of fun. Uh look, up there where you are on uh Monday nights about 10 o'clock, you can catch the gamekeepers of Mossy Oak on those on the Sunday nights. Sunday nights. Sunday nights. Sunday nights. That's why Richie's uh paying attention. I'm glad 10 Eastern. Yeah, on the Sportsman Channel. 10 o'clock at night. You stay in the city.

SPEAKER_04

10 Eastern 9 Central.

SPEAKER_03

I don't. Yeah. Sportsman's channel. All right. You get to see what Lanny and Dudley all in action talk about some kind of.

SPEAKER_02

Trust me, I've seen it. I've seen it more than once. All right. Don't worry, Bobby. I'm supporting it. All right, that's good. That's all we care about.

SPEAKER_03

Well, I'm gonna look around the room. I can't think of anything else we need to bubble up and talk about.

SPEAKER_06

We can out there get us a pedicure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

That'd be a great YouTube episode.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Landing gets a pedicure.

SPEAKER_01

Bobby.

SPEAKER_04

They probably got one over at that little shopping area by the by the workout place. They do.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. You know that picture you saw too. That wasn't a good angle on my foot. My foot looked like a club. I didn't like that picture. I should have taken another one.

SPEAKER_03

Oh me.

SPEAKER_01

They got a place over in Columbus my girls go to all the time. So we'll see if we can get you to take care of it.

SPEAKER_03

Is that the one where the fish eat the skin off your ankle?

SPEAKER_01

No, but we've had some friends do that before. Have you done that? No, no.

SPEAKER_03

All right, guys, let's get out of here. They'd get full eating my feet. Why don't you say goodbye, Dudley? Goodbye, Dudley. Get us out of here, Richie.

SPEAKER_00

Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of the Gamekeeper Podcast. And be sure to tune in again. Subscribe to Game Keeper Farming for Wildlife Magazine, and don't miss the Mafio Properties Fistful of Dirt podcast with my good buddy, Ronnie Gus Drickler.