The Turkey Hunter Podcast with Andy Gagliano & Cameron Weddington | Turkey Hunting Tips, Strategies, and Stories

Packing for an Out of State Turkey Hunt with Brenda Valentine

Brenda Valentine, The First Lady of Hunting and spokesperson for the NWTF, is a well traveled hunter - not just for turkeys but for all types of game all over the world. In this episode Brenda shares with us how she handles packing for an out of state turkey hunt.

We cover packing our dufflebag, gun case, and even how we can get our wild turkey meat back home with us if we are successful on our hunt.

After having traveled to half way around the world for African safaris, hunting in 24 states in the US, and hunting in Mexico, I still learned something from Brenda in this interview.

Listen in!

We are on vacation this week with a replay of a great interview with Corporal Dave Painter with the Michigan DNR where we are talking about public land hunting etiquette.

This is an interview that I think we can all learn a few lessons from.

Listen in!

Turkey Calling Mistakes

This week I discuss some of the most common turkey calling mistakes we make when turkey hunting, and I share a few turkey hunting stories along the way as well. 

Listen in!

How a Wild Turkey Hen Chooses a Mate with Dr. Richard Buchholz

This week I have Dr. Richard Buchholz on the show to talk about how a wild turkey hen chooses a mate.

Dr. Buchholz has dedicated his career to studying mating behavior in the wild turkey, and we talk about some of the factors that have been tested in Dr. Buchholz studies and experiments. We also discuss some of his findings as well.

We talk about snood length, caruncles, beards, spurs, coloration, skull cap width, and many other factors that may have to do with why a hen chooses a male turkey to breed with.  We discuss that the hen uses those aspects of a gobbler's appearance to determine his healthiness and his ability to pass on good genetics to the hen's offspring.

Listen in and learn a little more about these amazing birds and their mating behaviors with Dr. Buchholz.

This week, I have a bit of a hodge podge of a show for you - kind of a turkey soup, if you will.

We are discussing scouting for fall wild turkeys, using trail cameras, additional tag buying opportunities in Wisconsin, fall turkey hunting forecasts in Missouri, and money to be invested in Texas by the NWTF Texas state chapter.

Homemade Turkey Callers

We turkey hunters live and die by our turkey callers. Truth is, we don't really need those callers to be successful while turkey hunting, but those callers do help to increase our odds of success and enjoyment of the sport. 

While most commercially sold callers are well worth their money because of the amount of testing and design work done on them, we can make our own turkey callers ourselves very inexpensively and with very common materials. In addition to saving a little money, it is often quite fun to make our own callers and very rewarding to kill a wild turkey using our handmade, homemade caller.

Today, I discuss several homemade turkey callers, which commercially sold caller they most resemble, and where we can learn how to make one ourselves.

Listen in, learn, and get to work making a couple of homemade turkey callers to throw into your turkey vest to use this fall.

This week I have clips of audio recorded with Preston Pittman where I pick his brain about certain turkey hunting related topics. 

We talk about turkey predators and nest predators, fanning wild turkeys, turkey caliing, cross contamination of steaks, super slams, and a couple of other topics.

This is a hodge podge of turkey hunting material and topics that I think you will really enjoy and learn from as well.

Listen in!

Join me as I interview Tim Knight and Corey New about bowhunting turkeys without a blind.

A wild turkey’s eyesight is undoubtedly the best of any big game species in North America. They have an uncanny ability to pick out any type of movement or something that is just not right in the woods.

Because of their incredible eyesight, bowhunting turkeys without a blind may seem like it is an impossible feat, but it is not.

As of today’s date, Tim Knight has killed 84 turkeys with a bow and without a blind, and in this episode I pick his brain about how he is so successful doing it.

We talk bow setup, shot placement, camouflage, decoys, and ideal range for a bow shot.  In addition, we share some hunting stories, and Tim even shares a recipe or three with us.

This episode is a new one on my favorite episode list because I got so much more out of Tim than I had planned and because I had a great time conducting the interview.

Be sure to listen in to this episode to learn all you can about bowhunting turkeys without a blind, hear some great hunting stories, and laugh along with us as well.

Turkey Hunting Shotgun Modifications Revisited with Laurence Pylinski

In this episode I revisit the topic of turkey hunting shotgun modifications with Laurence Pylinski with Pylinski Arms. Laurence has been a gunsmith for 30 years, and he is very knowledgeable on modifications that can be made to shotguns by turkey hunters that may improve our pattern or accuracy.

Laurence and I discuss porting barrels, the benefits and detriments to porting, and the cost as well. We also discuss backboring shotguns, the benefits of backboring, what to be cautious of when backboring, and the cost of that modification. And, last but not least, Laurence and I talk about lengthening the forcing cones of shotguns, how that can improve our pattern, what to be cautious of when lenthening forcing cones, and the cost of that also.

A couple of these modifications have been widely adopted by gun manufacturers in the manufacturing of their product because they have seen the benefits of having these modifications done to the guns they made in years past. We discuss that as well as any other modifications that may be more worth the money we would invest in these three modifications.

Listen in and leave us a comment about this week's show.

Turkey Hunting Solo

Turkey hunting solo can be a rather intimidating thought for newer turkey hunters who are afraid to fail in the turkey woods. Many new hunters will not take to the woods by themselves for fear of frustration of not knowing the sport.

Today, I tackle the subject of turkey hunting solo, and I offer a few helpful hints to newer turkey hunters to hopefully provide a little self confidence before they head to the woods alone. 

The main takeaway from today's show is that new turkey hunters should get in the turkey woods, have fun, make smart decisions, embrace mistakes, and learn from those mistakes.