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

Interviewing a Turkey Hunting Outfitter

This week I interview a turkey hunting outfitter to question him about his services and accommodations.

This past spring, my turkey hunting buddies and I chose to hunt in Idaho and Washington for our 2018 out of state spring turkey hunt. We also decided that hunting with an outfitter is how we need to tackle the states that are so far from home due to time constraints and the fact that we need to kill 8 turkeys in approximately 6 days of hunting.

That is a tall enough task when a turkey hunter has an outfitter who knows where the birds are and what they do during the day, but it is an extremely tough task when trying to accomplish that feat on public land that turkey hunter has never been on before.

So, the process of interviewing outfitters started, and I've recorded one of those initial interviews that I had with an outfitter for today's show.

I don't get too terribly in depth with my questioning at this point in the process because I'm taking a list of about 10 outfitters and trying to weed that down to about 3 or 4 outfitters who will move on to the next round of interviewing. 

The next round of interviewing is where I'll dig into more detail about hunting style as well as details about accommodations.

Listen in to this week's interview and see if there is any information you can gleen from it. Also, you will learn how to get my list of 45 questions to ask a turkey hunting outfitter at the end of the episode.

Habitat Management for Wild Turkeys with Grant Woods

This week I discuss habitat management for wild turkeys with Grant Woods with www.GrowingDeer.TV.

Grant is a wildlife biologist who specializes in habitat management planning for landowners around the US. He also hosts a weekly show on his website where he shares some of the management techniques that he uses on his own property, called The Proving Grounds.

Grant's videos are very well produced and put together and chocked full of great information that any turkey hunter can use to improve his/her hunting land - whether that is public hunting land or private ground.

Grant and I discuss what a wild turkey might consider to be the perfect blend of forest land and fields. We also talk about how much of those fields we need to turn into nesting habitat and brood rearing habitat.

We talk a good bit about how prescribed fire can be used to improve our hunting property and how Grant uses it to manage his nesting and brood rearing areas as well.

Finally, we talk about the best forage crops we can plant for our wild turkeys and Grant shares with us his secret about planting amazing food plots without using any fertilizer.

Listen in this week and let Grant help you with habitat management for wild turkeys on your property.

Turkey Hunting Small Parcels

In this week's episode, I discuss a few of the things that I learned turkey hunting small parcels of land this past turkey season.

I own almost 24 acres of land in central Alabama, and I spent several days turkey hunting that parcel this past season in search of a tom.  I made several mistakes while hunting this small parcel, and I share those experiences so we can all learn from them.

Turkey hunting small parcels is a topic that was suggested by Tracy Long, a listener to the show.

Listen in to this week's episode!

Protecting Your Public Land Access

This week, I'm interviewing Andrew Maxwell regarding Backcountry Hunters and Anglers.

Backcountry Hunters and Anglers is a non profit organization which seeks to ensure North America's outdoor heritage of hunting and fishing in a natural setting, through education and work on behalf of wild public lands and waters.

Listen in and see if BHA may be an organization that you are interested in supporting.

Turkey Men with Thomas Pero

In this week's episode, I interview Thomas Pero with Wild River Press about his new book, Turkey Men.

Turkey Men is a book about the men who have accomplished the goal of killing a turkey in all 49 states that have wild turkeys in them.

We learn about Thomas' motivation for writing the book as well as how long it took him to track down the hunters that he interviewed for the book.

We also learn what one common trait that Thomas saw in each of the men that he interviewed that he feels make them so good at what they do.

The interview with Thomas is fun and informative. The book, Turkey Men, is a very well put together piece that I feel like any "died in the wool" turkey hunter will want to read and add to his/her library.

Listen in!

Handling the Disappointment of Turkey Hunting

We turkey hunters often spend a great deal of time, effort, and money in preparing for turkey season and for turkey hunting trips out of state or out of the country.  We spend money on gasoline, groceries, licenses and tags, calls, clothing, guns, shotgun shells, hunting club dues, planting and maintaining food plots, just to name a few expenses.

In doing all of our preparations, we often visualize ourselves and how we will react after we fill a tag with a big tom.  These visualizations often turn into expectations, and that is where we can sometimes have the wrong attitude about our successes or failures in the turkey woods.

In this episode, Robbie Kroger shares with us the experience of his recent trip to Mexico to hunt the Ocellated turkey. Robbie went to Mexico almost expecting to harvest a turkey, but what happened after he arrived turned those expectations into frustration.

Listen in as Robbie shares his story of his Ocellated turkey hunt in Mexico, and how he has managed to deal with the outcome of that trip.

Tungsten Super Shot (TSS) and Wild Turkeys with Nick Charney

This week I interview Nick Charney with Apex Ammunition to discuss Tungsten Super Shot and its performance for hunting turkeys.

I ask Nick what the benefits of Tungsten Super Shot are over basic lead shot and even the other shot options which are more dense than lead when turkey hunting.

I ask if we can use a smaller shot size in TSS than the customary #4, #5, or #6 shot sizes in lead.

We discuss how some states are not allowing lead shot to be used any longer for hunting on any public lands and how TSS overcomes that environmental issue.

We discuss why shooting shorter length shells in TSS can often yield the same, if not better, results than longer (heavier recoiled) lead loads.

We also discuss why shooting a smaller/lighter gauge shotgun with TSS can yield the same, if not better, results than a heavier gauge gun.

We also discuss the availability of Tungsten Super Shot in the United States, and why it costs more than lead shot does.

Listen in and learn why your old lead shotgun shells may be causing you to carry more weight around in the woods and causing you to deal with more recoil when shooting than you really need to.

Resources:

https://apexmunition.com/

https://www.facebook.com/apexammuntion/

2017 Turkey Hunting Season Recap and Lessons Learned

Cameron joins me this week to recap our 2017 turkey hunting seasons and to talk about the lessons we learned and re-learned this season.

We talk about the differences between turkey hunting in Alabama and in other states. We also share the stories of our most exciting hunts from the season.

We discuss our recent turkey hunting trip to North Carolina where Cameron fired a warning shot at a public land turkey.

Listen in as we share some laughs, stories, and some tips as well.

Late Season Turkey Hunting Tips

Late season turkey hunting can be difficult at times as toms often find themselves being without female company for long periods of times for the first time in months. Many times we can go days on end without hearing a turkey gobble, and then the next day the turkeys are gobbling to beat the band.

There are some things that we can do to help increase our chances of being successful in filling that last tag or two on a late season tom.  Here are some late season turkey hunting tips to help you when the going gets tough.

This week I answer several questions from listeners to the show.

From "Help me kill this turkey" to "What does a cluck and purr really mean in turkey talk?" I cover a lot of topics and try to help some of you guys to kill another turkey or two this season.