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

The Story of the Disappearing Arkansas Turkey This week, Cameron joins the show from his turkey hunting road trip, and he and Andy share the story of Andy's 2020 Arkansas turkey hunt. This is a wild hunt with some awesome audio, if you like gobbling wild turkeys, that is. Listen in to the story of the disappearing Arkansas turkey.

Some Turkey Season Turkey Soup This week, Cameron shares a little about his upcoming turkey hunting trip, and Andy shares some info about his recently ended turkey hunting trip. Cameron and Andy also share some turkey hunting news stories as well. Ohio, New York, Virginia, Tennessee, and Illinois are all featured in the turkey soup portion of this week's episode. Listen in!

2021 Mid Season Recap This week, Cameron and Andy discuss how their turkey hunting seasons are progressing thus far as well as a few things they have learned or relearned along the way. In addition to that, there is some huge news shared by the Weddington household that everyone will be excited to hear. Listen in to this week's show for some lively discussion about turkey hunting and wild turkeys.

Black Death Strikes in Minnesota This week, Cameron and I share day 2 part 2 of my hunt in Minnesota with my buddy, Chip. This is a great hunt with a hard gobbling Minnesota Eastern wild turkey who was playing hard to get. Listen in!

A Deafeningly Silent Minnesota Turkey Hunt This week, Cameron and I share my 2020 Minnesota turkey hunt with you. Chip, Yankee John, and I hunted there in the spring of 2020 to try to get those 2 guys each a bird in the state. When you stumble across a public land bird that wants to play ball, that is usually all it takes to make a trip like that an amazing one. Chip and I found one this particular morning. He gobbled hard. He gobbled a lot. He was lonely, and he loved a southern accent. There was just one problem with this hunt. One big problem. Listen in and enjoy this week's great episode.

Hearing Them Helps with Killing Them with Bill Dickinson This week, Cameron and I have Bill Dickinson with Tetra Hearing on the show with us to talk about Tetra's push to educate us on hearing loss and how we can help to protect our hearing so that it will last for years to come. In this interview Bill discusses the correlation between hearing loss and dementia and Alzheimer's. We also discuss how hearing loss has been left out of the overall health awareness initiative that has been pushed for the past several decades. We talk about how Tetra's products can help those of us with hearing loss to hear turkeys better while we are hunting. And, how Tetra can help us to prevent further hearing loss while we are hunting. Listen in!

Ballad of a Young Turkey Hunting Book Author with Hunter Farrior This week, Cameron and I have the author of a new turkey hunting book on the show with us. Hunter Farrior wrote the book entitled Ballad of a Turkey Hunter while he was sick with COVID around Christmas this past year. Hunter shares a few stories from his book with us, and we just talk turkeys, in general. Despite being written in a short amount of time, the book is very well written, and it is one you will want to add to your bookshelf. Listen in and pick up your copy of Hunter's new book.

Early Season Tactics with Eddie Salter Eddie Salter joins me and Cameron this week to discuss some early season turkey hunting tactics. Early season can be a difficult time to be in the turkey hunting woods for all of us. Dealing with henned up toms can present us with many mornings and entire days with very little gobbling. Toms that don't gobble can be hard to locate and hunt. Listen in to get some great advice and tips from The Turkey Man himself!

Great Stories, Positive Attitudes, and Box Calls with Tim Murdock This week, Tim Murdock from West Virginia joins Cameron and me on the show to share his story along with a few turkey hunting stories as well. Tim turkey hunted for many years before completely losing his eyesight after having 2 different and rare eye diseases. Tim thought his days of turkey hunting were over until some fellow turkey hunters devoted time and resources to helping Tim to not only get back into turkey hunting, but actually kill a couple more turkeys. Listen in to Tim's inspirational story, a couple of awesome turkey hunting stories, and then his amazing box calling tips that he shares with us at the end of the interview. This is sure to be one of your favorite episodes. I know it is definitely one of mine!

Social Media and Turkey Hunting with The Bayside Legion Bonce Stanley and Derek Anderson with The Bayside Legion join Cameron and me this week to talk about turkey hunting and social media. We talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly of turkey hunting and us turkey hunters that comes out from us on social media. We also get to hear a little about The Bayside Legion and Bonce and Derek share how to find more of their videos so we can follow along with their hunts. Listen in to this week's episode and then catch Bonce and Derek whacking some turkeys in their videos on YouTube and Instagram.

A Utah Turkey Hunt This week Cameron and I have a long episode for you. First we share some of the experiences of our Utah turkey hunt and our thoughts about our harvests. This was a fun trip where we both learned a great deal about winter hunts and got to see some amazingly beautiful countryside and meet more great people. We also get to introduce our new sponsor to you guys. Cullen Lord with Real Cajun Market joins Cameron and me to tell us a little about his company, how he got into cooking and sausage making, his products, and how we can order some of his delicious sausages. Cullen makes some great smoked sausages with some very unique flavor combinations that you will definitely not find in your local supermarket and will definitely love. Real Cajun Market orders can be made by calling them at 678-471-1150. Call them today and order some of their sausages to be shipped directly to your door.

Turkeys for Tomorrow with Ron Jolly This week, Cameron and I interview author, videographer, turkey hunting addict, and all around nice guy, Ron Jolly. Ron joins us to tell us more about the new nonprofit that he and several others started called Turkeys for Tomorrow. Ron tells us how the idea for this new nonprofit came about as well as what their mission is. Turkeys for Tomorrow is a much different organization than other nonprofits dedicated to the wild turkey, and Ron shares some of those differences with us in this week's show. Listen in as our friend, Ron Jolly, tells us more about how we can have more turkeys for tomorrow.

Talking Turkey with Dave Owens This week, Cameron and I are joined by Dave Owens with The Pinhoti Project. We talk about everything turkey related from trapping to setting bag limits to setting season dates. And, we get a little insight into what Dave's 2021 spring turkey season looks like. This is a great episode, and I know that you guys will enjoy this one. Listen in!

A Minnesota Turkey Hunt This week, Cameron shares his awesome Minnesota turkey hunt with us from the spring of 2020. This was a bit of an impulse trip for Cameron as he could not stand me sending him pictures of dead turkeys from my trip to the midwest with Yankee John and Chip. After getting several of those pictures, he decided he needed to load up and make the short 11 hour drive to Minnesota to chase some hard gobbling Easterns. I think he is pretty glad he made that decision. Listen in to this great episode with Cameron's hunt audio and story of his Minnesota wild turkey.

Talking Turkey with Kenny Mount aka Chubbs Kenny Mount joins Cameron and me on this week's episode where I think we talked about everything turkey and turkey hunting related that one person can think of. This is a great episode with lots of different topics covered and a few laughs mixed in as well. Listen in and enjoy the show!

2021 NWTF Convention and Sport Show Preview with Pete Muller Pete Muller with the NWTF joins Cameron and me this week to discuss the 2021 NWTF Convention and Sport Show to be held online this year. Normally the sport show is held at the Opryland Resort in Nashville TN each year, but this year the show will be held virtually due to COVID. This is something new that the NWTF is trying out and hopefully this will go well for them. Pete shares with us some information as to how this year's show will work and who some of the special guests are. Listen in and hear about the revamped convention and sport show. And then, get online for the virtual show this year.

2021 Unicoi Custom Turkey Call Maker's Show Recap Cameron and I start this week's episode with a huge announcement for all of you listeners. So, be sure to listen closely to the entire episode. After the announcement, I recap the 2021 Unicoi Custom Turkey Call Maker's Show in Helen, GA. This show features many of the top custom turkey call makers in the US. Even in a year with a worldwide pandemic, this year's show was no exception. From great sounding and very affordable calls to great sounding show pieces that should be displayed on the mantle or in a case, this show has turkey calls for all budgets and tastes. In addition to that, you are bound to meet some unforgettable characters, story tellers, and great hunters as well. This is a show every turkey hunter needs to attend at some point. This week, I have interviews with Billy McAllister with Natural Addiction Custom Calls from Georgia. Billy is a very talented up and comer in the call making industry, and he makes a little bit of everything in regards to turkey calls. Billy can be reached at 912-547-1794 and he has a Facebook page where you can see and hear some of his calls at https://www.facebook.com/macdaddycustomcalls. I also interview Shawn Irish who is a turkey call collector, and he and I discuss some of the collectible calls he has and how someone who is interested in getting into call collecting can learn more information and get started. Shawn can be reached at [email protected] if you want to learn more or get his opinion on the value of an old call. Last, but not least, I interviewed Brian Lawter with Deadly Attraction Game Calls about custom crow calls. Brian is a phenomenal call maker who makes not only crow calls, but also deer calls, and turkey calls. In this interview we talk about some of the advantages of owning a custom call, and we get to hear him run his crow call. Brian can be reached at 828-980-1226 if you want to pick up one of the awesome calls that Brian makes. He also has a website at http://deadlyattractiongamecalls.com/. Listen in to this week's show, and learn a little bit more about some of these call makers and collectors as well as the annual Unicoi Custom Turkey Call Maker's Show. Billy McAllister - Natural Addiction Custom Calls - 912-547-1794 Shawn Irish - Call Collector - [email protected] Brian Lawter - Deadly Attraction Calls - 828-980-1226

The Ocellated Turkey with Tony Caggiano The Ocellated turkey which calls the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico its home is the topic of our show this week. Cameron and I have Tony Caggiano with World Slam Adventures on the show with us to discuss this beautiful trophy and very exciting hunting trip. These birds have spurs in excess of 1.5", and many of them have 2" spurs. They are beautifully colored, and live in some of the thickest jungle you can imagine. This trip is one that you will never forget, and definitely one that is on my bucket list. Listen in as Tony shares his experiences with hunting the Ocellated turkeys and how you can go to Mexico to hunt this amazing turkey yourself.

We are experiencing some technical problems with Podbean. This week's full episode will be available as soon as possible! Sorry for the delay, but we are working on figuring this out as quickly as we can. Do not subscribe again if prompted by email if you have already subscribed for the year. All the best, Cameron

Save the Poults This week, Jay Hembree joins Cameron and me for a great interview. Jay started Panola Brand a couple of years ago where he films his own turkey hunts and chronicles the stories of his turkey hunts with his video camera. We are talking with Jay about his trapping efforts on his property in order to reduce nest predators and #SaveThePoults and his quest for his super slam. This is a great episode, and Cameron and I are sure you are going to enjoy it. Listen in!

The First Ever Listener Spotlight Episode We have our first ever listener spotlight episode for you guys this week, and it is a good one. Brent Rogers from Iowa joins Cameron and me this week to talk about his vast book, turkey caller, media collections. Brent has spent a great deal of time, money, and effort immersing himself in the sport of turkey hunting. He is just as passionate about collecting turkey hunting memorabilia as he is about turkey hunting. Listen in as Cameron and I chat with Brent.

More Wild Turkey Research Talk with Mike Chamberlain Mike Chamberlain with the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Georgia joins Cameron and me on this week's show. Mike is always a great interview for all of you wild turkey fans. This week we talk about wild turkey trapping, brood surveys, COVID-19, predators, and some of the research projects Dr Chamberlain has going on currently. You are guaranteed to learn a few things any time Mike is on the show. Listen in!

Some Christmas Turkey Soup This week, Cameron and I have some delicious turkey soup for you guys. We discuss turkey news from West Virginia, New Hampshire, and Ohio. In addition to our state turkey news, we have a story of the only known case of death by wild turkey and the story of a homeless man who wrung the neck of the town wild turkey. This is a very entertaining episode, so listen in!

A Hard Gobbling Tennessee Swamp Gobbler Cameron shares the story and audio from an awesome hunt with 2 of his brothers on their family land in Tennessee this past spring. This bird gobbled a bunch and did what we all want every wild turkey gobbler to do when we get the opportunity to get in the turkey woods. Listen in and enjoy this week's episode and this hunt!

A Turkey Hunter's Christmas Wish List This week, Cameron and I share our top 5 wish list items for Christmas along with a stocking stuffer item in hopes that Santa is listening to the show. We talk guns, books, clothing, transportation, trail cameras, decoys, and more. Listen in and maybe get a few ideas for what you may want to ask Santa for or even forward this episode to your spouse to pass along some gift ideas.

Turkey Taxidermy with Tanner Burns In this week's episode, Tanner Burns with Full Draw Taxidermy joins Cameron and me to talk about his quest for the Super Slam and wild turkey taxidermy. Tanner has been working on his Super Slam for about 10 years now, and he's very near completing it. His hope is to complete it in the spring of 2021. Tanner also has a taxidermy business, and he has been mounting wild turkeys for about 7 years now. He shares some taxidermy stories with us, and he also shares some tips about wild turkey taxidermy and how to make sure we get a good mount from our taxidermists. This is a great episode that Cameron and I are sure you will enjoy. Listen in!

Talking Turkey with Doc Weddle This week, Cameron and I have the Seinfeld episode for you. You know, the show about nothing?? Actually, this week's show is far from being about nothing. We have Doc Weddle on the show this week, and we are talking about anything and everything wild turkey related. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know more about Doc, and I always enjoy talking turkey. So this week's show is a winner! Listen in!

Late Winter Turkey Hunting with Rob Keck Rob Keck with Bass Pro joins Cameron and me this week to talk about late winter turkey hunting. Rob has hunted killed turkeys in New Zealand, Mexico, Guatemala, Canada, and every state in the US (minus Alaska), and he says the experience of late winter turkey hunting is unmatched. Imagine flocks of 50 - 100 toms coming in to fighting purrs and strutter decoys and beating your jake decoy into the ground. That is what Rob describes in this show when he is talking about late winter hunts. Listen in and get your blood pumping for some turkey hunting.

Mark Prudhomme Seminar 2020 Unicoi Custom Turkey Call Makers Show This week, Cameron and I share Mark Prudhomme's seminar from the 2020 Unicoi Custom Turkey Call Makers Show. Mark is a great call maker, hunter, and story teller. This is a great seminar that will get any turkey hunter fired up and ready to go into the turkey woods. Listen in!

2021 Unicoi Turkey Call Makers Show Preview Cameron and I are talking with Mark Sharpe about the 2021 Unicoi Turkey Call Makers Show this week. The call makers show will be held once again at Unicoi State Park in Helen, GA on January 8th and 9th, 2021. This is a show that I am especially excited about since the 2021 NWTF Convention and Sport Show is taking place virtually instead of live at the Opryland Hotel. The Unicoi Custom Call Makers Show is always a great time with extremely talented call makers and great turkey hunters as well. Listen in to learn more about next year's show, and then get your plans made to attend. I know you won't be disappointed.

Join us this week as we recap a recent fall turkey hunt that Cameron enjoyed this past weekend. In this episode you will get to hear some short clips of Autumn turkeys singing their song as well as the story behind this incredible hunt. You will also be entertained with the story of a life or death situation involving Cameron vs. Snoopy & Clifford. We go into the details of the hunt and recap what made this hunt successful in the fall woods. At the end of the episode, Cameron also shares an interesting and debatable fact that he read regarding wild turkeys. LISTEN IN!

Don't Miss This Episode In this week's episode, Cameron shares several turkey hunts with us with shots fired in them. The problem is that none of the shots connected with their intended target. After each hunt, we talk a little about why the misses happened, and what could have been done to prevent the hunters in these hunts from having poked out lips and unfilled turkey tags. This is a fun episode, and an episode that I think we can all learn or re-learn something from. So, this is definitely an episode you don't want to miss. Listen in!

Halloween Turkey Soup with a Dash of Fall Turkey Hunting Stories This week, Cameron shares his fall turkey hunting stories from this past weekend in Missouri with us. This trip resulted in the demise of 2 public land wild turkeys with one story including a unique flock busting technique. After hearing Cameron's turkey hunting stories, we get into some turkey soup. We talk about Connecticut, Maryland, Missouri, and a story about some poachers that will make your jaw drop. Listen in!

Talking Merriam's with Donald Devereaux Jarrett This week, Donald Devereaux Jarrett (DJ) joins Cameron and me for an interview about Merriam's wild turkeys. DJ is the author of Compositions of a Sickness, and he also writes articles for Georgia Outdoor News and Alabama Outdoor News. Though he lives in central Georgia and primarily hunts Eastern wild turkeys, DJ spent several years guiding hunters for Merriam's turkeys in South Dakota. DJ has been with hundreds of hunters while they were chasing Merriam's. And that is exactly what we are talking about with him today. We also discuss where someone can get a copy of his book, and we share a few stories as well. This episode is a great one, and you won't want to miss out. So, listen now!

Fall Turkey Hunting with Ray Eye This week, Cameron and I share the interview we did with Ray Eye about fall turkey hunting. Ray is a veteran in the world of turkey hunting, and his true passion is fall turkey hunting - more specifically fall turkey hunting for gobblers. Ray has given hundreds of seminars around the country, released multiple videos, and has written several books about fall turkey hunting. We are fortunate enough to have the great entertainer and educator, Ray Eye, on the show with us today. This is one you do not want to miss. So, do yourself a favor, and tune in!

A West Virginia Turkey Hunt This week Cameron shares the story and audio of his hunt in West Virginia from the spring 2020 turkey season. This is a very exciting hunt with lots of gobbling from a few toms surrounded by a big flock of very vocal hens. The audio of this hunt is really good, and it is interesting as well because for some strange reason, Cameron left his recorder and microphone behind with his turkey vest while he made a move on the toms. So, we get to hear his calling and the toms gobbling from a distance. It is as if we were in the woods with Cameron letting him move ahead to low crawl on the turkeys. There is a great story to go along with this hunt as Cameron shares what happened after the shot. Listen in to this hunt and enjoy!

Connecting Women to Hunting Seminar from 2020 NWTF Convention This week, Cameron and I share the Connecting Women to Hunting seminar from the NWTF convention this past February in Nashville. Although there is not much talk about turkey hunting specifically in this seminar. This was an extremely interesting seminar - really, it was a round table discussion - about how to introduce women to the sport of hunting and some of the ways that we can keep them interested. I learned a great deal during this seminar, and not just about women's perspectives on hunting, but also non-hunters' perspectives of the sport. There was discussion about why so many women are interested in the sport, and the best ways to keep them interested. Listen in!

Final 2020 Tennessee Turkey Tag This week, Cameron and I play Cameron's the hunt where he fills his 4th and final tag in Tennessee for the 2020 wild turkey hunting season. This hunt takes Cameron back to the time when he killed his first turkey because that hunt also took place in a swamp in Tennessee. Listen in as Cameron relives this hunt where he kills a monster of a boss tom and takes us along with him.

Spring 2021 Turkey Hunt Planning This week Cameron and I talk fairly in depth about our plans for our spring 2021 out of state turkey hunts. We talk about several of the states that we plan on hunting in this coming spring and a little about how we picked those states. I have plans to hunt at least 5 states that I haven't killed in, and Cameron has plans to hunt 8 - 10 states that he has not killed in yet. Half of the fun of these trips is planning the hunts, and we dive into that aspect of the hunt this week. Listen in!

Exercise and Turkey Hunting with Lindsay Persico This week Cameron and I have exercise and fitness guru Lindsay Persico on the show to talk about how exercise can help us to become better turkey hunters. We talk about how easily this can be done today without going to a gym and how to best start an exercise routine even if we have not exercised in years. We also discuss what Lindsay's exercise routine looks like and how she manages to get her cardio in. Lindsay helps us build our routine by offering some exercises we can do to get in shape. After the great interview with Lindsay, Cameron and I talk a little bit about our own workout routines and cardio exercises to get ourselves in tip top shape for chasing turkeys around the country. Listen in!

A Fan of Alabama Turkey Hunt This week, Cameron and I share the story and audio of my second kill in Alabama. This was a hunt in late April where I fanned in a very long spurred wild turkey on my own property. I've been trying to kill a turkey on that property for the past 3 years or so, and I've come so close but just never could get the goal marked off of my list. This season, I made it happen while challenging what probably was one of the boss toms in the area. Listen in to the hunt this week and also to a little extra commentary after we play the hunt.

How Not to Kill More Turkeys with the Primos Gang This week, Cameron and I share the Primos seminar from the 2020 NWTF Convention and Sport Show. The seminar is entitled How Not to Kill More Turkeys. As usual, Primos puts on a great seminar that is entertaining and informative. Whatever it is the guys at Primos do, you can consider it to be done well. This seminar is no different. Why they even show a video during the seminar of how to kill a turkey without ever firing a shot. It is truly amazing! Listen in!

This Budz For You This week Cameron and I share an interview with Jeff Budz, with Tag It Worldwide and TSS shotgun shells. Jeff is somewhat of a regular on the show and a wealth of knowledge as well. We catch up with him while he is on vacation in the vehicle heading north to see his family, and we get him to fill us in on how his season went. We also talk to him about the new shotgun shell manufacturing company that he and a couple of others have started called TSS, which stands for The Super Slam. Listen in as Jeff shares some turkey hunting knowledge with us this week.

A Steaming Hot Bowl of Summertime Turkey Soup This week, Cameron and I finally prepare some turkey soup for you guys. Our last turkey soup episode was quite some time ago, and a lot has happened in the world of turkey hunting since then, ie - high COVID wild turkey murder rates, etc. Listen in this week as Cameron and I talk about numerous topics related to turkey hunting while we cover the news from states like Indiana, New York, Wisconsin, Ohio, Maryland, Maine, Arkansas, and even from our friends north of the border in Canada. We have a lot of fun in this episode, and I think you will too.

Mentored Hunts with Travis Sumner This week, Cameron and I have the interview that I conducted with Travis Sumner with the NWTF about mentored hunts. Travis and I talk about how to put on a mentored hunt, how to find land to hunt, how to find mentors and mentees, how to find gear, which types of hunts make better mentored hunts, and a handful of other topics. Mentored hunts are a great opportunity for those of us experienced hunters to pass along our heritage and past time to others who may enjoy the sport more than we do. Listen in!

An Alabama Opening Day Screw Up This week, Cameron and Andy share a turkey hunt from opening day of Alabama's 2020 turkey season. We believe there is just as much to learn, if not more, from a hunt gone wrong as there is from a successful hunt. Today, we have one gone wrong for you. In this hunt, Andy is joined by his friend, Todd, and Todd's son, Pow. They visit Andy's hunting club in central Alabama, and find a lonely tom a couple of hours after daylight. Listen in to this week's hunt to hear about their setup and what went wrong during the hunt.

More OnX Maps with Jared Larsen This week, Cameron and I bring you the interview that I did at the NWTF Convention and Sport Show in Nashville with Jared Larsen with OnX Maps. OnX is continuing to revolutionize the mobile mapping world with their app, and Jared gives us a little bit more of a deep dive into some of the ways that we can use OnX to help us find new places to hunt and hunt those places more effectively and efficiently. Listen in!

Talking Turkey with Preston Pittman This week, Cameron and I have Preston Pittman on the show to pick the winner of the first ever The Turkey Hunter Podcast Natural Voice Owl Hooting Contest. And, of course, after a winner was picked a conversation broke out between 3 die hard turkey hunters. Listen in as we discuss owl hooting, turkey calling, turkey callers, TSS shot, turkey hunting with sub gauges, and some old school turkey hunters. Oh yeah, and we share a few laughs along the way as well.

Government and Wild Turkeys There are many different variables that go into whether or not you have a successful season in the woods hunting wild turkeys. Weather, calling skills, woodsmanship, proper setup, knowing when to move and when to sit still are all important factors in determining our success. But, how often do you think about the fact that if we didn't have wild turkeys your turkey hunting season would be a big failure? Our federal government as well as our state governments are very involved in managing our wild turkey habitat and the populations of turkeys across the country. There really is a lot of time, energy, and money that goes into managing the habitat and population, but did you know that there is also a lot of time, energy, and money that goes into lobbying our elected federal officials to make sure that they understand how important wild turkeys are to our federal lands and those of us who hunt them? This week, Cameron and I have Joel Pedersen who is the Director of Government Affairs with the NWTF on the show with us to talk about some of the finer points of working with government officials in order to promote the policies that help to promote our wild turkey populations. Listen in this week to hear all about government and wild turkeys.

2020 Turkey Season Recap In this week's episode, you can listen to the crying, wailing, and gnashing of teeth about the 2020 spring turkey hunting season ending across the country. After that, we recap our seasons for you and give you a little taste of what is to come in the next few months as we will be sharing a good many of those hunts with you to take you through the off-season. Listen in this week as Cameron and I take you back on the journey through our spring 2020 turkey hunting season with the highs, lows, great memories, and interesting people we met along the way.