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

Chasing Turkeys Using the OnX App with Dylan Dowson This week, I interview Dylan Dowson with OnX about the OnX application and feature rich family of maps. We talk about several of the different features that are helpful within the application, like the tracking feature, the ability to share waypoints with friends, and the ability to measure distance; and, we share a few hunting stories as well. Listen in and hear how the OnX app can help you have more success in the turkey woods this fall and next spring.

Managing Private Land Seminar In this episode of The Turkey Hunter, I am sharing the recording from the NWTF seminar about managing private land. In this seminar, the presenters discussed NRCS management programs, creating nesting and brood rearing habitat, and states leasing private lands using federal money. Listen in and learn if any of these managment techniques can be used on your hunting property to improve it over time.

Challenging Gobblers with Ray Eye In this episode, I interview the ever entertaining Ray Eye about challenging gobblers. Ray talks about using gobbler yelps, jake yelps, and gobbles to challenge a male turkey's spot in the pecking order. We talk about the best times of the spring mating season to try this strategy. And, Ray also discusses how he uses gobbler yelps to pull Toms away from a flock of hens. Challenging gobblers can sometimes be the only way to kill a stubborn old boss gobbler, and Ray is certainly an expert on the topic. Incorporate some of Ray's strategies into your turkey hunts next season and see if it will work for you. For those of you who do not know who Ray Eye is, well, here's a little about Ray... Born to a Missouri Ozarks farm family, Ray Eye has more than 50 years of turkey hunting experience and 30 years in the outdoor industry. He is the lead hunting expert for MidWest Outdoors magazine and a host of MidWest Outdoors Television, on Pursuit Channel, many regional networks, and local stations. He produces and hosts Eyes on the Outdoors, the highest-rated outdoor radio show in the Midwest, on KFNS 590 AM, St. Louis. Ray travels the country giving packed-house seminars featuring video projection loaded with “teaching segments” that bring his brand of turkey hunting to show-goers. He appears regularly on a range of outdoor television shows, and his amazing wild turkey footage has been seen by millions of viewers. He has written numerous books on turkey hunting, the latest being Ray Eye’s Turkey Hunter’s Bible. And he produces a series of “Calling is Everything” instructional DVDs, available at RayEye.com. Honoring his body of work, Ray has been named Missouri Conservation Communicator of the Year, National Wild Turkey Federation Communicator of the Year, and he’s been inducted into the national Legends of the Outdoors Hall of Fame. Simply put, Ray Eye is synonymous with turkey hunting, and people who want to become better hunters flock to him because he honestly loves teaching what he knows best.

Oregon Turkey Hunt This week, I take you along on my turkey hunt in Oregon. My buddies and I left Idaho, and headed to northeast Oregon on a seat of our pants turkey hunt. It was a great trip, and we managed to kill turkeys while we were there. Listen in to this awesome hunt.

Idaho Turkey Hunt This week I share the story of the Idaho turkey hunt from a few weeks ago. Idaho was another state that my hunting buddies and I were able to get marked off of our list of states. We killed 4 birds in 2 and a half days there. Listen in to hear the stories.

Washington Turkey Hunt This week, I take you along on my turkey hunt to Washington. Just a hint, it is a great hunt. You'll want to come along on this journey with me as I attempt to mark state number 26 off of my list of turkey hunting/killing states. Listen in!

187P - Minnesota Turkey Hunt Today, I'm sharing the story of my Minnesota turkey hunt on the show. The hunt was a great experience, and I look forward to the day that I can go back to hunt Minnesota turkeys. I talk about scouting land from hundreds of miles away, sleeping in a Ford Flex, and gobbling turkeys. Listen in.

Wisconsin Turkey Hunt This week, I take you on my hunt to Wisconsin to try to mark another state off of my list of states needed to complete the Super Slam of Wild Turkeys. The trip to Wisconsin was a great experience from the start to the end. The trip was full of great people, hospitality, scenery, and hunting. Listen in to hear all about the amazing trip! On Wisconsin!

Week 7 Recap of 2018 Alabama Turkey Season and Musings This week I recap week 7 of Alabama's 2018 spring turkey season, and I offer some deep thoughts on the season as a whole. Listen in.

Week 6 Recap of 2018 Alabama Turkey Season This week, I recap my hunts from week 6 of the 2018 Alabama (and Mississippi) turkey season. I'll let the cat out of the bag, there was a male wild turkey spotting and a shot fired. Listen in as I try to finally kill my Alabama turkey and I try to fill a tag in MS.

Turkey Hunting Safety This week I have a replay of a must listen reminder show about turkey hunting safety. I'm going to touch on the 3 aspects of turkey hunting that are the most dangerous and how we can be more safe. I also stress that we stop and think before we do something that is even remotely dangerous and ask ourselves, "What is the worst thing that can happen to me if I do _________." Listen in and be safe out there in the turkey hunting woods.

Week 5 Recap of 2018 Alabama Spring Turkey Season This week's show is a recap of week 5 of Alabama's 2018 spring turkey season with a little twist thrown in as Cameron and I took a trip to North Carolina. I don't want to let the cat out of the bag about what happens in this week's show because the cat has turkey feathers in his mouth this week. Listen in as Cameron and I talk turkey!

Week 4 Recap of 2018 Alabama Turkey Season This week, I recap all of my hunts from week 4 of Alabama's 2018 turkey season. There was some quick heartbeats again this week in the woods chasing turkeys. Listen in and hear about my hunts from this past week.

Week 3 Recap of Alabama 2018 Turkey Season Week 3 presented me with a little bit of action - much more action than week 1 did. This week's journeys took me to Bibb County, Chilton County, Wilcox County, Perry County, and Dallas County - all in Alabama. Listen in and enjoy the show.

Week 2 Recap of Alabama 2018 Turkey Season We finally have some action in our spring turkey season. Listen in for the story.

Week 2 Recap of 2018 Alabama Turkey Season We finally have a little action in a turkey hunt. Listen in!

Week 1 Recap of Alabama 2018 Turkey Season This week I recap the happenings from my first week of hunting the 2018 spring turkey hunting season in Alabama. I also interview Richard Dunkin with Strutt'n 360 mechanical decoy stakes and JR Holly with Dixie Fowl Company to pick and announce the winners of this week's giveaways. Adam Moser with Federal Premium also joins us to tell us about their new Heavyweight TSS turkey shotgun shells. Listen in!

Matt Morrett Seminar This week I am playing the Matt Morrett seminar from the 2018 NWTF Convention and Sports Show in Nashville. I also announce the winners of the Dixie Fowl Company and Strutt'n 360 giveaways that we are doing on the show. Listen in, learn, and hopefully win something as well.

Wild Turkey Records with Karen Cavender This week, I have Karen Cavender with the NWTF on the show to talk about the wild turkey records department. Karen is responsible for gathering and verifying all of the wild turkey records and registration forms that come through the NWTF. I ask her why hunters would want to register their birds with the NWTF, the process that we need to take to register our turkeys, and if there are a few turkeys that have been registered that jump out at her as being the most memorable. I also announce the first winners of the Dixie Fowl Company giveaway and the Strutt'n 360 giveaway on the show. Big congratulations to John Neal Baston and Jason Giavononne for being our first winners. And, I finally make the big announcement about the project that I have been working on for the past 6 months as I'm doing a soft launch of my new e-learning website called Turkey Hunting University at www.turkeyhuntinguniversity.com. I announce a special coupon code for the listeners of The Turkey Hunter podcast to use to watch some of the turkey hunting courses on the site for a discounted price. I hope that you'll take advantage of that opportunity to up your turkey hunting game by taking a few courses on www.turkeyhuntinguniversity.com. Listen in for a great interview with Karen and some special information about my new website as well.

Grand National Calling Championship and Turkey Soup This week I have JR Holley with Dixie Fowl Company and Richard Dunkin with Strutt'n 360 on the show to announce a couple of giveaways that we have partnered up on. JR is giving away 3 products from Dixie Fowl Company over the next 3 weeks, and Richard is giving away 5 Strutt'n 360 mechanical decoy stakes over the next 5 weeks. Be sure you listen in to learn how to register to win some great prizes from Dixie Fowl Company, Strutt'n 360, and The Turkey Hunter podcast. After we announce the product giveaways I play back some audio clips from the NWTF Grand National Turkey Calling Championship that took place in Nashville, TN on 2/18/18. Listen in to hear some unbelievably good turkey calling.

2018 NWTF Convention and Sports Show Recap This week, I share with you some of the highlights of my trip to Nashville for the 2018 NWTF Convention and Sports Show. The weekend was filled with turkey hunting seminars, calling contests, an exhibit hall full of vendors selling anything and everything related to turkeys and turkey hunting. I was fortunate enough to be able to record a great deal of content from seminars and calling contests, and I tell you about my days at the show and play some audio clips from those different events I attended. At the end of the episode, The Turkey Hunter podcast intern Cameron shares his 1 question interviews with some of the pros on the show floor. Needless to say, the pros rarely ever disappoint, and today is not one of those disappointment days. Listen in!

Mid and Late Season Public Land Strategies with Tony Reynolds This week, I have Tony Reynolds with Reynolds Custom Calls back on the show with me to talk a little more about turkey hunting public land. This time, however, we are talking about mid and late season public land turkey hunting strategies. Tony has many years experience turkey hunting public land, so we can gain a great deal of knowledge from Tony on this topic. I got Tony fired up talking about turkey hunting, and I think he could have talked about the topic all night with us. Listen in and catch some great turkey hunting tips for mid and late season on public land. The one trick you need to fill a tag may be in this show.

In this episode, I take you along with me through the process of planning my spur of the moment turkey hunt to Wisconsin. I'm going to try to tack on at least one more state on that trip (likely Minnesota) as well. I'm way behind in the process for where I need to be at this point, but mainly because I did not know I was going to be in the area until about 3 weeks ago. Since I am way behind in the planning process, I have hit some roadblocks in my planning this trip. Listen in and follow along in the planning process. After everything is planned and my boots hit the ground, I'm taking you guys with me on the trip and the hunts from that trip as I'll be recording the entire trip and bringing that to you in an upcoming episode.

Today, I am sharing the story of The Two Step Turkey. This is a story that is pretty crazy and unbelievable. After the story is over, I share my takeaways from that hunt and cover some turkey hunting news as well. Listen in!

170P - Pre Season Scouting Public Land with Tony Reynolds This week I have Tony Reynolds with Reynolds Custom Calls on the phone with me to discuss pre season scouting on public land. We discuss when we should start scouting for turkeys on public land, how many gobblers we would like to have located before the season starts, and the process of scouting after we have located some birds. We also get a few public land hunting tips and some great turkey hunting stories from Tony as well. This is an episode you don't want to miss. Listen in!

This week I have Pete Muller, Public Relations Manager, on the show with me to discuss the upcoming 2018 NWTF Convention and Sports Show to be held in Nashville, TN again this year. Pete shares with us some of the very exciting events, auctions, seminars, and contests that will be held during the 3 day event. Listen in and begin your planning for your time at the show. If you are not planning on attending this year, then you are going to miss out on what is sure to be another record crowd for the show. This show just keeps getting bigger and better every year. I hope to see you there!

Dealing with Outside Factors When Turkey Hunting In this week's episode of The Turkey Hunter, I talk about some factors that we have no control over when we are turkey hunting - those outside factors. I talk about how I've dealt with a few in the past, and a few observations I've made over my years of turkey hunting that may help you sometime in the near future. Listen in!

167P - The Delayed Double - An Unbelievable Story You asked for more stories, and you get more stories. Today, I'm joined by my good friend, Todd, as we share the story of our very first double. Well, it actually was a delayed double that wasn't really the same hunt. But, the story of that morning is so unbelievable you've got to listen in.

2017 Recap and 2018 Planning Session In this week's episode, we have a 2017 recap and 2018 planning session. We talk about where we have been and what we accomplished in 2017, but more importantly we plan to accomplish in 2018 both in the turkey woods and on The Turkey Hunter podcast. I also share how you can help me help you be a better turkey hunter. Participate in the 2017 End of Year survey to help me learn a little more about you so I can give you better shows in 2018. Also, I ask you to email your show topic suggestions to me. Listen in!

Wild Turkeys, Conservation, and Politics with Becky Humphries This week, I am joined by Becky Humphries, the CEO of the NWTF, to discuss wild turkeys, conservation, and politics. In this episode, Becky discusses some pieces of legislation that are currently in the Senate and House of Representatives that will affect conservation efforts on our public lands and our access to those public lands for hunting and fishing. We also discuss some actions that we hunters and conservationists can take to help protect our interests and our rights to use our public lands. Becky also shares an amazing turkey hunting story with us and 1 or 2 things that made that hunt a successful one. Listen in!

The Final NWTF Board of Directors Nominees Interviews This week I have interviews with the final 2 nominees for the NWTF Board of Directors. Bill Lafayette from California is on first to tell us a little about himself, why he is running for the NWTF Board of Directors, and why we should cast one of our 3 votes for him. Scott Hill from New Jersey is up right after him to do the exact same thing. Listen in to learn more about these nominees.

More Interviews with NWTF Board of Directors Nominees This week I have more interviews with the NWTF Board of Directors Nominees for you as I speak with Mike McKernan from South Dakota and Phil Savage from Alabama. Listen in to learn more about each nominee and to hear the story of their most recent successful turkey hunts.

Talking Turkey with Jeff Budz This week, I have an interview with Jeff Budz with Tag It Worldwide on the show to talk about his spring 2017 turkey season. Listen in!

Interviews with NWTF Board of Directors Nominees This week, I interview Greg Sitrick from Arizona and Ronnie Reagin from Georgia about their bid for a seat on the Board of Directors of the NWTF. Listen in as we learn a little more about each of them, why they want to be on the Board, and why we should cast one of our 3 votes for them.

Becky Humphries on the NWTF Board of Directors Election This week I discuss the current NWTF Board of Directors election with NWTF CEO Becky Humphries. We discuss what the Board does, why it is so important, how many members are on the board at any time, and how the current nominees were nominated to run for the Board of Directors. Listen in to learn more about the NWTF Board of Directors and how we, the NWTF members, can shape the organization for the future.

A Conversation with a New Turkey Hunter This week I have a new turkey hunter on the show who has several questions for me. Justin Beene is new to hunting and turkey hunting as well, and he has lots of really good questions for me. We talk about everything from cows to fences to bourbon when he turns the rapid fire Q&A session around and asks questions of me. Listen in!

How We Miss Turkeys This week I share 6 reasons how we miss turkeys when turkey hunting. It seems so easy. All we have to do is get our shot within a foot of the turkeys head at 40 yards, and one pellet from our shell is surely to hit the mark and down our bird for us. But it doesn't happen sometimes, and we watch in disgust as the turkey we worked so hard to get within gun range of us flies off into another county. There are some common causes to our missing a shot at a wild turkey, and that is exactly what I'm talking about on today's show. Listen in!

This week I share the story of some of the hunts that resulted in my largest wild turkeys harvested. I also share my takeaways from those hunts as well, in hopes that those takeaways will help some of the listeners become better turkey hunters. Listen in as I share the story of the turkey that was almost a mounter, Chief Osceola, my first turkey, and the one spurred birthday bird.

Talking Turkey with Chris Parrish This week I have Chris Parrish on the show with me to relive a little of his 2017 spring turkey season. Chris experienced a little of a mid season lull at home in Missouri this spring, even though he had productive mid season trips out of state. He ended up closing out his Missouri season with a successful hunt on an old bird by paying attention to the patterns of that particular turkey. Listen in to hear the story of this hunt and to hear how the rest of his season went.

More Turkey Calling Mistakes This week I cover more turkey calling mistakes that we turkey hunters make in the woods when we are hunting turkeys. Some of the mistakes covered in this week's episode are a little more obscure than the ones we covered in the first turkey calling mistakes episode, but that doesn't mean that these mistakes are not equally as important to correct as the mistakes that I covered in the first episode. Listen in as I discuss 4 more turkey calling mistakes and what we can do to correct them.

More Turkey Calling Mistakes This week I cover more turkey calling mistakes that we turkey hunters make in the woods when we are hunting turkeys. Some of the mistakes covered in this week's episode are a little more obscure than the ones we covered in the first turkey calling mistakes episode, but that doesn't mean that these mistakes are not equally as important to correct as the mistakes that I covered in the first episode. Listen in as I discuss 4 more turkey calling mistakes and what we can do to correct them.

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.