Campfire Fellowship | Swamp Turkey Hunting Story | Seek And Find

Reese Richards and Scott Hinnant are back together at the cabin in West Point, Mississippi! In this episode, Scott opens up about one of the wildest, creepiest, and most unforgettable turkey hunts he’s ever experienced—deep in the swamps of Florida. From eerie encounters to sketchy moments that will leave you on edge, Scott shares the full story behind this unforgettable hunt. (Can you guess which Seek and Find TV episode he’s talking about?)

But the conversation doesn’t end with hunting tales. Reese and Scott dive into scripture and reflect on the deeper side of life—challenging listeners to check their hearts and consider what they’re truly seeking, both in the outdoors and in their walk with God.

This episode blends hunting adventure, friendship, and faith in a way that will leave you encouraged and fired up for both the woods and your spiritual journey.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:23

What's up, guys? Welcome to another episode of the Seek and Find Podcast. Scott and I, we recorded the last episode last night. And we're just sitting by the fire now. And um it's eight o'clock at night. Spent all day working and getting the camp set and reminiscing about hunting stories and went and got some catfish because we couldn't catch any fish.

SPEAKER_02: 0:48

And we went to a gas station, got some catfish, and I mean technically technically you did catch a fish. Yeah. It was pocket size. It was it was back pocket size, but I mean 100%. It fit in your wallet. But it was a fish and you caught it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:02

It did fit in my back pocket. Um you guys will see that. If you go to Seekonfind TV, you'll see the episode. It was catch and release.

unknown: 1:09

Maybe not.

SPEAKER_01: 1:10

We definitely released it about an hour later, but it still lived. It still lived. Um but we figured we'd hop on real quick and just shoot you guys. We'll s we're gonna start doing some short hunting stories. We used to do it back in the day. Um but now that it's a seek and find podcast and everything, and you know, we've been doing 40, 40 minute to 50 minute episodes, and let's give y'all like let's do some random sporadic like 10-15 minute just fun. Well, hopefully fun. And uh just some hunting stories and some things y'all can listen to on the way to work or on your way to the woods and maybe get a good laugh out of it. Yeah, probably get a laugh out of because we ain't the smartest tools in the show, but we have some good stories and I think it's sharpest. Sharp. What'd I say smart? Yeah. There ain't tools that are smart for sure.

SPEAKER_02: 2:03

That's kind of the that's kind of the analogy you just ruined it for sure.

SPEAKER_01: 2:07

Uh for sure. All right, so um man. What hunting story pops up in your mind?

SPEAKER_02: 2:15

I'll tell you if you've told it before, because you Oh I hadn't told I've never told this one because this one's been pretty recent. Oh, okay. I got a bunch of old ones that we'll we'll get back to eventually, but I have got to roll into my first Florida swamp hunt. And and oh no, yeah. We we had an episode on this. If you saw it, um it was it was pretty, I don't know what you call it.

SPEAKER_01: 2:42

Dude, I tell you, I don't know how that episode hasn't gotten the most views. Like, that is the most entertaining episode that I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_02: 2:50

It was live, it was not edited. That was real, like it was like I literally death situation.

SPEAKER_01: 2:55

So Amber was on the gun, Scott was kind of guiding, and I was literally behind the camera. So I made sure that like every single second I was trying to record, even though it's hard, you can't record, you know, 12 hours of stuff, but yeah, man.

SPEAKER_02: 3:08

So you Florida people that are born and raised down there in the swamps, y'all to y'all will be laughing and getting it. And the people that hadn't been there, they'll get some advice. They'll be thinking, they might not go, they'll be thinking, I really wanted to go try it out until Scott told this story. So I'm like, I'm all giddy and everything, because Reese and Amber like come down here and do some turkey hunting. And I'm like, man, yeah, I'm all about it, you know. We're gonna go hunt this public land, Florida. You know, when you think of Florida, what do you think of? You think a lot of sand, you know, and swamp, right? Uh you think of osseolas, you think of big spurs, you think of long-bearded turkeys.

SPEAKER_01: 3:49

If you if you want to think of like hundred-yard hammocks, man, think again.

SPEAKER_02: 3:55

Well, that's what I thought, talking to Reese and his deer hunting and all of that, like all these beautiful wood. No, not the case. So we're gonna go turkey hunting. And uh got down there with Reese and Amber, and and we went to a spot that Reese had hunted in the past and knew where some birds were supposed to be, and all of this and that, and I was so excited because I'm a Mississippi boy coming from uh my my row crop ground and and where I turkey hunt and everything, and I'm like, let's let's go. I'll get into Palmetto's in a heartbeat. And that was that was my, you know, this is gonna be fun, right? New experience. I didn't know. I didn't know it was in in store, or I probably would have said, you know what, I got a cough, I ain't feeling too good. I'm gonna, man, I just y'all, you know, rain check, listen, rain check on this.

SPEAKER_01: 4:55

So this is the issue. The issue is there are a lot of dry ground. There's a lot. There's 19,000. Listen, there's so much dry ground. The problem is, is when Scott hears a gobble or hears a bird, it is game over. If he hears it through a swamp, that joker is hopping islands. And listen, we didn't just we didn't just randomly hop through the swamp to find a bird. We not we Scott heard a bird in the swamp and he said, we're gonna get to it. There has to be dry ground somewhere. And that's what the funny part is, is when we finally saw it. You have to understand where I grew up, turkey hunting.

SPEAKER_02: 5:39

Like it is turkey hunting where I grew up is it's everything, right? It's it I don't know how to even explain the atmosphere of dude, everything out here is hardwoods. Everything that I've been around is like. It's the culture too. Like we're hardcore turkey hunters, and and a lot of people around the world may not understand it because it's different in their part of the country, but here in Mississippi, man, it is like turkey hunting is it's the deal, right? It's it's it's just the chase, the experience, the the the toughness of getting on a bird and and and having that success. So we grew up like turkey hunting was it. That's that's all the stories we heard. That's all the sitting around the campfire, that's what that's what it was all about. We heard some good deer stories, don't get me wrong, this and that, but turkey hunting was always where we got the most um, I don't know, the the biggest and and and most uh enjoyable stories were turkey hunting. So we were just infatuated with it, and we grew up hardcore turkey hunting. So I'm gonna go to Florida because that's where everybody wants to go. Q ICO is, you know, get in here and I'm like, I'm in it. I just didn't know. I didn't understand. All right, look, you know, you say Scott here's a turkey, he's gonna go to that turkey. Well, I didn't go to school long, but what's the shortest, you know, shortest point in the Yeah, it's a straight line. So the bird gobbles, we're on public land. I've never seen it in my life, so I don't know. It all looks the same in Florida. Everything. Like there's a palmetto right there, look to the right, there's another palmetto, look to the left, there's another palmetto. I mean, it's there, it's all the same, it's flat, it's it's bottom. But I did not know that you can walk ten feet over here and sink up to your knees in Devil's Playground. Yes, you can you can you can disappear while you're talking to somebody. So we get down there, the bird gobbles. Not to mention, we had heard this bird, what, a couple days before?

SPEAKER_00: 7:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 7:51

So we knew a couple days before we roosted him, and then Amber killed hers, but we went back because this bird pitched down in the same spot every day and gobbled all day long in the same spot. We heard him from the road, right? So I'm like, we're gonna get this bird. He's on some high ground in there somewhere where we can get to him, and when we find where he's hanging out, we're gonna call him up and we're gonna get we're gonna get him, right? And he's gonna have hooks bigger than that log in the fire right there. He's gonna have like world record everything because this is what you know dreams are made of. I didn't know that a bird in Florida is vastly different from the birds I grew up hunting, and I say that because I I mean I've heard stories of birds doing some crazy things here, but this bird, this bird right here, I'm pretty sure had duck feet. He had he's not normal. He was standing on the roots of a swamp tree. I think he was swimming. I think he was, I think he was you know, beard deep in water. But we take off through this swamp, and I'm thinking when we take off, not a big deal. It's only three or four inches deep. We're kind of just trekking through a little bit, and we're gonna get over here, uh, maybe a hundred yards at worst, right? At the worst, we're gonna go a hundred yards through this mess. It's thick, it's swampy. Not to mention that in Florida, there are spiders bigger than both wagons, snakes, big as your house, and alligators can they can just come up from anywhere. Like, it don't even make sense. So walking through all of this, looking for death in every around every corner, whether it be a panther or a black bear or something ready to eat you, I didn't grow up with that. I grew up in woods where I'm the predator. I go and I hunt and I don't want to worry about nothing to Florida where everything's wanting to kill you and eat you, even from the spiders. They're huge, they're massive. So we're walking through the swamp, man, and it just gets worse and worse every step. It's getting just getting deeper. Yeah. But uh the way, like again, back to where I was born and raised, the turkey's gobbling. We got to go. There he is. He's right there. Like, this turkey can't be.

SPEAKER_01: 10:18

That is your mindset. He's 200 yards making noise.

SPEAKER_02: 10:22

He's on the ground and he's 200 yards. We'll get to him in a minute. Just let's just let's just blow up around the water. And let's go, yeah, let's go. And and again, not knowing the land, thinking, oh, there's high ground here or there, I can go around and get to him this way. I don't know. So let's just go straight at him. For all you guys going out there, Florida turkey hunting that want to go straight at a bird. Uh I don't know what to tell you. I don't know. Maybe, maybe you have better luck than I did, but it got worse every step. Every step of the way got deeper and deeper and deeper until we were literally knocking on the door of death. I mean, there was there was we were like, There ain't no bird out here.

SPEAKER_01: 11:04

There can't be. Scott's like, there's a bird.

SPEAKER_02: 11:06

I mean, he's gobbling. So it's like he's right there. Let's go. And every step was just like, there's no way. What are we doing?

SPEAKER_01: 11:14

What are we doing? You guys need to go. So in the description, I'll put the episode. You guys have to go and watch this episode because what we're speaking on, it's hard to explain unless you actually see it. But when you see it, you're gonna be like, Why did y'all even walk through that?

SPEAKER_02: 11:30

Well, if I was from Florida, I'd have said, Why are you going here? But I I I literally thought this bird is, I mean, listening to it gobble on the ground. I obviously it was in a hammock somewhere. It's like it's up on the high ground. We get to that spot, we can call this turkey up. I'm thinking we're gonna walk through this little bit of swamp here, no big deal. We got our knee boots on, or whatever you want to call them, whatever. You know, we're waiting. Yeah, it and it's uh, you know, we're getting through here. And it's not bad right at first. I mean, it's it's ankle deep, you know, and you get a little bit deeper, no big deal. And then Amber's like, you gotta be careful where you step. I'm like, what do you mean? And she says that. And then I disappeared. And I was filming the whole time. I I I literally stepped, and this it the ground looks exactly the same. There's no telltale sign, there's no don't step here. It looks the same. And you step and you go out of sight.

SPEAKER_01: 12:27

It's like a dusty, it's like a dusty mud at the at the level of the water that looks exactly like the two inches of water we were walking.

SPEAKER_02: 12:36

Yeah, don't don't buy that. Don't buy that at all because you will disappear and that's where you'll be. I mean, look, we found everything from headlights of vehicles to uh we did up and done, dude. Yeah. I mean, there's water bottles that somebody drank back in 19, whatever. We're finding stuff. These people died here. Yeah, like that there somebody drove a vehicle off of here. It's still here somewhere. Dude, that's like that's probably hurricane stuff. I'm just saying they died there and there's bones laid everywhere. There's like there's no doubt they didn't make it out. That's why that's there. They did not make it out. So, and and and I'm thinking any second, like I keep telling myself, we are gonna step up here in just a second and feed this. We're gonna see this high ground where this bird is, and we're gonna get in here where nobody's been, you know, willing to go, and we're gonna get on this bird, and we're gonna have, you know, we're gonna have a good hunt. Everybody's been. This turkey was in that crap with us the whole time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 13:35

And dude, it's like he was strapped with his saddle to the tree, the base of the tree on the water.

SPEAKER_02: 13:41

Look, I keep thinking, man, we've surely we've gone a hundred yards. Like it feels, you know, it is slow because you're wading through crap. You know, it's like, all right, well, it feels like a hundred yards, maybe it ain't. Well, after 200 yards, it's like, man, dude, this dude's gotta be right here. Like, I have stepped over 85 anacondas, three alligators, four black widows the size of my hat. And amber fell in. I forgot about that. Yeah, and I mean we have I'm literally grabbing onto tree limbs, trying to save my life, you know. And at this point, really and truly, it's almost gotten to the point where like, can we just get back to the road? Can we just get back to our e-bikes and get out of here? That's how it was today. And the turkey flies up 20 yards in front of us out of the swamp. Like, I'm well, we get footage of it first sitting on the sitting on the island stuff. It's like it's standing on the yards from us. Like, what is this bird doing? No wonder nobody can kill him because he's out here swimming, trying to, I don't know what he's doing. Living on island time, bro. There was there was he was by himself. There was no other birds around, no hens, no nothing. And we're in the middle of a swamp. He's eating fish for a living, I guess. I don't know. But it was not anything like I had expected it to be. I I really did. I thought we're gonna go in here, we're gonna find a pretty high, you know, a high spot, and it that's where this bird's gonna be. He's gotta be. He's gotta be. He's been there two or three days in a row. We hadn't even gone after him yet. We have not even gone at this bird, but he's there every day.

SPEAKER_01: 15:14

And when we finally see him, he's in our pocket, but in places that like we didn't have our guns ready. I didn't have no how can you have your gun ripping wading through the water, chest deep, trying to.

SPEAKER_02: 15:25

I mean, we looked like we were in Nom. I had my gun up over my head like I'm like I'm trying to stay dry. It's not like dove hunting where you're just kind of waiting for him to fly. Like I this bird, when he got up, I thought there's no way. We sat there for a second and was like, dude, no way. I don't understand what just happened.

SPEAKER_00: 15:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 15:44

As a matter of fact, I think we scared that bird out of there, and he was so grateful that we made him fly. He we scared him to like we scared him to his, he was like, Man, I've been trying to get out of here for years, and y'all scared me, and I finally flew and I'm safe now. Thank you. He's in the swamp every day gobbling because he needs help. He wasn't saying that's true. He wasn't gobbling for a hen, he's gobbling for, hey, help me. I'm off in the middle of this Florida swamp, and everything, man, it was it was different. It really was. I I I knew that Florida was that way in a sense, but I did not know that birds would be in the middle of it. Like they would be in the thickest, like the the undergrowth, the the the brush, it's just so thick, and you're thinking, there's no way a bird's gonna be here. But we kept walking, we kept trekking because we know he's there, he's talking. He's gotta be right here. So I'm thinking we're just gonna open up to heaven. We're gonna be in this little spot that you know it's gonna be on. No, the bird was off in the middle of dead gum Hades, man. He was out, he was out there in the swamp, knee deep.

SPEAKER_01: 16:50

Like I say, you know, I mean you got you got 19,000 acres that every single inch of it butts up to the river. Yeah, so it's all low bottom swamp with like a few spots here and there that are like three feet above sea level. Uh I think the highest point, which is where we trekked on the south side, where we trekked down, yeah. We went over a creek. The highest point is up there in them pines, and it was only 12 feet above sea level. Well, so think of all of that land we've ever trekked, when a hurricane comes in and you see 29 foot rises, every single inch of that public land is underwater at least three feet.

SPEAKER_02: 17:34

That turkey probably had 12 foot legs, to be honest with you. It couldn't. I think he had they're they're taller than normal or something because uh this bird had to literally be standing in a foot of water. That's like almost evolution in the swamp. I'm I'm just it just blew my mind.

SPEAKER_00: 17:48

ICO was in there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 17:50

When it got up and I I saw that it was a turkey, it just did not register. Like there's no way I just saw what I saw come out of where I'm looking at in front of me. Like there's no way.

SPEAKER_00: 18:00

I mean, it's weird.

SPEAKER_02: 18:01

Even the bird was actually trying to get to us because I was calling a little bit here and there, trying, you know, like uh getting. Maybe they will put me on dry land. I might come to the well, we can't call. I mean, set up, but we can't sit down because we'll have to we'll have to have a snorkel.

SPEAKER_01: 18:13

We tried to try to sit down on the base of trees and it just washed, it just falls into like the moss of the it's weird. The moss of the roots of these cypress trees literally will just fall into the swamp water. It's fake, it's so weird.

SPEAKER_02: 18:28

It's all fake. And wolf spiders love them. Wolf spider, that's not a wolf spider, man. That's Dracula. That was definitely those things are death, yeah. They're huge, they're bigger than anything I've ever seen in my life. So it's not like your normal little everyday, okay, there's a spider. No, these things will they will eat you.

SPEAKER_01: 18:46

The moral of the story is if you get invited to come osceola hunting in, just really, really pay attention to where they're gonna be taking you. There's a lot of pine spots and a lot of spots that like private property that there's osseolas on. But like these swamp birds and stuff, when it comes to swamp birds, they're they are legit birds.

SPEAKER_02: 19:09

Do not think for a second that when that bird gobbles and you're looking at your maps and you don't know the land, but you're like, man, this all looks low. Well, there's gotta be some high ground. No, don't think for a second that that bird is in high ground because he will be off in the middle of that thicket where you there. I mean, the the bird that we caught up, that the the the turkey that I harvested, it was was it the same year? Was that the same year I killed a bird? Different. Uh anyway, we called him up the first time we called him up, what was he five yards from us before we could see him?

SPEAKER_00: 19:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 19:40

Like, and didn't kill him at that moment. This this was the point we could hear him walking. This bird gets within five yards. Behind Palmetto. Yeah, and we can't even see him. Like he's finally, and and that when we did end up killing him, I don't know, it was like it was straight luck, really, but we got to an open spot, not too much.

SPEAKER_01: 20:00

Let's just say it was about 4 45 in the afternoon. Oh, and we got on this bird at about noon.

SPEAKER_02: 20:05

It was three. It wasn't that bad. Maybe it was three o'clock, but uh he never stopped gobbling. And when you come that's when I ate food every second, so I was angry. You didn't got hanging, you needed a Snickers. Yeah. But I told Reese, I'll never forget that, like the bird we had been on him all morning. Nine o'clock to three is how long it was. It was nine points. It was the same bird. And uh finally not the one in the swamp. This is a whole nother and this is after this is after calling this bird up to five yards now. This bird is literally, I can almost reach out and touch this turkey.

SPEAKER_01: 20:37

Well, we had on the that episode we'll show that too. The hen of the group, I guess, walk behind me. That's what I'm saying. On that tree.

SPEAKER_02: 20:47

We didn't even realize we didn't realize that you had it on camera until later, and we're like, man, I just kind of turned it that way and didn't know if it got it or not, but you ended up getting it. It's this turkey is five yards from it. It's like it's like right there. Yeah, I was literally was doing circles looking right at it. But it it walks off and leaves and goes back to Gov and does whatever, but later on, we ended up going down the road away.

SPEAKER_01: 21:08

We literally walked away from the turkey, found an open spot, and I mean walking away from a bird, I could tell you that's almost a a new um a new like I don't know if treance is the word. Uh a new um a new tactic is what we figured out when you killed that bird. Oh yeah, we went away from it. I mean, I think a lot of turkey hunters know that, but yeah, at that time I was only hunting turkeys for two, three years by myself. I never hunted them with anybody else. So when I started hunting turkeys with Scott, that is uh that was a whole nother ball game. Like I never experienced the uh dedication on top of like you know the skill and the different sounds of you know different birds and different things.

SPEAKER_02: 21:56

We threw everything in the look at that bird.

SPEAKER_01: 21:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 21:59

And to be fair, I mean that bird got in the ball. The last case scenario was never like we pulled up in the truck and got out and was getting the e-bikes off, right? And the bird got we were gonna go scout this new spot. Bird gobbled before we got the bikes off. Yeah, oh crap. And from that moment on, that bird gobbled all the way until I shot him. Like he literally gobbled the entire time. Yeah, that is crazy. And we caught we had called him up once, and Reese was hangry and and ready to go. Middle of the day, a bird gobbling non-stop. The GoPro battery was dead, the main camera battery was dead. All you have was your cell phone. My phone, yeah. At that point, I was like, look.

SPEAKER_01: 22:37

So you didn't have a camera on him. I took my phone with me, and that's when Scott, Scott's about to tell you.

SPEAKER_02: 22:44

Yeah, yeah. I said, here, take this box call because Reese is not a turkey hunter, so I'm like, can you run this box? I'm a turkey hunter now. Yeah. So I give him the box call and I say, look, because we we did. We went away from the bird, got up and left him, went down the road, what, a hundred yards or so, and found this open, pretty open spot. It was just like, when I say open, I mean I mean, two months later, that spot would have been four feet underwater. Yeah, like it was he this turkey. I shot this turkey in water. Really?

SPEAKER_01: 23:12

It was like the few puddles that were down there, he was he walked in between them.

SPEAKER_02: 23:17

But you could see 30 or 40 yards, which was very open for where we were. So I'm like, all right, just take this box call and walk straight away from me. And I'll never forget you looking at me like, Really? I said, just go straight away. And when you get a hundred yards from me, go to yelping. Okay. So he's yelping, and I can hear him. I have to call him on this on my cell phone. And I'm frustrated.

SPEAKER_01: 23:38

Yeah, I'm like feeling this thing on a word. Why am I doing this crap?

SPEAKER_02: 23:42

Yeah. So I call him and the turkey's not doing anything. And I said, Hey man, you remember me? I said, get snack. I said, get down on that thing, man. Cut, do cackle, whatever you can do. I was like, and all of a sudden he goes to just pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, just and the and the bird, pow. And I'm like, yeah, do that again. And it wasn't 30 seconds later, man. It was like the bird is on a rope.

SPEAKER_01: 24:06

Yeah, the intro to seek and find, which it might not be the intro now, but it is me filming myself, looking at my phone, and then all of a sudden it was me looking up because I hear it. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02: 24:21

So it worked out. I mean, I I knew it would work because the bird was so wanting to be where we were. Dude, that's every bird out there. But it was so thick. I mean, we called him up. How many times did we call that bird up that day? I mean, literally, how many times did we have him within shooting range and never could see? I could hear him from him. Yeah, it's like he's right here. How can we not? We just couldn't find the right spot. So it's finally like, well, we just gotta let him go. We got to let him go off and keep gobbling. Don't call to him. Let him get somewhere where we can move, go down the road until we can find somewhere where we can set up to where if we do call him within range, we can see him. Right. And that's what happened. But uh it it worked out, it worked out great. We didn't have a swamp at that moment there where we were. We were on the highest, I think that was the highest ground we had out there, wasn't that? But uh it was uh it was a crazy hunt, and I and I don't know if we get it. It was it was a really good bird too, as far as I'm concerned.

SPEAKER_01: 25:17

I mean it I think it had in two quarter spurs, which is we didn't actually so swamp uh man, I I don't mention the names, but they changed up the way the permits are and everything. And last year we actually were not able to harvest a bird or even hunt the same pro uh the same public land because they changed up how the permits were done, and it kind of was upsetting, man, because we loved just you were able to hop on an e-bike and go, we went 32 miles in one day, yeah, just riding around, calling. That's when we first got the e-bikes to you. Yeah, because we put them together at your house.

SPEAKER_02: 25:56

Yeah, we actually left from the campsite to the house, put them together, went back, and we were man, and I I I remember that year because there was nobody there, and you hit a gate and go miles back there.

SPEAKER_01: 26:08

Just well, we hunt we hunt five days during the week. So we'll do uh Monday through Friday. We'll camp at a campground that's literally 10 miles from there, and we will go out there during the week. And um last year we didn't weren't able to do it. It it was kind of a bust, man. We we tried to we tried to do what we can with what we were given, and we found some beautiful places. I mean, the the campground we ended up finding in North Florida was just gorgeous, man. Like there were birds there, but there are birds, but man, I don't know where they were. I mean, you saw their trailers, but like they were those they were not making noise. So it was it was hard, man. Florida is it's so like it's so discouraging to make like plan a week hunt for turkeys in Florida because like dude, you could come a week early and nobody nobody's making noise, and you can come a week late, no but nothing's making noise, and like last year was the worst turkey hunting with Scott that I've had. I'm talking, we went four or five days, man, of literally just when you are non-stop calling and hunting and calling and hunting and absolutely nothing.

SPEAKER_02: 27:23

And you remember the guy we met and gave turkey calls to? He ended up killing a turkey like the last week of season. As a matter of fact, it was the bird where we where we met him in the road up there, uh, and it was off in the middle. We after we actually went after that bird. And it was in the middle of this just absolute no. And I'd already experienced it once, so I was like, you know what? Nah. And we tried to go around. Remember, we went, how far did we go around this bird? A mile? Yeah. I mean, we circled around the road and got and and it come, we're gonna come in on the backside, right? We're gonna be smart. It was worse on the backside than it was trying to come in behind him. The undergrowth and the and the swamp and the thickness, like we can't even walk through this. How is a bird flying down in this and and walking through it? But they're there, they're there.

SPEAKER_01: 28:11

Well, that's it's the same thing that we talked about last episode, like, you know, why you're doing it. Like, obviously, we want to kill a bird, but like, what happens when we kill a bird? We kill a bird, we slap hands, and everything's good, we go back to cabin, we cook it and everything, and everything's fine. But like, you know, the whole time you're doing it for a reason and you want to kill a bird just like you want to kill a deer. Well, you know what, you know what?

SPEAKER_02: 28:39

Last year, I I told you before we even started turkey hunting last year, I said.

SPEAKER_01: 28:43

We did find some really cool places, man. Like I camp it and kayak it again, like, and the people.

SPEAKER_02: 28:48

So we're hunting, we're hunting public land, and a lot of times if you hunt public land, you'll run into people that can be, you know, they can be great or they can be irritable. We have a YouTube channel, and I see you guys have mics and all this stuff. Whatever. So, but but I said, you know what? I'm gonna bring a bunch of turkey calls, and I I said we run into people, let's just give them some calls, let's give them some beard products, let's bless them, and and tell them, hey, we heard birds over here, let's just see what that's. It really came down to a point to where we were just looking for people to like give beer products because we're like, we're not gonna kill a bird, we're just gonna But we rented this guy, man, and he had his own YouTube channel, and uh and ended up talking with him and and gave him some calls, and and uh he ended up having a buddy we met a couple days later, I think. They were coming down the road, remember, and we met them and and and hooked up with them, whatever, and got to talking turkeys and whatnot. And it was like I'd I've come I've come back to Mississippi, man, Florida season's like all but over. And he sends me a picture and has got my call with the bird later.

SPEAKER_01: 29:49

I didn't know this.

SPEAKER_02: 29:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 29:50

You didn't send me this.

SPEAKER_02: 29:51

No. So you know where we met him on the bikes that day when they were coming back?

SPEAKER_01: 29:54

On the left side, he was on the left side.

SPEAKER_02: 29:56

The bird that was gobbling off in there that me and you went after that day and we ended up circling around. It was just Thick as crap. We end up going down.

SPEAKER_01: 30:01

I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_02: 30:02

Yeah. So he ended up getting that bird. I did not know that. He ended up killing that bird, yeah. But it was like the last, like, literally like the last, it had to be the last day or two of season because I'm thinking it's over. But he sends me a photo. Man, this call, man, I caught it. I think it was maybe been aluminum. I don't can't remember what I gave him now, but he's like, man, this thing, I got in there forequip. But he he got in there and he and he used that call that I gave him, and he was like, man, this is awesome, you know. And uh called him up and got him. And I thought, dude, you deserve every ounce of that bird because that was not an easy turkey to get to, let alone call up. Because they didn't want to hear it. Those turkeys were not answered. They were, I don't know how, like they were, you could hear them gobble and go over there and get close to them, and they would not gobble anymore. Yeah, you could call to him from 300 yards away and he would gobble. But you get in there tight inside 100 yards, he's not saying a word, and you could sit there for three hours. He wasn't coming. Right. Yeah. But so I thought when he when he I actually wish I could get up with him and hear how that hunt went down and how it happened because I would love to know. But uh, well, we got his number, we can try it.

SPEAKER_01: 31:15

I mean, he wouldn't really want to go out there again. Um, I would love to go camp. I would, but what would be cool to get some kayaks or a canoe and like actually go down that little river right there? There was a lot of people doing that. And there's bass, probably so many bass and everything. I mean, there's a lot of cool things in Florida.

SPEAKER_02: 31:31

I just thought it was really cool that he ended up going and getting that bird that that we were after, and he was after. We were all kind of after the same. There was actually two birds in there, but they would stay in the same little area every day, and they were just they would go away from every call, and they would get off in the middle of this swamp, and and it was just hard to access them, let alone get in there and get set up to where you're in a good spot and think you can actually call him up. It was, man, every time we would get anywhere near that bird, it was like looking around going, we can't even set, like, there's no way we could even make a call together.

SPEAKER_01: 32:04

Stupid, man. I mean, I I don't I don't say stupid a lot, but like such a hard stupid.

SPEAKER_02: 32:10

He worked for that bird, I'm telling you. And so when he when he sent me that, but the the whole thing was we went to Public Land, and you can say, Yeah, I bought my tags, I spent my money, you know, going out of state and did all this, and I gave somebody a call, you know, loved on them, got to meet them, got to hear their heart and get to know them a little bit. And then he calls me or sends me that.

SPEAKER_01: 32:31

Is that the veteran that we met? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 32:32

Yeah, at the end of the season and sends me that picture with a dead bird with my call, and it's like, this is the one that y'all are after. And I was like, man, that's so freaking good. That's so much better than if we'd have gone in there and killed it. It's not even funny. Like, yeah, that that was worth every second. You know, I mean, we went there to kill a turkey and ended up helping somebody else do it, and it blessed them, and it's like, that is man.

SPEAKER_01: 32:55

So that trip, I'm gonna tell y'all, we we went to a spot that was about 20 to 35 minutes north of Lower Swannee, and it was a spot that I'm kind of aware of, but like I only deer hunted it before the hurricanes. Well, hurricanes came in, destroyed the trees, like literally made it to where you can't even ride in the water. We got monkeys crying through. We were like looking at what is that? Oh, that's a monkey wing. So we literally picked up camp and we went two hours, two hours north to some random public land that I've never even been to. Yeah. And we heard from T-Bone, one of our buddies, T-Bone.

SPEAKER_02: 33:37

T-Bone, boy.

SPEAKER_01: 33:38

He was just like, he was just like, man.

SPEAKER_02: 33:40

Let me tell you, if you ever meet a man named T-Bone, you can trust everywhere.

SPEAKER_01: 33:43

That's my name.

SPEAKER_02: 33:44

The two T-Bones I know are the greatest dudes I've ever been. They true. They true.

SPEAKER_01: 33:50

So it's always we went out here and no idea, man. Really have no idea. I searched campground. We went to the campground, most beautiful campground I've ever been to. Live seats everywhere. I want to actually throw the link of the description of the best portagens on the planet. Golly. The campground was beautiful. But it was, it was just I'm talking when I say secluded, I'm talking like and look, the turkey sign. The turkey sign was there.

SPEAKER_02: 34:17

There were everywhere, dude. It was strut marks, it was sign.

SPEAKER_01: 34:20

We had one truck that was kind of in our areas like the whole time, but that's really about it. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02: 34:28

I don't know what it was. And if you want to find turkey, that's the only place you can go talk to the locals, you know. And there's this old guy in there, and he's kind of got this old deep voice, like, yeah, if you want to get a turkey, hey, y'all, where are y'all hunting? Okay, we're hunting over here. Well, I'll tell you where you need to go. Oh, by gosh, you go to that road and it is covered up. There was it was with turkey sign. We we went the entirety of that road. How many four miles down through there we went on the e-bikes? And it's turkey tracks everywhere. We haven't saw, we even saw birds. We haven't heard. We heard a little bit of birds on the other side of the creek that one time. No, I mean, we went miles and did not hear a thing. Now, you go back the next season, it's a lot to be 35 birds gobbling in there. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01: 35:13

A week before it could have been.

SPEAKER_02: 35:15

A week after. Boy, it was tough. We we rode and we called and we rode and we called. Now we couldn't even have explored any of that without those e-bikes. No way. We there's no way I'm walking that mile that that Hoffman Outdoors.

SPEAKER_01: 35:27

Hoffman E-Bikes.

SPEAKER_02: 35:28

I'm HoffmanOutdoors.com. Great guys, great bike, great project.

SPEAKER_01: 35:32

Justin Biertay, B-E-R-T-I. Go do it, son. I'm telling you, these e-bikes have been a game changer. We put them through over the last couple years.

SPEAKER_02: 35:41

I almost want to have it. I love it. So we did, though. We trekked it all and we and we uh we hunted hard and didn't, I don't think we ever even really the one time that we had a bird that would answer us never got closer than what 200 yards from us, maybe.

SPEAKER_00: 35:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 35:58

And that burned area. Remember that pretty burned area that we were in? And and we we heard birds and we got in there. It was pretty. It was beautiful, but the bird was not, it was actually two birds. And they would not so rough.

SPEAKER_01: 36:10

Like the hunting was just like when you go days of just we just need a bird to gobble. Just do something. And you're going five, six, seven hours of calling and riding and calling, and you hear zero birds, like it's so discouraging.

SPEAKER_02: 36:25

But there's tracks everywhere. There's like sign, there's strut marks, there's tracks everywhere. Like everywhere you stop, there's tracks. And you're thinking about it.

SPEAKER_01: 36:32

Man, when it comes down to you know, scripture and Christ, and it's just it's that perseverance, man, that like that patiently enduring, that just moving forward, knowing that there's a harvest at the end of the tunnel, but at the same time, when you're dealing with it, when you're going through that struggle, when you're going through the mud, you're just like, how is there how is there an outcome to this? And we didn't kill a bird, but dude, when we packed up, I mean, the contentment was just like, man, yeah, we we talked to folks, enjoyed every second of it, just loved on folks, and it was just it was enjoyable.

SPEAKER_02: 37:12

Remember the guy we met that was at the uh uh I guess there was a boat ramp, technically, couldn't call it a ramp, but right there where we were in the in the campground, there was a guy we met that was fishing there or whatever. Remember? With his kids, and he said he didn't turkey hunt, but his son did. His son did, yeah. We gave him some calls to, yeah. Yeah, and he he messaged me, and his son got a turkey with the call. And he messaged me and was telling me thank you. I did not know that either. So both of them, both the people that we actually got to give calls to, um, and that ought to that ought to tell you what kind of public.

SPEAKER_01: 37:43

See, that's it about that's what it's about, man.

SPEAKER_02: 37:45

Yeah, and so they both got to experience that, um, you know, giving them some calls and and having some success with it. I feel like I feel like I had success. Even though I didn't actually go get a bird, I got to go enjoy it. I got to go chase them. I got to hear, you know, all kind of stuff at night, whatever was making all that racket out there in there beside our camp. But uh Florida is uh there's there's noises I've like, I don't know what I I'll try to wake up in the middle of the night, but Reese, what is that? He's just over there like that ain't nothing. I don't know what they did, Reese. I slept through so many.

SPEAKER_01: 38:22

I was about to shoot through this.

SPEAKER_02: 38:23

I'm hearing stuff that ain't normal. Like I got aliens but you know balling up on us, but I'm just whatever. Yeah, and so uh, but you know, to to have those guys reach out later on and go, man, I appreciate it. We had success with it, I feel like I could have went and limited out and never met them, and I wouldn't remember the hunting near as much as having the lack of success we did technically on turkeys, but way more success in just loving on people and and enjoy. I think the whole hunting environment, you know, if we could transform it from such a competitive, you know, industry back to let's help somebody else enjoy it. Let's let's let's put somebody on an animal, let's bless somebody with this and enjoy their success. It changes the game. It's like that that everything's fun at that point.

SPEAKER_01: 39:14

Like you can't fail at that point. Think of this. So seek and you will find. We were talking about it last night on the last episode. Yeah, like what are you seeking and what you actually seek determines what you're gonna find. Right. So if you're seeking a big old bird, if you're seeking a big old buck, when you don't find that big old turkey or that big old buck, what are what are you actually seeking and finding? Are you gonna be disappointed? Right. So, or are you seeking Christ through it all, and then you go home with you know tag soup, or you go home with nothing, like you realize, like, man, I actually seeked and I found Christ. I found you it's hunting the good. Right. Hunting the good is something that uh Ten Can, which is another organization, they brought up to me one time and they made some shirts and all that stuff. And hunting the good is literally like exactly kind of what seek and find is. It's like, what are you are you hunting the animal? Are you hunting the experience? Are you hunting like to just find Christ no matter what, and you're just gonna enjoy yourself? Like, dude, hunting the good, it's like what are you seeking to find? Yeah, and that really that should be a question on a shirt is what are you seeking to find? Yeah, and I mean that goes along with life, that goes along with every single thing that you deal with. Man, it's so good.

SPEAKER_02: 41:00

Well, there's no doubt. I mean, there's nothing wrong. We're not condemning the idea that we want to come out here and we have pictures of this great deer, this, you know, we're trying to get this turkey. You know, there's nothing wrong with pursuing that animal as hard as you can. No. But when we feel like the perseverance is forget that animal that we failed, that's where we're missing the boat. No, we hadn't failed. We've enjoyed every second of the hunt.

SPEAKER_01: 41:23

What did you learn?

SPEAKER_02: 41:24

Yeah, and and and even more so along the way, who did we bless in the process? Who could we, who could we come across in the process and say, you know what? You know, maybe that's the misstep.

SPEAKER_01: 41:37

Maybe that's the misstep that people that are listening right now, maybe that's maybe that's a maybe that's a chip that they're missing is like not you, not your hunt, not your camp, but like if you came across somebody and you were able to put them in an area, even in an area, not even killing a deer or a turkey, but just putting them in an area that hey, we're about to leave tomorrow, you're gonna be here the next three days, like this is where turkeys and deer are at, and this is where we've seen them, this is where we've heard them. Like, dude, that alone could make you drive home for that two hours to nine hours and just be like, man, I'll I'll never forget that was one of the things about T-Bone that just struck me so much.

SPEAKER_02: 42:23

We'd never met this dude in our life. Pulled up that's so wild that he came here to. And not only did he point us towards turkeys, but then it the turkeys that he actually was after. He knew, he knew like one of them's double bearded. Like he was telling us this dirt.

SPEAKER_01: 42:37

His truck was there before we pulled up.

SPEAKER_02: 42:39

He's like, Y'all go after him, you know, and and that blew my mind because that's like that's the heart that we have. But look, not only that, he goes to showing us deer pictures, giant bucks on public land and goes, here's where they're at.

SPEAKER_01: 42:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 42:53

And tells you where to go to go get these deer. And it's like, that's the kind of like, that's what hunting is supposed to be about. Because I I I dare you to take someone hunting and put them on a deer that you've been after and watch them have success and not love it way more than you killing that deer yours. I dare you to try it because I promise you, if you can have somebody in front of you that you've blessed, you ain't even got to know them good. Just just give them the opportunity to have that excitement and you bless them. You know, it was it say, it's more blessed to give than to receive. I promise you that is a true statement. Go go give somebody that opportunity if they don't have it. And bless them with it. And I'm telling you, the reward is so much greater.

SPEAKER_01: 43:39

It's unbelievable. If T-Bone said that, man, he was like, you know what? You know why? He's like, I never give anybody marks on X maps. He's like, me and my son, we hunt these spots and we don't tell nobody about nothing. And he's like, I would rather give them to you, you guys film this hunt and film this and have an experience for people to see. Yeah, and you experience this spot and possibly end up harvesting an animal, yeah, than for me just to think about it and then just be stubborn and not.

SPEAKER_02: 44:13

He was showing us like no average little old run-of-the-mill deer.

SPEAKER_01: 44:17

This was like every on X spot you can think of that he's ever had given it to me.

SPEAKER_02: 44:22

Some freaking studies. These were these were deer. I was like, wow, I'd be I'd be shooting these up here, you know, in the We showed up to this when Amber killed her bird.

SPEAKER_01: 44:32

We showed up to this gate, and he was parked across it, and he came out and he literally was like, I want you guys. He was there before us, yeah. And he already he had it on camera. All right. He had this bird on camera for years and he was like, There's a bird in here, he's like, I know where it's at. He's like, You go in here, go over this way, go over there. And he literally gave us exactly where this bird was at and wanted us to go. He sat on his tailgate the whole hunt, and literally when we came out with the bird, yeah, and there was an FPC office fired up. Exactly. And she was just like, I want to get a picture with you, and I want to. Um you know what? I think she appreciated it. I really do. Like, she this is what it's about. Like, we we and she saw the Amber killed it and was like, female hunters, you don't see them. It was awesome, man. Dude, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_02: 45:19

I forget about that. No, it was like the whole atmosphere was like people going, This is what this is about. Like, this I can't mess this up with some, you know. This is just too much.

SPEAKER_01: 45:30

And that's why we record these podcasts because like it brings back memories that like I forget because I get so busy with life and hunting and all that.

SPEAKER_02: 45:40

I did that. Well, that's it. I mean, I I stomped him straight on his noggin. Like, I I broke his nose. You know what I'm saying? The heel of my foot definitely hit him in the nose. I'm sure I broke a horn off or something. I, you know, but that's that's that's just the way it is. I'll never forget that. I went I went all the way down and back up. I don't know which one of y'all pulled me back up, but saved my life.

SPEAKER_01: 46:04

All right, y'all. This episode was great, man. We we just wanted to tell some stories and tell some experiences, man, that we've we've really um what Scott and I and and the family have been involved in, and it's just been it's been so good, and we talk about it ourselves at camp and all that, but we want y'all to know like the experiences you can have if you get out in the woods. And um if you don't have people, if you don't have them that's a squirrel. Yeah, that's a nighttime squirrel throwing.

SPEAKER_02: 46:36

Above us, it's a yeti. Hey, so um, but look, before we get off here, we met some guys in the store today, right? And and and it's like before we get done, we're just going grocery shopping and and basic shopping, and we're meeting these guys like, hey, we're in rural king, man. And they were like, what are y'all doing this afternoon? We're like, what do you mean?

SPEAKER_01: 46:53

They see mics and stuff. Yeah, they're like, what are y'all doing the next couple days?

SPEAKER_02: 46:56

Like you have a YouTube channel or something. So he's inviting us out to his race, and we're inviting him over here to hey, come to the camp. Let's hang out. You know, if you want to go fishing or hunting, hey, I know this river is good as anybody, let's go. That's what it's supposed to be like. You know, it got too competitive, man. It really did, and it took the joy out of hunting and fishing and all of that stuff. So you you know, you get people, enjoy it. Man, the the I grew up sitting there listening to these deer stories. There was no competition. It was it was people telling stories of them having these deer camps, right? It was all about deer camps back in the day. There's a whole group of people sitting around, and it's never somebody kept this secret or tried to go to this deer. That it was always somebody told somebody there was a deer over here, go get him. And they had success with it. Every story was that way. It was all it was never a competition. It was always about if that if that friend of mine had success, I can sit around his campfire and listen to that success in his story, and I enjoy every second of it. You know what I'm saying? That's this that's the real success. Is I can sit here and and and have a meal with you and sit around his campfire and listen to you tell the story of that big buck I put you on in the creek and how it went down, and that is so much more fun than me having to actually go do it myself. I love I love killing them. Don't get me wrong.

SPEAKER_01: 48:19

I can't wait. I think tomorrow we need to get Eric and we need to sit here with Eric. Oh man. And I I'm curious about him because he's got a lot of things. Eric is like, I met him through Scott, and like, man, he is so genuine, so solid, like, literally stopped halfway home, turned around to help me get my buck out of the woods.

SPEAKER_02: 48:41

And needed to be like that, he needed to be back. Like yeah, he needed to be back. So Eric, Eric has a hunting story that tops anything, man. I'm telling you. Really? What's the sneak peek of it? The sneak peek, how would I sneak peek this? I want to give it a name. Um, it involves uh an alligator, a creek, a fishing boat, and your wildest nightmares coming true. So I I I I I would love to try to tell it because I've heard it and I could recite most of it, but I said nope, I'm not gonna do it. And I even told Eric uh not too terrible long ago. I was like, Eric, you have got to tell this story because I'm telling you, it it had me broke down. Like this is this is, dude, I'm telling you. So tomorrow, get ready. If you're gonna follow this podcast, tomorrow night, Eric is gonna tell that story. You have got to hear this one. This is one for the ages. I'm telling you, it is you can't even write this like this. Is you can't make this stuff up.

SPEAKER_01: 49:43

So it's it should be episode nine of the seek and find podcast. So look at episode nine. Just look up, just just find Eric on our uh episode. It's coming up. It's coming up, and uh we're gonna record that tomorrow. And I guess that's gonna be a fun too.

SPEAKER_02: 50:01

They were brim fishing, they were brimfishing, and it turned into the most wildest story you could think of. And it was it's so good. That's awesome. I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_01: 50:13

Well, that's sweet. Well, as always, um Scott's one of the bestest friends I've never had until now. And uh with an ES on the end. It's such a good time, man. We're out here preparing the cabin for a season full of loving on folks, and we just want we don't we don't want to do all this for ourselves. Like, I want the kids to be able to come and and explore these woods and not have all kinds of crap that they have to get all over themselves and the cabin to be clean for people to just come and enjoy. And man, I don't I have nothing to do with this cabin when it comes to owning it, or but being here so many times with my family, and like I it's not even it doesn't even come to an obligation. It is I have priorities, and one of my priorities is to come here before season and help clean it up because we enjoy it, everybody enjoys it, and I want people to experience like how real it is.

SPEAKER_02: 51:13

Here's a here's a wild thing I'm about to say. Hit re supp if you want to experience it. And uh you hear this podcast and you're like, man, I'd love to experience that. Hit re supp. You're getting bold now. Hit resup okay, and say, you know, I'd like to see this camp. I'd like to go deer hunt or turkey or whatever, maybe just hang out. We'll get you on a podcast. I bet you you'll be sitting around this campfire for too long. That's how we roll. This is not a uh my spot, and you'll never get to see it. This is everybody's welcome. Uh, y'all come on.

SPEAKER_01: 51:44

So yeah, so holler at me, man. We we get on a podcast, we'll record everything we can record while you're here. Put you on the pipeline, let you shoot a deer.

SPEAKER_00: 51:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 51:53

Man, that sounds fun.

SPEAKER_00: 51:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 51:56

All right, so comment below, text below. I know there's a text me spot now in the description below. It'll come right to reconsider. If you didn't listen to this to the end, you'd never know that you could actually come hunt with us. So that's a that's a cool experience. I never even thought of doing that. But maybe we'll do like a giveaway or something soon. Yeah. Of like a hunt out here. Come on. Um, yeah, that's awesome. What's crazy? 52 minutes later.

SPEAKER_02: 52:24

Yeah, it's supposed to be a it's supposed to be a short podcast.

SPEAKER_01: 52:27

Yeah. So this is great. We're we stuck it short. So no, there ain't no short. I mean, it's like it's like bringing up Jesus and expecting it to be 10 minutes. Like it ain't gonna happen.

SPEAKER_02: 52:38

Well, if you want to hunt Mississippi and hang out with some uh I'm how how how do we describe ourselves? Hang out with a killer. Entertaining, a killer. Entertain, yeah. Entertaining. We're entertaining. You will have a good time, you will relax, and it's fun. Come on. I mean, hit Reese up. I promise you. He'll get you on a hunt. We'll come down here, we'll shoot some spikes and maybe some fur points or something like that.

SPEAKER_00: 53:00

Shoot a raccoon that'll crawl into a hole and you can.

SPEAKER_02: 53:02

You'll get some squirrels trying to get to the cab, and we'll shoot them, but uh, we'll have a good time. Absolutely. Yeah, come on.

SPEAKER_01: 53:07

All right, y'all. I love you guys, and um, we'll catch you on the next one. Peace.