Well folks,

We spent last weekend hunting turkeys, but we came home eating crow.

Last year we spent three days at Turkey Camp in the Missouri Ozarks and came home with six birds. So we were feeling pretty good about ourselves headed into year two.

Instead, out of nine guys, only one of us bagged a gobbler.

In this week’s edition:

Let’s get to it.

— Kyle Veit

You might not come home with a turkey every time, but you always come home with something you wish you’d done different or a new perspective. And swapping stories back at camp gave us a chance to learn from each other. So here’s our collective takeaway from our 2026 Turkey Camp.

The birds were going crazy every morning on the roost, sounding off in every direction. Then they’d hit the ground and go silent. What they do in the trees doesn't tell you what they'll do after they fly down.

Bear and Sam made a couple of bold repositions trying to cut off birds at a power line strip. Each one worked just well enough to feel like it was worth another. Then Bear stepped out to clear the strip, took one step too many, and two gobblers blew out at 200 yards. His take: once you've done something risky and gotten away with it, you're already primed to do something dumber next. It compounds. Slow down before the first one, not after.

One morning, I was lucky enough to be in a spot with four or five gobblers roosted around me, all before daybreak and all within 150 yards. They were gobbling like crazy, and I sat tight in the middle. After fly-down and two hours of calling, none came and I was confused where they all went. Lesson learned—pick a bird, target that one, move in close, and make your plan around it. Don’t just sit in the middle and hope something happens.

Bear Newcomb shared a theory: maybe the early spring pushed the breeding cycle forward. So we showed up right in the dead zone, past the fired-up gobbling phase, not yet into the gobble-at-stragglers phase. Not much you can do about season dates. We went on opening week this year and last year, but the point is good that spring with warm temperatures early, may play a part in pushing up breeding

Roy and Woody had a chaotic morning and didn't make it into the woods until 8am. But Roy’s first bird was down by 9. Don't write off the morning because the first hour didn't go right.

Which leads to our favorite story from camp. Roy’s first turkey.

Keep reading.

You might remember Roy Pilgrim, the logger we interviewed a few weeks ago about the health of Ozark forests. Well, we had such a good time with him that we invited him out to turkey camp.

He’s the only one of us who pulled a turkey during our turkey camp this year, and boy did he have to earn it.

Before Roy and his hunting partner Woody ever made it into the woods, they dealt with a gas station that didn't open until 6, a biscuit order that took two tries, a boat motor leaking fuel, and a trolling motor full of water. So they didn't get to their spot until 8am.

Woody didn't seem bothered. He walked them in, called four or five soft notes, put the call in his pocket, and never touched it again. Twenty-five minutes later, Roy shot a gobbler at 25 yards with his dad's 123-year old Winchester Model 1897.

Then the boat motor died again on the way back and it took two hours to cross the lake on a trolling motor.

Roy said it was awesome.

Give the latest episode a listen. If you want to jump to Roy’s story, here are the segment links:

00:00 — Last year's camp
08:30 — This year’s stories
1:03:00 — Roy Pilgrim’s first turkey

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