Why on earth do people turkey hunt?

It’s time consuming. It’s some of the hardest hunting I’ve ever done. It’s been more frustrating. Yet, true as that might be…. I can’t wait to leave for turkey camp with my buddies this afternoon.

So, why do we do this?

We just sat down with Moe Shepherd for a second episode. He shared 50+ years of Ozark turkey hunting stories, but I couldn’t help but feel like we were talking about something bigger than turkeys.

Whether we knew it we were asking it, and whether he knew he was answering it, I think the conversation was really about this question:

What do you really get out of doing something this hard for that long?

Here are three answers I got from our talk with Moe.

Moe said it plain:

"Patience and persistence will get you as many turkeys as anything."

But he didn't start out patient. He was impatient for years. He moved when he should have sat. He ramped up his calling when he should have gone quiet. He chased birds all over creation when he should have stayed put. He once tried to spin-and-shoot at a bird that gobbled right behind him—which he said rarely ever works.

Moe once roosted a bird the night before, set up perfectly at first light, watched him fly down. The bird answered every call but wouldn't commit. So Moe spent the next four and a half hours following him across ridges, creeks, and canyons. Five or six relocations. Over an hour of dead silence. Nearly two miles from his truck.

He finally killed him left-handed. Then got a ride home from a game and fish biologist he'd never met.

"If I'd given up five minutes before that, I never would've heard him strut."

That’s one of his favorite stories, and he had a countless others. Which leads to the next lesson.

Every time we asked Moe to tell a story, his eyes lit up.

That two mile bird story. A perfect public land hunt with his wife. The season he hunted two states in six days and killed six mature gobblers, all on public land. He's been at this since 1976 and can still tell you the terrain, the shot, the exact spurs on birds he killed forty years ago.

It wasn’t just the success stories either. He had plenty of stories about the mistakes and failures. As Moe put it, "If you quit learning how to turkey hunt, then just quit. Because you learn every time you go, if you pay attention."

Every story is a lesson for yourself and those you tell them to.

But one story lit Moe’s eyes up different than the others.

Moe didn't grow up turkey hunting. Nobody in his family did.

His brother-in-law got him started. They hunted together for years, in Arkansas and Oklahoma, working public land the way Moe still works it today.

Sadly, he passed away a few years back after battling Leukemia.

But the year Moe hit six birds in six days across two states and all public land, he called his brother-in-law to tell him about it.

His brother-in-law's response:

"I thought I was a pretty good turkey hunter. But I believe if there were turkeys within ear shot of it, you could sit out in a Walmart parking lot and call one in and kill it."

After he shared that, Moe smiled, and said, “I’ll always remember that.”

There was a pause in the room because we all felt it.

The people you're out there with, or on the other end of the phone when you get home. That's what this is really about.

So, I’m headed off to turkey camp today. And birds or no birds, I know it’s gonna be a good time.

00:00 — Welcome Moe Shepherd
02:45 — Question from the Holler
08:15 — Lessons learned over 50 years
16:15 — Moe's "perfect" hunt
32:30 — Moe's hunt that changed "everything"
42:00 — 6 days = 6 turkeys

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