By Will Primos

It was the first week of April 1981. The season was off to a great start. Having had a successful hunt on opening day, I decided that I was going to try to record some hunts for the sole purpose of critiquing my calling with a new version of a PiggyBack™ (stacked double frame) mouth call I was making. I had purchased a small cassette recorder that I could hold in one hand that also had a side jack for a higher quality microphone. I found a better microphone at Sound and Communications, a commercial installer and reseller of sound equipment that would pick up sound from 360 degrees in case the gobbler tried to circle behind me. I wanted to be sure that I captured his gobbles. I was set to start my recording career, fortunately for you not as a singer.

On that April day, I went to one of my favorite places to hunt. This particular piece of property had about a thousand acres where a control burn had been done to benefit the timber. I was excited about the opportunities because I knew how much turkeys liked a freshly burned over area plus I had heard three, maybe four gobblers here earlier in the week.

I arrived a little late as they were already gobbling when I opened the truck door. The three gobblers I heard at first light were west of me, so it took me a while to get around them because these gobblers almost always went in a westerly direction after fly down. My theory was they went west in the morning because if they went east the sun got in their eyes as it rose and they couldn't see as well. I had to circle wide to get west of them where I wanted to be and I was running a little late.

The turkeys were gobbling pretty well at owls. I kept trying to decide how close they were to the creek as I made the loop around. These turkeys were now on the ground and generally headed in a west, northwest direction, following the creek as they went about their morning activities. By the time I got to where I wanted to set up, there was only one turkey gobbling. I was pretty sure I knew the gobbler, though I had not named him yet. I had hunted him a week earlier and the same thing happened. Three turkeys gobbled at the owls as the morning began to break, but before long one gobbler shut two of them up.

I decided this morning to name him "Old Shut up." It works better when you name turkeys because you can tell your buddies that you are going after "so and so" without having to go into detail about things. It's like certain places that get named after an event. Deer hunters are famous for that. I know of an old ridge named "Old Three Shot Ridge" because I missed a nice buck three times. Then there is "Rattlesnake Point" because we killed so many rattlesnakes at that spot, and so on.

This was before Mossy Oak, so I was wearing a military camouflage pattern that I called "Tiger Stripe." It had some greens and a lot of black in it. This helped me blend into the burn. I would like to have had a tree bigger than my back to help break my outline and be more comfortable, but there just wasn't a tree that big around. (My friend, Ronnie "Cuz" Stricklin, once said that he had to go a mile before he found a tree to sit against that was bigger than his back.) I knew being in the right spot meant more than finding a tree that would hide my silhouette. I settled in against that small pine tree that was about as big as my thigh and hoped for the best.

"Old Shut Up" was now in control and had all the other gobblers tight-lipped. With all the under brush burned to a crisp I could see really well. I knew the old gobbler was moving towards me on his own accord. If I called, he would be cautious and be looking much harder. I had to make a decision whether or not to call. I really wanted to show this big gobbler off to my buddies and I really wanted to try my new version of PiggyBack™ mouth call, but "Dang it man!" sometimes it just pays to keep your mouth shut. So I decided to keep my mouth shut and see what he did. It did not take me long to realize that if he stayed on the path that he was naturally going, he would probably pass within 150 yards of my position on my left (or north of my position) so I decided that I had better call.

When I am turkey hunting, I always think about what I know and what I don't know. I knew there was a gobbler out there. I didn't know if he had hens with him. I assumed he did, but you never really know unless you hear them and I had not heard any hens. I waited until he gobbled again to start calling. The instant he gobbled, I interrupted him with what later became known in my hunting exploits with Cuz as one half of a "Rodney Shuffle." The "Rodney Shuffle" was named for Rodney Dangerfield because he never got any respect. I would do a half cackle, half cutting sequence while Cuz cut really hard on a tube call.

"Old Shut Up" immediately went silent for about 10 seconds. His next gobble was very focused and very lion-like. He roared! I had cut him off with three excited yelps right in the middle of his next gobble and evidently said something that he wanted to hear. Maybe he didn't have hens with him after all and he was going to look me up.

I didn't answer him again. I made him, or should I say let him answer me. (You really cannot make a turkey do anything but die if you can put a load of number fours in his head and neck.) I made sure I didn't answer him, but let him gobble back. Before long he started gobbling back at every call I made. Now I felt I was a little more in control and I was working him instead of as usual, him working me.

Now let's jump ahead to 1983. I was making a swing around the state of Mississippi, promoting my mouth calls at sporting goods stores. I stopped at The Sportsman in Greenville, Mississippi, to peddle my calls. I was visiting with one of the owners, Clyde Magee, at the front counter and was showing him my calls. Clyde was not to busy and we were enjoying our visit. I mentioned the recorded hunt, that I have been relating to you, where I was using one of the calls I was trying to interest him in and that I had the recording with me. Clyde said, "Let's hear it."

I had not noticed an older gentleman, about 75 or 80, sitting in a chair warming himself in the February sun as it shown though the big pane glass window. When the recording finished, the old gentleman said, "You called too much and you called too loud." I looked at Clyde. Clyde looked at the gentleman and said, "Well, if I'm not mistaken, I heard the gun go off and heard the turkey flopping, so he's dead. If he was calling too much and too loud, at least it worked on that hunt." I guess the gentleman was from the yelp three times and shut up school.

Back to the story. I later counted the number of times that I cackled and cut at "Old Shut Up." (By the way, the term "cut" had not yet become part of the turkey vocabulary. I called it excited clucking at the time). Twenty-six times I cackled and cut and "Old Shut Up" answered every time. He came straight at me. With a grin on my face I clucked against the side of my gunstock, put the bead of my old 870 right on his lips and poured it to him.

When Cuz and I started The TRUTH® video series in 1987, people really started talking about us calling too much and too loud. Our styles were very similar which contributed to our success. It kills us to have to sit on a field, build a blind, and wait a gobbler out. I would rather stop every once in a while on an old logging road and do my half of the "Rodney Shuffle" if I am alone, or team up with someone like Cuz, and do the whole song to get an answer. Then I take their temperature. If they like a lot of calling and they like it loud, that is what I am going to give them. I cannot tell you how many times it has worked for me, but I can tell you that it is the way I call most of the time or it's the way I start out every time.

I look forward to seeing all of you on February 27, 2003, at the annual spring get together at Mark's. Until then, do something nice for Mama, so she will let you go a couple more spring mornings. You gotta remember IF MAMA AIN'T HAPPY, AIN'T NOBODY HAPPY.