I loved to watch hunting and fishing shows as a kid. Back in the 70’s, you had Roland Martin, Babe Winkleman, Bill Jordan, and Bill Dance. I watched the shows as they came on early on Saturday and Sunday mornings. I enjoyed watching them hunt and fish, and dreamed of being able to catch fish like that, or bring down those big bucks. I also told myself that one day I would be on a hunting show.

Switch forward 20 plus years to 1999. I had the opportunity to make my dream a reality. I had been transferred to Dallas through my work, and Oklahoma was a big part of my territory. I regularly spent time in Oklahoma City, and had sales representatives that worked in the area. I was sitting over lunch one day with one of the representatives, and the topic of hunting came up. We were talking about quail and pheasant hunting, which we both had in common, and he mentioned that another one of my rep’s had a son that was in the hunting show business. He told me that the young man had been a cameraman for some of the bigger shows and hunting video producers, as well as the NWTF. He said that the young man’s name was Mark Scroggins, and that he was starting his own production company, and producing and filming his own T.V. show. I told my rep that being on a hunting show had always been my dream, and would love to meet Mark. The next day, I took my rep and Mark’s father out to lunch, and Mark’s father gave me his (Mark’s) telephone number and told me to give Mark a call. This was in October, and he was up front and told me that Mark was out in Colorado filming Elk Hunts, and catching him would be tough, because he had so many commitments for filming dates from October through December.

About two weeks later I phoned Mark, introduced myself, and we had a conversation. During that conversation, we hit it off pretty well, and it ended up with Mark telling me that he did a lot of filming in Texas, and that maybe he would give me a call to do some hunting during the spring. I was excited, but truly believed nothing would ever come of it, and truth be told, I put it out of my mind.

In about the middle of March in ’00, my phone rang one evening. It was Mark Scroggins. Mark told me he was going to be down at the Ford Ranch filming turkey hunts for his show “Gobblin’ Fever” in April. He said he would be down there for two weeks, and the first week he was booked up with all of the folks from Quaker Boy game calls, one of his biggest sponsors. He said that he had an extra turkey tag for the ranch, and wanted to know if I wanted to come give it a try. I jumped at the chance. It just so happened that I had a meeting scheduled in San Antonio the same week that Mark wanted to hunt, and it worked perfectly for me to just drive straight up from San Antonio once my meeting ended. I hung up the phone and could not believe my luck. I ran upstairs and told my wife, who did her best to share my excitement, but in all honesty, she just saw it as another one of my hunting trips. The countdown began. I was like a kid waiting on Christmas.

It is important for me to point out that I had been turkey hunting in the past, but where I grew up, there just weren’t as many turkey as there are today, and my lack of knowledge about turkey calling and the “in’s and out’s” of turkey hunting had made me a very unsuccessful turkey hunter. I had never killed a turkey.

Finally, the time for my turkey hunt arrived, and I got to the Ford Ranch around 10:00 on a gorgeous Wednesday morning. I met Mark and his wife, Cathy when I arrived, and also got to meet Forrest Armke, the manager of the ranch. They showed me to my little cabin, and had barely unpacked my car when Mark told me to get dressed because we were going hunting. I could not believe it. I had fully expected to hunt the next morning, but I was ready to go. Mark asked me if I had Realtree camo, which I did, because they are also a sponsor of the show. I went into my cabin to get dressed, and there was a knock on the door. I answered, and there stood Mark with a giant plastic bag full of stuff. I mean hunting stuff. He told me it was mine, and to make sure I wore the Quaker Boy hat. He left and I dumped the bag on the bed. There were turkey decoys, tons of turkey calls, camouflage hats of all types, a turkey hunting stool, a turkey vest, you name it. Great stuff. I still use it all today.

I got dressed in a hurry, grabbed my shotgun, and  headed out the door. I walked up and Mark immediately told me I would not need my gun. This is where I started to learn that hunting shows are not HUNTING TRIPS. Hunting shows are promotional vehicles to promote the sport of hunting, and the products and manufacturers that make and sell hunting related products. I had to use the show shotgun, which was a Benelli Nova in Realtree Camo (sponsors), set up with a Comp-N-Choke XXXFull turkey choke (sponsors). The gun was sharp, and had a really cool Comp-N-Choke decal that ran down the barrel. It also had  hi-viz sights set up for turkey  hunting (another sponsor).

We got into the truck and headed out into the field. Mark asked me to carry the camera tripod (which was heavy), Cathy carried the shotgun and decoys, and Mark carried the camera and batteries. He has a special vest that holds extra batteries, but let me tell you, those batteries are heavy as hell. Every year Mark gains weight filming deer hunts, and then loses all of it plus some toting that camera and all that equipment chasing turkey.

Weather conditions were really good, except for a wind that was a little heavy. Mark hit a box call and we got an immediate gobble. We moved to intercept the turkey. We set up got the camera ready, microphone on, etc….and Mark told me to let the turkey get into range, and he would give me the kill sign by saying “take him”. I told him no problem.

Mark hit the call again, and we got a gobble, but further away moving in the wrong direction. We had to pick up and move again. Folks, let me tell you, filming hunting shows is not easy. Think about it, you have to conceal not only the hunter, but a cameraman, a camera, microphones, and sometimes a sound engineer. That is a lot of things that can go wrong when hunting anything, but especially turkey. Just think about how easily they pick up movement. We moved to intercept the gobbler again, and got set up in some oaks that ran along a fence line. By this time the wind had picked up pretty good, and that is not good for the sound when filming. Mark called, the gobbler answered, and we were in business! The gobbler kept working closer and closer…..until I could see his head. He moved closer. To say I was nervous is an understatement. I was terrified. Terrified of screwing up, missing, all caught on film. The bird moved closer; “when is he going to say “take him”??”, I kept asking myself.  Finally I heard Mark say those magic words and I fired……..and missed. A huge miss. A humiliating miss. I heard Mark say, “what was that!”.  I wanted to crawl in a hole.

It turns out that Mark never said “take him”. We were set up with me out front, Mark behind me working the camera, and Cathy behind him working the sound. He had turned to Cathy and asked “can you hear him?”, meaning the turkey, and I was so nervous, I just opened up like a stupid little kid.

We hunted some more that afternoon, but were not successful, and later that night, we looked at the footage. I shot right over the head of the turkey. At least 3 inches high. That is where I learned another lesson about Comp-N-Choke choke tubes. They hold a super tight pattern at a pretty good distance. When using one of these choke tubes, you have to shoot the shotgun like a rifle, not a shotgun. I learned my lesson, and would never make that mistake again. We laughed at my miss, and I gave Mark permission to use the footage for a blooper segment, which thankfully, he has not done…..yet.

The next morning we woke up to a nice still morning, no wind. A light rain had fallen the night before, which was enough to just moisten the dust, but made moving in the brush a lot quieter. We set up in a big live oak thicket where Mark knew turkey had been roosting. We put a single hen decoy about 25 yards in front of me, and I sat against a large oak tree. To my left was a slope that went uphill about 100 yards to a stand of taller oaks. That is where Mark expected the gobblers to approach the decoy. At first light Mark started working the gobblers once the birds started to pitch down. What was amazing to me was how close the turkeys were, and how I could even hear their wings as they flew down. Mark is an expert turkey caller, and he can call turkeys better than anyone I have ever seen. He soon had a gobbler working straight toward me. The gobbler approached from my left, and his answer gobbles literally made my heart skip a beat. It was incredible. I don’t know if it was the still ness of the morning, or that we were sitting in sort of a bowl type of terrain, but for some reason, those gobbles were so intense. It did not take long for the gobbler to show himself. He walked out of the brush in FULL STRUT. He moved slowly toward the decoy. This time I was ready. I already had the shotgun up and ready to fire. The gobbler would move a few feet and stop, it was as if he was doing a dance. I know it was a strange thought, but at that moment it struck me that the Indians when they danced were imitating the wild turkey. I really do believe that.

It seemed like the gobbler hung there forever, dancing for that decoy. By this time, that shotgun was getting very heavy, and Mark was really screaming (with his call) to get that gobbler out of strut for the kill shot. When you look at the actual footage, it is amazing how that bird would not come out of strut. Finally Mark gave me the kill sign. I fired. The bird dropped right there. A good shot. I cannot describe to you how great I felt at that moment. I had just killed my first turkey (a nice one), done it on film, on a hunting show that would air on The Outdoor Channel!! This was a big deal for me personally. Mark and I jumped up, and  I gave him a high five. I also grabbed him and hugged him like I was a kid. I kept thanking him over and over for such a great experience. I look back on it now and think he probably thought I was nuts, but I was really overcome with such a sense of joy, excitement, and pride all at the same time. It took a while for the adrenaline to stop pumping. Mark was good about letting me get over the excitement, but once the animal or bird is killed, that is when the work of filming a hunting show begins. It was a great bird, with a 9 inch beard and huge spurs. The fan is on my office wall right now.

Because you only have one camera, you have to go back and do cut-away shots. What are cut-away shots you ask? Well, during a filmed hunt, the camera has to be on the game in question. That is what guarantees you get those great shots of the game approaching and then being taken. All those shots of the hunter or hunters talking, pointing, aiming, and shooting, are all accomplished once the game is dead. AND, you have to do the cut-aways quickly to ensure the light matches the light conditions of the hunt. You also have to film the “Hero Shot”, which is always shown at he end of the actual hunt footage, you know where the hunter talks about what a great hunt it was, and how good the sponsors equipment worked and how it helped him get the bird in close or whatever. You also have to mention the ranch, and be concise, and get it all done within 30 seconds.

I did my cut-aways and my hero shots, and even some shots of me using some calls….even though I did not call that turkey in. We got back to the camp, we cleaned my bird quickly, and went back out to film another hunt with Mark’s wife shooting the Gobbler. They have to get as much footage as possible when they can. Again, doing hunting shows is VERY hard work.

I went home the next day, and had to wait almost a year for the show to air. Mark did a great job editing the footage, and I have to admit, the footage from that hunt is exceptional. The gobbler I killed really put on a show. The video of me killing my first turkey on film is without question, one of my greatest hunting trophies.

It turned out that Mark really liked my hero shot. He said I was good at talking to the camera, and he would up inviting me to hunt on a regular basis. He expanded a second show, “The Fever”,  that focused on big game, waterfowl and upland hunting, and he knew that upland and duck hunts were more my specialty. I still appear on the show from time to time, although not as much as I used to due to my own time commitments elsewhere.

What was great about my hunting show experience is that it afforded me the opportunity to hunt with some of the top experts in their particular field of hunting. Mark  taught me how to be a very good turkey hunter, and turkey caller. I also made friends with guys that I still hunt with on a regular basis outside of the show. That is what it really is all about.

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