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Some people leave behind memories. Others leave behind words that will be remembered for generations. Colonel Tom Kelly left us both. It’s hard to put into words what this man meant to me. He was my mentor, my hero, my friend and one of the finest storytellers the turkey woods have ever known.

For this special episode of Fist Full of Dirt, we’re doing something a little different. Rather than spend an hour telling you about Colonel Kelly, we’re going to let you hear from the man himself. We’ve gathered some of our favorite moments from years past, including Colonel Kelly reading passages from his books and sharing stories from our time together on Hunting the Country.

You’ll hear his wit and his wisdom and that wonderful way he had of putting into words things the rest of us could only feel. There will never be another Colonel Tom Kelly. But how fortunate we are that he left us so much of himself in the stories he told.

Thank you, Colonel. 

For everything.

Cuz

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This week on Fist Full of Dirt, we’re catching up with an old friend who knows a thing or two about throwing punches and chasing big deer. Tim “The Maine-iac” Sylvia is a former UFC heavyweight champion, but there’s a whole lot more to this guy than what you saw inside the Octagon. Tim and I are digging into his upbringing, his MMA career and his lifelong love of hunting.

Turns out, there’s a pretty good reason a “redneck from Maine” decided to put down roots in Iowa. (Those big Midwest whitetails might have had a little something to do with it.) I think y’all are going to enjoy getting to know the outdoorsman behind the fighter. Thanks for listening. 

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Sometimes we sit down in the Cave with a guest and a plan. This week, we just sat down and started talking. I’ve got some catching up to do after the Foxhole Shootout, so we’ll talk about what happened, who showed up and some of the stories that came out of it. Then somehow we wander into something I’ve been seeing all over social media lately … apparently bullying Boomers has become a trend. As one of them, I figured I ought to weigh in.

No guest this week.. just a visit about hunting, getting older, social media and trying not to take any of it too seriously. At the end of the day, most of the noise doesn’t really matter. Get outside. Spend time with people you care about. It’s all good. Just hunt.

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This week I’m glad to welcome our friend Billy Molls back to Fist Full of Dirt. A lot of folks know Billy as the Modern Day Mountain Man, and after a lifetime of guiding & hunting some of the wildest places on earth… he’s got enough stories to keep us here awhile.

We talk about some of those adventures and the lessons that can only come from pushing yourself physically and spending time in wild places. But we also go a little deeper into Billy’s walk with God and how his faith has shaped the man, husband, father and hunter he is today. I’ve always believed there’s something about being in God’s creation that can straighten out your priorities pretty quick. Billy understands that as well as anybody.

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This week I'm back with Dr. Warren Strickland, but we're changing gears a little. Last time we talked about his incredible bowhunting career. This time, we're putting his years of experience as a cardiologist to good use.

We're talking about heart health, taking care of ourselves and some things we all need to be paying a little more attention to as we get older. I know a lot of us spend plenty of time worrying about our hunting equipment, our food plots and getting ready for the next season…  but how much time do we spend taking care of ourselves? I want every one of you to have many, many more years in the woods and on the water. This is an important conversation, and I'm mighty glad Dr. Strickland took the time to have it with us.

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This week I’m catching up with my friend Kevin Burleson from Heart of Texas Bowhunting. Kevin has been outfitting hunters for decades and has probably seen just about everything that can happen when you put a bowhunter in the woods. We talk about some of the things that can make the difference between a good hunt and a frustrating one. We also talk about Heart of Texas and how Kevin has worked to give everyday bowhunters an opportunity to experience some incredible Texas hunting without breaking the bank.

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I don’t think any of us will ever forget where we were on the morning of September 11, 2001. My oldest daughter Amy was just out of college and traveling for work near Washington, D.C. when the attacks began. When the Pentagon was hit, airports across the country closed and Washington started shutting down. Her husband Kevin and I did the only thing we knew to do. We got in my truck in Mississippi and went to get her.

For this episode, Lauran sat down with Amy and me and asked us to tell the story of that day from our own perspectives. Neither of us heard what the other had said. She’s taken those conversations and woven them together with the actual news broadcasts from that morning as everything unfolded in real time. Twenty five years later, there are things about that day I remember like they happened yesterday. This is our family’s story of that Tuesday morning and one I don’t think any of us will ever forget.

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This week I sit down with one of the most interesting men I’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting with, Dr. Warren Strickland. Warren is a renowned cardiologist, a world class sporting clays shooter and one of the few bowhunters to complete the archery Super Slam. His hunting career and accomplishments would be impressive enough on their own, but it’s the way he’s gone about it that caught my attention.

We talk about getting started without a mentor and a lifetime spent simply trying to be the best he could be. No audience. No need for attention. Just quietly doing things on his own terms.

Stay connected with Fist Full of Dirt: 

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Twitter: @CuzStrickland

Facebook: @CuzStrickland

YouTube: Cuz411

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Every now and then I sit down with somebody and realize pretty quick we’re probably going to need more time. Derrick Dixon was one of those guys. This week we’re talking about how Derrick found his way into the outdoor world and eventually into whitetail research. And he’s doing some of that research in a way I never would’ve dreamed of years ago… with drones.

We get into what he’s learning by looking at deer from a completely different perspective, how this technology is being used in research and what it may teach us about an animal most of us have spent a lifetime trying to understand. We ran long on this one and could’ve easily kept going. Derrick is an interesting guy with a great story and I think you’re going to enjoy meeting him as much as I did.

Stay connected with Fist Full of Dirt: 

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Twitter: @FistDirt

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Instagram : @CuzStrickland

Twitter: @CuzStrickland

Facebook: @CuzStrickland

YouTube: Cuz411

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This week I’ve got an old friend in the camo cave, Rick Dillard. Rick and I go back a long way. Some of you Hunting the Country viewers may even remember him from a few shows way back when.

Rick is a fisheries biologist with the U.S. Forest Service and has spent his career working with fish and wildlife, but his love for the outdoors started long before it became his profession. We talk about his grandmother taking him fishing when he was a little boy, pick his brain on pond management and what it takes to grow and manage good fish, and reminisce about some of those early Mossy Oak and Hunting the Country days. Rick has been a friend for many years, and it sure was good having him sitting across from me telling stories again.

Stay connected with Fist Full of Dirt: 

Instagram: @ffodpodcast

Instagram: @moplandforsale

Twitter: @FistDirt

TikTok: @originalturkeythug

Instagram : @CuzStrickland

Twitter: @CuzStrickland

Facebook: @CuzStrickland

YouTube: Cuz411