The Spring Legion Podcast
Welcome to a year-round discussion on the wild turkey and those who hunt them. Hosted by Hunter Farrior, founder of Spring Legion and author of Ballad of a Turkey Hunter, the weekly podcast is geared for all outdoor communities and dives deeper than the usual tactics and calling tips. Holding true to the brand, topics are built upon respecting the heritage and challenges of hunting, with a never-ending appreciation for all that the spring season provides. Enjoy insight from special guests like Dave Owens of Pinhoti Project, Cuz Strickland of Mossy Oak, our friends at NWTF and Muscadine Bloodline, and so many more widely known for their impact in the turkey hunting community, as well as the deer, duck, and waterfowl realm, who exhibit the obsession of which only a real turkey hunter may truly understand. Thanks for listening.
The Spring Legion Podcast
Calling Turkeys with Purpose and Timing - Mississippi River Bottom Longbeards
In today's episode, we recount the heart-pounding excitement of spring's early season turkey woods and the most gobbles we have ever heard within them. Hosts Hunter Farrior, Sills, and Chase dive into each of their different points of view, reliving a special hunt from last spring. Plus why Hunter waited so long to call to a group of fired-up longboards, and what each of them could and could not see as the morning unfolded.
Join us as we share the twist and turns of our hunting tales, where the unexpected is often what leads to the most memorable experiences. Buchanan, whom we have welcomed into our fold through a shared love for the outdoors, quickly became part of the Spring Legion's narrative, etching his role in the stories we'll tell for years to come.
As the morning wraps, it's not just about the turkeys killed—it's about the pulse they provide, the timing and patience, and the laughter that follows a well-played hunt with good friends both old and new. So, gear up, listeners, and get ready for a wild ride through the Mississippi Delta turkey woods with the Spring Legion podcast.
Check out the SPRING LEGION YouTube Channel to watch the hunts referenced on our show, as they happened and as real as it gets.
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Alright, everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Spring Legion podcast. My name is Hunter Ferrier and I'm joining you today alongside Chase Ferrier and Austin Seals, and for the next hour or so, we're going to be talking about the Wild Turkey, as well as those who hunt them, and we're going to jump right into today's episode, and it's one that I've been looking forward to getting to, because it was a lot of fun. Pretty much point blank, it is one we're going to be talking about. We were in Mississippi, which we are all native to, and the hunt itself.
Speaker 2:We uploaded kind of on a whim, as the first time we tried doing this. It did well, I guess, so to speak, if you want to call it that. But I think more than anything, it was relatable to a lot of folks who like hunting in the river bottoms and the wide open early season down here in the south. It was, like I said, it was one of my favorite hunts of all time. It is something that I've only seen a handful of times, probably only once. It definitely takes the cake as far as goblin activity and vocalizations of Wild turkeys go. It's one that I encourage everybody to go watch. Even if you've seen the condensed version, the edited version of the hunt and how it went down and all the pre-hunt and post hunt stuff. It's actually just press play and let it ride version. I think it's about an hour long. We uploaded it in March 2023. So somewhere in there, you'll see, in the Mississippi Delta, it's really cool just to hear a bunch of jakes, a bunch of hyenas and a bunch of gobbles all killing the side. It's a really cool video of just natural spring woods and we're going to dive into it and this is particularly why I wanted to do this podcast to kind of correlate with some of these videos and some of the hunts we've talked about. Because this is a really good example of three different people. It was us three plus our buddy Buchanan, who we had just met that morning about I don't know a few hours before Good friends with him. Now we had met up and went hunting and all four of us are sitting on different trees kind of facing different directions and whatnot, and a good example of kind of they couldn't see what I could see and I couldn't see what they could see. And so we're going to be able to explain some of our mindset and why stuff happened, particularly on the calling side, because I was kind of really going off of this whole, kind of really just calling for a Turkish curiosity sake lack of calling as well, more than calling honestly, because what I could see was different than what they could see, like I said. So this is this was a really good example of when I have mentioned in the past.
Speaker 2:You know there's a whole chapter about of Turkey Hunter, about curiosity versus persuasion. I think there's two different ways you can get a Turkey to come in shotgun range. One of them is curiosity and kind of when you hunt in Mississippi and some of these thicker areas where you're something that you're going to have to call a Turkey around or call a Turkey over or into. You know you really want to, or I would rather base my kind of strategy over intriguing that Turkey into walking over here to check it out more than talking him into leaving his current situation, into coming over here in my situation. So this was a really good example of that.
Speaker 2:As far as timing goes, on the calling, but I didn't know until after the hunt that they were both sitting there, you know, grit in their teeth and wondering why I haven't called yet, why nobody's called yet. What's going on. So we'll just dive right into the story to kind of give you all a really round round about it idea of how everything went down. So it was correct me if I'm wrong, but you kind of correlated everything would be canning going into it, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we started talking back back in. I guess it was December, around December of 2022. I posted a story of some deer chasing up at the place. We had money and he he messaged me on Instagram and just you know what's a deer doing in your area and all that. So we got to talk him back and forth and send him pictures through Instagram of deer we had on camera and you know turkeys that were there in their winter flocks and got to talk and exchange phone numbers and that's kind of how it started and, like you said, to this day, I still talk to him.
Speaker 3:You know, probably every other day or so back and forth, just him sending pictures of deer they have chasing. Or he sent me a picture of the day of, you know, a group of I don't know eight or ten jakes. You know you're just showing the hat. You know talking about the hatches. He had a good hat. You know the whole nine yards. But that's how it all started. We just got to talking on Instagram and then he invited us up and we went and met him that morning yes, an hour and a half four day, like at a gas station, and went on from there.
Speaker 2:And he's a, he's a, he's a fiery guy. Like he gets into it. He loves hunting he loves conservation, he's all about it. He gets excited, you know. Fun to be around, fun to hunt with. I want to say Chase, so this was the second day that Mississippi season, right? I?
Speaker 3:believe yeah, the 16th of March.
Speaker 2:So chasing just killed one on the open in morning in March on the 15th of March on some public land down in south part of Mississippi or south central Mississippi and then and I'm still in Georgia at this point I had kind of a little bit of plans and maybe coming over for the weekend I saw a chase kill. That and it really got me pumped up and I hated that I wasn't here to kind of be part of that and everything also beginning of mid-March is really busy for spring, legion order wise and everything. And I had about 80% of the inventory in Georgia so I was feeling a lot of orders doing all that stuff. The second book any given spring morning had just released. There was a bunch of, you know, inventory stuff going in and out that I was dealing with and and Georgia doesn't open until April.
Speaker 2:But this was I don't think it was. It definitely wasn't the first opener I missed in Mississippi. I missed several kind of in the past few years, just based on logistics and not being around. But I was getting pretty bone. So I did decide kind of really knock out all the orders head down and I got to your house seals, I think, at like 11 o'clock or something around midnight and chase met us over there, because chase, yeah, I think you you were kind of planning on going anyway, craig or I think it was.
Speaker 1:Was it just me and sales were planning on going?
Speaker 3:yeah at first.
Speaker 1:Yeah because we weren't sure when you, me and Chase were going, we were going and, and I think I was up to shoot or something, and then I killed Mississippi and it just everything changed 100% or something like that, and so we ended up when I killed, it was, you know, just sales was planning to shoot and I was gonna film, and then it was like heck you know, watch, yeah, and it just all worked out where we we ended up getting all three hundred together for maybe the first time ever all three of us second time ever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, second year on the 360 the right, the last year, yeah, so, yeah, so one day of actual turkey season separated us hunting together, but it felt like eternity.
Speaker 2:It really was yeah, but no, it was really cool. So we hopped in the truck that morning. I do remember getting there and I didn't even, and I had a box of just stuff shifted into your truck and then then we hauled butt up to them, up to the Delta, and and this time I'm from Mississippi but I've always kind of had in my mind there's no turkeys in the Delta, which the Delta is a huge region. It could be anywhere. I still I don't even know where, what part we were in, I just know it took us a good while to get there and and it was, it was black, it was dark riding up there. So I don't even know if we were in the real flat parts or whatever. We were obviously in trees and river bottoms where we were at.
Speaker 2:But now we met up with the Buchanan. It was that. I can't remember the name of the place, but it was a little joint looking thing we parked at and he pulls up and we're kind of wondering. We're like I don't know. You know, I hope this is the right area, hope this is. You know, we're kind of in a podunk kind of part of the town which is, you know, they're kind of everywhere around that area so you can kind of hit or miss.
Speaker 2:A lot of stuff would have been named, whatever this was named because, um, did he say he was there or was on the way or something, somehow or another? I remember us getting confused and I was sitting there thinking, oh lord, we have messed up wearing the different right, two hours away, right you know because they could have been anywhere.
Speaker 2:And I'm sure enough, here comes Buchanan rolling up and following him on again and and then I didn't know until I was kind of rewatching some stuff the other day, editing the condensed version of the video that I forgot we kind of went up and kind of scoped it out at a camp house and stuff and whatnot, and he he'd hunted this area before for I don't know how long, but I think all is like yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean he was, he was familiar with it and um, and he's a, he's a steward of conservation and he does like turkey hunt you know he's kind of those things I'm sure he does, like duck hunting, deer hunting, but dude likes turkey hunting, and it was pretty evident from the start. One of those shaking hands were like, yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna be friends yeah, right um, but yeah, so we hop on in and I'm still.
Speaker 2:Y'all have gotten y'all stuff together, I'm sure, because y'all hunted the morning before at least, or listened or something. I hadn't even taken my vest out of the box from last time we on it, which was, I think, with Michigan in 22, you know. So I'm sitting here going, I have no idea what I have, because I wasn't planning on hunting until kind of April, because I had a baby on the way and everything like that. Um, no, just excuse me that I just have a baby, yeah you were about to.
Speaker 3:Oh, you just had one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right, yeah just have one on the first, so two weeks in. So I was like I'll make a quick trip. That's where it was. So I just went, you know, went in the garage, found my boxes, threw them in the truck and so I'm like I mean, I can be prepared and not prepared at the same time. So you know I wasn't prepared but I still have some sandpaper in there, and at least my I remember me and Chase sitting in the truck with Buchanan what felt like 30 minutes I was waiting on you to get your stuff and I know Chase finally got out just a hunter come on, yeah, get
Speaker 2:in the truck come on.
Speaker 1:I got hot.
Speaker 2:I had to find my boots. I had to find everything my face mask, obviously, and stuff. And I'm pretty sure I wore a couple extras that I had in that little kind of total on bag that I keep extras and stuff. And I'm thinking what? Because I rarely wind up with as much as I had at the end of the season that I had at the beginning. I'm holding that's all you need at the end, obviously, but somewhere in between I've lost a lot, yes, but regardless. So we hop on in here and take off and go with Buchanan. He's telling us I'm sure he's telling y'all a lot, because I think I'm in the back, I'm kind of like the kid in the back, kind of just here to watch, I feel like at least. And then I'm or I know Seales have been talking to him about a little bit of a game plan, but I'm really out of the loop.
Speaker 2:But we pull up and it's kind of surreal because you know, 12 hours before that or not, 12 hours on 12 hours, I remember you left Georgia because you texted was like 612 men changed, like there's no way he's gonna get here and I'm I wasn't planning on 12 hours before and so I'm now about to hear Turkish God, when I'm like kind of, you know, ecstatic. I'm like this is, let's take in. I hadn't even heard one at this point because we've been so busy. I mean I might have listened to couple times of George, but they ain't. They don't get fired up near, you know soon as down here Mississippi.
Speaker 2:But now we pulled up and I remember y'all were ahead of me walking down kind of a little trail and I'm still I'm going around trying to get my stuff together and I finally I'm like I'm good to go. I got everything, kind of got that relief, like I got two gloves and a mask and I think there's some shit. Yep, there's a shell right there. We're good and I don't have a red dot or anything I gotta worry about. I don't. You know my sling was there, which if it wasn't I'd be alright, and that's about all it. All it took. And I remember I think we were walking when I heard a gobble and I remember you know that kind of first gobble of the year, my went. But then we kind of started heading on down, heading on down, and it's pretty dark. I don't know what time it would have been. But it's pretty dark and we're listening somebody. Who's the other man who didn't chase it?
Speaker 2:yeah, my year, me or be can and I can't remember, but I think me and be kind of both were hooting in between walking on that road, that first road, and we heard one gobble and we started here's more gobbles and there was gobbles everywhere. I mean I've never in my life heard this many gobbles. I mean, mississippi has gotten some cool places off the big black stuff like that, where there's a good bit of turkeys, whether or not they're across the river, across this creek or whatever. We can hunt them or not. A lot of them we could, but in addition to the ones we were able to hunt, we could also hear someone other pieces of property that just I mean we've heard. I would say I've heard really mornings, I'd say up to 14 different turkeys for sure, and that's a whole lot. Most mornings I'm glad if I hear two, that's cool, that's awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that's just like what we could. I remember the hunt you're talking about. That's just what we could for sure say that's a different turkey.
Speaker 2:I mean that's five times as much as I'd heard on a good morning before I'm pumped for one turkey, I remember you know this is awesome for two turkeys and anything after that.
Speaker 2:I'm like y'all sure we're at the right place, you know so to hear this, and I really have no idea how many turkeys we were hearing, because I mean it was A, it was wide open, so everything's echoing and it just got crazy. But before that I don't want to hop in straight into all that kind of the pre-roof stuff, but y'all remember there was some hems or something. We were trying not to bump it eventually because we started hearing some I don't know if it was wing flaps or some little tree yelps or stuff kind of around us, and then one behind us we'd already walked under some. You can't. It didn't seem nervous that we had done that. So you know he had an idea that kind of where the water started, where the water might have stopped, where you know what's high was low, because what they call a ridge ain't what we call a ridge. I was gonna hit that too.
Speaker 3:I remember Buchanan kept saying you know, just right over that ridge. I remember one time he looked at me and said where is a ridge?
Speaker 2:He's right.
Speaker 3:You know what we call a ridge is a 60 foot drop off on the other side.
Speaker 2:And a gully kind of you know, they'll get down in there and he's talking about like a molehill, like a just a bump you know, but up there I'm sure that's a ridge you know but. I mean in terms of logistics of a wildlife, if they walk on top of a ridge I've seen them a lot of times like out west and some of these ag fields, it'll be just a bump and they'll almost guarantee you if anything's coming out, it's coming out on that bump.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:It's a ridge to them, but, but, but no, we slip in there. And then I don't. And I remember you mentioning on the, on one of the part of the video I heard the other day you were telling Buchanan that you know, I'm just gonna warn you, but Hunter likes to stop and just stand still in the kind of shock for a little while, Right, and.
Speaker 2:I was in the middle of it Cause I like I had to make myself not fall victim to analysis, paralysis sometimes, cause it'll get bad, cause I'm sitting here thinking I would much rather one turkey gobble and I can sit up on him and do that. When you get to I start, kind of algorithms start going off like this was a goblin more, this was not. You know. I kind of remind myself somebody, I don't remember who it was mentioned one day. You know, hunt to hunt to Turkey this goblin. You know, don't, don't make it hard One's goblin a lot, hunt that one. I never hunted a spot where there's a lot of turkeys goblin a lot Right and none of them were close, which is odd thing.
Speaker 2:So it's not like we're set up on a turkey at all. From the roots there wasn't a spot to set up. It was don't bump these hens, or do I don't? You know, I don't know what? I never saw them. Really I don't know where they want to get, how they got over us, but I don't think we've been never putts and flying or anything. To Joe.
Speaker 1:No, but what was different up there, it being a flat, open river bottom you could hear a lot further. And what, what I'd hunted in lower Mississippi. It was more dense and stuff and like the day before I was, I was like dang that. You know.
Speaker 1:I walked up into some turkeys thinking I was a lot closer to them or a lot further away from them or something, and it was cause of the foliage or whatever on the trees and up there it would have been flooded for a long time at some point and I think we were thrown off of how far these turkeys were or how close they were with the hens walking in.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like I don't know if we walked under them or just close enough I think it was a little loud of a near shot, you know kind of thing, but we got. We got by them clean, I believe.
Speaker 2:I think, oh yeah, yeah, we got by them clean. I don't remember bumping them, but I was kind of also, my mind was drifted straight towards those gobbles.
Speaker 3:But I will say too that comes with, like us, kind of knowing each other Cause, without anybody saying anything, when we started hearing that it was kind of cool watching it where you can and which shows he knows what he's doing. He kind of did the same thing, so he peeled to where he had the back cover and all three of us just kind of filed in to where you know, kind of all on the same page. We got the back cover, we're making it right there in front of us, they just see one shadow whatever.
Speaker 3:So it was kind of cool watching everything just unfolded when it hit as soon as we heard one, everybody kind of drifted.
Speaker 2:You know what he means by. That is kind of the we were on. I guess it was a road, it was a, you know, like a.
Speaker 3:A little four-wheeler trail.
Speaker 2:A trail kind of deal, but it's pretty open so it's not really going through much. You can veer off at any point and it's a pretty clean shot to get into the bottom. We're in the bottom, we're not. I don't know how far back it goes, necessarily, but you can tell it's been flooded recently. It's clean. It's got that gray light tint you know whitish, you know feeling them over all the leaves and everything you know I'm talking about, with just some buds coming up here and there. This is early March, I mean early season, mid-march, pretty cold, I'd say. I mean it's good 42-ish.
Speaker 1:It's chilly.
Speaker 2:Crisp is a good opening. Few days in Mississippi I remember that thinking and being rural jealous. I wasn't there for the opener. I know it was. It was brisk, it was cold, the wind wasn't high and I do think this day and then maybe the next day was about just the same. But kind of going back to those goggles, I don't know really where they were. It was almost hard to tell because it was very, very open and it was very evenly open. It never really got thicker. It got thicker a little bit.
Speaker 2:You know, on I'd say I thought maybe 100 yards further than where we stopped and decided to take a left. We kind of just picked the left because the hens were on our right and a lot of times I'd like to be in a spot, if I can get around them, or if I've already walked through them and didn't bump them. You're in a good spot. You got hens behind you and goggles in front of you. They're gonna meet and you wanna be in the middle of them. You know, if you can help it and there's only a fine night few days where they're not roosting together and stuff, if you can time that right, that's a sweet spot to be. You know cause you kind of steer. From that point you can steer the goggles or the hens, and if you don't steer at all, you're kind of in a good spot for them to meet up at.
Speaker 2:But now I remember, finally, I think me and you kind of made a plan Seals was gonna shoot and I was gonna sit to the left because he could kind of face down that little trail we were hunting. There's goggles in front of us, there's also some to the left and I was hearing some behind us to the right, and it's just, I mean, they're distant and they're all connecting to each other and it's hard to pinpoint any of them. I don't know if there's so many or if there's so much echoing. It was just a lot to take in, which is something that I never really experienced at that point. Good problem to have, I guess, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:But now we sit down and so our reason behind that was so Seals could shoot, you know, straightforward. So he kind of sat a little bit, put the road on our right so he could shoot anything that came down this road or to the road and then on down straight in front of us where a lot of the goggles were and a lot of the other hems we were hearing were, and I sat kind of down on the left I could see the bottom a little better. And then the turkeys are kind of if I'm facing straight for the bottom there to my right, kind of in front of Seals.
Speaker 3:We kind of split the turkeys where we knew that. You know, the turkeys were between me and Hunter. And if they came left, Hunter had them. If they came right, I would have them.
Speaker 2:So I was pretty much a continuation of Seals and swing. That's how we like to set up. If Seals sets up facing a little to the right of where we think a turkey might would show up, then he can swing, shoot that. And then a little bit to the left and about right, there is where I can kind of pick up the range and go, you know, swing all the way to my left.
Speaker 2:You pretty much were able to cover 180 in you know, 180 in the trees, yeah, and we also had Buchanan who had a gun, and Chase had his gun and you know we were kind of to their kill turk you know if we could safely and however we you know, wherever they came, we were all right, but the intentions were for Seals to shoot one. A lot happened in between then and the shot part.
Speaker 2:So, but yeah, so I'm trying to think of y'all. Try me whenever y'all remember something. But Well, y'all were what 20 yards apart. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And the road was ringing kind of in front of both of y'all. Is that right, uh-uh?
Speaker 3:And the right Right.
Speaker 1:Okay, and the?
Speaker 3:right could shoot. So I never saw the road. So to my right was the road and if you go, I don't know, probably 60 yards, there was another road that it teed into and that's and Hunter. You know I was set up here. I could shoot that road If they came down it.
Speaker 1:Hunter was set to re-shoot the left and you were kind of we kind of made a triangle, you were kind of split the difference between us for kind of behind us, yeah, y'all about 20 yards apart, straight on my right shoulder and straight on my left shoulder and be kind of, was straight off my kind of behind my right shoulder, right.
Speaker 3:So, and then to start out, to start out the hunt, I guess you want to jump into that. Yeah, I was sitting there and I guess at one point and I know we all had calls and I can't remember exactly who was calling at what time but somebody called and I was looking at like Turkey's popped up. Right, you skipped the whole, right there.
Speaker 2:That's in the good part. No, we sat down and there was. I didn't call for a long time at the beginning because I mean just the vocalization of these hens and goblers got going back and forth and it was awesome. I mean they were like there was a bunch of hens in front of us and there's a bunch of goblers. They were gobbling back at him. He tells Summer Jakes caulking and stuff. They're all in the trees at this point and I mean there was, you remember, like 30 seconds where it just didn't start. It was like a roar, yeah.
Speaker 1:I was just like, and then just gobbling, gobbling, gobbling, gobbling, gobbling.
Speaker 2:So I'm sitting here and I've got my slate call out. I'm just like you know, I'm like there's not even a break to call in. Yeah, I'm like, do I just like, kind of like you know, trying to go pee on a house fire, I mean.
Speaker 2:I'm like what am I going to do? Just like throw it through my hat in the ring here, but let them go back and forth and go back and forth and it kind of died down for a little bit. And I don't. I still don't think they were on the ground yet, they were still in the trees. I bet if I had, I remember thinking I said they're flying towards each other, Cause I could, I could tell like I could pick out certain notes, certain frequencies of a certain hand or something, and it wouldn't move. But it was. It still sounded like it was in on the roof and I bet you they were flying, I bet you they were over water.
Speaker 3:I guess I'm a hundred percent sure they were ever looking at it on the map, really. Yeah, so I still hadn't even like looked at a map of where we were at there was a little horseshoe oxbow and I guarantee you every one of them were were over that. Like you said, find it Cause. Looking at the map I would guess like Obviously the left, they weren't over water, but if you were looking right, out in front of me. Water started probably 80 yards, so I mean they were.
Speaker 2:So you can see almost here the echo in. But they were moving and I'm like they have to be flying from Lennon limb if I mean We'll never know, but I bet you they were oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And and there's a bunch of goblins, but there there was not a lot of gobbles over here with the hands and there was not a lot of hands over here with the gobbles, so they were definitely separate and then they wind up, you know, kind of moving around, and then there was some breaks in there. I could do three up or two. They'd respond. Those hands would respond. I Might have gotten into some long argue ups here and there after. They usually only hear like one assembly, yelp kind of per Morning, if I, if that. But I mean there was some hands going at it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I started doing it and they answer and yada, yada. Then I kind of stopped. I'm like I'm gonna wait until it's.
Speaker 2:How are we gonna talk a Turkey off of literally what sounds like a hundred hands and jakes and you know everything like? This is a congregation of turkeys right here. This is not like a flock or a group or a like or whatever you want to call them, like a drove. This is a, this is of County's worth, I feel like. And for the, the turkeys we saw it was not so I don't know where half of these turkeys went, but I know for a fact, we didn't see half of them, because we wind up seeing a little group of them and that's the ones we wind up calling them working to, but but up until then I didn't call, until I Found a break to, but but yeah, no, they went crazy. Before we touched a call, I feel like, and then they answer, but at the same time like what, what are we, doesn't you know?
Speaker 1:it was so much going on. Are they answering us? Are they just still like Nobody would have called for they have?
Speaker 2:kept, kept goblin right deal, but no, then then Then, but it's ill, is, I bet, what you were getting that we did call a little bit once they were on the ground, knew they're on the ground, hitted a couple times, responded, kind of the same thing. Like I don't, I don't want them to not know we're here, at least we're not gonna, you know.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna do anything if they just think we're just trees blended in. So they call a little bit, and then that's when you were talking about yeah, that's when, like the first turkeys we saw, I guess what I was getting to that.
Speaker 3:Somebody was calling. It wasn't me, obviously, but it was somebody I think was Buchanan behind me and this goes what you were saying Everybody had a different viewpoint.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:Right, somebody was calling and I all I could say was stop. I mean, I was looking at three male turkeys which I could tell you know the heads. They were males, but they ended up being jakes. But he's right in front of me and came. They ended up coming down in front of you right, and that was the in real close yeah when they, when they did that, you come out, grit in our teeth because I could. At the time I didn't know it was jakes.
Speaker 3:I just knew it was males right and I saw him come down. I saw him come in front of you, I know and I'm so. I was sitting there like what. Why are we?
Speaker 1:now, yeah, we do, and and then it turned out to be jakes. Well, from like I was far enough away from them I couldn't tell what they were, but they looked a little smaller body to be. I mean I assumed they were or they were Doing that caulking and yelping and stuff. Was that right?
Speaker 2:Hmm, I might not have started that yet, I may have been later, but yeah, that started that I couldn't decide if they were jakes or hens at one point.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, Just cuz I was so hearing so much going on at one time, I couldn't you know that was later on. Yeah, was that hens yelping over there? Was that jakes yelping?
Speaker 3:without you know. That's what I'm thinking of. See, they were right over that little ridge or dumb out from, and all I could see was oh yeah, head color, okay, body side nothing. And then, when they came in front, was like and I'm also watching through the viewfinder, yeah, I'm not in for a safe filming this you know.
Speaker 1:So I'm sitting here like they gotta be a long beard about to pop up at the back of this because they were like in a line at one point Just popping over a little. No to me, but seals probably some.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I heard you say something, I don't know what it was, and it made me look over there and I kind of just saw his head kind of get down on his gun a little bit. So I knew he'd seen something. And I do want to say I think that there wasn't a lot of goblin going on when I get it, just stop, kind of like you tell, like you know, when they fly down, when it stops. There's a period there where everybody just stop looking around.
Speaker 2:Right yeah, just kind of feeling everything out. So this was during that moment and you knew they're on the ground. Anything you did here, you know Once or twice you knew was on the ground. So everything's on the ground now. They're figuring it out, they're moving, but that's a suspension part that I like. I don't know where they're moving.
Speaker 2:They could all like they might have picked our call, who knows? You know it's fun to think that until you figure out they did or didn't. But but it was pretty quiet at that point, we hadn't called in a while but or, you know, within Immediate while. But then then I saw those coming up that you, you said something, made me look. And then so I'm kind of face this way and they're coming up right here and like, like you said, I can just see the heads. I'm like all right, here we go and I kind of they got closer and closer and closer and I'm like, hmm, like they had big ol eyeballs and things you know. Little little heads, big eyeballs.
Speaker 2:Nick started about right there, which it was cold, so it could have been a lot of things. Later on in the year there was Multiple opportunities. I could get a lawn beard that I thought. I waited and waited, waited, see a beard, look like a Long beard, said, but I was like I'm gonna wait, I'm gonna wait and it wasn't been a lawn beard, but I Would rather do that than shooting. Find out when you're standing over that it was Jake.
Speaker 2:Hey, it's illegal to shoot a Jake and Mississippi.
Speaker 2:So you know, definitely got a check for a lawn beard and Mississippi, but um, they kept coming, kept coming. I started getting a little he that I don't you know, I think that might be and then they stepped down. I was like yep, but they did come very, very close to me I'm talking 10 to 10 yards right in front of me, being Jake's kind of looking around like what's that gum barrel doing here, kind of you know, and kept walking. They're not the broad, I mean, they got opportunity to get educated right but they come in and they start scratching Pretty close to me I'd say 20 yards from me but kind of working behind me. Yeah, and that's when I started. They were, they were caulking. It was really cool.
Speaker 2:You videoed a lot of it it was cool to see them in the natural habitat, the gobbles and hens and I think more, jakes, kind of the vocalizations ensued, probably 200 yards down, to seals in my left, wouldn't you say seals? Yeah, they went, you know, they're kind of they all gravitated to the left, which now was in front of me, and then now to my left. So now the seals is really left and these, these, these jakes are in the bottom. This bottom connects to that bottom. So I'm thinking good spot, you know. I think this, this is the bottom they're picking. At least it's not like they're going opposite of us or, you know, end around in this and coming back on the other side or something. So I'm pretty confident that we're in a decent spot here. There's not much opportunity to move as open as these woods are, but let them.
Speaker 1:I was like I'm gonna let these jakes do what they gonna do, you know they're sitting there scratching, Popping each other with their wings you know, yeah, they were, they were playing all around there at one point or a few points, they would jump up and it was cool to watch. Just I think they were kind of passed out your Y'all's view and only I could see them at that point. Or maybe being be candy, y'all make it seem that I don't know.
Speaker 3:I could. I couldn't hardly see anything, but I could hear them. I was trying. You know, At this point they were really not even to my left, they were kind of back over my left shoulder Right. I'm just behind and I could hear them but I was trying my hardest, just to oh yeah, Not move right I couldn't you know when you see one, you know when you can move when you're not looking at them, you don't know what they're doing here right.
Speaker 3:So I pretty much, and I remember man it was. It got miserable because when I turned to put my gut head down on the bear when I saw him, I kind of had to shift my hips and when I did I jabbed a roof in the back of my legs and Once they got by me, obviously I couldn't move. Yeah, so this whole hour hunt. Right sitting there with a root up my leg.
Speaker 1:But yeah, how long were we sitting on those same trees? You think total, I mean it. It was a long time.
Speaker 2:It felt like a day and a half. It really good, I mean, we filmed at all. I mean, when you press record, we hadn't sat down and we ended recording. The video is only like an hour and 15 minutes.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I was like we felt that, or you might have cut it off a couple times.
Speaker 2:I don't know, but I don't think so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I know I had to change batteries a few times.
Speaker 3:I would have just about an hour.
Speaker 2:It at least now without moving it felt like a season and a house worth of like stuff happened.
Speaker 2:Right hour but at the same time nothing happened at all because I mean, they, they, they were working their way towards this bottom and I knew that. I kind of knew they were working this way. I'm in a bind now because I mean I think both the y'all in same page that I was gonna be calling it regardless of who's shooting seal, I mean cuz chase had the camera, seals was supposed to be shooting. I had a gun, we all had guns, but I was gonna do the call and just to kind of get us, you know, on the same page, we can didn't know that and I didn't know really who was be can and who was chase, who was see, I knew where seals was because he's the only person that kind of. We talked before you sat down, yeah, you can't sit behind us, and you were gonna sit behind us, and that's all I knew. And then y'all discussed where that was Right.
Speaker 2:I can hear some calling. I can hear like someone moving behind me. I still don't really know who's who or anything like that, I think. For the longest time I thought we can't. It was you right and um, and so I think you're filming all this stuff in the bottom that Come find out. We can't, couldn't see either right so it wouldn't matter.
Speaker 2:But I start seeing the turkeys after. While they're still gobbling, they're probably 200, like I said, 200 yards out in the bottom. Now I'll see a couple flashes. I'm trying to keep it down, these jakes, because what I don't want to do is call those jakes back over here to come, look up and, you know, put their nose on my gun Barrel and spooking, then keep those from coming or anything like that. So I know these are jakes.
Speaker 2:I must the whole time we're assuming everybody's on the same page and none of us are on the same page about any of it Come to find out, you know in hindsight. But um, so I don't want to call these jakes over here for the longest time. They kind of work far enough where I'm okay with you know, if they can get equal distance or so, then this block turkeys and I don't mind calling, but I don't want to Draw their attention any more than it has to be right because they are minding their own business, doing turkey things. I'm kind of caught up in that, watching them, watching these what look like just dots, but I can tell it's turkey strutting here and there and I just see, you know, clips of them way out there don't have binoculars or nothing, looking at them um and you can hear the the hens and I think it's more jakes out there, and it's just hammer and hammer and hammer and hammer, but and then hollers, you know, it's like and over and, over and over again.
Speaker 2:Um, just, the echoes were awesome and and especially when there's no leaves on the trees and it just you know, you almost feel it. I could tell more than one Right which you know we knew that from the get-goes a lot of turkeys in here.
Speaker 1:It seemed like if we did break one off, it would probably break a few off at some point, and I kept looking back at these jakes too, making sure one didn't break off and join them because I'm like all right there's.
Speaker 2:Is that three? Is it three or four, jakes? I don't remember. It was three. I thought it was three and I looked up and there was four turkeys.
Speaker 3:I'm like, oh, you know four or five in.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, more jakes slipped in somewhere somewhere. Yeah, I don't know, but I never saw a lawn beer with them.
Speaker 3:But I know.
Speaker 2:One of them was at my toes. This somehow, somehow, or another, a couple more just appeared, yeah, or joined them somehow. They might have came from the other direction, something like that. I don't know, but it wound up being at like four or five, and I think I only saw three walking in front of us. Yeah, I know for a fact. The first one's walked by were three. Yes, that's what I thought too, but there was four or five jakes back there by the end of it. I don't know where they came from, but, um, I do remember kind of keeping an eye on there, make sure a lawn beer didn't just like walk up or whatever Wouldn't be as a cool hunt if one just happened to walk up next to us.
Speaker 2:But I'm not, you know, too discriminatory towards that Home beer just walks up, kind of, where you're aiming.
Speaker 1:Anyway, let's see, I couldn't see behind me either. The jakes were to my left and I had like that little roll we were on. I couldn't see around some briars or something. There was some thick stuff and there had been a turkey galvan back there that morning and After what had happened to me the morning before Mississippi, which that's all I'm going to say on that, I was looking behind me quite a bit and you know I was.
Speaker 1:I was expecting one to slip in silent and you know I kept hearing a gobble somewhere back there 200 yards and I'm like, oh gosh, here we go.
Speaker 3:Well, and that was. I was kind of the same as you chase. You know, I not I couldn't move. But I also didn't really want to move cause all the turkeys, you know, they weren't just in one area. So I was trying to stay here where I was pointing, because I mean, one could have popped up.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah yeah, there's no real clear game plan at the time when I first saw those. How in the world I'm going to get the this flock of what looks like 30 turkeys into just picking these three? You know there's one. He enter whatever but um, but what wound up coming to my mind and this was the explanation I was talking about was when, when I had a I mean, this is just my theory of things there is such thing as curiosity versus persuasion, kind of in the turkey woods and I'm going to say my dad did on a long time when I was younger and I just kind of let that seed build and build and build and just really pay attention to it as I got older and experienced more and busted more and shot more and all you know everything you think of in turkey woods that you know.
Speaker 2:Utilizing your terrain to call a turkey curiosity more than persuading the turkey is regionally different among you know kind of situations. Most of our situations are going to be towards the curiosity, just based off of just the terrain. Part of me. There's a bunch of stumps, there's a bunch of push piles, there's a bunch of tickets, there's a bunch of you know the things that turkeys have to walk around and walk over and walk through and stuff like that just to get a look at whatever's happening. A lot of calling will kind of not necessarily. It'll kind of make him shut up and peak you know way out there, or kind of let him know. You know something. You know something's off, maybe if a turkey is not moving, but the terrain allows you to move around a lot. We're kind of not able to do that right now because we're in the wide open and there's four of us and that's a lot harder to do with two people and it is one person much less for us. So that was out, you know, not an option.
Speaker 2:The persuading part, you know, that's when you're just sending a hammer to these hens and goblers and you're hoping to get just one of the hens off or talk one of these goblers off of there. But usually them goblers aren't going to let another one peel off If they don't want to get. You know, have their cake and eat it too. So they're going to kind of work these hens and then they're going to come back around to these at if it's 3 pm, it's 3 pm, but they're not going to let another one go, you know, take care of them before they have a chance to. So a lot of a lot of parameters kind of going through my mind and stuff. And you know we don't have a decoy, obviously we're in the wide open too. And just if you're going to hunt, based off curiosity, a decoy cures that curiosity immediately. So all they would do is see where that hens is. That decoy, if we have one, and they don't have to come look and know where that hens is, and then that matter if or when you go, because they can look and see. So kind of based off of that, that's kind of a little spill. On that. We can go through a couple more episodes, explain in that deeper.
Speaker 2:But so I'm sitting here waiting and now all that comes down to is since I can't move, since I can't do this or that, or you know, create a, I guess, a hypothetical situation where a turkey would want to come look at it. Where did this? You know, call here, call backwards, make it leave, make it, you know, add a call to it and make it seem like hens are gathering here. Something like that Scratch and not call, make him wonder whether it's a hen or a gobbler. You know anything that would increase that you know intriguing factor of your mind to come over here and take a look. It was kind of out of the question because there was so many of us so it really just came out of timing. So in my mind I was pretty honed in on it. Doesn't matter when it happens, but I'm not calling until the opportunity is there. I might have to call out after that, but I'm not going to jeopardize you know kind of boogering this up with these jakes here or you know there's a lot of other hens over there.
Speaker 2:I don't know what their kind of mind said is on kind of going back to that West Virginia hunt I was talking about. I don't know, this was before that West Virginia hunt, by the way. I don't know what those hens are going to do. They're going to go the other way, they're going to walk, they can run over here too. So we'd be, you know, eating biscuits by the time they got here later on. But I didn't know that at the time. So in my head I'm thinking I'm going to wait and wait and wait and wait and wait.
Speaker 2:Our best shot at this point is let these turkeys work this bottom, work this bottom. They're going back and forth, they're hammering. These hens are going back and forth. I think I want to say these hens are, I mean these jakes, are you know, kind of jakey open back at them and stuff, and I think there's more jakes in this group. They go back and forth a little bit. They're working now to my left, I'd say. They started, they entered the bottom around my 10 to 11 o'clock. They're now at least nine and they're working towards eight, kind of going back and back counterclockwise, and I think y'all can see them. No, we can't, but y'all can't. So that's when y'all were, you know, ticked off at me. It seemed right.
Speaker 1:And we like. The main thing I remember is like at one point you did call and me and Buchanan had been waiting for you to call for an hour and a half and we jumped right in. Oh yeah, we felt I was over there dogging.
Speaker 3:Yeah, what are you doing? Yeah, obviously I'm not going to call because I can't see anything, right, but I'm like he's got to be looking at it Because you can like. You see, you can hear scratching, you can hear him clucking, whatever. I was like what on? I was dumbfounded, it was like is he asleep? Is he asleep Because we didn't sleep that night?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:I was like do you sleep over there? What on earth is going on?
Speaker 3:But which was cool after the hunt, for you to explain.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, you can see all this stuff, yeah, I mean, yeah, we were, yeah we were both dog and hunter, Because when you have hunted with him enough that we kind of can course how his mind's thinking and things like that. No to when to be patient, when to kind of say something to hunter about, like what are we doing?
Speaker 3:Right, right, and I was generally, I was generally concerned, right, we're all also 20 yards apart and no way to communicate.
Speaker 1:We can't communicate.
Speaker 2:Period.
Speaker 1:And I mean that was just it's. That's the thing. That's why it seemed like it was such a long hunt, aside from everything you know, just all the activity, the simply not speaking to one another, not sign in language and nothing to each other, not having a clue what's going on from other people's perspectives, which was fun all at the same time. But after a while we were kind of like, okay, somebody do something, yeah, you know yeah.
Speaker 3:Because at that time too, like you said, we couldn't talk back. I was, you know, and I knew how far apart we are. I was wondering, like you know you, I was concerned like why it? And hunter call? And then it would change to. Well, I wonder if he's wanting, because you're between me and the turkeys, I changed. I wonder if he wants me to call Right? Well, I can't see the turkeys.
Speaker 3:I don't know what they're doing. They could be coming in right now towards Hunter and if I call, they're going to check up. You know the whole cell. Well, yeah, it was your mind's going a hundred different directions because you don't know what's going on.
Speaker 2:And I'm considering that y'all might not, but I think y'all can see him, for I mean, I just I thought we were on the same plane. Don't come to find out I was a little lower than y'all, which would not make sense. You think, well, there are higher things here, but it you couldn't. I mean, there's just enough thick stuff where you couldn't like where the, where the leaves started on the trees, what little leaves there were, I mean the final line between where it's still sitting and those leaves, and where I was sitting and those leaves. I was on the room and I could see it and he was over and he couldn't see them.
Speaker 2:You can and was in some thick stuff. I remember that, looking back at it, he couldn't. He could see the jakes better, probably all of us because, he was kind of turned that way and then chase you at the camera and you. I don't know if you meant to, but you accidentally got a couple of clips of them going back and forth in the bottom. I think you were trying to film the jakes and you didn't know it. If you didn't know where to look, you didn't know where to look.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you'd see them, but they were back there in that back corner, the top right corner of the frame, a couple of times. But so so, so pretty much all. I waited and waited and waited, and waited and all right, about when I was like they're about to be passed us and we're going to have to kind of call them back. I gave it a couple of years, but I was sitting there and I could. I could tell which ones were strut, which ones were goblers, which ones were hens or jakes or hens, I think the, the ones, a lot of hens stayed back there towards the end, towards the end. Everything was in front of them.
Speaker 2:These were kind of mingling, co-mingling in between each other and all of a sudden the opportunity I was looking for was let a subordinate subordinate gobbler, let him let that subordinate gobbler get in the back. Once the subordinate gobbler's in the back and I'm saying subordinate, saying the non strutter there was like one that would strut the whole time. I don't think he ever broke. And then there was one who would strut a little bit and then there was one or two more that I never saw strut. I could tell they were bigger turkeys, black bodies and stuff. They were a lot of times just pecking around with the hens and stuff, and then those, you know, the strutters were kind of working, worked the whole group necessarily, but collectively they're moving backwards, they're going counterclockwise on me. They started at 10. I mean, I started by 11, 10, 9, got to 8. And then, once they started getting towards 7, kind of behind me. You know, I wait till these gobblers are on the right side of the flock necessarily, and once that's a board and a gobbler got in the back, I let a couple calls out and the point being to that was to assure that there was nothing that would kind of stop him from slipping backwards. You know, kind of just stopping, let them move on. Call it one time they answered, I think, and then so it kind of assured me that they at least can hear me. Let that ride. A second call it again, and then that one stopped and I'm thinking this might work at this point because they were still moving, strutting around, and he stopped, you know kind of periscoping Right, and I almost like I put myself in his mindset of him thinking, hmm, like he's weighing these options, if he was in front of these gobblers and try to try to do that.
Speaker 2:He knows he not today, they're going to cut him off and push him just like a hen, but him being in the back, he's probably. I can just see him looking back and forth, going like they, they're still going, they're still moving and if I don't, you know, make a cause of scene, I'm kind of slip on over here. And that's exactly what he did. I mean he peeled off, I mean he stopped. He almost just waited and waited and waited and let those other ones move on and once those other ones moved on to two minutes tops, I mean two turkey hunts minutes, they're really probably 45 seconds, right, let them, let them ease on. And he started like it's almost like he took two steps back and just kind of slipped on back and I knew I watched it, but I was, I had an eye for it, so I was hoping what happened.
Speaker 2:And when I called it was kind of like called one time, he looked up. I waited until I knew he was thinking about it. He picked to go more times, call one more time, the way he doesn't necessarily know if he's up, if he's, if he says up and he's looking and you call him kind of pinpoint, you and I can't see like a turkey, but I mean I don't know that. He can't see all the way past me and knows that something might be up. So I like to call if their heads down there scratching, there's noise, so they don't necessarily know exactly where it came from, they know the vicinity and they're going to have to walk over there to look at it. That's the curiosity part, right? So a couple of times they're waited till they were scratching, going on and stuff, and sometimes I'll wait if they're strutting, if they turn around and the fans block it and so the sound kind of comes around them.
Speaker 2:Turkish can pinpoint really, really good. They can still pick your tree, but they it's just enough where they still got to come, look, right. So two calls, max, right, there was just a timing of it was perfect, or needed to be perfect, I think. I mean it was successful so it worked. But you got to get a really time to write if you're going to do that. Luckily, star started in the line. At that point he peeled off, kind of came back. I'm watching this Turkey tell us a long beard Very quickly, you know.
Speaker 3:I see a beard.
Speaker 2:He's closing the end, closing in, and I would say these turkeys were over a hundred yards when I first called, not much further 125, 130, maybe he cuts it down to 75. He's starting to look around and stuff. And you know I'm not calling anymore at this point. I think eventually he probably got to I'd say 50 and he's looking pretty hard. He's kind of just he's, he thinks he's separated from this flock of this point is one satellite gobbler, one by himself.
Speaker 2:It worked, you know, to a T. He stopped those moving on, he just kind of eased them back, you know, and I don't know if the other one's cared after I stopped calling they didn't even think about it, but he kept moving on. And apparently the other ones I'm sorry, they start coming in after, yeah, and he's closing in about 50 right at that point. And so I'm sitting here thinking I don't know who can see, who cannot see, if I'm even supposed to shoot, if you like, I don't want to shoot and seals, be you know, have his red dot on one's neck and I shoot it out from under him or something you know, I don't, I don't really know, and then so I keep on letting him.
Speaker 2:Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, because these other ones are coming. Now. Gonna find out, you can, and I don't think saw this the one peel off, because he was waiting on those other two to come, because he mentioned there was only two, those two more than ran it behind him. And I don't know if you ever saw the first one coming right, because I want to say he called it a time or something like that. Well, this was it, like 70 ish Company, and I'm like ooh that's what I thought it was you and I was about to.
Speaker 2:You know, I was like, check, that's where if you Because I knew whoever was calling definitely didn't see this one. Yeah, you know, and then that kind of made me think Look up and see what the other ones doing. The other ones were kind of walking this way at that point, right, and so I guarantee I'm not gonna speak for him. But he saw those other two kind of walking then that you know, leaving those hands for a second. He was trying to pull them over here. He just didn't know one was about to walk up anyways.
Speaker 2:But yes, so this one's coming in, it's coming, it's coming.
Speaker 2:It gets behind some thick stuff I Mean like vines and tree, like not a big tree but a bunch of vines collect, and you know, around it To where I'm not able to really see, and this, this tree, is about 25, 30 yards, so when it walks out he walks behind it about 40, and then he just he does what Turkey's do they get behind that tree and walk right at you and you're like he's either gonna pop out at 60 on the right or at 14 yards in front of me on the left, I don't know which one. I just gotta be ready for both. So I'm sitting there ready, ready, ready, and he pops out I think it's the left of the tree, winds of being kind of, comes under a hanging branch, sticks his head up, and these, these other ones are getting pretty close at this point, but, um, they kind of surpassed him from my angle and he's, uh, he's poking their head up and kind of looking around and I think he, you know he's Pretty- close to me yeah with then 20, I'd say Edging.
Speaker 2:I mean I don't know, he might be 17, 20. I don't know. But I'm sitting there thinking like somebody's gonna shoot me. Better hurry up. And so finally I was like you know, I'll do the deed. I guess Luckily so, because I don't know if anybody else was able to, you know, get ready in time. Because then and then those other ones kind of hung around and started hopping on him and I'm now I'm really I start laying down. I have no idea where seals is at this point yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't know where I think Chase is be canning steel and then I look kind of like lay down, roll over and I see chase. I'm like, well, you're not where I thought you were at all. Yeah, but there was no other way. There's nothing as you can do. Sounded like right now.
Speaker 3:That's what. And we I saw hunter lay down and all you see is his hand pop up like yeah, come on come on, and Again, I didn't know where anybody was, so if he didn't realize that, if I would have shot that turkey, or the second, turkey. Yeah, it would be Directly every. Oh yeah, right, we got up. Um, well, we'll finish the story, then I can go back to, yeah, that whole situation. Once we explained him, wherever he saw where everybody was, he realized like oh, thank you, yeah, yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:The funny thing was we couldn't tell where sales was right. Sales was we. We had all shifted from facing to the, you know, north to the, I guess, west, practically, you know, if you put it on a compass, like we were all now facing what started as our left, or nine o'clock, yeah, and seals is kind of over here by himself at this point.
Speaker 3:He was supposed to be in front of everyone.
Speaker 1:Now he's behind everyone kind of, and me and Buchanan like Seals at turkeys, like 20 yard sales, come on. And then I finally look up from the viewfinder and I see there's no chance of sales shooting this turkey. And so that's when I start, easy my gun up and like sales, you sure, and Buchanan saying it too, and everything, and I finally Put my, put my face down and Buchanan shoots a millisecond before I do and like, right, as I'm squeezing, I see the turkeys head just disappear and I'm too far pulled at that point it scared me and it shot like it and that mess with my head for four or five minutes.
Speaker 1:I'm like sitting here like did I, did that turkey? Did I not shoot? Did did someone?
Speaker 2:else. Yeah, I don't think neither of y'all knew the other one shot. We didn't, uh-huh and it's funny.
Speaker 1:You know, later on in the video, you we figure that all out, yeah um. I Mean it was the most Congenial bull everybody just stood up.
Speaker 2:Like what was going on, like because I shot a turkey that Buchanan didn't even know about seals is like what the heck man. They didn't see the turkey at all.
Speaker 3:First I saw, but it's some print like. I felt some pressure when I had three other guys that were I was saying shoot him shoot.
Speaker 1:I don't know what to shoot and it was kind of a little no hunter was sitting on the edge, I was on a little bit down and so I don't even even whenever you saw the turkeys I don't even know if well I could.
Speaker 3:You saw him for a while. But you're right for hunter shot because if I remember right right when he came out from Behind that tree he was kind of coming up.
Speaker 2:He was starting to come up, so I I do, and I was right, I was on that come up part, so he was close so I do remember, like looking over my left shoulder and I could see the turkeys head and I could see Hunter getting down so I mean I was like, I mean I was prepared for the shot, but that's after I saw those three turkeys.
Speaker 3:The only other thing I saw was that head popping up and you getting down, and Never I had zero idea that there was two more Over there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and where they would have been, and I like you know, right and it's kind of like I mean, anytime I get up and I'm turned around like that and I'm waited for and I I was. There was a tree at my back begin with, but by the time I shot I was off a tree and I'm just in a mid crunch for a good 30 minutes.
Speaker 3:I'm like.
Speaker 2:Trying to like breathe, like get my feeling back on my legs and stuff, because I've been holding, you know, a very, very, very steady position because it that joker would did not come over here quickly. He was, I mean, slipping, I mean like a couple back steps kind trying to get away, get away Kind of nonchalantly, pick around, and then he kind of come over here and he was working this way. I knew, I knew if I want to, had a little bit of intention in note the timing of those calls out of just started hammering and him like I'll come over here.
Speaker 2:But I knew he heard me. I knew he was trying to not get seen. I knew he was probably in his mind like, if this he and doesn't call anymore. Mm-hmm, I'm clean, I'm smooth sailing, I've escaped all the other ones. He wasn't gonna bring none of the names. You know, it was like three, four other ones.
Speaker 1:I feel like at least two more. Yeah, he don't see them other two coming over there to. No yeah, yeah, and they're bringing back right group. That's what I think they're doing.
Speaker 2:They said, no, that's what they're doing.
Speaker 1:They were saying uh-uh, you ain't getting off by yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they were they kind of took off a little vengeance there after him once they realized he'd slipped away, I mean, and that was an obvious two-year-old with some less than an inch bird. Right good enough for me. He's got swinging beard. That's a full fan, it's all we're there for, but no, it was pretty cool to get there and you can't get pumped.
Speaker 1:He was like man, he was fired up, which?
Speaker 2:is fine. I didn't know him at this time so I don't know if it's you can buy. All right, cool, you know but he was pumped up. Oh yeah, he was high-fiving everything you know. It was awesome, so it was. It was fine you know I was fine, you know, welcome back to turkey.
Speaker 2:Hunting Zero sixty right here, right now, kind of deal, yeah. And then I mean Kind of overwhelming that times, honestly it was. It was just so much going on and and it was so cool to see the turkeys vocalizations here. You're pretty natural we did call a little bit, but but I don't there's a lot of different routes you could have taken there. But I do think that was a really good example of the whole timing part and when the call, versus how good you can call Cuz I ain't no, you know, world champion caller. But if you call it the right time, a lot of times you get the right frequency at the right time and the right situation.
Speaker 2:It'll work you know and and and not doing something that's bad Out is a lot of opportunity to mess up. If you're not good at a particular call and just trying to do it any way, or Because that's what you think you're supposed to do, just calling to call and calling to hear yourself, or calling to get gobbles, they'll kill some turkeys, but a lot of times it'll. You know you can't undo it once you mess it up.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:It's turkey hunting is a hundred percent, is not ninety, nine and a half percent. You can't do 99 and a half percent correct and expect to kill to. You have to do a hundred percent Right everything. Mm-hmm, they can be very close and you know, no cigar.
Speaker 3:Now I agree, Happens a lot more than oh yeah, I mean then, when you do it right.
Speaker 2:Right, and that's, that's the truth. There's a lot you know they'll come in this stuff not to knock it. Don't get another chance of something doesn't go right if you you know they flare on here or something doesn't go perfect. You know there's a lot of things you can get another chance at, but turkey hunting is very, Not only the rest of day but probably tomorrow and probably a couple days after that.
Speaker 1:You don't.
Speaker 2:Even you ain't got a prayer. Yeah but I'll find you a new one. Yeah, but then a place like this I don't know what the rules are for this, because there's a lot of turkeys, there is something we're not used to, but um, but not. I mean, the timing was a big, big essence there. I'd say and, and, and, and, to do with four people and only call that much. You know very very, very little was.
Speaker 2:You know, doesn't happen that often, especially throwing someone who we've never hunted with. You know, a lot of folks are on the same page. A lot of folks I've hunted with several, several, several times. I'm still not that fluid but, you know, on the same page. And we didn't say, hey, don't call, just let one person call. But y'all just know I'm not calling. There's a reason. Usually if I start calling this kind of game on, you know there's a reason for that too.
Speaker 3:But yeah, we also kind of have an unlike understand each other enough that well, if chase, it was obviously my morning shoot, we understood that if chase is on the camera.
Speaker 2:I'm planning to shoot right, and there's no need for me to call it. Yeah.
Speaker 3:We kind of all take a and it all flops around, depending on who's shooting or whatever. But yeah, boy, I say that most of the time you're gonna for sure be calling right, but if chase is running the camera, I may help you out if I'm running the camera chase may help you out, but that morning it is yeah right, everybody's on the same Thank goodness.
Speaker 2:I mean a lot of if, the if, because I never called from the moment I saw him. So Remember, we called, we mentioned in the roof or the fly down it area kind of timing. They know turkeys are over here but they kind of probably gotten about that I think. I don't think none of that them coming over here has anything to do with the call and you know that was 30 minutes prior. This was because they stayed in the bottom for a while of a majority of that hour. Yeah, I was watching them.
Speaker 1:Um, and I saw. We only saw him for a minute and a half crazy. I'm thinking y'all saw this whole thing and then I realized I wait, y'all couldn't see him, I could hear him and yeah and the few times that me and Buchanan called when you called, I think we were we were just trying to sound like a bunch of turkeys because we didn't know how many was over there.
Speaker 1:We knew it was three or four goblers and you know we're calling blind. You know there's a difference in calling blind and calling you can see them and you finally called and I was like Maybe that's him telling me doors open. Yeah, we need to make some racket finally. All right, you know. Then I see you like look over at me and I know that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Buchanan don't know that. Look, and I look over like I'm just kind of like I'm yelp and I kind of go hands over my All right, oh yep. I have done it.
Speaker 2:You know something we don't know and that's what I said.
Speaker 1:All right, it's him now, you know.
Speaker 2:I don't think I really call anymore After that it was right. It was just done. Yeah, it's over with.
Speaker 3:Yeah, let it deal with the.
Speaker 2:It's kind of like the, the signs he'll deliver. If it don't work, it's on me, but you know, with listen like let it, let it ride, watch what happens.
Speaker 1:And that was one of the first hunts We've, you know, had a Designated right person on a camera, right. So, like all this is new to us there all at one time, you know, we had the 360 hunt, or the place on sales is 300 acre place or whatever, and the first time we hunted together, that's the only time we've all Carried a camera like had a quote-unquote camera guy, right, you know, or an individual.
Speaker 1:And then a GoPro on a strap or something right and we were just trying to figure it all out at one time and it was fun, but it was just Just confusion, yeah, all of all in the mix, like no one knew what was going on. But everyone knew what was going on, all at the same time.
Speaker 2:That's the mess, kind of, though. That's turkey on a nutshell, isn't you know just organized chaos? Yes 100% of time, which that's what I mean. It's fine, you know we have to enjoy it with a lot of folks and you know each other and stuff like that, and had a good time and kind of kicked it off, and then then seals seals had a Timer I'd say a hundred two after that, where the chips didn't fall right.
Speaker 2:you know and then, then he made up for. Towards the middle end of season, everything start coming back around. Yeah, and that's, that's turkey karma as I cause. Like you, you have a you banner year. Better buckle up next year. You usually don't happen two years in a row and kind of you have a slow half I'm much rather a slow first half Then you know you just go to wax them to get into the half because I'm I'm getting nervous towards the second half that point I'm thinking.
Speaker 2:No, he's saying this is the title turn and it's I've been blessed here, you know, so I know which way they're gonna go, and usually that's what happens you start having some bad luck coming at you, right.
Speaker 3:I had all the bad luck the first few weeks. Yeah, like yeah.
Speaker 2:I had it towards the end. Yeah, I mean, you know it's kind of like pick poison, but then seals is killing them left and right and I'm over here like I'm, I'm, I'm mad because everything's going wrong. You know, towards it, you know in middle of May or not mad, but you know I'm like this is right, this is this is how it works.
Speaker 2:You know, but, um, but now it's a lot of fun and there's a lot of the homes we're gonna dive into and we did hunt Together with each other a couple more times, but I think that's it. I think that was it right. That was only when we all 300 on this past year.
Speaker 1:I think so I can't think of nothing. I mean, we hunted in the same camp in Alabama and the hunt with both y'all, but as far as us three totin a gun or you know, whatever that was it, I Didn't even think of that either till right now.
Speaker 2:Made it count. That's a good one, but anything else y'all want to chime in with before we wrap this story up and hop on some more, I Think we covered as much as we could remember right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was definitely. There was definitely one. None of the three of us will ever forget.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I was. I won't, that's for sure, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we would be hard to forget.
Speaker 2:Thank you Well, listeners, we appreciate y'all listening. Y'all go check out the video We've been talking about. I do encourage y'all to watch both of them. I think by this time we'll have a condensed version of the hunt with a little more explanation, some subtitles and stuff like that. But the real, the raw version of it is gonna obviously be on YouTube and it's got you know. A lot of folks watched it and shared it and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:It's pretty cool all killing part of side of turkey hunting. Just listening to the turkey vocalizations it was. It's a morning that doesn't happen often. If you hunt a lot of mornings the turkey was, you don't get this often getting to hear all of this stuff going on. You know, at the the early part of this hunt was really cool. And if you're from the hard boys in the bottoms and stuff of Mississippi Area, the southeast, really, alabama, georgia, tennessee, I want up into the, the Holloman, this bunch of houses tough. You know Pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin, the Minnesota, all that stuff. It kind of reminds you those early days of just the first few days of season versus echoes everywhere and it's really cool. So good to have on hand at least right, that'll get you juices pumping, nothing else. We'll promise you that. So check it out.
Speaker 2:On YouTube channel Subscribe, share all that good stuff. But we do appreciate those who have subscribed, who have shared it. We have helped us out a lot. We, you know we pay attention to that, we know who you are and we we really appreciate y'all helping us out. You know that that goes a long way. That's kind of what drives us, so to speak, necessarily. I don't think we we don't make money off of it or anything like that. We just, we just hope to reach more people. That's, that's the goal, really to talk to more folks about tricking Yep. So check it out. Check out all the new things. Bring legion calm. Check us out on social media at spring legion across the board. So we'll. We have one camera die, so better wrap this one up. So appreciate you all this spring legion podcast. We'll see you next week.
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