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
Death, Taxes, and Missing Turkeys - Why it Happens and How to Fix it
TFT x SPRING LEGION HUNT RAFFLE: Come Hunt with the Spring Legion crew this April! Deadline to enter ends 12:00 AM 1/30/24 - Click Here to Learn More
Ever found yourself lining up the perfect turkey shot only to come up empty-handed? You're not alone. Join Hunter Farrior and Austin Sills, as they unravel the head-scratching moments behind those frustrating misses and turn them into teachable triumphs. This isn't just about recounting tales of the one(s) that got away; it's an exploration of strategies to make sure your future hunts end with the gobbler in your hands.
Strap in as we dissect the unpredictable nature of these unpredictable birds through candid stories from the field, including a humbling hunt in Nebraska that still has me shaking my head. In essence, we're peeling back the layers on preparation, decision-making, and staying nimble in the face of an animal that seems born to make fools of us all. We're also getting into the nitty-gritty of shotgun technique, the psychology of shooting, and why a tight cheek-to-stock connection could be the linchpin in your next successful turkey takedown.
But it's not all about the misses. We're here to celebrate the wins, too, especially the community you've helped us build. Your enthusiasm echoes through the woods and into the microphone, inspiring us to keep sharing our adventures and misadventures alike. So whether you're a seasoned hunter or just getting your camouflage dirty for the first time, grab your headphones and join us—we've got stories, tips, and a whole lot of gratitude to share.
Check out the SPRING LEGION YouTube Channel to watch the hunts referenced on our show, as they happened and as real as it gets.
New Bottomland Woodsman Series Shirts and Pants are HERE for Spring 2024 at spring legion.com
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Hi y'all. Welcome back to another episode of Spring Leisure Podcast. My name is honorfarer, here joining you by longtime partner Austin Seals. Again today Got a good one ahead of us. Gonna be talking about one of the truths in life, in Turkey Hunt especially.
Speaker 1:One of the things I'm really good at.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we've got a connoisseur, so to speak, here with us of those charities, much like death and taxes. A third would be missing turkeys.
Speaker 1:Yeah so.
Speaker 2:I had a real successful year this year. Well, seals happens to be a pro at missing turkeys and we give them a bunch of crap for it. But lo and behold, I missed a couple this year too, and it's one of those things that if I missed Turkey ain't 100 enough, and that's a true statement right there. And we've all done it. And today we're gonna talk about some of the things we might have learned along the way when it comes to missing turkeys that we could have avoided or have learned to adjust in order to fix it, and something that we've all had to learn the hard way, most times, I would say.
Speaker 2:But you know, that's one of the things that if we can provide a little bit of help to somebody who also struggles with whiffing on them, so be it. I hope we do, but if you're like us, you're gonna do it again, kind of regardless. Oh, if you hunt them, you're gonna. There's no way around it. Yeah, I mean, there's so many factors going to it, so much is going on, so many things you can change in hindsight, but there's only so much of all of it.
Speaker 1:Get twisted and not trying to turkeys coming behind.
Speaker 2:There's all kind of factors that go into missing Most unpredictable animals on the planet, if you're asking me. But before we get into it, though, I did want to tell y'all we appreciate y'all tuning in and I appreciate all the downloads and all the shares and stuff y'all have done for the podcast here recently, as we're kind of re-kicking it back off. But absolutely we definitely appreciate it and we definitely want to remind y'all that this is a new venture for us the big cast kind of going on on the YouTube channel. It's kind of a video version of our podcast. We're trying to think of ways to incorporate some of these instances, some of these hunts that we've been talking about, and putting them into, kind of incorporating them into this video cast part, rather than making an entire hunt episode of them. Some of the stuff is just going to kind of hit the parts we're talking about, and then some of these videos are. We've kind of created a sub collection of them, a sub series called the High Note series that's on the YouTube of some of the hunts that might have previously been on there, but we made a condensed version for today's attention span in 2024, for I mean that's weird, yeah, weird saying 24, but yep, it's just hitting high notes, hitting the parts that something happened, no dead peers in between. And then you got folks who do like to see the dead peers in between.
Speaker 2:How long did y'all really take until y'all call it again? Stuff like that. We got something for you there and the ones that we originally uploaded the day after. We hunted it without even looking at the film. So we've got a lot on the YouTube channel. If that's something up your alley, like watching stuff and vice, y'all check it out. Let us know what you think. The subscription to the channel would not hurt. We definitely appreciate that and kind of helping us spread the word because it is a new venture. It's not necessarily our cup of tea. We didn't cut our teeth on the video side, so to speak, but heck, neither did we on the podcast side.
Speaker 1:But here we are.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry, don't assume that means we're good at podcasting, because, lord knows, we've got some work to do on that side as well. But I wanted to get into something else, kind of unrelated to anything we're going to talk about today, but it's something that is a really cool opportunity for folks that we're honored to be a part of with Turkish for tomorrow. It's going to be a hunt raffle, pretty much. It's kind of. This has got a few more details he's going to kind of fill us in on. But it's something that I'm looking for personally, and I know all three of us Chase not being here today I know he is too but I'm looking forward to kind of how this is going to play out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you just enter the raffle, you go to turkeysfortomorroworg and this is a raffle to hunt with us. Right, it's a raffle to hunt with me, hunter and Chase, our particular hunt. I think there's five on there, something around there. Our particular hunt will be, I guess you'd call it Port Gibson would be the closest city. Yeah, it's South Mississippi. Yeah, it's right there on the. It's really, yeah, west South, you know, central West, central Southwest.
Speaker 2:Right South of Vicksburg yeah.
Speaker 1:Between Vicksburg and Port Gibson, but it's going to be on the kind of right there with Mississippi River. Big black meat, good hunt land, real good hunting land. A lot of hills, yeah, a lot of turkeys, but yeah, but yeah. So to enter that, you go to turkeysfortomorroworg and at the very top of their page it says 2024 hunt raffle. Click on there and I think it gives you four different options of you know one ticket for this to, and the more you buy, obviously the cheaper they are. But it's going to be a fun time. It's going to be it's a two day hunt. You arrive the evening, hunt the following two days and go you know one turkey. But if we don't get it done the first day, we do get a second day. So it's going to be a fun opportunity. I'm excited about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's going to be a good time regardless. And I want to say last time we talked to Pete he said that the the drawing ends, or the application period ends January 30th. That's right. So you got until January 30th to go to TFT's website, turkeysfortomorrow's website. I think it's pretty cut and drawn how you find the place to get to apply.
Speaker 1:It's probably plastered everywhere, so as you pull it up, it's in bright green. Yeah, it says 2024 hunt raffle.
Speaker 2:And there's some other hunts. You can apply for the hunt and public hazard an option, West proximity and stuff. There's a couple of terrariums on there, Kind of all over the country too. So again, we're honored to be considered for that. I think Pete keeps calling it the celebrity hunts on my buddy.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We're. We're far from that, but but we will always take a chance to meet that fellow turkey hunter any chance we get, and especially something that kind of backs an organization that has geared around, you know, the benefit of the wild turkey, which is to TFT. And so looking forward to that one, remind y'all head over there and check it out, Look into it. I think the hunt is early April.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I think it's the third and fourth, but and also I mean it covers everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're a chair camp together.
Speaker 1:I'm excited about that. I mean the hunting obviously is that, but it's.
Speaker 2:I mean it's going to be fun just to share camp and stories with somebody we've never hunted with, hang out with, and I need to make a podcast out of it. Yeah, I'm going to have plenty of opportunity to you and hopefully we got a turkey hanging behind, as I want them.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But yeah, looking forward to that, encourage y'all to check it out at a TFT website, and I can't think of many more updates trying to time it right. But yeah, so you want to you ready? Are you prepared to talk about that today? If there's anything I'm prepared to talk about, this, is it? I'm going to be the question ask here on this one, because you got the answers Apparently, I do, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1:No, I had them now. The preference, this whole topic we're going to hit it has been fixed for the most part for the time being. But like you said, you hunt them long enough, you're going to miss more.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, this is one of those things that it's like we mentioned, if you, if you hadn't missed a turkey yet you ain't hunted turkeys long enough because it's common and usually comes whenever you're at your highest.
Speaker 2:If I had to, if I had to think, sometimes it comes more, once even at your luck, and then it makes us round back when you're at your lowest and you definitely don't need to miss one. That's when you're going to miss one and it's going to be a chip shot, layup. But um, but I started off. There was an instance this year, particularly in, I think I was out West, might have been Nebraska or something like that, but it was the first turkey I'd missed in a long time, and y'all know we give seals a bunch of crap on it, but it ain't like I ain't never missed one. I missed a good old handful I had to handful of turkeys before, but I had had a little streak going without missing one and um. So I missed this one and it was. It was disheartening, say the least, but um. But in short, I want to say I'm bad about dropping my vest and with this whole video.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and everything else. But the first to go is using my vest along with everything in it except from a mouth call gun, and Sometimes I wind up in another county before I Head back to go find everything that's left, the break come trail of all the stuff that I've used once and put down and then had to move up a tree and then had to move left 10 trees, and God you know I need one of them, apple key chain things where they called our tag and air tag on literally everything.
Speaker 2:But the first to go is using my vest and in this instance, particularly If I would not have dropped my bike, if I would not have dropped my vest, my means of staying in my vest. That's probably kill this turkey, but I dropped my vest and, low in the hole, the GoPro attached to my vest kept running and I moved over and the GoPro actually got footage of the turkey coming up over this knoll, looking at me and then Me with in it with the shot on him.
Speaker 2:So it's um, it was humbling to rewatch because I know in the whole time if I decided here I'd have been alright. But kind of going into that point I had that, struck this turkey up and then it was this. It was just a long, long beard and he had about four. He is with him, saw it strutting, I think I saw it for her, I did see it before I heard it, and then so I kind of Head back a little ways, not long, and I mean it kind of set up perfect, though direction there headed was gonna kind of split a A no on my side and there's another no on this other side and there's not many trees. And no, there is trees on the the far no one. There's a lot of. I don't know what kind of trees they are, but I want to say live oaks. There's a lot of folks up there. They look like like when I see a really dried out tree I assume it's live oak and don't really think much after that.
Speaker 2:But Wide open, underneath textbook little hangout spot for midday and this is 11 o'clock probably, I'd say it's midday ish. So they are where they want to be for the next few hours. If I had to guess they're kind of working this way up, I drop back, don't make sound, come back around, get at the foot of this. No, on the far side of the know, that would separate me from these birds, assuming they're gonna go right in the middle and then head out to this little shade spot. So I get there and I'm kind of I set up shot without calling anything like that.
Speaker 2:Sit down on the first tree. I see guns facing right in the middle of this know which is. It begins right in front of me and goes up pretty steep, I'd say about 25 yards to the top. It's just I miss a little bubble of ground and I'm pretty symmetrical as far as I can tell. It's not like a ridge, it's just a bubble of ground and so the whole time I know I'm keeping that between me and these birds when I sit down. I hadn't seen them since I first saw them and heard them hadn't done nothing. I'm assuming they are where they are or where I expected them to be. I call a couple times you gobbles and they. I can tell they are. So they, they headed up. The, the fault, the Excuse me, the near end of the no on the other side perfect. So I call a couple times this guy on their answers. I Don't, you know.
Speaker 2:I don't really jump to conclusions or anything, trying to move. I just just got here. I don't know what his mood is, don't know what his temperature is, don't know what he's really doing with these hands. If you're a bread on me, if he's just hanging out, if he's hoping another one comes around, let it rest a minute or two. Call again, he answers again. Had moved. Call again he has moved, or the whole flock is moving, I'm assuming, and they're moving to the right, so they're moving to the right.
Speaker 2:I'm still sitting here and so now I'm projecting them and kind of my mental visual of these two nobles right here. They're around the, the low spot again where I originally saw them. So I kind of take a, take a chance to move to the left while I hop out of my vest and scoot over. I'm talking 30 yards maybe in respect to the Peak of this. No, in front of me I move zero, it's just around. You know, I just move this way, still 25 yards from the top, just at a different angle.
Speaker 2:But now I've opened opportunity where, if he comes to the bottom of it, why in the world I thought a trigger's gonna come to the bottom of a heel. I don't know If I was a turkey. I come to the top and look down, just exactly like he did. But I was hoping I could get there and make it seem like I'm moving Towards where they came from, so he would take the same path that he came from, which is I'm not. I'm not gonna say that's a Great rule of thumb, but I've used it and I give it 60 40. It is higher than 50 chance that they will. They're more comfortable walking us a route that they've already taken, that they already know is safe, that they already know that the landmarks and stuff where this, where this turkey could be headed to. I'd take my chances on that, but Just as much as not more, I would take a chance on a turkey coming higher than he would come in low. If not, I'd say definitely more than 60 40 70, 30 maybe Nothing.
Speaker 2:Nothing's 100%, except for me dropping my vest, it seems. But drop my vest. So this, this little go pro is rolling the whole time. You can't see nothing. You can hear me calling here at gobble a couple times and then I start hearing him drumming and he's, he's, he's on that, he's on that noble closest to me. He's just on the other side so I can't see him. I don't really know where at, but at that time, of course, in his drumming I know he's getting closer. I can just drum, and better and better. He got one good time. I know he's headed to me, you know. The only question is, at this point, which route he's taking to get to me.
Speaker 2:I'm about to look out of where they met some point in the next minute and a half tops. Well, now here's drumming again and I ain't calling or nothing. I hear it again. He's moving left. So he's, he's coming around that bottom. He's coming around halfway up, I would think. Coming around, he's gonna. He's gonna come up this left side, peek over. Because of me moving, I should have a much clearer shot of him. He's not gonna do this whole periscope right over the top and I'm not gonna be able to see him. I know this is a long beard and less another one sneaks in him, but I'm pretty confident, um, so I'm pretty Fixed on him coming left, because now I I hoped he would, I caught Hoping to influence him to come left. Now his drum is coming left, so I think. So I'm pretty locked in on this left Hands out of this little knoll in front of me and then I don't think he, I don't think he gobbles before he crest it, but I'm pretty in this so. So keep in mind I'm right handed. So now that the real peak of the actual nose to my right is about my two o'clock, my 12 o'clock is at the spot where I think he's coming out.
Speaker 2:My swinging motion, where, if he were to come out to the left, the more natural swinging motion, is a 0% chance he's coming, can't see the whole thing. He can't get there without crossing where my gun's pointed. So I've eliminated that completely. Not that I don't advise that I would try to go back. I just I'd sit position right, you know, pointed back more right where it'd be more natural motion, shooting at the very tip top and to the right side. I mean it's wide open for me. There ain't nothing between here and opportunity, between me, and wherever this turkey's coming out at, he can't. He can't come up to the top, he can't come to the right, he can't come to the left. Without me seeing him and without him being within 30 yards, pretty much Luckily for him, I really put all my chips on him. Come to the left, so I'm pretty fixed on it. And then I see the tip of his tail fan and it's, it's at the very tip top. It's much farther right than I expected.
Speaker 2:How in the world he drummed at this left hand side and now he's at the right hand side? I don't know, but turkeys do that voodoo stuff, and Houdini apparently, and come you know hindsight, very easy to understand that. My trail of hearing, I guess, is coming from this little holla and wherever he drank he'd be drumming. The other side is going to come around and hit this left ear, so maybe think he was going to laugh, but he wasn't. And no sooner than I saw this tips of his tail fan and I kind of just I mean, grip my gun to move it, his head pops up.
Speaker 2:I'm like, oh, because I'm not, I'm not in a good spot at that point, so there's not much I can do. I assume he sees me and looking back there, I know he didn't because there's a bank behind me so I'm for some reason kind of forget that, I guess. So as he's looking down, there's nothing. But I mean, just brush you creek bottom, looking stuff behind me and my mind I'm also on a big Noel and he can see me, you know, like a silhouette, like I can see him, I get a little jumpy, I'm a little nervous, I'm like I don't want to just swing and shoot because I can just see about water's up right now and I still his tail fan is still out and strut, so he is not like he's folded, you know, popped his wings up and kind of getting ready to get out of dodge.
Speaker 2:He lets it back down a little bit because I'm half strut. I kind of make a little bit of a move, you don't see it. So he never really goes back in the full strut. He takes about three more steps up and I can see, you know, from his belly up at that point that's still ain't face directly at me at, though, and like an idiot, you know, I just kind of I start pivoting, pivoting, pivoting real fast. He never even putts. He doesn't do anything. But I in my mind I'm like, in the way I'm getting out of this without him, I'm ready to shoot him, turn in doing something, so I just kind of ease up. And then one fluid motion as soon as it gets on him, I pull the trigger and I see him do that and that's it. I can't see the first step he takes. I can't see and I knew what you did I mean, I guess, I guess I didn't hit him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I missed him. So I checked everywhere around there just to be sure. And then I'm pretty sick of my stomach because I mean that at 25 yards of turkey, I mean his head, I mean his waddle started about right there. I mean it was plenty of opportunity for a pellet to hit him and and and it was just salt in the wound. To go back and look at the GoPro footage of him coming in the way. He came up where I was sitting. Originally, he would have never thought twice about me sitting there. He was fixed you know kind of where I last called and several steps he took. I could have shot without you know, without any chance of interference, without him having a parachute or anything like that. So my gut let me down on that one.
Speaker 2:And then it's one of those things that I think is most common reason of missing is well, not having your cheek on your gun, and I think more turkeys are absolutely missed by not having your cheek fully down on your gun, and usually it's in moments when stuff starts rattling, when things go a little haywire or they don't. They ain't got to go to mass chaos, they just got to. If he takes a right instead of a left, or he comes around this side of the tree instead of the side you're expecting, you start watching him, or it's wide open and you're watching him the whole way, and that's another one. I know I've been with you before and there's the first thing in my mind, you know, before you shoot, is man, I hope he's not watching this turkey, because I'm kind of caught up in it. And if he's caught up in it, I know his, his head's kind of risen up and that's that's just natural instincts. I mean, it's hard not to watch something like that. You know, with both eyes, you know coming straight in at you, you start thinking of you know where is, you know where's 30 yards, where's 35 yards. However, your kind of personal limit is on shooting. You start picking out landmarks, stuff like that. You know you're about to get a shot at this turkey and the jitters just I mean they're overwhelming and you're sitting there watching it and if you've ever done this, it makes a lot more sense. If you haven't, I encourage you to, and it will, you know, really tie all these ends together.
Speaker 2:Grab your shotgun. No-transcript. Put your cheek bone, not your cheek. Put your cheek bone right here on the stock of your gun, press down hard, look down your barrel where you can't see none of your barrel but just your bead. If you're shooting just a bead, put it on a dot on the wall or something. Make sure it's unloaded. Put it on a dot on the wall. Now. Take your cheek off of that gun and see where it's pointed at. It's going to be a lot lower If you just kind of put it on your shoulder and say I'm going to put it on that nail over there. I'm pretty sure it's on that nail. Rest your cheek real hard on there and you're aiming about that high. It's just from.
Speaker 2:You know you get caught up and watching them and a lot of times your cheek will kind of rise back up without you knowing it. It'll start there. You know at 50 yards he's got a wall. When you're, naturally things start picking up, picking up, picking up, looking at it, looking at it. You know if he coming around a tree, you'll take your head off to make sure or readjust and not put it back down on there. I think that's kind of what happened. Is in my swing of motion. I might mean my eyes never got off of him. I just moved my gun like this and didn't think, hey, put your gun down. I mean put your cheek down or your gun.
Speaker 1:That's what happened to me, real bad. I don't remember what year it was, but the first year, the first opening morning, that we had a chance to double. And then we went on that little street. Yeah, that first year, remember, those turkeys came in and how we were sitting. I could see them long before you. Yeah, we're sitting on my right Right there was a big bank. So I watched them coming around. I was trying to, you know, make sure they were long bearded, just trying to see everything and I missed. And these turkeys were 20 yards.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:They were on us and they came from my right to the left, right, right yeah, and I could see them for a while. I mean, obviously couldn't shoot them for a while because the thick stuff, but I was watching them and that turkey game I missed. I think I missed with you again that next weekend. Yeah, we had the turkeys come and come around.
Speaker 1:Yeah, came from the right and we let them get up and I kind of spun, it's missed. And then the very next day of the same season I mean all this happened within a week yeah, me and Mason were hunting and I missed a turkey at like 30 yards and I was in a. I was in a bind.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I was like I know how you want to start a season. How's the?
Speaker 1:beginning of the season.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was like the first week.
Speaker 1:I was in bad shape and I went home and I got my 20, you know box of 25 just dove loads and I said I leaned back on my truck tire, put my knee up like I was turkey hunting and I had my mouth I think I had my mouth call in but to where. I could sit there like I was turkey and I had a target out there at 30 yards and I would call and I would shoot like I was hunting a turkey and I was still missing and I finally that's what I had to do my, my cheek was coming up. So after I figured it out, probably took me two or three shots and I figured out what I was doing I shot that whole box of dove shells at a turkey at a dot, just to try to re muscle, memorize, to make sure to keep your chin, I mean your cheek, down. But yeah, that was a, that was a, that was a bad first week of turkey season. Then that once I once I did that I wasn't. I mean I was fine.
Speaker 1:You know I still miss maybe one a year, but it wasn't three in the first week, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's I mean breaking down, missing 90% of his confidence. You know, you know mechanically stuff mechanical stuff aside, right, you know, it's not physiological stuff. Whatever you do with your body aside, you know not putting your cheek down, not holding it right, not doing this, and that Most of us just confidence that I'm about to hit what I'm shooting at. If you ever get in your mind, if you have a fraction of your mind thinks I might miss this, you probably about to miss it. Oh yeah, I mean, you shoot one, you hit one, everything is reassured. You're going to get on the wrong Like everything starts smoothly running again.
Speaker 1:And once I figured that out, you know, the one or one miss or whatever I'd have a year a lot of times had to do with the factors that was going into the hunt. It was a, you know, a turkey came behind me and when I figured out my problem keeping my cheek down, just like you said when you turn, I think I turned looking the turkey first and get all the way on my gun. But that happened. And then this year I had a bad one, or this past year I had a bad mess. Oh yeah, right outside of start one, yeah but I wasn't on that hunt.
Speaker 1:No, so me and Jordan had hunted that morning and he had killed a turkey, had a guy invite us up me and like and Jordan, hunt you were. You were in Georgia, I guess where you are yeah. But um invited us up to hunt. We got there at like 12, one o'clock and uh I was like let's go hunting. So we walked, we walked from the camp, walked out back and uh, it was my turn on. Lake had made it up. We didn't know when Lake was going.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You just take when you got late coming in a truck by himself, you just go and it'll get there when it gets there.
Speaker 2:Can't relate.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I was, uh, so I was shooting. We walked behind this camp and it was probably we probably didn't walk under 50 yards and sit down, and uh, we were just kind of kind of listening to see what we, what would happen. So we sat down, um, jordan had a little handy cam and uh, I yelped and a turkey started caulking Jake. So we didn't move and looked up I think there were six or seven jakes that came in from a ride like 15 steps and we let them get on by us and Jordan had turned the camera around and was taking a selfie. I don't know what he was doing.
Speaker 2:He knows what he was doing with the camera. He didn't know. I mean all the music primos and stuff. He knows how to document a hunt right. He's taught us a lot, oh yeah, but he.
Speaker 1:So I turned around. I heard him talking. I turned around to see what he was talking to and he was talking to the camera and I turned back around and I said, jordan, I think your ear wouldn't draw and I looked up and there he was at like 12 steps, a big long beard. So obviously Jordan stuck the camera in his face.
Speaker 1:The turkey walks down an old logging road in front of us. When he got an open to shooting he probably wouldn't. He was no more than 20 yards, probably closer, and I clicked the safety off and heard Jordan say you better not shoot that turkey. Like the video camera was not, facing.
Speaker 2:I was like you're taking a selfie.
Speaker 1:I thought you're taking a selfie and so, anyway, we let that turkey walk by and he walked down that road probably 45 or 50 yards, and now we're in the open where he's seeing. So I was holding, I held my gun, because I picked my gun up to shoot. So I was holding my gun, not on my knee, I was holding it, so he walked down. All this was probably I mean it may have been four or five minutes, it felt like 20 or 30, minutes.
Speaker 1:He walked down. You know we stopped calling. No, he walked down. We called to him when he was walking off and he turned around. When he turned around I just stopped calling, like all together and he finally meandered his way back on, back down there and you can see in the video when I go to shoot my arms were so tired, I was shaking. But this year, this past season, I went to a red dot and I put my red dot what I thought was right on him. There's no telling him but, like I said, how much I was shaking and moving. But I shot and you can go back and watch the video and the shot. You can see it perfect right over his back and then touch him. And I missed that one and I got the. The guy invited us up wanted to have just kind of a video, just for memories of the place he was getting ready to sell it. But he wanted just a memory of and this is a little.
Speaker 2:This is a project kind of separate from spring legionist video part.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is, and it wasn't really. We didn't really go up there to shoot a turntable video. He was more so wanting just we took some camera stuff and flew the drum and anyway, he wanted just a highlight video of his place he was getting ready to sell For folks who don't know.
Speaker 2:Cils and I are realtors.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's a managing broker, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, with that being said, I missed the turkey. The guy was with us, he was super nice, he never fussed, or but he said maybe we'll get one tomorrow morning. So we kind of the next morning. I mean we watched the turkey fly up just from the cabin and we ease in back around the backside where we thought he was probably gonna go and set up. 30 minutes after daylight, turkey came walking up, exactly like we thought, and I can hear Jordan back there. I was trying to play like I couldn't hear him because they were letting me shoot, because to redeem myself, and I can hear Jordan back behind me saying I have him in the camera shoot. And I just I played deaf, yeah, and all of a sudden I heard Lake say I can kill him and Jordan said well, somebody kill him. I was like thank goodness, you know.
Speaker 2:I don't have to be me.
Speaker 1:But so Lake Lake ended up killing him, and that was that. That was that real pretty turkey that had like almost white wings.
Speaker 2:I know exactly what you're talking about. That was I mean. That was unique. Oh yeah, I think he's getting it mounted, ain't he? Yeah, he is, but it's one of them.
Speaker 1:like when I saw the turkey, when I saw him coming back with a turkey, I was like you should have shot you idiot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but hey, that I mean. I can't remember who said it. It's some, you know, well-versed turkey. I guess it would be a turkey. It might have been Colonel John Kelly.
Speaker 1:I don't?
Speaker 2:there's someone of that nature mentioned in a. I think I read it and didn't hear it. I read it in a book or something, but in paraphrase and you know I don't I ain't gonna quote it, but it's something about he mentioned, like the I can't see the squirrel syndrome and like remember when you were a kid and you ain't never really shot anything before and you shot a million tin cans and you go squirrel hunting for the first time with your dad or something and the first squirrel you actually see sitting there 15 yards in front of you perched on a limb and he keeps telling you to shoot and you're like I can't see him, I can't see him.
Speaker 2:You know, you can see him, fine, but your brain's telling you, you know, you're just nervous and you're trying to think of every excuse you can think of not to shoot because you just naturally you don't want to miss, you're not worried about hitting it, you just don't want to miss so bad, because now everything's really happening.
Speaker 1:It's kind of like playing not to lose rather than playing to win. Yep.
Speaker 2:And I mean it's one of them says you're here, shoot or shoot killer skill. You know, most folks who take the chance, who do you know, have the confidence of that nature. I'm not saying go just shoot him anywhere from 100 to 10 yards. If you got a shot, pull the trigger. But being confident in if he comes in and opening in this crowded area I'm going to kill him. I know I can. I know when I squeeze the trigger it's about you know, and if there's a doubt don't.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:But don't you know, set yourself up for your kind of like. I must have myself up for you, but not setting up correctly you know, and it is contagious.
Speaker 2:It'll good, you know it'll snowball real quick after that. And now I've written about it. For just I went and I've shot turkeys with probably two guns my whole life and killed a good bit with both. But at the time I don't shoot them with one gun and brown and gold I got from my dad and I've got a lot of turkeys with it. And then one year it was either that year you were mentioning or another year very close to it- it was the very next year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got. I tried to be real cool and put some kind of wrap on it or something, cause right now it's back to his original form. How I got it? With some green leaves painted on it with a spritz paint can, which is how my, my granddad used to paint everything. I don't think he painted this, but he influenced whoever painted it to do it.
Speaker 2:I guarantee you you take a, take a no-cleaf and you, I mean, it doesn't matter if it's $1,200 gun, just it ain't camera, we're going to make a camera, we're going to make a camera. So I was, I was, I was trying to cover that up. I guess I was trying to look cool. Wasn't one of the bottom line wraps on or something? So I took it apart, clean it real good, cause I'm not good at cleaning guns and I'll put it back together. And there's still some couple pieces that I don't know what they're called, but they never went back into going. I guess Could have, could have been useless, but I didn't. I assumed they were useless, cause you know the shot are all right, but I got to kind of thinking about it. I'm like I don't, I missed like three in the first, first day or two of a season, just kind of like you did, and shots that I was very comfortable in taking and thoughts that might be up in.
Speaker 2:I don't mean to shock you but I've never patterned a shotgun in my whole life, ever. I mean I just never have. I'm not gonna say I never needed to, but I never thought to. When I pick up a shotgun and I put a red, green, white, whatever color shell in there, I assume they all shoot the same. But I know that's not the case. The more seasoned I get in the turkey hunting culture apparently. But I mean I think my chances with a gun pointed at something every day, you know I think it's gonna shoot, it's gonna fire lead real fast out of its head and it's probably gonna hit it at some point, you know.
Speaker 2:But we went to Vans and grabbed a gun that afternoon. I said something's wrong. This ain't this last one. I know was not me. I mean I've checked all the boxes, I did everything you can think of, rehearsed the whole scripture my dad has given me for years hunting with him.
Speaker 2:You know, put your cheek down on your gun. You know, deep breaths, squeeze trigger, let the gun go off when it wants to. That's what he'd always tell me and I did that and it was aimed right where supposed to aim, which is where the waddles meet the feathers, not as his head, because it increases your chances of shooting over may. But and someone's telling me, tell me not long ago depending on where the guns made and stuff, some are engineered to shoot higher than lower. I'll go into that in a second, oh God. But. But some are, by aiming at his neck you shoot him in the head, kind of deal you can probably shoot over. But but no, we went and picked out an 870 of Vans and took it the next morning and shot one. I was like a gun works, you know, and I don't know if I've ever shot it or anything but a turkey since.
Speaker 1:Well, I don't know that I've ever shot a gun, a shotgun. That is true of a shot as an 870.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, I don't know any of this stuff. The true of a shot, I can't. A shotgun is a shotgun to me and the shell is a shell to me. A choke is a choke to me. It's a turkey choke.
Speaker 1:And some of the stuff you read. Like these, these shotguns that are waterfowl guns yeah, most of them are going to shoot high. I don't know why. I can't tell you why and I don't know that to be true. That's just a lot of stuff you know reading on them.
Speaker 1:But I do know that I bought two shotguns last year or before the 2023 season, same brand, same model. One was a 21, was a 12. And I shot. I bought the 12 for me, the 20 for my wife. Well, I shot that 12 gauge and it shot high and left. So I didn't waste any more.
Speaker 1:I went and I got on the range in the lead sled and I shot again and it was high and left. Like that's not right. So I shot the 20 gauge. Like I said, same brand, same model, just a 20 gauge, and it was shooting high and left. So I ended up putting a red dot on both of those to where you could pull it back down. But it didn't matter what choke was in it. I mean, I shot it with a turkey choke I had for it. I shot it with the factory chokes came with it. They were all pulling high and left and I don't know you talk about. That's what I'm saying. That I've always said, since you bought it in, 870 is the best gun for you, because you're not going to pattern it.
Speaker 1:You're not going to just shoot shooting gun that I've and I had with one for years and it was always a true shooting gun. The misses for me Not having a head down, but those a lot of people. I think that's why a lot of people are going to optics nowadays and I would not have shot my gun like that, like because I mean I'll pattern it, you know, if I have time. It's not a bit, I'm not as bad as you, but just because I get a new shotgun I mean I'm going to immediately go pattern it. And I was talking to a buddy of mine up in North Mississippi. He's like man. I bought a gun, put it in there and it was shooting high and right and he got me the thing.
Speaker 2:I was like, better go shotgun.
Speaker 1:Thank goodness I did, but it was a I ended up and I don't know any other way to fix it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Other than, like in my situation. Just know you get a aim low and right. But that makes you, that puts you in a bind, because getting a gun low and right you know I'm low and right at 20 yards compared to 40 yards is two different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now, if that beat ain't where it's going to be hitting around at least I ain't. I'm finding I'm stealing one of the Texas guns or something for a day to figure that out, but but no, I mean it's. It's and I mean Out of the. However many turkeys I've killed I've ran into shell problems, points, and it was this past year.
Speaker 2:So you know I mean, it's just kind of this things like you start adding it up, these ain't shooting great. You know something kind of just consistent, Whether it be a miss or something that like only a couple of pellets hit it and I'm like you know that's, that's the third in a row, and then all of a sudden you get out of that box and you start folding them, you know. So it's kind of like I don't know if there there's got to be some something to do with. And the shells I shoot are up until the light of probably season or some that I've had for literally years, like stock up on in 2017. They come case of them and I but that's probably why I don't really have to have haven't changed anything. You know, I've shot the same gun, choked and chill, for so many years. I know where it's going to hit until you get to something, something some kind of keen. That ain't right.
Speaker 1:It throws it off and and that almost feels to be out.
Speaker 2:to me that feels worse than just missing, because you know, you know, yeah, because like the good range, like the, Florida experience. You had a video.
Speaker 1:I shot a turkey at 26 steps. I shot him at the ground, he got back up. I shot him at the ground and got back up, and I shot him a third time. He hit the ground and I was out of shells.
Speaker 2:Still hadn't seen him. But that hurts worse than who because they're, and I used to think that didn't happen. I've heard folks say that I'm like brother. Just tell me you missed, it's OK. Oh, when I got, when he got up, it was almost.
Speaker 1:it wasn't have comical, we were all pissed. But that's the first thing, because you were coming in town. Yeah, like did you? You got all that on video. I said yeah, I was like OK, because you know I'm hunters not going to believe that I hit that turkey three times. Yeah, I didn't, am not holding it.
Speaker 2:I had it that it was that same year I thought I wanted Georgia and hit the ground. I'm kind of collectively getting my stuff together. Awesome, hunt Roasted above me and hammered. I sat under him, thinking he was in the back corner, and I come in and I pick the deck on tree, he's in and I'm waiting and waiting. You know kind of saying I'm a slate and everything getting moving stuff around and you know knocking some briars down and nothing, and I sit down and I'm just kind of like to it. I'm like I'm a man got here early for once, you know, and I kind of been in the afternoon before and knew I want to say I watched him fly up, I watched they take their.
Speaker 1:I watched they take your fly up right here.
Speaker 2:I didn't watch no one fly up in the tree that I was sitting on, but let him hold it. He went to hammer. I mean he got 50 times. Right above me I'm the tree, not a tree next to my tree, the tree. Come on, he's above me and he he drops down and I shoot and rose in. I'm like I'm prepared for this shot because there ain't really anywhere else he's going to land. So I'm set up. You know my knee I don't even think I'm in my gun when he shot should have maybe I don't know, but his feet hit the ground. I sit there and watch because he's still not in the world and I'm like this is awesome. You know, he's just hammering back and forth, hammering back and forth with another gobbler.
Speaker 2:I'm like all right, I'll shoot him down. Boom shooting false. Get to try it in a little bit out there and I'm like, oh, I have my gun with me but couldn't register quick enough. Hey, Chuck, shell, do something. She back at him and by you know, by the time I even got a chance to put it on my shoulder again, he was gone.
Speaker 2:But but now we'll we'll we could probably go on a day and a half about missing, but I'd say the fight to pick three things, and these are all kind of stuff that could be working. There's correlation versus causation, Everything you don't know. I think that, but could be the reason we've hit some, and some of these could be the reason we miss some. But there ain't no solve all that. I mean it's Turkey on. You're going to miss them, you go ahead, it's going to happen.
Speaker 2:But anything you do that you increase your chances of hitting them, which, aside from that one time for me and a time or two for you there's not many. There's not much gray area. Turkey on, which is good because you know you get a big game and deer and stuff. You can make a bad shot, kill an animal and go off and die. Very, very rarely You're going to hit a Turkey with you know having many pellets and not killing right there and run off and die and nobody. You know there's no harvest. There is no, you know, aside from a coyotes supper. You know no fruits to anything but. But making sure it's a good, ethical, lethal shot is very important.
Speaker 1:That's the main thing to me too, is not because all my misses were, not because I'm launching right 60 yard shots. Every shot that I you know that year, especially that I missed, was within 30 or 35 yards and I felt fully confident taking the shot. Wasn't anything between us, so it's not. You know, it's not like we're taking shots or swinging around the back of a tree. It's, you know, most of the time, or all the time, we're taking confident shots that we would make, and I'm confident swinging a shoot at Turkey.
Speaker 2:I've done it too many times to not be confident and that one wasn't even moving. You know, I didn't. That's why I'm so mad about it, the one I mentioned at the beginning of this episode. I didn't really have to swing like that. You know, I could have gently eased over there and pulled the trigger and he would probably just kept walking at me. He really could not see me. I just, I mean, I kind of panicked and I don't panic much. I mean, I do get nervous, but I don't really get nervous, nervous that often I kind of soak it in and I'll get nervous after or something like that. But in my mind, you know, if I can see a Turkey in most of the places I'm hunting and I got a shot, I'm going to kill it. That's. I mean, it's just the mindset I try to keep.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when I say swing cause like I, I like you're talking about how set up for I can shoot all the way to my right Cause when I'm turning. I can pull them. I'm talking about you. I've seen guys that you're drumming like that's 20 yards behind me and they'll literally spin around on a knee, find the Turkey and then she you know if we're swinging on a week, cause we see the Turkey and we know where we're going.
Speaker 2:That's that's me. I've, I've, I've swung a good 180 before a time or two I'd say I'm batting about 500 on bumping the crap out of that Turkey and not finding him before he finds me. And you know me catching him with his eyeballs this big and you know rolling him right there. And that's a gut for you. You got to do what your gut tells you to do. On that one, you know you got to. It's going, it's going to usually be right.
Speaker 1:Well, it goes back to confidence.
Speaker 2:When you turn around you, your mind knows if you were confident in that shot, before it tells you the shoot, and it's usually a matter of chance and that Turkey doing what you think he might do and him doing what you're not expecting him to do. If he does what you're not expecting to do, it's kind of like all stop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good to save you back home.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if he does what you're expecting him to do and you're ready for it, it's no different than him walking, you know, right in front of you, because now he's in front of you and he's doing what you thought he was going to do. But now that I mean just making sure that cheeks down on the gun and something I started doing and have been doing kind of for a while, unless the the case, is a very quick decision to make. If I'm watching a Turkey, come in, because that's when your habits will get the best of you in. In watching that Turkey come in and and and seals, I seem to do this a couple of times. It's almost shooting it twice. They're shooting it once.
Speaker 2:You know, if I were to pull this trigger right here, what I kill it you know, kind of go through all the steps make is my cheek down. Yep, is everything clear? Yep, this, you know, is my, my show is. But I keep the the bottom of my stock right here. You'll know if I shoot her to Turkey because you're going to be a bruise on my cheek. That's about where the stock hits right there. I rested so hard on there that the bottom of my stock is really just kind of clipping my collarbone right there. Pull it tight as I can to my shoulder to try to keep that from happening, but it's going to happen every time I need to. You know, some 250 pound dude right here, you know, brace for a eight seventies recoil. But grip it tight, you know, make sure I can't see none of that barrel and I shoot a bead. I don't, I don't shoot up any optics or anything. I've always had to be uncomfortable with it. That's what I'll always shoot.
Speaker 2:Um, and if I were to squeeze trigger right here, before I even put it off, click it off. Today, if I squeeze it right here, can I kill him as close enough, yep, and almost kind of just go through the motions up to the killing part, breathing everything. I'll kill them right there. Click it off. I'm going to kill it now. You know, just boom, boom right there. But you'd be surprised how many times I get down there and I'm like, oh, thank God I didn't. You know, kind of like he moved once or I'm. I'm not really that set, I'm not really that. You know gravity, you know balance it and centered technically, um, and there's, I mean there's a couple of times I'm like I got that out the way and I didn't really pull the trigger. So now my confidence is now out the roof because I'm like I would have missed right there and I can correct it, you know. So that's something to do.
Speaker 2:And another little tip is I've done, I've got. I got a camera, a flash tape on my gun. There's a little piece, and this is kind of accidental, but it's rolled up on the left side of my stock and I know in my mind, if I take my cheek and roll that piece of tape back down, it's on there. But if I, if my cheeks not actively pushing this piece of tape down and ain't on there, I've kind of flirted with the idea of putting a piece of tape, putting something of some kind of nature of texture to feel, and stock your gun with your cheek, making sure you can feel it. It's going to be down on it enough to to at least you know, and the fix all is making sure you can't see your barrel.
Speaker 1:Well, and then another thing I started doing after those three misses early season is if I had a turkey that was coming like do a bottom, I could see him for 80 yards 100 yards or down a long row or whatever. About every 10 seconds I would close my eyes and like I guess sound weird but go to muscle memory Like I close my eyes and get my gun where I wanted to.
Speaker 1:Then I could open it back up and you'd notice then how much you do raise up. But when he's you know that way. He's coming at me every five or 10 seconds. I'll check myself just for muscle memory and I realized that nine times out of 10, watching that turkey come I was up looking Yep, and and and.
Speaker 2:I hate to keep just building on it and snowballing, but I'm trying to think of things I've done in the past to reassure myself. It's not necessarily a fix in it, but it's um. Building your confidence when you need it most is um, is kind of keeping your head up. I'll keep the gun down low and it's not a there is no gray here.
Speaker 2:There's no in between. There is no watching him from down here. I'm watching him with my head sticking straight up and letting him get. I might have to let him get extra 15 yards just in case he sees me move my head, but I'm keeping. I've got the gun exactly where I want it to be and my, my cheek ain't close my cheek my cheek ain't touching it, it ain't barely clipping it, it's not even close.
Speaker 2:So I know when, right before I shoot, I got to go all the way down and there ain't no chance of raising back up, cause it's if I'm going down my cheek to the gun, it's I'm about to pull the trigger. But just some uh 10 bits for y'all to keep in your pocket. You know, if nothing else, you gotta get a laugh about how uh we can uh, we can box things better than anybody Things like pretty good at that. But we'll um, yeah, we're going on a full daggum episode. We're hoping this would be a quick one, but we turned a whole episode out of it. We'll, uh, we'll wrap it up and I want to remind y'all again to go enter that TFT giveaway. I think I don't know. Give away a raffle. It's going to be a cool one. I'm looking forward to it. I hope whoever wins is cool. Yeah, we get to spend a good old couple of days with them at Turkey camp and tell stories and go shoot a hopefully a Mississippi lawn beard down around Port Gibson, and that's some good Turkey country.
Speaker 2:It's a good time of year, too, and that's about when you want to be hunting the first week of April. So y'all go do that at tftcom. Y'all make sure to check out all the new stuff at spring legioncom. Follow us on social media as a tick tocks and Instagrams and all that. And then, um, if you can leave a rating for the show, that'd be good. I know some new stars five stars be awesome.
Speaker 2:Um, subscribing to the YouTube channel is a big help, much appreciated. And just telling friends, sharing it on your stories and stuff like that, anything that that helps propel us to reaching more like minded folks. We, I mean we're forever indebted to folks who have helped spread the word. So we, we definitely mean that we would not be here if it weren't for folks listening to this thing. Um, we got a couple more to record, trying to build it on up, build up the episode bank so we can be working on our editing skills when it comes to content and stuff like that. And, um, and we try to maximize the platforms as much as we can to reach folks. So, got anything you want to add, see us before we wrap our own up. So, yeah, any way, guys, appreciate y'all. Thanks for listening to the spring legend podcast. We'll see you next week.
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