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
Long Live The Real - The Highs, Lows, and Reality of Last Turkey Season
What happens when two brothers, a love for turkey hunting, and a mission to preserve southern traditions converge into a podcast? Join us as we, Hunter and Chase Farrior, navigate the unpredictable worlds of spring turkey season, reflecting on our journey since launching the Spring Legion Podcast in November 2020. From getting caught off guard by sudden weather shifts to sharing anecdotes of near-miss encounters in the wild, we promise a blend of humor, humility, and heartfelt dedication to where we feel most at home - the spring turkey woods.
We dig deep into the strategic and often spontaneous nature of the hunt, offering real and unfiltered insights that keep the spirit of turkey hunting alive, even in the off-season. Through our stories, learn how adapting to unpredictable weather conditions and understanding turkey behavior can make or break a hunt, and why flexibility is the ultimate key to success. Our commitment to embracing each misadventure as a learning opportunity shines through as we recount memorable experiences, like the thrill of almost stepping on a turkey or the humor in being outsmarted by these witty opponents.
As we gear up for future episodes, expect more tales from the field, practical tips, and lessons hard-earned through years of turkey hunting. We’re excited to engage with our community of passionate enthusiasts and share the camaraderie and humor that make this sport so unique. With a nod to our southern roots and a promise of authenticity, join us in celebrating the rich heritage of turkey hunting, one story at a time. Welcome back.
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Huge Thanks to the following for making this podcast possible:
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If you followed along on the Spring Legion YouTube channel these past few seasons, you've probably watched us hunt turkeys in a variety of North Mountain Gear's leafy jackets. Y'all should also know by now that we wouldn't be wearing one if they didn't absolutely work. Available in a number of camo patterns, with or without a hood, and either a full zip or half-zip option, North Mountain Gear has combined all-day comfort with the groundbreaking leafy concealment. That's actually quiet.
Speaker 1:You can check out their entire line of leafy shoots today at northmountaingearcom. Welcome back to another episode of the Spring Legion Podcast. My name is Hunter Ferrier, founder of Spring Legion. Joining you today. I'm my brother, chase Ferrier, right here and we are going on year four of a little project that started on November 14th 2020 called the Spring Legion Podcast, called the Spring Legion Podcast and, as we just looked up, it was 17 minutes long, tied a wing in it and could not be more correct. Seals was with me. Then he and I sat down with a $20 Go mic, plugged it into a computer and let it rip, and I guess the rest is history.
Speaker 1:What did you say? The second episode was how long? Like 12 minutes or something. 12 minutes, minutes. Yeah, we were really pumping him out and, um, seals would usually be with us today. Um, he is not.
Speaker 1:He is hunting deer, of all things, and, um, he told us to uh to keep y'all posted on how that evening goes, but and we surely will if he does wind up shooting one. But, uh, so shout out to seals. Good luck with that. He should be joining us here and they're pretty sparingly coming up in the next few uh weeks, but for those who are familiar with the podcast uh, you should know what you're about to get and then those who might not be as familiar with it, uh, we're gonna sit here, we're gonna talk about wild turkey and those who hunt them for the next hour or so and we're going to give you the real version of everything.
Speaker 1:That's kind of kind of been the little mantra behind a lot of the projects we've been working on here at spring legion is a long live the real. And making sure that, uh, the heritages, the, the traditions, the realness that are associated with turkey hunting is not forgotten in a very digital world and a very media-focused, media-driven, perception-driven realm, and there's no getting around that. That's kind of just a sign of the times, I believe. And we just created Spring Legion as a means to showcase turkey hunting as we know it to be, and it's specifically here in the south, in the southeast. We're from Mississippi and it's I hate to say it's a religion, it's at least a culture around here and we care for it very deeply and we enjoy getting out in the spring woods and everything that's associated with it. We enjoy getting out in the spring woods and everything that's associated with it. So, without further ado, we're going to kind of get into a little bit of that discussion. As far as turkey hunting, which is, I guess, not the hottest topic right now, because it is.
Speaker 1:November. This might be coming out in December, but a lot of folks are probably headed to a deer stand or a duck hole or something like that. But there are some folks who are cut from the same cloth as we are and they, uh they want to listen to some turkey hunting stuff, yeah. So we're gonna do our best to uh get you covered on that. Um, before we move further, just want to talk about a couple things that we've been working on. A lot of folks ask you know the number one question we get asked.
Speaker 1:Most podcasts come back and uh, it's back and it's going to be back until june 1st. And that is because now we are contractually bound to make sure we pump these episodes out, because, if y'all notice, we do have, uh, some, some sponsors on the show and uh, we'll have some some more pop in, you know, mid episode or or so, and I can assure y'all that they would not be on our show if we didn't already use their products and have relations with those who kind of founded those companies and run their separate gigs and stuff. They're turkey hunting companies and stuff we use and have tried and found to be pretty proven.
Speaker 1:If they didn't, we would not wear them, would not use them, shoot them, call with them all that good stuff, right so, but we've had them before, I think. And last year, like we said we weren't going to do, we got pretty fired up by turkey hunting and left the road caster, this big square right here in front of me, in the back of the truck. We had it with us for a lot of turkey travels. We did, uh, we just um, I slept on it one night, I do believe you did, and we slept in some funky places there towards the latter part of may, and we're really trying to get as much turkey hunting as we can. Um, so we got some stories to tell y'all, but, uh, but after a while we're like we're not, we'll just wait and pump them out. You know, we'll start a little early next next season and get those stories to them when, um when, when the other folks aren't also in the woods all the time and stuff. And I'm not going to say that was a bad idea. I mean, I, I would rather listen to turkey hunting stuff around now through january than I probably would in april, anyways, um, but we're going to be pumping them out week by week all the way through may, through june 1st actually, um, and we are like I said, we're kind of we're bound to that we may, we shook hands, made an agreement with some folks that we're going to be doing this week by week. So, uh, we can't, we can't get too busy and I'm looking forward to that because it's going to be kind of a whole new realm probably doing a bunch of these episodes, especially once spring, spring gets amped up on the spot might have a dang turkey hanging beside us and we might have one goblin behind us that we didn't, that we didn't shoot.
Speaker 1:But y'all going, like I said, y'all get the real version of everything. We're not going, you know, give you the, the really good version of everything. Or, you know, do our best to. We will try our best not to step on any toes, but that's not necessarily the business that we're in. We didn't set out to to, you know, be on everybody's good side.
Speaker 1:We're going to tell you what happened, you and and kind of our beliefs as far as turkey hunting goes and and some of the, the things that are associated with it, how we go about it, and you know what you get from. That is up to you. It's, you know, as best I can put it, um, but but I mean there's a lot of ways to get a cat and there's a lot of ways to hunt a turkey. I only know a few of them and that's the ones I was taught growing up and we're gonna kind of go over some of that as, as the episodes progress and and I don't want to, you know, spill too much info, but we're gonna probably, I'd say the first half, do a bunch of stories and then the second half leading up to spring months, january, february, march all that good stuff, a little more tips, tactics, probably more lessons learned the hard way than anything and and, um, stuff we've messed up is the only reason I really the knowledge I do have I'm not going to say there's a lot of knowledge about turkeys, but it's a lot.
Speaker 1:There's a lot more on the the side of stuff to not do again than it is on the stuff that, hey, this is what this works. Make sure you tell everybody about it right hard-earned, very hard on hard-earned knowledge.
Speaker 2:Yeah that's the best way I'd put it. So what uh?
Speaker 1:what you, what you want to hit on. I think I wrote. Of course I wrote notes down and I probably haven't hit on any of them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I didn't even read them. Break in your mic, Chase.
Speaker 1:I know you don't want to be talking the whole time, right?
Speaker 2:I don't even know where we want to start this year. We just kind of want to get going and see what happens. I mean, this is all kind of just on the fly stuff.
Speaker 1:What's something you learned last year? Because I'm big on learning and I'm big on if you ever stop learning in any aspect not necessarily just turkey hunting but if you stop learning, you kind of get past.
Speaker 1:In business and stuff like that. You know, if we stop progressing and stop, you know, pushing forward, idling will get you left in the dust. In a lot of situations and that goes for turkey hunting too I'll be the first to say I learn stuff as often as I possibly can, and a lot of times it's words of my own that I'm eating as I'm walking out of the woods empty-handed, because the wild turkey has got a special way of kind of humbling you to the extent of you questioning your own intellect, experience, validity and anything you've ever told anybody, to a point where I'll sometimes I'm sorry I told folks they should do what I just did because it definitely didn't work. It worked the last time I did it, but it doesn't mean it's going to work on all the turkeys, and that's what I love about turkey hunting is they're all going to be different and they're all going to act differently, and the ones that kind of abide by your calls and your actions and stuff like that, if it works, they're dead.
Speaker 2:you ain't gonna get to hunt that one again, yeah well, I learned my fair share this year because, as you know, I had a rough year oh yeah, you did. I had a very um, forgot about that light year in the back of the toyota. Um, that uh it's just one of those years. Like you know, I knew it was coming because last year I had a pretty good year for me and I mean I knew third day in, I think, I called you.
Speaker 2:I said it's going to be one, it's going to be a rough one, just instantly, um, and I've tried to forget more than I've tried to learn, I feel, because of the screw ups that I had go on, um, so I mean, and you jumped off to a pretty hot start, if I remember correctly.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to add up the days here Trying to dig on. Yeah, I mean, it was pretty good yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:But hey, man, I struggled, I think shoot, when was it? It was the last weekend of Mississippi before I even connected. You were in April, I mean yeah.
Speaker 1:Which is beautiful to me. Y'all know me, y'all know I love failure and hardship and struggle and you know everything we just did that released a real kind of piece together of kind of leading into this long live the real series of stuff we're doing here. And it starts off, just you know, long live the humblings, the hardships, the disappointment, the heartache, and that throws everything in there. Because that's what I love about turkey hunting and that's the turkey voodoo that comes with.
Speaker 1:Turkey hunting is very special because I don't know if that's anywhere else in the world, not just in outdoors in the world that it doesn't matter how good you are today or yesterday or 10 years ago, how many years you got under your belt, how you go about it when the final say-so is in the hands of the wild turkey as a community. You know of creatures, they have a way of just turning it against you, turning all the odds against you, and it's nothing you can do. Yeah, that I figured out. If you figure out how to switch off this turkey voodoo stuff, let me know. I'll sell my soul for it you know, I mean one of the things it's just.
Speaker 2:I mean because when you're in the funk you are, you ain't getting out of that rut anytime soon, it feels like oh no, I mean, I had people calling and checking up on me, yeah, I mean, and that it's been a while, I think the year, what was it? Um, I was 20 or 21. I didn't, I didn't kill a turkey at all that whole year and hunted, you know, more than I ever did because of that and, um, you know, I I'm.
Speaker 2:That was the last time I had people checking up on me that bad yeah, I mean, yeah, I had everybody calling me saying you know, man, I ain't heard from you, you know, which is kind of normal, but you know, then again it was like this is, to another extent, like I've not heard from you. When I do hear from you, it's very short. Don't speak to me. You know attitude and I got something else in my mind a hundred percent of the time. And you, as Tom Kelly said, I had one to spend the season with. Yeah, and that was pretty much how my whole first half of my season went was spending it with them.
Speaker 1:It's not a mean demeanor you carry, it's just there's an obvious, very visual weight you carry on your shoulders when you're going through one of those phases and it's, it's so inevitable. I mean there's, there's, and it's almost folks who have been in those shoes can almost look at somebody and know who.
Speaker 1:I know, you know he's going don't, don't ask, ask them how this morning went or how their season is going.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I mean, don't read a book by its cover, obviously, and I'm one of the ones who, as a turkey hunting writer and as a you know podcast, I like talking about it, right, and I do respect the humbleness of stuff, so I'm probably not a good example of that.
Speaker 1:I do like bragging on the turkeys that beat me really badly, oh yeah, and just tear me up and keep me up at night, just as much, if not more, than the ones that come in on a string and it was beautiful and strutting everything. Um, I'm not gonna say it's like an appreciation for him, but it's a respect for him, obviously, but it's, I mean, I I think that's cool that, no matter how good you think you are, that something out there that's just very wild, very keen with the senses, can beat you down like that and can always win on, you know, on any given spring morning. That's another kind of you know rabbit hole. We don't get down. But I mean that's that's why I named that second book. That is just, it can anything can happen at any given time on any given spring morning, but the tide will turn.
Speaker 1:And when it does. As long as you're in the woods when the tides are ready to turn, it'll turn. A lot of folks and I've been one of them one year I think I was doing this before the real hard years but kind of got down, gotten beat by a couple of birds um, probably on private land, that I knew were there and, you know, knew what they'd done all the time and and they didn't do what I thought they were going to do and I thought I was the worst in the world. I'm about to go, you know, the Panama spring break.
Speaker 1:Now, you know, screw turkey hunting, I'm done with it, yada, yada and it's just. I mean it's easy to do and but but had I been in the woods a little bit more, I'd learn a lot more. And and y'all, y'all know, there's a whole dang chapter written. It's probably the most first chapter of anything I've ever written on this consumption of your mind that you can have with turkey, and that was one that took me 83 hunts to kill. But I learned more in that season than I probably did in 20 good seasons, honestly, from one pretty dang, I'm sure one turkey the whole time.
Speaker 2:That's got my vote that it was the same one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, okay, it's not only did you hunt him 83 times we hunted him about 54 yeah, yeah, I mean on top of, on top of the ones I was on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, it was a shared, a shared little place, but a shared little place. But, yep, if you, uh, if you ain't learning you, um, better get to it. I guess is the best way I can put it, because I thought I've thought more times than probably the average human ever should, that I knew more about turkey hunting than most, until you show up at the pit stop to get gas and there's some kid, 12 years old, in a pair of blue jeans that just shot one of the biggest ones he's ever seen, and then his buddy pulls up next to him with a bigger one than that and they shot him at further distances through harsher conditions with much less calling and stuff than you would have ever imagined, and you got to sit there and you're only on like $13 and get all the way to a full tank listening to this story, just to remind you that those kids are better than you today.
Speaker 1:But I'm trying to think of a couple of things I learned this year. I used to keep like a little journal and a list and stuff and I probably yeah, I think I did a little bit this year. I'll have to go find it because obviously we're not prepared for this episode. Uh, we just wanted to make sure we got one out, um, on our little, you know, on the 14th of november, just because we thought that'd be cool, because, uh, it'd probably be a lot cooler to make sure you got your ducks in a row first. But who are we to ever do that?
Speaker 1:as as we called the first one but I will say we um, we uh. When we did travel this year, we hunted the weather, which I will say I was I was blessed to have a good year turkey hunting and killing wise, and I think a lot of that is weather. I am everybody to stop and thank the good lord for some good weather this year, if you're around here, because it was a very turkey hunter friendly spring in 2024. And I've hunted through some that weren't and it about near depressed you because I mean, it doesn't matter what you do, I'm the one who goes out there. If there's a chance that hearing a turkey hunting, a turkey killing a turkey any day of the week, if I can get out there and rain shine whatever I'm you know I'm not stupid I'm gonna go out and a down if I know he's gonna stop.
Speaker 1:But, um, I don't let the weatherman depress me as bad as as as some. I'll still get out there, but those years when it's not many good days, it didn't take a toll on your mentals.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And this year was kind of the opposite. On pretty much any day I felt like you could, at some point in the day it was going to be some good weather, right, you know. Except for that first weekend.
Speaker 2:First weekend sucked I ain't going to lie. Yeah, that just reminded me of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it did, and the worst as all you know, we're real turkey hunters Worst part about it was it didn't suck everywhere and I was having like I remember Logan went on a daggum roll and he's taking sending Snapchats. Logan Cook, we're talking about sending a Snapchat of a turkey they'd killed here, Mary Maker one and it's like blue skies and I'm like they live between my house and the place we're hunting and I'm only an hour away from my house and I hadn't seen the closest thing to a blue sky and this poured the whole time on us. Yeah, and it's just how it goes. And then the next day comes and it's supposed to be sunny and we go to like a different spot and like a rain cloud just follows us all the way there, and then everyone at the place that we hunted the day one was sending us pictures and talking about killing them out there. I'm like geez that's.
Speaker 2:You know, that's just part of it, though I mean you, you can all. You can't listen to a weatherman, a, you right, you know you can to best, you know us best.
Speaker 1:Assume, yeah, well, when the, when the weatherman comes on there and he does this every spring. I don't care who the weatherman is, and if you're a weatherman, I'm talking to you. Yeah, don't tell me it's a 50 chance rain. Just tell me you don't know if it's going to rain. If it's 50% chance, it might, if it's 50% chance it might, not just say you don't know. Yeah, just shoot me straight. Right, because I don't know either. I'm not going to call you bluff if I don't know the right answer. You know. But that, I think, really had me honing in on chase. Good weather instead of chase. You know the most convenient place to hunt a turkey? You know, I know there's a turkey here in this place, in this state, in this region.
Speaker 1:Whatever they should be fired up this time of year Well, they probably are, as long as it's not you know, 35 mile per hour winds, right, and I have in the past spent a lot of time scouting an area trying to find a turkey in 35-mile-per-hour winds for six hours, whereas if I were to have driven three hours to the northern part of this state or, you know, cross the line into this one, which I know, a lot of folks don't have that luxury, and I mean this can be on weekends just as much.
Speaker 1:I do it, you know, when I have a full-time job just as much as I do now that I, you know, do spring legion, but but going where the weather's good and good things happen and um, and a lot of times I could try to try to tail it. You know, tell the, tell the bad weather and it's kind of everything's kicking back on. That was, you know, that was good. It made, made hunting more enjoyable, because I knew my, my goal was to get to where I can hunt and have a, have a good chance, and that's that gives my, my blood pumping, you know much more than than hunting.
Speaker 1:You know where I knew a turkey was last year, or something like that or you know, a couple weeks ago, sometimes right but but now I'm able to get get to a couple places and we got a lot of stories where I was going to tell y'all throughout the next few weeks. I don't want to get to a couple places and we've got a lot of stories Rob's going to tell y'all throughout the next few weeks. I don't want to spill into a ton of them. This is to really these first episodes are to get our kind of bearing straight or whatever Is that how you say it, just to kind of get the jitters out. Make sure this podcast little rig works. But I will say this I'm going to drop a a really, really good tip here in episode number one, and I'm not going to elaborate on this much because this is one of them that I've always kind of had in the back of my head, but I really didn't research it.
Speaker 1:But I paid pretty close attention to this year. I killed multiple turkeys this year because of tadpoles, tadpoles, mm-hmm, hmm. And I'm tempted to leave it at that and let folks connect the dots after that, because I don't want to come up in here and just spill a lot of stuff out. But if you've ever used tadpoles not like baiting turkeys with tadpoles, I mean like looking for tadpoles instead of looking for X or Y, you know, and found turkeys around that area. Or let it lead you to another area, shoot us a DM or something. Because I've always kind of had that in the back of my mind and put it to the test like put tadpoles out. But I remember kind of going through this analytical mind, I got and it started adding up and dots started connecting and it proved to be pretty true, so I might have a whole episode on that. Um, that was. That was something I remember.
Speaker 1:Jotting down was like make sure to mention tadpoles yeah whenever we get to the podcast rig you could have told me that I don't know you know, after the season I was having, I could have.
Speaker 2:Well, you could have told me, look, for we're hunting the same place yeah, true, I don't place, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1:well, a lot of that has to do with with with traveling to new areas and um, no heck, I mean I can go into it now, we're only 20 minutes or so, but um, but yeah, I started um and I don't, and this was kind of because of me going to places where it wasn't raining and stuff. So I was trying to really hard, which you're not going to dodge all the rain and stuff. But if I could, I would. And if there was puddles around and ruts and stuff like that, I got to where, instead of just barreling off into these places at 3 pm or at 1 pm, when you're probably not going to hear a gobble, you might get one if they're really fired up on a good day. Bear match pressure's right and you know, wind is pretty eggum, calm, if nonexistent, probably would be better.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I mean, when I was doing my scouting and stuff like that in new areas, I'd go and find a good rut and see if there was tadpoles in them and there wasn't, that was one thing. And then if there was and there was no, turkey tracks around it. That kind of led me on down the road or to keep moving and try a new spot, try a different place. And, yeah, you would find tadpoles and you would find turkey tracks. There were turkeys probably not far um and it was just a way to to get some very efficient scouting in um, because a lot of times that is near a, near a, you know, an opening or in a field or something like that, or especially any type of you know gate or corner to a place, or you know they do them fire lanes and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:You can try to, you know, get your, get your um benefit from being there and stuff like that, without really messing stuff up too too bad, because I'm, I'm, I'm pretty bad about it sometimes go barreling up off into somewhere to see if there's turkey there to hunt in the morning. And well, there was a turkey here to hunt in the morning until you bear it off in here and now there's not right and and are you hitting that?
Speaker 2:and because I'm asking questions because this first we've talked about it.
Speaker 1:Um, hitting that more weather related, or you know, or just I mean, if you, if you go, I would, I would I'm saying instead of I would, I would turkeys will obviously eat tadpoles. I didn't know that until yeah, right now, I'm sure a lot of folks going. Well, no crap, you know, right, some, some old pros are sitting there going like that. Gone boy, it took you this long to find out. Um, it did.
Speaker 1:Um, like I said, always learning and and I started looking, because you're going to be able to find these puddles, these ruts and stuff like that, and it'll hold the water. You know, if it hadn't rained, you're, you know there's, you can find turkey tracks, but if they're cemented into the dirt, you don't know that could have been. You know, when it's 79 degrees outside and dry, that could have been three days ago, if it rained three days ago, or it could have been 30 days ago and just got stuck in. You know, nothing's walked over it since. Um, but I could, I could usually tell you know how. You know, recent, a turkey had been in this area because it it was almost like if it had been it went to these, you know, these long strips of tadpoles.
Speaker 2:Yeah that makes sense. I was just asking that because you know the temperature of the water or something like. I didn't know that which I mean just for a tadpole to survive. The weather's got to be starting to get right.
Speaker 1:Could be.
Speaker 2:You know it ain't going to happen in the early week of season where the waters and stuff are still cold. That's why I was asking that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true. I'm trying to think of when I first started this was probably April-ish in Mississippi and carried it through the rest of the season. But to be fair, the point is when I found that bulls and no turkey tracks and I hung around to listen and hunted. The next morning I heard turkey way off in that view, right um, if there was, and I backed out and came back and listened. At night there was one on the other side of the opening gobbling. You know, pretty daggum close, right um.
Speaker 1:So just an efficient means, um, now, that ain't the only trick in my book. I don't want to, you know, just sit out. Some folks get pissed at us telling things that they knew and don't want the world to know, and we do get a lot of downloads, so I don't want to tell too many, obviously. But some of them, like I said, I feel bad for telling because that ain't always true. This might. Some of them, like I said, I feel bad for telling them, because that ain't always true. Somebody might sit up next to a daggone pond of tadpoles and not hear nothing and call me cussing me out, and if they do, I mean, like we said in the beginning, this is just some stuff. We noticed some stuff, we did stuff, we did the wrong way, all that good stuff and we're just here to to uh throw it out there and y'all to sift through, if nothing more talking to gobbler in the shotgun range is not an easy task.
Speaker 1:that's why, when it matters most for a pursuit in which 99 doesn't always cut it, we've rested our liability in apex's ammunition since they began making turkey loads in 2017. Their iconic tss turkey shells are able to pack more shot into traditional payloads, resulting in more pellet scent, more consistent patterns and an increased pattern density. So, in other words, apex makes sure that the conclusion to those long-fought battles of spring are instant, absolute and ethical. Another thing I learned this year was I'm getting old. Yes, me too. Another thing I learned this year was I'm getting old yes, me too, because y'all know me and y'all know all of that 870 12-gauge. I've ever, ever I did shoot a 20-gauge. Something this year Forgot about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I did too honestly, until I went to grab some shells. Or I went to grab my rifle the other day out of the cabinet and saw the 20-gauge in there. I about went oh I need to take this back to dad or whoever got it from. But I forgot that. No, I'm going to keep that because.
Speaker 1:I'm going to probably keep shooting it. So I took my wife hunting this year. She killed a couple more than a couple actually, I think she shot three. That's a bad little 20 gauge. Oh yeah, we cut a lot of turkeys when we were younger. That, um, that's a bad little 20 gauge. Oh yeah, we cut a lot of turkeys when we were younger, that was your first turkey gun, wasn't it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and it was pretty bad. Then it still got it and I remember her shooting a couple and going hmm, you know, and I of course I would walk with it, holding it and stuff, and I was like man, this is sweet.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Not having, you know, all that weight and stuff like that. So you know, it didn't feel right at first, but after a while I'm like, yeah, I need to accept my age, I guess, which I know. I'm probably one of the very few who didn't in the first place. So it's not like a bunch of folks coming out with pitchforks like you can't shoot a two-gauge, that's not not a you know, it's not in line with what you've always done. Well, I know. But but now I'm getting getting a little older and it was a much lighter travel from the daggum truck to the woods.
Speaker 2:It was just easier to to maneuver with yeah, well, I slimmed down my whole setup also. I mean, yeah, you did, I forgot about that too. I quit wearing a vest to the extent of that.
Speaker 2:I carried nothing but my wing bone, my mouth call pouch, and occasionally had my you know, if I knew it was going to be a long day I didn't have a plan I'd throw my slate in my pocket of my shirt and I'd roll out and that was it. And it was simply because I'm toting the camera 90 of the time, which is a small camera, that's added weight. Big, heavy, 870, that's added weight. You know, I I thought about it last last year at one point I'd put on, you know, have my dixon on, which I love it, it's cool, all that stuff.
Speaker 2:But I mean I felt like I was carrying around a lot of weight, right. So after winging it one or two times, I was like I don't really need all this stuff. But I mean, I felt like I was carrying around a lot of weight, right. So after winging it one or two times, I was like I don't really need all this stuff all the time. You know, it is nice on some of these all day, all day style hunts, but you know I was very selective the days that I did carry vest versus didn't, yeah, um, and a lot of that depended on the walk-in so so does this have anything to do with the drought you had at the beginning of the year?
Speaker 1:Because I want to look back to that, because I love that Seals also had a slow start. Yeah, and I don't envy y'all's position then, but I really envy y'all's position now because I know y'all are not due for one and I probably am getting close to a season like that and it's like I said it ain't being mean, but I'm, I'm not.
Speaker 1:uh, I appreciate it, but also I don't. I don't think about many other things whenever that's happening. I just I just know the shoes, that that's the job been in, and that's's probably a question that we get in our DMs more than any is what do I do? And I know, like they ain't got to say another word and I know just the tone they're using, like they done killed a few turkeys and they knew everything already. So, and they're having to go through this stage of finding out that, no, you don't know everything. You knew everything about the ones you killed you know, of finding out that, no, you don't know everything. You knew everything about the ones you killed. They're not all the same and things change. I call it growing pains to the extent of just sometimes misery, sometimes just laughter. I mean, I'll start laughing after some of it.
Speaker 1:I'm like how in the world did a turkey pop up through this thicket? He had to have gone through a culvert or something. There's no way he could have gotten here, or you know, I mean some of the most off-the-wall things you could ever think of. And then, of course, one does come in on a string and you miss him because you're so panicking about messing it up.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, I did do a little of that this year too, and it's been a while since I've missed one? You did, and it's been a while since I've I've missed one, but they can be a little too close, that is true, and surprise you a little too much.
Speaker 2:And yeah, how that, how that play out, because I vaguely remember that so the first one it was, you know, on into the season a couple weeks and I have not struck one out and had hunted that same spot several mornings and middays and evenings and anytime I could go over there I was going over there right. Um, you know, aside from filling orders or handling business, I was there right and got in there early one morning, pretty confident. They were roosted in there and I'm all but turned around to walk back to the truck and drive to another piece because it's past goblin time and I can hear one thousand yards off I feel like, and I take one step towards the truck like 75 yards from me and, like one of those panic moments, hit the ground.
Speaker 2:It's daylight enough that they should be able to see me. You know, I'm in a bind and of course I was in a little bit of an opening and I'm like, um, because I just stepped off my tree. You know that I was kind of listening by or whatever it was, and I was like I gotta figure this out quick, so I'd bail off you know the whole story kind of thing. Yeah, so bail off the little area. I was at 15 feet, not even that Drop into some cane, switch cane, whatever you call it. So I know I'm hitting well, and he starts hammering, hammering, hammering. I can tell it's two or three turkeys. You know, right there on the little area I was at, well, it's like a fog rolls in or something and it's tough to see and it's getting fly down time and I'm starting to think, man, I need some sunshine or I need some heat, I don't know.
Speaker 2:It's going to be tough to see in here. I'm kind of in a weird spot. I see him pitch out you know he's 60, 70 yards and I don't see him hit the ground, which was kind of odd. Which I'm in thick cover, you know thick stem count stuff and things, and he gobbled one time, I think, out there and I've got it on video, I think. But I'm not sure how much you can see because of the fog or you know camera doesn't pick up stuff that early. But either way, all of a sudden I see his head pop up into you know an area, a hole through the trees, and I'm like man, he's out there about 40, you know he's fine.
Speaker 2:But I looked at this is one. The camera also had something to do with this. I will say that Also one. This one's because I should have shot him right there when I could see him. But I looked at my camera, glanced over to see if it was on him and it was a black screen because there wasn't enough sunlight to pick up To the right. The direction he was kind of heading was some sage grass or switch cane or something that was light brown and I said, if he can just get in front of that the camera may pick up enough of a blob.
Speaker 2:You know I need him to take four steps right and I'm like you know he gets around this tree. That's the size of my thigh, which is not very big twig pretty much a twig, um I'm.
Speaker 2:If he'll just cross over that one tree to my right, I can see him in a minute, I can see him and you know, maybe one more soft time and I see him come out of strut and start heading perfect. And I'm like all right. And he goes behind that tree and doesn't come out the other side and you know, of course I'm, that's the voodoo and you know, of course I'm, that's the voodoo, that's a voodoo moment, and I'm like there's no way this turkey disappeared, because I'm pretty confident, I'm on flat ground and he's at 40 yards and that's the only tree for 20 yards this way and 20 yards this way that I can see. And I'm just blown away. And what ended up?
Speaker 2:Or let me say this so probably eight, nine minutes in real time goes by, which feels like 30 or 40, because he ain't gobbled, he ain't nothing. And then, when I tell you he drummed and sounded like a Mack truck sitting beside you, boy, just boom, beat your head in with the vibrations of his drumming. And it's still foggy and I still can barely see. So I'm struggling to begin with, and I see like this little bar on his side two feathers.
Speaker 2:I mean I can see three inches of his feathers pop out from behind a huge oak tree, yeah, which is six steps for me, and I can't tell if he's 15 yards behind it or one yard behind it.
Speaker 2:And he was about one yard behind that, that oak tree. And come to find out, there was a little swag in the like a ditch yeah, it wasn't necessarily a creek, but a ditch, because I didn't hear footsteps, I didn't hear nothing. And he had, right where that tree crossed my path, there was like a little dip into the creek, like a little deer trail, you know, or something, crossing and he dropped in the creek and walked down the creek 20 or 30 yards and then shot up another finger right there up by me. But I couldn't tell the difference of the terrain because all that switch came around me. You know, it all looked flush, you know, four foot off the ground or three feet off the ground. Well, he starts coming, he finally works up onto a little high knob to look and I, I'm telling you I was so shook up I didn't put my face. I wish I would have had a GoPro facing me because I was just boom you know straight from the hip, just pulled the trigger.
Speaker 1:I'm in there, not a lot of hitting Like I instantly said why did?
Speaker 2:I do that Like, not even like what the but I? I was, so you know, been out of shape from not not getting one committed to even yeah, I hadn't even put my cheek on my gun the whole year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, at that point it was a few weeks into the season and obviously I still didn't.
Speaker 2:So what made it worse, oh god, oh. So the reason I hurried up and shot was because I saw he got to the high point and he took a few more steps and was about to get back in the dip and I'm like I don't know, I don't want to go through that again, where I don't know where he is for another 20 minutes. Um, because that was pretty miserable, you know, not miserable- that's the part I want.
Speaker 2:But you know, then again it's like you know I was. I was shook up. Oh yeah, that's the to the point of you can't think, and that's minutes of adrenaline.
Speaker 1:You get right, there is that's my, and I talk to folks all the time and you know, the folks who who are living down by decoys and this and that and everything, and love to watch them come in strutting and let them beat up on a decoy or strut around it, I I don't, I get it. I mean, I understand that. I just relate that so much to the silence of not knowing you know, and you don't get that. You know when you hunt in open areas.
Speaker 1:It doesn't have all this cane and and creeks and little finger ridges and stuff and and and public land. Mississippi easterners that are oh yeah not dumbed. You know you just don't get that and I just I love that so much. But I understand that whole gut feeling you get where you're, it's like make it happen. Right, almost. It's like a Bust me and bust me quick if you're going to bust me. Yeah, pretty much is all you can think about Right.
Speaker 2:You're already cussed, everything you've done the whole morning like I messed up right there. I know I'm on it and that was 100 because I was like this camera one, you know, or why in the world did I not shoot the one, the second I saw him, you know, like I normally would any other time of the day or year or whatever, um, but yeah, anyways, I stood up because he went to the left when he got in the creek and I thought, you know, maybe there's a chance I hit him I know this one in.
Speaker 2:So I stand up creek's like actually 20 yards from me I thought it was 40 yards whenever he was on the other side of it. Anyways, run looking the left side of the creek, nothing. He has houdini'd me again. And so I'm looking and everywhere, and I'm like is he in a hole? Because that's the only option he had was to go underground at this point and about that time I hear a twig break directly behind me and he he had gotten back in the creek and ran down about 40 yards the other direction that I wasn't looking you know, and I mean I was head on.
Speaker 1:I mean it's almost like he knew which way you're gonna look if I run this way, yes, and then cut back and go the opposite, right. So of course I fire another one from the hip and it's just like cheek still ain't touched the gun.
Speaker 2:Cheek did not. I mean yeah, which he flew, and I went and did a good walk that day and he wasn't clipped. There was not a feather cut on him?
Speaker 1:No, I bet not.
Speaker 2:And, yeah, that was one of the times the 870 met the sand and it wasn't its fault.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I wouldn't be blaming it on the gun Boy, was I aggravated? Oh yeah, no, I've been there. Yeah, I've had some thing. Um, struggle, I, I'll say this. And then we didn't get to these last year. Remind y'all we, we, we plan to do a bunch of correlated videos with podcasts and this time last year we got some of that going. Also mind y'all we, we do everything sprint-related. We fill all the orders, do our customer service. We aren't the best at that. We know we're working on getting somebody to actually do that.
Speaker 1:You know from, you know planning video stuff all the social stuff we do, yeah, the designs on the shirts, the everything we do. We do everything but stitch, stitch them right, yeah and um, and I did have to get an accountant this year but, aside from that, everything is just, you know, kind of at our own pace and wheel and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:So we're trying to figure out how to edit videos. I suck at filming, so they're really hard to make something of. Um, I suck at editing. He is worst of both worlds and could be the best both worlds. We could ever sit down and not argue about half of it.
Speaker 1:But, um, he's cussing me for filming the ground, you know, as I shoot every turkey and I'm you know and I'm like, well, it's easy to just do this with the spicing and all that good stuff and you know, well, you know what can I say, but at the same time, we didn't get around to doing either one the podcast or the, the video on probably half of 2023. Honestly, yeah, we only got into like a little bit and, um, then it was the current season and we were going with, you know, a bunch of you know current event type stuff and and I would much rather do the whole scenario episodes. I love that.
Speaker 1:I love being a guest on episodes more than I do hosting episodes Not in a bad way, but I love getting asked questions more than just telling stories. I mean, I enjoy listening to stories, I would just rather my gears turn a little bit.
Speaker 1:But there was a stint in Wisconsin. This came right off the heels of a turkey you shot with me that I had bumped twice and it was a lot like that. I had bumped him once because of the camera and that's the last time I ever bumped one because of a camera. It got hung on one of them sticks. I got to put a camera on and it got hung up on a piece of limb or vine hooked around it. I was trying to get it off, looked up and the turkey was right there busting me. You know, plain as day Ran up a little ridge, little finger.
Speaker 1:So I just sit there and just mad and then wound up using that finger to get down to another goblin, turkey, bump him again off of it. He's just standing in the middle of it and didn't think hey, look around and make sure he's not still there. From 10 minutes ago he was oh, is this? After I left wisconsin? No, this is in 2023.
Speaker 2:I went all the way back there, oh um then, um, then went to go hunt the turkey.
Speaker 1:I did hear a goblin, didn't kill him. He came around, strutted a high on me across a creek, I could see him, and came in all the way. I had it where he come into my left? He did, but he kept going and then he hung out at about 7 o'clock and it was about impossible. And he had done this all morning, left, right, right, left, right, left, and didn't go back right and I'm like geez, you know, if he was just I'm talking, I've never been that close that many times to three more steps. Three more steps, I can kill him. And he'd go back two more steps, I can kill him. Go back four more steps, you know, and he would just come right to the edge and I just could not. And there, hens everywhere, so there wasn't much I could do. He just finally never came back at all. He just worked all the way down. So I tried to get up and go back around and the heck, I'm turning his back on that finger. I almost stepped on him and I'm like one of these days I'm going to learn to look up when I get here. I mean, it can probably shoot across the whole thing and it was just like that.
Speaker 1:I almost stepped on him. I see the hen look at it caught me off guard, honestly, my gun's in my hand, I think and I'm looking literally over the turkey, over the strutting turkey, and I see this hen look up at me like she just saw a ghost, because I mean it's a pretty good elevation. I pop up and that hen's like oh my God, pretty good elevation. I pop up and that hand is like oh my god, you know, and kind of starts running the other way.
Speaker 1:I'm like I bet you that gob is around here somewhere and there's a, an overhanging limb and he is literally on the other side. He'd had. He still didn't know. I was there and so I'm looking. You know where is he at? Where is he at? Where is he at? And then I see his head pop up and it just kind of goes like that. I'm like I mean from here to the end of that table, I mean literally almost stepped on him. I don't know how. He didn't hear me or anything and just kind of in shock and took off running and I'm like sitting there just like wondering how that happened and didn't think, hey, shoot.
Speaker 2:And then.
Speaker 1:So at that time, like they just run over a little knoll and I just leave my gun on my shoulder and walk up that knoll, and there they are again and bump back off. I, I just leave my gun on my shoulder and walk up that knoll, and there they are again and bump back off. I'm like gee, I was in a slump and I just, you know, you wind up shooting that turkey, that's one. If you'll go watch that video. We did put that video out and it was in Nebraska or out west somewhere, I don't remember where. But how nonchalant I went about shooting, putting my mask on spit, my dip out text the dad.
Speaker 1:That's when I was like I promise you that one's not coming because I've bumped him four freaking times in the past 30 hours maybe, but then he hammers right there to our left not two minutes after you called him the first time and he sounded off. And when he sounded off I went.
Speaker 2:I got some bad news to break to you. I messed this one up for you yeah and and so you.
Speaker 2:I thought you were talking about wisconsin the whole time, so you were talking about nebraska. You said wisconsin earlier. Clear there, nebraska. Um, anyways, that was the funniest video to watch, because my camera was facing us and hunters behind me. I don't know you're doing any of that. I thought you're just as you know on it, as I am Right, but either way, that's what's comical is. You know you're texting dad, you're hanging out and then I'm just beat it down.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, you are focused. You don't know how bad I done. Messed this turkey up yeah, could have been a different turkey. I don't think it was Right.
Speaker 2:This turkey, yeah, could have been a different turkey. I don't think it was right, because that was the same like after we got to talking afterwards. Oh, I got a good look at him.
Speaker 1:I knew what he looked like and sounded like and everything, yeah and I don't usually just disregard the discipline to.
Speaker 1:You know, and I'm I'm pretty dang discipline um, with with acting like a turkey is always there, yeah, and, and a lot of times it pays off, it pays dividends, kind of. Some folks laugh at it and if they're hunting with me they're like brother, I don't know why you taking it this serious. You know, like I do not walk in the sunshine, I do not walk, you know, in the open, or I walk on the opposite side of this and that and and, and we'll sit there in the shadow of a tree and wait till the cloud comes over before I cross, if there is no other option. I'm very disciplined in those rules, very disciplined in not calling. If I don't hear them, you know, have a reason to call all that good stuff and I just have faith that they will gobble if they need to gobble, and I will assess the situation from there, being on the playing chess and not checkers. I do not like giving them the first move. I mean, if I strike one up, strike one up, you know it's awesome, um, but I'm very ready to to hunt that turkey if I do break out a call in the middle of the day or something like that, um, but, but acting like that, and then and they're just hearing drumming or something like that, going to where and I'll tell you this, goes back, some tadpoles.
Speaker 1:Now I'd seen tadpoles and I just the day he the afternoon before I'd seen a good bit of turkey tracks and this little rut, um, and gotten to where, and I went that morning, I think, and didn't, didn't, didn't I heard one also was in tracks. I came back and I saw what looked to be some jake tracks and what looked to be a long beard track. And if y'all don't know the difference, jake tracks are skinnier, usually you know just lighter weight. You know I've seen some heavy jakes and they will fool you just as much as their gobble will fool you. And I've seen some lighter, long beards.
Speaker 1:Probably didn't have the the biggest, bulkiest track, but obviously two different turkeys and they were obviously two different male turkeys and um as I'm sitting there and I and I got real quiet and I just started treating it like they were right here, I mean not you know, easing my door shut and everything. I think I was on phone or something and I remember telling him. You know, I'm walking around kind of talking normal, and when I see it and I just shut down and, um, about 20 minutes goes by, I'm just gonna camp out here, hang out, see if I hear one or whatever. And it wasn't 20 minutes and I'm sitting, I think I've got my door open on my truck and I hear one drumming and it wound up being a turkey drumming and then he got the goblin and it wasn't on the other side of my truck. Did not kill a turkey, by the way, really he never knew.
Speaker 1:I was there, never bumped him, hunted him that uh afternoon, that morning killing so just because you get within. I mean, I was up in his grill and it was just a big. A big just. I mean just a uh, not a barrier, I'm trying to think An embankment.
Speaker 1:And he was just around the other side of that and I mean, if it had been flat I could have lassoed him probably, but there was no way to get to him without him seeing me. So I had to kind of wait until they moved off and try calling him back and stuff like that, and I really don't think he ever knew I was there. I think he was out in the middle of the opening when I pulled up and, like I said, was on the phone and stuff and they had worked their way back to get around and wound up being a hedgerow and they worked their way back around to go that way. They weren't there the whole time but just treating it, you know, just dead silent, like I'm just waiting on him to gobble. One time.
Speaker 1:And he didn't gobble, he drummed and I could hear it from my dag. I'm in a tight spot, but I'm in a good spot. It's the first turkey sign I've heard, you know, besides some tracks Right Since I got there the evening prior or since that morning when I did not think there was, you know, good faith of there being a willing participant there. It didn't seem like I heard some way off, but I didn't. You know, I wound up hunting a different spot, I think, as the morning progressed not long after. But yeah, I will say I appreciate the humblings and stuff like that and I did learn a good bit about turkey behavior and kind of how they act during midday. Tried to keep a good tab on that, especially up north whenever the weather's still good. They got a bunch of tall grasses up there.
Speaker 1:I watch some turkeys do some sneaky stuff in them grasses, just from a long distance, I get caught. Not caught. I would just get in a sliver of woods or in a hedgerow, like I said, or a fence row or something where I'm covered. But unless I walk all the way straight back, I'm not getting. I'm not cutting the corners, you know, because the turkeys can be on the other side and see me spoil every hunt. I got up my sleeve for the next couple days but doing so, so I just hang out and I could see, you know, with my naked eye and with binoculars and stuff, some turkeys, um, just loafing, preening, hanging out and stuff and just. And I and I really watched a lot of behavior this year, more than I probably ever have, and I've always been intrigued by it. But I've been very intrigued of just watching turkey behavior and not necessarily going to try to kill them right now. You know, just, I want to learn from this turkey and if this turkey, I might not kill it, but I might kill two more down the road because of what I'm able to learn from this turkey by observing every, you know, everything he does, naturally, and a lot of this before I've called before any reason for them to know I'm in the world and that's that's real behavior. That's real. You know. What you see is what you get and that's what they were going to do anyway, had you not been there.
Speaker 1:And I learned a lot about. I mean, I saw some, a lot of folks stopped on you know a gravel road and they would ease towards this certain area when they would, and you could hear the tires popping on you know on the dirt roads and stuff. And it's funny, I've seen some sit there and you can hear from a truck practically, and they'd ease on down and I'd look, if I took my eyes off of that spot, I would not know where they went. And sometimes I wondered if they were crawling or if surely they had to have moved, because it's been 40 minutes or something like that. And then I took my eyes off of it again and put it back up and there he is Same freaking spot, didn't even budge, and I'm like man, you know they ain't got nothing in the world to do besides what they're doing right there. They're trying to eat, breed and not die. That's all they got on their to-do list. Yeah, pretty much all spring.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that trip me and you went on. We had some, do that.
Speaker 1:We did.
Speaker 2:I remember and you know it was very often that it was like you see that one and I'm sitting here staring at the same leaf on the trees that you are and nope, and I'll take my eyes down, pick them back up, boom, boom, there you go, and we had thought he had moved or whatever, and they just do sneaky stuff and those fields that you think you can see everything. Sometimes, you know, grass looks like it's an inch tall and it's not and they know where to get and this and yeah, it's this.
Speaker 1:I mean just really took my cap, some of them from some stuff that I know I'd walk past water would have bumped and probably wouldn't have. Oh, I have one, that gum. I forgot about this one. I hunted this one multiple times and it was almost as if every time I got to the end of this little lane I kept walking and I did this probably two or three different times on the same turkey. Come to find out it was the same turkey. I was doing this to the same freaking thing on the other side of this, on like a different pulling.
Speaker 1:I was coming in and I could hear him, see him. I don't remember. I could hear him from the other end and think I was hunting one turkey. Yeah, if I, you know, hung it up on that hunt or something. He moved on. I'd come around and wind up seeing him in this field or an opening or a stretch I don't remember what it was and and be like not and get out, get ready, make, make a move, get positioned to potentially hunt him. As long as I kept my eyes on him and would always lose him. Almost every time I'd lose him and and it wound up being the same turkey whooping me on the left side and then I'd turn around coming. He put me on the right side and I was just getting my butt whooped by him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, and one, and then the, and after this happened once or twice, I got, I started. You know you're going to start checking these places. Then you start kind of over-calling or over-looking and kind of really getting a little personal with this turkey. Right, and I did that, and I think I slept at that gate one night. I'm like I'm about to figure this joker out. I'm about to see and I saw him, a glimpse of of him, or I saw it, you know, the back of a turkey or something. I'm like I'm not looking monogamous, see what that is. I know which turkey. That is same freaking one.
Speaker 1:He's doing exactly what he always is and he's always on this little knoll and there's a dip behind that knoll and if he gets in that dip, I gotta get to a different spot to see where he goes after that, because if I could know where he went left or right that would be very beneficial, you know, because if I'm sitting over here and he went all the way down, kind of like you said, getting in the dip and going all the way, you know, somewhere else. I'm kind of calling to nothing because I don't even know if he could hear me and he's not going to come back to where he just was and no, there's not a hand there. You know, in that short of a time frame then I'd wait and all that good stuff and it still wouldn't work. But so I book it and I'm going and I'm going, I'm going and I and I get to the end and I'm like there is no way I did not blink. I'm telling you I did not take my eyes off of this spot. I mean, I lost turkey, obviously, you know, but I did not take my eyes off of every route I believed he could have taken and I don't know how he got there. But I'm coming all the way back still doing the same thing, walking back out pretty briskly.
Speaker 1:I'm pretty mad. I'm just mad at myself, not mad at the situation. I'm like, why do I keep botching this? Now, I'm almost intentionally botching this just to see what's happening, and that joker is in the fence row. I'm walking. I don't know when he's going there, but he is sitting there and I'm telling you there's one cedar tree and when I say that joker is up in it, he is up in it and I go. I've walked by that thing six, seven times. I guarantee you he was there every time. I'm walking from me to you, from him, really, and he was there every time, I promise you, because I stopped and I started like moving branches as I was going by and I got, I didn't get to the tree he was on, but I'm moving the branch here and he shot out of there, I'm like that freaking joker.
Speaker 1:I guarantee you've been doing that.
Speaker 1:Every time you look under there's this little bowl like a little bubble in that thing and I guarantee you he said he hears a like a door shut and he just gets under there and I wish I knew how many boots he's watched walk three feet from him over the you know course of the spring, because I mean you could see him from a very, not blacktop, but it was a pretty high-traveled road on this piece of land and I can. I mean I was walking on top of route tracks I know weren't mine that had gone since I'd been there last, so I know you know he was just going back out there doing it to them too, just beating them up and down.
Speaker 1:But that's you know, that's the realness of it. We don't go out there and shoot a turkey every freaking morning. Right, we could, I probably wouldn't do it anymore. I mean it would just.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I mean, I don't know, I might still do it. You know I don't hunt like there are folks who if they didn't gobble I wouldn't hunt them. I'd still hunt them if they didn't gobble. You know, if they didn't strut, I wouldn't hunt them. I kill a lot of them out of strut actually, you know it don't bother me. And then, at the same time, like I enjoy listening to turkeys gobble as much as the next guy I'll get out there in February just listen to them gobble my one gun in my hand. You know I won't. That's why, that's why I'm there is is to hopefully, hopefully, kill one or learn from it and that's, I'm not gonna act like it's not.
Speaker 1:And you know I'm big on, you know, hunting them with boundaries, personal boundaries, drawing lines and sands there is. It's kind of hard to say right, wrong, wrong, left, right, black or blue. You know there's ways to divide everything if you really really want to.
Speaker 1:But you know I stay true to a little playing field and doing what I can to outsmart them, outwit them, and that's very, I mean, that's not easy to do and that's what I appreciate about them. And then when they whip you left and right like that, that's, that's what gets the real humblings. The real frustration is the real, the real joy that comes from the one that does work. It's inexplainable to those who have never felt the, the real humblings, the ones that are in your lap and you just whiff yeah, and I missed a couple this year too, by the way. Yeah, all my fault too.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:They hit a tree with one and there was one of them at 10 yards. But we're going to get into that story another time because that's a whole conversation that I want to have with the, with the public, because some folks could have been hurt then. I could have been hurt then and I I'm firm believer that tree was by grand design put there to keep shot from hitting somebody in the face. That knew I was hunting this turkey and still got way too close, right. Still a little hot about that and real hot about the one that pulled up a gun on me later on the same day twice. We got to figure some stuff out as far as there ain't got to be a barrier to entry but there's got to be some common sense to entry when it comes to turkey hunting Some of these places. Um, both fellows on the first turkey hunt ever and they didn't know the difference between North and up. And I'm like buddy, you cannot pull a gun up on something that sounds like a turkey. Hey, you can't shoot hands. Why would you shoot? You know we'll get. Hey, you can't shoot hens. Why would you shoot? You know that's a whole new rabbit hole We'll get down. But guys, I really appreciate y'all listening. This was like I said.
Speaker 1:We are knocking the rust off on this episode. I feel like, hopefully, we have progressed from the minute one to the hour and minute one which we are on right now. I hope we have knocking that rust off and we're going to get into a bunch of stories coming up. I don't know if it's going to be on mondays or tuesdays, it's going to be one or the other. I've got to look at some things to see when the best time to release them is. Uh, we should have all the highlights. I don't think we're going to do the, the vidcast this year. We did that with the youtube last year. Too much on the plate to do that. This year it y'all.
Speaker 1:Y'all were listening to this because you like listening to podcasts. For the same reason, we like listening to podcasts and we do listen to other podcasts, uh, whether in the truck, in the office, in the garage, in the shop, um, at school, I don't usually listen to school. I ain't gonna lie to you. Um, I wouldn't let the teacher know, but the audio version is the bread and butter of these things and that's why they're called podcasts. Tried to create something that wasn't necessarily needed. Some folks are very good at the video versions.
Speaker 1:I just ain't got time to put in it right now and we are going to. Also, we're going to have clips of it on our social media. Y'all be sure to follow them. At spring legion that's one word at tiktok, instagram, all that good stuff. Uh, we're going to have three or five, you know, highlights of the episodes. If you don't catch one, you at least get to see what we're talking about there and, uh, kind of sift through the ones you might want to go and listen to. Um, there will be a few bonus episodes, a few multi-week episodes. We've got a lot of cool things happening at Spring Legion. If you don't know, that's kind of the foundation this podcast is built on and a lot of other things a couple books have been written on, kind of using that platform.
Speaker 1:And a lot of apparel has been pumped out with the Spring Legion logo on there, and I cannot thank you all enough for making that happen. That is a I mean. My family thanks you, because that is what we do and a livelihood is to thank you all for that opportunity, and it's something I look forward to, something I was very passionate about creating, something that, uh, that allows, uh, something to celebrate turkey hunters all year long, and that's what we're aiming to do, um, and uh we got a lot to a lot to celebrate coming up, so we're gonna have a some new gear coming out in 2025, but we are, especially I am holding my breath right now.
Speaker 1:We're waiting on something to get here and it is a lot of it, yes, and it's uh, looking forward to it, to say the least. And, um, that is a odd feeling. When it leaves the place, it gets made and it last year we had a little we're winging everything, like you know. I mean, that ain't no marketing pull right there. I really don't know what I'm doing a lot of the times, and when you start making multi, multi-thousand dollar winging, it moves and some of it starts going a little haywire. You start getting real it ain't even a mad or anything. You just you don't know what you don't know and you're like I don't know that I did, I do that kind of deal, kind of that. Is it gonna come back? Is it gonna? Where is it? Where's all the stuff going?
Speaker 1:I already kind of told everybody we're gonna have this and now we don't. So I'm not telling nobody nothing right now of any of the stuff that we're gonna have. Um, but if you do follow some social media, you should be seeing some stuff in the next week or so, depending on when this comes out. Uh, start popping on up. We're going to have, you know, more gators and and pants and and other wearables and a bunch of accessories and stuff like that, uh, that I think y'all are going to like, and a lot, of, a lot of it, which we'll get into a little closer to the time, is put out there with the turkey hunter's mind, literally designing it. Some stuff to some folks is going to go this looks like this, but everything I've ever wanted to tweak change down to the color of the inside fabric of things, of masks and gloves and stuff like that. No chance at all of a turkey scene ever.
Speaker 1:I just I that gets in the back of my mind is my mask flipped up, right? You know, on a lot of different things and just you know this is. This is a good excuse for me to always to get what I've always wanted to wear. And and then if the sample was exactly like I wish? You know, when I was 14, I wish somebody would make this. Now we've had the means to make it now and if it worked, if it looks like it's supposed to and it worked like it's supposed to. I've got a dang UV light in here. I'm shining everything from the tag to the stitching to make sure there's nothing that you know should even rest in the back of my mind if I'm wearing this stuff uh, if it passed all them check marks. We got a lot of it and we're going to be pumping it out.
Speaker 1:Springlegioncom um in the in the near future. So y'all be sure to check that out. We're going to have a lot more details on that, don't worry, um, but this is not going to turn into one giant marketing app, spring legion. We're here to talk turkeys. That's what y'all here to listen to. Uh, just know that, um, with the invites always open, go check out new stuff and we'll try our best to to let the podcasters know y'all are kind of our, our buddies you know kind of, so to speak, when we talk to folks at these trade shows and stuff like that, everything we talk about is folks who mention the podcast stuff.
Speaker 1:Some folks come up like I saw your tiktok and a lot. I mean, we do get a lot of that, but a lot of it was of a podcast and they found the podcast via TikTok. So that's why we do that and I love it, because they'll talk about something that I'd almost forgotten about, about a turkey that was shot in Georgia in 2021. I'm like, oh yeah, we did, you know, and they get to tell another side of that story and extend a question that they had, which is going to be cool. And we might even honestly if I can figure this out in time, maybe by episode two honestly start one of those broadcast channels or something just for the folks who want to interact with us a little more On an Instagram.
Speaker 1:I know there's ways to do it. I just got to figure out how um for folks to have like a community space of folks for q a and stuff, and we might have one a week. You know, answer one question a week or, uh, have a whole episode once a month, a bonus episode. This is nothing but q a, uh you quick topics, stuff like that, this or that, yes or no kind of stuff all the way to who missed the most? Turkeys, or what do you think turkeys do when the wind's blowing from the west east something?
Speaker 1:And a lot of them I'm not going to promise you I know the answer to, and you might not either, but we might. We might know which way not to do. The one time we can relate to is uh, we can save you a mess up maybe.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But with that, um, you think you got anything else. I think we're good, Not, I mean, not bad for around one. So y'all, y'all, uh, y'all, give us a follow, subscribe, like, share all that good stuff. If you need us, email us. Support, not support. Podcast at springleaguecom. We've got a new email address. You're about to get hooked up with that on your phone. Actually, All right.
Speaker 1:I've already got it on mine. So if you want to talk to me or Chase podcast-related stuff questions, we might find a way to work in some like submission stuff, like stories Now, I'm not talking to us into, I mean, you can, I will read it. You know a daggum books worth of stuff, but you know stuff that you would find interesting on a podcast or want to get out there. You know I'm not going to sit here and promise every single one of them is going to get you know, read on the podcast or mentioned on the podcast, but you know we'll, we'll sit through, sift through them and and and read some mentions and stuff and connect with some cool folks and stuff.
Speaker 1:By chance, hopefully we might not, but that's why I just wanted to realize we had we didn't have an email for the podcast, so I wanted to create that this season to uh, to get some stuff sent to us from folks and some stuff sent to us from folks and, um, yeah, I really appreciate y'all. I really I really mean that and um, those reviews and likes and follows and stuff like that. It, it propels us and and by project that it takes one second of y'all's day, but just know that it it gets what we do every single day, the work we put into it in front of more folks and you know, likes don't pay the bills, but at the same time, you know someone following this podcast on spotify, on apple or on, you know, subscribing to our youtube channel.
Speaker 1:If they watch one video and still subscribe, it's helping us two months, two years down the road you know being able to reach you know more folks just like us.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I just really want y'all to appreciate that, because I used to not know that, I used to not know how big of a deal you know some of this interaction is on social medias and stuff like that. I used to not care. Hey, I still don't, you know, obsess over social media stuff from a consumer standpoint, but I do realize the impact that it could have and the livelihood that it can allow or disallow. You know me and my family to have in years as well. So just wanted to really let y'all know that. That is very much appreciated. That comes from both of us, yep, and we will keep pumping these jokers out until we can't.
Speaker 1:So it's 25, 30, probably coming until June. Yeah, so we've got plenty to talk about. I think we can handle it. Oh yeah, we'll figure it out in between. Good to see you all again. Hope you all enjoyed episode number one of year four or year five maybe I don't remember um of the spring legend podcast. We're going to see y'all next week. Realism is all that matters in the spring turkey woods and the guys over at houndstooth build their turkey calls with the consistent realism as a number one priority, cut, stretch and press right down the road in tuscaloosa, alabama, a houndstooth turkey call has become a familiar addition to a many a turkey vest across the southeast. Learn more about a variety of friction locator and mouth calls today at houndstoothgamecallscom, and be sure to use our special discount code SLP25 at checkout for 15% off your next round of Houndstooth Turkey Calls.
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