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
A Beginner's Perspective | Learning How to Turkey Hunt from Scratch
If you're new to turkey hunting, or just getting started at least, this episode is for you. Today, we sit down with our good buddy Jeremy Morgan, who didn't start hunting turkeys until he was a young adult. He's come a long way since starting from scratch in 2019, but he has plenty of stories in the memory bank to detail just how tough turkey hunting from ground zero can be.
From missing the first six longboards he saw, to shooting multiple turkeys in multiple states each year, Jeremy's progression as a new-ish turkey hunter is one we can all relate to, and provides a good change of pace from our usual story sessions.
Also in this episode:
- Hunter gets caught in a tornado
- Chase updates us on some Spring Legion plans
- A special edition book for 2025? Maybe.
- The struggling search for a 6.5' camper shell continues
Thanks for listening, sharing, and subscribing as always!
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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 the 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-year 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 SLP 25 at checkout for 15% off your next round of pounds to turkey calls. All right, what's going on everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Spring Legion Podcast. This will be the last podcast of the year 2024, if I'm not mistaken, rounding out a year on a high note.
Speaker 1:Going to get into a little bit of storytelling today, I guess you'd say, and it's not going to necessarily be us telling the stories our buddy, jeremy Morgan's joining Chase and myself on a fair year here for the show and we'll dive into that as we kind of kind of get a little further into the episode. But wanted to say what's up to y'all first because I feel like it's been a while. We did miss a week. I wanted to say what's up to y'all first because I feel like it's been a while. We did miss a week and that was just for the sake of Christmas, family time more than anything.
Speaker 1:Just whenever a holiday falls in the middle of the week, sometimes that's good, sometimes that's not good. I think I would rather. I know, you know, occupation-wise and stuff like that whenever one fell on like a Friday, you can kind of turn it into like a five or six-day weekend real quick. But then when it falls in the middle of the week, you almost don't really do much on the first two days or the last two days and you really have a 10-day weekend. Not quite the case whenever you're kind of just running a business that's got expedited shipping, stuff going left and right and because there was more e-mails and stuff we were responding to as often as we could and trying to track stuff.
Speaker 1:And it was a mess there for the beginning of that week, so we didn't have many hours to spare for recording the podcast. We apologize, but we will make it up.
Speaker 1:Obviously we got a lot of stuff to talk about as we round the corner into what's going to be kind of the, when folks start heating up talking about turkeys here in the next week or two. I know, speaking for myself, that January is the month that I probably think about turkey hunting more than anything. February, I'm braced for it, march, I'm getting ready for it, but January is when I'm really honed in on thinking about it.
Speaker 3:It just seems just far enough away that you can't do anything about it Right. You know and you know February, you can kind of start going and potentially have a chance of hearing one.
Speaker 1:You have a good excuse to go out there, right, right.
Speaker 3:What if he does gobble? Today it's February and January you're just kind of like, yeah, I'll just have to sit here and deal with it. He probably ain't If he does you know?
Speaker 1:I've heard a lot of stories of them gobbling folks in the duck hole hearing him and stuff Like that's cool and all. But I know he's not really Right. There's not a potential chance you don't get to hear the songbirds that you start hearing in February. February 2nd 3rd, 4th is when I start seeing them little purple flowers which. I've talked to Dudley Phelps about at Mossy Oak Gamekeepers. He's the guru.
Speaker 1:I don't know which subsector he's kind of over, but he's the plant guy 100% he knows more about them than I've ever even imagined remembering, but he told me the name of whatever those and it's a very simple name the flowers that I'm talking about. I took a picture and sent it to him one day. I was like what are these called? Because these are. I look forward to seeing these more than probably here in a turkey gobble, because when I see these, I've got six weeks.
Speaker 1:I know it, and probably a week or so after that 10, 15 days when they'll start gobbling. So when I start seeing those I'm pumped. But I've got about 30 days until those start popping up here and there. But I've caught myself looking for them, at least in some of the greener grass it's obviously newer grass, not left over from last August or whenever. But yeah, we're going to have a lot of stuff on the horizon to talk about. We're going to make up that episode obviously very easily and we got God. I don't even know where to start with the stuff we got coming up. Videos are one. I have not started editing those.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I broke my laptop out the other day. Had a slow day at the office. Yeah, at the day job, jose you better not have been slow.
Speaker 1:No, we work slow. Back in trailer.
Speaker 3:Every minute I'm home. I'm still running, you know, 20-hour days. It feels like.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Working a day job and running here and knocking it out, and I broke out the old laptop. We had a slow day and tried to knock out one and realized just how rusty I am still. So it's going to be another fun year of figuring it out and all that good stuff. You think about it in.
Speaker 1:October and you're like you know I'm not doing much. Maybe I should edit some of those hunts. I'm bad about it, I mean I'm, I'm, I don't like thinking about turkey hunting right in October and stuff like that. I'll get plum depressed almost. I mean I don't like hearing gobbles, I don't like seeing them, I don't like, you know, reminiscing and stuff until I'm.
Speaker 1:I put that off until January at least, right, when I can kind of have a prayer and getting you know, kind of hyped up a little bit. But I go into like a Sunday morning coming down type of realm for a month or so July to August and stuff like that, where I'm not in a good mood necessarily, probably for about 60 straight days after turkey season, and then it's reality and then I can, you, you know, kind of get back into you know, the swing of just dad stuff and mowing the grass. If I can, I gotta first weed, eat it down, because it's usually knee high by the time I get back from wherever I last was in turkey season. But, um, I don't know. But that ain't a worry right now because it ain't far, let's see Wanted to hit a couple updates before we dive into too much storytelling which our topic of the day, coming from our buddy, jeremy, is going to be kind of start from scratch.
Speaker 1:He is a good example of you know someone who didn't grow up turkey hunting all the time and got into it later and how that went about. It's a pretty cool story that we'll get into. But let's see A couple updates. I know if they're not sold out yet, probably all books by the time this airs will be sold out on the Sprintless website. If they're not, christmas kind of wipes those out as a good gift. Ballad of a Turkey Hunter and In the Spring Morning.
Speaker 1:I'm going to go ahead and say paperback and hardcovers are probably going to be sold out by the time this airs, if they ain't already. Y'all will have to go on Amazon and get those, because your boy here is working on that red pen edit for Any Given Spring Morning which I'm about halfway done and I'm kind of uploading those. You can upload that manuscript on Amazon. You know kind of unlimited amount of times. So if I get like a good halfway through which I am now like I'll upload that manuscript. Some folks are going to get a manuscript with a half edited half unedited, which would be kind of rare to have.
Speaker 1:I guess you would say If you're a book collector that would be. You know, I wouldn't imagine a ton are going to be like that before I'm able to get the official one up there and if all goes well, I'm going to have something a little special, hopefully by the time NWTF convention rolls around, involving books. It's not a new book.
Speaker 1:I'm not releasing a new book, but it will involve both of these books and kind of a cool little limited edition, limited run of something I can put together, which that's why I'm kind of hurrying and trying to get this out. And then I know it takes us about two, three, sometimes four weeks to get those in once I hit. Order our copies that we sell in Spring Legion. That will be signed from the website. Order our copies that we sell in spring legion. That will be signed from the website. So I mean, you're looking at mid, uh, three quarters of the way through january before we're able to, you know, kind of sell the signed copies on the website again, which is unfortunate but it is what it is, and and obviously I wish we had them sooner, but we've been doing a lot of other stuff, so paperbacks will get here way sooner than the hardcovers are doing that, so those could be here within 10 days of ordering.
Speaker 2:Um, so just wanted to give you a heads up.
Speaker 1:They're, they're coming, but it is definitely gonna be a while. So if you're wanting to read one, if you just want the, the context of the book, go ahead and get it on amazon. You'll get it in like a day. Um and um. Yeah, that's about it. We are trying to, we're thinking about, at least you know, like we've mentioned before, getting into retail stuff. We've already talked to a good amount that we're going to be in and we'll kind of give you all an update once everything's finalized on that. But I had the idea the other day and I was just talking to Chase about this If we can get, you know, a hand in getting kind of connected up with some of these retailers, that would be of a big benefit to us. If we can, we might figure out a way to do some type of like a $100 store credit to springlegioncom for anybody who's listening to this.
Speaker 1:That can I mean, sure enough, connect us up with a good retailer in your area that you would that you know, would be a good fit for us, that's, you know, a good trafficked area that sells light apparel kind of, you know, kind of like we do.
Speaker 1:It's just the amount of time that would save us just going through Google and like I mean, I don't know the difference in Bob's Co-op and Sunnyside Outdoor Fit or whatever In North Carolina you, you know, one could be a hole in the wall hardware store and one could be a, you know, a huge, you know right, cabin style. You know, good, good, sure enough, sporting goods place, which they're both, you know, have their benefits. But if you live probably, I mean, we know we're familiar with the mississippi ones and a portion of the alabama ones, I say, and a few in Georgia. But other than that, if anybody's listening to this and knows a guy who has a retail store that sells stuff kind of like what we sell, if y'all can hook us up with them, you know, talk to them, make sure it's all right. We ain't going to just dish out $100 gift cards to folks who just give us their phone number you know, I mean like sure enough, make sure that they would be interested at least.
Speaker 1:But if that's the case, you know y'all can, all you know, talk with them. Shoot us an email at podcast at springlegendcom, you know, kind of get that linked up and we'll holler at them. We've got, you know, you get little, not pamphlets but books. It's got the breakdown of how everything works retail wise. We've got those made. We'll get those to them and see what you know, what all they want. But figure not if they would want something and where that is. You know that's pretty big and that's worth a hundred dollar gift card right there. I would think so. Um, if y'all are able to do that, shoot us an email at podcast at spring legendcom and we'll, we'll work something out, because that that would save us a boatload of time so we can get on to some of these other things.
Speaker 1:That's about all the updates I've got. Go ahead and get those. The new Gator 2s are going fast. I hope they all make it to NWTO Convention. I don't think some of the original bottomlands, some of the green leaf ones I would be very surprised if they did. We've got another shipment coming in. I don't know when that's going to be here. It might be before, it might be after, um, so if you want those, yeah, I'd advise getting them. If I were in on the other side and you know, in a customer shoes, I'd go ahead and get them. If I want them for turkey season now, because, um, worst case scenario is they come in right before the convention and then they're not going to be there after the convention, I wouldn't think so don't settle your hands on that one. You got anything else? Oh, and if you've got a camper shell for a 6 1⁄2-foot bed Ford F-150 2021 model with the side opening windows, shoot me a dm because, uh it, they're not many of those.
Speaker 3:I don't think they're it.
Speaker 1:I hadn't seen any and um yeah, hunter got him a new truck.
Speaker 1:I had to yeah, 21 f-150 if y'all don't know, my transmission went out yeah, so in alabama oh yeah, smack dab in the middle of mississippi, georgia we're going to see Peyton's family up around the Marietta area in Georgia where they live. And we're back in Mississippi now and got to almost Birmingham and pulled into a Love's, which I'm a big fan of Love's. If I could have broke down anywhere to have been in a Love's that's an unsponsored plug right there. I'm a big fan of them Taking in our lives. That's an unsponsored plug right there.
Speaker 1:I just I'm a big fan of them, um taking a lot of showers there and uh, pulled in there and that joker wouldn't go and I said you know what we made it? We made a good run I wasn't even mad um right what'd you have on 230? 230 000 something miles, and that was the first transmission that's the big. Thing hunters.
Speaker 3:I've bragged on that truck a gm2 yeah, it's a gmc and, um, you know, everybody that has one knows that you can put. If you put 230,000 miles on it, you can be working on your third I say at least three probably so it that you bought it. With what? 10,000 miles, 20,000 miles on it you bought it almost new and uh, never had put a transmission in years ago yeah, so that was that was crazy um that, that it survived that long it wasn't spring.
Speaker 1:My family wasn't with me because it could have been bad, obviously transmission.
Speaker 1:I've had them go out in other vehicles and you're like turning onto a highway right and you're in a bind you know, um, but yeah, pretty much got got got pulled over enough into that that loves, and it was about 17 degrees the one night. It got cold. I was frigid, um, but yep, so I thought it'd be a breeze getting a. Uh, I was. I was really pumped about the six and a half foot bed that I got. You know, sleeping wise, I'm like, oh, throw a camper shell on this.
Speaker 1:I can actually like you know lay down instead of just balling up in a corner, like I've been used to, and kind of regret that, because it's very, very difficult to find a camper shell for a six-and-a-half-foot bed. So, 2021, six-and-a-half-foot bed, I don't care what color it is, I'll paint it myself. Oh yeah, I run with a red topper on it as long as it gets the job done.
Speaker 1:But if y'all got one of those holler at me, I'll probably buy it if you do. Yeah, that's all I got, let's see. So Jeremy here said at his house yesterday this is where we kind of talked about this episode coming about. So I was at his house, peyton and I, my wife. We got caught in a tornado. Oh yeah, closest thing I've ever been to one, if not one. I was very surprised and it caught me off guard.
Speaker 1:There was a bunch of inclement weather came through Mississippi, alabama, last night and we knew bad weather was coming, but you know, we didn't really think anything of it. The risk of tornadoes has substantially gone down from the time they kind of started warning us about them. And, um, if you're familiar with area we're living in quote-unquote old brand and we're driving through the flow wood and and we're at a stoplight and it's not raining because I'm a window down and all of a sudden the bottom fell out. I I had to run the window up real fast and before the red light turned to green, peyton was saying I think this is a tornado.
Speaker 2:And you know.
Speaker 1:I've been in close counters with tornadoes. I was like straight line winds are very scary if you've never seen them. But I was like no, this is just storms hitting the front's coming or something you know. And I look up and there's street signs bending backwards and they're doing the whole wobble thing like going back and forth and I'm like that ain't really.
Speaker 3:That's circular. Yeah, that ain't straight.
Speaker 1:Blind wind right there and all of a sudden they start like coming out of the ground and stuff. And then you see them flashes of all the Transformers, right right, I saw one from distance. She freaked out. I'm like that, yeah, that was cool. You know that sucks, you know they're not my power or something. Then like five or six more start going down the line. I'm like okay, we're in a tight spot, so I, we dip down and get down in kind of like a little little hole, like it, just a downhill. I was gonna turn left onto the main highway and I just went across it and went down into like a you know, you know declination and you know, kind of off to the side and pulled around. Hartfield Academy is right there and I pulled around. I'm like I used to play football, you know, against University of Christian. I know how this layout is. I can, I can, I can.
Speaker 3:Maneuver. I know where to get.
Speaker 1:You know I dipped off dipped off in there between the gymnasium and stuff and um. There was tin everywhere and gutters flying all over the place and I mean it? Was. It was hairy there for a second. I mean, she was freaking out telling me to go and I'm having to wait for lightning to see when the power poles are falling they're falling lines are going everywhere and I'm trying not to, you know, get electrocuted, and it was.
Speaker 1:It was an eye-opening experience because A I mean that happened. I mean my window's down. It was nothing, calm everything. But before that red light turned green, we were in the thick of it, whatever, and it was what they wound up calling a spin-up tornado, and the scary part was nobody knew about it. I was like we're the only two people in this world that knows about this thing right now, yeah world that knows about this thing right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, because we we had the weather playing on her phone or something like that so we can make sure, because you know the storm line was getting here pretty quick and so apparently spin-up tornadoes were a thing.
Speaker 1:I'm sure it would be like a e f0 or something like that you know it just kind of flew and then went back away, um, but then you know they were like, yes, confirm something over there by northwest rankin, which is you know. They were like, yes, confirm something over there by northwest ranking, which is you know, about a quarter mile north, I'm like yeah it started here.
Speaker 3:I could confirm it yeah, it came.
Speaker 1:It didn't just start there, it was, it was over here too, um, but it was cool, like I mean, it was kind of cool the whole thing. Looking back, and you know, my truck didn't get just demolished and we didn't get hurt, but it was when we went down it was substantially less stuff going on, like I could definitely tell my truck was kind of like you know kind of it was getting pushed.
Speaker 1:I was having to, like, hold the wheel real hard, and when we got lower it was a big difference. And then we came back up I'm talking, you know, not not much of a hill, but a little bit and it and back up and, and then we came back up. I'm talking, you know, not not much of a hill, but a little bit and it and back up, and then, when we went back down a little lower, you know it was I could tell a very, very big difference.
Speaker 1:So if y'all ever caught a tornado, I would say, rather than even trying to get behind something like we were trying to do.
Speaker 1:The lower is better I mean that that made the biggest difference of all. The wind was still whipping us like crazy and stuff was still, you know, hitting the truck from the buildings and stuff, even when we were behind kind of a wall. But I almost stayed in the low spot in the middle of the parking lot because it that's the only difference I really felt. Um, we'll try that next time. Just getting just go go downward somehow. Whatever you got to do which I've always heard you know, get in a ditch or get you know something like that. If you're ever out hunting and a tornado's coming, just get in a ditch and worst that can happen is, you know something fall on you, but just get low and get out of harm's way. But tried that, um, but headed jeremy's house, we got talking. So jeremy here, which has yet to talk I've been hogging the mic. Um, he, like I mentioned, he, uh, he started hunting, I don't know how many, how many years ago. I mean, you can introduce yourself where you're from and everything.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, I grew up in jackson. Uh, did not start hunting till I was 17, though okay um, no one in my family hunts, so I didn't grow up doing it. Actually, I got started out with reptiles.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:So I grew up big snake collection turtles. You know I was the weird kid with all that stuff.
Speaker 1:Little mini, steve Irwin. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So, but everything I've done, you know, since then has been I get addicted to it. I don't do it, you know, unless I'm doing it 100%. So I had 50-something snakes, 80 turtles Really. So, yeah, I didn't start hunting until I was 17, when I had a buddy of mine, a mentor Brian, Took me to kill my first deer 17. And didn't really get as into it as I am now. So I got up to Ole Miss and our family farm was close by.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I got to run over there and that's honestly our farm. And then you know, public land is where I kind of cut my teeth.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, so that's where it all began. So when you started turkey hunting, which I mean, how many years ago was that?
Speaker 2:So it was my sophomore year of college. I didn't really watch a lot of hunt shows YouTube, didn't know anything about it. I saw my first turkey was walking out of my apartment to go to class on just a spring afternoon and my neighbor had killed one that morning. He was on the tailgate cleaning it. So I walked up I was like, oh you know, never seen a turkey. Yeah, yeah, everybody wants to feel their head and neck because you know yeah I still do
Speaker 2:I'm mesmerized about you don't know what it feels like till you, till you feel it. So I got to talking to him. I'm you know where'd you kill this? He's like oh, you know, just down the road from our apartment it's a bunch of public land. Um again, sorry, ole Miss boys, if this isn't a secret if you've ever been out there there's 35 trucks.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna say there's a, there's an open gate to pull in. Y'all can have it, but probably you ain't gonna find an open gate a lot of places.
Speaker 2:So that was my sophomore year and it was a little later in the season. You know I had to look all that up. Um, I don't I might have been. I don't think I hunted him that year because it was like the tail end of the season. But then the next year I made up my mind. You know, I'm gonna kill a turkey, yeah, um, and I didn't know what I was doing, had no one tell me. You know what to do, what not to do, which would have been a lot more important. Um, and you know did, did some googling, read some, you know, know, articles. Whatever Went to Walmart bought everything you could buy. You know hen jake reaping fan, all the stuff that you know I've left far behind now.
Speaker 1:If they had it on the shelf we'd get it. It was in the cart.
Speaker 2:yeah, the $10 ammo, whatever they had, oh yeah. And didn't know how to call call, just went out there and went hunting. Um that the first season that you know. I took a stab at it. I think there's what 46 days in the season yeah, I probably went seven yeah I went. Uh, it was like 38 dang. Yeah, skipped a lot of class right, yeah it's uh.
Speaker 3:I mean, y'all can relate it, just it gets it'll wear you down that many days, into it it gets to an unhealthy level where you know it's just that's all you're thinking about.
Speaker 2:Um, I vividly remember one day I'd gotten up, went hunting you know, heard a bird, whatever had class at 10 showed up to my biochem class and in bottom land and uh, I sat down in the lecture hall and I was just sitting there, you know, just thinking about the turkey I got up and left really, I had just gotten there, I was like you know what the heck with this biochem, I can't even think about this.
Speaker 2:I'm going back out there right, um, but my, you know, I was hunting them, but I again didn't know what I was doing. I was more so just using. You know, I grew up in the woods, you know chasing snakes or whatever, so, uh, using those skills to sneak up on them more than anything. I'd get on a bird goblin almost every morning because there were a bunch of turkeys out there. I don't know if it was just, you know, good hatch a couple years before, but yeah, there wasn't a morning I didn't hear multiple birds, you know gobbling Again.
Speaker 2:I had little to no information on where to start. One important thing was patterning your shotgun. So at the time I owned one shotgun. It was a Stoger I'd gotten for Christmas a couple years before, that's all I had. You know, a big old, long Stoger, yeah, gotten for christmas a couple years before, that's all I had. You know big old, long stoger, yeah, and I had I. You know I'm not embarrassed to admit it because it's part of the story, but I missed six turkeys before I killed my first one yeah, and this is out there killing myself every day on public land.
Speaker 1:I can imagine the, the, you know, the, the gut wrenching you know right which is, why does they think about how addicted you kind of had gotten without actually you know?
Speaker 2:putting hands on one shot.
Speaker 1:Yet you know that it can even happen because and that's why I, like you, know these types of stories, because we did grow up hunting, like I mean, we killed our first ones six, six, seven years old. You know it's kind of normal to to have that the last memories I have, or even I don't remember much past that, so I don't remember. You know how it felt not having to get one. You know I get those crossed up which you know what?
Speaker 1:came first. I don't know, you know that was 30 years ago. But here that you know, you can still be short of a detail from getting close.
Speaker 2:It's cool yeah, so I had a couple buddies, um, that they never gave up on me. Uh, one of them his name was hou, name was Houston. He had some places we'd go and they were loaded up with birds and he had killed several and we kind of made it our mission, you know, to get my first turkey, and this was a multi-season endeavor. I mean this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, how many years did you go turkey hunting before you did connect on one?
Speaker 2:It was my third season hunting them and probably it was you know 60 plus hunts yeah of before it finally happened, um, and after missing six yeah right well, I finally, you know. Somebody asked what am I doing wrong? You know I'm shooting nothing. Yeah, it's a shotgun. You got to kill them yeah, you would think yeah, have you patterned your gun?
Speaker 2:I'm like you know, again, this is if you're in the shoes I was in you can relate, If no one's ever told you to do something you don't know to do it. You don't know what you don't know, so that day I found a yard sign and a target and went out there and shot it and shown off it eight inches high. It had 20, eight inches high, 20 yards. Yeah, I um so that that solved that mystery. The very next hunt, at this point, I had another gun um, it's a beretta toted it and killed one.
Speaker 3:April 1st 2020 the very next day um, had to come in.
Speaker 2:I mean, like they had you know several other times and had the right you know tools that time. But uh, that's, that's nothing against any of the guns, my just yeah, you got a pattern.
Speaker 3:You're shot right right what you're doing, yeah but you don't know it doesn't when yeah, it tells you yeah so at that point I'm sure you didn't even know there was a thing called a turkey choke for a gun and all that stuff. I mean modified right, whatever's in it, right, it's a shotgun. Yeah, I'm doing the right thing.
Speaker 2:I'll never forget that one. I literally no exaggeration ran out of my boots running to get the turkey. I shot him got up and ran and both of my boots flew off my feet and I was running to the woods in my socks and grabbed him. I bet that was a heck of a feeling there it was me, houston and Dean, and they had stuck with me the whole time. I really think all three of us were like crying. And there were three more turkeys gobbling in the bottom behind us after I had shot that one, I shot and they hammered.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So were you like calling at that point? Had you kind of figured out a call, or were you just pretty much hoping to stay in front of them? More woodsmanship over, you know, calling one to you more as of getting in front of one. I kind of want to hear about that.
Speaker 2:So I can make some noises with the mouth. Call Right. Whether or not they were good will leave to everybody's imagination.
Speaker 3:Right but.
Speaker 2:Houston could call real well. So once you know once, if I was with him I wasn't making a peep, right. That's kind of how I am duck hunting.
Speaker 3:You know if I'm with somebody who can call, I'm not touching mine.
Speaker 2:So yeah, that was a big help having somebody and I learned a lot from him. And, dean, you know also one of our buddies had killed his first bird a couple weeks prior on the same piece of ground.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:And he had a similar story. You know, we were all trying to get our first bird for a while and, yeah, all it took was getting, you know, laid off from my job due to COVID, and then all the time in the world Right.
Speaker 1: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. You can check out their entire line of leaf. I want to hear some expectations and reality comparisons. What did you think was going to happen versus what might have really happened? Do you think of any instances that you thought turkeys were louder? You thought turkeys did not gobble that loud you thought they would. You know kind of what you said.
Speaker 1:I mean it's kind of hard to say necessarily if you haven't watched a bunch of hunting shows and stuff. But like I know a lot of folks will be kind of I mean disheartened by you know I watch these folks who you know become, whether they mean to or not become, you know, mentors to, you know virtual mentors to a lot of folks and kind of what their, you know their job is to put. You know successful turkey hunters on there and you know successful turkey hunts on there and you know they've got a certain amount of allocated. You know episodes they put out. They don't. You know necessarily I'm not gonna say can't afford to put out you know a bunch of just nothings. So they they make the most of it and put the ones they they do kill one on and and stuff like that. And you know what.
Speaker 1:You know a lot of folks think that's how it happens all the time. That's not necessarily how it happens every time. The ones that don't get put on there aren't. I'm just speaking for myself. More often do you not kill one?
Speaker 1:than you do kill one. That's normal, that's part of it. That's part of the addiction that lies within it, honestly, is the failures that come with it. So I mean, was there anything that you thought you know this is what I should do and then find out that's definitely not what I should do?
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, still learn that lesson every day.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:But there was a couple things I did, you know, especially not being a good turkey hunter, knowing I couldn't call going to the woods every morning like I can't call these things to me, so I've got to figure out another way to get in shotgun range and that was just, you know, scouting, I guess you could call it, but more so, just spending time in the woods.
Speaker 2:I knew where these birds were in the morning and a lot of times I'd just come back in the afternoon. Yeah, just try to just be, be quiet, slip around and get close to where I thought they were roosting, and more often than not I just sit there in the afternoon and then when they come back to roost, you'd catch one gobble right, yeah, there he is um, then kind of go from there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and if I could have called, it would have helped a whole lot, but I was just kind of sneaking around, you know, trying to try my best.
Speaker 1:Right, which is, I mean, that's all you could do, and that's a lot of folks don't realize. This that's I mean we did grow up hunting. We knew I'm not going to say we could call good, you know, when we were high school or whenever we started kind of really, you know, just going out at will on our own, even in like, I remember going like I probably started hunting by myself 13, 14-ish.
Speaker 1:I mean I would technically go hunting by myself probably way younger than that Right when Chase would be hunting with my dad and stuff and I'd just kind of be over here hunting by myself not really doing nothing Besides messing up our chances of hunting a turkey tomorrow. Yeah, I'm like nope our chance is hunting another turkey tomorrow. Y'all going to bump that one, I'll bump this one. Ready break.
Speaker 2:You know that kind of deal.
Speaker 1:But no, I mean a lot. I mean I went a whole season without killing one. I mean I was going home killing just one specific one because that's the only one we had to hunt, you know, down here. But I mean when I went to college there was a whole whole season hunting publicly and up there that I did not hear one at all and I did not hear a gobble at all.
Speaker 1:I thought I did one time and I don't, I think I just fathomed that. I mean it was just kind of like my brain wanted to hear one so bad to make make worth of of all the, and I probably hunted more then than I did the next year, which I killed three out there, I think. So it's kind of, you got to put in the hours and you're not going to avoid that and you, you can learn a lot from listening to these podcasts or reading these books and, and you know, watching these youtube shows, and I can say that because we do all three of those, you know, and folks do get good out of that and that you know I do hear a lot of success stories.
Speaker 1:You know of I never thought of that. You know I just started hunting. You know this episode in particular really helped me do this. Or you know, I had no idea that's how I should have been doing it, or whatever it worked, which is awesome, but we figured that out by going and doing it.
Speaker 2:I think another thing that really helped I mean again, this is several years ago now. I can call well enough to kill a turkey. I've killed a lot of turkeys since then, but when I figured out what to listen for for drumming changed the game. And they talked about that, I think, all last year on the Mossy Oak podcast. Everybody that had on yeah.
Speaker 2:They asked what do you hear when there's drumming or what is drumming to you? And that really doesn't mean until you know you hear it. You can't hear it, in my opinion, Right, Especially if you can't see the turkey. You've never heard it before you're not going to know what you're listening for and he might be right on top of you and you hadn't heard him gobble in two hours and get up and leave. And you know, there he was, 60 yards which I've still had that happen.
Speaker 3:I still have it at least once, twice a season. You know, I stand up after thinking he's, he's worked off and he was privilege.
Speaker 1:They don't have to right.
Speaker 1:You know, they don't always grow but I think about how many turkeys were probably near me drumming he didn't know about all those days and I had no idea you know, just because I couldn't hear it, yeah and that's, um, I mean just the only and the most recent example is taking peyton on, who's never hunted, hunted him before and trying so hard to explain that's drumming. You know, and she having no idea of what she knows, drumming exists, she's heard me talk about it. You know, she knows they do it when they struck, kind of, and that's it. But like I'm talking, like you, ready, that's drumming right here. You know, and I'm telling her where it is and she's like what?
Speaker 3:You're drumming right here.
Speaker 1:You know, I'm telling her where it is and she's like what are you making this up? Of course, then, like I'm sure, the first time or two, the turkey doesn't walk out from right there or whatever, so she's kind of like sure it was kind of um, but we were. We took the girls to deck a pumpkin patch or something. They had like a pet turkey there and I was like watch this turkey do this.
Speaker 1:You know, and then listen and she was able to hear it. You know drum, which is a little different when it's in that setting, but you know that's what you listen for. She wound up before we left on that trip seeing a turkey drum and knowing and like that was it and she heard what that was.
Speaker 1:But you know now she connects the dots. When I said drum, that's from me and and she was able to kill a turkey a few days later because of being able to kind of, you know, it drummed down here. Then it drummed up here and she's like okay, she knows how soft it was or how loud it was supposed to be, and it's a frequency, if I'm not mistaken. So a lot of folks can and can't hear it on a scale Like can hear it very well, can hear a turkey drum 200 yards away, can't hear turkey drum 10 yards from them. I mean, it's just like they're not bad at hearing. They can hear the same you know amount of things. It's just, you know, when you do a hearing test and you hear like a real high pitch beat, you hit the button and a low pitch beat and some folks don't hit the low one, they don't hear that. You know, they just hear, just hear nothing but high ones.
Speaker 1:So it's definitely hard to explain to someone who definitely can't hear it honestly, you know, and that can be a very big disadvantage, because if not for drumming, I mean I'd say cut the turkeys off, shot in half.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah 100%, especially where we hunt, which is where he's been hunting. You know Mississippi's thick woods which we have, open areas in the river bottoms and stuff like that. But when it's thick woods like that and you can't see past 20 yards, a lot of directions that drumming keeps you from. If you're faced at 2 o'clock and he comes out at 12, sometimes at 15 yards, it's too late because you can try a swing. But when the gap's as small, as a lot of times it is, you know he's two steps away from you know, completely concealed at that point. But yeah, I would say figuring that out is a huge advantage. It's definitely not, obviously not required.
Speaker 1:You, you know there's folks out here get a lot of turkeys that can't hear drumming at all, especially the older ones.
Speaker 2:There was a one hunt last season with my buddy, brian, who was my mentor, you know, got me into hunting, like I said, but he only started turkey hunting the past couple years. So that's one. You know sport, if you want to call it that. That I got more experience than him, in, which has been neat. I've been able to kind of, you know, teach him a few things um, and we were hunting last spring and he has a hard time hearing him gobble super far away I can hear him.
Speaker 2:You know pretty far, uh, and I heard one drumming and it was. It was beautiful. There's a turkey following a hen on this ridge sun coming up behind him and he was just popping half strut and drumming the whole way and that's the first time he ever heard you know, confirmed drumming, because he could see it yeah, I can see what that you almost have to see. I can know what he's doing and since then he's been able to hear it that was really cool, that was when he put two and two together.
Speaker 2:It was like okay, now I know for sure, I've heard it.
Speaker 1:If you've never heard drumming, the best way is to go find a pet turkey Right.
Speaker 2:Because they all drum.
Speaker 1:Pet turkeys probably don't ever stop. They strut the whole thing for nothing, no reason at all. We were at a pumpkin patch surrounded by about 11 kids trying to feed it a handful of horse feed or something.
Speaker 1:It was just in there drumming away. You know it's just like it just does that and you'll see what it is and how it sounds and you can kind of relate to it. And once you hear it, you hear it. And a lot of times it will be amplified. In the woods and in the open it's kind of a little harder to hear, but that, and then if you have headphones or in your truck or something with a subwoofer type deal you can hear it If you just play it on your phone.
Speaker 1:you can YouTube probably turkey drumming. You're probably not going to hear it unless you have headphones in.
Speaker 3:I mean, it's almost more of a feeling than a sound to me.
Speaker 1:It is.
Speaker 3:It feels like somebody bumped a bass knob at the gas station car next to you. All of a sudden, you just kind of.
Speaker 1:And it's like a lot of times, if you think you hear it, I mean, what I've kind of figured is like 17 to 19 seconds after that, if you hear it again, it's kind of like a cadence it's a and then you know, 17 seconds later, you're like, if you hear it twice, it probably is. You know, and if it's a minute apart it could be, but if it's, you know, that's something else, probably a log truck leaving a stop sign, yeah right, it doesn't happen that fast.
Speaker 1:There's a break in between, there's a repetitive cadence almost, and they communicate with drumming which I didn't really kind of realize until later.
Speaker 1:In you know turkey hunting, they will respond to your call with drumming as much as they will. You know gobbling and they communicate with it and a lot of times, like a Jake, will caulk at drumming. So if you're sitting there and you're farther away than what a normal ear could hear drumming, if a jake is, you know, you know kind of doing their little caulking area, if it's about 20 seconds apart, it's almost, I mean that gum instinctual for them to just I mean as soon as he drums you know, you'll hear that little funny honky, you know sound or whatever.
Speaker 1:If it's about the same as a drum, like bet, there's a long bridge strutting, probably somewhere you know, they're with or near them yeah um, and I've used that before um, and, but if you're sitting there, tree open or something, and he drums back at you, consider it a gob was what I'd do you know, don't sit there like he's not hearing me you know, he'd gobble if he heard me and sit there and call again maybe, and then he's, he's drumming back at you or something like that and I've, I've, definitely I'm not gonna say I mean nothing is positive, but I have called as a hen, kind of instinctually, almost.
Speaker 1:You know, before that final note of that drum hits, start a two or three note yelp right after that. And it's it's kind of whereually, almost you know, before that final note of that drum hits, start a two or three note yelp, right after that, and it's kind of where I don't know if that's the reason, you know he winds up coming in. But I'll respond to his drumming with a call once or twice to let him know I'm interested, I'm intrigued.
Speaker 1:you know I'm talking to you is what I'm pretty much saying. I'm not just over here talking to something you know, just talking for the sake of talking or calling for the sake of calling I mean right, which that's something I've picked up last few seasons.
Speaker 3:You know, never really paid attention to like I would more call to get him to gobble right, you know a lot of us do that and that's. You know, that's a big thing. I've kind of started paying attention to the last four or five seasons, maybe even for the three or four seasons, but responding to the a gobble.
Speaker 1:You'd be the other one.
Speaker 3:Yes, and if you can just wait for him to gobble which I mean you may wait an hour Worth it. You know, have your mouth call ready or your slate in your hand and oh, yep, you know, and just almost kind of like the Jakes do to him, but do it with a hand call, and I've seen a drastic change in the way I turkey hunt, you know, since I've done that, you know, I guess success rate, I guess would be the thing of that or getting a turkey fired up.
Speaker 3:You know it's not. You know who can call the most and the loudest and then he's just out there gobbling because it's almost a shot. Gobble if you're sitting there doing a fly down, cackle 13 times in a row, bring a train with you, make them gobble.
Speaker 1:They can gobble if you're sitting there doing a fly down cackle 13 times in a row. Bring a train with you, make them gobble. They can gobble, you know, but if you really, if you're just there, to your gobbles, but if you want to get like you got to communicate with them, not to them right, right.
Speaker 3:So I've that's something like you know even turkey hunting 20 something years. Yeah, it took, it took me till this, you know, last couple years, to kind of key in on that like and it was just some old man told me he's like only time he called was when one guy after one gobbled at on his own right you know, and just kind of, why was that?
Speaker 3:and it was like it's more of a opportunity for you to communicate with that turkey. Then call to that turkey, you know, call bond to that turkey I'm a big believer in it yeah, it makes a lot of sense and I, and I'm the guy who waits that hour.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and I'll sit there and I'm like I'm not taking a step. I know he's there, I know he's in there, he ain't ready, he'd gobble if he was. And a lot of times and I've had to respond on TikTok stuff before people asking what did you mean by this? I don't, as it was last year and I was talking about I heard a gobble. He gobbled twice. I know the direction he was headed, but I knew, you know, I could paint a picture in my head about just two gobbles, almost Not saying like I'm a perky whisperer, but like I've just seen this happen so many times when they go.
Speaker 1:This is a henned up area of the season and he was with hens, obviously six or seven of them at least, but they'll sit there and they'll kind of be honed in on this hen and they'll, you know, whether or not he breeds or not, I don't know, but about 20 minutes, 12 to 20, I don't remember what it. You know I'd have to kind of almost go hunting again to jog everything back, but he'll either get off of her or he'll. You know he writes that one off, kind of. He gobbles three, four, you know, three or four times in a row trying to find he's about to move, they're moving somewhere.
Speaker 1:He's kind of like last call you know, like at a bar, they're like about turn the lights on his last call and like, if you're around, come on and that's. You know that's it. Like I know he's moving and then so I won't move, I won't, I won't go towards him or something, because there's always a chance they'll be moving towards you. You know, coincidentally you run into them, bump them or you walk the wrong way, and then he gobbles again, 400 yards this way, and really he only walked 100, but you walked 200 that way and they were already 100 yards away. So I'll sit there and wait for that second gobble, and it might be a little while, but it's going to be in a different spot usually If he hits those three or four in a row and then he gobbles again, and then I'm headed to get in front of that, if I can get in front of that, you know, parallel all the way down and then come up a ridge and get halfway, and if he hadn't heard you yet, and all of a sudden you're a new hen, if you're another hen, that should kind of follow it, him mirror, imaging what they're doing, especially in public.
Speaker 1:You're getting a little weird there. Why aren't you walking towards them, aren't you? Why are you just, like you know, mirroring everything they do, um, but if you can get there, and then he gobbles again and you respond like that, like he. He just got lucky and walked up on a hen and you know, my gosh, he's interested. You know, I gobbled at a different something, some other reason, and all of a sudden this hen is like you know deal yeah.
Speaker 1:You know you got his attention from the get-go. You know that's how he wished it would have happened. You know. And if all he's got to do is kind of take a few steps to the left to kind of change his route. He's going to do it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I don't do it. Yeah, yeah, I agree with that. I've, uh, I've gotten a few that way. Yeah, and it's more of a. You know the scenario has to oh yeah, the stars have to align for that scenario to run out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and and and I will say this though if I'm close to a turkey I should have prefaced with this that's from being at a good 250, 300 yards from from that turkey. Right Is what I'm saying, or you?
Speaker 3:know at least 150.
Speaker 1:If I'm within definitely within 100, or if I'm going to be where I'm going to be and I need it, or if my only option is to call him if I'm at a corner of a property or something like that or anything of that nature or he's definitely moving away and I'm behind him.
Speaker 1:There's nothing I can do to get around him in time without, you know, really sacrificing a day or bumping him. I will. This is what I was getting at at the beginning, though when he sits there and gobbles that once, twice, three times, that's when I'll wail on it you know, I'm either doing nothing or I'm wailing on it and a lot of times I'll do that if I hadn't called at all.
Speaker 1:Um, if he knows I'm there and I do it, I'm not. I've just kind of taken the fire away a little bit. But if I haven't called and he, he gobbles those once or twice and they're not far I'm. I'm before he gets that third one out, I'm wailing on some, some cuts, you know, cutting at him, yelping right after him.
Speaker 3:Yeah, kind of give him a life, give him fired up, you know, get him what he wants you know, and then that kind of gives you the opportunity to kind of hush on him, exactly, and that's kind of the plan in mind there. Yeah, and that gives you a reason to hang up on him and say, hang on Right. She up on him and say hang on, okay, she showed all the interest.
Speaker 3:And now did another gobbler walk up over there to her. Exactly did she get hung up on a limb? You know not why she a creek or something. I'm going over there now and kind of rolls, reverse it on him he'll get to where you see it.
Speaker 1:He might not go over there, over there, but he's going to.
Speaker 3:At least he's got to solve that, if that makes sense, or he's going to be thinking about it for the next five hours and if you really want to kill a turkey, sit there five hours.
Speaker 1:You'll kill him. He'll come back he will make a lap and before the sun goes down, he's going to look at it he might look at it from 200 yards somewhere else, but he's going to kind of double check, yeah, just to see what, what it is. I think they're just like us. They want to see why, why, why did she do?
Speaker 3:that was there a creek that I?
Speaker 1:don't know about is there, you know, just a bear, just to check off. In their mind he's more thinking what did I do wrong at that? Point, you know that doesn't make no sense, um, but, but yeah and that's, and, and turkeys do like to get goblers I'm talking about especially kind of the, the head honcho and a group, you know, the one strutting behind all the hens and stuff they like to get where they can see both If they can have their cake and eat it too, they're going to do it.
Speaker 1:So if you can get to where you are and this is kind of where you know even a beginner can do this, and you know, think of the early days of like not being able to call or whatever If you can get very, very close by just using gobbles every now and then and getting close, you know within within 80 and you can almost. And I'll tell folks this, I don't care how good you are if you call while he's gobbling or a plane is flying over, a train's flying over they, they just hear frequencies too. It's just they hear. I mean, think of a crow call, it's like the crows.
Speaker 2:Are my buddies out there? Oh yeah, that's when I'd pull the box, call out Right. I was talking about. You know, let something else be, some cover sound Right.
Speaker 1:And they just hear that don't, don't, don't. And you know, that's all it'll mask you enough. You know just doing it, and timing is better than quality right a lot of times. So, um, it gives them a reason to come see a.
Speaker 3:Was that a turkey? I heard over here, you know right and you know be like I want to. I've done it I don't know exactly where they're at. I'm gonna come over here and gobble a few times to try and pinpoint them I've done it for the, for the soul sake of the curiosity stuff.
Speaker 1:There's a whole chapter in it. That gives us remorse. Chestnut checkers Used an airplane to finally break their curiosity, had to get them downhill. There was no other reason besides that, but the fact of just waiting. There was literally like a flight academy close by and they were like no, but they were like doing circles and yeah, I just timed when that airplane would come over and I I had to call the other way and it was almost just muffled just because I was so frustrated because if they gobbled while that plane was over, I would.
Speaker 1:I would be just oh, yeah, you know, just crazed inside like I'm about to shoot this plane down. I can't you know. Like I've waited 30 minutes for them to gobble again and they do have no idea where. I just know that was definitely a gobble. So I started doing it back to them, started calling the holy one. You couldn't hear hardly anything. It kind of got under their skin enough to solve that at least bring them down a hill this time it was two long, long beards one head is better than zero brothers you'd think that'd be enough.
Speaker 1:But in turkey, woods it ain't you gotta somehow, you know, curate it a little bit.
Speaker 3:I guess you'd say but we're kind of veering off of jeremy's. Anything else we need to hit on with jeremy's come into the yeah I mean, I just, I just love hearing stuff like that.
Speaker 1:You know folks who are able to. You know, it doesn't matter how old you are or whatever, you can definitely get in there. And you know Jeremy, y'all have seen Jeremy on our social medias.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, me and Jeremy hunt together all the time now, every day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pretty much Jeremy was with Chase. We had a podcast a long ago. Jeremy's the guy who shot while you were eating granola bar.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So this is yeah. That's a heck of an introduction for him.
Speaker 2:He's the one that Chase is still salty about that.
Speaker 3:I'm over it, hey.
Speaker 2:He forgot to mention I had just taken my Invisalign.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, he told me that last night we sat down.
Speaker 2:We're like last night we sat down.
Speaker 3:like, well, it's snack time, pop my Invisalign out and I'm setting you know about to put them in their little carrying case right look up and then long beards give me the side eye about 10 yards there wasn't, there wasn't much you could do at that point, and I know that, um, yeah, we joke about it quite often, really and honestly, uh, we, we listened to the podcast me, jeremy did. Coming coming back from deer camp the other day, I'm like I know you ain't listening to the podcast this week you know, he's like what are you talking about?
Speaker 1:I'm like you, own it you talked about it. You would have mentioned it to me you would have said something by now.
Speaker 3:You know, gave him a hard time on it and we listened back to it. I wasn't trying to rag on Jeremy at all. Really and honestly there was one or two points that I was kind of like, hmm, I might have sounded a little rude there.
Speaker 1:He let me be in Jeremy's shoes.
Speaker 3:I'm doing the same thing.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely I would have done the exact same thing.
Speaker 3:You know he didn't have an opportunity to turn around and say, hey, there's two hanging out out here at 20 yards. I'm not doing that. Hey, I got to make a decision whether we're killing a turkey today or not.
Speaker 1:I'll probably figure out what's going on when I pull this trigger.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 20 hours in the truck. We didn't come to walk off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, he'll understand.
Speaker 3:I know yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Which I mean it's kind of like if I hear someone shoot, I mean Chase might be a better person than I am. He's worried about what happened.
Speaker 2:I'm like I'm coming up with a gun on my shoulder. I'm ready.
Speaker 1:And I just I mean, and that's funny, but I have that much respect for turkeys and I know they can do that at any given time. Like they can definitely like if someone, if I'm having a conversation with someone at the base of a tree and they stop talking, I'm like putting my finger on the safety I know what's happening.
Speaker 3:you know there's a good chance.
Speaker 1:And it's you know. You just don't. You're not born with instincts. I mean, I guess technically you are born with instincts, but I'm saying like you're not born with you know certain cues and being able to catch on certain things, and I don't like that. I was kind of hypothetical. But with turkeys you got to do it. You got to go find out.
Speaker 3:You got to fail. Yes, you've got to go find out. You've got to fail. You're in their house, Right, and you're not going to know every bedroom bathroom closet in it until you're there for an hour or two.
Speaker 1:You're trying to speak a language that you don't even know what it means. Right, you generally know what yelp means, and they cackle when they fly down. But I mean it's like me going to another country, know another country and trying to, you know, order food. It's not easy. You don't just walk in there and do it, you know. I mean the difference in a putt and a cluck is a really big deal. You know, if you're walking around putting, you probably don't kill a lot of turkeys.
Speaker 1:But if you're walking around clucking. You probably are.
Speaker 2:One of my worst misses of the six can remember real well. Uh, again, it was going into the afternoon like I talked about. We knew where these birds were kind of roosted, so went in there, just sat down and listened for the afternoon yeah and a hen got fired up, you know, just on her own. And again, this is just being inexperienced. Uh, I was facing toward her, yeah, ready to roll, and footsteps come from the other side, you know, in the leaves, and I should have turned you know that's when you turn not really knowing when to turn at that point, you know.
Speaker 2:So I'm just still looking at the hand, thinking they're going to go straight to her, and five long beards come up about five yards to my right and my gun is pointed 180 degrees the other way, and one of them, the lead one you know he got. He got far enough, uh, where I thought I had a chance, and they started putting and I swung and you know oh, yeah, I think I wrapped the gun around the tree on after that that's rough.
Speaker 3:That's when he got a new shotgun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah but not much choice that and it shot straight after that. Yeah, there you go, yeah hit it on the top part and knock it down eight inches right but not some of that stuff you don't think of as a seat.
Speaker 3:You know, I guess a seasoned hunter would be what, what, what? I would call it um.
Speaker 1:You know, that's something you don't not everybody knows what turkey's walking sound like yeah, it almost sounds like a person walking up on you, yeah, you know two feet it's two feet.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I learned that day and you know that's something that it just takes sitting out there I guess I mean that's, that's my number one thing. Somebody asked me like hey, what do I need to do to to learn how to turkey hunt? Go out there right, be in the woods, find you a block of woods, or go to public land, you know I learned something different.
Speaker 2:You know, every one of those 38 days I went that one season, you know, without killing it I anything I learned more by. You know. Like everybody will tell you, you learn more by not killing one than you do by Absolutely.
Speaker 3:And I mean, I almost kind of wish I would have by the time I was hunting alone. I kind of almost wish I wasn't decent at calling. You know like wish I wouldn't have had a mouth call or a call with me, because I probably would have learn so much more, so much faster just doing what you were doing getting in there where you know turkeys have been right, you know, and hoping they come back around that that day and okay, well, why'd they go that direction today?
Speaker 2:and in this direction.
Speaker 3:Yet you know, yesterday that didn't make any sense you know and and and start thinking, and then you know kind of get your brain going on like, oh well, hey, you know there is a creek over here, or you know it rained last night and that creek's flooded and all of a sudden you know.
Speaker 3:Now you know hey, turkeys don't like water or or like to roost over water versus roosting on the side of a ridge, or, you know, starts throwing those, the stuff that took me 10 years to learn. You know, because I, because I was trying to, you know, do one thing, call that turkey to me, no matter what. You know, if I would have just spent a little more time sitting out there alone, silent, I probably would have learned a lot, and I try to do that a lot more nowadays.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and this is I mean I don't know how many days I've turkey hunted in my life, but I mean a whole whole lot. Oh yeah, and I still do that. I still learn at least something every time. I mean I and you mentioned that like there's been scenarios where you know it did rain a whole lot at night or something and you know, and a turkey just hammering and you're kind of close, but I mean you got that feeling he ain't here and you're like really don't want to overdo it here. But right, you, you know, I know he's hearing me as close as he is and you go walk under that tree and he has roosted over a creek that now there's a huge shh of water. Like ain't no way he heard me he has no idea.
Speaker 1:I didn't bump him.
Speaker 2:He does not know I was existing in this world and I wasn't 60 yards, I felt like, but you know you couldn't hear it from where you were at, but where you know and he's, you know he ain't hearing that under you know, above a rapid waterfall, you know um, it's just, you know, you don't know until you walk over there a lot of times.
Speaker 2:So you gotta, you gotta kind of do that and another thing, you know, just starting out brand new kind of picking a pathway to go down. You know there's different styles of turkey hunters yes and I quickly, you know, ditched the whole decoy, all that stuff, which people you know killed turkeys all right whatever.
Speaker 2:But you know I found you guys, your podcast, everything and really aligned with that, just the um, that style of hunting and that has taken me further, you know, than than really anything else, just um the more woodsmanship aspect of it and the curiosity is the biggest thing you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, crate, crate, yeah, that's what if I had to?
Speaker 2:you know, say anything like especially, I think, college-age guys, it's a great time. If you've never done it, pick it up. You've got a lot of free time.
Speaker 1:You've got more free time then, than you do. You might think you don't but wait.
Speaker 2:You know, yeah, I mean I went to medical school and then now I'm a resident, so free time is thinner and thinner. But if you're in college and want to try it, just go. The odds are there's some public ground. Probably somewhere, if you're at Ole Miss, feel free to message me. I got some pins.
Speaker 1:They're no good $400.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're no good to me anymore, so I'd be happy to you know share some information.
Speaker 1:Those targets are dead Because I figured it out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've learned that. Yeah, somebody drops you a pin. You probably don't even want to try to go to it, because that means they are washed out of there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was a pretty good spot.
Speaker 3:It was, yeah, five years ago, whenever nobody knew about it.
Speaker 1:I mean, I've gone back to some places. I mean I have gone back to some pins, especially thinking about college and stuff. I just kind of riding through. I'm like I want to see how this is.
Speaker 1:There's a daggone elephant trail going down there, like they figured them out, you know they learned there was a turkey down there at one point and I talked about it, uh, on the live podcast we did last year ran into an old guy who told me about a turkey. I mean now probably 10 years ago, but but he was. He broke by and I talked to him and kind of connected the dots and he said uh-huh, uh-huh. He said hey you know turkey's here, he'd tell me. Because he told me about a turkey being there, he turkey hunted.
Speaker 2:It worked out for my buddy KC that he was working at West Point at the Mossy Oak Kennels and just happened to stop by one of our old uh hunting spots from college one day because he was headed, you know, not far from it. Just tried it on a random morning. You know where we'd gone plenty of times and there were three two-year-olds in there.
Speaker 1:Really when, uh, when he left, there was only two yeah, right it uh, yeah, that I mean, and I've gone out of state and and and boarded the same little nook and I'm pretty sure the the tread on the track still there from last breeding.
Speaker 2:I was like that looks like mine, you know I don't think anybody's really driven over here and my God, there's a turkey there.
Speaker 1:You know a new one there. They don't, nothing's for sure, nothing's, you know, definitely written off. But there's reasons. They do what they do year after year. And if there's always turkeys there, you know there's a reason. There's always turkeys. There's something there they like, they're like. I don't know why they roost or hang out near those. You know oxbow areas and creeks and rivers and stuff like that, but they do.
Speaker 3:I think it could be some.
Speaker 1:Some dude said, as measured a while back about it could be the sound like the, the way they, like you know it bounces all the. The noise you know they can hear well or they know they're being heard well, is what he was insinuating. And I don't know Because of it, because that's the first flood. Then there's no, it's open there, I don't know. There's more light there maybe I don't know. Maybe they literally like to corral hens because it looks like a corral Right Makes life easier on them. But they are, and you just stop asking questions at some point and go. That's a thing.
Speaker 1:You know, that's just accepted for what it is. But I mean there's stuff like that. I'm learning all the time. But I mean learning what a turkey scratch is like, you know learning that cadence. Learning that three or four tur turkey scratching sounds like elephants you know and and knowing where they're going to be scratching.
Speaker 1:If you start hearing that, you know. If you're going into a pine plantation listening for scratching, you can walk up on a lot of turkeys, because they don't make no sound yeah, you know, you can only hear it in the leaves right in the pine straw, you know. So just, I mean, unless you're real tight on them yeah, if you hear a turkey scratching in a pine straw, you better stop moving Right because they reach your hand out and grab it, because it's very, very close.
Speaker 1:But pine straw diminishes the volume of a gobble substantially. You know, a lot of times you're way closer than you think you are if you're hunting them in pines. And it's a soft wood. It's you're hunting them in pines. It's a soft wood, it's soft ground, it's soft everything you ain't going to hear them walking up to you. No.
Speaker 3:You'll have them sneak up on you.
Speaker 1:It's a new style of hunting when it comes from pines to oak bottoms and fields and stuff like that. But yeah, I mean there's.
Speaker 3:That needs to be next week's episode, where you're hunting them?
Speaker 2:yeah, because we could probably go into that a long way.
Speaker 3:Versus out west, versus up north, versus, you know, georgia versus mississippi. There's a big difference georgia, mississippi, they're both easterns, yeah, um between michigan and alabama, there's a big difference.
Speaker 1:Um, and tennessee, kent or there's I mean there's, I swear. There's two different subspecies of Easterns. One is more Mississippi style. We've got a little. We've got some Osceola cousins at least, and some of them A little more rough. They're just kind of bany roostery you know, compared to some of those big Northeastern you know.
Speaker 3:Butterballs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I, I mean just big turkeys and I think I shot one in kentucky last year, the same day peyton did, and it was. I mean you put them side by side and I'm like that looks like a mississippi one and that looks like a, a main one, almost, so to speak. I mean there's one in virginia. I shot that. I. I promise you swing span is as big as this freaking table.
Speaker 1:I mean I've never in my life seen a turkey that big Right. You put it up against one. I shot with Logan last year and it makes it look like a pole. Yeah, but I mean the terrain is different, the turkeys they act differently.
Speaker 1:Miriam's will gobble the whole way to you and Eastern ain't going to do. You know we'll dive into that a little bit. But, jeremy, appreciate you hopping on and giving us a perspective that we don't always have on here and we and a lot of folks do listen to this. Um, trying to learn something via search bar. You know turkey hunting this or you know and there, and we might be hopping into something that's you know in chapter 11 of the book of turkey hunting that and we got a. You know, every now and then tone it back to chapter one and two and you know you were a little closer to your chapter one and two, so able to remember a lot more and and put into words.
Speaker 2:Gary is a good example you know, he didn't really start hunting until he was.
Speaker 1:You know about the same year, 2020, ish yeah and crap.
Speaker 1:I'm learning stuff from him now you know he, uh, he hit it running and has figured out what works, what doesn't and how turkeys behave. That's the main thing. If you figure out how turkeys behave, that's the tell-all. You know, you can be very good at a lot of things. You can be very good at hearing, very good at calling, very good at shooting, very good at hearing, very good at calling, very good at shooting, very good at walking quietly. If you don't know what a turkey's behavior's like, it's hard to communicate with them. You know it's almost know what you're working with and they're all different. And don't ever think that because we say something on here, that's how it's going to be, that's how it is.
Speaker 1:That's how it was on a turkey that's not even there, no more. Um, I I'm good at erasing that just because I can watch turkey fly up, and I don't trust that he's on that limb the next morning. I just don't trust turkeys that much. Um, just because turkey did this one time does not mean he's gonna do it again.
Speaker 1:Um, it's just respect to have for their wits and ability more than anything, and a lot of humblings that don't get, as mentioned I think we mentioned probably more than a lot of folks, because that's my favorite part, but that's just because I I enjoy talking about getting whipped more than I do when it works, but but there's a lot a lot to learn, and you're going to learn a lot more by getting in the woods than you are probably anything else including this podcast, but we appreciate it.
Speaker 3:Yes, very much so. And um, yeah, I mean I think that's the kind of one of the things he kind of slightly hit on whenever he decided to ditch all the gizmos and gadgets he kind of started learning a lot more. You know, it seemed um, because that was what he was trying to say there, and you know I'm not saying that's a great thing or good or bad, but I have heard that from a lot of people when they tried to stop using a thousand different things at one moment and just being present and paying attention and not paying attention to all these other little things.
Speaker 1:The crutches.
Speaker 3:The crutches. Yeah, yeah, they started learning a lot more and excelling in there, you know.
Speaker 1:Take those away and you have no idea what's going on. Right, I'm going to start leaving something in the truck and go figure out what's going on. Are you going to kill a lot more turkeys?
Speaker 3:Or you know it draws the. I expect one to do this out of the scenario. That ain't how they always react either Right, so 90% of the time it may work 5% of the time it may work, but but 90 of the time. They've won it, they've done the same thing, because they
Speaker 1:think yeah they're being uh influenced in a different way right. So I don't know um y'all figure how marketing works, you'll stop trusting what these success guarantees mean to you I'll leave it at that. Um uh, somebody's getting money off of it, yeah, but anyways, yeah, let's not dive too deep into that one. Yeah, hold me, hold me back, yeah um, all right.
Speaker 3:Well, we're rolling on, y'all going to deer camp, I think yep, we're heading down. We're probably running late at this point, but well, all right, gotta talk a little turkey I'm more. It's worth it, so y'all go on the road.
Speaker 1:Uh, listeners appreciate y'all listening to a pretty good, solid year turkey hunting stuff we've been able to talk about. Next time you hear from us it'll be 2025, which I'm about to get used to saying. Again, we appreciate everything y'all have done for reviews and stars and all that stuff and sharing the podcast. We're going to be pumping them on out here shortly, including some YouTube videos and stuff like that as well. So y'all follow along on all the social medias, at spring legion and um, and check out what we do have and don't have in stock.
Speaker 1:At springlegioncom, we got a lot more coming, uh, in preparation for spring turkey season and it'll be here before you know it. So we'll see you next week 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.
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