The Spring Legion Podcast

Finding Turkeys to Hunt | Scouting Public and Private Land for Turkey Season

• Spring Legion Turkey Hunting

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This week, we explore the various strategies we have used to successfully locate wild turkeys in the past on both public lands and private camps. From pre-season scouting techniques and understanding turkey behavior to the importance of water, dirt, sunlight, and other resources and terrain, the hosts Hunter Farrior and Chase Farrior share valuable insights to find turkeys to hunt.

RELEASING 2/13/25: 

BALLAD OF A TURKEY HUNTER + ANY GIVEN SPRING MORNING: Special Edition Combination Copy

  • Registered first-run, signed, and numbered prints of the book #1-100 will be offered on a first-come-first-serve basis at this year's NWTF convention in Nashville, TN, beginning February 13, 2025 at the Spring Legion Booth (by Mossy Oak and Nomad)
  • 10% of proceeds will be donated back into the NWTF
  • 100 Limited Edition Dust Jackets will be included on copies #1-100
  • Unsigned copies will release on Feb 13 on Amazon

In this episode:


• Discusses scouting methods for finding turkeys 
• Highlights the significance of locating water sources 
• Explains turkey behavior and seasonal shifts 
• Provides tips on identifying signs of turkey presence 
• Encourages preparation and understanding of hunting areas


Save 15% on your next round of Houndstooth Turkey Calls with code SLP25 at checkout. Click Here to shop Houndstooth Turkey Calls

Click Here for NEW Spring Legion Gear for Spring 2025 - available in Original Bottomland and Greenleaf

Check out the SPRING LEGION YouTube Channel to watch the hunts referenced on our show, as they happened and as real as it gets.

Follow us on Instagram:
@springlegion
@hunter.farrior
@chasefarrior

Huge Thanks to the following for making this podcast possible:

North Mountain Gear
Apex Ammunition
Houndstooth Turkey Calls
...

Speaker 1:

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 conclusions to those long-fought battles of spring are instant, absolute and ethical. Alright what's going on y'all? Welcome back to another episode of the Spring Leisure Podcast, dipping into February of 2025 this week.

Speaker 1:

And could not be more excited. Got a lot of good times on the horizon. So anytime you flip a calendar page at this time of year kind of gets the juices flowing a little bit more, get the blood pumping. When months turn to weeks and then weeks turn to days, kind of the days they drag along, but at the same time, in the grand scheme of things, it's flying by. So we're in the thick of it. We're going to be doing a lot of stuff over the next week or two, and luckily Jason and I who's joining me today- we're able to sit down.

Speaker 1:

It's about 10 o'clock at night, the night before this Joker publishes, but we were able to make our way down to Mobile Alabama. Grab a camper shell at last.

Speaker 1:

Finally. Finally Took about 40, 45 days to find it, but we did Going to have to paint it and fix it up, but got something to sleep in come march. But I'm gonna be talking about finding turkeys to hunt today and that's a very popular subject. Usually that's one I enjoy talking about. I love listening to other folks talk about, because if you can't find them, can't hunt them, right? What I'm saying? That's 90% of the battle, most of the time, half the time as a hunter, if you can just find them a battle is won.

Speaker 2:

You know, you've got to hunt ahead of you Right.

Speaker 1:

I feel like the only. When I come back, you know down hard and just beat up, it's because I couldn't find a turkey to hunt. It's not because I got whipped by one. I'm usually still having a good time getting my butt whipped by a turkey Right, but if there's one that whipped my butt, I'm cool.

Speaker 2:

Right, right and that's kind of how that practically could be a recap of my 24 season.

Speaker 1:

And I've had seasons where that's a battle I can't win. If I do find it, we're good.

Speaker 2:

But I cannot find one. For the life of me Hunting Mississippi, I can count on probably one hand the amount of times I found birds that were huntable yeah. On land I could hunt, you know, or whatever you want to say.

Speaker 1:

It's tough some years and some years it's not, and some years you're lucky and some years you're unlucky. But there are several rules of thumb we'll hit on. I want to inform you all of a couple things that'll be happening soon before we dive into the discussion, because no telling how long that's going to take in the rabbit holes we'll we are bound to to get down. First and foremost, um nwtf convention is coming up and uh want to invite y'all to come hang out with us there at our booth. We will be. If you, once you enter the registration and all that good stuff, you enter the big kind of that's the guess you would say big awning-looking thing walking into the actual sports show, if you hook a right walk towards the big Mossy Oak Corner. They've kind of established their real estate there.

Speaker 1:

The Mossy Oak Corner, I'd say Country Outdoors should be around there, that big RV of theirs. If you look through Nomad's booth, you should see us from the entrance. We should be visible and we'll have a lot of good stuff there. From the. From the entrance, we should be visible and we'll have a lot of good stuff there, one of them being, uh, one of the first 100 copies of the Ballad of a Turkey Hunter, any Given Spring Morning book that will be releasing February 13th. So it's going to be releasing at the convention and then there will be an option to buy one of these slick dust jacketed covers for collective purposes of the book.

Speaker 1:

We've got all the books in, got all the dust jackets in. They're here. They're heading to nashville with us on february 13th where we will be releasing them. Um turned out pretty slick. Buddy mason went to college with uh, hooked us up with some dust jackets here. That really tied it all in together and and uh made it worth a while, I'd say. I think folks who do buy one are going to be glad that they did.

Speaker 2:

And and then the um but the main thing is I and this was a thought of mine, kind of doing this.

Speaker 1:

I hope these don't wind up being mantel pieces too too much, you know. Um, I've got some mantel pieces of collective things I've got in the turkey hunting realm and there always will be. They'll never actually enter the woods or or get dusty and I kind of protect them and stuff. But as flattering as that would be to think of, I don't necessarily want this to be that. I actually I wrote a note in the in the back of the uh, the dust jacket here, just kind kind of putting that into words.

Speaker 1:

And, you know, may it reach the hands of more and more turkey hunters with every spring that passes, you know, earning its proper character and dog-eared pages and bent, you know, edges and stuff like that along the way. But 10% of that is going to go back into wild turkey research and conservation. Yeah, we'll have those and we'll also have just the general combination copy of the book and it's just a combination of any given spring morning, the ballot of a turkey hunter, all bound in one pretty solid hardcover right there. So but yep, let's see. And if you, if you're unable to attend the show, it's still releasing february 13th on amazon, so you can always get it there. It's just going to be unsigned.

Speaker 2:

Right unsigned.

Speaker 1:

No price difference nothing like that.

Speaker 1:

And you can probably honestly get it quicker than we're able to get back home, restock everything online and ship them outside. We'll have those. We'll have all of our 2025 gear that I'm sure you all have seen by now, if you haven't check it out. At springleaguecom Going to be running some specials, some deals and stuff like that that are just kind of exclusive to the show. If you try to log on to our website in the meantime, between the dates of February 13th and 17th, I'd say you're probably going to find a limited supply of stuff. It's a you-know-what to run an online business and an in-person business simultaneously and wouldn't really wish that on anybody because, it's tough, especially when you're dealing with stuff running on stock and people buying it at home.

Speaker 1:

And then you see it there. You see 20 of these left and you're like, okay, they're for sale they're really already sold, you know so we're gonna be splitting it up.

Speaker 1:

so if you want to grab something, you're not going to be splitting it up. So if you want to grab something and you're not going to be at the convention, go ahead and do it. Ain't nothing going to drop in prices between now and March 1st. I wouldn't think we might incorporate some specials and stuff, but you might snooze and lose a little bit, and that's not just an ad there, that's looking out for you.

Speaker 1:

Aside from that, really, we got YouTube going on, released another episode yesterday at 3 pm. Every sunday at 3 pm we should be releasing new hunts. This one was a hunt that we've actually already talked about on the on the podcast chase over mississippi, and uh did well. The first one did well and I do believe I did promise a giveaway for folks who do share a story or something of that nature of the actual episode last week. And let me pull it up because I'm not prepared, as I never am actually, let's see Adam Campbell. If you listen to Adam Campbell, underscore 78, you got him. You got our free pre-gators.

Speaker 2:

Bingo.

Speaker 1:

So I had it written down, but I lost that piece of paper and I knew I'd still find it in the archives though. Right, but yep, but that, and I think I want to say there's a couple things I wanted to mention as well about folks who do attend. Oh yeah, wear the stuff. If you're wearing Spring Legion at the convention in, swing by Our Booth at checkout. We'll toss a free pair of gloves in your bag there. Got those in. They'll be for sale for those who aren't wearing them. But if you are and we don't notice it at first, you can remind us.

Speaker 2:

You're not going to, you know?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, because there will be a thousand things going on every second so don't blame us if we don't notice or don't forget to do something, and that's something I want to address as well. Well, like we might look a little stressed out in that booth, but there's nothing more we want to do than tell turkey and take pictures with y'all and stuff like that don't feel, uh, you know, like you're in the way or anything like that. Like there's a lot of moving parts, but that's what we're there to do.

Speaker 2:

100 yeah, that's. I mean, that's what we look forward to the most right, really um yeah there's a lot going on at all hours of that whole week which is why we love it, and that's the week we look forward to the most every year. I'd say, other than opening day.

Speaker 1:

And it's close. It really is Right there at it.

Speaker 2:

I know whenever I pull out of the driveway headed to Nashville every year, by the time I pull in my driveway, I ain't sleeping past 2 am very often, which I'm here on now.

Speaker 1:

I kind of I caught the bug pretty, pretty good last night about 2 am this morning, honestly editing a hunt of it was you and I hunting and it was, but we bumped the turkey and had to come back around and I'm like, yeah, just just kind of seeing some clips that I'd completely forgotten about and just hearing certain birds and stuff that I completely forgotten about, it was um, kind of got me going. Um, I'm not gonna lie, hearing wing wing bats, kind of you know, after a turkey got shot.

Speaker 1:

Just it wasn't part even in the frame, but I could hear and I was like that's the first time I've heard that all the time um, kind of got my my blood flowing there and I was like, yep, I got it, I'm down with it, down with the illness right and this weather we have right now ain't helping it's getting down about 47 every night.

Speaker 2:

Right now turning up 73 is today.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we're. Of course we're flirting with the coast, going to get the camper show, but we were coming home a matter of hours ago, and I heard tree frogs for the first time. I'm like ooh.

Speaker 2:

That ain't good.

Speaker 1:

You hear that you know like that'll send you over. And then I pointed my windshield and told Chase I was like you see them. It's hitting some bugs on the windshield First time I've done that in a couple months. I feel like you know it's warm enough for bugs to be out Yep, hearing tree frogs passing over some creeks and stuff, and I was like it's upon us. Whether you know it or not, it's creeping up on us.

Speaker 2:

Yep.

Speaker 1:

I might go listen.

Speaker 2:

I don't know there might be one gobbling in the morning. Yeah, not in the morning.

Speaker 1:

I ain't going because I'm going to be up until 2 am doing this. But yep till 2 am doing this, but, um, but, yep, so we're gonna dive into finding them turkeys today, all right, and um, we don't, we don't. This isn't like a q a thing, but we do get asked these questions pretty often and a lot of them are specific to an area, to a general state or region, or yeah, which is which changes the answer.

Speaker 2:

So I mean.

Speaker 1:

The answer turkey hunters get and give most is it depends, and that's not going to change. If there is a better answer, if there's a definite answer, I'd give it, but a lot of it. The quickest answer is it depends. It depends on where you're, at what time of year, how many birds are there, what happened to those exact birds the day before all this good stuff weather. But like we always mention, there's generalities and rules of thumbs that we do try to throw out there and y'all can take it from what it's worth. They're not always 100% correct, but they're stuff that, if you ask me and we're on the way to go hunting, this is what I would say.

Speaker 2:

We've seen a pattern in it of some sort. At some point we assumed.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, something for us to notice, right. But I mean, the place I'd start by finding turkeys, and this could go for public or private is water. Yeah, wouldn't you say? That's the number one. You've got to pick a vanilla flavor of water.

Speaker 2:

Water's a big factor.

Speaker 1:

And it ain't got to be a lot all the time, right, no, and it ain't got to be a lot all the time, right, no, um, I'm not positive. I'm not a biologist, I don't know if it's a safety matter or if it's a um, acoustics matter. Some people suggest that they can be heard better over water. I, I mean, I think it's a little bit of everything, but safety being one of them. You know a critter that can't swim, can't climb that tree, but it's not going to swerve you from owls and other things that can get you at night.

Speaker 1:

And I think that turkeys are I call it kind of like a place of option or a point of options, where they like to get where they don't. If the hens are on the right side of the creek, they don't have to fly a creek, they don't have to guess after they fly down. You know they get to where they pick a, they cut it in half, the decisions in half, and then they'll cut that decision in half and that decision in half, right, um, so they start in the middle and you know straddle in a line.

Speaker 1:

They can pick right or left and then you know, go from there. Yeah, I try to do the same if I can help it.

Speaker 1:

High points sellers and high points and stuff like that. But, but, um, but finding turkeys is a matter of how much time you got first off and a little bit of luck. I'd say you got to start at a good spot or you're going, and I have done this. I've. I've went a whole year without finding a turkey on public land before, and I lived 10 minutes from it. Um killed three turkeys in those spots the next year. It was just a matter of finding where they were and more so where the turkey hunters weren't Right. I was hunting where turkeys should be and saw track scouting and stuff and thought I had it lined up. I was, you know, showed up at the gate, number six in line. I felt like I was like, well, this might not go as well.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

But finding the gates that you can even go down is a big plus.

Speaker 2:

That is a big plus.

Speaker 1:

That is a big thing.

Speaker 2:

That's something I did A couple days before and I've had them shut the day of the morning. You know, morning I go in. There Must have been after me then. Yeah, I think a lot of the shut gates you're running into are people shutting them.

Speaker 1:

I thought that have you heard that story? I know I've thought on this, I ain't going to do it again, but I called the bluff and it should have been shut.

Speaker 2:

Somebody really shut it and I got in a bind. Yeah, mudhole Real deep yeah.

Speaker 1:

And it was too deep in it and then thought I could just go all the way through to the main road and that gate was locked so I had to come back through.

Speaker 2:

I mean, I didn't get out of there were living together, probably was For like that one month, and yeah, you weren't back. And it was. Yeah, I went to go About midnight, bruce one got back at.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you ain't, you ain't all right and you can't. Really I didn't want to call nobody. Hey, can y'all come help me Because I know I wasn't supposed to be down here.

Speaker 2:

Right was like you're an idiot yeah, no, I'm not coming to help you.

Speaker 1:

That's why we shut the gate to keep you people like you from calling us at midnight um but now what I will do and I've done this especially in new, when I moved to georgia and had to go find new public land that I wasn't familiar with and even this past spring or this, yeah, this past spring was kind of the first chance I had to scout around new mississippi public land right or or area for that matter is.

Speaker 1:

I will make a loop and I'll drop pins on gates that are shut and gates that aren't.

Speaker 2:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1:

Because a lot of wasted time if you don't have a turkey to hunt and you're having to resort to a plan B or a plan C is getting there and you look at a map look at a paper map or look at an online map and you look and see, you know this is the quicker route I map. And you look and see, you know this is the quicker route. I can be here in jiffy and you get halfway in it. You're not able to right. I get shit and you got to go all the way around. You just left a decent spot to wind up at a better spot, but it's going to be an hour and a half later and yep, your options are you know doing misrepresented there when you're weighing them um.

Speaker 1:

So that's first thing I do is is truck scout. But I'm not even looking for turkey sign or anything like that. If I, if I come across some turkeys, run across the road.

Speaker 2:

That's cool, absolutely I'll mark that.

Speaker 1:

But main thing I want to know is which gates can I go down? Which gates can I go down? And then I'll hone in on some of that could be good options. You know, down the road, if a lot of people would be passing them up, can I, can I get on my feet and walk down this road and, um, what's down it? So to speak, don't, don't waste your time walking down roads. There's just nothing, um, but a lot of times, and I, and I've noticed a lot of times that where you see turkeys is very linear, it'll be like it might be on a different road, three roads over and deeper in there, but if you connect the dots, it's in a it's, it's something. There's a commonality of some kind between the two.

Speaker 1:

That's the highest point in the whole place and it's running down the whole place. You know, right, it might look totally different and be very far away, but if you, you know there's some kind of main creek. There's always a creek everywhere, but there's a main creek where you always wind up seeing the birds or hearing the most, and that sometimes has to do with you know if it floods or not.

Speaker 2:

Good point it keeps the, you know, path of least resistance. More around that creek is more you know, easier going it's, you know. Maybe clear it out more underneath, Maybe the understory is less dense. Is what I'm trying to say, that out more underneath maybe understory is more, less dense is what I'm trying to say. That's something I pay attention to around creeks. You know, if it's got a thicket on both sides, you don't want to set up. You don't want to walk down the creek to set up on that bird if there's one gobbling over it.

Speaker 2:

You probably want to find that road, or? You know opening area, loading dock from logging or something. That's 50 yards from it, from the creek, and he's probably flying in and out right there. Yeah, that's a thought I've had. I don't know how many times I've actually used it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, um, just something to early season scout for right, and and another thing is burning is going on a lot of times around this time, right, um? So so chicken and burn. They have schedules and and I, you know, I don't know how right they are, you know, when it comes to sticking to them and stuff, so much depends on weather and atmospheric, some things and things that are over my pay grade, but you'll probably run into a forester or whatever the Us forest association.

Speaker 2:

however, they well. You know the white trucks, white truck, you know if you see a white truck with a tree on it um, um, if you're running them, I will ask them again what's y'all's plan for this?

Speaker 1:

and they'll tell me, and I, and I've called up there and you'll get a lady of some kind and hey, what are y'all gonna burn this or whatever. And she didn't send me, she didn't send me a link, but she, she told me where to go to see a map at one point. Um, I don't know if that's for everywhere, but but it was. It was beneficial to know that. Hey, they're, they're gonna be up in here.

Speaker 1:

I know, turkeys love burns, but they don't love fire you know so so that's where I was, and I say this because I have scouted the mess out of an area found plentiful turkeys. It showed up on March 15th to a blaze, and I'm like well, they're not there today, but now I've got to find somewhere new Might be there. You know, I don't know. I mean, some folks have pictures of them walking in the smoke and smoldering fire and I'm like they ain't walking in that, because that will burn them Right.

Speaker 1:

Because there's people out there actively doing it Right. So I had to find somewhere new and that was just kind of like a. I didn't have necessarily all my plan Bs were in the part being burned, so there wasn't really much I could do.

Speaker 1:

So that's a good little tip to remember. I'm trying to think of a couple more. Let's see. I'd say that you're able to go if you're gonna put boots on the ground. You're not stupid for going to look for turkey sign right now. Some folks get out there. I mean you can get out there november look for turkey sign.

Speaker 2:

It just may not still hold true, right? So that that brings up the the conversation of your buddy walking up to you and saying man, I got turkeys all over my place. We should go hunt. When did you have to? You know when is the question I always ask and you know a lot of people look at me like I'm crazy when I ask that. Well, I got them on my trail cameras all the time. You know 40 or 50 of them I was hunting, I saw 40.

Speaker 1:

We got 40 you had 43.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you're gonna like and, and I don't know, like the, your neighbors probably thought they didn't have any right. So I mean, that's, that's something to think about, like you know, if you think, you know, and some people don't know, that turkeys turkeys roost in the in the wintertime in different areas, normally in the springtime. Yeah, there may be one or two still hanging around there in the springtime, but you aren't going to have 50 longbeards that you saw deer hunting normally.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they'll be broken up Right and they'll find greener pastures that they're bound to Just like deer do.

Speaker 2:

In the summertime you'll have bachelor groups and then you know, once the velvet comes off, they go. You know they break up. It's a different animal Right A whole other person.

Speaker 1:

You start seeing those feathers get shiny on a gobbler. It's the same thing His waddle starts getting lower and lower, or whatever they're called. You're kind of like eh, he's getting primed up. You know, they look like a different turkey in November than they do in March. Right, and they're kind of going through that transition. And right now is the I believe I'm not saying for sure, but we're talking around right here this is when their pecking order is kind of getting fine-tuned, starting to get situated.

Speaker 1:

You know, if it isn't already they're pushing out, who they're going to try to push out and who's going to be the top dog and stuff like that, and you'll see. And the groups I have seen, you know with my own eyes here lately have been groups of hens or jennies, and then groups of jaguar gobblers, whereas it had been just a group of poults, and then a group of mature turkeys, kind of regardless, right, um, the gobblers are separate than from the hens that I've seen, and then, um, and even the, the, the younger birds, that is all jakes are all jennies or vice versa, and and and we have seen a couple showing up on some of the deer trail cameras.

Speaker 1:

We have just long, long beards and stuff yeah, at the same time I started seeing the jakes kind of pop around and strut and pop each other.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, so something Start jumping around, he might have gotten kicked out or, you know, hadn't seen that one, yeah.

Speaker 1:

And all of a sudden he just shows up and he's been there a day or two. Yeah, you know so something's going on in the pick and order business.

Speaker 2:

I feel like I say, from my kind of day of when I want to kind of start shifting, to go listen and kind of feeling like they're going to kind of start asserting their dominance is about February 20th to the 25th. Somewhere in there is when they're going to kind of start marking that territory pretty hard. You know what I'm saying, right?

Speaker 1:

And I say that to say that you can go look for sign now and you're going to be in a ballpark at least. Yeah, yeah, you can start there. For sure, because I mean you catch that fine little pocket of days. Those hens and gobblers are meeting up still after the roost and you can get in between them and it's usually on the first week.

Speaker 2:

You know youth season's down here.

Speaker 1:

That's what you're trying to do, you know, because usually the gobblins are still in a bunch of three to four maybe, and the hens are in a bunch of 400 to 500. It feels like it for sure, and if you can get between them, you're all right.

Speaker 1:

It's hard to mess up if you don't do much, you know because they're going to kind of all just meet up and you're just kind of trying to move and get in the middle of it. They're going to it, um, they're gonna cross you at one point across your bus. You want I don't know, but um, or you'll bust them, but um, but yeah it ain't, it ain't too early to get out and start looking for tracks and start looking for scratching and stuff like that. And then that kind of leads you into, uh, the mass crop probably pays.

Speaker 1:

It pays a lot to do with that I want to get dudley phelps on here big time to explain a little bit of that, because this past, past year I don't know everybody's situation but we ain't got no acorns Zero, so I don't know. I'm sure I've hunted several seasons where that was the case, but I don't remember paying attention to it.

Speaker 2:

Right. I don't know what that's going to do. The drought in Mississippi really hurt the acorn crop this year, and that's across the board, it seems. From what I've picked up. Everybody I know, from north to south, to east, to west Mississippi, alabama and Louisiana. You know stuff of that nature there the deer were hurting this year Really. You know the food plots were gone.

Speaker 1:

Really.

Speaker 2:

Pretty much, just because there was not an acorn crop.

Speaker 1:

But some do and I don't know. That's why I want to get Dudley or somebody here, who might not have that answer on here. What was the difference? I don't know.

Speaker 2:

Because, yeah, when you do find some, you find a lot.

Speaker 1:

Right. I don't know if it's a soil deal and it could be a species of tree deal.

Speaker 2:

I don't know. Yeah, I have no idea, but that would be a good question for Dudley.

Speaker 1:

Take. Take that out of the equation on a normal year I'm looking you know ravines, lower areas that are still holding acorns. Obviously it depends on the right kind of acorns, you know, small enough for turkey to eat. Um, you know, by then the acres that have fallen and have not been eaten have have wound up in a crevice. Yeah, you can find a. Can find a crevice. You can probably find some scratching. If you don't find no scratching, there probably ain't nothing to scratch for.

Speaker 2:

If that makes sense, this is more of a question.

Speaker 1:

I have.

Speaker 2:

So bug crop, that's a big one, the bugs, and I've kind of always this has kind of been on my back burner. So the swampy, wet, nasty soil areas where you see a lot of, you know, wompy, wet, nasty soil areas where you see a lot of dead leaves wash up and scratch, I almost think more they're scratching for bugs than scratching for acorns and things of that nature, that's a good point. And if acorns are in a flooded area or something of that nature, the ones that sink when they get pushed up when water comes up and then they get hung up there, they're rotting acorns, so they'll attract bugs.

Speaker 2:

True, I would assume. Maybe it's something I've been kind of trying to pay attention to. I don't know the answer to it yet. But that is a thought I had about two seasons ago and I've been keeping it kind of on the back burner.

Speaker 1:

That's a good point. It sounds like me and my tadpole theory. Right in my tadpole theory, right right, which I will say this Jason Hart, our buddy, must have reached out the other day and told me that he heard something. I don't remember the exact you know scenario or occurrence, but he mentioned Ben Rogers.

Speaker 2:

Lee had mentioned tadpoles before I don't know what he said about them.

Speaker 1:

He told me but I've forgotten, but it made me feel like not an idiot, thinking about you know, and that's a quote-unquote tactic I kind of did use this past year once I kind of picked up on it.

Speaker 1:

I think I was with Austin when I did. I'm like dude, there are tracks everywhere around these mud puddles and none around these mud puddles. And I looked, I'm like, well, that one has tadpoles and that one ain't got no tadpoles, Right, um. But we went and hunted and came back and we didn't hear nothing and saw more tracks there like so they really they were silent but it was a muggy morning, you know, wasn't hearing nothing, but if nothing else, I knew that there was turkey around.

Speaker 1:

If I didn't think to go check again, I would not have known. Turkey was around, fair. And I want to say he and our buddy jenny's went back like the next morning or a couple mornings after that and they were lighting it up. They were probably around turkeys the whole time. I think I did go with them at some point in between there and we got on one, but I guarantee you there was. I mean I think they heard he said they were like four or five and I bet you there was four or five there the whole morning. It's just a way to verify whether or not turkeys there. You're looking for turkeys. I'm not we're talking about hunting them.

Speaker 1:

Today I'm talking about finding them. Um, that was something I started, you know, paying attention to. If I, it's kind of like the, the acorns if you find a bunch of acorns and there's not much scratching in, there might not be a turkey there yeah don't get mad at the acre you know, um, I see a bunch of tab holes, and ain't no turkey tracks around might be because there's not any right.

Speaker 2:

These are just places to give a shot or give a look, give a deeper look, potentially you know kind of thing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'm trying to think of a couple more. The main thing that I feel like folks remember most and I didn't mean to coin a phrase, there's an actual, I'm sure, terms for them, but I call them mushrooms and omega signs and creeks. Omega signs and creeks yeah, and I and my my findings of that very brutal season not hearing a turkey, that's one thing I did did figure out that, and it was the next year when I figured it out. But if I could find a way to, to get close to one of them, wherever a creek kind of goes like this bubbles up, because an oxbow would probably be a more I don't not a lake but I think I think the term oxbow also means doing that shape it's almost like a horseshoe.

Speaker 1:

Let's just say that yeah, puzzle piece, puzzle piece, there you go. They hovered around there for some reason or another, and I've heard a lot of theories. A lot of folks have chimed in on that one particular thing. They've either noticed it or knew a better reason to it, and then some folks have theorized if that's even a word that it could be a sound thing. Yeah, you know, mine was kind of like I feel like it floods quicker, so maybe it's open.

Speaker 2:

I feel like it's more of a protection thing Could be. You've got water almost on three-quarters of your sides.

Speaker 1:

Like a corral too. Yeah, you know, if you're trying to corral a bunch of hens up, I don't know. Yeah, I'm not a turkey.

Speaker 2:

It's kind of a circle of water that they don't want to cross.

Speaker 1:

One of them questions I don't ask.

Speaker 2:

The video we released last week. Whenever we popped in the creek and popped back up, we were on one of those puzzle pieces. And I don't think we knew it at Like.

Speaker 1:

I remember like we didn't have any turkeys there either, though.

Speaker 2:

Right, but they were just you know. Yeah, they were jakes, but they were. You know, there was a bunch of turkeys.

Speaker 1:

They were right there.

Speaker 2:

Sitting on that X of it.

Speaker 1:

And they were comfortable there, yep so.

Speaker 2:

Yep so.

Speaker 1:

That's my bread and butter right there, If I'm going in blind, as you know not always.

Speaker 2:

I will say, since you pointed that out to me, I've noticed it several times, you know, and sometimes after the fact. Yeah, but this is one of those things that I do believe a little bit of truth.

Speaker 1:

No, I don't know which side. I can't tell you that.

Speaker 1:

Right, but I try to get within 150 to listen. Tell you that right, but I try to get within 150 to listen. Um, I think, um that, and then, and then there's, and there's always the factor of scarcity, and this goes for private and public. You know equally if, what, what might you have that it's not found for a while? Or like especially these little 20, 40, 60 acre? You know pieces of properties, you know the 60 acre. You know pieces of properties. You know little leases that are.

Speaker 2:

You know stuff you can paint a gate for kind of deal.

Speaker 1:

Very, very small ones that sometimes have turkeys and sometimes don't. And you know, and I've had a lot of folks, you know, dm us and ask them what can I do for this property? Right, it's 17 acres. You know, I can't do that. This property right, it's 17 acres. You know I can't do that. I can't burn. I can try out, but I already caught four coons on it.

Speaker 1:

I don't know what else, you know, it's just I'm just kind of setting pointless traps at this point kind of deal. You know I've killed everything and every now and then I'll catch one. But but and I say, you know, look around your neighbors and what do they have and what don't you have? And and they know, turkeys are in the area. It's just, you know they float, they're not always there, and they're not always going to be there, ain't nothing you can do to make them always?

Speaker 1:

right, turkeys move a lot 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. But what about sand and rock and dirt?

Speaker 2:

Do? They have a lot of that?

Speaker 1:

because I've suggested that before and I've never I haven't done this, but I've been on properties who didn't do it intentionally, but the they're pretty much non-competitive with the surrounding areas and they had just dissed up a bunch of stuff and those turkeys didn't leave there for about a week. I'm like well yeah, when in doubt run a daggone tiller through it, you know, at least give them some dirt and stuff and they'll.

Speaker 2:

They'll hang out a while yeah, turkeys love fresh dirt and I don't know if that's the bug factor again, you know coming in or the dusting or what it could be. Um, I have noticed. You say that you brought that up. I have noticed you say that you brought that up. I have noticed places that have grass paths, paths for their trails through it, versus places with gravel yeah, dirt trails through the property. What did you notice? More turkeys on the gravel. Really, because of the crawl situation, I think.

Speaker 1:

No, I mean, I think you know. They're a bird, if you can put a lot of things conveniently placed together, whether it be, you know, creek bottoms have acres, have water.

Speaker 1:

You know that's a lot right, there have bugs, have probably some grit you know stuff you know in there, but if you can kind of also put it where there's sunlight, or also put it where there's, you know, strut zones, and and then you shift in the nest cover towards the end and that's where you're going to start finding them in between yeah, don't, don't sleep on, cut over birds, shoot don't tell nobody about cut over birds. That's pretty much it, yeah um no, that's my favorite bird to hunt. There's a fresh cut over bird yeah, fresh or one year old.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, because of nest cover. Yeah, the hens are going to drag them there If you can hunt both the woods and a section next to the cover, and they love an enemy.

Speaker 1:

I don't blame them. They just get in there and you can see for miles and they're usually somewhere high.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And you can kind of see down in there.

Speaker 2:

And you'll realize.

Speaker 1:

And they're loud when they're in those woods because it's almost like they're trying to throw it across that whole dang place. But they're still in a bunch of hardwoods echoing and stuff they're fun to hunt.

Speaker 2:

That may have something to do with the transition line too. To do with that, I've heard a lot of transition talk.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, and in not a shiny sense, it's familiarity where they used to live ain't there no more, and so now they're habitual animals, habitual animals, I feel like, and that's you know, they're still their spot. They just had to get. They got pushed out, you know. But, um, but let's see, I'm trying to think of some other things I try to do finding turkeys I wouldn't advise asking around, not down here, at least because, you'll wind up in at the white house or in the Gulf of Mexico.

Speaker 2:

Hit on field birds at all. Field birds, okay. What do you have to say about them? Because I'm kind of I'm not a fan of field birds. If I can help it, I enjoy hunting them. I mean, I don't mind it, but I'd rather not.

Speaker 1:

I wouldn't if I'm not out of here.

Speaker 2:

Pick the the choice, if you know what I'm saying, um, but if that's what you got, if you got a place with a bunch of cow pasture or field, you know ag fields- this the easiest way to find a turkey to hunt is just to see him because you know exactly what he's doing where he's at and he's heading in the direction he's walking towards usually

Speaker 1:

yeah, um, that can change, but a lot of times times, wherever they're walking towards is where they're going. If you can lay eyes on them, that's always good, but you have a chance to get. You digest a lot quicker what the scenario is, as opposed to your ears wondering how many hens he's got, wondering what kind of mood they're in, yada, yada. If he's strutting and not strutting, that's a big difference in what they're doing, what his mindset, the mind space he's in. Laying eyes on them is always good. You can ride around and do that, so can everybody else. So it's kind of I don't put all my marbles in that for sure it's kind of a bonus if I see one from the truck and you know, down here it ain't gonna happen.

Speaker 2:

But you know other areas you could acquire permission right um um, yeah, we're not diving into how to hunt these scenarios.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, necessarily are we I mean we have 40 minutes. I think there's still several other things. I look for trying to find birds. I can think of y'all, just give me a second. But um, shades one, and I remember looking for shade several times, getting where other turkey hunters aren't, as it's my that's the biggest thing if you can, if you can get there yeah and this is a public land.

Speaker 1:

I mean, I'm sorry I have some private references most of mine are going to be public just from our situation. Um, but that the the main learnings. I learned the tough year I had not being able to find one. Not, I didn't hear a gobble, I'm telling you I was.

Speaker 1:

I was, uh, pretty hard up there for a while and it made it worse, it made the sickness stronger, it made you know I was even more bound by April 30th than I was March 15th, and I thought I had it bad at March 15th, but I didn't.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1:

Until you go a whole year without hearing one. But I would look for and this is when I feel old when you have paper maps- oh yeah.

Speaker 1:

I had a paper map in my vest and I had one in my notebook and my book bag and I had a lot of paper maps. And I still have a lot of paper maps because it makes it easier for my mind to digest what's on the table, not to say I don't also, you know, use the e, the E stuff too to an extent, but the paper maps kind of take some congestion out of that frame there and break it down into main things, I would look for waterways of some kind.

Speaker 1:

This is, you know, general speaking, but this is still what I do. I still do this. I find waterways and I try to get in the middle of them, find a way that find a barrier to humans as much as turkeys. Remember, turkeys can fly, humans can't. Humans can find a log to walk over a creek and some humans will walk through the creek, you might get down into, you know, south central Mississippi, probably not much stopping many of them at all.

Speaker 2:

Right.

Speaker 1:

It depends on where you're at, but if you can find those ways to get across some creeks and get up in between these creeks, so this might not go for opening day, but give it a week or two.

Speaker 1:

Once the folks start squeezing in, squeezing in, squeezing in, those turkeys, go somewhere and you find a way to get over in there. You might not be the only one that knows how to get in there, but if you can get in there the quickest, if you know where that log is, drop a pin on the log. Don't worry about the turkey. Find the log, find the log. Now I'm talking for the stuff that's shoulder deep, you know, yeah, if it ain't shoulder deep, suck it up, jump, jump as far as you can, um, or?

Speaker 2:

hope whoever's competing with you can't jump as far as they can, yeah, but but a lot.

Speaker 1:

That's not going to keep a ton of people out. You can. You can find a spot that you can cross a lot easier. I'm talking about finding short enough stuff. You got to have log cross or you got to have this or that, and there's. There's different ways to access things and and listening is is is one of them. If you get out and just go listen for turkeys, you'll learn a lot and you might not even hear a turkey gobble, but you'll see, you'll learn that they, you know now there's a new fire lane or something that was different than last year, and all that stuff.

Speaker 1:

And sometimes and that's something you can't be too dependent on some of these you know satellite maps, because that whole section might not be there no more, right I think as of lately it's pretty daggone close.

Speaker 1:

Pretty close, you know unless they cut it this week. It's it's probably right, but, um, but yeah, if you, if you can find that, and then, and finding and and turkeys like the same areas year after year, that I've, that I've noticed, right, um, and, and it's going to depend on how many you got and all that good stuff, but I think a lot of that has to do with topography or elevation situation stuff.

Speaker 2:

That's something I do.

Speaker 1:

I study the topography a little more you know, as far as If you can get that in your head pretty good, you know there's tendencies there, yeah.

Speaker 2:

But that's more as of. Came from where did I hear a turkey? Let me look at my map now.

Speaker 1:

I kind of worked reverse for a while. Yeah, which is smart.

Speaker 2:

And just hope I stumble into one. Then, okay, there was something here, let me put a pin on it and like, wait, what you know, get back to the truck and be like, let me look at that, Dive deeper into that situation. You know, and I'll kind of I veer towards the topography type stuff bridges and flats and benches and holes and whatnot.

Speaker 1:

And getting to where you can hear, that is another thing, you know. I mean, seeing them is one thing, but being able to hear them is another thing. First the places I'm going. I've already told y'all in one of these books cemetery.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, cemeteries always got birds. If you go to a cemetery, you're going to hear a turkey somewhere.

Speaker 1:

It could be December.

Speaker 2:

I feel like any time I'm at a cemetery, I'm going to hear a turkey. I can hunt him, yep, but you're probably going to hear one, and I don't know.

Speaker 1:

I don't know what the coordinates are for burial places, but I feel like something to do with elevation. I don't know. You know it's always on a high spot. And then the other ones. You know someone named Peggy. Peggy, they're going to knock on her door because they're going to wheel you and deal you and stiff as negotiators I've ever dealt with, but I don't know Something about it.

Speaker 1:

I don't know it must have been a popular name whenever all these timber companies came in and they inherited the right land. But other than that, you know, if you can find a long ridge to get down, you're all right and you can drive and listen. For turkeys, I mean, I've heard them doing that they might not be there after the first week because they're going to be dead or pushed away or tight lip.

Speaker 2:

Right.

Speaker 1:

And it takes a while for them to come back is what I'm saying. You're going to have to find some plan Bs on down the way.

Speaker 2:

Right.

Speaker 1:

And you're going to have to get, and what I would do is find a very long main ridge where you can kind of listen off this side, listen off this side. All that good and and and you'll, you'll learn a lot about a place and the hunters on and this probably would apply for private too, you know, if you, if you're the guy who's there listening pretty regular and you're in a camp, I'm saying there's, you might figure out who else is there, pretty regular, you know joe blow, who you didn't think turkey hunted that much, but somehow always, always kills three the first three days.

Speaker 1:

Right To find out that joke's been out there scouting since January. He just turkey hunting. He don't tell you about that you know Uh-huh. He just acts like he's just there you know working on a foal with or something like that.

Speaker 1:

But he's really finding these turkeys. He's putting in the hours, he just ain't it right, um, and stuff like that, and and, and and. Not a bad guy to be friends with. You know, getting on the same page with folks before the season is probably a little more beneficial, I'd say, than finding out, showing up and going.

Speaker 1:

Well, I want to hunt that ridge, and you know that's why he's mad about you want to hunt that ridge because he's been out there every day. And all of a sudden you show up on open today like, well, I want to go where you've been scouting and putting in work.

Speaker 2:

That is a situation we ran into not long ago with a little lease we had with a group of people.

Speaker 1:

We were the only people turkey hunting.

Speaker 2:

We pulled in opening day and there was five trucks there.

Speaker 1:

Who are you yeah?

Speaker 2:

and literally they weren't in the camp.

Speaker 1:

Uh-uh. They were friends of friends of friends, yeah, such and such on the line. Yeah, bring him over here, get him up here right now.

Speaker 2:

Yep, uh, I do. I forgot all about that, yeah, that was a sour situation um and then I waited till noon, went in that same place yeah, and killed the bird that they had hunted all morning yep, that's the first turkey I got on film. It sure was. We need to find that that'd be a good one.

Speaker 1:

That was the first turkey I got on film. It sure was. We need to find that That'd be a good one.

Speaker 2:

I got it somewhere, it's terrible, but it's something.

Speaker 1:

It's probably better than mine, I promise you. I've been looking at a lot of mine lately, but we'll think of some more. Y'all shoot us some questions or something like that. I think you can comment. I know on Spotify you can comment Apples. I don't know if you can. You can leave a review. Leave it, yeah. Leave us a review with the or whatever it's called, not a rating, yes, or review with a question you might have, and then always we're, we're available on the social medias tiktoks and instagrams, stuff. Shoot some dms, comment on a picture or something like that. And just if y'all got some more specific locating questions, we I spend a lot of time trying to find turkeys.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1:

You know I have a lot more to say.

Speaker 2:

I just got to remember Without being asked.

Speaker 1:

it's hard to dig that deep in the memory bank.

Speaker 2:

And maybe, yeah, maybe, some scenarios would help. That's always hey, what are you hunting? I hunt pines, I hunt fields, I hunt hard bottoms, I hunt swamps. What do you do here?

Speaker 1:

There's water on it now? Yeah, and you know if we're just finding turkeys. Wet areas are good because you can find tracks Right and you know very wooded areas. It might be a little difficult but you can find scratching. If you're going to find scratching, a lot of times you can find it efficiently. It's gonna be in an embankment, like if there's a road, there's a driveway.

Speaker 1:

you know it's a little ditch or something the opposite of it, like if you've got a driveway, you know there's two banks on the side, then it turns to woods, right. I mean, I've got several places in mind. Um, I was actually. I was out Blake Dowell last year, year four last. I think we were just riding around the place literally just screwing off, until he went with me to Mr George Mayfield and we were just riding around and everywhere we saw scratching was on an inclination of land of some kind.

Speaker 1:

You know, if you're driving in, there's always a— if you're going to swerve and wreck a truck, you're gonna hit a bank. That bank, that's what I'm talking about. That's where the turkeys will be scratching a lot of times. Um and learning, learning the difference in a squirrel and a hen scratching right, or a little bit, yeah, and a hen scratch um, there's a difference yeah, and it took.

Speaker 2:

It takes a little while to understand that one that.

Speaker 1:

That's for sure. Turkey For a lot of starters. Yeah, that's turkey and that's not.

Speaker 2:

you know, that's a squirrel.

Speaker 1:

Yep.

Speaker 2:

A lot of things move leaves.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and the biggest one that'll pull you is water. Oh yes, you will think of the turkey tore up a place. I've been with folks and I didn't want to tell them because they were so excited and I'm like, brother, that's just from water running down the hill Just like a light amount of water. If all the leaves are pushed up against the same side of the saplings, that's water pushing. It looks a whole lot like it it does it really does? And, I'm glad, your heart's pumping with it.

Speaker 1:

It's gotten me a few times too, I will say that you know, and it'll be like you ran a fluffer through it kind of stuff and there is no way to determine. But if it looks like a, you know, a dang bomb went off underneath it and there's just stuff everywhere, a lot of times that is turkey. It's just a big group of them.

Speaker 1:

Generally speaking, the hen groups are bigger than the goblin groups Work accordingly you know, If you want to hunt just where the goblins are, they ain't going to be there long. They're going to find the hen group, so that ain't bad. Just because you see no hen tracks don't mean you're in a bad spot.

Speaker 2:

Right, and in the middle of the season they ain't worried about scratching and looking that hard for food. They're worrying about a lot of other things, right?

Speaker 1:

You want to be where the hens find that food Exactly that want to be where the hens find that food. Exactly that's what I'm saying. The garbolo eat whatever they don't eat what pops up, yeah and um. And turkeys are opportunist? Yeah, I think so. If that's an instinct thing, like you'll see a turkey coming on a string all of a sudden, he folds up and bites a grasshopper and then comes back and he don't, I don't. I think it's in their hard wire basically they don't pass it up.

Speaker 1:

Yeah they cannot pass up food, they'll find it. It, I promise you. Oh yeah, I do know late season, you'll find them. Some folks think they won't go to field, like you know, food plot stuff in the late season because of the bull naps. Some people think they love the field because of the bugs.

Speaker 2:

I don't, I don't know.

Speaker 1:

I've only shot maybe maybe two. My whole life in a food plot.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And it wasn't my food plot. I was at a buddy's place Right, just happened to call him up to it. Yeah, and I don't not much experience with it. No, I don't either.

Speaker 2:

I hate bullnats. I avoid them. I don't even know what you're talking about the bugs.

Speaker 1:

Bullnats, the gnats that get in your eye oh god, yeah, yeah those yeah um a lot if you go walk through a food plot in april about 9 30 am see if they don't follow you. The rest the whole way home. Yep, um, I've heard. I've heard both. I've heard folks say that they love them. I've heard a lot of folks say that they hate them as bad as we do and they'll avoid them at all costs yeah but that's a time dependent thing. We'll talk about later late season stuff later on.

Speaker 1:

But but, um, but yeah, that's, that's all time-dependent thing. We'll talk about late-season stuff later on.

Speaker 1:

But yeah, that's all I can recall for today. So I mean, I filled up 50-something minutes, so shoot us some more questions and I don't know what next week's going to hold. We'll be this time next week. We're going to be sweating bullets because we'll be packing the trailer getting ready for NWTF. I want to say I'm not going to promise y'all nothing, but we're going to get a couple guests on in the coming weeks that are not the usual guest, not popular guests. It'll be folks you might know, might not, but a little away from the mainstream.

Speaker 1:

We'll put it that way yeah um, and, and that should be coming out week of that second week of February, and um, we might, we might wind up bumping into a guest or two up in Nashville and there'll be some some folks who know a thing about turkey that could learn us up on some stuff and, in term, maybe learn y'all up too.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but looking In term, maybe learn you all up too yeah.

Speaker 1:

But looking forward to seeing a lot of you all. I know this will be our chance to see and shake hands with a majority of the hands we shake coming to Nashville. So, regardless, be sure to swing by, come see us. I don't care if you buy nothing, just come by and say what's up, want to meet as many folks as we can and try to take care of you all while we're there, with as much as our um financials will allow when it comes to show specials and stuff like that. So I'm gonna have a few releases there y'all might want to swing by and take a look at too. But until then, y'all take care and we appreciate you.

Speaker 1:

Listening to the spring legion podcast. 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 leafy suits today at

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