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
Turkey Season Opener 2025: How’d it go?
We miss Mississippi's opening day due to severe tornadic weather but make up for it with an action-packed day two in the spring turkey woods. Safety first becomes our motto when dangerous storms threaten our hunting area, forcing us to exercise patience despite the nine-
• Observe an extremely vocal, aggressive hen cutting and assembly yelping from the roost
• Witness textbook "henned-up" gobbler behavior with minimal gobbling after flydown
• Encounter multiple turkeys during an afternoon solo hunt along property lines
• Note incredibly heavy pollen conditions throughout the woods affecting visibility
• Discuss upcoming hunting trips to California, Kentucky and possibly other eastern states
• Plan to feature guest appearances and hunting stories throughout the season
• Explain our strategy of being more conservative early in the season to avoid pressuring birds
For 15% off your next round of Houndstooth Turkey calls, be sure to use our special discount code SLP25 at checkout when you visit houndstoothgamecalls.com.
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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 SLP25 at checkout for 15% off your next round of Pounds to Turkey calls. Alright, what's going on y'all? Welcome to the spring legion podcast week. Number one of the spring 2025 turkey season is upon us.
Speaker 1:I was about to say it's come and gone, but it hadn't come and gone. It's one day of. It has happened and that's enough for a podcast, right? Um? Today is March 16th, the day after Mississippi's opening day of turkey season, which is March 15th a national holiday, probably to a lot of these listeners around here in this area, but this year's was a little different. We're counting March 16th as our opener. Yeah, no kidding, we missed the opener. Surprisingly, it's not all that rare for me to miss the opener. I didn't. I was kind of thinking about it the other day, but there's several openers that I've missed in Mississippi over the years. Yep, Between just things happening and I was kind of thinking about it, I was like, well, I guess I really wasn't that mad at it, because I can't be too mad at them if I've been sitting here for nine months thinking about them. What's nine months in a day, or however long it was, I just kind of pretended there for about 24 hours. But if you're in there, you know kind of the situation that we were given for the opener, and it's usually rainy, it's usually foggy, it's usually muggy or something or another, and it's it's more times than not, I'd say. In the past 10 years, I'd say about eight of them have been inclement weather, been associated with it.
Speaker 1:But this year's was a little different. It was very tornadic, to say the least. You know, pretty bad um, and it didn't wind up being pretty bad. So, um, no, yeah, I saw some some, uh, I guess, pictures, drone footage. Yeah, they started coming out, man, it's, it's pretty, it was pretty rough down south. Yeah, um, we've been getting warnings all week about the, the situation of the weather coming in and um, it uh, when you got wife and kids and stuff like that and you want to make sure they're safe.
Speaker 1:So I opted into to stay in, sticking around the house and making sure that they were taken care of and everything wound up finding a tornado shelter, house thing or whatever like a tornado, like a citywide tornado room. Yeah, I was like we're about to learn how to do this, just in case I am off one day and y'all are here, and and because march is pretty heavy on tornadoes in this area, in this little pine belt region, right, um and uh, I don't remember how many they said it was, but it was a lot. And if you lived on the west side of mississippi, I think you, you got some hunting and stuff like that. But where I was going or or planning to go in, chase was going with me was right in the middle of all this purple going on and I wasn't as worried as much about getting caught in a tornado. I was worried, obviously, about you know things back at the house. I think that I'd have been able to find a closet at least, nothing more. But it being like a two-day event, I'm like what the wrong tree falls down and I'm stuck here for round two by myself in the middle of you know the woods and um, and no service or no, nobody to even really come get me right.
Speaker 1:And, and especially with the drought last year, yes, we've got a ton of dead pine trees everywhere, falling left and right. Yeah, I didn't want to. That would be the our luck situation. Oh yeah, no matter what the property is, we're going to have a tree down on both ends and no chainsaw. And then all of a sudden, oh, we realize we've got to wait on somebody. Yeah, that's when the tornado is going to pop up. They're busy.
Speaker 1:The people who were helping pull people out of rubble and stuff, and I mean their tornadoes went within miles of where we had plans to hunt. So there's a fine line between dumb and dedicated, and I'm a dedicated turkey hunter, but I'm not a dumb, dedicated turkey hunter most days, this day at least, but yep. So our thoughts and prayers do go out to those who were affected by the tornadoes. There were some pretty big ones and I know there were casualties reported I don't know how many Obviously a bunch of devastation and lost properties and stuff like that. So, thinking about you all, if you are affected by those and appreciate those who have been out there, lending hands and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Um, uh, that's I. I'm blessed to be able to go hunting today, so that's that was kind of my goal for friday. I mean, my goal for saturday was to, when I was out listening friday morning, I'm like if I hear one which it was real muggy friday, if I hear one, I'm just going. Tomorrow's gonna be why. I'd already made up my mind. I was like I'm not gonna, not getting out here and um, my goal was to just be able to go hunt sunday and I'll be all right. And we, and we did, and um got some story, story stuff to tell you. That's kind of the plan for moving forward.
Speaker 1:Like we mentioned last week, we're not that used to doing the turkey season in season episodes, usually in around this time, so we're going to dive into, uh, what all we were able to, uh, observe, I guess you'd say, the experiences of today and um, we only have one day to go off of, but that's enough for me, if you're asking me, and before we get into they want to hit a couple updates real quick, because I I've been hitting them but I've been missing a lot of them, and um, chase reminded me here, as of recently, a few things that I have forgotten to mention in the past week or two, one of them being which is one that we did mention was the full foliage vintage tees we hit. We told y'all about the pre-order last week. Those are gonna be shipping out this week. Y'all be sure to grab those uh select sizes I'd say um and the uh and the usual logo. Original bottom land vintage tees are also going to be restocking this week, going to probably have a dead stock logo and a regular logo in both of those. So I want to say the pre-order for the regular logo, full foliage, was the only pre-order we had, but the rest will be uploading as sizes permit.
Speaker 1:And the mouth call pouches, I'm pretty sure we mentioned those already. We got a full leather option and then a pretty slick little original bottom line trimmed option, also leather For the mouth call pouches with the lanyard little you know leather lanyard included. And 90s throwbacks are back. Oh yeah, chase, make sure you mention that because those are a big deal. It took a lot to get to you. I like those. Yep, we've got three options. We've got the cool walking turkey logo and the dead stock on maroon and green. I believe they look straight from the 90s. You've got the green underbill on the maroon ones and stuff. I really like those.
Speaker 1:And then we've got three new casual rope hats. All three are a little different. We got a performance kind of golfy hat material when a real summery, spring kind of vibe going on there. Then we got the loading one that, uh is the same hat as we've we sold a lot of times. It's really an ultra light, moisture wicking hat kind of deal for the uh warm weather months and a ripstop. Chase is wearing it right now. Uh, you are too, I am. I thought I had to think for a second. I think I'm wearing that hat too. I really like these. It's like a I think it's a desert sand is the color of it, but really comfortable and that's it product wise. But chase has a review winner. A review winner, a gift, not a giveaway. A review of the week to win one of these hats is what I'm trying to say there.
Speaker 1:We go For Apple podcast reviews, don't you, yep? So this one comes from AustinPain01. He said absolutely love listening to this podcast to get a little mind refresher on getting closer to a long beard and having more success in the spring. Talks a lot about being natural and getting where he can be. He can feel comfortable, that's true. So, yeah, I like that one. That's a good one. So what is his namein? Austin pain 01. All right, austin, you're gonna get you a one of these new casual rope hats from spring legion, if you will. Dm us and just let us know your address, because it ain't a size associated. It's an adjustable, um, but we certainly appreciate that, as we do all the reviews and shares and stuff like that. We've been getting a few more shares and stuff that might be our next giveaway. A little hint for folks who do share it on their story.
Speaker 1:But as much as Austin likes us talking about where to get, we did not get in the right spot today. We didn't do it. Well, we ran out of daylight. How about I say we did Our darkness? Give me ten times to do the same thing and I do out of that same spot, probably oh yeah, where I wanted to sit on this gobbler. We had not roosted, but we knew the general area he was going to be in. We uh, we got as close as we could. We got where I originally wanted to get. I wanted to get four trees more up and and chase reminded me. Like me, you might not wanna, yeah and uh, that would not have made a difference. We were about 95 to 100 probably, and that tree was only about 15 and it would have been a. It would have been on the first line of trees from where this joker flew down and he might not have. Yeah, that's what I was thinking when I, when I said something to you, I was like hold up, we, and we did, we would have run out of cover completely. You know, not cover, block our bodies, but cover for there to make sense of being a hint there. You know, we would have been in a up in amongst the same area, would have been in the spot you want them to get in. They just got on the other side of the opening right. Never really, I think it was a creek in the middle, not a creek, a ditch, ditch. Yeah, you know. We, you know, picked a side and we picked the wrong side. Yeah, it's kind of what it boiled down to, given that information we had, you know, we didn't know where they were roosted. Yeah, that's pretty dang close, I ain't gonna lie. It actually worked out pretty decent, you know. Yeah, it could have been.
Speaker 1:That was the first turkey I've heard gobble all year. I was all right, I was cool, I was happy, content, whatever you want to say, I was fired up about it. I had heard some gobble. You know I've been going out and listening and stuff. We've had a couple good days of listening and I was able to get out and hear a couple. This wasn't one of them. I came across this one. You were right behind me and I don't know the number of hens and stuff that was with it, but it was a ginormous amount. It was a wad and and I hated being with you this morning as I'm more of a, you know, less is more.
Speaker 1:Two note yelp hanging it up. This hand on the limb debunked every theory of the whole two tree yelps and hanging it up. She got to go into town. She was cutting in the middle of her yelps and I mean, you know, like an assembly would be and I've I've seen them do that on the ground, especially, especially if jakes are involved, which there were. Eventually you noticed that after about 10 minutes of her being on the ground, these jakes very young looking jakes you couldn't even see a sprig of a beard poking out. I thought they were hens, right, yeah, I thought they were hens too. Probably heard poles, honestly, you know and now that you know that does make a little more sense Assembly yelping like that, that extreme, because they weren't roosted together, no, and they come in.
Speaker 1:Her finish. I was like buckle up because she's gonna be incoming here in a minute and it was cool she. She flew down and looked like a dang snow goose or something, turning upside down coming. I don't even know if snow goose do that, I'm not a waterfowl guy, yeah, but um, but came down, you know, right at us, and then hit about 100 yards in front of us. Um, yeah, I think I saw, I saw a glimpse of her. I was kind of looking the wrong direction, you know, wrong spot at that moment, but uh, I didn't see one come on down in there and that was cool to see. I didn't see 50, uh-uh, but I got a 50 wound up with him somehow ended up back with him.
Speaker 1:So, and and and for those who did hunt, or hunt successfully, congrats first off. But at the same time, I would love to to hear how the turkeys were working. I like every time I see or hear someone killing one or one working right. You know, I want to know if they go. What did they end up? And all that stuff, just to kind of give me a attempt gauge, because the ones we hunted today or textbook cover to cover, hand up yep, and that's part of it, and I don't mind hunting end up trickies, I like call it.
Speaker 1:We just switched our gear to calling it that hand and we we went back and forth with her multiple rounds up until nine o'clock and she'd get pissed off. She'd make her way a little bit. It was just he wouldn't have. I mean, it just didn't make sense for her to come over there. You know, we were kind of sitting on our hands a little bit. There wasn't much. We couldn't go forward because we'd bump them. We couldn't go backwards because we might bump them. You know, it was just to try to give her a reason to come over here, and I'm sure she would have eventually. It was just you know what do you do. And then some dude rode her full with her through the private park. After they made it onto the private field or whatever, then they disappeared forever. I think they went back on the public. But I don't, at that point you're like we were doing good to guess this one, right? I don't think we're guessing it twice without bumping them again. So hopefully, good Lord willing, they're still there and I'm like can go try them in the morning if he is.
Speaker 1:But it was fun, like you mentioned, being able to hear gobbling, close gobbling. All the ones I've heard have been very far off, right, which he didn't gobble a ton either. That's what I was going to say about the hending up part. Yeah, I mean, I think, which you know, when I get to cutting back and forth, cutting up with a hen like that, normally they're going to throw out a few extra gobbles in there, normally. You know, that's my opinion, but that's my opinion. But that's when I kind of feel like, all right, we got a chance.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it like pulling him on over here with her, right, he didn't. Whenever he wasn't, he didn't care. Once he got on the ground, I think he got what one time on the ground, and that was it, which is typical, yeah, early mid-march, you know. But but for her to be that vocal, that was cool, but it was cool. But I just kind of expected him to it almost add one or two extras, right? I mean, I wonder, is she like that every morning, is she? Yeah, because I've been around some that I mean he goes the one with the four, though, yep, I mean every time, you know, and it's always one of those mew mew, mew, mew, mew, mew, mew. That's it. You did three Mew, mew, mew. Well, anyways, sorry, that was funny Sometimes three, sometimes four, I had to count in my head. You yelp and count at the same time. See how hard that is. I'll try. And sometimes he'd go to the one that Kiki in, or you know, I tried to.
Speaker 1:I'm analytical and I try to like what is this and it? I'm not a turkey, I ain't never going to figure it out, but it's fun wondering, um, and then I could think of a handful, really, that that just go to town and I'm talking 45, you know, over and over and over and over and over and over again, real raspy Um. But what's fun? And I can recall years where I was more I'd maybe kill two or something, killed two turkeys already in this april 1st, and I'm more mad that I hadn't gotten around a hen getting back at me yet, because that's kind of my.
Speaker 1:I enjoy that myself. I mean it's cool, but I like to hear it, to kind of refresh my brain to what a hen sounds like, you know, because you can listen to them on YouTube. But it ain't quite the same. And when you get to go back and forth and mimic them and kind of like find your little groove there, you know, it can kind of carry you for a season. But I'm glad to knock that out of the way. But he was a textbook hen though, I mean. That's why he didn't gobble.
Speaker 1:We wound up seeing how many hens he was with and it was a whole, whole lot. And that's just part of the game here, and sometimes you can call them off late in the morning. A lot of times you've got to get in front of them and hope you can be here a hen to see what you're scratching at, or whatever. But we weren't able to do that, which is all right. And then then, uh, what did we do?
Speaker 1:We split up, went to a spot I killed one last year and wasn't on there. It looked completely different. It really did, I, I guess just because of the winter. Yeah, yeah, it just hadn't greened up, which was last year, the year so green. A year before that I'm thinking of it just hadn't greened up, which was last year, the year it was so green. The year before that I'm thinking of, I don't remember, I can't I get them confused. I might have tried it, probably early April, right April it was greened up real well. I parked my truck where I did it. The time before I was like whoop, hope he ain't within 300 yards here because he ain't no more. Yeah, that one was a surprise to us both. I guess we were still together at that point. I'm trying to think.
Speaker 1:And Chase had a draw, so he went and checked on it. Yeah, I had a draw, went and made a big loop in a section. I got confused on the road situation, found a dead end that I thought that it teed into another road, but turned out it was a property line, not a road line on the map and, um, that'll get you. Yeah, I mean it was. It was both part of the wma I had to draw for. But just made a big loop in there, you know, dropped in about five, six hundred yards and it was good looking, just never found any sign or anything and never struck anything out. At least you didn't do like me and Gary did three years ago, four years ago.
Speaker 1:It was a while back, but I got a draw for WMA and didn't know I could also hunt like national forest land and stuff like that. I thought I was just limited to that one wma. I'm like crap, I know a lot of good spots on the big, you know the big chunks and stuff, but I think we can only go here. And then it was probably a year later I found out nah, you can hunt, that you can. That's still just kind of general. You know, that's an average, normal public land, right? Yeah, you just have the, the, the, the privilege of hunting this one that you get to draw for these two days.
Speaker 1:But anyway, but no, then I went off and wound up going to one of the spots that I had, I say, scouted, I listened, I didn't really get boots up in the ground, I got them on the ground just enough to listen and hear something and see what they did, went there and wound up coming across. A couple of gobblers Could have shot one. Yeah, because I'd been calling. I broke a rule that I had to get my mess-ups out of the way. You know that you got to the first, knocked that rust off. So I'm doing at the time time I'm doing like three things you ain't supposed to do.
Speaker 1:I think I was walking on the road at 2 30 pm maybe I'm gonna call right here. You know, in the road and I I had a spot I could sit down and want to answer me but kind of passed my mind that hey, they probably ain't gobbling a lot A at 2 o'clock B. They probably found their hens by then and they're probably going to be with them hens until they fly up in the tree and they probably don't need to gobble it much and the wind's blowing pretty dang good and if they do gobble you probably ain't going to hear them. So I'm calling down into Hollis and stuff and see if I can pull one out of a creek bed. I'm going to pull one out of there and it's kind of like every year almost. It's like if some people always miss one early season, some people always, you know, get too close on the rooster, I seem to do exactly what I'm trying to do and just forget that they might do that. You know, it's kind of like I'm going to call down here and pull one out of this creek bed because, you know, stars aligned to say there's windy, open end up.
Speaker 1:If, for some reason, there's some red oak acres in this area because there are some in some areas I've found, just not in a lot of them, but where they are it's very normal In some areas. I found just not in a lot of them, right, but where they are it's very normal. You know, like they just didn't skip this year or whatever the deal's going on, a lot of places have zero, yeah, but yeah, so one should be down there. So I call in there and try to get one out, and he comes out. I just kind of I don't want to see him. He gobbled, no, I just kind of I don't want to see him. He gobbled no, okay, so that's why it surprised you, yeah, I think that's that's more so, why I was like, well, must not be one down there. Right.
Speaker 1:Five steps later, you know, I kind of round a bend and there he is kind of walking back into the down in the creek bottom where he'd come up to take a look. All right, well, I, you, I don't have to gobble, yeah, but I couldn't tell if it was a long bearded jake. So I was like I could have just pulled up and shot at the head. But I would have hated to have done that and found out the hard way, right, not to mention that would be illegal in this state and so and so and I have reason I know it wasn't a jake because I want to wind up seeing that's where I'm getting at.
Speaker 1:So I go back and he goes back down the creek bottom. So I come back down, I'm like, well, this sucks, but he didn't see me. This is what I I don't know if it works or not I mean, obviously didn't bump too bad, but if he don't putt, I assume he he thinks I hadn't seen him. That's my. I made that up. No old pro told me that. That's just kind of my rule of thumb and I'll usually keep walking, yeah, and just kicking rocks, and you know, not kicking rocks literally, but like poking around, acting like I have no idea I saw him and just keep my head back down and don't stop and try to get my gun up, and you know, make a scene and stuff like that, or duck or hit the deck and stuff, and they're like, oh well, he knows about me. Now too. That kind of goes for deer too.
Speaker 1:I've seen it a lot with deer. If you see a deer and you just keep walking. I mean, if you're walking directly at them, they're going to bounce off. You know what I used to do. This is one of our old pawpaw tricks. I wasn't going to say it. I used to keep a white wash rag in my back pocket and I still, if I'm lying, I'm dying. I'm telling you, oh, it works If you flick that white wash rag Like you got a tail, yeah, to let them know everything's okay. Yep, I'm telling you they would not. I've never done that and they blow at me. Yep, and I've tried. I've done it with my hand.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I saw jake do it this year on the from thp. Oh, really, I saw a video and he walked up to a deer and he did it. I'm like, did it work? I know what you're doing, yeah, yep. So I don't think it was jake. Jake, sorry, if it wasn't you.
Speaker 1:Um, what would it be to assume? Jake is listening to this podcast? Agreed, he's probably hunting turkeys. I think they're somewhere around mississippi. I mean, they have to be. Yeah, ain't, but two places open right now mississippi and florida. Yeah, there's one of the two, but, um, but yeah. So if a guy in a headdress tells you to do it, you do it, you do it and it works.
Speaker 1:I guess I don't deer hunt enough to to know, but after we've digressed to that um, I did bump a deer minutes before I bumped that turkey. So I was really about a thousand within the past 10 minutes. So go back down the street bed, let him, let him settle down, call a little bit no gobbles, obviously. And then it kind of started clicking like probably about 50, 11 hens up there with these gobblers and probably ain't jakes. If they're doing what they should be doing, what? Oh yeah, yeah, I mean I couldn't think of a number fast enough, but anyways, anyway.
Speaker 1:So I come back up and then I'm like, well, now I'm curious, what are they doing? So I I creep up and creep up, and creep up and creep up and get to where I can kind of lay eyes on um. Now they're up high, they're on the property line and I know this guy see a hen laying down, not nesting, just laying in the cool grass from a liberal hunter yard. So I'm like that's definitely a hen, look like a sitting duck decoy, almost sitting down in there, but under the shade and some and some very cool grass, short enough for her to see over and I could see, you know, the back of another turkey walking behind her stuff. So I dip on in it and I'm in some rabbit patch stuff on the sides of these roads. So it kind of surprised me to take a walk through that. I ain't gonna lie, it's open on the sides, you know, down in the bottoms. But he had to come through some briars stuff that tangled me up pretty good to to poke out in the road but anyway. So I nestled back and just eat these briars with my elbows and stuff, like I'm not doing this again. And um, and I can tell you know they're, they're clearly on the other side of the property line and obviously they'll. They'll come over the property line at some point, because the one I just saw was just on this side of it. Maybe he's still in there, I didn't know. So hang there. After I had done calling down there, I'm like maybe they'll make a look back and do it again and I'll be ready this time. Obviously that ain't going to happen that way. But I sit and wait and then I'm observing, more than anything. It's about 3.30, and I'm kind of just not trying to kill one necessarily just seeing what they're going to do and which way they go and stuff.
Speaker 1:Because day one wanted the season, I had to remind myself that you know, don't, don't mess yourself up and mess. If you do know of a turkey that will gobble in a morning and there's a lot more mornings left we're on public so could very well not be in the private people hunting. Because we ran into them, talked to them, yeah, and they obviously they were. They were in mid-season form. The turkeys were, because they got one foot on those other property line and walked the whole thing and I'm, I'm, I done, got up to 70 probably.
Speaker 1:Yeah, inching and inching just to get an angle to where I'm not shooting into the. I don't like doing that. I don't know if that's into the, I don't like doing that. I don't know if that's quote, unquote, trespassing, like shooting and then you're shot continuing on the private land or anything like that. I don't like doing that. Or if a road's even 4 000 yards behind, I just I get nervous that some dudes can be driving a tractor in the underneath it and I don't know it and yeah, I don't know. So if I can get an angle to where I can, I can shoot and for 400 yards ain't nothing possible. Um, because it did, as soon as you were to cross that line it dipped down. Oh pretty, and I like probably nothing down there, but I don't know that I mean it's good, like literally 350 yards, maybe, yeah, but I don't know that I mean it's literally 350 yards maybe, yeah, but I don't. You know, I didn't want to take no chances.
Speaker 1:Walked up there later on and saw that it was just green grass. But now I know, now you know, yeah, still not going to do it, I'm still going to try to make sure my shot doesn't angle towards another property. So I'm sitting there and I'm inching up and inching up and and they've, they've kind of moved down and and they're coming down and then they walk, like I said, 70 yards. Got to hear him drumming and stuff and he's stopping us out of the gate in the road. The road continues on, kind of, and they peck around. Got to watch them for a good while. One of them got a good old beard on them, so that was cool. Um, never knew I was in the world, had my gun in my hand, kind of ready if they did hop the fence and come back down the road, but they never did, but it was fun.
Speaker 1:And then another long, long beard came in and this, I think, was the one that I kind of buggered up about two hours before that Come down by himself. I'm like, okay, I know this one will cross over, because I've already seen him cross over. He had a little pencil beard. He got right to that gate and that called a couple times. I'm like maybe he will with a different call. Obviously, right, nope, he got to that gate and just followed suit. I have a feeling those hens and that other one that was struggling with them was an eyesight of where that spot is. Obviously, probably because they all got there and kind of looked around and uh, and was kind of gave the whole oh, there they are, and walked down there. A couple, a couple, like a couple hens walked, did the same thing, um, so I'm guessing they could see it and I wasn't about to walk all the way to where I could bubble them really good, so I just slipped on out and met back with you and threw in the towel.
Speaker 1:So we got out turkey today by Real Turkeys and that's part of it. Yep, it is Got covered in pollen. Oh my gosh, I ain't never seen so much pollen. Look, on the Blacktop Roads some of the places I was following you it was kicking up like you were riding down a gravel road. You had like a dust cloud. Yeah, it was. I've seen it thick, but I don't know if I've ever seen it that thick. I'd pull out my phone and look at my mouth just to double check a pin Am I headed the right direction? Two seconds my phone would be yellow. Oh, yeah, I mean it's. I had to beat my little mountain gear jacket out. I did, too, rub my arms down to dust it out and it was a cloud. Come off of it.
Speaker 1:Allergies will probably be real, real fun this week. Um, they won't tear me up, but I only had one sneeze attack today. I ain't had any. So I know he's brewing. I'm dried out because it's so much. Yeah, um, but it's gonna let loose, probably tomorrow when I'm 90 feet away from one in a tree. But yeah, I mean that's kind of the story of the day. Yeah, jeremy missed one yesterday. Really, I give him a good old shout-out on that. Shout-out to Jeremy for swinging and missing. It's easy to do.
Speaker 1:This week those opening days are open. Guess, technically not open today, but when you ain't really used to it, and I was a little rattled just being close to a gobbler on the limb today, yeah, well, the the whole, I was rattled about everything because, you're right, oh yeah, not around, I'm telling you that'll rattle you for until noon at least if you got up this rush in your head and it don't ever leave and I was kind of, yeah, I was that way, which I'm that way about a lot of things. Um, yeah, chase got a little anxiety bug to him. Yeah, it's, it's the anxiety or the I don't. I don't know what it is, but I mean, if I start off on the wrong foot, it's going to be that way until about 1, 2 o'clock, right, just about every time. But, yeah, I missed my first alarm, thank goodness. Second or third one got me.
Speaker 1:Then I thought you were mad at me. Then I got anxious about that which you are, you know, wasn't mad at me. And then I got anxious about that which you are, you know, wasn't mad at you. I was like, hold on, now, something wasn't I know. Yeah, I was like you were trying to do something. I was like, all right, I'm about 15 minutes. You're like I'm I'm 49. I'm like you're on, you're on 49. Yeah, no, I'm 49 minutes away. Like what? Hold on now. Both of those are the wrong answers. So how far? Um, I was 49, but uh, but it was all right because I was like, well, I ain't got all my stuff together, I'm sure, because I hadn't went through my vest since last year and I was like it's probably gonna be 49 minutes before I even get ready to go in the woods. So that was what I was getting to was. That's why I was so rattled, because I didn't have anything together and I knew you were gonna be ready to roll.
Speaker 1:So I'm driving down the road at about 85 trying to make up for lost time, with my north mountain gear jacket strapped over my pasture seat, throwing stuff in the kangaroo pouch and, oh miracle, I didn't shatter a slate call or something and couldn't find a camera battery and all that stuff and all my batteries died within minutes because I turned them all on and forgot to turn like I'm not used to doing that like clicking the gopro off. And there's that cam I got going, which, by the way, is the size of seven gun barrels. Yes, this joker is huge. I did not, they, they, they did some tricking on the, uh, the images. Yes, very much.
Speaker 1:I put that joker on a fence post, literally on the end of it, and I don't mean the wooden fence, right, I mean the, the can, the, the red dog, malt liquor, um, you remember them signs? Oh, well, the gas station's, the red dog signs. I don't remember red dog, what was the other ones? Pretty young, I don't remember what was walkie's best kind of stuff, but, um, yeah, I don't remember that old pit stopped burning down a couple years ago. Yeah, all right, shout out to you, got off track there. But yeah, that thing's really big and I ain't been able to watch none of the footage of it, but I thought we were about to get to use it when that hand cut up at us. Yeah, which we did.
Speaker 1:Lay eyes on the long beard one time. Yeah, I mean I saw three long beards a day which lawnmowers today, which is pretty cool, which I saw the first one. But yeah, I'm happy with it. Um, because, yeah, I got to see him blow up and strut one good time and I was like that's good, that's good. Yeah, and being the first turkey I've heard gobble, I mean we were what, 120 yards from him maybe. Whenever he got with that first time I was like yeah, yep, now I'm good, does your soul right? Yeah, and we're in some hardwoods too. We weren't in, we just got out of the pines into the, into the bottom of those hardwoods and and we could have probably went back in there later on.
Speaker 1:I just I don't know if I'm out of state or I'm in a foreign place. Yeah, I'll hang with the turkey, I just don't know. But if I do know of other turkeys, it is early in the season and, kind of looping back to the very first thing we're talking about, I don't know of a turkey I killed on March 15th ever. I just hunt March 15th or that weekend or that opening week a little different. I'm much more passive than I usually would be. I'm cool with sitting there and soaking it in, I guess. Um, I just know, even even before I had the opportunity to hunt a lot right, I can probably get a hold of three before, you know, the end of april, and if it's two is two, if it's one is one. But I'm not worried about it, you know, I'd much rather if I'm going to kill that one in front of me I'm cool with if he walks up and sticks his head up 40 yards or less. I'm pulling the trigger, don't get me wrong. Oh yeah, absolutely. That's what I'm there to do, but I'm okay if not. I'm not hunt. I'm cool with that, almost more than the first Mm-hmm. I agree, give me something to look forward to.
Speaker 1:I was talking to Gary the other day because you know Gary's got a baby coming. Oh yeah, I don't know, april or something maybe, but I remember when I guess it was. Yeah, indy was born early March. He was middle March.
Speaker 1:But they, when you get down to one tag and you know you're going to be around the house, you kind of, every time you put your vest on, you're like this might be the last time around here and you kind of you want to save a couple in your pocket for the real pretty mornings where they're going to gobble. I'm not going to say you don't want to kill one on a muggy, rainy day where they just kind of walk by you, but you'd like to be able to do some experience. If you've got to clear your head, you've just got a reason to get out there and go turkey hunting, because that will cure a lot of illness right there and stuff like that there and stuff like that. But yeah, the plan now I think, um, gary and I actually we're gonna go to california. That's the first trip I got planned. I don't know the for sure dates. Gary's probably like that. But I've told you nine times oh yeah, but uh, it's at the end of march, I remember I don't. It's gonna be a good time.
Speaker 1:I've always wanted to go to california. Yeah, that's one of my, my, my button, I guess, bucket list. I want to do the northeast stuff. When I say northeast, I mean like pennsylvania, maybe new york stuff like that, not necessarily the whole. I want to hit the whole eastern side. That would be cool. I just I ain't never been over that way.
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Speaker 1:In general traveling, I'd like to see some things that I hadn't seen. East Coast I hadn't seen. I've seen some stuff out west. I feel like all of out west looks kind of the same. I think there's a lot of like yeah, you know, you ever seen a tire on a fence post? Yeah, that's about that. And an asphalt pavement road, that's about it. And grass yeah, because I've seen several states west, midwest, whatever you want to call it, I don't even know and that's about all I saw in all seven of them. So I was like, yeah, might change it up this year, might not.
Speaker 1:I only hunted Easterners last year. Yeah, me too, I mean, and I might do it again. Not necessarily, that wasn't on purpose. I hunted Miriams one time. Yeah, I forgot about that. That was first like true, true, true, miriams, I was on. I went in that True, true, true, miriams, I was on. I'm on the nine and a handful of times which we were talking the other day. I think we might go back on that little run if it works out.
Speaker 1:I think I want to say I had something going on the week. They were talking about going. I don't know. You know we don't make plans. Well, that's a lot of 3 ams, yeah, getting in AMs. Yeah, getting in the truck and decided at 2.45. Then we'll go to Kentucky too. Yeah, I like Kentucky, it's nice.
Speaker 1:I've always wanted to hunt Kentucky. I don't know, honestly, if I've ever been to Kentucky Period Not turkey hunting, I guess, period. Yeah, I was thinking about that the other day. You probably hadn't. I really don't think I have. I don't think anywhere the directions that we've traveled to hunt have gone through Kentucky and that's pretty much the only time I get out of state is 90% of the time it's going to be a turkey trip or some form of hunting trip. I'm not a big vacation taker, yeah, um, but I just I thought about that random the other day. I've never been to kentucky or state west virginia or any of that. You know what's genial. Remind you what a real mountain is. Yes, in a heartbeat. I don't know New Mexico, sure enough did. I've heard New Mexico say they never hunted it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, west Virginia, you think you're in shape? Mm-mm, I know I ain't in shape today. Shoot, I'm so sore. Yeah, I was thinking like, if nothing else, let's just walk a loop so I can get used to carrying this joker around. I'm getting old.
Speaker 1:I feel like I was sitting in some positions today. I'm like, yep, about May 24th was the last time I could not feel my whole right side of my body like this. Feels good to be back. I'm pumped. I'm like, yeah, I love it when my feet go to sleep like this. It's. I'm like, yeah, I love it when my feet go to sleep like this, but it's kind of weird. My left leg went to sleep and half of it's been numb since freaking Nashville. So I was like, hey, I'm winning half this battle already. I'm used to this already. Still don't know what that is, by the way. That's all right, anyways.
Speaker 1:No, but yeah, the first set down this morning I was in a pretzel behind you because there was some kind of log or something right there. I was like, of course I'd get stuck in. I wasn't mad about it, but I was like this could be a little different. Yeah, and I was like I know my, my muscles ain't stretched out from the year. You know, right here in an acrobatic stance or whatever you want to call it. You know, three, four days a week for a couple weeks you can kind of do whatever, but those first few are always a little tight, right?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I'm trying to think of anything we could have done differently. We ain't got a kill turkey to talk about, but we got some unkilled ones that we hunted. Yeah, and I don't I mean if I would have. I mean thinking back, what if I would have went into town as much as I now, which I went down 10 times more than what I usually do? He ain't calling wise, especially if he's still on limb stuff, but he, if he's still on limb stuff, but if he can see the other turkeys, it don't matter, he's going to fly down to them. You're going to lose that battle unless you get them turkeys over there by you. Oh, that's what it was. We could have killed a turkey, possibly Setup wise. I don't know if there was any At the first gobble. I don't think there was a better one we could have gotten to without bumping him. Right. Then we definitely couldn't call. We'd have been too much in the wide open.
Speaker 1:But I didn't have a wing. Oh yeah, have you found it yet? I need to find it. It must have fallen out of my vest in transition, trying to pack during a daggone tornado warning. It's going off left and right. They're hurting my truck, so we could go out there and try to time the storms as they were leaving, to go see what roads we might not be able to get down and have chainsaw on my truck. I'm like nothing else. Even if we ain't going down, I'll cut it open so folks don't get what if they're the ones trapped in there and can't get back out? Right, no kidding, but without bringing a chainsaw or you know, not around here and don't have access to a chainsaw or even a number to call Right. Luckily, by the time we got there, everything had been cut up.
Speaker 1:But after that, I mean after we digressed again, we're in some rabbit holes today. But no, if we'd have had him a wing, we might could have got him to fly down before the other ones, because he was to our right, he was to about two o'clock and these hands were about to our 10 and the and the bottoms running parallel. So they it's like a stage pretty much. They just flooded it. We're on the wrong side, we're on the opposite, which is would have been okay, I think, if we'd had a wing and would have been able to fly down up top up high, maybe, right, he might have flown down just to look up there and have his cake, and then the other thing could be his eat-it-twos. But no, didn't have it unprepared.
Speaker 1:And then I think I ordered seven things on Amazon today, driving around that I had lost and didn't realize I had lost them until I needed them today. We have so long to do that and we don't do it. You just don't see it, you don't notice it until you go to grab it. I think I found a note in my vest that said before next season, get chalk. And I wanted to go grab my chalk and I found the note. It was like get chalk before March, and I did not get chalk before March. Box call didn't get used much today. And guess who ain't going to have chalk tomorrow? Me, that'll be, you, I might, because I think there's some Easter egg chalks outside That'll do, that'll work. Might be yellow or pink, but anyway.
Speaker 1:So pretty brief, pretty short and sweet. We only had about I don't know eight hours to talk about, but we got to go turkey hunting today for the first time 2025, and I'm pumped and I'm looking forward to these. Uh, I would think I'm not gonna promise y'all nothing, but I think our next ones will have seven days of turkey hunting potential to talk about. We'll be a little more lively, we'll be a little more to talk about. That's how it started for us. If you got skunked today and if you live in Mississippi, don't feel bad, because so do we.
Speaker 1:Turtle shells with no turtles in them don't carry much luck. Fyi, I could have told you that I found one. I was like bingo, just put it back down, because I'm pretty sure that's a little tickle. Sure, I think I don't remember the species of turtle, but I think there's one you can't take home, so I left him out there. Okay, good, I don't know, for this could be. I really think it is a One of those things you can't take from the woods. But the folks who build like slate calls out of turtle shells, uh-huh. I've been with somebody who reminded them of that and they're like well, I just, I mean, I just, I'm like, I mean, I think they're cool. I've never heard of that. I'm not going to buy it because I don't know if it is illegal or not. Anyway, I'm not going to buy it because I don't know if it is illegal or not, anyway. Yep, good thing you put that back in the woods, right? Yeah, right, where I found it, anyway.
Speaker 1:So, but yeah, the plan is to do a little less rambling in the next few weeks and then, when we have guests or anything like that, we'll have bonus episodes. Have guests or anything like that, we'll have bonus episodes, right. So sometimes I and jason and I were discussing this earlier potentially, as we, as we get to travel a little more, trips are happening, um, I don't know if I'm gonna talk roadcaster on the plane, all right, no kidding, but I would think might get one gary on that trip. You know, I have something to talk about there. Uh, next week I'm just hunting mississippi. In the next week or two we'll have something to talk about there. Uh, next week I'm just hunting mississippi. In the next week or two we'll have some good stories about that. And then, um, then we'll call some guests if something cool happens, if someone kills a cool, turkey has a cool experience or something, um, and we see it, or somebody lets us know about it, we'll might give them a holler and, you know, have a phone in type deal and if it, it might suffice for the week. It might be a bonus episode, something like that, but we're going to make it worthwhile because Turkish season ain't even close to opening on a lot of places. They're itching to hear about it too, and their woods time is right now in the mentals, just like ours has been the past two months at least. So, looking out for them and then looking out for those who are headed to work and still thinking about turkey hunting 24-7, just like we are, I'm still listening to the turkey hunting podcast getting my mind right, even though it's here.
Speaker 1:Felt weird to put it on today. Put the attire on. Yeah, you said that one day, about 10 steps in. He said it's weird, we get to carry a gun, you know, we get to have a chance at one. Today, yeah, you said something. I don't remember what you said the fact that we can go listen, for we're not just listening for a turkey, we're listening to to be able to right, we're hunting a turkey. I've been listening about every morning the past two weeks and you're like it's kind of weird.
Speaker 1:For hunting a turkey I'm going out like my normal routine, going to where I was going to go. You know had been several times. We wound up going to a different one. Yeah, totally new one. I'm like hold on, wait, I see it, it's close, we're going to shoot. You know, I'm going to call back at it. There we can use the calls. We have a chance at toting one out. Yeah, we didn't have a hand in our pocket. Yeah, we needed 30 pockets if we're going to put hands in them. No kidding, and we would have still been outnumbered.
Speaker 1:I think I think it came quick to me. Turkey season, really, it kind of snuck up on me a little bit more. I wanted to be a little more prepared than I am, you know, which is about par for the course. No, me too. It surprised me this year. I was like, wait, it's the 14th, oh, my goodness. But at the same time we're only a month away from the NWTF convention, which feels like three months ago to me. It really does, and I think it's just us being busy. Yeah, we were fitting four days into one day, yeah.
Speaker 1:On a last note, we do appreciate y'all's patience. On the spring leaching side. I do want to remind y'all it's me and Chase doing this. We ain't got a robot packing orders and stuff. Chase is packing all them orders, and a lot of times. What time is this? Probably 10 o'clock right now, after we've been hunting all day. Chase got to go do orders and stuff and it ain't four or five of them, I promise you it's right.
Speaker 1:A lot and a lot of restocking going on. That's what I do 24 7 is getting stuff allocated this way, that way, planned ahead, five months in advance, sometimes, just so stuff doesn't run out of stock and everything. So, um, and we we don't work for the post office, that is a reminder. A lot of stuff is out of our hands, so we make the most of it.
Speaker 1:If stuff gets stalled in transit for a day or two, which some stuff has been doing, by the time we're able to just get a hold of somebody or whatever, like, all right, let's get it, we'll get a new order figured up, whatever it oh, never mind deliver, you know it. Just it'll just show up a lot of times if it's behind or something we've learned. It'll just skip scans and it'll look like it ain't moving. But it actually has been moving and they're just you're getting mad. It shows up so a lot of times it's kind of expediting itself there for a minute and it just it looks like it ain't moving. Yeah, but sometimes it ain't, and then we'll have to work something out and it is out of our control.
Speaker 1:But we can't do that for every single one of them. You know, or just trust you, that it didn't show up if it says it was delivered, show up if it says it was delivered, or you know stuff like that, and we gotta, we gotta draw some lines or we'll get exploited. You know, people just rob us practically. So, um, it's just the way of the world. We'll try to take care of y'all as much we can. You know, nine to nothing also be a, you know, normal person as much as gonna be a dad and a husband, no differently than most other people do too. So, um, yeah, we're fitting in three days into one day for the next three, three months and and doing the best we can, and we certainly appreciate all the support that y'all do.
Speaker 1:Plus, on top of this, you know the podcast ain't? You don't just click send, I'll be here till midnight, at least. That's why when y'all see them, they're. You don't just click send, I'll be here till midnight at least. That's why when y'all see them, they're uploaded at 3, 30 and then if you text me and I'm texting back about 30. I'm going to listen.
Speaker 1:I probably slept 49 minutes, yeah, but, um, would not change it for the world. I don't think if I could, I would. I mean, if I wanted to, I would, I would just stop, but I don't want to, right, I like. I like what we're doing and I like you know, hearing from folks and getting to think about turkey. Hunting 24, 7 and killing a turkey will never become the money maker. Obviously, right, would be pretty broke. It was today, yeah, we'd be real. Or video and kills of turkeys would be real broke. Yeah, real, real broke. Um, because, if y'all didn't notice, never got around to that youtube.
Speaker 1:I told y'all I was gonna get around to it a lot. Uh, it's still sitting on the same half edit that it was last time, but I think we got a plan for this year when it comes to video and we're gonna video it and I'm gonna get it drafted. Yeah, we're gonna do it a little more on the spot, because half of it ain't making the videos, half of it is me fishing through losing mounds of video to figure out what hunt is what hunt and remind yourself a year later what actually happened, that really, what didn't happen because you didn't know. Every thumbnail is just my glove yes, I've been turning it on so then you have no idea what's going on on the other side of that glove, so you have to watch it to see what's on the other side of that glove. You don't even know what region of the world you're in, because that glove's the same on every freaking one of them. I had about half of them, hunter thinking it's off and him riding around, oh yeah, going to the gas station and say you know, hey, how you doing, and then they'll be on picture.
Speaker 1:The coolest, the one I wish was on video the most, was this turkey come in all of a sudden in Tennessee and this turkey comes in strutting 10 yards behind me Like the hands ran. He pushed his hands, I mean, to split the difference, one on the right, one on the left. I'm hunting a different turkey and I'm like what is that Commotion? And there's two hens just trucking at me. I'm like okay, that's all right. And here comes this strutter behind it, like these trees and stuff, and he blows it like like I mean from the end of this table from, and I'm like missing obviously. Um, right there. I mean I'm eight yards running at me and I'm like, okay, like left to right, dude ain't like right at me, so he, I'm trying to get on this side of the tree and this side of the tree and he, he sees me, so he stops and does his and stuff and I don't have my, my chin on the gun, much less my cheek on the gun, kind of like my situation and I hit a tree point-blank range. I'm surprised it didn't come back and hit me. About chopped that tree down too, I believe it did.
Speaker 1:But I hit photo on the GoPro. So every time I clicked on and off, it wasn't recording, it was just taking a picture On the GoPro. So every time I clicked on and off, it wasn't recording, it was just taking a picture. Jesus. So that whole morning was just pictures of just leaves. So I was pretty pissed about that. But I'm an amateur, it is what it is. At least we got the shot cam today. Yep, I mean this year For the time being.
Speaker 1:Until you rip it off, I'm going to give you all some content in the morning, maybe, if I can get on them, turkeys, yeah. So anyway, we'll wrap this one up. We appreciate you all listening. I feel like this was a very mediocre start to a new era of podcast, but y'all bear with us. We only had a few hours to go off of, so they're going to get a little better than this and y'all be sure to tune in Again. We appreciate you'all listening to spring legion podcast. 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, apex makes sure that the conclusion to those long-fought battles of spring are instant, absolute and ethical.
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