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
Adjusting Setups and Being Where Turkeys Want to Be
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Speaker 1:All right, what's going on y'all? Welcome back to the Spring Legion Podcast Week number three for the 2025 season. I'm your host, hunter Ferrier, along with the other host, chase Ferrier, again today. Per usual, I got a couple stories to tell. We'll be talking a little turkey hunting stuff and kind of what went down the um. We're actually recording this on a wednesday night following a recording on sunday night of uh, the past podcast that was published on monday morning, so we've only had a couple days to gather some stories, but luckily I was involved in a couple that we'll kind of dive into, both of which I don't think Chase has heard, and it's been heating up down south a little bit and after that stale start we had going to dive into. I know we mentioned the possibility of having a guest here, but I've been packing up some bags and stuff to get ready for where we will be headed back from. If we're not already back from california, gary and I a quick trip out there to uh hunt some rios and some pretty turkey woods. Is that rios, or?
Speaker 1:merriam's out there I think it's rio's.
Speaker 1:Pretty sure it's rio's yeah I have a feeling they're gonna be a little different than the usual rio, just considering the, the terrain and stuff, which is, I would think, probably nice oh yeah, I think california, I think nice, um, I think a couple other things, but unrelated to a turkey I'm just kidding, not really, but um, but yep, well, we had out there giving them a good old swing and uh, really, all we got to update on is, uh, on the on the spring legion side, I feel like, uh, according to chase, we got a lot of car tags back in stock because we found them. And is that all three? Yes, all three black, green and white yeah, should have a handful of each and uh that, and all the books have been restocked in all formats.
Speaker 1:So that's about of turkey, hunter and any given spring morning and the combination of both in the green covered combo. That one, the combo copy, is only in a hardcover format, but the other ones are back in paperbacks and hardcovers on springleaguecom or Amazon, whichever you fancy, and the plethora of new casual hats we got. I'm not even going to list all of them because there's a lot of them.
Speaker 2:There's a lot, a whole lot of them.
Speaker 1:So we done, did the thing, got them all back. This is a restock from nwtf, by the way. So a lot of the new ones that we had at nwtf, folks asked we were restocking. We said yes, we just didn't say when now is the win on those. And then we have a little not a flash sale, but a little deal. We got going on a pretty quick one for a limited time on the um, the six new turkey hunting hats we've we've released this year. Uh, they kind of go with that uh spring turkey 2025 collection, kind of on the main page of our website 25 off any of those six hats with uh with the code cap 25. So cap25 will get you down to about $15 for a hat. On those we have the mesh backs, green leaf and original bottom laying, some solid back ones, some old-school looking ones. Yeah, the five panels and then the quick drive material, the four-way stretch, made of the same stuff as our pants is made of, so pretty comfortable on those.
Speaker 1:They're honestly all surprisingly comfortable they are and they're all really different. I mean I hand tailored them. I like a deep fitting hat and I made those like an like two-eighths of an inch depth in the hat is a big deal, because some of the samples we got kind of matched the general, you know, build or construction of most hats and I was like can you make it a little deeper, just so it's a little more snug. And you know most everybody asked, nobody asked hey, do y'all have any shallow hats, right? They always ask does it fit pretty deep?
Speaker 1:yeah, okay deal I just want to make sure, because I'm a hat guy. I mean, I've worn a hat since I came out the womb, I feel like every day at the house, hunting, not hunting. I'm wearing a hat 24, 7 and um, so I'm pretty particular about it and so looking out for the other folks who are. But other than that, y'all know the drill, we got everything. You might not have every size, but we got everything that we've been having on the website and hopefully I'm gonna be pumping out some more social media stuff, because I've been lacking I've been busy, yeah so the tiktoks and the root to youtubes and stuff like that, snapchats, all that's gonna be.
Speaker 1:Instagram, all that's gonna be hopefully getting a little bit of a revamp because, uh, due to layovers and stuff. So that's my plan we'll All that's going to be hopefully getting a little bit of a revamp due to layovers and stuff. So that's my plan We'll put some headphones in my bag and hopefully be able to chop some stuff up for y'all to keep up with us this season, because it's off to a decent start. You know, what seemed like to be a not so lively beginning, turned into the past few days, is picked up Right.
Speaker 2:Like it usually does. But it, yeah, normally does this every year at some point, a week or two over. You know rough, make you rethink your whole past.
Speaker 1:Uh, hunting, yeah you're like I'm, I'm it crossed? I don't know if I mentioned the last one. I was telling somebody that it crossed my mind like I might not kill a turkey this year. Yeah, we're about eight hours into the season and I'm like this, is it?
Speaker 2:This is the season. This is going to be the rough one, yep.
Speaker 1:You just start freaking out. You're like I'm never going to see a turkey, I might not even hear one.
Speaker 2:I got that feeling on Saturday last Saturday. Really you killed one on what Sunday? He killed one Sunday and, um, yeah, I think that's what cleared the the head up a little bit, was like full determination. You know full throttle full speed ahead. But you know, not necessarily full speed ahead, but like, let's take it a little more serious yeah, I guess you know, do the little things. I'm gonna do the little things today and see if it works, and it works used to yeah to remember them even right, and that's, that's 90.
Speaker 2:I was just remembering you got to get those couple mess up days out and you know, and not hunting necessarily the weekdays. Right now it's, uh, it's taking me a little longer to get the mess ups out, which and last year not being a great, season for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, that's a close reminder of yeah, you know I was like boy. Here we go again when that here we go again. Feeling comes around, it's that monkey needs to get off the back and needs to get off there quick, because then you're gonna start making decisions that aren't the best and you're gonna you're gonna alter what you would usually do and I've been in it. I've been in the mud and it ain't.
Speaker 2:It ain't a fun place to be which I don't know if I mentioned this before or not, but you know, last year was a slump, that nwtf banquet I went to two weeks before season or whatever it was. I won a gun, yeah and uh. You know I was like man, I've never, you know, gotten lucky, yeah and and and gotten uh, won a gun at a, at an nwtf show or whatever, and a banquet mean. But this past year I went to the same banquet. I won the first gun they gave out.
Speaker 1:No, I'll take it back.
Speaker 2:And the second it touched my hands. I said wait a minute, this is a luck thing. I just used up all my luck. I'm going to have another bad year. I'd be giving up a gun back so fast. I debated it I asked Breck if he wanted it. He I debated it. I asked Breck if he wanted it.
Speaker 1:He don't need it because he won one and then he won one Logan Cook's Banquet, yep, a really good one too. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Nice 20 gauge, Mine was just 22. I mean that's still pretty close. I was pretty fired up about it, henry.
Speaker 1:That's the only kind of good 22 that I know of that and a Jiminy Cr called Jiminy cricket.
Speaker 2:Got a picture of a Jiminy looking cricket. I guess it does Whatever Jiminy means. Yeah, I don't know if that's his name or an adjective describing what kind of cricket.
Speaker 1:But a cricket, pretty Jiminy on that box. Um, but anyway, so, um. So I got in the woods a little bit this this week with, uh, with my buddy Logan cook. I was a little bit this week with my buddy Logan.
Speaker 2:Cook, who had the banquet at which Breck won the gun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, really cool turnout, really good thing they're doing with his Logan Cook Foundation and this is the second time I went to it. It was just as good, if not better than the year prior and they're making a big impact overseas with some less fortunates and stuff like that doing some good, uh, good work for the good lord, you know. But, um, but after that we, um, I went, went hunting with him time or two and he and myself met, uh, buddy peyton rowell, at a place down in South Mississippi and a place that if you look at it on a map, if you look at it with your eyeballs, is built for South Mississippi turkey hunting. I mean it's very, very nice and very well taken care of, managed. Well, I don't know if they've managed it for turkeys or deer or just whatever, but it's they got the setup naturally or constructed. However, it's very nice.
Speaker 1:And we got there and I'm I'm thinking banner morning I don't remember which morning it was, but it was supposed to be right and we pull up and I mean we crossed the bridge before pulling in and there's a little fog over the, uh, the creek there under the bridge, and that fog never, never left, you know, it just kind of continued on. We're like, okay, yeah, this is a zinger, because I pulled up his house about four o'clock and it was stars everywhere. And it wasn't my house too. We get down there and it's it's pretty fog actually, it ain't just light fog. So now I'm thinking, well, whether or not there's turkeys here, I don't know for sure, but we're going to have to wait to find out where they're at. If they are, because they're not going to be gobbling too much in the fog just because of I think it's a safety thing If they can't see what's coming. They don't want stuff that's coming to hear where they're at you know Right, Hens and stuff even.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, they're calling a hen to their tree, like they're designed to do.
Speaker 1:And a lot of times they'll sit in that tree, yeah. So I mean, that's kind of what we wind up doing. We wind up hearing one on the roost getting around to him and no sooner we kind of came up in a clear on top of a ridge. We we second thought it all three of us are hunting together. It was kind of said. You know we might want to check him. You know we didn't. You know you don't really want to yell with nowhere to be, and if you don't answer, then you're left with a wonder and thought of well, I hope he don't fly down and walk to where I'm at, because I'm walking to where he was at and he ain't there, no more yada, yada and he'll in the fog. You don't really know, because joker might be right there and you not know it. And that's exactly what happened.
Speaker 1:We logan hit a yelp or two and that joker hammered it. I mean probably 80 yards, oh geez. And and towards the open. I mean it's wide open, the way gobble sounded, but you can only see 60. So we don't know where he's at, what's going on, how long he's been there. Has he seen us or you know? Obviously not a gobble. But we hit the deck and get down, logan peels back and calls a little bit. There was a road in front of us. I'm sitting with Peyton and I have a camera for Logan's show off days or whatever. So I'm running it it best of my ability and I always film good whenever I'm with logan. For some reason um, anybody else, it is not the case, but every everyone every time he's handing me one.
Speaker 2:It's went pretty smooth we need to find out what kind of camera logan's got the exact same kind as ours it's just just a situation.
Speaker 1:But they skirt us and go down around the ridge to where Logan was calling from, instead of across it, which can happen. But in hindsight, knowing there was a road on the other side, I mean crap couldn't really move when they gobbled that close, but that would have been nice to have been there, but I don't think we could have gotten there. Anyway, three gobbling and I'm like what in the world? Because I don't, I only think there's one and I still think it's a long beard and I can see, you know, whitehead, with black ball underneath, about 65. Now now beneath us, and and peyton has, who is left-handed has. It was really tough at first, didn't know he was left-handed, so I'm kind of setting up behind his, you know right, so yeah, and stuff.
Speaker 1:And so I'm kind of like something ain't right here, because when you swing I'm you going to hit me. So I was like, oh, you're left-handed. So we had to kind of redo that situation. But facing him and everything, and, like I said, it's hazy, you can't really see. And Logan takes me as a Jake, but it was two of them, two turkeys period. One of them I had smelt a rat and I was like that one sounds 20 yards behind me, can't see it, it's putting. And but I'm looking at one that is it's strutting, it ain't putting, you know. And I can hear him drumming. So and I was like, is that joker putting in between his?
Speaker 2:drums.
Speaker 1:I mean that don't make no sense right and then I'm thinking well, maybe it's a hint or something in front of him, but it wound up being two jakes just lollygagging and stuff they ease on. And then we decided to ride out to Fox. It was a big cutover. We get on top sitting in a bunch of pushed-up trees and stuff like that. Best thing when we agreed to do was wait, because all we're going to do is just bump them to high heavens off the limb.
Speaker 1:A lot of times I've done it a lot of times go in there when it's muggy and it ain't got to be foggy if it's muggy and it feels like fog, but you doesn't even look like fog and you go walking around walking roads and stuff like that. You're gonna hear wing beats off of a limb you might not see what it is, but you're gonna bump them off of it and they'll stay in there until hey, you see the ground. I mean, imagine being a turkey and trying to fall into the ground. You can't see.
Speaker 1:Yeah, falling into just a hole, a white abyss. You know you're not knowing what's there, but Jake's did. So we sit up there and we kind of make ourselves comfortable, don't call or nothing, and we're at a very high spot. I hear a lot of stuff. You know here, you know two or three different creeks and stuff and if they are, or if they are, or off the ground kind of regardless, we should be able to hear them, with it being, you know, recently cut and um, we, uh, I think we, we kind of start hearing one and we debate moving towards him and as soon as we kind of gather our stuff up, we're looking that fog is gone and we're in the middle of the wide open and all the creeks is around. So we're like now we're in a little bit of a pickle.
Speaker 1:But this one gets fired up pretty good. Only one other one we heard go, I think this jake's got put again back behind us a time or two but I started ripping a glass cause you know kind of, and you can almost hear it hitting the same bank that he's above. So I'm thinking like, yeah, he's, he's hearing it and that knows, you know kind of got him fired up and I'm thinking you know what I mean. Joker might be in a tree and fly down in this open and walk up here. So we gave it a little bit of a minute but he didn't. And uh, long story short, pretty much, we uh, he gets.
Speaker 1:He gets in one of those little bowls like a horseshoe holla kind of deal and it is on the opposite side of where we can kind of get to without getting seen, probably, and he's hung up. I mean he's about 120 in there and there's a little ditch with some water in it. The route to get to us is not ideal. He'd have to. He'd have to make a sure enough, loop or or fly the ditch or whatever you know, which I've seen him do so I always try it and um gave that a go.
Speaker 1:Nothing happened. Hit him with silence. Logan moved and changed the call. He answered all of them. He answered the silence. He gobbled the second you hit another call, he moved. He advanced towards the silence at all. So we're thinking this is a bad setup. It's a great setup had he not been there.
Speaker 2:but that's not the case. Yeah, he ain't coming from that direction. That turkey's right there. It's not a good one.
Speaker 1:So we, we brainstormed a little bit and decided to. You know, we kind of look at the topo and decide to get on a level you know an even elevation as he is, and so he don't have to go up or down right across anything. It took us a minute to get there and you just have faith that when they're gobbling that consistent a lot of times they're not with hands, because the hands move. Hands don't care what you're doing.
Speaker 1:They're looking for food and going to a nest and stuff and there he's going to be moving when they're, when they're stationed and hung up like that, a lot of times there's one solo gobbler or, you know, maybe two gobblers, but no hands moving them, because if they're with hands they're gonna. They're not gonna worry about you that much either. A right but um, but a lot of times they'll get hung up for 40 minutes maybe, but they're just scratching and pecking in the bottom and after 40 minutes they're going to be moving because those hands are going to be moving. This one didn't.
Speaker 1:This went on about an hour and then tack on another 30, 40 minutes. To get around him we took a road up there and and peyton knew of some strut marks, and I think logan might have too in years past, so obviously they kind of come through this area that they'll kind of hang out here, strut around and um, yeah, headed on up there, came back down down a road in between a bunch of pines and uh, set up, called twice and there he was really yep, I mean just had to unravel the kind of you know make it easy on him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, get where he's willing to go and that's that's what I was telling peyton. Now, if we make it easy on him, I feel better.
Speaker 1:I feel like it's not a bad setup. This is a good spot. But where he's at, I think we're asking him a little too much more than he's willing to give. I think he wants to. He just wants it to be easy and sometimes birds are like that. Sometimes they don't care, they'll fly to the interstate to get to you if they wanted that bad. But some of them don't want it that bad and you got to make it easy, make it convenient and make it safe. That's another thing. You make it easy, convenient and safe. You know the the, how many notes in your yelp and all that stuff. It's kind of out the window, right, because you just sound like a turkey for a hot minute and it's enough to talk them into it.
Speaker 2:That's what happened right and a lot of times I found with that situation, you know, as long as you can wait, almost wait on him, stay at the original spot long enough to for sure know, hey, all five options we had to pull him across that are not gonna work right, because if you jump the gun on that a little too soon, yeah, I found while I'm making that loop, right he does jump that you tried everything with silence and now they're in silence yeah, and then all of a sudden, you get all right, I'm right, I'm on top of this, I'm on the same ridge as you.
Speaker 2:Now let me yell where is he sitting?
Speaker 1:right where you were, and that's the only risk you have really involved with that, or the main risk, yeah that I always worry about, because I've had that happen a few times always include the silence in your bag of tricks before you make a big loop or move or something. Yeah, before you move. Sometimes the second silence works and you can't get around. You know just part of it. But if he, if he's stationed there, I mean his feet are in concrete, yeah, more times if they're hung up. You hung him up. Yeah, if you were to become from a different direction, he wouldn't have hung up at all.
Speaker 1:He was headed straight to you right a lot of times he, he walks 15 feet and then there's the hung up part. It's a geographical something usually, um, and we consider for a the road that is in front of us from that spot and he's, he don't want to leave it because a hen should walk by it. Eventually he can kind of see is a little open in the canopy. Considered that it just I was like he didn't want to walk down that hill and walk back up this hill. I don't really want to.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:But I will, you know, if we go down a good ways and come back up and it it put a number on me, I ain't gonna lie, it was rough yeah but it was worth it and um that whole early season shape I was in. Came out mid-season, though feel like it, I will still a little sore. Came out 45 years old.
Speaker 2:I felt like I'm still sore, A little sore. I came out 45 years old. It felt like I'm still sore from this weekend, but Yep that.
Speaker 1:And then this morning I shot one this morning, yeah, and it was a good hunt. It was I. It was near where Jay shot one the other day. It was Parked on the same not parked on the same, but near that but it wound up being I don't know if you'd heard it it was not the turkey. I originally planned on hunting because I heard a different one, yeah, and I knew kind of about the different one and I expected to hear him. You know, nobody shot him in the last two or three days, but I was headed towards him and I heard another one down here in the creek and this a little further. But I'm like, yeah, probably, probably less options.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean the other one could be a approach from different areas and I I'm thinking when I hear this. I'm like I might be the only one that can get to him. Yeah, cause it's just it's surrounded by private or or no access to these areas and it's one of them, like, if somebody else wants him, they going to have to bring it, you know.
Speaker 1:I ain't going to get mad at them cause they going to have to earn it, cause there's some stuff you got to get to to get to him. And I found that out about I don't know if you can see the bottoms of my legs, but they were or the my kneecap to my about half thigh was getting yeah, those briars are rough in there and the dark and like there's a chance I can get there before he flies down, because, as of lately, if you don't get, if you're not within about five minutes of his first walking around, and he does find a hen it's over.
Speaker 1:I mean you're in a delay for an indefinite amount of time with them hens. They don't let you know where they're at often. These past couple days they have a little more. They've been a little lenient on the location, but I'm trying to get there and I don't and like that's just a hard pill to swallow is like I can. I can do it. I can get there and get there and get to this ridge and I know it opens. I can see where it opens up and I'm like you know, caught in every freaking briar there is and trying to be quiet.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and then you're like all right, maybe screw quiet, if I can just get here yeah you know, he'll never know, and um, and this time I'm gaining. I've gained about 20 yards in about that's 20 minutes you know, and just stuck left and right and there's no going backwards left or right you know you're in it.
Speaker 2:I got in a bind like that saturday and I couldn't get out yeah, there's no good option there is it only option is to power, put your head down and go yeah, and then you do that and you just go at a you know going about the speed of a snail through them, because you're still yeah then you you almost forget you're even turkey hunters, like just get out of here yeah, and then all the briars are stuck in your pants and up in them and all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 1:That's always fun, but anyway. So I kind of get through it and I think he no, I do get to a tree and it's opened up like a sliver, like a ditch, where the briars just didn't grow. I'm like I'm going to sit didn't grow and I'm like I'm gonna sit here like I'm probably not.
Speaker 1:This is good enough I'm probably not gonna make it. I'll just. Maybe he'll fly down this way. You know, maybe not. I ain't called to him or nothing, and I sit there gonna catch my breath pulling thorns out of my legs and stuff and, um, he got was, he got was one time and I was on the ground. I'm like, all right, here we go. He flew the other way, by the way, kind of glad.
Speaker 1:Actually yeah, yeah, I was a little glad. I'm like you know what. This is the best case scenario. Now I know he's not in a tree, he's not watching me because it gets on open up in there, and so I pretty much, here we go again go again you know, go through the second half and get there and finally get to a creek bottom and and it's got a bunch. I don't know what it's called, but it's it ain't. It's just dead looking grass yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean savannah type looking stuff sage grass looking stuff yeah so I don't know what savannah means oh, like prairie, not a prairie, I'm talking like habitat words Like, I think, sawgrass and stuff like that. I mean, I don't know, Tall dead grass.
Speaker 1:Bingo, it's probably not dead, it's probably just the color of it, yeah, but anyway. So it doesn't have thorns, thank God. So it's about the same height as all the briars have been walking through, but it's a lot more spaced out. I think it's good habitat, judging by some biologists I follow. I don't know the name of it, but I know what it looks like on their Instagrams or whatever. So get up in there and then I find where they probably roosted, opens up a little creek and I find a lot of scratching. I'm like, okay, this is from today, so this is probably where they roosted.
Speaker 1:So in my mind now I'm playing a little little defense, little offense, seeing maybe I can just kind of see what they do. Come back tomorrow, right, get up in here somehow, bring a weed eater with me or something. Um, I hear him gobble one more time like, okay, let's do one, and I mean it's a matter of 30 yards of walking, yeah, more. And I and I see a rat. I'm like, and this is, and I do this sometimes, especially in this situation, and it's kind of kind of how we did the one down south with Logan, and then it was like if they can get here somehow somewhere. I don't really care how or why or where or how the route they take. If I know they got from here to there, they can get back from there to here and a lot of times I'm kind of hesitant on thinking I can talk a turkey back into a spot he's already been. If he's moving because he just left there wasn't in there, you know, especially if you're kind of following him around.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it can be tough. He thinks you're following him. I feel like, so eventually he'll stop and you'll run into him you're supposed to.
Speaker 1:I'm not dead set on that, by all means, and this approval shouldn't be if I am, because, um, I'm, I'm amongst the scratching right now and, uh, I'm like, okay, I can. I can see a scenario where he crosses this creek somehow. I don't know how he did in person, but he's crossed creek, very close to the creek and I hear this um, I thought it was another hunter.
Speaker 1:I'm like that's unfortunate, because how in the world they had to have been there the whole time, because I'm like I'd have heard them ripping through that stuff just as much as I was, and I didn't see nobody when I pulled up on the whole daggum road. Honestly, and I don't know if you can access it from the other side, but either way I hear it and I'm thinking you kind of want to call back at them, because then you're like, then I look like a rookie too You're like man did. We do this whole like I thought you were a hand.
Speaker 2:I thought you were a hand.
Speaker 1:And so I'm like hell, this sucks. And then it does it a few more times. I'm like that might not be a hand. It did some stuff. I'm like I'd be very to be that bad at calling.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But to be able to do that would be kind of oxymoronic. I felt and it does it one more time. I'm like I think that's a real turkey Quote unquote.
Speaker 2:Bad sounding hand Right yeah.
Speaker 1:And then it gets to whaling and I break up my glass call and I cut back at it a time or two and it I mean, first, try, pop back at me and I'm like, okay, here we go. And they're not. I can tell they're not together, together In the vicinity of each other, but that joker's not amongst those hands.
Speaker 2:Is he still dabbling yeah?
Speaker 1:Oh, those hens, he's still dabbling. Yeah, oh, he's firing back at us both. Yeah, I mean left and right, left and right and something. I'm I'm pissed this one off. So I'm all right with it, but he's not with them. So I'm kind of like, yeah, these are sounding on my side of the creek, he sounded on the other side of the creek, and then the hens. I just I mean going back and forth whether it starts moving. And I found a tree set up on kind of in the open, which was my best option. Right, it was either get back a little bit within the cover and kind of eliminate the back wall. My best case scenario was he skirts the opening Right Completely. I can shoot across the opening it's about 40 to the other end. Yeah, so if he comes out at all and takes a peek, I got him you move back to 10 to get a little cover in front of you. You're.
Speaker 1:You're kind of hoping he comes in the middle at that point yeah, um, and I, and they are a little above me, I think of a think of the foot of a ridge kind of, and they're on the other side of it, but I know they're going to walk up and then what they do once they walk up, I don't know. I did not see them walking the creek bank, just keeping the creek within a foot of them walking all the way back. If they started moving that way, I had a route in mind to slip down an extra 30 yards and get where I could shoot the creek, but where I was at I couldn't. But regardless, this jerk is going back and forth.
Speaker 1:What I think is a hen and it gets 40 from me and I still can't see it and it gobbles. I'm like, oh my God, that's why it sounded funny at first. Now it sounds like, and then caulking or anything or you know, honking, kind of like jakes, do you know the? The three? Like chalk, chalk, chalk. It ain't doing that, it's like. I mean it sounded like a hymn by the end of it. Yeah, I get warmed up a little bit, I guess.
Speaker 2:Um, was it a j? What are you saying?
Speaker 1:Okay, two Jakes.
Speaker 2:I see.
Speaker 1:But when it hit that it's kind of like a squeal and then gobble. I'm like, ah, yeah, crap, I'm bleeding left and right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know out of breath for a daggum.
Speaker 1:Jake, I know it's not the one goblin, though. Okay, this is what I think is the hen yeah so I don't call these two. I just don't know if the one goblin's a jake or not, right? He's still hammering behind him about 60 yards. At that point you're considering it more.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, I'm like it's probably probably a freaking jake, you know my luck. Um, so these two shakes come in and they look and I'm stone cold still because I know that other one ain't with them and I've seen scenarios where it's kind of like that they just follow this dude around, yeah, and he's moved. The gobbler has come across the creek In the meantime. Okay, so in the meantime of those jakes coming into sight and they walk, 25 from me looking, you know, pecking around, tripping over twigs and stuff like jakes do, oh yeah, in the meantime of them doing that, me being dead, still and quiet, the gobble crosses the creek.
Speaker 1:And so his next gobble is closer Right 80, 90. 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 Houndstooth Turkey Calls. I scratched a couple times after the Jake's kind of behind me.
Speaker 1:I just moved my feet, I don't you know, put my hand on the ground or nothing, move my feet a couple times, do a really good scratch sound with my foot. I'm like. I'm like I could not do that again in a million years. I ain't gonna lie. You know it made a good. You know the full, the, the, the right cadence and kind of volume and everything like that was pretty, pretty good right there and he gobbles at it.
Speaker 1:The next gobbles closer. I'm like, all right, we're about to find out. Those get jakes. I think they got one more time and he gobbles that thing on and he's you know, he's cutting it. Yeah, and I'm kind of I'm hoping he does the same thing jakes did, because they can't. Well, hey, they came out like jakes. They walked out, they looked both way across the street and kept walking. You know, they didn't stop, look periscope, nothing. They were like I don't see nothing in here, like actively walking around the open area, turning circles, like I swear there was something right here 30 yards from a gun barrel.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this one didn't do that. So obviously I can see, you know, body here and there and the stuff he's in is about as tall as a turkey's head, yeah, so it's kind of you're just seeing pieces of him and it's I mean, it's not like twigs, it's grassy looking stalks Right, and he gets to that same kind of corner. He lets it rip a couple times through right there. I'm like, ooh, that didn't sound like that other gobble.
Speaker 2:Right, that's for sure, yeah.
Speaker 1:He's either hit the puberty or that's a long beard. And I still can't see a beard. This ain't far from where. I didn't shoot one the other day and was all right, it's all because of a beard because I couldn't see the beard until right last minute. Then I see it is a beard and now I can't shoot him. And then he gets between two trees and I could have shot him but didn't want to shoot him, you know, I thought he'd give me another chance and he didn't.
Speaker 1:So that's what's going on in the back of my head, and this joker's already stopped and all I can see is his head and he's kind of quartering to me and I'm thinking do something, Move to where he's doing the half strut thing, where I can't see all the tail. And I can half strut thing where I can't see all the tail fair and and I can't see you know chest down, I'm like, come on, he's about 50.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my cheeks on the gunstock at this point. He's walking out of an angle. He's going, you know, he's going to hit range here in about 10, 15 yards. Yeah, there are some trees in between the 10 50 and he gets behind one of them and I'm thinking where did he go? Here we go again, because he's at 50. So I mean, if he walks back sideways he's probably out. Any step backwards definitely out. But he's walking to me. So he comes back out at about 35 from the other side of this tree. I'm like, okay, still can't see. I'm like, come on, he, he'll gobble at me. I'm like staring at his feet, like maybe I'll see a beard you know, silhouette.
Speaker 1:He does the whole. You know he's got his tail fan is still behind a tree. So imagine front half of the body's out. He's facing from my left to my right, you know kind of sideways. Now broadside I guess you'd say he's looked hard, he's still kind of looking, but he's looked everywhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's starting to get convinced otherwise.
Speaker 1:And he came from something, so he don't want to just hang around because there was no way two turkeys did the scratching. I saw I mean I'm thinking one of the 15 hinders dang and um what time is this? About 8, 30, okay, and uh, he, he tucks his wing. He tucked his wings, he turns. I'm like I see a beard. I'm like, okay, game on. Now he, he turns. I'm like.
Speaker 2:I see a beard.
Speaker 1:I'm like, okay, game on. Now he's behind the tree. I'm like this is about to happen, ain't it? Yeah, this is about to freak it out, but they do that and they'll do that. One more like double check. Yeah, you know they'll um, what was it Like? It's almost like you do you're hunting like a human does you're like ain't nothing here.
Speaker 1:Unless that's something, okay, no, that's nothing you know. So he's up one more time. He turned one more back time around as soon as he did. I was like I was ready for him. Then you know, um, you shot him right there first time. I shot one with that 12 gauge in a minute since about late april last year. Yeah, I shot that 20 gauge for a lot of it, the 20 gauge with the barrel camera.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the one I did not have the one that was in the house.
Speaker 1:Yep, so filmed the gunstock again.
Speaker 2:Heard it.
Speaker 1:You could hear him gobble. You could see the jakes on it, because they walk over my right shoulder and his face that way.
Speaker 2:But yeah. I tried guys, we got to get you a 45 degree wedge to put on your shoulder, to keep it. You're looking at one.
Speaker 1:No, no, no no, not, I mean, it does good every other time I think it's literally just when I, when I hold that, the, the 12 gauge yeah, because I have to get my head so low it just it makes everything is attached to so loose. Right, I'm just like turtled down in here and everything's just kind of falling off of me. The other one, you know, the red dot or whatever I'm posture to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're closer to it because you've got that short stock on it, true? I bet that's a lot of it. It's your elbows are closer to your chest instead of further away from your chest.
Speaker 1:It just like allows it to fall.
Speaker 2:And your arm is pushing it towards the inside of you is what's probably happening If I had to assume.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'd have to see Every one of them films, that damn stock shooting and yep. So I promise I'm trying, but I wasn't going to look down. No Make sure I ain't that invested into it ain't a lie well, my footage wasn't any better, so yeah, chase had me pumped up for his footage.
Speaker 2:I thought it was gonna be money footage. I mean it should have been. I mean you can see him out there, but I had my camera still set in deer mode, low light, right mode, so it was picking up every bit of light. The game was it? So I don't know I guess really high. I don't really know how to adjust it back I can say that I don't know what it is.
Speaker 1:I don't have that option.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yours, no, I forgot, it's a little digital camera, never mind, um, but yeah and, and jeremy hunted with deer, hunted with it all year, so who knows what we've between me and him swapping it back and forth, have clicked the wrong buttons and whatnot, but yeah, I got. I was pumped up to watch the you know the little clip of it, Cause I mean the whole hunt wasn't, I think, 20 minutes, right From the time I sat down till the time I was done recording. But yeah it's. It's not good either.
Speaker 2:You can was done recording, but uh, yeah, it's. It's not good either, you can see. It's just so grainy, you know, and that that thing ain't got a mic on it, so that, right like the audio would have been amazing if I would have. The other camera is what it is.
Speaker 1:I need need to get a different camera I'm gonna show you the one I filmed uh peyton and logan's on it world of difference shoot. I did a good job, I think yeah um, they're not all right because logan's in a little clip of it.
Speaker 1:Heck only they'd all do that strut down a pine straw lane in the middle of pines for 40 yards and not trip their way through a briar thicket to come poke their head out at 45 and look at you until you know yeah, well, you just need to learn how to hunt different stuff, I guess I'm all right that one there's a second one and I'll be back in the morning oh yeah, I'll do a lot of things for them did I see that clip from jeremy? I don't know if I did.
Speaker 2:No, you told me about it. They're down in Florida. Oh man, he's got some crazy good footage. Really, I mean, I ain't, you know, wanted to always get fired up about footage, but that one was pretty sweet, so I'm ready for him to get back.
Speaker 1:so I'm like watch it watch it.
Speaker 2:You know, I just saw the clip that he sent me from his phone. But yeah Might, yeah, might see what kind of camera he's got.
Speaker 1:I don't think this is a matter.
Speaker 2:It ain't a camera. It ain't a matter of the equipment. Oh no, I know that was intended to be the judge there. Sorry, I'll tell you right now.
Speaker 1:I was up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you right now y'all going to get over it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we probably ain't getting any better.
Speaker 1:I mean that's how it is. Is there, in case I for some reason that gopro falls the right way and it gets on camera?
Speaker 2:cool yeah, other than that, and I got about 10 episodes of youtube stuff.
Speaker 1:If I ever sit down and edit them, y'all can watch, and a lot of them have the turkey on it yeah, but they just all start with your palm of your hand, so you have to watch every yes 33 scenes from every day that was. I regret that decision. Yeah, so, unless I changed gloves which I didn't every clip you just look at the thumbnail of where every clip starts on and I'm talking like a five terabyte, yeah size hard drive.
Speaker 1:They're all just my gloves, just black or bottom line yeah, you just see like a bloody bottom land palm, cause I'm turning it on, and then the next one is me turning it on, so it's all. You can't see where we're at nothing. So, yeah, that's why it's what it is and it's hard to do stuff during trick season.
Speaker 2:Ain't gonna lie yeah, that's the hardest thing I'm running into right now, just getting out there and doing it, yep.
Speaker 1:But hopefully we're going to have some more stories to talk about, at least.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Here in the near future, when I come back, you'll probably have another one. I'm trying to think of a way I can get one, me and Gary recording out there. I'm probably not hauling a Rodecaster in the carry-on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I wouldn't put that one and I'm packing pretty light. Yeah, we don't have a compact podcasting thing.
Speaker 1:Nope, I need one like Lee Ellis has.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fits in your dang pocket.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was sweet, sounded just as good as ours.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I mean mean you may could take the og mic with you. I think I gave that to blake dow, probably I think it did. Well, they're only 12 dollars at. Yeah, all right, best buy, you can go get another one, plug it into your laptop maybe, just to get it. I might do that. That wouldn't be, that's just an idea.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah like go go buy one actually there and then probably leave the hotel and be like right, good riddance, but it's enough to get one. Um, hopefully it was cool stories, because it like very rarely now do we, do I meet somebody and neither of us have ever been there, kind of deal. Yeah, if I might hunt a new place, and when I like I'm like just state like North Tennessee and Kentucky are a lot alike, so it's not that different. We're hunting somewhere neither of us have ever really. I mean, he's hunted like Oregon and Washington and stuff, but I don't think this is even like that necessarily. It could be completely wrong, I don't know I have no clue.
Speaker 1:He's been out there playing shows and stuff, obviously, so he knows what it looks like. But that's out of my imagination.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I have no clue either, so I'm going to be pumped just to see it, but hopefully we'll get up in them. Have some stuff to talk about when we get back.
Speaker 2:Is it just y'all two going? Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:Going to give it to them for a day or two at least.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that'll be good, and I'm assuming he's flying out of somewhere else not here, okay. I was going to say, heck, we could you know when y'all got back? Y'all could come use the road Right no. Now we're planning, we're talking other stuff. Do what. I'm just talking, like we're not on a podcast, we're not on a podcast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're hanging out. Yeah, so I don't know. We've got three-quarters of an hour in. That's good enough for me, that's good enough for y'all. We appreciate you listening. We'll be back next week with something to talk about at least. And, as always, we appreciate those reviews and shares and likes and subscriptions and stuff like that. We do this for the heck of it and I hope y'all enjoy listening as much as we do. Telling them Seems like it, so we'll keep pumping them out. Appreciate it. We'll see you next week. Thanks for 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 Gears 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 northmountaingearcom.
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