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
Gary Stanton - Scouting Foreign Terrain & Turkey Hunting Trips, Successful Strategies for Multi-Day Hunts
This week, Hunter Farrior welcomes his good friend Gary Stanton (of country music duo Muscadine Bloodline) to share their recent adventure pursuing turkeys in completely new territory.
What begins as a loosely planned expedition with minimal local knowledge turns into a masterclass in adaptability, patience, and recognizing opportunity when it presents itself. The hunters reveal how a wrong turn and nearly hitting a hen with their truck led to discovering a turkey hotspot that would define their entire trip. Their experience demonstrates the delicate balance between scouting widely and committing deeply once birds are located.
The conversation explores the challenges of hunting opening day on public land, managing pressure from other hunters, and the tactical decisions that ultimately led to success. Rather than constantly seeking new ground, they found that staying put and truly learning one productive area yielded better results—harvesting birds seven hours apart but only 70 yards from one another.
Beyond hunting tactics, Bobby and Gary discuss their friendship built through shared passion for turkey hunting and literature, how superstition influences their hunting gear choices, and the special quality of early spring turkey season that keeps them coming back year after year. Their genuine enthusiasm and storytelling make this episode both entertaining and educational for hunters of all experience levels.
Whether you're planning your own out-of-state turkey adventure or simply enjoy authentic hunting stories, this episode offers valuable insights on finding success in unfamiliar territory while creating lasting memories with friends in the turkey woods.
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Check out the SPRING LEGION YouTube Channel to watch the hunts referenced on our show, as they happened and as real as it gets.
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Huge Thanks to the following for making this podcast possible:
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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. Two turkey calls. What is going on?
Speaker 1:Guys and girls, I want to welcome you back to the Spring Legion Podcast 2025 Turkish season edition. I believe this might be wrapping up the first month's worth of the end-season episodes. Week four, I believe, could be week five, I'm not sure. Don't hold me to that, but I've got a guest today One's probably a little more familiar than others Going to hop on the line with us here in the next few moments A good buddy of mine, gary Stanton. Some of y'all might know him from the music world. He and his buddy Charlie he and charlie, uh, with muscadine bloodline are currently climbing some charts. So unless you live under a rock, uh, you've heard of them and uh, they're pumping out some good, good tunes and stuff, and a lot of folks know gary as a turkey hunter because that's what he is.
Speaker 1:He's a jack-of-all-trades, and he's a pretty dang good at a lot of them. There's a few people in this world that I can say that for, and he is one of them. He's a successful dude, he's a very disciplined dude and one that is uh motivating to have as a friend I'll put it that way. So he, uh he's had a very big impact on the spring legion journey and I'm very thankful for him.
Speaker 1:And there's a lot of stuff that y'all can also thank gary for, one of them being valid of a turkey hunter. I don't know if I would have ever written it if not for gary. He, uh, he and I share the same passion for the the literature side of turkey hunting and the connection that it has and, uh, kind of the commonality that it provides, not only between generations but likewise current generations and interests that they share. So he and I, we decided to head out west, so first trip of the year, I think for both of us. Technically he's visited a couple southern states here in the early part of the season, but he is going to be a dad here in the next few weeks, so he's going to be a good one, I know that for sure. But he did want to make sure that he got at least one. It's not a swing. We didn't make a swing. It was a pretty direct trip to chase some Rios, but we did. And when he mentioned it, this happened to be one of my kind of bucket list places I want I've always wanted to to chase turkeys at, so definitely could not decline that offer and we got quite quite some stories to tell. I'll put it that way. We did not neither of us knew what we were getting into and stumbled upon some, some good times, I'll put it that way. So I'm not going to spoil too much on that. I'm going to let him hop on and we'll talk over it together.
Speaker 1:But a couple quick updates for you. I do give them a ring. The duffel bags, the travel bags that we have been asked about for probably five years now. I think Spring Leagues has been in a company for five years and all five folks have asked about these bags that y'all see us toting around. And finally, about this time last year, I decided to uh to, to hit it pretty hard trying to figure out a way that we could manufacture them. And we've done that, and we've successfully done that and they turned out exactly like I wanted them to and exactly like the bags y'all have always seen us carrying around. So they are now live on the Sprintledge website.
Speaker 1:They're perfect for really anything. They're very simple, they're very compact. It's a single opening, 18-inch zipper on the top, and I use them as a giant junk drawer or a dump bag kind of, so to speak, where all of my box calls and spare gloves and mask and all the stuff you know, from stuff for poison ivy to thermosil cartridges and ain't really anything in between. It'll fit about two sets of clothes, a pair of boots. I've put my turkey vest in it before it fits in there, just fine, but they're on the website now. We've got a decent amount left. I believe we vest in it before it fits in there, just fine, but they're on the website now. We've got a decent amount left. I believe we uploaded them last week and should still be there. I'm going to go ahead and say they will be. But that, another update.
Speaker 1:On the conservation side, I want to encourage you all to go check out Mossy Oak's 2025 Turkey Stamp at their website. And if you don't know what the Mossy Oak turkey stamp is, it is a little project. They started, I think, about three years ago 2022, I believe, was the first year that they began doing the turkey stamp and it's a $15 stamp. You go buy it and 100% of the money raised goes directly to funding Wild Turkey Conservation via their GameCube grant. Of the money raised goes directly to funding wild turkey conservation via their gamekeeper grant. So one of the things that you can do. You can. You can put your money towards something that you know is going to conservation and not only the conservation to wild turkey conservation. So it's not, it's not being split up and sent all over the place. It's very direct and uh, obviously known by some guys who value wild turkey and the and acknowledge the fragileness of the resource and the bird. So I can vouch for that. I know them well enough to know that they are for real. They really do care about conservation and the future of wildlife as much as any, if not more.
Speaker 1:So y'all head over there, you can buy as many as you want as far as any, if not more. So y'all head over there, you can buy as many as you want. As far as I know, in the past I've bought, you know, bundles of them practically and uh, pretty cool, awesome artwork obviously, and for those who are in the collective realm, I'm sure they'll be worth worth your while to uh to collect all of them. Aside from from that, we got a. I think we're gonna continue the code for the CAP25 for the six new turkey hunting hats on sprayleadingscom. So some old school looks to them some cool, quick, dry kind of hats as well that are made of the same material as our pants.
Speaker 1:A lot of stuff's getting sold out on the camouflage side, but we should be getting some new casual wear and stuff like that and kind of piecing in a few accessory type things with the leather mouth call pouches, and we got a bottom land one and a solid leather one there on sprintlegendcom. And aside from that, it's turkey season. Guys, we're out and about doing as much as we can, soaking it in day by day and taking none of them for granted in the springtime, as I'm sure a lot of y'all are. So, without further ado, I'm going to hop online, give gary a call and we'll see y'all on the other side. Appreciate you listening. What's up buddy? What's happening dude?
Speaker 2:not much, man, sorry. My. As soon as I was like yeah, I'm ready, my wife downstairs and needed me to get something for her real quick and I was like, of course, that's when I was on the call.
Speaker 1:Hey, the one time of the time dude, One time I know you had it Can you hear me?
Speaker 2:all right, I got headphones on and everything. I don't know if it's coming through.
Speaker 1:All right, yeah, yeah, no everything sounds really good as far as I know, so should be ready to roll. Did y'all survive the storms last night? I heard it got a little rough that way.
Speaker 2:I don't know if it made it all the way to Nashville or not. Oh, dude, it dumped here last night. It kind of got a little uneasy last night about like 2 in the morning, like we live in a neighborhood and it's just these static homes and I thought it was going to blow over at one point. But yeah, it was kind of rough. We were expected to get like 12 inches of rain today and so it's just dumping and we actually had like 8 inches a couple weeks ago and just these places that I hunt at, mr MC.
Speaker 2:I took you out there, mr MC. They had a big old sink hole fall through and he had one of his uh, his eight wheel factors fall in it and then ended up. It was like a it's like a 60 foot uh bottom that went through and there was, like it was, a cave system under it. It was like four different there would have been eroded or whatever from all the flow. So I'm kind of waiting on him to hear from him, because I told him as soon as the weather gets done, because he's going to need some help out there because he's getting older and it's just kind of one of them things where it's like that agricultural land out there. All those sinkholes are running rampant out, so who knows? But yeah, it got bad here and I think it's just going to be steady raining for the next like 24 hours.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I heard it's going to be like a month's worth in a matter of days, so folks are warranted freaking out.
Speaker 2:Did you not get something to do down?
Speaker 1:there no nothing down here. Absolutely nothing, so I think we were kind, of you know prepared for it, but it just kind of some kind of pressure system came in underneath it and wouldn't let it come down all the way. It probably made it worse right there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I talked to my dad yesterday and we had rain yesterday. We're kind of these next five days it's like prime days where they kind of go, listen, get a little head start, and it's just like, man, I'm not going to drive an hour and a half to go out there and listen to this kind of weather. My parents down in South Alabama they told me they said, man, we're having pretty days. I'm actually going to go head down to South Alabama tomorrow or whatever to get a turkey hunt down there for a couple of days and try to beat that weather system and get out of here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'd say you probably. I'm looking outside right now and it's sunny and birds flying everywhere and the the weather apps every app you look at says it's not supposed to be doing that, so I didn't go this morning. Uh, so now that makes like three or four days in a row, having really even turkey hunted, so I'm kind of getting a little antsy. Yeah, I was like.
Speaker 2:Well, what are we? What are we on the phone for? Exactly you should be out in the woods so I'm funny.
Speaker 1:I'm a little mad at the not mad at the weather guys. I'm thankful it didn't make its way down here, but I really had been expecting some, a lot of which the wind is killer down here, because whatever that is moving up there sucking the wind from the Gulf up, and I'm telling you, it was 45-mile-an-hour winds all day yesterday. Not gusts, just a constant. My ears are ringing from it, but, um, did you make it back from uh, did you?
Speaker 2:make it back from the trip. All right, because I got a story to tell you. Yes, I mean, that was what was. Yeah, I want to get into this because I haven't heard about this. Uh, yeah, you were telling me you couldn't board your plane up. Well, I was boarding at the moment. They're like all right, group a come on. And then, uh, I got home, they said like a mine was a direct to nashville and I think it was like four, like four and a half hours, right, and I was just like well, but I, when I landed, I didn't think to call you. You're like man, I'm, I'm like backed up now until like late this afternoon, oh yeah no, I mean it was, it was, it was such a cluster.
Speaker 1:So I get there and gary and I know this is our last day to hunt and we decide not to hunt.
Speaker 2:And so we would make it to the airport in time.
Speaker 1:And here I am sitting there and as soon as we go to board the plane, the pilot walks out and gets you know, walks up to the desk and says that their plane has been struck by lightning on the way there. And it's going to be a minute because they have to get. You know, they had to get like the delta actual maintenance team to come out and verify everything, sign off on it and stuff. Well, they didn't have one of those. They had to get one from like salt lake or san francisco or somebody else to fly in on their next available flight. Then they can get there and then they're going to check it out and then sign off on his stuff.
Speaker 1:So they bumped it back like hour by hour until it was like 11 30 pm and I'm like, okay, I'm about to, I'm about to do some finagling and and finally pretty much what I wound up doing was walked around desk to desk. I'm like, hey, you got a flight just going east. I mean I don't care where it goes, I'll figure it out from there. And finally I got to the southwest counter. I was like, can y'all get me to new orleans? And they're like, yeah, well, you had a flight leaving at like 7 pm or something like that. I'm like I'll take it, wait, you were there that long.
Speaker 2:Yes, it was dark when I left oh my god yeah yeah, and then I got to new orleans, had to drive and drive home or ride home.
Speaker 1:So I got home like 3 am that day I I was like Gary has no idea this is happening at all. He thinks like I just like nah, dude, I was sound asleep.
Speaker 2:It was funny. Well, that was what I was confused. You said something about lightning and I looked outside and I was like I don't see a rain cloud in the sky, I don't know what he's talking about.
Speaker 1:Think that would have been the only like, so it had to have gotten struck by lightning, like over georgia or alabama or something, and flew the whole country to you know, fine, but yep.
Speaker 1:So I was like I'm not even gonna tell him, wait till we have on the podcast. So we were gonna do the podcast in a hotel room after we got through hunting stuff and then we realized like that's just gonna be a pain because we're going to have like two phones rolling and trying to record, you know, each audio separately and mash them together and stuff. I was like brother, I got a Rodecaster at the house. I'll just call you, you know, and we'll talk about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and now I know you're regretting. I wish that daggum rental truck was in your name.
Speaker 1:You could have just dropped me off at the airport and gone back to the honey hole. I was thinking about it. I mean, somebody can lend me one maybe. I was thinking about Googling how long for like a short-term rental. Maybe an hour or two is all I need just to get out there. But man, I'd be like man. Then I'd have to uncheck the gun and check it back in and all that stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, did they have to do some finagling with your, with your flying, with your firearm for changing flight? I?
Speaker 1:thought so. So I actually missed a couple that left at like 1 pm because of that. Because I was like, well, pretty much, where they told me how to go down there, uncheck it, go back through baggage claims, I'm not basically go through tsa, everything, so I thought that was going to take much longer. But then I went up there and they're like, no, actually whenever a flight gets late, we send everything down there for folks to do that. And I'm like, oh, so do it one minute. And I was like, well, I could have definitely been home six hours earlier if I'd have known that.
Speaker 2:But it's in the wind now, so it don't matter well, I gotta say that you probably won't be flying to Turkey Hunt ever again.
Speaker 1:It was a thousand times easier than I thought it was going to be. I'll put it that way, which you know coming from down here.
Speaker 2:I just hate that you just got the short end of the stick on the way home.
Speaker 1:Dang. I hate that man.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry to hear that. Well, I'm glad you made it home safe. How'd you get home from New Orleans?
Speaker 1:My dad actually, he met me down there, so it was like two hours from where they live, and he was like well, I can meet you down there and just bring you back here Because it was that, or get home at literally pretty much 11 pm the following day. That's how long it would take to find a flight, because Jackson's a smaller port, so it's not like they got stuff popping left and right. So I was like I'm going to have to go to Birmingham or Memphis or New Orleans, one way or another.
Speaker 1:So I picked New Orleans and that was the route Got home. I almost went hunting with him, so he took off the next day and we were thinking about it, we kind of caught a second wind there on the drive up? No, because then we got to drive back to the airport in jackson the next morning.
Speaker 2:I was like that ain't gonna be good yeah, no, well, glad he got home safe and it all worked out. I had fun. That was a fun trip, man.
Speaker 1:Uh, that was just something cool to experience yeah, I mean that was a, that was a bucket list type of a place for me, so I had a man.
Speaker 2:Obviously hadn't hadn't hunted out that way, but I had no expectations, not that, yeah, I didn't either, man. It was just cool to you know, get out there and just really figure it out. We just, I feel like there was a the Lord was on our side, we are whatever you want to call it, and we just kind of lucked out, because I feel like the more we drove around, I was like, man, we might have struggled here, it took us a while to find them, but once we found them, we found them Right.
Speaker 1:It looked like we didn't struggle at all. Yeah, I mean, it wouldn't be a false statement. But at the same time I think we I was talking a little we went and ate pizza with Logan last night and I told him. I said, well, he's like y'all, really Y'all put it on him. I'm like, well, we did. But I think it was a luck of the draw kind of experience for the most part, as we found out. I'm glad we did, we were jumping the gun, but at the same time I'm glad we did make a loop or two in other parts of the state to see that, hey, you know, you really did have a good spot and we came up on it, pretty luckily, I guess.
Speaker 2:Yeah and the thing is, too, is like shout out to my buddy that I met, like from playing a show, and like we kind of like like gave us a frame of reference of what area to go to. And so we were just kind of like, all right, well, let's just like pop over here Like backstories. I got like I was out there touring one time and Charlie went to go play golf and then he started sending me pictures of turkeys on the golf course. And then I was just like, okay, well, there's might just be turkeys in the area. Let's like, let's strike out there when we go. I was like that's all I knew. And then once we got there, we're like, okay, maybe we gotta start moving around. And then that's when I'm just glad we were like in that area right it worked out yeah, having the when you're.
Speaker 1:I mean everybody knows there's there's turkeys in all 49 states, so I mean that's a fact.
Speaker 1:But, it's just a matter of kind of where and when to go and stuff like that is the only thing you really got to figure out and it's not that hard. You know you can honestly look at a map and you see trees. Usually that means turkeys are there. But you know we're getting into unfamiliar terrain and elevation and stuff like that and just a shade of green doesn't really tell you much. You know, when it comes to stuff like that, as we found out, that you know way out west there's valleys and you know mountains and stuff like that and the type of tree differs drastically.
Speaker 2:Likewise, does the?
Speaker 1:terrain and stuff and so but having that you, you know frame of reference there, just to go out there and meet up with your buddy, and it just gave us a, a dart on the map to even head towards and and you know go from there. That's all that was the plan was to get in this area, holler at him, say what's up, and then you know, see what we see yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 2:And, like I said, I don't even know if people ever struck out that direction, like in that sort of thing, so kind of just, kind of just worked out. But uh, yeah, it took a minute. But as soon as we kind of started seeing seeing turkeys around and we're like, you know, just the fun part about doing that is just showing up somewhere new and just putting the puzzle pieces together, it's like, okay, we're noticing this terrain feature here. Okay, now we got to find some public with this terrain feature and then start to just kind of like put it together. And then it was like okay, then it's cool.
Speaker 2:When you kind of have that, you know it. Just when it does come together, like that, there's nothing more fulfilling. I feel like when you, you know, do your own online scouting and that's the thing and kind of gets you to a place, and then you actually find a turkey where you think the turkey would be. It's like man, that's. So it's almost just as fun. It's almost just as fun as like pulling the trigger on one where you're like man, dude, that's pretty cool. I kind of kind of put the puzzle together and it worked out yep, I agree totally, and that is you know.
Speaker 1:Two, I think it's over 2 000 miles away from where I live and yeah, and literally, and that's how we went about it really. I mean, we, we, we had the, the dart to start at, and then we just kind of started looking and and we've done some, you know, pre-scouting online. You've done a little more than I had and um, and just then you get there and you do see turkey somewhere, whether it be on private or on public or wherever after checking out a couple of places.
Speaker 1:You're like, all right, let me see. Okay, so they're, they're in this type of area, this is what the trees look like and you kind of drive out of them trees and you stop seeing them. You're kind of, okay, maybe go back, you go back and okay, this elevation is kind of where we've seen two now, so maybe, okay, put that back together and all that good stuff.
Speaker 2:And, like you said, it's like on those trips, it's like, you know, when you only got a couple days, you're racing against the clock, but it's like it's what I like about that. I mean, there's also two you know we talked about like hey, it's just as important to know where not to go.
Speaker 1:Oh, yes, you know, we talked about like hey, it's just as important to know where we're not to go.
Speaker 2:Oh yes, you know, by going somewhere. And then you're like, okay, well, this, whether this terrain feature or whether this area is like okay, this is, we're not in tracks, we're not seeing, we're not even seeing seeing stuff that looks like turkey here, that on a mat, does it's like okay, well, at least like there's no nothing better than actually putting boots on the ground or putting rubber to the road and like seeing that instead of like just looking at a map.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And then, like you said, it took its kill. You know, I'm glad we had the Friday before the season opened, so it was kind of like, well, we at least had like a day where we have to just cover so much ground. And then, once we found it, we so much ground. And then, and then, once we, once we found it, we found we're like, okay, there's no, we at least we got a plan for the morning.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and that was a I mean cause we were mentioning it had we not come up a day before the season started and had we not flown, how, uh, unlucky we could have definitely gotten because not having that, that data to scout, so to speak, and and then um, and then flying, because we've probably been yeah, and we right.
Speaker 2:And then we've been raring to go and we probably got out truck, started hunting, just because it's ready to hunt. And then it's like man, we could have spent all that whole day like trying to find one on on foot. And then it's like no, it's like you know our day to kind of get around here and kind of see the land that we you and I have like really never spent time in. So it was cool to see it come together.
Speaker 1:And it's a physical tag kind of state or a physical license kind of state. So we had to find somewhere to get the license and stuff like that. You couldn't just do that in airplane mode on the way there? So allocating that time to not be rushed and then you really start. You look at places and drive. You know you drive away.
Speaker 1:You're just kind of like looking over ridges and stuff and then you know you don't have the time to sit and listen or roll your window down and get water out of the truck bed and hear one gobble. You know, because that's kind of how we wind up finding the. I mean when I say stumble upon, I mean stumble upon by the the dots that connect to this point in time are just wild because, you know, have, years ago, when you met um, your buddy, who, who gave you the frame of reference to where to go towards, you know, then it connects us to this dot connects us to this dot.
Speaker 1:We'll get somewhere down a dead-end road and have to turn around. And as we're turning around we see gary almost smokes a hen in the road and um yeah, I overreact way too much enough to to stop, because I thought he really was about to hit it and so and then I didn't see it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because we were driving. We had a big old. I have a little Toyota Tacoma and the Chevy's got those big old hoods and you just went, whoa, whoa, whoa. I thought we were about to go off the road or hit somebody, and then we pumped the brakes, lost the hand, across the road, the windows just happened to be down, and then we hear one gobble, or hear multiple gobbles, and then we're like whoa, where was that at? And it's like, okay, let's figure this out. And then it was just, that was like a lot of stroke of luck, like I said, finding the location you know, came upon it and then, just being in the truck and hearing one gobble, you were like, okay, all right, look at this. So let's pull it back up. That's public. Okay, let's, uh, let's, let's stay here for the rest of the day right and we were.
Speaker 1:We were like, not there to look at that place either. We were trying to get to a different place and we, like we were, we knew we would be riding by a couple little pieces of it getting there, but that was not even the destination. So I mean the we were heading towards we were correcting them having turkeys.
Speaker 1:But I'm not going to kind of pass one up that you can hear from you know this gate that you can't hear the other gate. We never made it to the other gate. We'll put it that way because once he finds them, you stick with them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100%. It's just like all just kind of fell together and those situations where they fell in, our lap kind of fell together and those situations where they fell in our life and it's like, okay, well, at least we got a plan for one day.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we just catch it, you know, um, yeah, but then the hunting starts and then you got to figure out you know what to do and stuff like that. And and being in, the first thing that came to my mind was, okay, hey, the season hasn't started yet, so that makes a little sense. Uh, we're obviously not in, you know, southeast anymore, so it's not. It might not be that rare to hear one from the road, from the blacktop here, and I've heard them from blacktop mississippi and then hunted one on public land 200 yards from the blacktop, a big blacktop. It just it happens. You just it's just very rare and and you got to take it when you, when you, when it gets there, for some reason or something's pushed them there or whatever. But in this case they might have just been there anyways.
Speaker 1:And, like I said, the first thing, I was like I bet a lot of people know about these honestly, and the season opens tomorrow and I bet a lot of folks gonna be around here, so um we decided yeah, I mean, I don't know how you felt, but you, you know the struggle of you.
Speaker 2:Know. I only got to hunt open a week in Mississippi and it seemed like the story across the board was man, if you ain't killing them as soon as the speed hits the ground, or before 830 in the morning.
Speaker 2:I mean I saw some crazy stuff that we can get into like open in weeks, but I was honestly kind of worried. I was like man, like we're over here. I don't really know if these I mean, I have no idea if these turkeys are going to be flocked up still, are they you know what? Are they still going to be winter patterns here, and don't even care? Are they going to go off? I don't even know.
Speaker 2:And so it's like when we came out there, but I think where our feet landed when we first started that if we came after, I don't know what that looks like. You know that place we hunted and so I mean we did have guys come in on us. You know that sort of situation. So it's like you know whether they would have killed them or just boogered them. Real bad. It's like you don't know. And it's like they could have gone over the roll of the valley and it's like, man, you wouldn't have been able to hear those turkeys anyways. So it's just kind of that was one of those things.
Speaker 2:It's usually kind of I don't really like to go opening day a lot of places when I'm going, and also, too, it's a it's early season and there's a lot of home games still to be played. You know, I mean I live in tennessee and tennessee hadn't even opened, so it's like you know. Besides, you know, alabama just opened and in mississippi had been open for 10 days. It's kind of like, well, it's like I don't even know what we're getting. We're going to get into how these turkeys are going to react, but I think it was a blessing that we went open in week or opening weekend, because we just had first dibs on these turkeys and that that proved to be very, very fruitful.
Speaker 1:And like I did not expect that too much pressure out here, you know I'm thinking in the back of my mind like people don't drink out here and I was a little wrong there more than we thought. We ran into several folks who not we ran some on the actual land, but we ran into, you know, multiple in parking lots and stuff like that that had been hunting that day too. You just didn't know it.
Speaker 2:You weren't wearing camouflage steel, yeah because I imagine if we had just showed up, you know, and imagined if we had just gone a different direction, you know, because we didn't even really go the direction where we saw the most public land Granted, we had to figure it out as we go. It's like if we were just striking out and not knowing that stuff. Once we got there, it's like there's another direction we could have gone where there was a lot more public land and then once you know we we killed a couple off the roost, you know the second.
Speaker 2:They're like oh man, let's just go see some other stuff and go look. And that's when I was like daggone it, we just started here. You know who knows how many people would have been in that place, because every gate we went to had two or three you know trucks on them that we saw that inside. I was like man, dude, it would have. Like I said, it's just, I was glad we got to where we were. At first we had to fight off a couple guys coming in on us, but that's just part of opening day. I guess those guys knew there was turkeys there.
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Speaker 1:Of course everybody's going to have a tag from out there, you know, unless you drive, because nowhere near it is open. So you know everybody's flying with the same tag, or else they live there with the same tag. But but I'm, I'm glad we we decided we got a bind there. Uh, the day before the season after we, you know, kind of established that, hey, I don't think it's worth, you know, necessarily leaving these to go find more at this time is is in the afternoon. It'd be good to kind of just see what happens. You know, be a fly on the wall as much we can, which I like to do if I'm, if I'm scouting, or I might call it roosting.
Speaker 1:It's really not even you know roosting, it's just sitting down and seeing what happens and then, um, getting where you can kind of maybe see or maybe hear a little bit and and I wanted to verify that these were, you know, longbeards were hearing, um, because yeah we got two days to hunt. Really you don't really have the affordability of wasting the morning on a group of goblin jakes or something like that, and we wound up seeing some jakes or something. So I really put put them back in my mind. We got to lay eyes on them.
Speaker 2:Right, and that's one of those things where, like if we had never gotten out of the truck and then saw the jakes first, we might have just chalked it up to oh, that was just a group of jakes gobbling, because they were gobbling, yep.
Speaker 2:We saw the jakes gobble and, like I said, another thing that worked out is the hour before fly up, when we came across this area and heard those golfs. So we're like, well, man, like instead of going around listening, we might as well just listen here. And then it happened to be. It was actually we laid eyes on a few long beers and so we're like, okay, well, at least we got a, a plan and we got to watch him fly up in a tree, which was a cool thing and I mean that was cool. No, it just seeing them all. It seemed to be kind of a perennial roost tree that they were going to, and to see them climb, climb up it, like never.
Speaker 2:I've never really seen that happen. It's like every single turkey that flew up in that tree. It was like 11 or 12 turkeys, but they all pitched to the same branch and then just worked their way up one by one and we got to watch that. It was really it was a cool thing to see, like, oh man, we're getting to see what you know what it looks like, for you know, being out west, what they're going to do on the land, and we got to see the whole. You know the whole. We got to experience the whole kind of repetition of what they do and kind of thing, and it's cool to see them, you know do the whole process.
Speaker 1:It's like a day in the life kind of deal you know and not knowing that we're in the world at the time. And that's probably what they do every day, or you know most days or every year.
Speaker 2:Now we had to clip in there. I mean, we had to, uh, we had to sit there a pretty good while because we were, you know, right there in them and we're like, well, let's not mess this up, we better sit here as long as we can make sure we don't bust these suckers dang.
Speaker 1:We're in a tight spot now, because once they kind of circled around, I'm like, well, we ain't moving until it's really dark, but we're about to probably see some cool things. And it wasn't like they went to the same limb and it was very coordinated and they'd get on that limb and then they'd almost kind of run up the limb like a raccoon or something and then they'd get to the fork and then they'd all hop and I guarantee you, I mean the next day we came back and and was and was looking at the tree in daylight. I'm like, dude, I think they, I think they got spots up there. I mean it's really kind of a, you know like some branches broken off and stuff. It looks like a little cubby. You know that they would probably be.
Speaker 1:I feel like they. They have a little little spot up there and they were. They were just so coordinated and and they weren't tripping over each other and you know like, see the base of the tree, like where they were coming from or anything. We could just see it once they got to the top and they got on high up there. So we were able to slip out, though without them. You know, when we had binoculars we could tell at least a couple were longbeards.
Speaker 1:They gobbled on a limb you know, and then it was kind of a mixed bag there between hens, jacks and longbeards and, like you said, 11, 12, maybe total birds, and we slip out and then we didn't didn't necessarily. It's one of those things when it lands it didn't land in our lap. Obviously you still got to hunt them and do all this stuff. But when you, when you find them in a lesser expected place, I guess to say you know that wasn't even on, that was part of the land we wanted. You know we kind of circled but that wasn't an area and it sure wasn't going to be that you know able to. You know within you know several hundred yards from the truck, but at least we didn't have to walk a mile to go in there. It was a spot that folks would be able to see. It's pretty wide open in the area.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean it wouldn't be hard for folks to see dots out in the open and know the turkeys are there. But sometimes, when when you you find them like that, not knowing it, you can make it hard on yourself real quick. You know you try to out smart something or out out, you know think of all these chess pieces. You've got to move and sometimes you gotta let it be.
Speaker 1:And and and yeah the play was get back to where we were. You know, we were in here in distance, so don't don't try to overdo it and get back to, to kind of where we ended at and and start from there. Just continue it on like we were able to hunt them with a gun that day, and, and that's what we did yeah, and it was.
Speaker 2:It was a show, they probably a million times and everything yeah, it was funny because you know the whole after we we slipped out of there like, okay, we didn't, we didn't mess them up or anything. Once we left, and it's the whole rigmarole of like, okay, what do you think they're going to do here? It's like they're going to pitch to A, b or C and, of course, the option we did not think they would do is exactly what they did. And then it was kind of like, okay, we just got to adjust and let's try to like. You know, we got a good opportunity here. I don't know, these might be the only times we'll be able to hunt the whole time. You know the whole time we're here, so it's uh kind of go in low impact.
Speaker 2:It's kind of just like let's just take our time. We don't know how they're even going to react to a call. You know their hand up it's, you know. But it did work out. It just we were thinking, hey know, this might be a situation where we saw them pitch up from Like man, this little spot right here makes the most sense, okay, we'll set up there. And of course they don't go there. And then now you've got to kind of really figure it out. But it just worked out. And once we kind of figured that area out, it was like, okay, well, and there was the next morning. You're listening and you're like that gun, there's actually a lot of turkeys like right in this valley. So it's like, yeah, it just kind of worked out.
Speaker 1:It's one of those like when you're getting those, it's not a bind, I mean, it's a good spot to be in when you have A, b, c, d options or whatever, but you chalk it up to option A, B and C and you forget about D a lot. You think you have all the options. You're like this is definitely the three options they have and there's always five, six, seven eight of them, one of them being staying in the tree.
Speaker 1:I forget they don't have to. There's no dictator up there making them fly down, so that's another thing to consider. I try to keep in the back of my mind. I was like you got to be ready to sit there until 9 o'clock sometimes and not be in the broad daylight, you know, and with no option to call, no option to move, no nothing. And then what I try to do is keep the options open to you too, is where can we sit with some back cover that if they don't?
Speaker 1:go to a or b or what is there? Is there a spot that I can get, that I can hunt all three without them seeing me, you kind of, so to speak. And you know, if I get way too high up on top of here we might shoot them when their feet hit the ground. But if they don't land right there are we in a bind, and that you know kind of where we were the evening before we would have been in a bind. So we decided to put that in front of us. But but put a little uh kind of it's not a trail, it's just like a sliver of trees and some rock and a ditch looking thing kind of right at our back. So if they don't fly there, or if they do fly there, just not in range, or walk up there out of range or something, so to speak, we can, we can just drop back, we can get back and press restart, you know almost, and come back up where we wanted to come back up.
Speaker 2:You know if we've got to go all the way down or come all the way, you know, left or right or whatever it can be that zero hero situation too, because if we had set up where exactly we thought they would pitch which I'm glad we didn't because they didn't pitch there but it's like then you're sitting out on an island and you can't move until they really really move off.
Speaker 2:And especially with that many tokens, you know you've got so many eyes, oh yeah, you've got to work about. But I mean, that was one of those things too. I was glad, you know, after we got it, you know after we we got it, you know, good and dark, we're kind of let's just go find a tree that we could sit on, you know, with the perspective of the roost tree and so. But one thing we didn't have the opportunity to because we didn't want to mess it up, it's like we didn't know what was over the other side of that hill, like the landscape really looked like besides what you're seeing on maps, and so of course they go that direction and like man, I really don't know where to set up over here or what's even over here. Uh, because we didn't have, we were so tight to begin with, we didn't have, you know, that opportunity.
Speaker 1:but, like I said, you know, once you see it, you're like okay, this makes sense oh yeah and and to describe it for folks listening, it's a big open hill, pretty much. It's got some rock and stuff in it, as I already explained.
Speaker 1:It's a pretty big kind of a roll. And then there's a big backside of that hill that we had yet to see. It looks kind of canyon-y kind of, so to speak. So I mean there's some stuff that they wouldn't be able to cross, some that they would almost like a hollow that they could probably walk in if they wanted to. It's not even, you know, a dangerous situation for them and it's not really stupid thick. They could probably definitely walk, get down in there if they really wanted to, and and then over to the, the I'm just gonna say left, I don't remember west or east or whatever, but then it's a big one. It's a big, it's a foothill looking size one.
Speaker 1:It goes straight up and one you're gonna be out of breath walking and it's pretty open and then to the right is a creek and it's a little thicker and then the mountain on the other side of that is really thick. So you might have a bench or something. I feel like we might have heard one up there about midway. It feels like there has to be some type of bench or roadway or something that it would have been on because the stuff we were able to see was ridiculously thick, something that would have been on because the stuff we were able to see was was ridiculously thick and, um, yeah, and that creek bottom and on top of that too, you're dealing with, you're dealing with a property line from private, and so it's like, okay, it's like if they do go over there, it's like we obviously can't hunt them.
Speaker 2:So where's our setup that we can actually, you know, work turkeys, and so that's why we were kind of really banking on man, if they put us on the public. Then we got to do something and, you know, like I said, it worked out. I was really worried, you know, because it seemed like they kind of slipped onto the private before they flew up. I was like, well, there's a good chance they're going, you know, pitch down to that private spot, right where they were pitched up from. And so it's like, um, you know, if they do that, we're, we're going to be in a bind, because now we're going to play the waiting game, or if we I've just been on some weary turkeys in mississippi. So I already had like the preconceived notion. I was like, man, they're going to be pinned up. As soon as we call to them, they they're going to just go the opposite. As we call to them, they they're gonna just go the opposite direction, and now we don't have any turkeys to hunt, uh, or we're just in for a really, really long day. Yep, just sitting around waiting for something to happen. So, like I said, we got. There's some luck involved.
Speaker 2:I think we made a couple right moves and you know that one we, the first one we killed. It was like man we. We were in a really tight spot and, honestly, as the weekend progressed, I think it was the best option, absolutely Atypical. Here comes another turkey that wasn't with this group and he came in quiet, spitting and drumming and he was looping around in another direction to get to us. And then here's the group of 11 over to our left, to our like 9 o'clock, and then one slipping into our 3 o'clock behind us and we had to do a little quick, little move and that hilly terrain kind of helped us out, because I mean, we're sitting in the flatwoods, there ain't no moving as close as they were.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, in that group of 11, I think it was three longbeards and then some jigs and the rest of the hens, but they were about 11 yards too from us.
Speaker 2:They were just behind a bunch of thick stuff, yeah, through some thick stuff, and we're kind of worried because I mean, that's just the kind of those things where you know you, you're both out here, we don't know how many turkeys you know we're going to be able to get on. I'd hate shooting this group out the gate, especially because, like we shoot at that group of turkeys, I shoot through that thick stuff.
Speaker 2:you know, I don't know what happens to that group until it kind of worked out that dolph, and then here comes that little satellite and then it was like shot that turkey, other turkeys gobble, and we just let it sit.
Speaker 2:And then we ended up getting on that group at, you know, three o'clock in the afternoon and that's not a story like the jakes kind of. I don't know if that was another satellite, like I said, I don't know if that was one in the group or not. Uh, because I feel like the both, the ones we killed day one was satellite, I think, that weren't in, that weren't in the group, and it kind of worked out to where. It's like okay, you know, now we got, because we've watched that. Uh, I mean, we were on those, the, the turkey that you killed in the afternoon.
Speaker 2:It was like we were on those turkeys for a while and that one just kind of came in, got beat up real quick, moved off, then he started firing off and once those turkeys got 300 yards from us and we're like, well man, like we don't know what we can do with this group of them. But we got this one and we got really good position on that. You know, it was one of those things I was like I'm gonna sit back, like there ain't no need for both of us moving through here in this kind of situation, and so I was just waiting to hear the shot for about 30 minutes yeah, we, we got back on them pretty much that, and now I don't think we left.
Speaker 1:Yeah, after, after, after you shot one when we started having some folks rolling in on us and stuff and of course we have no service or nothing down there, so to communicate with each other, if we did split up and and stuff like that and and um, and I want to say, yeah, we thought we thought someone stole our truck, because we're we're looking there and we hear oh yeah, I forgot about that yeah, we see this red silver auto, or whatever we're driving whipping by.
Speaker 1:I'm like brother, I think that's our rental truck and if I'm in charge of the keys, I probably left them in there. Um yeah, so, gary, to go check it out, I was like I'm I might well I'm not saying I'm not trying to scare you, but it looked a lot like it too, you know um yeah, yeah, we were just kind of like I'm gonna back out.
Speaker 2:We kind of had that too. Like that guy came in on us. I went and approached them and you know you were already working, those turkeys, that group, and they, you know, you know I'm sorry they backed out. And then that's when we see the truck moving off and I'm like did our truck just get stolen and we're going sitting in this valley with no service? And so I was like you know, a hunter, I'm gonna back down this hill. The turkey's on the opposite side. I was like I just I just need to make sure this truck's okay. And then that's when I get to the truck. Uh, and then when I get to the truck, I see that same group of guys.
Speaker 2:They just looked around at going up the hill right and I was just like great, but I think that was the whole, like don't leave Turkey, find Turkey. It's opening day, let's let these guys ease out of here, let's shut up for about three hours and lo and behold, you know it worked out. We just kind of moseyed around, let them, you know, kind of low impact, not just trying to move like move like you know there's a turkey in the area and then long because there was I don't know, I can't, yeah, and we laid out a group of jakes and then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, we see that group of three longbeards flying in from somewhere.
Speaker 2:I, I don't know, I wish I could have saw, but I don't know if they came from even higher. They worked all the way up and flew back down or whatever, but it didn't matter. It's like once we saw them, like, okay, we're in the ballgame here, they're 200 yards away, let's see what we can do. This is wide open. We got to find at least someplace that's semi-ideal to get up on and we got close on that group a few times and they just would not want to leave those hens in that little area they were over there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they were quite happy.
Speaker 1:And the hens, I think, were cool with it too. The hens weren't going to come over there and there's one group of jakes and hens. But also I could tell when they were behind us. I mean they'd come in all curious and whatnot and and stuff, and I didn't know at the time that was kind of keeping the longbeards and other hens at bay, because I was going back and forth one of these hens a good bit and she would. She was yelping, walking at me, like you know.
Speaker 1:The long yelps and the the 10 or 14 you know cuts in between them, as you know, kind of as they walk I'm like all right, she's about to come over here and as long as she don't see me, these longbeards will too, because there's all three of them blood behind her. And and then, um, and you could tell when they'd stop and kind of just, uh, they got, they'd get uncomfortable and and no center, and that you'd not hear like footsteps behind me and it'd be those jakes or whatever they. You could tell they were kind of coming up over there and just like, not the day, you know, I don't know, and and when the.
Speaker 1:The irony in it of it is is we were looking at jakes and I was ready to to, to head over and see if I could hear him from a different angle or get down in the and with the creek with him or something like I don't know where there's dang longbeards have gone to, um, but I'm pretty sure these are jakes. I'm up and I can tell me and you want it, you. You stopped just to make sure that there wasn't nothing behind them or anything like that. And and when you did, as I was turning around, I see like three you know dots swooping in. I'm like whoa, what was that? And it wound up being the longbeards coming to to push the jakes off. So I guess somewhere in the midst of it the tables turned and now they're scared of the jakes.
Speaker 1:So yeah, but same same scenario and a satellite or one that they might have bumped off, you know, off the group or whatever comes in. You know just guns, a blazing goblin at the bottom, and you heard it before I did.
Speaker 1:I'm still kind of focused on these kind of getting frustrated like that gum it, you know have a mind to turn around and try to scare the dog you know living out of these jakes behind us just to bump them away, you know. So these other ones will come in while they're not looking and um and you heard this other one, I think he's gonna come in here that that it was that one.
Speaker 2:Because when they, you know, as soon as they well, we heard, that's what it was it's like, well, initially we heard a jake gobble and then we're like, okay, but we don, you know, we're hunting Rios out here. So it's like, you know, sometimes it's hard to tell between that Jake and that Tom or that long beard you know, really realize, you know what it is. We put eyes on them, but that was funny because we heard them gobble twice. And then that's when those Toms, that group of three toms, swooped in and everyone go beat them up real quick and I think the one that you ended up killing was the one that was on that, that that piece of private that was across that creek bottom that we had heard earlier and he had, just once he started hearing all the, the friends he was calling and commotion and he starts easing that way.
Speaker 2:And then I was like he's one time in that bottom and I was like man, he is on the public now or whatever. He's just in that thick bottom over there and he's going to probably swoop around and try to do something. Sure enough, that's what it was, but it was cool. That was a fun day of just kind of like and the reality of it is too. It's like we just stayed in the spot and we talked about a lot. It's like, man, we didn't walk a half mile that morning of moving around Once we were set, we were set Right and we just kind of eased and took our time.
Speaker 2:You know, the turkey you shot and the one I shot, we shot them. You know, seven hours apart but about 70 yards from each other yeah literally, which is crazy. So we just knew they liked that area. And then once you had a day to kind of figure it out, and then it's like, well, if these turkeys end up, you know, roosting again, it's kind of like man, we might have to go after these the next day, but you know how it goes.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and the moral of the story is being in a spot where you have the opportunity to guess right is a big deal. You know, the stars will have to align eventually at some point. But being where you shouldn't be, or, you know, there's a lot more of unlucky situations, I feel like you can find in turkey woods and there's lucky ones. So just and then, and knowing what you got, so and and have we not? Yeah, we checked the spot right before that. This wasn't the first spot we, you know, had scouted out on, you know, on foot, um, the the original one was kind of threw us a loop because we thought it was going to be good and it wasn't. And I was like I, I really don't think there's turkeys here. I mean, I don't know what else to say. I just don't think there is and and and the habitats there. It's just for some reason, I don't know why, you know, I'm just, I'm not a local, I don't. I don't see these birds every day. This is new to me too, you know.
Speaker 1:And and then I and in hindsight, going to other places, I don't think we'd have had time finding them there weren't. You know, just plenty out there. It ain't one of those situations. It was just one of those that you know what you got and then the beauty in all of it was just finding a spot where you got options. So not messing it up.
Speaker 1:Like you said, if you stumble into some, don't don't educate them, don't you know? You know, protect that precious group of turkeys because you know you had, you had two days. You're one good bumping away from being in a big bind night. Now, a whole day behind, you got one day and and you, you can't hunt after a certain hour at this place. So you know we're already limited there and we're kind of in Mess it up, you know we might not kill one, we might not even find another one. So that was the whole objective. Number one Don't mess them up. You know we can hunt them. I'm confident we'll kill them if we get on them and get in a good setup and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:But we're in an area where we can easily bump. You know it's very open and and hilly terrain, so they can be in a bottom and you try to walk across an open ridge top or something like that, and it's, it's done, and you don't know it and you want to go for the next three hours. You're like what in the world happened, you know, and they just got, they got an open before you did and saw you and so luckily we didn't do that and um and and stayed there and and didn't. You know, really didn't do that and um and and stayed there and didn't. You know, really didn't even give the option for other folks to come in and either kill them or educate them. I was more worried about them educating them than I was killing.
Speaker 1:I was like you know you only get to hunt opening day a couple times a year if you're lucky. I mean, usually once is what I do. I'm like I got a new opening day turkey hunt okay, that's cool, I didn't even think about it heading over there.
Speaker 2:I'm like we're gonna get to hunt turkeys that probably really hadn't been hunted yet yeah, and the fortunate thing is we really only had like probably 200, 250 actors to really work with on this piece and we just it was just we were lucky enough to where these turkeys just really wanted to be in that spot, and so it's like that, that kind of came together and there was just a pile of them. Because, like when we were like man, I don't even know if you know, by the end of it there was dad gone, seven or eight in that in that whole area group and it was kind of, and so it's just like man, like we could hunt here all weekend and I wouldn't even feel bad, like because usually when you kill one in the area, you're kind of.
Speaker 2:You're kind of like man, let's bounce. I'm like you know I will say like after day one, when the monkey's off your back, you're kind of like, okay, well, like we're both coming home, you know with something with success and it's like, okay, now we can, let's bounce around.
Speaker 2:And then we'd go bounce around and be like man, this looks good, this kind of looks like the same habitat we were just in. And then we'd go bounce around and be like man, this looks good, this kind of looks like the same habitat we were just in. And then we'd go out there where you're not seeing any turkey sign, and you're like, okay, well, I don't know so. And then the hard thing about getting out there. It's like you go somewhere. You got this big piece to work, you go walk it, you don't see any sign, and then you get back to the truck and then a mile down the road there's two strutters like sitting by in the driveway. Yeah, and so that was just like man.
Speaker 1:This is so frustrating.
Speaker 2:We got all this pretty habitat and they just want to sit over here in the dang driveway. Yeah, and it's like with dogs in it and everything.
Speaker 1:There's some dude cutting the yard with his dog walking around and kid playing with swing set and there's a turkey, but one block over in a beautiful public valley, you know land and everything and not a. Not, you couldn't cut a track there, but it was. It was different for sure. And then, you know, the second morning we, just we, we played the same card, we got in even thicker stuff and really kind of got where I shot the first one, the the afternoon problem, like brother, when I was walking down here, it was, there was a lot of options that could get us to where you shot it or where I shot one or where they kind of wound up going the day before.
Speaker 1:You know let's just get there put her back at it and it was kind of raining then. So then you throw in the loop of well, now they're heavier, now they might not pitch you know far, they might pitch straight down. And then then they're really close to the private god forbid somebody, somebody's over there, I don't know if somebody's hunting it and two yelps and take them off this place completely and we're in a whole new situation, because now we have zero, because it's kind of when they're together like that, they wind up getting together and then they, they're there. They're there, they're staying together for the rest of the day.
Speaker 1:A lot, you know, I think the the situations where the satellites were coming in, I think that's kind of what happens. They kind of accumulate. So, no differently than it might have pulled one off private, I think easily could pull all the public ones onto private. And then we're, you know we're back to square one, but we're, you know, we knew where the best chance to get would be that second day. And that's what we did, and it didn't take long. The plan worked and you know that's why you prepare.
Speaker 2:Yep, and it's fun, man, it's fun.
Speaker 2:It's just kind of like the second day when you kill a couple off a rooster kind of like we got a whole day I know I had, and especially like doubling up like right off the race, and I was like man, like we were kind of I was kind of taken aback, and then it's like, well, now we've got a whole day to just like go.
Speaker 2:Look, you know, we got one more morning. Like we knew we kind of had to stay a little closer to the airport we flew into and kind of like, okay, like regardless, we got to be at the airport at 1030 in the morning. So let's just like go around, let's look at just hey, at this point it's like man, we got two turkeys on our belt. We can technically kill three, you know, out here a piece. But we were just like man, like let's just like go see some new stuff, we don't dumb into anything, let's just like go see some new stuff, we don't dumb into anything. Well, it is what it is. And the day we left it was torrential downpour, you know, at first light, and it's like man, are we really that mad at them, or do we really just need to get a good night's sleep?
Speaker 2:It probably worked out for the best because I could after the situation you had at the airport. I can imagine doing that on four hours of sleep.
Speaker 1:Ooh, doing that on four hours of sleep and going.
Speaker 2:All that, yeah, so it was a fun trip, man, and uh, it was just fun. It seems like every year we kind of you and I get to pull off, whether you know you come up here or in back home Mississippi, or whatever, we kind of always get to find one little, you know, one little trip. We, we, we carve out and get to go, and that was a fun one. And now I'm just kind of like man, where are we gonna go next year, or whatever? Where are we going? You know, is it gonna be as good as it was, or whether or not it'd just be fun to go?
Speaker 2:I mean, that's the part of the, the whole turkey traveling to hunt turkey. Because, like, just going somewhere new and you know, knowing they live here and you can, you can go hunt something totally different on a, you know, you just fight away and you can go, you know, figure something out. It might take you a few days, it might take you the whole time you're there and you might not even find one. You never know. But uh, it was just, it was just fun to do that.
Speaker 1:So yeah, but we had, we had a blast, I enjoyed it and I'm always as always, you know very thankful for our friendship and and I said it kind of an intro of hopping into the show, for I called you that, you know, is you've had a big impact on spring legion and, and I don't know, you know, that I would have ever written a book if not, for you know our shared uh interest in literature's connection to turkey, hunting and stuff like that, and you know it's really been. You know our shared uh interest in literature's connection to turkey, hunting and stuff like that, and you know it's really been, you know very cornerstone stuff.
Speaker 2:I'm serious no I mean, well, I appreciate you saying that, but uh, yeah, man, it's cool to see, see the growth of this thing, man, and see where you know, I was there when y'all had your first 12 hats, yeah yeah, one of the first starters off and then, and then I said, oh shoot, I wore it all week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's my, that's my hat, that's my hat. I mean you can't, even, you can hardly, you can hardly tell the spring region on it. But that's just always been my hat. I usually I always end up with that one by end of the season. But I got the new one, be like, maybe this is new and I had a couple. Right shoot, I had another spring legion hat on mississippi that I hadn't worn before, and first two days it was just like it was daggum strong like. But but fortunately everybody well, unfortunately, I guess everybody was struggling mississippi opening, opening week until it turned on and then everybody was getting after them but, yeah, it was kind of one of the superstitious things.
Speaker 2:It's like okay, I wore this t-shirt, I wore this t-shirt under this, I wore the this hoodie. Okay, we got to get rid of all this stuff yeah, throw that in the trash.
Speaker 1:I was like brother. I'll give you a new one if you need yeah don't, don't don't bring that with us.
Speaker 2:I went hunting. I went hunting, uh, with a with a buddy and left and left my Lagrangas twice, one with my buddy Zach, and one with Lake. And then I was just like you know what, and then the next day I killed one with Charlie's father-in-law in Mississippi. He killed one. I went up for him and I was like alright, I told him, just keep them Lagrangas or whatever. We're on to something new.
Speaker 1:You've got to sift through it, and that's what the early season is for figuring out what's hot this year and making these wild and obscure theories of this. And that the first time I hopped in the truck with Logan Cook he kind of looked at me funny. I had two pair of boots and I was like don't ask questions. I'd gone like four days out of here when I'm like they're coming with us and I got. I got a jacket in the bag and it's like 80 degrees. I'm like I'm gonna wear this jacket.
Speaker 1:You look at me like I'm an idiot too, but something's got to be, here, and so I'm like I don't know you well enough to know that, or you don't know me well enough to know that I'm a little out there on some of this stuff.
Speaker 2:But hey we, it proved to be true if it works it works so yeah, dude, I mean I guess we hunted one morning in mississippi the last day I was there and I totally forgot about that because of the trip we did but that guy shoot. We had a poacher come in and shoot him, dag him out of the tree, like at like 400 yards, and I was just like man, this is, if this isn't just the ice it'll take for, yeah, my mississippi, the week I spent in mississippi, was but uh, that's just part of it.
Speaker 2:You just you gotta go because it's open oh, yeah, and it's like then you get there and you're like daggum I wish and then of course I'll even then, you and logan, you know work a turkey like a charm and I was just like, yeah, I just needed to leave so people could start killing maybe it's not an article of clothing after all. Maybe it's my presence. The curse is um maybe it's, maybe it's just me. You hadn't, you hadn't anywhere this weekend. You staying at the house, probably.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I still got a tag in mississippi, so I'm I'm hoping to fill it and maybe hop in with some other folks or something and see some more hunts or whatever around here I feel like I haven't hunted mississippi in a while and it's been over a week, I bet because the weather and the weather is kind of so far and and I do I'll do like hunting in the when we, when we returned.
Speaker 1:It's always it feels like a year has flown by by the time you pull back into the house and you're like man, that tree wasn't butted out like that when I left and is it slipping by me and you know. That's kind of what I was talking about. The other day is, like you know, turkey season is special in itself and then the or spring the season of spring on the calendar is special in itself and then the turkey season side of that is special in itself. But the early season of turkey season is what I think of. When I think of turkey hunting, I think of you know, chalk white heads and horrible bottoms and echoes and you know, really cold 48 degrees, it feels like 10 degrees out there.
Speaker 1:The humidity combined with that and senior breath and stuff and and all that stuff, and that's really like 10 days. You got 10 days and it's gone. Then's the, then it's the other side of spring. They're really green and vibrant and, you know, very pleasant feeling stuff. But which is turkey hunting, it's just, I think I look forward to it starting so much throughout the fall and the winter that when I think of turkey hunting I think of the early days and that's gone. So you know, we kind of well, I ain't here, no more. So next time my hunt's going to be in the real, real spring woods and I hadn't really gotten in them yet. So I'm kind of looking forward to that. Might have to break out the deed or something for the first time.
Speaker 2:And I'm ready to see the other side of the spring woods. I'm about to go spray my clothes today with some permethrin and stuff because I'm heading south on Ballard for the weather and it's going to weather and it's like 70 at first light and then it's going to be like 60, no, sorry, like 87 degrees in the afternoon. We just skipped spring and went straight to summer. We're going to see how it's going to be sunny, but we'll see how it goes down there. I'm just taking my brother and it's my dad going. My dad's never turkey hunted. I was about to ask my brother and I took my nephew last year and it was that typical. We didn't have much ground to work with at the time. It was one of those things like went out and listened the day before, heard one at 150 yards Great, he's going to hear a turkey in the morning and then go out there the day to go hunt and we don't hear it and so I just want him, I just want him to hear one.
Speaker 2:Uh, my little nephew, whatever he's been, he's been looking forward to it. I talked, talked to him and his dad the other day and they're really excited and so it'll be fun little trip. We're just going, really just for a day, up where my dad's from, and so he's going with his buddy from high school. He's got a big old camp down there and so we're just like, well, shoot, I'll go down there. If there's a lot of grout, I might put that there and see what's going on. Might do some arm scouting and if something happens, it happens. I'll apologize later.
Speaker 1:Right, here happens it. Right it happens sweet. Well, I'll apologize later. So right, yeah, yeah, man, go down there and slip up and get you know the offer comes to you.
Speaker 2:Well, you'd be glad you had a gun then well, there, uh, anything, anything else you want to wrap?
Speaker 1:that was. That was good. I think you know which, uh, I think I like, I like that we delayed it a day or two, you know, instead of just talking about it on immediately because we were just there but being able to kind of digest it in our minds and then, you know, kind of go back over it and stuff, and I think you know if there's anything for listeners to take from it is to, hey, be in the woods, you know, be there and know whenever, when you stumble upon a spot, we wasn't actually it was purposefully getting there, it just it kind of didn't, it wasn't right there.
Speaker 1:So know what you got in your hand. And then because and this isn't like we did this intentionally we found out in retrospect that, hey, you, you were lucky to have that because you're, you're one, you know, hen, crossing the road away from really probably struggling, finding no one-huntable land, because literally everywhere else we looked, even after that and before, that was a little confusing, because it was a good habitat should be turkeys there, and was not turkeys there. There was no tracks, was no, nothing, and I don't think there were turkeys there. I don't think any differently. I still don't think there was.
Speaker 1:I think we just happened to and there was nothing different in this spot. It was. Think any differently? I still don't think there was. I think we just happened to and there was nothing different in this spot. It was just being there and then not not leaving it, you know not and then treating it like turkeys are always there and and because of that we were able to, you know, kill a few off of it and and and, not mess up the other ones. And we left, we left some there for joe blow, whoever kept trying to come in on us, you know he had his chance.
Speaker 2:You can find that little valley man. You can find that valley. You will find some goblin turfs. They are in there, but outside of that it was like man, I don't you know. Like I said, we were one road away from never getting in them, Right?
Speaker 1:We've got a whole new episode being recorded. I can guarantee you that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no doubt, but I enjoyed it, man. It was fun to just share the words with a friend and go to some new offices, figure it out, and came home with some hardware too and some good stories.
Speaker 1:That's what it's about, dude. Well, I appreciate you and holler when you head down here. If y'all need anything, let me know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely bud. I'll give you a shout later on this week. All right, dude, y'all take care. All right, bud? All right, be good Bye.
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