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
Repeat Encounters in the Turkey Woods: 3 Hunts, Same Tree
Three years with your back against the same tree can teach you more than a stack of tags, or perhaps it only further proves there are no certainties in turkey hunting. In this episode, we unpack three seasons centered on the same setup and why gobblers kept working that ground in eerily similar ways.
From loud leaves that accidentally “called” a bird, to a light wind that gave us just enough cover, to a hot gobbling longbeard that veered at the last second, we trace how small choices and familiar terrain create repeatable opportunities without turning hunting into a script.
We dig into the biology and the woodsmanship. Dr. Chamberlain’s insight on lek-like behavior gives a scientific reason birds revisit certain areas, while field stories highlight the patterns you can actually use: favor dark timber over bright openings, let terrain hide your feet, and plan for what turkeys are unlikely to do. When you add clear team roles—who calls, who shoots, who films—you multiply your windows and take cleaner shots. We also reflect on the details that tell a turkey’s story after the shot: stained wing bars, the grit inside a gizzard, and what those clues say about where he spent yesterday.
Not every plan works. We break down a painful miss, the lesson in brush lanes and shot windows, and why returning to proven ground still demands flexibility. Access changes, pressure resets, and sometimes the smartest move is to take the knowledge and go try something new. If you’re thinking about patterns, ridges, ditches, and how to make the next setup count, you’ll find practical, field-tested takeaways to carry into spring—without losing the joy and mystery that keep us going back.
If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a buddy who lives for March mornings, and leave a quick review so more turkey hunters can find us. Your support helps us bring more stories, more lessons, and more wild mornings to your feed.
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What's up, y'all? Welcome back to the Spring Legion Podcast. Really cold edition this week. Um, kind of nearing the holidays. Christmas right around the corner. We're kind of still talking turkey. I appreciate all y'all duck hunters and deer hunters and stuff on the way to the woods chiming in on the on the attention span with uh some turkey talk. And once that most people ain't talking about turkey, and uh well we are, and that's probably because we are always thinking about it. And I've learned over the years to adjust my some theories a little bit that I think turkey hunters are definitely cut from different cloths, but I think there are a lot more folks who are cut from that same cloth than I originally thought. And um it is pretty nationwide. It is, you know, uh the more folks I meet, the more different folks I meet, but a lot of the times the the same quirks and superstitions and and obsessions and stuff that I have been very familiar with since I've been able to hunt turkeys at the age of five or whenever I was able to really go out there. Uh there's a lot of other folks who are right up that alley and know exactly what I'm talking about when I'm talking about it, and I understand their point of view without even thinking twice. So there are definitely folks out there who are searching turkey hunting podcasts just like I am when we're in here, you know, back in orders doing whatever, uh working around the house even. Um I'm always searching for it, and we're blessed to be able to provide that for other folks. Um But that being said, yeah, we're talking turkeys in December. My name's Hunter Ferrier, and uh alongside Chase Ferrier, my brother, and the co-host of the show, and um appreciate everybody who chimed in on watching the episode last week. We made the uh made the run in some YouTube versions of the podcast, and it turned out pretty good. Right. It took me a a day or so to get it all figured out, but but yeah. Not bad for trial number one. It ain't trial number one. We've been doing this for a while. We've been recording them for a long time, but we kind of brought it back.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. In a little different format.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it looks better. We got a nicer camera. Yeah. Um the idiot running it, still the same one, which is me. So that side didn't change, but uh luckily software has evolved uh enough to to make up that margin of error that was previously very very wide. Um with that being said, we uh we did get a giveaway winner for podcast reviews yesterday uh yesterday, last week, and this week wanted to uh to do another one, kind of a little bit more surprise uh giveaway for the for a review for our buddy, what is his name? Jackson, it looks like Maynard 8541. It said video podcast is a great idea. Good one as always, he commented on the YouTube. So little little curve ball there. Wasn't pulled from the Apple or Spotify podcast. Um so he's gonna get him. I mean I'm looking behind this way, doing these in the warehouse. Um how about uh one of these new lightweight button-ups? Yeah. So um Greenleaf Ore Original Bottom Land. Jackson, if you're hearing this or watching this, holler at us, get us your info, get us the size and address, we'll get them sent out to you. Um and everybody else who's listening or watching, we appreciate y'all just as much. Um as far as the the seasonal update on the Spring Legion side goes, this is always awkward because a lot of folks, including myself, will be listening to this in February or March, and they're like, oh heck yeah, there's a there's a deal. I'm like, oh no, that was in Black Friday. You know, that ain't so we don't even carry that anymore. And they're like, hey, what's the deal on the hoodie thing y'all had? I'm like, brother, we didn't sold that hoodie in two years. Yeah you know. Um, but as for now, again, I messed up and forgot to take the discount for the daily deal of buy one, get one 50% off on the gators. Forgot to take that off. I didn't even put an end to it. That was supposed to be like Thursday of last week, right? Which when we had a we had a bunch of stuff come in um on Friday and a little bit on Saturday, even which was a real big curveball because I wasn't ready for that. Um so I never really had the train of thought to go in the discount, so it's been running all the way up until now, which is you know late Sunday night. So we're gonna run that through the Tuesday. So the daily deal it turned into almost nearly weekly deal for buy one, get one 50% off on all our waterproof gators, and that's green leaf or original bottom land, new bottom land, or the solid loading color. That goes through Tuesday because that is kind of our deadline on getting them out. If you if you want them by Christmas, my God, try to get them by Tuesday. Yeah. We're gonna keep sending them out every day until we can't, which will be Christmas Eve, but no promises after after you're exactly right. Monday or Tuesday. Yeah. You're gonna play it smart, go ahead and do that. Um also in the mix of all these however many boxes we got dropped off kind of unknowingly on Friday and Saturday, uh, the gloves were in there. Oh nice. Yeah. Went to uh put those on the website, went with everything else, and said, I have not seen our gloves. Right. And I looked, I mean, I looked for a long time and finally went to flipping through packets slips and stuff, and they ain't here. And uh got in touch with the right guy. I was like, Where are they? You know? What did you put them in with? Right. And he said, No, they're they're in the the other one. I said, Okay. So we got the gloves, got green leaf gloves, uh, original bottom end gloves, youth gloves. Okay, we did get that. Got youth gloves and youth mask. Yep. So those are here in time. And um the the rest that was in that shipment ain't gonna be here before the holidays. We're gonna We're gonna wait, but y'all keep an ear out because y'all gonna want to hear about them. Um that's all I got. Yep. That's all I got. So today we are gonna be talking about, and this is a little bit more of a storytelling. I was telling Chase right before we press record that I would like to get into some more stories and stuff like that. Go ahead and not exhaust them, but last year I think we kind of we dwindled with it a little too late, and then we started getting current storage coming in. And I do want to get a little more guests on there. We did a thing on our Instagram um last week asking for some uh guest suggestions and stuff, and it was pretty. I mean, it was it was a it was a broad. I I hadn't looked through every single one of them. I just check it every now and then. Yeah. And um you'd see some you know, familiar ones. A lot of folks we already we've already done one with. Um we used to do a lot with.
SPEAKER_02:Right. Which I think we can we can get them back on here. I don't think that's a bad thing. I don't I don't think anybody would would hate to hear the same guy twice. Exactly. Yeah. If they listen to us once a week, you know. Probably like, please do somebody else. Somebody less monotone or something. You know.
SPEAKER_01:Um but no, though, I mean those stint there. I live in Georgia, and then Chase and Seals were just kind of running the whole I left the whole podcast stuff here. Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Y'all might have called me a couple times to almost I felt like I was a guest on it, but y'all y'all ran the the ship kind of down here in Mississippi, and and there's a lot of guests in there from everything from habitat stuff to you know YouTubers and stuff like that. And we used to, I mean, Brad Ferris was on one of the first few we did and stuff like that. Um trying, I don't even know who our first real guest would have been. I th I know um Logan was. Logan Webster was Camera Retro was. He was like number episode three or four, maybe. Yeah. And then um first time I ever talked to him.
SPEAKER_02:Right. Yeah, that was like when we both were just Oh, yeah. We we started what the same couple weeks, it seemed like I mean what they they kicked off in 2019 too.
SPEAKER_01:I'm like, oh, this guy likes old school camouflage too.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. We can have a conversation.
SPEAKER_01:We talked about four hours. We only made a podcast out of one or so, but yeah, I was like, we went on and on and on and stuff, so that was really cool. And then I think uh Hunter Rimpro was like probably the second one. Yeah. He had just I think that day he he's a professional baseball player, and he had was in the middle of a trade or something and had to bump it back, and we did it at Seals' house on his kitchen table. I don't remember. It was a big deal. Something happened that day. He had to like literally get on a plane to Boston or something, and then had to come back. And I'm like, you you ain't gotta do this, dude. We're not that big. We have like 16 listeners. It's not a big deal. Yeah. Um you're you're a little bit bigger of a deal than we are, but turned out to be good. Loves turkey hunting stuff. Job kind of got in the way, I think, of a lot of good turkey hunting. Being an MLB player, that must suck. That's why I didn't play baseball. Me too. We would want to make that many million dollars a year. I'm just kidding. Um but uh but this but this week's stories, we're gonna get it to I I can't believe we haven't really told them. I one of them we might have.
SPEAKER_02:But I think we've hit on it, but we never dove into it.
SPEAKER_01:I don't I don't remember really diving into any of them. Besides I know one of them is a YouTube video, but but it kind of this is kind of I wanna don't want to say wild because that's kind of the point of this topic is is hunting turkeys in a familiar area or or revisiting areas at which you found success at one point and finding success again, or you know, returning. If you if you ever say you every every spring, early early season you wind up going here in this particular, you know, spot of land, whether it be private or public or whatever, and turkeys always seem to be on this ridge. I don't know why, but early times, you know, early season they're always here and and stuff like that. And do they do they return to these places? Is it is it is there some predictability or patterning possible? You know? To some extent. Yeah, I mean we're about to dive into something that kind of proves that in this case there was, which I th if y'all listened to this long enough, y'all know every one of my answers is it depends on that turkey and it depends on a million other different things. Um and I'm big on you definitely ain't killing that turkey there again. Right because I mean he ain't there no more. So everything resets after every turkey that is killed. And you might not kill him, but you there's a lot of turkeys you ain't hunting again at that same area because you you botched it good enough and I've done that before. And but this this we pretty much the what we're getting at here on this story, little line of stories, I guess you'd say. Three years in a row, we hunted the same tree. I mean tree. Yeah. This is many miles from where we live.
SPEAKER_02:Very far.
SPEAKER_01:And kind of the same thing happened all three times.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Very similar. Which is um I want to say rare, but then you really get to digging into it, and I'm like, no, I remember, you know, back when I was in junior high when I didn't really I mean I knew how to hunt turkeys uh good enough to kill one, maybe two a year. Right. Um but then one or two kind of the next year would kind of go the same way, you know. Um obviously a little different, but not terribly different.
SPEAKER_02:Um Yeah, now that I'm thinking yeah, I'm now that I'm thinking about it, there's a few. I mean, I th I was gonna say that's only time I've ever seen a tur you know multiple turkeys killed off the same tree. But I really think, you know, back in when we were had a deer camp and stuff like that, where we hunted, you know, you kinda f we kind of understood what the turkeys normally did in that by that stand or by that section or whatever it was we were hunting. There's a few that did very similar stuff.
SPEAKER_01:I'm thinking one right now. That um so so se several several years ago, I mean it was a long time ago, uh me and Seals skipped school and went and hunting one. This is one if you've read Ballet of Turkey Hunter, uh there's a uh uh I think it's in ripped out journal pages. It's just a series of short stories, and one of them is this story of of me and Seals hunting, and he laid in an ant bed and was stuck in an ant bed until that you know we were able to shoot turkey and stuff, talking about turkey hunting friends, the difference in you know, regular friends and folks who turkey hunt with you. There's a big fine line there, and you know, Seals is one of them, and um and then and on that turkey, and I went back might have been the same season. I don't know if it was the same season or if it was the season after that, but shot a turkey from that same tree. Yeah. And and knew, and because of that other turkey, I was I I think patience was a little easier there because I knew that it had happened. Um and then on and then I y'all are hearing this as as my brain is unfolding all these things. It ain't like that we have a plan on this, so I don't know if that's good or bad, but I was I I was just thinking um me and my buddy Kyle, Carpenter. Oh boy. We went to earcount a couple times, and um yeah, and uh He wasn't much of a hunter, period. Used to not be, yeah. He does now, he loves Turkey Hunt now. Um and so and so I was like, I gotta go with him. And we have a couple couple years, and he was he was talking about, he's like, one time so-and-so, me and my brother-in-law was walking this road, and there was one down here. He said, Every time I walk this freaking road, I as bad as I want to just kind of go, I'm I think there's gonna be one doing the exact same thing, and it never happens. I'm like, I'm uh you preaching to the choir. I think the same thing. Like if I'm walking past this tree and I saw a turkey there one October 2009, you know, I'm gonna be careful around that tree. It's just how how it works. And never happened, but by God, the second I bust up in there, it's gonna happen again. Um but no, pretty much so and and this is and so y'all y'all might have heard it already, but I did an episode with Dr. Chamberlain um right after we hunted the same ridgetop. Yeah. Back to back days, I think might have been a day or in between. Very close to each other, obviously, same trip, little deal this past season in Kentucky, and I had to I shot a turkey at about eleven yards, and I stepped over the feathers of Dr. Chamberlain's bird that he shot the day before, two days before. Yeah. Same everything. Um and from what it seems that they kind of worked the same and did it a lot of stuff the same. Now I correlation versus causation there. Why why would they do that? Is it that something made the first turkey more comfortable? Do they do this every day? And also a little bit of wisdom shape in knowing where to be ready at and how a turkey's gonna work that work a high, you know, a slope of some kind or anything. What's it gonna what a turkey ain't gonna do is a little bit easier to pick apart than what a turkey is gonna do, because there's no telling on either. But but there's some stuff that's very unlikely. And I've had them walk their tickets. Oh, yeah. I've had them walk in culverts, I've had them do a lot of weird things.
SPEAKER_02:Yep. Yeah, I can't tell you how many turkeys I've had to go through the briar ball that I was trying to call them around, and they all of a sudden you see that redhead pop up in the middle of it, and you're like, what? The the most humbling I don't know how to get to him at that point.
SPEAKER_01:Experience I've ever had was I was on a piece of public land, I was around the college age, and I was I hunted a turkey that I heard from the blacktop about a hundred yards in there. And I'm like, y'all are a bunch of idiots, because there was trucks everywhere. I'm like, y'all, I guarantee you every one of them's a mile and a half back there, and this Joker's a hundred yards from blacktop. I didn't know he was there. I I was late and was parking, was gonna go across go on this side of the road, and I mean there was two trucks at this gate, two trucks at this gate, and the gate on the left. Nobody was out. I'm like, well, okay, I've never been in there. Did not look good. Never heard turkey in there or anything, but I heard a turkey on this side, you know, a good bit in between the two gates, but I'm like, I I promise you they don't hear him. Yeah. You know, I know exactly where they're probably at. And this turkeys back there, they're probably hunting them. But this woman had been getting overlooked, I'm sure. And um, so I get in there and and get in there a couple hundred yards and stuff, and he flies down, and there is um a big open spot. He's on the other side of that, some good pine trees, what hold turkeys right there. Um so I get I guess right. A lot of times if there's a road right there, I'm I'm trying to I made a big loop to get around him. I don't see him flying through the blacktop, I see him working the opposite way, obviously, and he did. So I was able to get her on the other side of him about 150 yards or so, and um big opening it. I ought to bet a lot of things. Still to this day. This ain't me being a green. I was I mean, I was I've been drinking a while at this point, and I I and if if it happened today, I'd still think he'd walk through that opening where he was at. The only other thing he might could have do is is walk down to the black top and come up a thicket. And that's where I put my back. And by God, that joker did exactly that. He gobbled a couple times, headed that way. I'm like, no way he's gonna go walk down the, you know, the the ditch on the side of the road. I mean he he got out of, you know, almost hearing distance. I could tell, I mean, he was a couple hundred yards at that point. I'm like Ain't much I can really do. I'm just gonna hope, you know, hope he's doing something weird and we'll come back and maybe I can get across the opening if he gets further enough down and and drawing it in my mind, the only thing he could have done was get out of there, get out of them pines, walk down the road and come up this thicket. Yeah. And when I I'm I'm sitting there, I'm almost twiddling my thumbs. It's been a while since he got when I look in there, is the turkey head sticking horizontally out of this thicket looking at me like that. Like just long enough for me to see him, and it just pulls it back in and never hurt him again. Like, I wonder how long he's been sitting there looking at me like, man, I wish this guy would see me so he knows he got beat, instead of me just going across the road or something. But he sure did and man, it was I I I wouldn't I wouldn't have been able to walk through it, it was so thick. I had to walk around like I said, I walked around it, I just put it at my back and I turned, looked over that right shoulder, and there was a white head looking 35 yards staring at me.
SPEAKER_02:I had I had one come through a thicket like that on me and I could I could hear him drum, I mean shaking my chest drumming. Yeah. I shot him at four yards. Yeah. I mean, I shot him and like I like it was weird because it knocked the turkey back ten yards. And I mean it was feathers from three steps from my tree is where the feathers started, you know. And but I mean I had a foiler trail on my left, twenty, you know, fifteen, twenty yards, he would have to come around that curve for that thick stuff. He cut the corner through the middle of that thicket. And I mean I'm I'm in the thicket trying to hide, you know, where I got it, I can shoot the foiler trail. And I'd made a big loop around him. I'd been chasing him for a while. And then he actually ended up passing me. And he, you know, as I was coming around this curve, he walked through the middle of that jump and then popped out on the four-wheeler trail. I just walked made the loop on, and then I caught him back. And I mean, I'm um I could not see that turkey till he was four yards from me. That thick of a thicket is what I'm trying to say. Mm-hmm. And yeah, that was kind of where we'll get here. I don't know. This is not the story we wanted to talk about.
SPEAKER_01:He talked about this. What I'm trying to say was Dr. Chavlin talked to me about leks, like leking area of turkeys revisiting an area to breed and stuff like that, because they're like a species of bird and stuff like that. That you know, a lot more biological stuff, and all of a sudden we're talking about like this time in college, I swear to god, I had a turkey stick his head sideways out of it, you know. Y'all getting it, y'all getting it real.
SPEAKER_02:That's how things go when you don't have anything you follow. Right. Um and I can't see the clipboard that Hunter did write three notes on.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, there ain't we ain't hit none of them. We probably ain't going to. Um But yeah, so Dr. Chem was talk talking about them revisiting areas. It's actually a a thing for breeding purposes, stuff like that. Way over my pay grade, y'all go listen to that episode, a couple back, and he's I'm sure he's done several bits of content on it prior to that, anyways. Um but what we're talking about today, and this was the original plan, this is number one with a circle around it. I don't know how it took us twenty something minutes to get here, but it did via rabbit holes. But so this area and and then I and I I got permission to hunt a a spot that had a turkey on it and was able to get in this little clump of trees that is very it was set up really good to to be able to to get in there and use that and and I'm big on you know being in if you're in the dark if you're in the the the woods and a turkey's in an open you got the upper hand don't don't lose it don't don't give them the advantage of getting out of that don't try to get down the wood line and get over here like you go stand halfway from the the woods and look out and you can see about everything in that field but if you go stand in the field and and look in the woods you can't see but about five yards into the woods right um so I'd much rather be in the woods and you could stay in there but the only problem was the leaves were loud yes really and I have not caught at all but I got two legs and a turkey's got two legs and there was no way I could walk and get to this where I wanted to get and I'm I'm I'm walking as I almost started just kicking stuff didn't sound like a just a deranged animal in there before a turkey because these turkeys started gobbling at my footsteps and when I stopped they gobbling gobbling they they were coming to me and I'm like please don't just let me get there you know I'm like have y'all never y'all in a drought I guess but by God you know I'm just walking and there was no nothing I could do. I mean I tried walking differently you know walking faster walking like I mean I could have crawled maybe I didn't but I wasn't I didn't try that but you were just like one scratching at that point.
SPEAKER_02:I guess I mean those leaves I I will say Hunter had told me this story before I had seen it. Yeah and then I walked in there with him to hunt the second time and yeah it's it's tough to try to be difficult. Quiet walking in there. Yeah I mean it sounds every step you take sounds like one raking leaf.
SPEAKER_01:I almost kind of wish I'd have scared him off and been able to call him back though. Yeah. But those but long story short I got almost there but almost didn't cut it because they got to exactly where a turkey should have gotten on the higher spot where he could see down in there good enough. The one little gap that they sat there and hammered and hammered and hammered and hammered and then I then I'm trying to call them in. I'm doing everything I can walk around do whatever. Usually it's a lot easier to call a turkey into the dark shadowy woods late season than it is to call them out of them because they can see everything from the woods. They don't have to get out to see it. But a lot of times they got to get in there but they wind up being a ditch and we found that out or I found that out later and then was telling you about it and didn't shoot one. Yeah. But if they got once they got 500 times right there and there wasn't nothing they can do. And I think they what I wound up happening they kept going down that I mean they walked and they started walking down and they walked back and they walked down and walked back and then I tried to and I've done before successfully and just luck is all it is is is when they go down you go up and you don't make another call and hope they walk back like they had the past two times and usually that's the one time they don't and that's exactly what happened. They just they stay down there and then they kept going I'm like well they had their field they didn't up they're like screw you hen um but so we come back this is a year later same spot and um go in there I'm like I'm and I'm I'm big on this you know these these turkeys are kind of worn on me we go in there I feel like we have talked about this one probably um go in there chases with me now the year after go in there and there two turkeys I don't know the same two do the same thing except I was like I know where we're getting yeah and we were able to get there and I mean right there same footsteps he would have been which I think we had a little wind that day it may have helped us get maybe get through that crunchy leaves.
SPEAKER_02:Right maybe um I I do feel like that I I like w a little wind if I'm gonna be quiet yeah I don't I don't love a turkey to hear me moving too much. And I I mean it can call them in yes but it can put you in a situation of that nature where you you end up getting locked down in a place you don't want to be.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah you know I mean I can fewer times than not has it been a problem like a too too good of a thing. Like we'll call a turkey in from footsteps.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_01:That's the only thing that would have them on fire for no reason. I I I promise I hadn't called um usually I'm trying to walk quiet because I don't want to spook them. I I think I've spooked more walking than I have accidentally called one of I remember one in um Georgia or something a year or two ago I was trying to get real close on the limb and he started hammering and hammering and hammering. I'm like I don't really like that because I don't hear nothing else and he flew down right not far from me. Luckily I was able to like just put my butt down but I didn't kill him. I mean he was flying down thinking I was a turkey walking on the ground already.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_01:Um just the way he he came down at it and everything I'm like didn't have that on my playbook you know wasn't ready at all and didn't didn't kill him but um but yeah this this they they were the same thing I was like I I know I'm telling you where to get and and it worked and one or two calls in here where I sat the last time where they where it made them hang up you know now that's about 13 yards from us and we were ready that time.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah you got that turkey close we did it again yeah we followed last year past year yeah you know if it ain't broke don't fix it we we headed back same exact thing and yeah and just slipped in there quiet called a few times and it came a little different route yeah in the in the open area but I I ended up getting that one real quick and fast honestly.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah it um so that morning I know we hadn't talked about this one um that morning we get in there kind of blind I'm like I know we can we we went by at about it it might have been dark when we were able to get permission no we did not we had not yet been able to talk to this guy. Yeah we had to sell our sales and couldn't get it you know you kind of build relationships folks I don't I mean I'll be honest with you I don't like the whole permission stuff that much I will I will much rather gravitate towards public there just wasn't much in the zone and we had to take tax for the zone um the the two years be fight before so that kind of resorted to that. Right. Um I didn't know that at the time there's all all that was left and stuff and I'm like well crap there ain't much option on the public side of this you know this unit or zone or whatever but I I mean maybe I'll find a a nice good Samaritan and it did. But you wind up talking to them a lot a lot of folks I've met in the past that you know wind up getting their number we keep up and stuff and and good friends I'm not opposed to it by all means. I I right that's how I I like meeting people. If I'm gonna do it I would much rather establish a relationship kind of deal and keep up with each other Facebook friends stuff like that. And man it snowed a whole lot up here you know kept up with you a lot the whole year um and stuff like that but but this um obviously I I wasn't just gonna carry that permission over through the year without talking to him.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah if I if I get permission once from anybody I'm on I'm gonna talk to him just about every time before I go back in there.
SPEAKER_01:Heck yeah you never know what happens in a year. Yeah they may not even own it you know at that point or somebody else is a lot of times that's the case somebody else is the week and yeah we found that a lot is um you could have last weekend but not this week you know they their cousins are different up there um I'm just I'm saying in general I mean I found I ran out in Mississippi you know hey my nephew's gonna hunt this weekend are you okay with that and almost asking me permission to hunt their own place I'm like yeah I'm okay with that I'm I'm talking deer hunting because I mean you know I hunt a lot of permission deer hunt yeah um we've ran into that a lot over the last yeah I was like who in the world gave you permission in Mississippi to hunt a turkey no no I ain't got that yet you gotta talk to some farmers and let me deer hunt though yeah that's worked out you got a set to ask anybody around here I ain't I don't know if I've ever been armed especially I don't know if I've ever asked a person in Mississippi to ask I mean to hunt turkey I've thought about it for I'm like I've wanted to and I yeah I checking out every time I'm like no not today not time or place um but no so so we were across the street from that though because same situation though we're we're um same folks we had the year before we had wound up talking to and stuff and meeting I think wound up hanging out with for a little while um had a couple different small small acres places and we we just went to one we we talked we caught them on the way up and they were expecting us at some point in season and stuff like that which is fun. Told them we hey you know we'll be here tomorrow. They're like have at it yada yada they don't know nothing about a turkey but that's all that's all right. Um got and we got there and there was one hammer and remember that oh yeah right across the road from the place yeah I forgot about that. And we never we I don't think we hunted it the year before. We we hunted a different spot of theirs and uh we wanted to get there to see you know w what's happening.
SPEAKER_02:We didn't get there till late and it was right at fly right at dark it was back to back ears was.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Because we missed it a little bit and I'm cussing a gas pump at this point. You know and he's on fire. I'm like we about to we up in it now you know and we we we approached this the his his area at a good spot by luck, you know, had a had a good bit of woods between us and the an edge we can get on and and and gain ground if we needed to and all kinds of stuff and was able to keep boys in between us and he had different I still think I still think he saw another turkey in a crowd limb or something or a hill he got on because he took off running across field wanting us to follow him but he was headed somewhere.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:He had a destination head he had he had courtesy gobbles but he they were like now or never yeah keep up or or get left one of the two you can hop on right now and follow me but I ain't training thinking about it. He was getting over there wherever it was um but it was fun. Oh it was a fun hunt he gobbled 105 times at least yeah that was real cool hunt um he was just came by us at 80 you know yeah I mean if he would have been at 30 yards closer on one side of this turn he would have been good I think he'd have he'd a he'd have committed a little more at that point but he was he he he saw something 100% I never heard nothing I don't think he would just want to go over somewhere like that and he wasn't getting away from us he was kind of moving horizontally or you know left or right not away from us right but he ended up coming closer I mean he was out there what 200 yards hammering hammering hammering then when he crossed his high yeah but then when he ran across that ditch I mean he was I thought he was coming here I thought he was running at us too and I was like oh we're almost like we're in a bind like we're we're not as ready as we we were still trying to slip up to that ditch to try and get something a barrier to call him around and then all of a sudden we're like uh you know get ready knock safety off and then he he veered left a little bit and which was we needed him to come his to his right you know which yeah I'm I'm zooming the camera I'm running the camera poorly probably but I'm zooming in trying to get it to focus on the the ground because it's on the trees I'm like just trying to zoom in as far as I can until it picks up and and adjust the focus to make it get on the ground and then I'll zoom back out to where I know I can set it and forget it and it's not gonna pick up the leaves in front of me. As I'm doing that I see a turkey's body just across chase he's he's coming I'm trying to think of where the camera's facing I'm like he's headed the direction that's right of the camera and I'm like oh crap is pointed in front of us I mean he's about to there he is right there.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah and he yeah the second you said that he rolled around the corner of that that whatever ditch tree or whatever.
SPEAKER_01:But that was fine didn't kill him but don't kill them all and that's all right. I don't think any you could add a real turkey tied up next to you calling him he you weren't guaranteed nothing he ain't coming to that one. That's something that's something um Mr. Toxia said before was you can you can sound exactly like a real hen but and you're still just another hen. You know you can be literally a hen and it ain't the one he picks. Yeah that's makes sense. That's why I like their gun right there. You know summed up pretty much there is not no guarantees to it. Um and I'm still surprised I wouldn't I wouldn't bet many marbles on going back to this place had encounters the third year in a row.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And I mean it was it was kind of one of those situations of I think we could have done it the next day too.
SPEAKER_01:The other one was still there. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And it would just kind of didn't want to I guess I don't know yeah after the third one we were kind of like well we kind of know what's gonna happen here.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah let's it might not have that's what I'm saying I don't yeah no we wouldn't I don't like killing more than one on the same place same yeah little trip and stuff you know I wasn't just gonna sit there and if there was three there let's see if we can kill all three I don't know I don't like doing that. And and especially if I got other places I could go.
SPEAKER_02:And we did there yeah that's that's kind of weird is we I I learned a little bit more this year that we like learning stuff too much. You know what I'm saying? We want to kill more we could have you know we want to try something different you know than we're you you know used to yeah we probably could kill you know leave with more but we'd rather yeah you'd leave with less even if you have more turkeys fair.
SPEAKER_01:Um because that's how you get um that's the that's the more I like is this is figuring them out and stuff. And I don't know sometimes you get in an area that we ain't used to those problems I tell you that. That's for danger being able to hear three turkeys in the same spot much less a chance of killing them. But the the the one you had he he he skirted it a little bit.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah he kind of came in from the top of the hill a little more and I don't think I could see him as well as you could you had a day I moved up to call. Yeah that's right you moved to the my right and I and at that point I didn't know who was who was on the trigger or something. Yeah I remember that and I was I was all kind of like what I mean this dude is chilling.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah I was like laid back I keep telling you he's coming you know like did I have one of the cameras or something?
SPEAKER_02:I don't know maybe I just didn't feel like you were where you were able to shoot or something. I don't remember what I had zero intentions on shooting. That's what I'm saying I thought you were on the same page of your we you're shooting this I'm just going to call I don't guess I ever told you that yeah we got off our wavelength for a moment there and it about caused us to not leave with one um I guess I was filming or you were filming something and and you finally like well are you gonna shoot him?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah come on now like because if if I wasn't you were about to yeah I know you have my fingers were wrapping their way around you know reaching for the old 870. Which I do and and if I'm home with somebody and that that paid off the seals one time he got stuck and couldn't swing right.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:If I'm with somebody and I'm not planning to shoot hot my gun's face backwards. A it's safer I think um you get to moving around stuff especially if you down in in that instance one seals and I were we were on our bellies. Right. So it was A you kind of limited when you get on your belly you're limiting because there's not any swivel to belly in um but if there's two people there's always a you can cover 180 easy probably 300 depending on the person kind of if they're on their knees it's about 360 degrees you know regardless you know because they can adjust if if if he gets past here and this person can adjust if he gets past here and be behind the same dude for a while you get on them wavelengths and stuff but a lot of times I have my gun faced backwards for that very reason as one comes up if he gets by you and there's a stick or something and you can't see him and you know being able to to see the window and seeing where that window stops and that's exact the other instance one with I was talking about seals was I knew where that window was and I was kind of getting ready as it was is he was nearing that and I and I was like he can still get him I can still get him he can still get him and then I then he was like I can't you know as soon as he got I can like hold on you know then I knew what to do then to get around and I knew when a new one would open up and turkey didn't no guarantee that turkey's gonna you know do that he could get to the middle and take off the other way or come right at us and then see if his window opens back up. You know I ain't gonna sit here and pop up and try to you know swing and shoot and ruin it because he could de definitely turn around. You know many turkeys I've shot turned back around and went back into a window? Uh-huh doesn't always happen but it does sometimes happen.
SPEAKER_02:But I I know when to kind of get ready you know no I mean I've I've been on similar situations especially like in high school when when I was hunting with buddies you know that I didn't really hunt with often and stuff like that. I mean I that's how I killed several of the turkeys we were hunting you know and it was just because they came into a side that we didn't intend them to and they got you know they're set up to shoot the road and the turkey loops behind us and I'm behind them. You know obviously they can't shoot past me. Yep. But that's one thing I always made sure of before I hunted with somebody new I said hey turkey comes in on my side or your side and anybody that hunts with me that's why me and you both carry going a little irritated if you don't shoot him and we just did all this work to call him in. And educated him. And educated him this main thing yeah I would much rather him be I don't I do not care who shoot him. And then yeah I've said that of many times I'm like if you if you're gonna get butthurt if I shoot a turkey here we I'm gonna go back to my place and go hunt you know kind of thing.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah I do remember time or leave my gun in the truck because I need to do that. Me and you were hunting together this was years ago and it was a story I don't like talking about because this was this at the time was the biggest turkey of every life. Oh gosh I had that I had it as second now after one I saw this year. But at the time was the biggest turkey ever in my life and you and I kind of accidentally caught him up. I mean it was mid-morning late season you or I was dozing off I think I don't remember. We weren't I mean we knew it turned out I saw him first I think didn't I uh uh you saw him first yeah okay I must have been dozing off then I think so and we we was that year I fell asleep a lot on I was having a rough year that year we we hadn't called in 45 minutes probably yeah and we just rested we kind of was we on the same page we ain't I ain't getting up if you ain't getting up yeah and um now this turkey comes down and I'm like Jesus Christ that thing's got a rope on him and uh we're we're probably 15 yards he probably 15 yards in front of me and I I can I can see you can see him after a while and we got a camera you know I'm running into the yeah you had a camera and I had a camera because we didn't intend on hunting together that morning.
SPEAKER_02:Something something or another and then we didn't hear a turkey gall or something on and go back to heather.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah you know I was like well there's one over here we could yeah um he answered a couple times but had no real chance I felt like without bumping him or anything like that.
SPEAKER_02:And I was like we can't sit here and I remember those the days crows bombed him so hard. Crows were bombing on him like crazy. I mean that was like the first time I had you had pointed something like that out to me and I'm like that makes a lot more sense. How close can we get without having to call you know he was sitting there just hammering at crows.
SPEAKER_01:Well he wasn't hammering I just worked on them crows doing that he wasn't gobbling at them but yeah I was like I think he's where I I'd hunted him before and he was in this area it would make sense for him to be there. Yeah. Um and I think that's what it was.
SPEAKER_02:But I feel like I feel like I want to say we thought we heard him gobble a time or two while the crows were making so much racket, but we were having a hard time hearing him.
SPEAKER_01:Maybe I mean he gobbled a couple of times at us. And that's why we didn't move otherwise we just walked away and went and ate breakfast or something. Right. But um I was like shoot we'll We'll sit here and hang and see. And I think at least you doze off. I might have dozed off too. But I look I remember looking up and he didn't cobble or nothing. Right. He came in. I just looked at him like there's a turkey right there, and he's big. He was probably 80. Right. He was skirting up a little ridge. He was headed to get where he could put eyes on where we were at. And he just buy chase.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I had brush all on my left side.
SPEAKER_01:I'm like, Chase, you better. And we're just far enough we gotta kind of like, hey, hey, you know, kind of like talking. And what are you? It made me mad. Yeah. Because I'm I'm I'm sitting there kind of on G. I'm like, all right, dude, you should have already shot. Like why haven't you shot? And I'm like, all right, at least say something. Tell me, tell me I ain't got a bullet or whatever's keeping you from shooting.
SPEAKER_00:So I can have a shot.
SPEAKER_01:Not, you know, so I can feel comfortable taking this shot because I could I could have already shot him. And um I'm like, can I I got I'm not sure about you, can I shoot him? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Can I shoot him? And I responded with something stupid.
SPEAKER_01:Like, if you get a shot, you have a shot on him? I'm like, Wow. It's pretty good. It's it's about like you wanna how big it is? How much of a window I got? Yeah. How far he is? You're looking at the same turkey I'm looking at.
SPEAKER_02:Like, I mean, I was like, there ain't no way he's got a shot compared to where I'm sitting. Because like I I didn't have any form of a shot. Like, I mean, I could not confidently shoot that turkey. I do. And watching your video back, you did.
SPEAKER_01:And then then you answered again. I'm like, so can I shoot him? Because I don't know. You might have an idea in time. He's in range of both of us. Right. And I'm like, he might have a window coming up or something. This is a very big turkey. And I I would I would feel bad if I shot it and you did have a plan and just wasn't communicated to me or something. You know, I was just going to just like boom.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So I'm trying to like, so I can shoot it.
SPEAKER_02:And you're like, if you want to.
SPEAKER_01:I guess if you want to, you can, or something. I'm like, geez.
SPEAKER_02:And you can't hear about half those words because we're 20 yards from the city.
SPEAKER_01:I'm gonna take that as a yes, and I don't call center a stump.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I mean it wasn't even after eating. I get up to run, my feet are asleep, and I just fall straight forward and look up at him, and he's like, What happened? Yeah, I'm like, did I hit him? You're like, no, you didn't hit him. Ran all that's like fly above the tree. Yeah. I'm like, yeah, uh, yeah, I thought I saw a turkey do that. I figured that was him. Yeah. But that was the biggest turkey I've ever seen.
SPEAKER_02:We still went and looked for him from the city. Oh, yeah. I love it. I'm not letting this one go.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, because I at that time I still had not seen that tree. I'm like, yeah, there's no reason why turkey.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it was like a dead stuff.
SPEAKER_01:He had a window and then it I know exactly what happened. It it closed, and then I so I I moved my gun to the next window. And this is the same swords we're just talking about. That's what I do. If if if it's patchy, I move to a for sure open. And if he walks in and he walks in, if he don't, he don't. I don't have there's nothing I can make him do right there. I'm just ready if he does. And it I think it probably helps calm the nerves a little bit, is like it ain't in your hands, really. It's if in the turkey's hands. Yeah. Because I'm always if I don't pull the trigger if I know if there ain't a doubt in my mind, I'm gonna hit that turkey, you know. And which is so I was so adamant, like there's no reason why I shouldn't have. And then he watched back the film. I guess my eyes were looking right through it. And as soon as that I was looking at that opening, but I was looking past the and it was just a dead pine, rotted pine tree looking thing, shot a hole. Oh, it dusted it. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_02:That was it was just a cloud of smoke, and I was so confused what ended up coming of it. And then you dust, I mean, your legs were asleep. And when I I'm looking more at Hunter because I can't see the turkey at this point, I don't think, you know, very good through the thick stuff. And you stand up and roll and stand up again and roll and stand up again and roll, and I'm like, are you are you okay? I thought like, I mean, I didn't know what to do I'm looking at you like, go get him. Yeah, and I'm looking at you like you missed a deep thing.
SPEAKER_01:I'm like, I can't. I'm I give me a second and I'm gonna get him. But if you if you can trot over there, Mr. If you get a shot, might as well take it. Yeah, I need to yay your name.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I think I think the camera was still full on me at that point because that was the first first season we had carried cameras ever, you know, and we weren't carrying them every time we went, but I I had just gotten that new little camera of mine, and I think I was trying to get it cut on because I couldn't I didn't you I don't think you told me you saw the turkey or you you saw the turkey, I don't think you We never said hey there's a turkey, right? It wasn't communicated that both of us had seen that turkey but both saw it and was like, oh crap. And then I got think I was trying to tell you, hey, hey, hey, yeah, and you were trying to tell me, hey, hey, we could hear each other. Both already there. And then you saw me kind of turn my gun and you're like, okay, he's awake. A, he's awake, he sees the turkey.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, this turkey didn't drum, he didn't strut it in nothing. Yeah. He just had to seen him, you know. Yeah. This was I'm at least 45 minutes after our last call. Mm-hmm. They they do that. They don't get to be that big for coming in on the first call. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And I think that's the judge is the size of one, but I do remember after he got past me, I saw I had one little gap, and now I saw was that beard drag. I was like, Lord, he looked like my calf.
SPEAKER_01:Kicking it like a tin can. Just don't don't don't. Oh, it was bouncing.
SPEAKER_02:That hurt. Yeah. That one I did that one is I mean, it's sour in my mouth too, you know.
SPEAKER_01:And but the like the twisted things, like I I remember like hoping somebody would kill it so I could look at it. Just you know, yeah. Yeah, like it didn't have to be me, but I'm I mean, neighbors or whatever, like I'm I remember asking them the next year, I'm like, y'all kill one that's really big? Yeah. And then I mean, we killed a couple that were, you know, nine two-inch beers. I'm like, you'd have known if this one would have made it over there, you'd have you'd you'd a posted about it or at least. Um, because that I mean, I don't know. I've I've I've wound up shooting something that had over 12 inch beers, which I thought was impossible. I did too. I called BS on that for years.
SPEAKER_02:And then yeah, I finally saw one or two inner life.
SPEAKER_01:And I on on the hoof, as you'd say, it didn't look no different.
SPEAKER_02:Yep. Um shot one with the eight and three quarters on the hoof, didn't look no different. Right, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. It swung enough. I I I shot two this year that were under nine inches. Yep. Eight eight-ish, probably. And I'm when I say that, I'm I'm judging off like the median is my nine. Right. And it's shorter than I'm last. Pretty short. Yeah. Must be eight. Yeah. Pretty long, must be ten. Really long. Probably eleven. Yeah. Had no idea what they are. Um but it is fine. Sometimes the measure them and stuff like that. And spurs are cool too. I th I I get more marbled over the deck on wing patches and stuff like that. The the man, these wings are really sawed off. And look, look at this color dirt, ain't with the colored dirt we killed him in. I wonder where he was strutting yesterday. And you know.
SPEAKER_02:Um Yeah, they come out with red clay and you're in hard soil. You're like, what? Red clay with stained wings is what I mean. You know, the white on their wings will get stained from the dirt they're in.
SPEAKER_01:Then my brain goes, how long does that stuff stay on there? I wonder. And you know. And and this one's got a cool little white dot on one of these feathers, and that that mesmerizes me way more than beer stuff. Now, beers, I mean, I do think are cool. I mean, I inspect them just as much as everything else. And I appreciate the curve in them and everything, and I it gets my mind building a whole complete imagination imaginative story on his whole life. But man, this one ain't really worn off in the front, so he must always been in the the hard area or something like that.
SPEAKER_02:Short grass or tall glasses. Completely made up theories and back on mine.
SPEAKER_01:Having no nothing to base that off of, by the way. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um which I I'd I've pulled a few of the what is it called, gallstones. Yeah. Whatever. I never got into that. No, I mean it's it's not the if if I've got time and nobody else to hunt with the rest of the day or something, I might do it. And um but they're kind of cool. You know, the different colors I've pulled out of Yeah. I mean I probably only pulled like four total in the last three years. But like, you know, they're different colored rocks and different, you know, like the one from Florida I think had some weird stuff in it, like a sandy, or I've seen one from Florida that had like, you know, crystally sand and black sand in it, and then like, you know, one from like Indian areas or something was had like a bead in it. Like I've seen I've seen photos of that. I mean I'm just saying like that's something cool. No, I didn't I didn't do that, but uh I somebody did show me that at an FTF. Like they they killed a turkey that had like an Indian carved little necklace bead that it had picked up, and that was really cool. Or I may have seen it on Facebook, I don't know. Still it was still cool that that you know you could tell like they had the turkey laying there still, like they washed them off and they were like, holy crap, you know, that's cool. So makes me kind of want to get a few more here and there when I have time.
SPEAKER_01:So just something it is cool when you see them all lined up. I've I've seen you know collections and stuff where they're all different, you know, across the across the country differently.
SPEAKER_02:Different type of rock. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Anyway, that's all I got. I mean, I hope I did we ever get to the point. Okay, yeah, I guess we kind of did. So, I mean, we don't know. If you if you when you when you return to an area, I've I've done it on multiplication. I can think of four. Yeah. I can think of at least four where I've returned and didn't hear a peep.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I've got more of that. I think. And I've I've killed some on the same tree that a hunted it and it didn't work the day before. You know, stuff of that nature. Or two trees over, you know, same area, something like that.
SPEAKER_01:But speed you everything's gotta go perfect and that still don't matter. Yeah, it's gotta be 110%.
SPEAKER_02:But turn is one of the only things that'll everything'll be a hundred percent right and still not work, right?
SPEAKER_01:So um That's why we do it. Yeah. And that's why I'm gonna keep doing it. I don't I don't know if we're gonna go back to that place again, but I'm gonna think about it if we ever in the area, maybe ride by and see we hear one.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, for sure. It was fun, hunting.
SPEAKER_01:Um at least one or two left. If there is.
SPEAKER_02:There should be.
SPEAKER_01:So anyway, that'll do it. And then um, yeah, next week we'll be Christmas week, we might have some kind of cool topic to go along with that. But other than that, then if your mind ain't really at least thinking about turkey season, it's gonna be to me. I don't I don't know. Once you get through the holidays, it's all right. I told y'all the the first step to the turkey season is taking Christmas lights off the house. Yeah. When you do that, that's you're on the downhill. To me. Yeah. Then you can start looking for things and listening for things and you know.
SPEAKER_02:What did I say the other day? You can hear the light.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, something like that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. You can hear the light, according to you. You can hear the light. You can't see it, but you can hear it. I don't know what that meant, but I I I listened back to that the other day. I'm like, what did I do? But that made a lot of sense at the moment. Um put that on my shirt.
SPEAKER_00:Anyway.
SPEAKER_02:All right, it's getting late.
SPEAKER_01:Yep. So anyway, we appreciate y'all listening to this brother's podcast. We will see you next week.
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