The Spring Legion Podcast

Turkeys Given and Taken Away: The Best and Worst Luck We've Ever Experienced + Hunter Goes Deer Hunting

• Spring Legion Turkey Hunting • Season 5 • Episode 136

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We begin this episode with the irony of trading Black Friday greed for Christmas giving, then carry that theme into the turkey woods with stories where the hunt gives… and where it yanks the rug out from beneath us. From a rattled-in one-horn buck to a public land gobbler, we unpack patience, luck, and the grind that makes hunting worth it.

• cold deer hunt that unfolded like a turkey setup
• gifts vs ungifts theme across multiple turkey seasons
• calling mistakes that still led to a limb-hanger on public
• midday nap turning into two red heads and a quick shot
• close-roost lessons, misses and setup discipline
• Paw Paw memories, calls, and minivan clay pits
• the road gobbler with hooks and the sudden house pad
• patience, woodsmanship and showing up when the tide turns

Thank y’all for subscribing, liking, sharing, telling friends about it, and all the feedback we receive is always welcomed with open arms. We hope y’all have a very safe and sincere holiday season and wish y’all Merry Christmas. Follow us on socials for new stuff dropping soon.

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SPEAKER_00:

All right, everybody, welcome back to the Spring Legion Podcast. My name is Hunter Farrier. Joining you alongside Chase Farrier yet again as we wrap up the year 2025. We got one more after this, but this is nearing the end of 2025, which means it's Christmas week, which is cool. So I hope y'all are spending some good and quality time with some loved ones and um or folks who care about you and folks you care about and reaching out to those who um who could use it right now. And um we're doing the same and all the hecticness and stuff of which is very ironic that the the day after Thanksgiving is the essentially the most greedy day of the year. Everybody's fighting over you know who gets what material-wise and everything. And then we're gonna transition to the first Noel and all this stuff about the the season of giving and whatnot, and that's actually gonna tie into some of the topics for today, which is uh a series of stories of the the gifts and the ungifts of turkey woods that we've experienced. Some some of the goods and the bads and the the layups and the ones you think is gonna be layups, and then all of a sudden the rugs pulled out from under you. But um, but before we we get into that, I I think um I think uh anything we would hit on online shop-wise would uh we got some license plates, and that's about it. We got some green, black, and white license plates came in this morning. Uh you can get them. They ain't gonna make it by Christmas because that's in like two days. Right. But obviously, yeah, y'all, that that thing's open 24-7. And um took the bundles off the website for the time being. I had to figure some stuff out, as things misfigured on there. Um, and and we also got all them gloves in, so that's gonna be a part of the bundles. I was like, you know, we're taking a week hiatus on them. Let me get some stuff figured out. Uh the plan is to bring them back. I don't know if it's gonna be January or you know what the timing of it, but we are gonna bring some bundles back eventually, as long as everything's in stock, obviously. But um, but that's all I got on that end. And um I feel bad because last week, you know, bear with me, last week we talked about the YouTube podcast, and then it was about four o'clock when I left here that morning. I'm like, I ain't getting a YouTube podcast. This because it it the the audio side of the the podcast last week took a little extra editing or something. Um it recorded it in stereo instead of mono, and I had to go through and pick two actual like files for our voices or so to speak, you know what I mean? Um splice them together and do all kinds of crap that I'm not that used to. So um sorry about that. We might uh we might bring the YouTube stuff back uh when we get a little leeway as far as the free time goes. But um but outside of that, before we do dive into some stories and stuff, uh I do have the very the very rare uh deer story that um I I I'm I hope it wasn't last week. So if you listen to last week's right before this one, that I was talking about the lack of deer hunting I'm interested in doing because I did go deer hunting last week. Right. And um might have gone out, and it was it was a fun hunt. It was the most fun I've had since May. And it it was literally because it was a little colder than I'd like it to be. I don't like deer hunting a lot because of it's being really cold, and for some reason or another I can be cold in the turkey season, but deer season like when you know you're not gonna be moving, that is I do not look forward to that.

SPEAKER_01:

There's times I struggle with it myself.

SPEAKER_00:

And Chase gets cold at at the beach, so I can only imagine.

SPEAKER_01:

Um and I hate box dams, that's what's crazy. Well, I despise a box dam.

SPEAKER_00:

I do do. Um mostly because I feel like I'm hunting out of a house. Yeah. If I'm hunting if I'm hunting anything, I want it to be in the woods. Oh yeah, me too. Um even like, you know, food plots and stuff. I don't I'm like, eh. I'm not hunting guard, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

I'll just get bored sitting there waiting.

SPEAKER_00:

I I have when I feel like very little faith of a deer, period. So my only hope is like a raccoon or a possum or something I get to hear. Right. Usually. But no, this I mean this particular morning, it was about I think Tuesday last week. It was decently cold and everything, and I don't remember whether I stayed up real late or something, or I had it for some reason or another I had everything in the truck anyway. Maybe I was thinking about going the afternoon before or something like that, and and wind up not, but I was kind of already ready, which had a lot to do with me going, and I woke up or early or something at 3 o'clock or something. Like, might as well stay up an hour and go hunting, I guess, you know, should be alright. Or and I knew Breck was off. He'd been he's been working, filling orders and stuff a lot lately for the holiday kind of rush. Our youngest brother, and and he lives not far from where we would be hunting, and I'm like, okay. You know, if it happens, at least I got Breck there to kind of help me drag it out, skin it, and stuff like that. And um deer processor would be open. Right. I don't think they're open on Sundays anymore or something, which has kind of been a bummer as I'm driving out there. The other two times I went, I'm like, oh yeah. This is gonna turn into a two-day event as soon if I do shoot one, so it kind of luckily didn't have that problem. But um, but no, I mean it was fun because it was, I mean, it was a lot like a a turkey hunt. I felt like it was turkey hunting. Um got in there, and this is and Chase knows some of it, doesn't know the maybe the the whole story of the I didn't heard much of it at all. Yeah, I mean you you know other than like the area you were sitting in, and that's about it. I'm gonna be honest. Um We hadn't really talked about it. So pretty much I think Breck and I actually a week or so ago, we were I don't know if we went hunting or we were he brought a camera out and I was thinking he was leaving it in there to replace batteries, but I had the batteries or something, something like that. I was like, actually, let's get I'm gonna put it right here. There's a wash out ditch right here, not far off the blacktop. I was like, I'm I'm gonna walk in here and see and kind of get in there and and it's it's a it's a lot of a lot of rubs, which I'm like, okay, that's cool, you know. Like eight scrapes in 50 yards. I'm like, okay, they're they're signaling something. They're they're they're passing through, they're checking this and whatnot. So wind up um putting a camera on the scrapes, which is really cool. You've never done that? I I don't have like a camera. So like I think all camera things are cool when it comes to deer because I'm not used to it. I'm like, oh, you can press a video and watch them make a scrape. That's cool. Yeah. Um so a little green to that area, so I still think it's a big deal to see a four-point make a scrape. Yeah. Um technology's wild, man. So I, you know, I'm I'm not no, can't even think of like a really good deer hunter, but a really good deer hunter for what I'm thinking of. Um get in there and and bring my handy-dandy U-line trifold stool, which I got for free for ordering fifty two hundred dollars worth of poly mailers. Right. They give you a free nine dollar stool. I'm like, okay, yeah, that'll definitely. And it I'm a sucker for that. I'm like, yeah, we how many hat boxes we got? Can we use it a couple thousand more so I can get the salt shaker too? Or they got the most random trash can thing.

SPEAKER_01:

You were fired up about the mini trash can.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's literally smaller than my phone. It's like a Coke can with the top coat. I'm like, this is this is not a mini trash can, this is a like a a pen holder. Or not even that. It's just like a like a display of a trash can. Like if you were you were selling trash cans and that would be what you the model you put out there, the figurine. It's a waste management advertisement. Yeah. Um so that one, that one not as much, but they do have some cool flashlights and stuff I've gotten off of them.$5,200 flashlights that are always handy dandy. Anyway, after we digressed, got the uh Brett gave me uh a pair of rattling horns. Oh. I'm like, I'm gonna I'm about to go ahead and go town. Yeah. And I did. And um it was uh I think I want to say maybe the the time, I think the time that me and Brett were changing batteries, I wound up staying through dark and didn't see nothing. But the longer I sat around and looked, that's when I started seeing just rubs everywhere. And I remember several scrapes walking in and I wasn't looking for them, and these are all fresh like today. Right. And um kind of sitting there, I'm like, I probably need to get up out of here because I like I don't I think I'm I've just kind of hit the X real real closely, and I I'm not the not the tier of guy who needs to just be in here just fumbling around and stuff. Right. Um But uh I mean the wind was alright and everything and apparently didn't screw much up. I went in there and um this buck comes in down the down the uh there's a there's a I don't think it's a dry creek. It's got a little bit of water in it, but deep, like a you know, washed washed out creek. Um to my left, it put it at my back kind of, and then that washed out area coming off the creeks at my other. I'm in a corner, I got you know, there's nothing there's some area behind me that they could probably get, but he'd have to kind of look around at least. Uh was able to see him, and then it was one of those like, okay, I see, I see movement after I rattled a little bit and grunted a little bit, and you know, you don't know. I don't I'm going off of what I saw on a Primo's DVD nine years ago on how to do this. So I will say, you know, um Jordan Blissett gave me and Seals a good rundown on how to do all this a year or two ago because I don't I don't think he was I think he probably heard one of us do it one time. He said, Let me show you how to do this.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you know let me save y'all some trouble. Right.

SPEAKER_00:

Quit scaring the rest of the deer he was hunting too. Yeah. So kind of went back to that memory bank. But now he works down this this ditch to my, I mean this creek to my left, and he comes, he comes down and he ain't but 20 yards, and I'm doing I'm trying to get turned around and everything, and um shooting a rifle, by the way. And he uh he comes back down, he kind of leaves. I'm like, okay. Gron again kind of comes back down, he he comes across creek, comes out in the opening.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh it's like a four-wheeler path.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, kind of in front of me. Yeah. I can see I'm out at mine can see 200 yards. He comes out about 190. I'm like, huh. Not like I can't shoot that, but that's a long drag. Yeah. And uh maybe if he kept grunting at him, just kept grunting at him and stuff, I'm like, I ain't got nothing to lose here. We're talking like a one a one-horn five-point.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, maybe. It would have been an eight. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

If he had both sides.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Practically a non-typical deer.

SPEAKER_01:

It is not your typical eight-point deer. So he is a non-typical deer. There you go. Or symmetrical one side, though.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. But that spike on the other side was doing some funky stuff. Like almost would have been a drop tie had he had a tie. Yeah. Um anyway, so he comes in, he comes in even closer and closer and closer. And the joker gets 15 yards. I'm like, okay. Not that far to the truck. Yeah. I can do this. And he's kind of faced towards, he might run towards the truck. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna shoot him. So I shot him and he ran towards the truck. And it wasn't about 80 yard drag after the I don't know. He probably ran 30 yards maybe. Yeah. Um but that was fun just because he came in looking like a turkey would, and he came in two or three times and you know, came in once, didn't like what he saw, and you know, kind of got my heart pumping a little bit there. But um that's probably it. It's probably only dear store I'm gonna have for a while. Yeah. But Chase's had a couple this year, and I think I don't think we're gonna have the time for more regardless. So if I go shoot a a giant this week or which I mean because my dad's big on December 19th. Oh, wow. Is is the day. We try to always go on that day. If I'm gonna go four times in a year, that's one of the days and we didn't go this year. And I wanna say usually around here, I think. I mean, I think the peak right from what I've seen is stuff is and we live in Central Ish, Mississippi is you know, New Year's a weekend, you know, week give or take. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Between Christmas and about the 10th of January. So which you're gonna have about four days that are crazy, and then the rest is pretty ready.

SPEAKER_00:

I try to go one one time during then, and that's um that's kind of when I'm hoping to be editing a bunch of YouTube hunts. Yeah. So that that's probably gonna get priority over that. And of those hunts, I don't know of any of these that would be on a a video. I know at least I jotted down and and Chase and I were discussing somehow or another we got him on the gift thing. Cause I got him a really cool gift for his birthday. Mm-hmm. An an alarm clock watch that will wake you up because it vibrates and scares you.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and I still ain't figured out how to use it.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, it's really Chinese, so like it's really like you gotta many words on it, it's a bunch of like it's only one button. Yeah, you gotta press Morse code that button into into the alarm, but not but not change the time of it. Um I figured mine out and it's always gonna be at four o'clock, so I can't get it off of four o'clock, so at least I'll wake up at four. If it's too late, better nothing. If it's too early, well you gotta head start. But but it does work, and I was telling him I got him a good Christmas present that cost even less than that, and that was only nine dollars. But he's gonna like it even more than that, I think. Um we got on the the the gifts and the not gifts of Turkey Wood stories.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And I got a couple, and and I got to, you know, really thinking of some some layup turkeys and some that I thought were gonna be layup turkeys that wind up not being so layup turkeys that some very unfortunate things happen. Do you do you have any off topic? I got a couple on both ends. Yeah. Um what I alright, I I I'll start this. Yeah, go ahead. I usually like you to start since I've been exhausting my breath here, but I got it back now. And um so the the first one the first one that came to mind, this is probably the first not right place, right time, I guess, in this particular situation, but that's kind of the ones I've been talking about. Um I had to pin 16 years old. Just just kind of getting to start where I like turkey hunting a lot, you know. Skipping spring breaks to turkey hunt and stuff and and you know, just just wanting to learn from them and everything. And and we had a place we could hunt, you know, years ago that we can't now, but and it had turkeys on it. It was a decent, you know, decent place. And I hadn't been in there and was I mean, I don't know the the the finer details of the hunt, but I remember being up amongst them and um was working a p uh a turkey and he had looking back it's weird because having revisited this sector of my mind and probably how almost 20 years. What was really probably happening, what I thought was happening. You know, I thought I had this turkey on a rope and he was really with him, and I had no chance. Yeah. But he was answering every true double yelp I could throw at him. I ain't gonna tell my 16-year-old self that, but he probably wasn't coming in the whole time. But what did happen, I was fired up though, because he was gobbling in every one of them. And he was telling me to come on every one of them, and he was not coming to me because I never shut up.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But what I did do was call another gobbler in. He comes walking in like 30 yards, just like, I don't know. Yeah, he was walking towards that gobbler. I don't, I don't know why. But he came walking in, I heard the footsteps, and I'm like, you know, how'd he get way over here? And then he's still hammering. I'm like, forgot two turkeys can exist in the world. Yeah. And um, this joker comes just beebopping in at like 20 yards. I'm like, this is this is perfect, you know. And I shot him, and like, man, I caught him right in here, and I don't know who I did. But um just happened to be on his trail. Right. He was just walking to that other turkey and I shot him, and I thought I, you know, hung the moon that day. Um Yeah, take what you can get. Yeah. In those situations. I mean I mean, I don't I don't discriminate towards turkeys at all. If if one walks by me and I'm in and also like it takes a a level of skill, a level of woodsmanship, yada yada, to get to where turkeys are, get there unseen, get there unheard, um not botch it, you know. Yeah. Um I've been in a lot of situations where I couldn't have shot him because I sat by a tree that has another tree by where I couldn't swing and shoot and stuff, and you know, and I've been with folks who ain't hunted a day in their life and they sit down and wonder by God, their butt pad. That sounds like a turkey walking, I guess. Because a turkey walks right up to them and they shoot it, and that's easy. But I've seen more more more of that than I could imagine.

SPEAKER_01:

Usually it's their first time or two. Yeah. And it there's four ties one of those people. He's had like two or three just layups, and he's like, Man, this ain't nothing. I mean, I think he's been hunting like seven timing times and killed six turkeys. Yeah. Like it's just layup after layup after layup. We always mess with him about it. He doesn't turkey hunt much anymore, you know. But I think it just was like, this is Usually that's the case. Been there, done that, you know, kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00:

Every time I go, I kill one. So the the ones I know who are, you know, really gung-ho by turkey hunting that are that are hooked to it, that are addicted, obsessed, everything you can think of, are the ones who did not kill one for a while. Right. At some point. Yeah. That either thought they had figured it out and was reminded that they don't over like a whole I'm talking like a whole season or you know, several, several hunts. That's where the the addiction comes from. It's not the it's not the successful hunts, it's the it's the periods of the absence of success. It's it's the the struggle part that that makes it addicting. Because that's not fun. So you're either gonna you gotta like it because of one or two reasons, because it is fun to do, which it I think turkey hunting is fun, obviously. Right. But I'm talking about the the times where you know you need to be doing something else, or you know you have something of higher priority that should require your attention, but you can't not go and you can't you know, I mean it's it's true like an addiction, like you can't you don't want to even go. Right. But you you you can't imagine not and and you know what life's like without it, and then that will consume the rest of your week if you don't, so you have to, you know, at least go find out, and usually you don't kill one, but at least you got the quick fix of knowing that you're not gonna kill one that day instead of sitting there worrying about it. That's where the whole spiral out of control comes with turkey hunting to me. And and it's never the folks who go and and look into a couple of them. Um but say that to say this I've been through the struggle many times, regardless of level of experience, regardless of year, how old I was, where I was in life or in the in the timeline of my turkey hunting, quote unquote career, if you want to call it that. Um if one's gonna give me a lap, I'm taking it. Oh, okay. If one's gonna walk by me, I'm just you know, it's kinda because it don't happen often, and I I I like to think that I earned it at a different a different morning, maybe. Um But literally the day after, and I remember this, this is from kind of one of those the good Lord giveth, the good Lord taketh away. Because the next the next day, I was this is at our parents' house, I was outside and I heard a herd one goblin on her neighbor's place. And so I go down there to our pond and sit in a little clump of trees and think I can call one in, and he's coming. Yeah. He's gonna come walk into our property, like twenty five acres, maybe or something like that. And he's coming down the fence line, coming down the fence line. I'm like, it's about to happen, you know, like I'm about to call one up in the daggum backyard. Um, or I Backyard, but you know, back side of the property, um, which we never even tried to to hunt necessarily. And um sure enough, he he was coming down, coming over and everything. I'm like, I really have figured this out. This is gonna be back to back days killing a turkey in Mississippi. And I'm like, this is I'm I'm pretty daggum good at this, I guess. Yeah. After one just happened to walk by me the day before and I shot him. Um But now then Chase a dog comes running down there at the gobble and runs at the turkey and scares it off. So that was the good Lord take it away part. And then I learned that real quick that it does happen a lot.

SPEAKER_01:

It does. It does. I feel like he he he did that to me on a deer or two too. No worries. Really? Oh yeah. Um, you got any? Um the only one I can think of right off the top of my head is that one uh Mississippi Turkey, Mississippi Public Turkey I killed, the first public land turkey I killed. Um which I that I think that was like the first hunt YouTube video we dropped a couple years back. Um which I was worried. Uh, you know. I didn't hunt public land up until this point. I you know, just kind of hunted with buddies and wasn't just stressed out about it as bad as you were. Right. I guess you'd say. But um kind of a botched early morning and um didn't get to go in the the gate I wanted to go in and all that stuff. And ended up going to a hole another side of the road that I didn't intend on really seeing a turkey. And hunted one. I luck got lucked lucked up, got one gobbling, and um started hunting sat down and hunt hunted him for shoot, probably 40 minutes, an hour. And then ended up like just calling my butt off way too much, just looking back, don't know how I killed a turkey, period, this morning. Um did everything kind of wrong. Saw a glimpse or two of him at 45, could have probably shot him, just couldn't see a beard and all that other stuff. You know how that goes. Um Turkey ventures off, and I'm sitting there bummed as all get out. Text I think I'm texting, you know, my buddy to see if they killed anything or something. Look, I was looking at the map, that's what it was. I was looking at the map, trying to figure out because I'd heard one way off. And I've talked about the story a few times on here, I think. But um It's a good one, though. Yeah. Then I'm sitting there, mask kind of halfway up, halfway down, and I'm actually recording myself. This was kind of the funny thing about this video, is it kind of caught what you never expect to catch on camera kind of thing. Um, but another hunter lets out a Hail Mary of a loud yelp series, I guess you'd say. And I say like, I don't know if that's another hunter or a or a real hen, because it sounded very good. I I will pat him on the back. He did sound like a real hen. And about that time, one hammer's 30 yards behind me, I mean in my left ear, and I actually jump on the camera, you know, it it you can see me get scared. I mean, it surprised me that bad. Spun around, yelped three times, and he popped out from around the pine tree and I shot him, and it ended up being a freaking hammer, you know, size-wise of a turkey. He was a limb hanger, I guess you could put that. You know, he hung up by his own spurs. Um and, you know, was tickled to death, like, you know, and I kind of was like, you know, chest poked out a little bit, but then I was like, eh, I kind of got a little lucky on that one. You know, that one probably wouldn't have probably wouldn't have left with this turkey, but probably would have left with the the more casual one if I wouldn't have called my butt off. I mean I want I can't even watch that video back because I'm just for a freaking hour. Some some drinkers do that though, so it ain't I mean I mean he he was just if I would have just set up two trees further, I mean it would have been a quick hunt. Yeah. You know, and I it would have been over with fast way faster. But I enjoyed myself a lot longer.

SPEAKER_00:

That's and that's the thing that's so cool that you got that on the on a camera, him you know, surprising like that. You never just turn a camera on for no reason and and that for that to happen was pretty cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Um but I mean, and I actually talked to the guy that after he was cool, he he saw the video and you know, and he he was kind of weird about it. Not not weird about it, but he was concerned. Didn't want to volunteer a spot. Right. And he he was like, Were you by chance here this morning? Uh I'm not gonna Yeah. You would know if you are right. I I understand if you don't want to answer, but if you do, I think that was me that yelped it real loud. And I was like, no kidding. He was like, and he he had he was thrown out of out of actual Hail Mary on his way out because he had to go like take a test or something that morning. And he was just trying to get a pen to start back after he got done with his test. And um he said it, you know, he yelped, he heard him gobble, he's like, Okay, I know where he's at, and about ten seconds later, boom, he he said he had the rug ripped right out for me. Good Lord, give it away.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So he was like, golly. Um But no, I was thinking some and uh one I not not too terribly long ago. Um I could think I mean you were there, we were we were off somewhere and um saw a group of turkeys and they were fighting.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

This was a couple years ago. You might not this it's gonna take a while for you to go. Yeah. Um we saw them fighting. I or we saw and I I'm not positive. We saw turkeys on this ridge with our eyes, and I saw them fighting. I don't know if you were with it, might be a separate, like later in the day, maybe, saw them fighting. So I go back I think like literally six, seven hundred yards. Like we can hunt them where they were at. Go back to where we can hunt them, and I get up on the same same ridge that goes all the way down, wind is blowing 35 miles an hour that way. And I get up on top of this ridge where we had hunted the day before, and they hung out there. They hung out on top of this big shade spot as hot as late April, if not early May. Right. And other than that, it's pretty open in that in a in a shotgun's range vicinity, you know. So I'm getting in there and I get one tree over, and and I remember this is this is mid-ish day, maybe. I I think we'd already hunted that morning or something. I'm by myself now, and get up there, and I mean I wail on a box call. And I think I did during a GoPro, and I was like, all right, I'm gonna I'm gonna do this. And if it works, I'm gonna look like you know, genius. Right. But I'm sending these yelps down this ridge as hard as I can. Um because there's a lot, I mean there was four or five gobblers right there fighting, and some are gonna have to leave. And they either walk that way or they're gonna walk this way. I don't know. You know, maybe in the midst of it, if they hear a faint yelp, they'll they'll pick that side and I'm on that, I'm on that route. You know, if they just walk this ridge all the way to where we think they roosted. Um so that that was that was a plan, but I fell asleep. So that was the night plan. So I'm sitting there, like I said, it's midday, and we we I mean it's probably like day nine in a row up on it, I feel like. I'm not with you. It's just me. It's just me.

SPEAKER_01:

I was about to say this is not ringing back.

SPEAKER_00:

After this, you definitely don't remember because you weren't there. Okay. It's just me. And and I remember I I I don't remember falling asleep. I remember waking up going, oh crap, I wonder how long it's been, you know. My gun's just sitting in my lap, and I'm, you know, slate calls in hand and box calls just on the ground. Um because once I called, I just went and sat. I'm like, you know, if that was happens, I'm I got nothing better to do, you know, take a little nap, something. Um and I woke up, I didn't do nothing. I mean, I didn't even like call, didn't I look around or nothing. I just remember waking up kind of like, oh crap, I wonder, you know, what's happened since. Yeah. Because I had no idea of, you know, a time frame there. And I like grabbed my stuff and everything. Obviously, don't turn the cobra back on or anything. I'm just kind of like gonna go somewhere else, I guess. I feel like I've either missed it or it's been three hours since. I didn't know. And and there's this one little bush right between me and where those turkeys would be standing, and then that they're gonna where I figure my only hope of them coming to and just hanging out again. And I'm sitting there and that bush is between us, and I I mean when I when I top over that bush, there's just two redheads just sitting there looking at me like, what the you know, I have no idea if they heard it or what, but they like were very comfortable. They just looked at me like, huh? Like, where is where where did you even come from? You know, I just kind of like arise from this bush and I like look at them the same way. I'm like, well, bad dad to be one of y'all, you know, kind of deal. And they they take off running, and I just kind of put the gun out in front of them, and and one of them crosses it, and that was it, you know. Um, but it's kind of like, oh, you know, could it could have caught y'all in, could have not. I don't know, because I fell asleep. Some of the, you know, sometimes it happens like that. And I'm I'm not and I know folks who don't who would who would not even think twice about shooting them, would never even think about it. If they didn't watch them strut in and do this, and some folks have like a checklist if they don't, if they don't strut at least twice and gobble at least where I can see them three times. I'm not, I'm like, brother, I don't I know I never had that luxury of being like sometimes you get a a head and you can tell that beard hangs pretty low. That's that's all I got. Yeah, you know, that's um, and and I've I've just been I've had the rope pulled out so many times that I think I'm always in I'm always owed a little bit. I'm I mean I owe I owe so much to the wild turkey in itself and the and the the hunting of the wild turkey, but at the same time the humblings that come with it, I'm like man, I I if I had to list them, I've been humbled a whole lot more times than I've had uh had one like that. Um another one I was thinking of. Um was this was it this past year? Yeah. Was um was of uh uh a turkey we had been working since I mean earlier that morning Peyton was with me, my wife, and and and uh a friend or two in Georgia and we was on it and it's hard to get a turkey come in to the three different people regardless. I mean it's just hard to set up on them and stuff. Um he goes all, gets what he can. Pretty obvious he ain't he he he's in his spot and he don't want to move. I'm like, let's chill on it. Went back. Peyton had to be somewhere actually, like a meeting of some kind. And let her do that. We went a lunch and came back and missed a nothing because we went back to like the same tree, sat, first call, he's the same spot. He ain't moved. We he don't know we moved.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, and this has been two and a half hours. And um we just stay at him like, man, the best thing you can do is be consistent. You know, who can be the most hard-headed in this situation, the turkey or the hunter? And um just stay in there, stay in there, not leaving, not leaving. Some some situations I'd have left. This one had nothing else to do, you know, no better place to go. And um really I I I don't think I could even leave, you know. Right. I had I had to had to hunt there the next morning too, and uh might as well. We did, and this turkey breaks, and he's coming at he's he's probably 120 whenever he's just hung up or whatever, and he he's moved. I'm like, oh, okay. You know, there's a chance. Something's happening. Yeah. Um maybe he's he's out of hands or something. Maybe she left him, or maybe she's finally coming over here to check it out. And come find out afterwards. This turkey had been hunted very regularly. Mm-hmm. Using the same kind of little motion we did, you know. It's kind of one of those things like kind of a way to get to it. Yeah, there's only one way to really skin this cat, and you just hope you skin it better than the nice guy. So from the outside looking in, you're like, eh, I don't blame him for doing exactly what he's been doing for nine hours. And uh that's why he's still alive. But he's coming in and he's he's and I yield happen to yield his right time as he's crossing an opening, I think, which is higher than we are to my left about my ten o'clock. He is, and then the gobble's in the opening. I'm like, crap, he's in, you know, he's in an open up. I know where he's at, and I know if I call down into this, he's he'll walk down it. We're at we just happen to be at the point where he he should go stand to look down into this hollow that I have access to my my call has access to go into. Right. You know what I'm saying? So I turn in the open there and he gobbles one more time. I'm like, okay. He's hooked the right direction. And by the time a daggum deer comes up and starts eating the leaves of my leash suit. Yeah. I forgot about that. And I am holding it together pretty good. Because I know that turkey's gotta be within eyesight now. Yeah. And I'm him, I'm putting some hours in on this jerk. And this dang deer.

SPEAKER_01:

And actually eating on your like. Yes. I didn't believe it until I saw the video.

SPEAKER_00:

And I'm trying to be discreet, like, oh no, go on, get out of here. Like, that's funny. Please leave.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, not the time. An hour ago, this would be really funny. But say this funny. Yeah. No kid. Because I don't want it to stand up. And and he's kind of like, is it like a spike or something? I don't remember. But it's just like, you know, kind of postures up to you a little bit there. Yeah, but he kind of like squares up and I'm like, all right, everybody, yeah. I'm about to gun butt you right between the mice if you don't. And then yeah, he kind of like, oh yeah, he lifts a paw up at me. Yeah. I'm like, all right, yeah, you're gone. Yeah. I'm like, I'm about to go hint King Groupy Jr. on you real quick. Like, just tweak my gun. I'm like, because I didn't know this joke was about to be eatable, you know. At the same time, I'm like, this is a wild animal. And uh I've been I've been kind of like kind of like coaching it along, like I'm friendly, but like I don't want to get this ears. Right, you know, you can't, yeah. I'm about to punch this thing and see what happens. Like, you can punch me once, but I I'm going but I stood up to kind of like, all right, I'm I'm bigger than you think I am. Yeah, kind of. I'm actually not a bush that's moving. Right. Yeah. And it it ran off. But I never heard that drug again. He probably saw you. Yeah, he definitely did.

SPEAKER_01:

Did not go back there the next morning either. Um that was an unf unfortunate event.

SPEAKER_00:

And another one I can think of. See, I told you I got more ones than I do. Um the the ones that just happen to fall on your lap. Um Most of the ones that fall on your lap fall on your lap because you're still hunting.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And that to me is a is a testament to those who are there when the tide turns. And I've I've said it many times on here and videos and stuff, but the tide always turns, whether it be good or bad. Yeah. If you're if it if it's bad, that's it's kind of like you know, when when it when the going's going is tough, that's when the folks are really out there. That's when you want to be out there. That's when you want to be present, you know. That's um something like that. No, that's uh that's a yeah, I know the saying. That's not what I'm getting at. Never mind. Um no, I'm I'm saying if you're just there when the tide turns, yeah. You got a good chance. Well, no well, it is gonna turn regardless. You're you're just not gonna know it because you ain't there to find out. Right. Is if you're there to find out, that's that's when I'm in the woods every day, is when when I'm in the slump. I'm like, I can't I don't want to go an extra hour that I ain't gotta go in this little funk I'm in. Um but uh this is this is funny. We uh this was this past year. So this turkey, and y'all probably seen this turkey before on our socials, at least somehow however many million people have, because this turkey has some, hey, got some hooks. B just hung out around the road. Oh yeah. You remember him? Mm-hmm. And uh could actually hunt the property he was coming to and from, couldn't hunt one of them, but could hunt the other one. Right. Couldn't hunt blacktop where we like to hang out, but he did like to hang out in the blacktop and walk around a truck one day, and that's the video that got a lot of views. And then we also watched him fly up in a tree with roots underneath the blacktop. Yeah. It sounded like a dog helicopter. Really cool.

SPEAKER_01:

Sitting in the truck. Yeah, I'm like, that's that freaking turkey.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, no wonder. I'm like, that's a turkey right there. Uh-huh. And then I'm and we're like pulling up or whatever, and Chase just habit out of the phone in his hand. I'm like, that joke's about to fly up in this tree. This is the only tree he could even meet. He was facing and he kind of walked up a tall little embankment and turned around, like, he's about to run do it. He's about to run down this thing and take off. And that's exactly what he did. I'm like, film that. Put your phone up and it was like, I mean, eight feet above your head. Really cool. So y'all go look at that if you haven't. That's Spring Legion. That's the handle. It's on all our socials, I think. Yeah. Um, I'll pin it. And um, anyway, that same turkey. So this dude's been hanging out of this area. We we've tried to maybe hunt him a couple times. I don't it's one of those like you what are you dealing with here? If he's gonna be doing this stuff, like obviously he ain't he's a little abnormal. I would much rather find a a more normal or a less normal, I don't know how to say it, turkey to to fool around with. Um and that's what we've done most of the little little trip we were on. And y'all left.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And I went, I hopped on a flight, went down to Alabama to go to Slade and Macy's wedding. Well, my truck's still up there. And I'm gonna continue the little swings, last swing of the year, you know. I ain't gonna drive home, then drive back. Could have, didn't want to. I was like, you know, I'm just gonna connect these. I'll leave my truck there if I got to, spend a day or two in Birmingham, flew back, got my truck, and I was like, well, I can go here and not make it until real late, and then I gotta go to finding a bunch of, you know, finding something to hunt and stuff like that. Or I can go back to where we have been hunting. And I still got a couple tags in my pocket and everything. We only kill like, I think maybe one off the real area um between three of us. And I'm like, I know that one's there. Yeah. So I go back and I'm like, well, if nothing else, I'll I'll I'll sleep there in that little pool in or wherever we've been sleeping. Listen and see if I can hunt him, you know. He's the only one I really know about. Give me something to look forward to. And if I don't, I'll head on and then I'll be in the daylight when I arrive at this next place and be able to get a good handle on it before the next morning. That's right. Kind of one of them. You ain't gonna really probably hunt on a turkey till that next morning, regardless. You just get a chance to hunt a turkey the morning prior if you if you choose to take it, so I chose to take it. And I get in there and I don't hear it. I'm like, Well that go. It's the first time I think this is the first time we've hunted him. Or any of us have y'all might have one time, I think.

SPEAKER_01:

I we I mean I Y'all could hear him. Yeah. And it I mean at one point he was across the property line, we couldn't shoot him, but I had him at 30 yards. Oh, really? I think it was that turkey.

SPEAKER_00:

I ain't my one hanging around that area, probably.

SPEAKER_01:

Behind that one house he'd like to hang out. Yeah. So and we saw him come out of that. That's when we got the footage of him walking around the blacktop.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, okay. So that's that's a ways down the road or wherever. You know, but I think that would have been a little bit. But the but the area he would hang around that we could hunt, he'd been pretty. Faithful to you know because you you you told me like I see this turkey still out here, whatever, and I'm I'm 200 yards on the other side of them. I'm like, well, it's it's 19 degrees and the wind's blowing 44 miles an hour the other way, but I'm like, I'll see if I can hang on a little longer over here because I really would rather be doing a lot of other things than turkey hunting, but I'll it gives me a little hope, and that that obviously never worked. I don't couldn't couldn't hear nothing, couldn't see nothing for two straight days, but that's besides the fact. So I go in there and it's it's a pretty morning now. It's done heated up and everything, and I'm I'm pretty faithful that Joker's there. He's been there three days in a row and he ain't. And so I just kind of like walk up on the hill, and they've built a house pad where he'd been hung hanging out in the exact square. The spot you sit, I I'll show you the picture of where Chase showed me the picture of where this turkey was strutting. Yeah. Um two days prior. Right. Or three days prior. I go to Alabama for a day and a half. And they built a whole house back. And I come back, they got a whole house back. Yeah. Slab board and everything. That was coming up probably that next day. It looked like I'm like, how did they do this? Yeah. In like literally a matter of hours. But yeah, that was pretty unfortunate.

SPEAKER_01:

Having no idea, just obviously we weren't there to know that, but it would have been a good day to be on the the side of the fence we had when they pulled up to build it. I'm sure I have no idea where that turkey wound up. I mean, he should have pushed right where we could have hunted him from.

SPEAKER_00:

I probably bumped him out of there. Yeah um sure enough, uh, I ain't never done that before. Been baking on a turkey being there and you topped the hill, and they've built a whole house pad right there in the matter of less than two days.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. But uh yeah, that's a good one. I had uh I I remember you sending me a picture and was like, this look familiar. Yeah. Or something. I'm like, wait a minute. Yeah, that's where that turkey hung out every single day.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, what's this going on here? Um I don't know. We we start pulling left and right of these stories, ain't it telling? Right. I'm sure I'll think of some way better ones in about an hour.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I mean the turkey I killed this year was kind of a layup in Mississippi. I just happened to misjudge some stuff and ended up being right under him, flew down in gun range. You know. Didn't really call until he was already in gun range. Yelped one time and pull him around the tree.

SPEAKER_00:

No, I have I have seen a tree, a turkey scene before several times.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Well, I thought that joker was on the other side of private land gap, no chance in any way of me. I was like just hoping for him maybe to call him over there at eleven thirty and sat down there to hopefully call him at eleven thirty and he pitched my way and landed in the one gap that we had, you know. So worked out.

SPEAKER_00:

That's why I mean that's why I don't like getting close because I you I I feel like your chances at a 200 yards are better than they are at eight.

SPEAKER_01:

I wouldn't have gotten to where I was if I would have thought he was as close as he was. I just misjudged him because he was graveling towards the opening, not towards me. And then I mean he was inside of me. I mean it's a miracle I slipped in to where I did. I mean I guess just good woodsmanship's all it boiled down to. Getting up you know where I needed to get was the woodsmanship part, and then luck that he actually flew there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

He could have fallen the other way, you know, well, dang it. You know. About par for the course.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, at that point, no kidding.

SPEAKER_00:

And I've had I've had I've sat underneath several deadheads.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I'd rather get on the ground first.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh yeah. And then I can try to think of any that I shot that were that I that I accidentally sit under. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I can't think of any.

SPEAKER_01:

Now that one I killed when I was twelve, we didn't sit under, but caught him off the limb.

SPEAKER_00:

That just landed right there.

SPEAKER_01:

Flew 200 yards and land, you know, coasted 200 yards over a 10-foot cutover. Look like an eye. I remember that very vividly. Eye level with us. All you see is his wingspan. Just glide like an eagle. Like, yeah, just gliding about a foot over these.

SPEAKER_00:

I'd say 300 yards. Every bit of three. 350 meters.

SPEAKER_01:

200 at minimum. No, he didn't want to. I think he was more than way. I think he was 300. I remember the seam with the binoculars.

SPEAKER_00:

I remember using like Paw Paw's binoculars, looking at him, I'm like, that thing? That speck? That's that loud? You know. Wish there was nothing between us. We could hear him. Right. Yeah. Um ain't no way we can hear that thing way over there. Yeah. That's a turkey. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01:

And sure enough, he when Dad's dad was watching him with the binoculars over my head. I think I was still sitting at we had two trees to sit on, period, in this cutter.

SPEAKER_00:

It just didn't fall down.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And I think it was the only option was sitting in each other's laps. Right. And you were with Paw Paul behind me, and I was with Dad in front of y'all. Because you had did you miss the day before or the day after? Day after. Day after, okay. Sorry, I didn't mean to bring that up. Anyways, I remember dad saying, hey, he's getting ready to fly down, and we were gonna run down the road and get in the bend of the road. We assumed he was gonna fly into the road and walk up the road to us. Because he ain't coming through this thicket. You can't have a rabbit come through the thicket.

SPEAKER_00:

If he comes this way at all, you've got to get on his road sometime.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. And sure enough, Dad said he's about to pitch down, you know, get ready to move more as of, and then he, you know, I'll be down. Yeah. Hold on. Plick the safety off, and I'm like, I can see him, and all of a sudden, like the that one-inch wingspan turns into a what looks like a 17-inch wing, I mean a 17-foot wingspan to my eyes and lands at what 17 steps probably? No.

SPEAKER_00:

Like eight. Yeah. I mean, right there. I don't even know if his wings were now. When he hits the ground, they get in the dirt, just boom. He landed in water. He landed in about two inches of water. You remember?

SPEAKER_01:

Yours might have. Mine, I don't remember mine hitting dirt. Yours flew the same route? Yes. I did not think it did. I thought you actually called yours in.

SPEAKER_00:

Around the road. It flew. It did not land where yours did. Okay. It landed a little left in water.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

So limb, you know. Right, right. And it flew and it just didn't. I'm like, okay, I'm ready. I know how this works because this happened yesterday and it's going to land right there and I'm going to shoot it as soon as it lands. It didn't.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And then I had enough time to think about it. I'm like, now I'm nervous. You know, like now I can hear him drumming at 19 steps. I'm like, oh God. Around a bunch of stage. I joker took one step into the opening and whiffed on him completely.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't even know if mine folded his wings completely. It might not have got like a mallard. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it might not have got his bottom foot on the ground. I mean, it was like, cut him. Yeah. Done. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And that was opening morning of the youth season that day. And we I remember dad like talking to me on the way home. He's like, you know, it's a good chance you killed the first turkey in Mississippi, legally, you know, out of everybody. Of that season. I mean within a second. Within one minute of shooting light. Right. He was done. One second of his feet being on the ground, he was done. So that was a cool hunt. I mean, I'm not sure. Yeah. That was the only turkey I killed at Paw Paw.

SPEAKER_00:

I can think of a lot of turkeys I didn't kill, Paw Paw. I know that. Speaking of some rugs pulled out from underneath. We've told stories on AirR Paw Paw. Why are you wearing Indian headdress, Paw Paw? He he was a character. Yeah. Cool. Oh yeah, real cool. I mean, had seven degrees and built long bows for a living. Yeah. Never never saw him sell any of them. No. But also, like, had one Tannehill 11 times and one some Olympic gold somehow or another. Some bows and everything, big on the archer side of stuff. I've seen him on like American Hunter covers, I think. Yeah. You know, like, that is that my granddad. Yeah. Like he and Chuck Adams, they got an article written about him, and I'm like, you sure?

SPEAKER_01:

The guy who just uh talked to Ted Nugent right pretty consistently. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Like crazy stuff. A couple presidents. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Anyways.

SPEAKER_00:

Anyway, yeah. He loved to crow call. Yeah, with his mouth.

SPEAKER_01:

And it was not a crow, not very good. It didn't work ever. And you'd have one gobbling until he did an 18-note crow call and a 47-note owl hoot. Yep. And you just kind of go, let's just head back to the truck, pop off. Or the van, the mini van because he had a mini van. He had like a 2001 Dodge Chrysler or Chrysler. Whatever. Down and country or whatever. Down of country, yeah. And he treated that thing like a 94 Toyota Tacoma, brother.

SPEAKER_00:

You would not get no dirt in there. Um you I you he he treated it well. He tr he took care of it. That's what I mean.

SPEAKER_01:

But he took it like a 94 Toyota Tacoma would go.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. And then he would get stuck.

SPEAKER_01:

And he'd unload the foil. Four-wheel drive. What do you expect? Yeah. With and he didn't put all terrains on it or not. Uh-uh. These were like street slicks. But he always towed the foiler. That was also two-wheel drive. Yeah, tied and screwed down and to his bumper. God knows what. Man, he was But yeah. Many days I I got on that two-wheel drive foiler and pulled that town and country and trailer out of the clay up there.

SPEAKER_00:

We went on a lot, and I that that's the only turkey I know we ever shot. Yeah. Yeah. With him in attendance. Yeah, I believe it is.

SPEAKER_01:

He told me he shot one one time. He told me he shot a lot and he never find it. I don't know where he ended up. But I shot.

SPEAKER_00:

But we I mean it was fun. Lord. Yeah. Um that was a good time. So anyways. Yeah. We'll um I say we'll get we gotta get back to work. We really don't, because this you know, the the the busyness is over with. Yep. We uh the only work we gotta do is go home and um wrap some presents and stuff, spend time with family and um head back we'll we'll have one more episode for the actual 2026. But tomorrow the day will be longer than it is today, which is uh one of the first positives of the year. That means we're headed towards spring now. Days are getting longer at last. And uh y'all be sure to follow us along on the on the socials in the next coming weeks. We'll just leave it at that. We got some stuff coming out, and um y'all y'all are gonna wanna see how that unfolds, because as of now I don't know how it is, but I've got an idea of how I might go about it, and it's ain't been done before that I know of. So it'll be interesting to see the reaction on some of the the new stuff that we we got on the way. Um other than that, thank y'all for listening. Thank y'all for subscribing, liking, sharing, telling friends about it, and uh all the feedback we receive is is always welcomed with open arms. And we hope y'all have a very safe and sincere holiday season and wish y'all Merry Christmas. And we'll see you next week on the Spring League Podcast.

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Hunter Farrior

Host