Textbook Roost Hunts: Hunting Creek Bottom Gobblers on the Limb

A gobbler that only talks once can make you question everything you think you know about spring turkey hunting. We’re in Mississippi with our buddy Easton Davis, who’s down from West Virginia, and the contrast hits fast: hotter mornings, thicker woods, flatter ground, and public land turkeys that have heard it all. Then the script flips and we get the kind of roost hunt most folks only daydream about.

We walk you through what changed and why it worked. From recognizing how hunting pressure creates “tight lipped” gobblers, to using late morning scouting to confirm a core area torn up with scratching, to understanding how creeks shape roost choices and travel lanes. We also talk about the tiny flydown window where a few honest notes on a mouth call can persuade a bird before he locks in on real hens, plus the sound challenges of pine bottoms where gobbles feel farther and wind can mimic drumming.

We zoom out too: turkey populations run in cycles, good hatches don’t happen by accident, and habitat management and restraint matter if we want strong spring turkey seasons for years to come. If you’re into Mississippi turkey hunting, West Virginia turkey hunting, public land strategy, turkey calling, and reading sign, this one is a straight dose of practical field talk.

Subscribe so you don’t miss the next road story, share this with your hunting group, and leave a review if the show helps you. What’s the quietest gobbler you’ve ever tried to kill, and what finally made him break?

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Transcript

Spring Arrives Fast Down South

SPEAKER_02 1:05

What's going on, y'all? Welcome back to the Spring Legion Podcast. We are now in April of 2026. How in the world we got here? I do not know. It seems like just yesterday I was uh writing podcast notes for Welcome to March. And uh well technically we're recording is in March.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

Yeah.

Gear Store Updates And Discounts

SPEAKER_02 1:26

The last day or so of March. Um Buddy Easton Davis is in town from way up in West Virginia. And uh he he came down to uh spend a few days in the southern southeastern turkey boys. So we got a little bit of a story to tell as far as the morning and kind of unfolded for us here in in just a few moment moments. Um gonna be uh gonna be hitting the road soon and and looking forward to that. But the home state has been been good to us as of lately and and I'm sure the same across the whole southeast. And this um I've said it before, I say it all the time, there's a finite period of real spring down here and kind of everywhere I'm sure, but you but you got ten days give or take a few that it's really coming alive. It's not quite alive yet, especially the more south together it that process is is expedited a little bit. So as soon as the season opens, it's a few days of of bloom and everything, and and then it's about July, you know, overnight if it feels like and looks like and seems like. Um so soaking in those days is always good and and we were able to kind of both enjoy it here this morning. And um just a textbook off the roof to it. And and is it don't happen often, but when it does, you soak it in. And and this one we didn't have much to soak in as far as time-wise, but we we put in the hours prior to prior to prior to getting there, you know. Um couple quick updates for those who don't know. We do sell Turkey Hunt Gear and Apparel online and uh also do some content stuff on the social medias. If you aren't following, we encourage you to do so. We got a lot of stuff gonna be happening soon. So you might want to check it out, follow along. And if you do head over to the website, we are um got something kind of cool in store. It should be coming out this week. Like I said, we're recording this a little bit early, but if all goes as planned, we're gonna be opening the vault on some throwback t-shirts. So we kind of we we've we've sifted through the the DMs we get, which is a lot this time of year. And a lot of folks do ask for not necessarily you need to do something new. It's can you bring this back? Can you bring that back? So we started listening to them, and we're going, we got a big t-shirt order coming in. It's gonna be bringing back some of the old favorites from 2019 to 2021. You know, all those that that have been out of the out of the uh, I guess in but not even inventory, out of the archives for the past few years. So be uh be checking it out um some stuff if if you're new to it. Might be new to you, but some folks who who have had one in the past will jog your memory on some stuff in of yesteryear when we really didn't know what we were doing. We barely know what we're doing now. But if that don't cut it, we got 50% off hoodies until they run out. I know we're already out of some sizes, but um, but go ahead and cash in on that until they're they're out of here. And then um buy one, get one 50% off gators until I think that's that's running through the end of the month. So uh grab them while you can because those are also getting slim. As folks start traveling, they're semi-popular in the southeast. But when folks want to travel, they they definitely get them because you'll be going up mountains and and a little bit more adventurous things when you get out of your home range there. You you you kind of know what you're getting into around here, but once you get out there it it um pays dividends to have a good old pair of walking shoes on. And uh especially when you're not just you know trolling through swamps. That that does help a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

I use them awful lot up there.

Meet Easton And The Setup

SPEAKER_02 5:06

So oh yeah, you're probably used to it. Yeah. Uh being from where you're from. Um but yes, so to so b before we get into the story, this is Easton, and y'all are probably a little more familiar with him than you than you realize if if not. Uh you've probably seen him at our booth at NWTF and stuff past couple years, and seen him on our Instagrams and and stuff. Um he does he does a lot of handiwork with a camera. And he's really good at that. He's also really good at turkey hunting. Really good dude. And and we met a couple years ago, and uh y'all have probably heard the story, I think it was the first podcast of this season. I was telling Chase about it. Um one of my favorite hunts from last year was was hunting with Easton up in West Virginia and a gobbler that was just blowing the top off, just hammering right here at our face and everything, and saw a bear.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

Yeah, we did see a bear.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

That was kind of that was a little caveat. I don't even know if I mentioned it in the story, but that was pretty cool. Um so I was out of my element during that hunting. It was a lot of fun, but now Easton is a little bit out of his element. So um what what do you think? Is is Mississippi what's what's Mississippi and West Virginia got in common? What don't they have in common?

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Well, I since I've been down here, there's like three things that I've learned. It's hot. Yeah. Uh the woods are thick and turkeys a little bit tight-lipped down here more than they are in West Virginia. Yesterday they were for sure. Yeah, but uh this morning it was a little bit different of the story. But at first, you know, yesterday, if you had asked me what I thought of Mississippi, I probably would have been like, yeah, I'm you know, it's pretty rough. Right. After today, uh kind of zero to a hundred a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

Yeah, when it works out, it makes your your paradigm shift a little bit. It um that's I I think it's just it the tide hadn't necessarily turned, it's just that's what um when folks think of Mississippi, that's that's what their impressions usually are. It depends on the day. You either love it or you hate it. Um some folks are ready to go home, like I don't I don't want to deal with this no more. This is this is um not making no sense, but this is this has been a good year around Mississippi. We've had some good weather, and uh a lot of folks have found success in the woods and it and um and it's it's been fun hunting, you know. It it hasn't been and hate to say, but it ain't and it ain't even hot yet. Yeah, well it's it's lukewarm at best.

SPEAKER_00 7:31

When I'm wearing a t-shirt and a leafy jacket, it's you know, it's that's late May for me. So it's it's crazy to start in March with that for me.

Why Pressured Toms Go Quiet

SPEAKER_02 7:41

It's I I've worn shorts on Christmas multiple times, buddy. Um but but no, it it it is a little different, and and I had to get back used to it when I moved back down from North Georgia. The the humidity, I I grew up in it, and I thought, you know, that was just kind of normal until I got away from it for an extended amount of time and came back and lo and behold, taking the trash to the road kind of made you breathe a little heavy there, you know. It's kind of um I remember looking up and East and said, I think it's misting. Yeah. No, that's that's just the air. It ain't missed. It's just um that's just that's just what you're breathing right now, man. And it's gonna be like that until about nine o'clock. But but that's what happens a lot of times is is the frustration comes from turkeys being tight-lipped, yeah. And and where we're hunting them is hunted a lot. And when you're hunting them this, which would be at third week three of the season, I'm guessing. So the chances of the turkey we're hunting being hunted every day for 15 days, very high. And and he's not just born tight-lipped, he's he's become tight-lipped. And and that they're not tight-lipped all the time. They just know when to gobble, and a lot of times that's earlier than you would think. Um I've learned that the past few times I've gone out there is if you get there I'm telling you, a good thirty minutes before you think you should be there, you'll hear one and he won't gobble after that.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

Yeah, well, the the one this morning, I mean, he gobbled like 15 minutes before, 20 minutes before I thought, you know, I even got out of the truck.

SPEAKER_02 9:18

Mm-hmm. And this um I think yesterday when we didn't hear we heard one decent amount off. I I expected to hear one, and it was about like the ones on on this little pull in. I was like, well, I know they'll be there because it's usually lined in trucks, and every single time I don't hear a shot, and I'll come back through and they're all gone. You know, I don't know if I want to sign up for it, but when when you ain't coming across nothing else, you gotta sign up for it. Um they just they hit the ground, they gobble once or twice, and that's it. And once they find what they're gobbling for, it's it takes a whole lot to convince them to leave it. And and that's why they're still alive, and we picked this one up and realized that that's why he's still alive. He's gotten good at doing that. And um and a lot of time I think, you know, it's you hear them call ghosts and stuff like that. And I was telling Easton earlier, I said a a lot of it isn't as much as what the turkeys do. They're not, you know, houdining you as much as if they've gotten very good at not doing certain things and walking where there is not a shot opportunity and still accomplishing whatever they're looking for, you know. They're putting eyes on on an area and sniffing it out in their meter of this makes sense or this don't make sense is just very, very, very in tune with um with where it should be. And the ones where it ain't quite tuned up ain't there. And the ones you kind of left with week three of the season, they got a pretty good meter. Yeah, they're there. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

They've been there.

Yesterday’s Miss And Scouting Clues

SPEAKER_02 10:48

And um but they're fun to hunt. And and and that it just puts a little more pressure on doing it right and doing it and you about gotta be at least a hundred percent correct for it to for it to roll out the way it did today, and and you also have to have a little luck. And yesterday we were close. It wasn't as it wasn't what you if if someone asked me, y'all get on anything, I'd say we sat down. Yeah, we sat down. But we knew chances were slim at 9 30, you know, he's got what he he wants already. The chances of finding one at 9 30 and him being willing and able is is not not zero. You know, nothing but it but it but it ain't high. Maybe coming in later than that. Two weeks ago, you'd be alright, but now it's when this is 85 and stuff, it's it's hard to find them in a good mood, period, you know? Yeah. Or or or or in need of anything. If you're not cool weather or actual l live hen that's already in front of them, it's it's hard to talk them out of their situation. But what we we uh we came in yesterday and and after we we we really we dove into a bottom that I hadn't seen all year. And I was like, well, we'll do this and see if we get lucky. After you know, the one we did here, I was like, well, he's gonna gobble early, he did. By the time we got over there, he was on the ground, and I I knew I didn't want to be discouraged. I'm like, he ain't gonna gobble. We might, he's gonna hear us, but yeah, it that's another thing is I think they hear us a lot more than you think. They just ain't gobbling. And and I think that's what happened. I didn't want to just wreck it, you know, go through there, but you know, gotta gotta give it a shot. And then we then we came over here.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

We we learned that this morning because we kind of proved our point from yesterday. We talking about he's you said he's probably heard us, and you know, he definitely was there and he proved that this morning.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

But he was um pretty much right where we left him at what?

SPEAKER_00 12:48

Like 9 45 yesterday.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

Yeah. Yeah, he he ain't moved much. Um went to bed, got back down, got back in his spot and everything. And and and it's not it's not like we were two miles back in there either. We we were, you know, a pretty quick we could hear him from the truck. And um we got but yesterday we we stopped and and Easton said he wanted to give the mouth call, knock the rust off his mouth call, which we hadn't gotten really into the gobblitis. And I'm kind of halfway thinking, like, I mean, yeah, I don't care. You know, you ain't gonna mess nothing up. We don't know what's in here. He popped on it twice. He ain't even got a series of yelps out and wanted to answer him. I said, Okay, keep that in. And um, it was almost like uh, you know, the the gobbles they try to pull back in, it feels like they gobbled it, like I didn't mean to, you know, kind of caught him off guard there. It's not quite a shot gobble like they do with a crow, but he he gobbled at you, but he's like, God, I knew why to do that, you know.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

Yeah, those probably four hands he had around him, probably that was it.

SPEAKER_02 13:47

Hey, that's enough, buddy. Um, we're with you too. Don't get us in trouble. But and we and at the time we don't know the scenario, and we kind of I'm like, okay, we gotta do something. So we slip on in there, set up, kind of try to get down towards the creek where it was clear enough to walk and everything, and get down in there and set up near the creek, lower than him, a good 120 from him maybe. Yeah. He gobbled a couple more times at a crow though, and then um, and then a hen kind of got a little frustrated. We were we were calling, he wasn't answering. Very seldomly we were calling, and then a hen got to cut, and I think I think she was cutting with a hen he was with. He'd done move back about 70 yards, 100 yards from then, not towards our direction. I I didn't think he would. Um working back towards the creek. And uh this hand cut a couple of times he gobbled at her and or he gobbled like in between her. It didn't it didn't align with when she cut. I think he she was he was gobbling at the hens he was with, cutting back at her. Um so we we really just kind of made the executive decision to chill out. Hey, but our chances aren't great. Yeah, you know, we got another day. It's already late morning. Um we know there's one here to hunt tomorrow. Hopefully he'll still be there. And uh that's what we did. We we we used the opportunity to move on in there and see what the situation was, put eyes on what you hear. Uh I think that's a very good tip if anybody's ever done that, is once they get out of there, if you'll wait long enough and go look at what they were in, and there's a you know, an acre and a half of scratching. Yeah. You know, in this beautiful little open area and stuff and made sense. Yeah, looking at it. If we hadn't walked in there yesterday this morning, I mean we wouldn't have known Oh yeah, we'd have probably gone on the other side trying to get around on top of him like you would think you should do. Yeah. And um, but seeing that, the the first thing that tells me is hey, they can get here. And they're cool with hanging out here because they hung out for a while if it's that much, you know, just leaves turned over and over and over and over again. So they're they're they're comfortable here. And I think that had a lot to do with it.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

I think they felt really safe because it was kind of like they were protected, they felt, by the creek. And then at the same time they had the the pines that kind of circled them and it was thick. I think it felt like a wall to them and they were kind of in their own little because there was some big oaks there. I think they were oh yeah, they were uh hanging around. So I think that's a good thing. I think you're right.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

I think I think the way the because it was also kind of a a ridge right there that those pines were on, and it kind of just it was almost a bubble. Mm-hmm. And it was made a little room for them to get in. I said, you know, yeah. That that that feels right. And it is a very very good for the turkey hunter. There's a lot of options there between um you know having a backdrop and and getting to where you can you know put the opening in front of you. And when it when it's when it's just them wide open hardways, it's hard to pick just the right tree and hope he thinks you're behind it for 300 yards. You know, that that doesn't happen that often. Um but when you got some junk and stuff you can kind of mix in, you know.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

Well, uh I mean in West Virginia it's a little bit easier because those points and haulers and things you can set on the other side of those and have him come around to look or to guess. But here that's what I've noticed is different because everything's flat, everything's open. So, I mean, you gotta Yeah, you you gotta hope for some trash in there. Yeah.

Roost Choices Near Creeks Explained

SPEAKER_02 17:20

And um there there's the the the points and stuff we got is is nowhere near what y'all got up there. Which it was uh it was just like that last year hunting up there was calling one right over it, and I mean he's gonna be 15 feet when he gets there, which was fine. But um, but it it's you know, there are areas around here that are like that. It's just we weren't in them. Yeah. Um a lot of them aren't. But lo and behold, we we went back this morning and uh he's gobbling not far from where we left him. Didn't seem like kind of at one of them I call them points of option where they can roost uh where like a creek intersects another creek or the edge of something. And um but what it does is it gives them the the option to fly down, and that's what we I was explaining earlier was I I think if they can they like to roost above water and stuff like that, but also these creeks and stuff, if they roost near it, they can pick a side to go to. You know, and and I'm y'all know as good as I do, turkeys don't like crossing creeks. I mean I've seen them fly the dang Mississippi River if they want to. They can do whatever, but they don't like crossing ditches and creeks and stuff like that or you know, thickets and stuff. If they ain't gotta walk around it or or just fly and hope something's not on the other side, then they would rather not. And I think a lot of times they roost he could have roosted at a higher point, heard further, but I think he wanted to roost, do I want to fly down as private, do I want to fly on his public, do I want to fly on that ridge up there on his public. Depending on where the hens are, you know. And he ain't gotta do nothing once he has ground, he can do it from the roost and see it from the roost and hear it and really, you know, evaluate his decision and be heard by them. You know, if he if he gets really high on that ridge, he's he might just be gobbling that ridge and know that it it's harder than he is to get to him. Yeah. So um being um being where it's easy to get to, where it's comfortable, check, check.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

And where turkeys where you know they've been also and that's what that and that confirms it.

SPEAKER_02 20:01

So that makes it makes the decision a lot easier instead of guessing. Um I and I'm torn on it. I don't know if they go back to it, scratch that same area. Did they raid it? Do they is it sometimes I feel dumb. I'm like, hey, come over here. And they're like, man, we were there yesterday, and we we left knowing that was left. Yeah, it was. You know?

SPEAKER_00 20:20

Yesterday, if you had asked me that, I would have probably told you that he probably ain't gonna come back. I don't know. But then this morning, I mean, he I mean, I think he was probably coming there anyway. I would I mean he roosted like he was he wanted to keep an eye on it at least. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:36

Um which who knows? I mean I think it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 20:39

His hands could have been behind. I mean, I never heard him. I never heard him either.

Closing Distance Without Getting Busted

SPEAKER_02 20:44

Um might be hear that thunder. Yeah. One of them 80% chance of rain for today is about to be here. But um, but also he's on he's on the limb. We get in there and we get about what, 150? Yeah. And I ask him, like, you think we should because I'll get it, I'll get 80 if I if I can get there. Two people, that's really hard. One person's hard, two people's really hard.

SPEAKER_00 21:05

Yeah, especially when I'm 6'4.

SPEAKER_02 21:08

Yeah. And we hadn't been past this. I'm like, it might open on up now. You know, we're gonna we're gonna and we almost there for a second. I said, I he stopped gobbling. I was like, uh. We never we never went further, but I was like, I and this is what I do when I'm by myself, is I just stand there. I I don't I hardly ever sit down. Yeah. I just stand and stand and stand and wait, but it's you know, if we're gonna both be there, we've got to both be on the same page and stuff. I've also gotten caught with two people, and we get there and there is a smaller tree there, but it's nothing else. So it somebody's got to move a little bit more and and make some motion to find the next tree. Um, so I was like, well, you know, we'll let's sit here. And then there was just two back-to-back, you know, one in front of the other.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

He went from like double, I mean he triple gobbled there a couple times, really held it out, and then nothing.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

When they start doing that, usually they're about when they do it on the ground, a lot of times they they're about to they're about to move. And um he did that, and I'm kind of my uh anxiety meter's going up, and I'm like, all right, all right, you know. It it don't look like it's fly down time, but I know how these birds work, and it's well it's about to be fly down time for him.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

I mean the camera, we I mean you could barely see it was still so dark, and then when he went quiet, I was like, no way he flew down, but yeah, well, I was like, we could have we could have booged something, you know.

The Flydown Window And Minimal Calling

SPEAKER_02 22:31

I don't know if it wouldn't have made sense that we did. Yeah. But that next gobble we'd done found a tree by then and was getting ready to sit down and he gobbled again. And I looked back at you, he was I was gonna tell you he's on the ground. You look at me like I think he's on the ground, you know. Um, which is very important because it in my mind you've got a very small, I'm talking 30-second window to he's he's sitting there, he's evaluating, he's already kind of, and when he gobbles on the ground, he's already done that evaluating a lot of times. You've already lost a lot of it. So you gotta uh within a minute to make a reason for him to decide. You're you're trying to that's the persuading minute of the morning. Um there's one right before he flies down. If you can catch him, you know, he starts wiggling and wobbling and stuff. If if you can you can make your presence known then, that's I think that's a good thing. But also if you uh if you wait and he is on the ground, if you you've got a little while after he his feet hit, if you're lucky enough to see him, and then after that. That after he gobbles a time or two, you got about thirty seconds to say, hey, this way. And that's what we did. We did it. I mean, I did fly down immediately as soon as as soon as he gobbled on the ground and and some glucks and and some yelps. He gobbled at one. I answered him with a longer yelp. Yeah. I don't know if he gobbled it yet, but I was I set the calls down before he even had a chance to gobble out.

SPEAKER_00 23:52

I only think you yelped three total times, I think.

SPEAKER_02 23:55

Two of them were to direct him, you know.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

And he let us know where he was. I think he was letting us know that he was coming because he gobbled, double gobbled there the one time, and then gobbled again, and then one more when he was within like 75.

Drumming In The Dark Then The Shot

SPEAKER_02 24:10

Yeah, he hit he and I almost caught again. And I was like, I really would like to know which way to do my gun, you know. But I was like, I don't hear drumming yet, really. I thought I did, but I don't know. And I'm thinking, mm. He could he could definitely be skirting left. And I don't think he's gonna crack skirt right because there's a creek. I think I'd see him. It's dark. Yeah. It's it is is a cloudy day. It's freaking 645, I think, something like that. And we're underneath, and and the foliage is getting pretty pretty thick. Pretty thick. And it's um it's it's dark under there. It's like you're in a room. And uh I said, no, no, no. Let him let him do one more time. That's when he double got his own. He he's gonna be looking somewhere. I might have to do one more, but but I I I think the last one was enough for for him to to come the the the correct direction. Um he did, and he he was behind a dagum tree for the longest time. And and then I could hear drumming good. I'm like, now I'm really getting my I sort of told you earlier, I was like, my heart ain't really done that in a while, because I was I was really kind of kind of confused. I was like, I I should see this turkey. And and then we're not in, we say this, you know, we're in pine thickets and stuff like that, like they can be eight yards and drumming, and I expect to not necessarily see him, but when it's a pretty open floor, right? I should see him by now. And I'm like, that joke about to come out at five yards behind this tree. I was like, there's only one place he can be in this behind this big pine tree. And that's where he was, but it was fun not knowing there for a second while he was drumming. I'm like, oh, he's he's within 50. And then um he didn't gobble no more, you know, right there. But I I had a after the last drum, I had a good straight in front of me, luckily. Yeah. Uh didn't have to do no adjustment or nothing like that. Um no, he he stopped, he got between two trees. I saw him for a little ways, let him get a little bit closer. He had a probably walked to 20, to 15, to 10, honestly. He was coming right, just shading to my left, would have walked, would have brushed shoulders with me probably. But he stopped the last time and I almost let him go, but after very quick thinking, I was like, well, you know what? He's been in sight for two seconds. And I just spent I just spent a couple minutes. I'm gonna turn this down. So it don't um pull that closer. So that rain don't get too messed up with everything. But um But not I was like, he he was two two steps from me not seeing him. Yeah, you know, he gets behind that tree, he can he can go at least two hundred because that's about how far he came behind that tree. And uh ain't gonna ask him for more. You know, that's that 35, what was it, 32? Yeah, that's enough. You know, I I don't want to to push the push the envelope here. But it was fun. And that uh and it I haven't been on a good a good roost hunt in a while. And uh was that's I hope y'all I don't know if y'all can hear this rain or not, but it is coming down. Um anyway, but it um it was fun. And it was glad you got to see it. You got to see the best of both worlds. Yeah. So that's that's what uh that's what it has to offer. And we got to see the big pines and we got to see the creek bottoms and the thick stuff and and all that mess and got to see a lot of mosquitoes probably. Ain't even bad yet. Yeah. I don't want to hear it. And um and uh it was it was fun.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

That's that's if you would ask me a picture of perfect turkey hand, that that was it. There ain't many like that. There's not.

SPEAKER_02 28:37

And and as and as much as I wish there was, because I do love it. I can count on uh at least two hands, probably one hand, how how many just happened like that. I don't I don't really remember the last time it happened like that.

SPEAKER_00 28:54

But yeah, I I don't think it's I don't think I've ever had one I mean I've had 'em come off the roost, hang out for thirty minutes, then come. Not I mean, he come, I mean, beeline from the roost and that's that's tricking them, you know.

SPEAKER_02 29:13

Yeah. A lot of times it it's it's tricking a hen or tricking them that, you know, you've left or something, but when he when it's just like authentically I think you're the hen that I thought you were gonna be, and and you know, now we're you're right where I thought you were.

SPEAKER_00 29:28

Right.

Reading Sound In Thick Pines

SPEAKER_02 29:29

And and and then I'm coming to find out, you know what I mean. Um sorry, y'all. This rain has got us thrown off. Yeah. It's making noise on the meter, but I don't know if y'all are able to hear it. If you are, I apologize, we're gonna have to roll through it.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

Um But that's something else I noticed talking about sound, it's like the not it not necessarily sound of the gobble, but the echo and the feedback from those pines and stuff when he gobbled after he was on the ground and kind of moved up to us a little bit in that bottom. I'm used to like, I mean, you've heard a gobble up close up there. Oh yeah, it's very like more muffled though, because like the hill and stuff, like when one's over the hill gobbling up there, I mean you know it. Oh yeah, yeah. And and up and down here is like where it was a little more like flat and you were same level as him, something just was different. I don't I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 30:24

It can screw with you.

SPEAKER_00 30:26

Yeah. It it it almost to me sounded like he was farther than what he was. Yeah. Until I start that last time I could hear the you know the beating in his chest, and that's when I know one's close to it.

SPEAKER_02 30:38

Yeah, oh yeah. It's um it's it's not crisp, yeah, if that's a way to put it. Because because when I lived in Georgia, it was the same way as it was in in West Virginia. And when I hunt him in Virginia or Kentucky or whatever, it's it's just got a just a to it. You know, you can you can hear it. And it's a little easier to to gauge, but but when that and I think it's the thick hair more than it is anything. Anywhere with thick hair is gonna have that, and it's just it's like they're gobbling in it. And not necessarily in a can, but it it kind of it's just a range is all you can kind of get. And and then the distance is actually really really difficult.

SPEAKER_00 31:11

And also, I don't know what it is, but y'all, I don't the wind well the w the wind drums, I'm telling you, there it does. I've I'm I've never heard that up there. I don't know what it is, but I every time the wind would blow yesterday, I'm like, I hear drumm somewhere.

SPEAKER_02 31:29

I but I I I ventured just quit saying I don't know what the answer is, but you're right. You're not wrong, you're not imagining that. The wind doesn't do some drumming, and um we uh we've racked our brains trying to figure out what it could be. It's usually around water, and it's usually right before the wind blows. Yeah. And but you just gotta get good at this, and it took a long time for me to not throw my gun up in the middle of a rabbit patch thinking a turkey was about to pop out and there wasn't a turkey for miles, probably.

SPEAKER_00 31:56

But now this morning after hearing him drum, uh, you know, I got could tell the a little more of a difference.

West Virginia Tactics And Staying Mobile

SPEAKER_02 32:03

But it's um and a lot has to do with the cadence of it. The the wind or anything you think is drum. If it ain't about I think about 20, like 17 seconds in between, you know, it's it's um it's it's it's pretty faithful in how long is in between each drum. If it sounds like it and it's got that same even repetition of it, it it's it probably is. And um and a lot of log trucks around here too, so yeah. Those will also get you when they're hitting the pills or down them or whatever. But so uh West Virginia turkey hunt, I've been on one, but tell folks who hadn't what y'all's a kind of regime is for going at it about the morning, what y'all do to find them to get you know to to get in a good position on them um and all that good stuff.

SPEAKER_00 32:48

Well, our turkeys uh we have a lot of hollers, a lot of ridges and a lot of ridge systems, and a turkey, you know, he will live on either a knob or a ridge system. And what I do anyway is like with you, we went kind of listen at about the highest point you can listen to to where you can hear a big area and you listen in a holler. Uh turkeys like to roost on points, I think. Um and I think just kind of same thing you're talking about the creek, they roost on a point because they can kind of decide where they want to fly across, fly back on the ridge, fly down here in the holler, whatever. And I think a point gives them that option. And uh so yeah, and turkeys a lot of times, uh if one's roosted in the bottom, he'll probably stay in the bottom. But if one's roosted in the top or midways of the mountain, they kind of work up during the day and then kind of back around. But yeah, it's terrain, you gotta use terrain to your advantage, and that's what we've done. I mean, we almost blew it there peeking over the edge. But he didn't gobble it. No, he did not. And uh but we had walked that whole ridge stopping and calling, kind of how we'd done yesterday. Um even though we weren't hearing anything. Just being sounding like a turkey walking through the woods is something that is you know very successful it seems to me uh to be. But yeah, so using terrain, uh and a lot of a lot of times like in like around where we live, uh you can't take trucks on half of our roads. And luckily I we went to a spot where you could take yours, but we you know, we take four-wheelers and side-sides and uh those type of things. But just being very mobile, I think, because if you're in a holler and you don't hear a gobble in that holler probably likely there's probably not gonna be a turkey in that holler all morning. So it I find it to me very uh unlikely to just, you know, kind of hang out in that one holler all morning. Right. I like to be very mobile and and move and check different areas throughout the day.

SPEAKER_02 35:16

Yeah, and I know a lot of a lot of successful turkey hunters do that. Um sometimes you ain't got the option. And you know, a lot I'd say 50-50 I don't. And then um you just hope hope they're the ones moving and hope they come on to a place you can hunt and you're just there to to to to capitalize on it, you know. Um and but if I have the option to to go try to find one, I do. But it's and that's that's another thing is maybe a difference would be a lot of times you don't hear gobble here, it don't mean the turkey's not there. Yeah. And now I want to hunt a turkey that is gobbling because he is kind of, you know, you know the ones that are ready for it and ones who ain't. And and if you're it's kind of like I'm sure in some sales class somewhere they're telling them, like, you know, if they don't want it, it's gonna be really hard to talk them into it. If first gotta they gotta first at least want it. You know. Um, so yeah, a lot of times you're you're just out there trying to talk something that don't into into buying something they don't want anyway, and and what you're doing is educating them. Yeah. And um, even on Vocal Glan, you know, I I got I got plans to hunt them again. I don't I don't I might not be the one who educates them as soon as I leave or the next morning or something, but I would like to at least eliminate one chance if I can help it. And um and I think that's what I think we made the right move by doing that and not put precedent on him. Um we might have killed him at 4 p.m. yesterday, have we not? But I don't I don't know that we had. I wouldn't change it now, obviously.

SPEAKER_00 36:45

No, no, and I think we played the safe move and and then longer and it paid off because we could have went through that whole bottom and just blew him out of there yesterday. Right.

SPEAKER_02 36:55

And just and pushed him on to private and just expedited the whole process, you know, just like if I ain't gonna kill him, ain't nobody gonna kill him. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:02

Um that's I told you yesterday I felt like he was a killable turkey. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:09

I mean, and it that's really the only one. It's the only one we found on public. The rest, you know, we heard some on private every now and then, but hopefully we'll find another one tomorrow. Easton's on a gun tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 37:22

That'd be the kickoff for me. I'd never turkey hunted in March, but I did this week, and then now uh tomorrow's April 1st, and I've be kicking it off for 26 for me, and I'm excited.

Chasing The Ten Day Spring Window

SPEAKER_02 37:37

That's wild. Um never turkey hunted in March. That's the only that's that's that is turkey season in my mind. April is kind of like it's still turkey season, but it's like grass cutting season and like sweating season and was thingy in the ear season.

SPEAKER_00 37:53

You know, it's it's kinda that's like I was telling you and Chase, like it was pretty cool to me to drive down here because I literally watched spring like come to life. Like farther south I got, the more green it got, the more you know, everything I seen, the temperature kept kicking up. When I left it was probably like 34, 35.

SPEAKER_02 38:14

He pulled up in a hoodie. I said, what are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 38:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:17

Um, but no, you're right. And that is really cool because uh last year I drove to North Kentucky and it was around this time, around this week of last year, and you know, it's been spring down here. It's it's it's pushing June, it feels like, and you know, it's kind of going up. And I made it up, I made a loop through Georgia 100 a day or two, and and I don't think 100, I think I went straight from there to Kentucky maybe, but it was a line I kind of looked up and was like, hmm, don't look quite the same, and about 10 miles later, it looks big of winter. You know, it's February up here. Um I just left. It felt like you know, late May. And and I'm I'm in a pair of shorts or something. I'm like, I'm gonna be glad I brought a jacket in the back of the truck, I hope. Uh didn't have time to really get another one if I didn't. But it was it was cold that morning too. It was I mean, it was 28 or something like that the next morning on opening day, I think in Kentucky last year, and it was not a leaf on the tree. But it was refreshing, it was fun because that's the you're getting into them ten days again, you know, that's kind of made me want to leave in today. I I was thinking that's the last time on, you know hunting Mississippi or till next year, you know. The process, the the long goodbye kind of started already, and that's you know, that's a period I just got got myself out of. You know, I spent spent uh almost a whole year in it. I I don't I don't like that. I like being able to take a left up my driveway.

SPEAKER_00 39:43

And um well that's uh I mean uh starting tomorrow I still got twenty days for West Virginia until I can You want to re-amp everything you want to so I you talking about that ten days. I mean you find that ten days in every state, you're doing all right. All right, that's what I'm saying.

Turkey Numbers Cycles And Better Stewardship

SPEAKER_02 39:59

Like that I'm kinda like, well, maybe there's somewhere around here that's just getting, you know, reborn again. Yeah. And um if there is, I'm gonna find it, because I think it's crazy to think it's it's time I got I got I ain't got no dog I'm sleeping arrangement quarters in my truck yet or nothing. I'm gonna have to figure that out for the next seven days, I think. Is is is about time, it's here. Um got everything handled on the inventory side and everything, or it's gonna get back and chip and everything. And uh this um we're not into the soak it in period yet. We're in the have fun period still. There's a lot of places that hadn't opened up yet and that will be, and I think um I hope the rest of the country is experiencing, you know, a couple good hatches. I think we we were due for some across the whole country. I think everybody that I've heard has gotten one within the past two or three years has gotten at least one good good year out of it. And um not everybody, but but most of them have, and that's just good Lord's blessing of you know, good weather and everything, and you know how it works in cycles and stuff, and a lot of you know private land folks have started taking care of the business. Yeah. And with predation and habitat management and stuff, and I think uh I think we're all due for it. Yeah, and I think it uh that's good.

SPEAKER_00 41:19

My Instagram's been lit up with dead turkeys and yeah, I mean, that's before I come down here. I I'm pretty sure I texted you or Chase and was like, man, y'all must be having a good year because I have never seen Well, a lot of that's good weather and opening it on a Saturday.

SPEAKER_02 41:33

You're right. Um which could be a bad thing for two years. So like I'm telling y'all, y'all gotta don't don't forget where you came from kind of dealing with this. Um we've had to do that even on our little little private piece we own. I was like, uh-uh, and uh, you know, we can we can go check every now and then and see what's going on, but we ain't just gonna go hunt it every day. We're gonna if if we think there's one on there, that don't mean that one's gotta die. You know, it it took us ten years to get to. So we gotta we gotta make sure we don't get back into that. And and and and I think we're we're doing all right. Yeah. But um but other than that, we we just um live in the moment, you know. You gotta you gotta think about the future, but you gotta enjoy the good times. You know, and I've been in I've been in both. The the years of plenty and the years of poorness. And I I would I would much rather prefer these. And and I'm not gonna take it for granted. And um we gotta all all get me on the same page there, you know. And I think uh I think I think most of us are, and I think that's kind of the maybe the silver lining in the whole um aftermath of the, you know, there's a million different fingers to point of of what happened that year that all of a sudden everybody looked up and went, what the heck, you know, where'd they go? And and some of it was the timing of it, you know, being with the COVID year, and everybody was getting out there and everybody had an unlimited time off, and everybody was doing stuff and um throwing the the usual diseases and the usual predation stuff and just n nothing even more than the usual, but you add everything together and all of a sudden it starts adding up and a wet April or something comes in or a cold snapping the wrong timing, and you're in a binding a year or two, and and I think that's what happened. But I think there's a silver lining that woke a lot of folks up was like, hey, if nothing else, this resource is very fragile. Like we're we're a year or two removed from a lot of fun that ain't gonna happen. And and and um being aware of that I think has been been a very big um I wouldn't say advantage, but it's been it's gonna be beneficial and it's gonna pay dividends over the years, I think, in the Turkey on community.

SPEAKER_00 43:48

Yeah. Um as as a Mississippi, I I don't know. I mean, I ain't never been here or hunted here, but I just talking to you guys or people that I know that's hunted here or lives here for years and this year and and I'm sure the last couple years have like you said, just been a been a big uh leap into the big plus into the you know problem that you guys had. And and as far as West Virginia, I mean I I can I can't say that we're you know a big big jump or big decline. I I feel like we've s stayed kind of the same. And there's a few uh people that's trying to get together some TFT groups and stuff up there, and I've been talking with a guy and and starting a I think a chapter up there and uh just really trying to look out for airstate just like you guys are. And uh and it's shown, I mean, this year and like I said. So uh yeah, we I mean we have some problems up there and like using dang rifles and rifles. Yeah, I mean we you can shoot a turkey with a rifle up there and a high powered rifle. Why would you want to do that? No clue.

SPEAKER_02 45:01

Um but yeah, I've heard that is uh that is per permitted in some states. I'm like I don't know why, but there's a lot of things that I don't know why they would let uh you know, allow I don't know why they let us, you know, shoot jakes in some places and stuff. And I think there's actual proof that it doesn't do nothing. Yeah. But um but I just it's just don't make don't make no sense to me. And that that's just because of what I'm used to. And but there's a there's a there's a lot of different turkey hunting cultures out there. And I mean, you know, me and Easton hunting together, that's there's just some good proof of a lot of a lot of miles raising a lot of a lot differently and stuff, you know, in different much different turkey woods and stuff, but we still kind of get it. You know, we still click when we get in in the woods and stuff, and we're we're automatically on the same page and and and and hunt 'em a lot alike. Yeah. And um, which is really cool. I think, you know, I didn't know that until I I got out and started meeting folks and stuff. And um, but it it proves to be true. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:04

Time and time again. And that's what uh I mean I've always hunted hunted with my dad, and that's really been about it, and then I've Hunting with you and and a few other friends, but thousand or not a thousand, but a few hundred miles apart. And and I was down here this morning and when he was coming in and he gobbled there within the last bit and I could hear drum, and it just I told you it brought me back home. It's it's the same animal.

SPEAKER_02 46:32

It's just in a different environment, you know. He's he's got a different script that he would follow that you hope he follows. He's got a different report card on the hunters, you know. Um they know different things. But but he break it down into the cells of their bodies, I think it's about the same. They're scared of the same things. They're they they they catch on to the same things, they they're in pursuit of the same thing. Um and it's um it it's it's really it's simple. Yeah. It's it's this morning was as simple of a hunt as you can have. If you were to explain it to a five-year-old, it's like we heard a turkey, we went in there and acted like a turkey, and that turkey thought we were a turkey and walked in. You know, that's that's what you try to do every time. It just don't ever work like that. Um but when it does, it is fun. And um and this was a this was a hammer too. Yeah, he was.

SPEAKER_00 47:24

It was it was a good turkey, and that's you know, we don't see spurs like that up there very often. And when I seen them, yeah, he's a man.

SPEAKER_02 47:32

I don't I don't I don't see him that often. I ain't gonna lie to you. Um that's not just a Mississippi thing. That's that's just rare. And you know, I I think they're all special and stuff. But when he's but when do you come across when you're like, well, this this one this one plays the part of an older one, I think, you know, when they're still bold enough to roost back to back to back in the same spot after being hunted for 27 straight days. It got a set on him, probably. And I ain't talking Spurs, but I'm saying he's yeah, he's bold dude to to to say run it again and see what happens. But um, but uh the wind blew our way today, and that's all, you know.

SPEAKER_00 48:07

As long as it'll do it again in the morning, I'll be fine with it.

SPEAKER_02 48:10

We're gonna find out. Um we're gonna find out, that's for sure. At least we get to go back. Yeah, right. And uh I'm thankful you're here. I got a reason to go. Yeah. And um but after that, I gotta get my tires rotated and get ready because it's gonna be time to uh hit the road and probably run into a few of y'all listeners. I know I do that pretty often actually. Uh I was taking the trash out and ran into somebody listening to the podcast. He's like, hey. I said, What's up? He's like, You ain't gonna believe this. So, well I I hope to uh hope to run into some folks, you know a little further than the dumpster outside the warehouse. Yeah. But um no, I I usually catch a hunter two with folks who just reach out via via podcast and wind up being good friends and stuff. And uh I I know those are those are coming, so that's that's gonna be fun. And um till then, I don't know what our next one's gonna be because that'd be jumping two weeks ahead. Yeah. So I don't I don't want to promise nothing, but hopefully we'll have some some stuff to get into, some stuff to tell, and uh we look forward to uh spilling it to you. Uh again, we appreciate y'all listening, and we'll see you next time.