Take the Road Trip | Western Gobblers, Wolves, and Fun Hunting

A gobbler is drumming close enough that we’re whispering “be ready”… and somehow the bird still feels invisible. That’s the kind of trip this one is. We’re deep into late-season spring turkey hunting, seasons are winding down in the South, and we decide to head west on a whim with Austin Seals, Jennings, and Gage for a public land style run through steep country, big timber, creek bottoms, and zero cell service.

We get into the real mechanics of a do-it-yourself western turkey hunt, starting with the unglamorous part: last-minute flight changes to dodge snow, flying with a firearm, TSA slowdowns, runway delays, and the scramble to make a connection that could have cost us half a day. From there the stories turn into pure turkey problem-solving. We break down what it feels like when a tom is clearly there but won’t gobble, won’t show, and seems to drum from thin air, plus the small adjustment that finally flips the switch and gets him talking like he “never heard a call before.”

The mountains deliver their own lessons. We talk about extreme terrain, thick cover, birds that lock into tiny spots and refuse to move, and the safety reality of hunting remote ground without service. Add in predator sign and a late-night “that’s a wolf” moment outside a tiny tent, and you’ll understand why we keep coming back to the same point: don’t force the plan, hunt on the turkey’s clock, and don’t go alone when the country can bite back.

If you’re into spring turkey tactics, calling strategy, western Rio and Merriam style behavior, or just want an honest hunting story with real decisions and real consequences, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share it with a buddy who’s still chasing May gobblers, and leave a review with the strangest “ghost turkey” moment you’ve ever had.

LINK: Save 10% on your next North Mountain Gear Leafy Jacket with code LEGION26 at northmountaingear.com

LINK: SAVE 10% on the new 2026 Line of Turkey Hunting Gear at springlegion.com with code POD10

Follow us on Instagram:
@springlegion
@hunter.farrior
@chasefarrior

We'd like to thank the following sponsors for making this podcast possible:

• North Mountain Gear
• Mossy Oak
• Apex Ammunition
• Vortex Optics

Transcript

May Season Check In

SPEAKER_01 1:04

What's going on, y'all? Welcome back to the Spring Legend Podcast, heading into the mid-chunk of May for the 2026 turkey season. My name's Hunter Ferrier, and joining you today is Austin Seals. So he's gonna hop on here. Seals and I, as well as our buddies Jennings and Gage, took a trip out west uh a few days ago and got a few stories to tell and some wild occurrences that we encountered in the um in the mountains. I guess you call them mountains the the closest thing to mountains I've ever seen. It's mountains for us for sure. Yeah, and I mean heck, Tennessee's mountains for us, so these are definitely mountains. I saw a real mountain, and that was a a big step in my um that's that's the checkoffs. People talk about checkoffs in turkey season. Mine ain't states or turkeys or slams and stuff. Mine is like seeing a a snowcat mountain or seeing an elk or finding a morel mushroom and stuff like that. And and all three of those were were checked in uh in terms of experiences. So we're gonna dive into a little bit of that, and uh should have a good old hours worth of worth of um good turkey hunt conversation. Uh I it's it's winding down. I think last week I I told Chase, I was like, this is odd because it was the first one we recorded after Mississippi had closed and uh the sun was literally setting as we were recording it. I'm like, that's it. That's it's gone. And um and some folks are just not opening up, and a lot of our listeners are actually from the areas that aren't just now getting, you know, hitting their stride and want to welcome y'all, and then welcome anybody who are is cut from the same cloth that we are, who is down here in the south after everything's said and done, and the only thing you can think about is turkeys and hunting them and and next year's flock and and uh out looking for polts and stuff like that, which I do see a lot of reports of folks with a big big trail of polts, fall on hens and stuff already down here in the south. So that's good news. Fingers crossed for some good weather in the coming weeks that they will they'll make it to uh I think 14 days is the magic number that they can get off the ground. As long as they got uh good cover and accessible food.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

I think a lot of ours down here are gonna be way over the 14 days. I mean I saw hen sitting on full nest and first of A.

Late Season Gear Sale Details

Pivoting West To Dodge Weather

SPEAKER_01 3:26

Yeah. So fingers crossed, already looking forward to uh 2027. But um gonna hop into a couple of updates not long that um wanted to hit on before we get too far down these rabbit holes that are bound to ensue. Number one being the um the big late season sale. We call it late season sale because where we are, it is late season and it is after season, postseason. But um if you live up in PA or New York or Michigan or somewhere out there, it's you're lucky because you're just now getting started and you're getting the benefits. So if you use code May20, M A Y20 at springleaser.com, you're gonna get 20% off our entire 2026 spring turkey gear collection. So that's all the gators, vests, uh, masks, shirts, jackets, bands, you name it. Anything that's in that big collection of hunting gear that we released this year is 20% off with code May20. And then there's all, and that's gonna, I believe, stack on top of the the other stuff we got going on, which is buy one, get one 50% off on all gators and all t-shirts. So all our casualties, if you do buy one, you can get another one for 50% off and the and those BOGO deals, as they call them, those are no code required, just add two to your cart, one will be half price for the gators and the tees. So, the wild wild west is where we headed. And um had a good time, had a lot of fun, was blessed with some good weather, blessed with some good company, and and anytime we get to go out somewhere and and figure it out, you know, uh a place that's very new to us. I always have a good time because everybody's guess is as good as yours when it comes to what we should do, where we should go, how we should find them, and everything, and everybody is just kind of brainstorming, and and that's the fun part of turkey hunting to me, is the is the cerebral aspect of it and figuring them out. And we we had a lot of opportunity to figure them out. But getting there was the hardest, not the hardest part of the thing, was a lot of figuring out because this you you were already up there for a TFT benefit hunt, correct?

SPEAKER_00 5:29

Yeah. I went up there, I got up there that Thursday, and then y'all flew in on a Sunday.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

Yeah. That's what it was, yeah. And I w I was not planning on flying in until Tuesday. To another state. Yeah. To a state far away. Because y'all's plan was to uh meet up there on Sunday night and make your way east. And I was like, Well, I'll just hit you on the east and on a couple days, but then I was we liked looking at the weather and I was like, hmm.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

Yeah. It was when we looked at it, uh I think I I remember sending you a screenshot. It was gonna be like 17 degrees with two inches of snow chance of snow. I'm out on that.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

I like to enjoy turkeying a little more than that. Um I wanted to feel like turkey season, wherever I go. And I learned that the hard way last year, around not around this time of the the tail end of May, it was it was frigid. I mean, it was wind chills 19, raining left and right, and the wind was blowing 50 miles an hour for a whole week, and I'd already got everything scheduled planned, everything. And it was like the last week of turkey season, so you can't not, and there wasn't a ton of places really open that was close by, and I was like, well, we doing this, and I was like, this is this is pretty miserable. This ain't turkey hunting. I don't, you know, this ain't what I'm gonna miss. You know, it's kind of and it was it was kind of summer because I was like, oh, so real turkey season's over because this is gonna this is gonna outlast it. But um, so yeah, Saturday night, I think, I mean it was around almost dang near midnight. I I woke up, got out of the bed, was like, I need to look at some flights because I might be heading out in the morning. I'm gonna hopefully leave after my wife wakes up. She's gonna be wondering where I'm at, and I'm gonna be across the globe. Um, I did I did send her a text because I had to leave at like flew out at 5 a.m., I think.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

Well, it's fine, yeah. I mean, it was at least it was later late because I was asleep and I woke up the next morning to go hunting in Idaho, and I had a text message from me that said, I think I'm gonna try to fly out tomorrow morning. And I hadn't read it because I was asleep. And then when I was reading that, the next message right up under it that had already came through was your flight itinerary to when you were landing in uh Washington. So it was uh you changed it late.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

Yeah, it was it was and then so I get there and and it was one of those you gotta get to the airport at 330, and if you've never flown with the firearm before, you know, there's always that sense of please be nice, yeah. TSA guy. Because they can they can technically like do a bunch of like inspection and stuff, and which is all cool. I want them to do that. I don't want someone getting on a plane with a gun, obviously. But I also don't want them doing stuff because they're unaware of how to do it, and you know, they kind of get nervous, like, oh, this is all on me now, so let me, you know, yeah, overdo it. And it just takes a while, then you miss flight and stuff like that. And if y'all know me, I'm I'm already probably gonna be late.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

So that is the one Perker Jackson airport though, being so small.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

That's usually the case, but I got there and the the the back the the regular TSA or whatever, it was funny because they and not like not funny, but I had some empathy for mine. I'm like, I don't know how long these folks have been here, but it seems like they've been working for two days straight. Every single one of them was just in a bad mood. And it was like they were like rude to me, but they're rude to like almost everybody else. And I'm like, oh, and they were just like everybody's just kind of laughing, like, man, they are they are pissed. It's not something, you know. Um, so that was maybe a little worried. It was taking a little longer. Get on the plane, and as soon as we sit down, I'm like, we can make it because the storm was coming. I'm like, we we're gonna make it, we're gonna get above it, we're gonna hit, you know, Atlanta, I'm gonna get there the right time. And we sat on that runway for two hours, and I had an hour and a half layover, so I started doing the math. I saw drained my whole phone battery in the two hours trying to calculate whether or not I'm gonna make it or not. Because if I missed that one, the next one was 8 p.m. So either 9 a.m. or 8 a.m. or 8 p.m.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

That'd have been a long layover.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

Yeah, and uh old day like that would have jacked a lot of stuff up because that'd have either kept y'all from moving or I'd have had to get a rental car to come meet y'all because we weren't like hunting around there, we're we're headed east. That would just happen to be the closest one to you, you know. Um but and behold, that's why you always hustle. So I get there and obviously an hour late. I mean, a good hour is past the the plane should have already left when we landed. And um it's one of those like you try to ask the guy, can is there any way you can kind of bump me up to the front so I ain't gonna wait? Because I'm I'm gonna be cutting it close. Maybe maybe the pilot had to run in the bathroom or something, and they're still there just in case, and they couldn't do that because everybody was late for the flight, and half the people had already missed. And um get in the uh get out of the the plane and I'm kind of booking it just just to check and stuff. And I'm I'm literally headed down the escalator and it's like your flight's been delayed. I'm like, well, no crap, you know, it's been delayed. I'm not looking at the other flight. So the other flight, the connecting flight got delayed because of a maintenance problem. So they they deboarded the plane, and I see this crowd walking, and I'm like, where y'all headed? And they're like, spook uh spoke. I'm like, no way. So they were changing flights and I passed them, and I just hopped in the crowd and got on the plane, like a different plane, like nothing ever happened.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

Well, I I didn't want to give you false hope, but I had a feeling you were gonna make it because the flight that you were inbound on was Hunter's outbound flight back to Atlanta. Oh, really? So I had kind of you had sent me your itent, so I had your number, and actually I didn't pick it up, Hunter did, and uh so I I had a feeling you were gonna be. Because it was two and a half hours delayed out of for him flying home, too. So it's like, well, you're gonna he's gonna make it. But I don't want to tell him that because one, I don't want him to get sidetracked and oh, I got time to go get time to go get something.

Turkeys Close To The Truck

SPEAKER_01 11:13

You know. Um because I definitely would have done that. And um, so yeah, so I'm booking it and I pass the crowd and hop on the plane. I'm like, this could not have happened any better. I'm I'm they're all mad. I'm like, thank God for being delayed because that just saved me 12 hours. Um getting there and then I think Chase and I talked about when we all hunted together uh last week about that turkey we saw across the river, made uh two days worth of a loop on it, it felt like, and um, and hunted him just like a normal Eastern practically. And then um but this the I had a couple in mind that Jennings and I went back one morning and doubled up, I'll tell that, after one that you and I hunted, which we we hadn't gotten to hunt a ton together the past couple years just because life's busyness and stuff, so it was good. Uh Seals and I got to go hunt and um and actually I was hunting below you and you were you were at the vehicle and heard some turkeys and I could hear them and I was like, that's gotta be between me and him. But you heard them and they like they're like on the other side of you.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

Yeah, yeah. Um so we were on that that one big chunk and it was it was probably nine or so in the morning later on, so we decided to split up. And I dropped you off at one access to walk back in there and I'd pulled around. I was sitting in the car returning a like just looking at emails, returning emails or whatever, and I heard a hen yelp and I looked up and I got a video of it. That hen was walking. I mean, she was 15 yards from the truck. So I get I just sat tight. Didn't get out. I watched her feet across or watched her and I waited until she dropped down to the bottom and I got out and got my stuff, and when I did, I heard the turkeys that you could hear too. And then I heard another turkey over my kind of behind me. I was like, Well, we may be in the right spot.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

Yeah. So I uh am I gonna get up there without messing all of those up? I don't know. Right. Because we have no service.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

Yeah, there's no service. I was sitting there, that's another reason I kind of took my time because that turkey was gobbling. I knew he was there, the one turkey. And I was trying to get your attention to where you could come back and get on those. I didn't know if you had heard anything or not, so I was trying to give you like, hey, there's turkeys gobbling right here, we can go two different ways. And somehow we finally got connected, and you came up and I remember us like not arguing, but like questioning each other, because you're like, the turkeys are right there, and I was like, There's a turkey right here that's a lot closer. Then I put it all together that you were here in the ones, yeah, those other ones too.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

So ain't no way I could have heard of that.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

Yeah, they wasn't, and um so anyway we used that one turkey and uh we did some crawling and and he was not I don't know, what would you say? We set up 75 yards from where we parked.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

Not not far. I mean it was yeah, it was it was about a hundred and fifty maybe. Yeah. Um because I mean it was it was out of sight and everything, so it kind of went up and over and around. But um, but we got in there and I don't I think he gobbled one time as we're walking up, hit a crook all. Maybe, yeah. It's really all right, he's still there. And he's just, you know, in a little corner, and then I mean it's kind of one of those you look up and there's a a mound of dirt, and you're like, well, we can get up to that because it's kind of open where we're at, yeah. In this little strip or whatever. I'm like, there's really we're either about to have to call in through a long opening, through 70 yards of opening, which I don't think is gonna happen, or we can get up to closer to the edge, you know, we're just gonna have to get really low and stay, you know, keep this dirt pop between us. Lo and behold, like I think the the opening he was in had a roll in it. Yeah, he wouldn't have seen it. We could have walked straight up the whole way without a mask or anything on it, been okay, but we didn't know that at the time. Um but now remember we got close enough, we started hearing drum. Yeah. And because he wasn't gobbling much, he didn't gobble through the times. No, we thought.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

Yeah, I don't I don't think he gobbled that much. I think he was just standing there strutting with hands. And I I still you're not convinced he could hear you. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking of. I think your call was just going right over the top of him.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

We were thinking he was on top of that roll, and because we could hear drumming pretty daggum good.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

Yeah, I remember us saying like at least ten times, like, we ought to be able to shoot it.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

Yeah, be freaking ready because he's going as soon as soon as he I don't know where he's at, but I know he's right there right now, and you you can almost hear the direction he's he's spinning and everything. I'm like, gotta be. And then all of a sudden, I think like we we started kind of just trying to figure out a way to see it. And I'm like, you know, if you see it, shoot it, because it, I mean, he should be within at least within 30. But I'm I was worried he's gonna be eight. Well, we saw him.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

I was afraid he was gonna pop out and be like in our lap.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

He's he's he was looking over him kind of deal, you know. Um, but that wasn't the case. I think you know, we we moved, you know, kind of just moving between the brush and stuff, and you getting a little higher and looking over, and he ain't there.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

No, he wasn't, but you but it was crazy because when we were peeking over, you could hear him drumming.

SPEAKER_01 16:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

Like, but you couldn't see.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

It's like looking at an invisible, you're like, he should be right there, and there ain't nothing there. So now I really don't know where he's at. Is he in the woods or you know, what what's happening here? Is he behind us? Kind of deal. Um, but but so I was just in there, you know, doing real soft calling and stuff, thinking he was within 30, you know. And it's almost like a I just kind of like, you know, like responding to his drums every now and then, and and I would I would cut a a time or two, and one or two of them he responded to, but it's kind of like, well, they respond to cuts a lot, you know. But like you said, I think he wasn't hearing half of it, because that what he was further, we thought.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

Yeah. And he was I mean, and he was when we when you got to looking at it, he was actually a lot if he was where we think he was, he was a lot further down than we than we thought originally, too.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

So 'cause we wound up moving back. Yeah. I was like, we gotta change something because this ain't working. So we moved back, and then and as we're walking, I kind of waited until you sat, we're like sitting the motion, sitting down and I started calling loud, like so we can connect the dots. Like if he assuming he did hear those, you know, right there at that opening. That hen's walking away just like one 15 yards back and then another 15 yards back. So now we got about 30 yards back. You know, a lot easier to direct the calls backwards. Um and I and I and I got on it pretty good on those, and he he gobbled like twice a dim. I'm like, okay, you know, maybe it's because he's he thinks we're leaving or something. But then he started getting closer. I'm like, oh, yeah, let me hit it again hard. And you know, and he got he gobbled every one of them like that, like a Rio or Miriam should. And I think you you're exactly right. He wasn't hearing them, you know.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

You just Yeah, because once he once he, I think when he heard you the first time and gobbled twice, I think he started up towards us, and when he did, he got on top, he got level with us, and then he answered every time you called.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

Like he was begging for it, you know. I'm like, well crap, I wish we would have done this a long time ago. Yeah. Um it's like he never heard one before. I think he really never heard any of the ones we were calling. He was just hoping, praying that he would sound off.

SPEAKER_00 18:56

Well, thinking back on it too, on that crow call, you remember we called not far off the main road just to make sure where it was. So that draw that he was in came back up to where to the main road. So I just wonder if you heard that crow call going down that draw to him is why he gobbled it, because he immediately gobbled at it. And then we just kind of kept getting higher.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

So And then when he got up there where we thought he was, we're like, oh, now he's there. Yeah. You know, now now he's definitely there because it is a lot louder and his drums are a lot louder, and we're further back, so it's it's louder and we're further away from it. Um but shoot, he he came on in and hopped right on down in there like he'd never heard a call before.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Yeah, he when he came, he he came quick, man.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

He doesn't run over us.

SPEAKER_00 19:38

Yeah, that's that's telling hunter, like I I kind of got sidetracked on watching him come up, and I don't and I think I ended up accidentally attention and letting him get almost too close. But yeah, he hadn't he didn't have a clue. When he came, he came, and it was a that was a fun hunt. Just trying to trying to figure out, like I said, it was I say fun, but like the kind you like, because like we're trying to sitting there trying to figure out why on earth we cannot see this turkey.

Steep Thickets And Predator Sign

SPEAKER_01 20:02

The one of them ghost birds, and it I mean that that's what I like about it is when when they stump you and when they when you don't have an answer when you because you you hunt enough and you you finally start getting kind of like I know probably what's happening. And then a lot of times you kind of wind up being right, and that is fun too, but it's really the real phones are the ones where you're like, I think I know what's going on, and it ain't what's going on. You're like, okay, we got one that's uh this can be tricky, and then we gotta figure it out from a whole new perspective and stuff. And when you have four years listening and stuff, sometimes it makes it harder, sometimes it makes it easier. This was the case where like we're both looking at each other like, you you got anything? Because I can't think of anything. Uh, because we're agreeing on everything. We're like, no, I I think you're right. I think he's exactly where we both think he is, and he sure wasn't. But um, but no, that was fun, and then and then I I guess it was the it might have been the day before me and you kind of won, and it was some thick stuff. Yeah, that one was I mean, by God, it was thick. It was I mean, in the mountain, and I mean just thick. Just and big, big draws and like steep. Like I I wouldn't get close to the edge on some of them. Like if you one rock moves and you're probably toast if you ain't really bad hurt.

SPEAKER_00 21:14

Yeah, oh I remember when we were when we were going up one of them. It was one of them deals, not where you walk up, but like you, you kick to dig your toe in before you take your next step. It was like that steep.

SPEAKER_01 21:23

And it takes a while to get up there, and and we thought for sure we're not gonna get there in time because we had a turkey drop on a cross up. I mean, so technically about 80 yards from us, but as you walk, 300 yards, yeah, but it's a 300-yard walk, but and he definitely won't come across, and I know he wouldn't, but I was like, well, if we can just keep him there long enough to to have you know retain his hope. Yeah, we might buy some time to to move down, come back up, and we did, and that joker didn't move. And and it was one of those like the those the the gobblers caught us up a lot because you know, after they moved once, I'm like, we gotta walk up there and see. Because that this makes no sense for a turkey to be in. And it's loud and it's you know, umber hung up on everything and you know, making very big turns and stuff, trying to get around big barriers and everything. And I'm like, there ain't no way a turkey's in here. And we'd get to the spot and it's about as big as a coffee table that ain't. And I'm like, this is where he was, and it's just like, I mean, there's just gobbler droppings and cracks everywhere. I'm like, I don't know how he got here or where he got out of here from, but this is obviously where he was. And from my experience hunting the western turkeys, they do have spots. They have a little purchase kind of deal. Even in the wide open, they have their spot and they're very territorial, and they like they don't move if they ain't got to.

SPEAKER_00 22:38

Yeah, I think the whole time we were, you know, from the time we heard that turkey gobble until he finally went to where he was gonna roost, I don't think he moved out of a 10-foot radius.

SPEAKER_01 22:47

I don't either. And there wasn't no way we'd get to it without sounding like a herd alek coming through there.

SPEAKER_00 22:52

And that's another thing too, you know, we kind of we both decided like let's just let's play it slow. We'll see, you know, more so go into roost mode, but figure out where he was. And we ended up getting pretty dang close to him accidentally. Just slipping up through there. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

And it wasn't what you can do once you did.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

It was just kind of No, that's what that's when we sat down and I said, Look, I don't know where we're gonna hunt him from, but I ain't sitting here long.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

Yeah, I didn't know what you're talking about then.

Tiny Tent And A Wolf Sound

SPEAKER_00 23:20

And it was uh I didn't know it at the time, not being, you know, not being from out that way, but the more people started talking to it was uh turns out to be. a mountain line feeding area. There was just deer, deer bone, whatever skeletons and half of them were buried. You know, half of the skeleton be buried and everybody said that's a mountain line feeding. Which makes sense because it's right there. It was right there on the middle of that mountain. And it was just nothing, just thicket around it. But yeah, that's what I told Hunter.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

I had a feeling what it was, but I didn't know I thought you were like talking about the turkey. I'm like, I mean I don't think I mean we've been way louder than what we've been. I don't think he's that close to us, but I was like, okay, we can, you know, we can use it on out. Had no idea that's what you're talking about till you were telling Jennings and them about it. You know, I was like, well wait, where are we? We're by I never saw any of that. Oh I just you know I'm glad you were there because I'd have probably just like sat down and been chilling by one probably sat on a mountain line or something.

SPEAKER_00 24:13

Well I wasn't worried about it then but if we had to sit tight until like if we were to get in a position we had to sit there until dark to where we roosted the turkey and we had to walk out dark. I'm not walking out of here at dark.

SPEAKER_01 25:06

Been a little hairy there yeah. But um and I swear I heard a wolf I think I did. I've heard a billion Codies and Suez and I had to share a tent that was a toddler's tent.

SPEAKER_00 25:17

Yeah don't don't uh those Ozark trails that say they're two people tents they aren't two very small people tents.

SPEAKER_01 25:23

Two infant tents. Yeah so we were up in there and uh so he had an air mattress that was like a single and I was under it. So it was we're like a bunk bed but I just I was like well I guess I'll just get under it you lay on one side and if you roll over you're gonna squish me I guess so it was it were we were separated by an air mattress and I was on a little sleeping bag thing underneath it and it was we did not get cold. It was supposed to be cold that night but I didn't get cold.

SPEAKER_00 25:46

I mean I got cold I wasn't as dick as you I was insulated I guess covered by an air mattress and another human.

Creek Bottom Calling And The Double

SPEAKER_01 25:51

Yeah so I was all right I couldn't move but I I remember waking up and I'm like that's a wolf that ain't a daggum coyote. And then I just kind of talked myself out of it I'm like all right you know kind of deal and uh went back to sleep and then boom it was way closer. I'm like okay I have no idea what to do now all the guns are in the truck and um I don't I don't know the legalities of a wolf but I would rather find out in the prison probably than be six feet under go wind up in that under buried under that tree or wherever they take you.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

Yeah I don't know what they do. I just remember I woke up first that morning and was getting up to go turn the car on so I could try to warm up for a little while. And the first thing you said was be careful there's wolves right there. Yeah. And I I mean I thought you were kidding. And then you got to tell me the story I mean I probably should have listened to him a little better if we're just busting out there.

SPEAKER_01 26:45

I'm I'm telling and I and I I thought it was daylight too because the moon had to been right above because it we didn't have but like three and a half hours too sleep. Oh yeah you know and I was a good asleep so it had to have been within an hour and a half of us getting up I it has to be you know um because we're dog tired too so everything kind of a three and a half hours did a lot of good um even if it was interrupted but nope never never saw a wolf I don't think but um saw some prairie dogs that was kind of cool.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

Bunch of saw a bunch of elk.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

A lot of elk I ain't never seen an elk in real life until then. So that was that was really fun. But um I I guess it wasn't the next morning that that Jennings and I went um I guess it was the morning after maybe but we we went into this it's kind of a new place some timberland and um had some had a I I don't think this was called a river. I think that it was considered a creek but it was real big it was beautiful. Big holla looking thing with a with a creek at the bottom loud enough to like you don't want to walk next to it listening for turkeys because it was it was fast moving water. And um and we're heading in and we we kind of estimated a good quarter mile I mean three quarter mile walk maybe to get to the back to kind of hunt our way front way you know put everything in front of us put the creek at our back it ran it ran to our left and then it hooked to the right and we're trying to get to the the back but we're doing we're going to try to take a logging road looking thing but we didn't account for all the logs laying across it that were had yet to be tended to so that 30 minute walk turned in like 30 minutes went by and we can kind of still see the top we started at so it was taking a lot longer than we thought because there was you just had to walk around the whole deck of them trees they were so big and you could go under some and go over some but a lot of them we had to go around and it was it was a cut over to get through to get to the good stuff. And um there was some goblin back behind us decent I'm like well we know they're there they're right on the deck on the corner of two other private places I don't know that they're not already on it. Right. Well let's just let's get back here and then as we're headed back there we stop for a second just to kind of like all right we should be able to hear a little bit more now you know let's stop be quiet listen um it's getting it's getting good gobbling time it's not the occasional ones this is when you're gonna hear the most we hear one up in the in the pines that we're kind of in front of us hit goblin one time and we're like okay you know that's there which is good and we almost set up on it and and genius was primarily on the gun. I brought mine just in case and um I finally asked me like what what you want to do you want to go back there find more we can go backwards and hunt the two we heard you know at the beginning or we can stay here and hunt this one that Gobble wants. I don't mind my I would rather not hunt the one that gobble wants. You know even if it's closer even if it's right here on us he ain't gobbled but once right I don't know that he ain't seen us and if he hadn't I definitely probably don't want to hunt him because he's just he ain't wanting it you know and the two back there were and according to what he and Gage heard the day before evening before there should be some on the back that are also gobbling pretty good. But lo and behold we we try to make our way back there more and it takes even longer and these are gobbledygood I'm like okay they're on the ground and they I'm thinking they're gonna fly across the creek because they're kind of on it and I'm like the the reason we didn't start there is just in case they flew across on the private stuff and they didn't. So I'm like that's good. You know um we might want to holler at them you know they're on the ground I hear a hen over there just yo because if she's gobbling in that it ain't a creek bottom it's a big old valley is what it looks like. You can't even see the water at the end because it's so steep. You can just kind of hear it um and it's wide open too it's like a you know just a bunch of short grass and some trees on the edges. And um so they're kind to our less we just eventually turn around and and send some calls towards that hand and go back and forth with her. She's cutting back at it and everything and well let's make our way towards them cut a little ground you know they're probably three four hundred at that point and and like we mentioned last week when I'm hunting out there and them I'm laying it to them. I'm I'm not breathing much. I'm not leaving much up for curiosity sake. I'm I'm hunting to try to keep them as fired up as possible for as long as possible and if they will stay fired up all of a gumbar so be it. You know that's what I'm trying to do.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

I'm not I want them to cool off and um it's almost like they got ADD where you don't let them stop where they can focus on something as long as you got their attention you're in. You got it.

No Service Safety And Buddy System

SPEAKER_01 31:23

You know you almost don't let them don't let them hear the other hint to an extent um which I thought they were with and they wind up either leaving her or they weren't with her. Because I thought she was between us until they started working higher a little bit and she was definitely lower. So I I they sounded lower for a little while and they started working higher and they might just heard us and left her I don't know or they might have just they might have never heard her for all I know. Because they then we then we sat in a spot that gives you the option that's what I was telling Jenny's I was like I would much rather me in a spot of options where we can bail if we need to you know if they get in there and they get hung up at 120 and and the wide open and we're kind of in the open and I don't want to bump them but I would much I'd rather get out of here and hunt the one we just heard or if we do hear another one in the back we can go back there and not mess with it. So we got a big log behind us and um and they started getting higher and then also if they hit that road we can use that log to get all the way back start where we started and then backtrack to hunt that logging road if we got to I don't think they would get that logging road because it was hard for us to do. So I was like I don't see it being too easy on them and then they didn't and I was like well if they go low we're gonna know they go low and then we got plenty of room to to go backwards and get down low with them. It's just going to get back out. But we'll worry about that after the fact it'll be a lot more easier if we got turkeys with us on the tote out. But we we wind up nah they they started working on they're about even with us really they're hammering pretty good and and I really laid on them you know real good swap spike strikers or swap calls or something you know trying to create a scenario of multiple hands and stuff going back at it. And um and they act about like some two year old long beards. You know they they gobbled a lot then then you look up and they don't gobble and you're like okay what's happening you know and you look up and you just see them sideways on that heel trying to like outrun each other. And I'm like this is this is about to be fun. And I'm like oh Jennings is about to I hope he's got a shot because this I think I was a little higher than him so I could see him like you know give her other coming and he's kind of like I can tell he's looking for him I'm like I hope he gets his glimpse because it's hard to like even just have the image of how big a turkey should be. Right. You know and when it when the first time you see it is 16 yards and you're expecting it to be different of any kind your brain almost has to like reset. So if you just get a little bit of glimpse even if they're 200 you're like okay I can got it in my mind now and I can I can I you're just a lot easier. Yeah. You're a lot you know calmer. And I think you did and and they were coming and they they didn't gobble for a while so and I'm even as I see them running at us I'm still I think I sent two or three more calls just to try to if they run by us by us you know it's gonna be kind of hard to call them back around probably or if they go real high then we're we definitely can't move or anything. We're stuck and we're not in the most thick spot. It's these big yellow pines or something that we're we're sitting both on the same tree. I'm behind him and um and they're coming pretty good and this is a bunch of rolls. You know they go up down up down they get real loud and get real almost you can't hear them. They get real loud almost can't hear them. So it's hard to tell if they're walking away or coming to you on a lot of them. And they uh they were hitting those and they come up and they gobbled a few times once they got closer, like within a hundred um but by then you could kind of see them. And um and they were they were right online and then they hit that that next to last low part and I hit a call as there should have been coming up just enough for them to hear. I wanted to like stop and look but um they didn't stop. They kept on coming and kept on coming and um then they got in the the lowest spot right. We could have shot definitely across that the most the the nearest low spot we could have shot the little rays on the other side easy. It was about 30 but it was pretty deep and then they finally got on the I guess it'd be like a mini finger you know that that comes off the side as we were so we all we we rotated to the right and enough to make them stop and he roll one and I was like well I got another tag and that other one ain't he kind of looked around like ain't nothing I can do you know kind of like you got me too I guess. So I thought watch out uh watch out Jennings shot that one and it was it was awesome because you could tell you could tell the difference like gobble too because you get up there and there's a bunch of hybrids and stuff and some are bona fide Rios and some got a lot more white to them and I like them all the same but it was both the they were both different toned in every aspect sounded differently um I think both had a little bit of both in them but it was a it was a fun hunt. You know and then we got then we had to run down the hill to try to catch it before they got to they got to roll and it was going to be a I mean it was it was a bit of 500 yards that that I could see. I don't know how much further it went after that but it was nice we're about to find out if we didn't get there quick and we took off running. Then we had to stop our bodies from falling down and it was fun but we got to sit there and kind of just soak it in because it was it was a really pretty setting you know with the creek and the big open fields and and pretty timber and stuff on the other side and the soams coming up and everything but but no it was fun we had to cram it in that Mishibishi that we rented.

SPEAKER_00 36:40

I I don't know how we could we couldn't have fit anything else in that Mitsubishi.

SPEAKER_01 36:44

No it was not at all we had to pay extra$300 for the way it smelled. Yeah I mean what to expect when you get turkeys in a Mitsubishi in here for half a day at least at times. And it it wound up being pretty warm that week. But but no we had I mean we had a good time and always good to change it up a little bit especially when it's on a whim a little bit and and getting home with buddies and stuff. And that's that's I've always wanted to kind of go out that way and stuff but it's one of those I definitely want to go with with folks.

SPEAKER_00 37:15

Oh yeah I don't know a lot about it and I'm glad I did because it wasn't a cell service the entire time and um well I think me and you talked about it at one point when we were in the thick of all that stuff that like it's not safe to be out here by yourself because if like where we were we're talking about all that thick stuff from the bottom of that mountain that if we broke our leg you can't walk out you don't have cell service.

SPEAKER_01 37:39

It's just not it's a long crawl with just your arms. Yeah I mean it it's almost unsafe that can eat you around you. I just I I would not advise doing that and make sure you got someone with you. And and and having a little bit of a plan.

unknown 37:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:53

Because some of the times we were in there we're like not just wasting the days or time or whatever. We're like I hope they know at least what track we're on you know just in case our phones die because it's gonna be hard finding a way out and um there's just not a lot of foot traffic around now there was the the place you kill one there wasn't foot traffic in there from hunters. We hunted the day before on down a good ways and we were we were seeing old turkey tracks and that's kind of back my mind I'm like that turkey don't mean that that turkey be dead now you know I don't know how it is because there was actually in the one I shot that we talked about last week was a kind of a pressured situation. I I thought it was going to be a little bit more of a layup than it was and they they acted smart they they were very cautious very because we probably came in the way a lot of folks have come in and there were boot tracks and you know you don't know how many they'd also seen die and um but no we walked up on it trying to find the one that was by that cougar den or whatever you remember?

SPEAKER_00 38:54

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:55

We uh we saw let's see if I we actually walked to the right a little bit I'm like that's a good little camping spot. Yeah. Somebody else thought the same thing. Apparently it was a real good camping spot. We got there and we're like hey there's some turkey feathers holy crap there's three or four different piles of turkey feathers. We found the feet to turkeys and these were shot turkeys definitely I'm like well we hadn't heard of gobble at that point I'm like that might be why there was three or four right there and I'm like that's uh that's disheartening because we're on back here now we ain't even got a car to leave and go find something else. No I forgot about that we uh Jennings had dropped us off and went somewhere else to listen so we were just on foot yeah no way to tell them hey they're all dead you know that was that was pretty discouraging wind up hearing another one way off and that's when we wind up getting in the big bottoms and stuff and like that's why they left that one.

SPEAKER_00 39:44

Yeah because that was not a an easy easily accessible one or necessarily it was fun but it wasn't you know wasn't a cakewalk by all means and we didn't kill it so it could have very you know looking back at it it could have very easily been a cakewalk where the where we ended up on top of that ridge if we'd have just walked back it'd have been a little further but it'd been an easier walk we could have walked back to the main road and hit that finger off the main road we didn't know that we walked out that way because we saw their car right drive by we're like holy crap. Yeah we didn't have any clue we were that close to the because again you don't have service and I know me and you were fussing the whole time about our compass on our phone not working. Yeah you couldn't tell which way you were going and just nothing.

SPEAKER_01 40:22

So yeah we wind up we could see the the headlights of the car coming to pick us up and like oh crap there's a freaking road and we just walk right down the little finger right there and like we just walked three miles through the thickest stuff you can imagine up and down and up and down.

SPEAKER_00 40:34

Parallel on the road.

Plan Less Hunt Better Wrap Up

SPEAKER_01 40:35

Yeah the whole time we just all we had to do is just jut in there from the blacktop and we'll have been alright and um but we didn't do that but made made some fun out of it. Yeah. Um hope to go back again. I think I'm gonna I'm gonna hit the truck by the time this comes out I'm I'm probably gonna be a lot more east than Mississippi north at least as everything's shutting down here might told Easton I'd come up Hunt Mahima time or two up in uh West Virginia Mountains is gonna be a little different than what we were just in. And I don't know I'm gonna make a good old loop around the the usuals and then um probably a little PA stuff and I said I was either going to go out west real west like we did or go northeast this year. I don't think I was going to be able to do both. So I've already done one so I'm pretty good. I'm gonna kinda do my usual rounds I expect and try to hunt with some folks and you know soak it all in and hunt some good weather stuff and and um really ride it on out into the sunset so to speak.

SPEAKER_00 41:37

Yeah I don't know I can't decide what I'm gonna do. I told myself I was done but shoot I don't think I works though. I always do it this time of year just worn out and then about three days and I'm back ready to roll.

SPEAKER_01 41:51

Yep that's kinda I was I was like I'm I kinda in my mental calendar I'm like I got a week week or so at the house catch up on work see the girls caught up on all the work I have seen the girls the grass ain't that that tall I'm like I'll probably leave tomorrow. I kept mine yesterday for that reason so whenever it was time to go I can go. Yep I got to thinking I got to sit in there about eight minutes I'm like yeah I might get go ahead and back that truck up you know just in case started looking at the weather I'm like yeah I'll probably leave tomorrow and uh and head somewhere I have no idea where I'm going so I'm just gonna try to hunt my way north and and then hunt my way back south is all I can think.

SPEAKER_00 42:29

That's the that's the way I I would enjoy just like going back to when we when I picked y'all up at the airport in Idaho I mean in Spokane we were sitting at Buffalo wild wings yeah at 10 o'clock deciding where we were gonna hunt the next morning. And just turned out to be good.

SPEAKER_01 42:45

And that's when I advise folks when it comes to planning stuff out, don't plan it. No, just go. Go with it and and get out there and and and and I've cussed myself by not planning before I've I've done it and it bit me. Like you get up there and you're trying to hunt Illinois or Missouri and stuff and you're like you're connecting the states are all closed so you you got a 15 hour ride or or nothing. You know you you're 15 hours from the nearest state you can hunt and you've already committed and you're like well I might would've I might would've gone to a different one if I'd have looked at this.

SPEAKER_00 43:19

I planned that situation out but I've gotten to like when we went out west we all booked a plane ticket there. Let's get there and then figure it out and then we'll figure it out from there that's that's the that's the way to enjoy it I think. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:33

And then there and that's the another thing is the expectations. When your expectations are to hopefully find one and hunt it and kill it. You know, that's it. And you're not trying to well if I can kill two in this state and go to this one and and then by Friday that one will be open and I want to hunt in public on a weekday weekend and you know yeah you're almost not having plans you take the pressure off yourself. Right. You're not you're not trying to rush stuff you're not hunting them any certain way you're not you're not screwing it up mainly because you start r if you rush anything turkey hunting you're gonna wind up screwing it up. Oh yeah um you gotta be you're on the turkey clock the whole time. Sometimes you gotta be fast and that's directed by the turkey but sometimes you're gonna be slow. And when you try to put it in your hands you you set the tone that and I haven't had that workout for in my favor too many times.

SPEAKER_00 44:19

One out of ten in a workout yeah you might get lucky and it it aligns with the turkey right that's what I'm saying. It's not even you getting lucky it's just that you found a turkey that you're aligning with.

SPEAKER_01 44:27

Right. You ain't doing nothing you just happen to have a turkey that was in sync with you.

SPEAKER_00 44:31

Pure luck.

SPEAKER_01 44:32

But you kill I kill a lot on luck. I ain't gonna lie but you gotta be there to be lucky. That's all we're doing.

SPEAKER_00 44:38

We're blessed to be able to get you know be able to hunt a good bit and and um well that that's like my first turkey in Idaho was pure I mean was pretty pure luck we were s like I said we were sitting at Buffalo Wild Wings at 10 o'clock that night before and we said all right we're gonna go park here. And we literally were pulling up to where we were going to park. Jennings had the window down and he heard a turkey so we parked and I we I ended up walking two miles trying to get in front of that turkey and I ended up killing him 73 yards from the truck. Yeah right back around we could see the truck. Yeah and that's how I know it was that far because we ranged it with a rangefinder from the tree we're sitting on.

SPEAKER_01 45:15

Just happened you know and then then he and I walked two and a half miles back in there and got on him and could have could have one of us could have shot one but neither of us shot one because we're trying to not shoot over the other one or we didn't communicate enough to go hey you know who's shooting first? Are we both trying to shoot one? What's the what's the scoop here? We didn't know how many turkeys were going to be around you know um one of them things and that little bit of hesitation there on both ends resulted in two unkilled turkeys which they're are still there for all I know um but was a really fun hunt. I think I talked about last week but it was a really fun hunt even without that and then and there was a couple you know Gage and I went hunting one time and these jerk jokers were moving. I mean I'm I'm all I can picture is a turkey running the whole time. We got on some that were like that and some that weren't some were like the one you you shot was very I call them normal. You know it just acted like a normal turkey not like a uh one of them of Miriams that just moves nonstop.

SPEAKER_00 46:15

I chased him until his hens left when his hens left we made it we had made a loop and he came straight back.

SPEAKER_01 46:19

Something Gage and I were on that day. I think it was the next day where I they had to have been running. I'm like Jesus I can't keep up with these um called him they got over the whole way and I'm like there it has been nine seconds and that Joker has moved 300 yards and he was going up and down and stuff and and caught him up got got where we could call him up over something finally and Joker came in 15 yards and stuck his head up and I had to beat on him beat on him beat on him like one more just to see if it was a long beard or Jake and he didn't give it to me. And I had I had and a lot of times I'll I'll be ready because I always verify you know before I pull the trigger I don't even I'm legalities as I don't shoot jakes and so I was prepared to stand up and shoot him if needed. If he didn't take that step I have my feet pointed that direction he was probably gonna come up and I've done it before is if I don't see the beard I will I'll start easing up and a lot of times he's gonna see you he's gonna putt but he's gonna if you stand up quick enough he can't he can't get far enough away to you know or you see us Jake and you're gonna go glad I didn't do that. But last second he gobbled one time to the right and it it did raise I was on the side of I wasn't quite on the crest of the the knob so to speak he came up the direction I was expecting the first time but that one little bit of a chance that he might come up to my right even higher and look over that way made me rotate my feet my toes pointed right now and I'm twisted left. So if I stood up I'd have swung right and then I had to reswing back left and took too long. If I if he would have that one guy would have saved his life because I would have probably stood up and shot him if it was Longbeard you know but I don't know that he was and I I'm gonna tell myself he was a Jake to make myself feel better. Yeah. Because it it was pretty sickening after hunting him about three hours I felt like and then called him back. No it wasn't him but as a different one was coming in to the cause that you know you tune stuff out when you're focused on one well you know kind of I I stood up and walked over there just to make sure he wasn't just standing on the other side obviously and to see if I could tell which direction he went if nothing more to hunt him in an hour or two because this was about midday and one cobbled down the same little hollow on the other side I'm like well flop it over and we caught it.

SPEAKER_00 48:29

That is one thing I try to do is I try to keep an inventory of I'm all I'm focusing on this turkey but I pay I do pay attention and yeah I'll get I'll get sidetracked. Well I remember you telling me like I think you were talking because we were one morning there was turkeys gobbling all around us and I kept telling you there's one here and I think I think you were thinking I was saying let's go to that one. I was saying like keep that in mind because that turkey may be coming. I don't want him to come in quiet on us and surprise us both.

SPEAKER_01 48:54

We're looking left and he's coming from the right we're just worried about the one on the left I usually try to keep an inventory for that reason and just in case drop at something you have another option but a lot of times you're gonna hunt the second third one you hear instead of the you know something's going and the gamma chances pretty much killing the the one you're on the first one you're on means the chances are 100%. So gamma chances about 30. Yeah you know if you kill one three out of every ten times you need three you need a you need a you need to pin down three pretty good in your head and and and have them on reserve have a plan C and you'll probably come away with one um sometimes it takes plan E sometimes you get away with plan A. But um but the more the merrier that is for sure when it comes to uh when it comes to uh fulfilling the whole day's worth of the whole trip's worth and and not getting tied into one and then we've done that before too we we we'll have one turkey that three people are trying to hunt and we hunted for two days we're like man I wish we'd have just yeah then the last day you get somewhere and there's five of them and I'm like well that would have been fun had we just not been so hard headed but is what it is uh we'll wrap it up and uh and and probably do some configuring on where we're gonna wind up in the next 24 hours but we do appreciate y'all listening we appreciate all the support y'all give us over over the years and uh remind y'all check everything out sprintlegion.com as um as well as those late season sales May 20 is the code for 20% off the uh the turkey gear as well as buy one get one fifty percent off gators and buy one get one fifty percent off t shirts and that'll wrap it up we appreciate y'all listening to the Sprint Legion podcast