The Spring Legion Podcast
Welcome to a year-round discussion on the wild turkey and those who hunt them. Hosted by Hunter Farrior, founder of Spring Legion and author of Ballad of a Turkey Hunter, the weekly podcast is geared for all outdoor communities and dives deeper than the usual tactics and calling tips. Holding true to the brand, topics are built upon respecting the heritage and challenges of hunting, with a never-ending appreciation for all that the spring season provides. Enjoy insight from special guests like Dave Owens of Pinhoti Project, Cuz Strickland of Mossy Oak, our friends at NWTF and Muscadine Bloodline, and so many more widely known for their impact in the turkey hunting community, as well as the deer, duck, and waterfowl realm, who exhibit the obsession of which only a real turkey hunter may truly understand. Thanks for listening.
The Spring Legion Podcast
Maximizing Chances in the Turkey Woods + One Wild Delta Deer Hunt
Today, we're talking about Chase's big Delta buck, and taking a deep dive on smarter spring turkey hunting tactics. We unpack first chances, second chances, midday loafing, sign-reading, terrain, and the confidence to walk away and win tomorrow.
In this episode:
• cold front, new gear and a busy shop
• Delta buck story, management and shot follow-up
• why first chances feel best but second chances pay
• midday loafing windows and patient scouting
• reading sign before calling and moving with purpose
• using edges, shade and buffers to close distance
• when to risk a push vs save the morning
• confidence as a tool, not a crutch
• how to leave dead spots and find active birds
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Alright, everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Spring Leader Podcast. My name is Hunter Farrier. Joining you alongside Chase Farrier again today, and it is a cold, wet, rainy day that I wasn't expecting until I walked out of the house just uh moments ago. So Chase said he was thinking about going deer hunting. I was kinda wondering why not so much before the um the fact that he just killed a really big deer. I'm like, why are you going back? But um but I was also thinking, you know, I didn't know it was gonna be actually deer hunting weather or whatever y'all like to hunt in.
SPEAKER_01:Yep, yep. Big front pushes through. You need to be back out there, I guess. So never know.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Chase shot him a good old deer in the Delta with his buddy Jeremy this uh this past few days, really. I mean last Friday. We're coming off of a busy week and I knew he was headed up there right after Thanksgiving and stuff like that, and was expecting him not to be here. I was kind of fumbling around for some more um for some some other guests, you know, to hop on or to to call up during the um during the weekend, but saw where he kind of finished the task at hand not um not long after he got there. So uh kind of quick. So we'll dive into that story here in just a second, just a little bit, hit on hit on some deer hunting for the first time. And probably since the last time you and Seals were on here together, because I don't honestly I don't think I got one to to share necessarily a deer hunt story. But uh but we've been we've been jammed up up here for the past few days. A lot. Um a lot of thanks go to y'all for that. Uh it's a privilege to be very busy in small businesses and stuff like that. So I'm I'm very thankful for that. And we uh I mean, heck, we left here what 1.30, 2.30 last night probably, and we're not even halfway done packing the orders from this past weekend. So this is like day two of that. And and we got a lot to a lot to do. Got a lot of uh a lot of stuff to ship out. Some of y'all will probably be opening up your packages from the gear release of last week, the the green leaf addition to everything, the and the the restock of original bottom land, which uh I remember I talked to somebody, I think it was at the Foxville shootout up in West Point, about the the the slight difference in the original bottom lands. You know, kind of it's just a it looks like the old stuff, you know. Right, it looks looks like the original old.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um, which like if you're not looking at it from like I literally look at this stuff every single day. That's my job, you know. So it's probably something that I noticed or somebody who who pays very close attention to detail might notice. Um, but I I was really pretty thrilled to see that. I'm like, that looks good, yeah. You know, but yeah, that and then the the green leaves popping off, jackets are selling like crazy. Um I'm sure folks putting those to use in the deer woods already, and uh our our email list folks got theirs first. So we sent out an email before we released everything to you know the the folks who uh enrolled in that little update program. So they were already sending pictures of that and whatnot. And um, shoot, I guess if you're listening this on Cyber Money, we still got a couple deals going. Yeah. Um but that's all we got on Spring Legion's side. Uh we'll be releasing some more stuff here in the in the semi-near future. We're gonna get into, I think, after Chase's deer hunt story, some stuff is kind of building off of last week's double episode, and and and the the theme there was kind of a little bit more of you're not able to make a turkey do something don't want to do, you know, kind of the chances you have in the turkey woods. If you if you're lucky enough to get a chance, you're pretty dang lucky in my book kind of deal. Um what you do with those first chances is the is the first chance always the last chance. Or there's several times I put I play for a second chance, and that's my that's my goal is to is to hunt him twice. So we'll we'll dive into that what goes through in those situations, kind of what goes through my mind at least, and and kind of what I'm looking for and and what I've seen work and doesn't work and things I wish I would have known beforehand. So I'll be thinking of those as um as Chase kind of dives into some deer hunting story that I haven't heard. I've I did uh I cheated and watched the video on y'all's little YouTube channel thing, but um, but I haven't heard the any of the backstory necessarily. I'll say that.
SPEAKER_01:Right, right. Well, Jeremy had the wild idea to wake up at 2 a.m. and drive up three hours to our permission spot we have up in the Mississippi Delta. And um which I thought it was crazy because I've only I only do that for turkeys, you know, at this point. Um but you know, it was a good good week up there in the past, so we we I agreed to it. We went on with it and drove all night, got there at the perfect time right before daylight, just enough time to get inside, get in the woods, get set. Um right after daylight, I ended up seeing this deer I ended up shooting, but didn't know and I couldn't quite tell. It was just breaking day and he was about 300 yards. But either way, um kind of seemed to be action-packed pretty quick. Uh the rut was kicking in up there and all that, so we uh got to see some you know chasing activity, grunting activity, all that good stuff. So it was a good good day. Um but I mean I saw a few does after I saw the the buck and then he pushed, he somehow got into the middle of the area I was sitting over and uh pushed a doe out and I said, Well that wasn't a that wasn't the same doe standing there that was just standing there and I pulled up and I could tell then he was a sure enough shooter. Yeah. And um because we've hunted this place for three and a half years now, or three years, four year seasons maybe. Three or four seasons, I don't know. But I had never shot a buck out there. I've shot one doe on that whole place in the three or four years we've had it. So passed a lot. We try to manage it. Manage it, I guess. I guess, you know. Which is cool, you know, to do. Yeah. See and watch how it works.
SPEAKER_00:Very um familiar with, I guess. I'm not gonna say educated, I know kind of how, I just don't have the opp never had the opportunity to implement it.
SPEAKER_01:But we've never had necessarily a big enough piece of property to see results. Um But this piece of property is big enough, you can you can see a difference. And you you can hold deer for a long time and it's a sanctuary for 'em. Yeah. It it only gets touched when me and Jeremy go up there, and um, it's a beautiful place, man. But anyways, took a 215, 220 yard shot on him, missed him first shot, and he did not move an inch. Didn't even hit like act like the gun didn't ever go off. So I but racked another one and luckily got him on the second shot, but he dropped, so I couldn't quite tell if I did get him or he went right back behind the trees. Yeah. He had just come out from behind, so I was kind of concerned. And um anyways, I called Jeremy and he said, Well, let's sit on until nine, and it was right at eight o'clock. I'm like, I'm sitting here, like, come on, man. Come on over here. Um, which glad he did stay because he ended up shooting a nice buck also. Yeah. Um right before nine, about eight fifty, eight forty-five, eight fifty. He killed a real nice one. Uh tight rack, cool deer. Um, I killed kind of a wide rack. Heavier horned deer, I guess. You know. If you combine the two of them, he'd be a world-class deer. But they were both very, very good bucks. That was definitely my biggest. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um, I was very tickled with him. Yeah, I saw he Chase showed me a picture last night of the the buck he just killed this past weekend with the which I thought was about the same as the the buck he killed two years ago or last season or last season. Yeah, with my buck. And it was like the one he killed last season's gonna fit inside this one. Right. Which was wild. So I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I mean, I don't we didn't put a tape on him, I don't know how big he was. He's big, but he was he's on Instagram if you want to go look at him. Yep. And the uh video is on the Coldwater Collaborative YouTube channel. That's Jeremy's deer hunting and I meant me and Jeremy, I guess you'd say at this point. Um I help I I try to help him with it. We do a lot of of year-round stuff on there and food plot prep and land management. What what we think we know we're doing, you know. Yeah. Things we've little tricks and tips we've learned about.
SPEAKER_00:Spring Legion model. Yeah. Maybe we this is kind of what I think, and I don't take it as it is. You know, kind of like we're gonna we're gonna try this. Yeah. And a little disclaimer at the bottom line, it might not work.
SPEAKER_01:You know, like a separate form to document on, you know, year-round stuff that's not necessarily strictly turkeys, yeah, and that's that's kind of what Jeremy wanted to do. So yeah. And he and Jeremy's good at getting it uploaded quick too. Yeah, he's very good at he's adamant about it. Get at that. I mean, he uploaded it by the end of the day.
SPEAKER_00:Oh yeah, I watched it the night, y'all. I mean, I shot it that morning. I was I mean, I was up doing the y'all don't even know what goes on to get these web pages ready for Black Friday stuff and everything, but it's I don't think I've gone to bed before four o'clock ish, probably in two weeks, maybe. Um, and that's that's strictly just because just preparation for this and you know all the marketing and stuff. And but anyway, so yep. I ain't got a deer story for y'all. But we do have a future. I don't know if it's gonna do turkey hunt stories or I was I was sitting here and we and we're doing this on the whim a little bit, even though it's the last day we were able to do a podcast without publishing it. So we knew we had to do it today. Um we just obviously we're we're bumping everything to the last second as uh as we're preparing for the we're not even preparing, we're just work working, you know, getting everything sifted through for the the big shipment on Monday. And um yeah, so we'll well I mean I guess I'm trying to think of the order to kind of go in to to address the the whole topic, which is gonna be the you know, the first chances and last chances, and pretty much all the second chances you get in between. Sometimes there are no second chances and sometimes there's five second chances, you know. And how to go about that. Um and and I think there's a lot of questions we do get that can tie into this subject of mainly, and a lot of them do go back to finding the turkey to hunt. And I think you know, there's ways to make the most of your first chances, and sometimes I do. I'll go into a day or a week or a morning or something like that, and I will want to make the most of first chances. I think I do think the best chance you have killing a turkey is going to be the first time you meet him.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I don't think it happens that often though. Does that make sense? I think your best chance is the first, but more times than not, I can if I'm gonna kill it, it's usually the second. I don't I don't know how else to say that. It it sounds very oxymoronic, if that's the word, or contradictive, you know. But um I guess there's an ash there if you don't mess it up the first time.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_00:There's a lot of times I mess it up the first time and don't kill them the second time because there ain't no second time. Right. You know, so that's probably why the percentage of the second time is higher because if it exists, you got the record hand, I think. You know more about the bird and the bird still don't know you're a human.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly.
SPEAKER_00:On the first time you start off, even kill, I think. Yeah. And if the bird does know you exist, you can know more about the bird, but if he knows a little bit about you, there ain't a second chance. So finding a bird's gonna be number one. And I mean, there's a million different ways to find a bird, and a million ways of not finding, I don't know how to even dive into this, but I'm trying to think of some specific situations. When I say that, like I'm thinking of I've got no plans, no knowledge, no nothing. I am gonna do. You pick me up, blindfold me, drop me off. I had to go find one. All that's gonna depend on the time of year, time of day, weather. I mean, every ounce of knowledge I got is gonna have to go into how I'm gonna try to find it or where I'm gonna try to find it, what I'm gonna do if I do find it. And when do you draw the line and there ain't no turkeys here and I can't find no turkeys? You know what I'm saying? I w I would say something I'm pretty pretty str disciplined in isn't not trying to, like we mentioned before, force things, but one of those things being the loafing period. If I'm looking for a turkey, I would love to utilize my eyes from about 11.30 a.m. to 2.45 p.m.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:In a very average situation. Because I've messed, I've I've ruined the second chances more than not, and it comes around lunch. Whether I find the turkey then, or whether I've known about the turkey, or whether I've you know trailed the turkey all the way to the end. And he shuts down like I'm talking like during their little loafing period. During their nothing. They ain't doing nothing.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:They ain't worried about breeding. They might be worried about eating a little bit, but I don't think they worry about eating much at all during the, you know, during the spring, the breeding season. I mean, they're worried about one thing, and we all know what that is. So for this specific time, I think they're literally not even worried about that. They're worried about, you know, retaining energy from what I know. Um, just holding on to that energy or I don't know if they're they're restoring or retaining, I don't know how the best word that, but but they ain't doing much. They're sitting there in the probably an open field and some tall grass and they're just standing there, their wattles are hanging real low, and they're, you know, kind of just breathing for a second, probably in some shade, just resting. And I I mean, there's a lot of times I've tried to make them get up, you know. Oh, yeah. I'm a hen over here and I'm fired up, and I'm the only hen in this county that's fired up, you know, is what I sound like. And I sound like a human, is what I do. Right.
SPEAKER_01:And um I remember one specific I mean a specific group, specific group of three long beards that were literally laying down under some shade in the middle of a field one day, about that time, you know, in that loafing stage, that we tried hard to get them to get going. Yeah. And they didn't ever even stand literally stand up. They were laying down.
SPEAKER_00:They might turn their head and look at you. Like, I mean, just like a if you walked into Central Park and did it and started doing turkey calls, yeah. You know, you just give some people to look at you and be like, that's kind of weird. And then go on without the business. So I do try to avoid hunting them then, you know. If and I y'all know I'm hard at like every single time I can sit here and tell y'all, don't do that, and you give me a turkey and he's and you strut under some straight. I'm like, nah, I bet you I can bet you I can do it this time, and I can't, you know. Um not to say I didn't kill one, I killed multiple this year within the hours of 11:30 and 230. You know, it does happen. You gotta read it good, right? Be accurate in it. If he ain't responding, you ain't gonna make him respond. But if he's responding, you're in a good spot. Like, if he's that's all a goblin, like they'll probably be strutting. You're not making them strut, they're probably just strutting, you know. Um, regardless. But if you if you get him to goblin, it's a response, it's not like a courtesy. We're in this field and we're not doing nothing. I'm just letting you know where we're doing nothing at. Right. You got a good shot at you might want to sit down. A lot of times if you find them in the you know, after morning, or you're in there blind and you pop a box call or something like that, or hit something real loud, and he, you know, he fires back in like, you know, milliseconds. He I mean you might kill him in in less than a minute. You know, I mean it depends on sit down. Yeah. First, that's and that's what I do every time. Yeah. Is is bank on that being it. I uh it's a process of elimination. Like my my my options they go to, you know, my my I'm trying to think of the word, my preferred options, I guess you would say the the options that are in my favor. He comes in on a string and I kill him in two minutes. Yeah. Could happen. Does happen, not always. And then the next one is to see which way he's going, what situation he gobbles two or three times. I might try to work and do something on him like I would in the morning. Um he don't gobble again. I don't just sit there. You know, I try to get to where I can hear something else. A lot of times, even if you don't hear a gobble, or even if you do hear a gobble, I'm sorry, the first thing you're gonna hear is a hen that's with him or a Jake caulking at him, you know. Kind of a lot of times when they're drumming, you'll hear like, oh, you know, right after, and it's like they can't not do that. Jake's apparently, I feel like when they're near one, um, you'll just you almost kind of just course that like you would drumming from a further distance. Right. You know what I'm saying? Use that a lot before and see, and and it's not to like go. I'm not trying to follow them, I'm trying to, you know, once you get two gobbles, three gobbles, and they're moving, like you got an idea of what they're doing, where they're headed. You know, they're headed up or they're headed down, they're headed left or right, if they're in a hala, they're staying put, you know, some something of that nature. They're headed, look ahead of them on a map, and you can find where they're probably headed or anything like that. And I'm talking, this is again first time meeting them. You have no idea what they usually do. Um and then, I mean, your best option is getting front of them, if you can figure that out. But because usually they're they're they're in a group of some kind. And then, you know, then you get that 3 p.m. station. I don't like hunting turkeys in the afternoon. Yeah. I would rather not. I don't I think that's not turkey hunting to me. Right. I'll get that. But I do like turkey hunting enough to hunt in the afternoon, if that makes sense. Yeah. Especially if I'm not near home at all. Um, because I would much rather turkey hunt at 3 p.m. than literally do anything else at 3 p.m. So I will go and I will try to be very reserved in what I do. And a lot of times I'll go with a gun in my hands, but it's really kind of scouting, and if one if something don't just happen right then and there, you know, it ain't you know. But it does, it does happen pretty often, you know, around that that afternoon range, and obviously I ain't gonna tell them no. I ain't gonna tell a turkey, hey, don't come in. But I would much rather hunt them off the roof, is all I'm saying. Is it's funner to me, it's my preferred way. But um But there's been many times I'll I'll find one and and it comes down to patience too. If you if you see them if I can the advantage really lies in if you can get a one one upper hand or one, um, you know, get to see one of their cars is what I'm trying to say, I guess. So you you can kind of relate it to a chess match, you know. If you can get them to make the first move, that's awesome. But when you start hunting them in the middle of the day and stuff for the first time, like you know, it's hard to get that one piece if you don't even know where they're at. So if you be and when I try to find them, I do go to the open areas. Like I said, tall grasses is kind of I'm talking tall or green grasses, you know, where it's cool. Where they can hide. You see, you know what I'm talking about. They kind of like they'll lay down to hold their wings out. They'll they're cooling off. This is middle of the day, late season, mid-season, around, you know, where we hunt, even in March, it's it can be 28 that morning, but it's gonna be 91 at that afternoon, and they're gonna be hot and they're gonna be tired, and they're gonna have dirty hens around them.
SPEAKER_01:So um, yeah, the maths, you don't want to show your your cards too quick by any means when you're doing this. If you're slipping or if you're even just riding around checking fields, you know, trying to get a good idea of what they're doing. Yeah. Um which we don't have many of those around here. Right. I'm saying, you know, if we're traveling, so trying to get a lay of the land more than anything.
SPEAKER_00:Um also before I will use that to that loafing period for that. Right. If you're gonna do that, if don't do that at 8 a.m. after he flies down and goes, gets him, your best best to hear one, strike him up and kill him before noon, right? You know, until noon literally hits. In my mind, this is all opinion, but go ahead. I was gonna say that in that last little segment, though, is you utilizing that time to do something else, not to hunt.
SPEAKER_01:Right, right, right. Yeah, that yeah, if if if I'm if it's get out of the woods time, you know, or whatever, you know, 10 30, 11 starts rolling around, I'm gonna start heading to the truck, you know, and I'll probably run around. But if I am dropping in a place, one big thing I do like to do, I don't like to, as far as not showing your cards too quick, yeah, you know, I like to find turkey sign before I start calling. Yeah. Some form. Whether it's a track, a feather scratching, or hearing, you know, hearing one. Or knowing from that morning, hey, that sounded like one way off over here somewhere, they're probably in this bottom, you know. Yeah. If I don't have if I have I have to I like to have an idea. One one idea is enough for me to to let out a call. Until then, I'm just slipping, looking where I think that I should find some sign. Uh or and you know, and more as of listening to crows, things of that nature, woodpeckers, you know, waiting for trying to get one to shotgobble. Yeah. Or something of that nature. Or listen for crows bombing one somewhere, you know. A lot of times they'll give that away.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And I'll say this kind of drawing my memory this past year. I think I was in Pennsylvania or somewhere like that. I was in a I was in a spot, an area, and I'm I'm totally blind. I have no idea. I mean, it actually winds up being a really cool story. I'm glad it all happened that way. Um, I mean, in a nutshell, I might do this separately on another episode, but um pretty much my wife had a friend in college who was from this area, whose dad lived there, who doesn't turkey hunt at all, but he um knew some guys who did, wind up going up there, introduced me to them, spending a a you know, day or day and a half at their camp or whatever, got the sleeping little cabin thing they had, which was awesome compared to the truck at that at that point. Um because it was kind of I don't think it had gotten too cold yet. It was a little chilly, but um but it had been decent weather, I thought, and um had been unable to really get on anything, it was uh I mean I was just kind of ecstatic to be hunting Pennsylvania because I've always wanted to my whole life. Right. And um and and and getting the getting the tags and stuff like that. I had to get do all that and everything. It was raining then, so I guess it was kind of like not perfect weather at as soon as I got there, so it wasn't great weather until the second morning. Um but spent a lot of time trying to find them. I got out of the truck, you know, did scouting and stuff, found a turkey gobblet track, you know, on like an old like uh log and road looking thing, not a fresh one, but I mean it still like had equipment in around it. Um but um but was not hearing nothing, wasn't seeing nothing for about a day. And then as I'm kind of I mean, just still just kind of trying to find somewhere to hunt them. I've checked a lot of these boxes and a lot of them are not popping off right now, you know. And I I thought they would, and they're not. And I don't know, a lot of times there's there's just not turkeys in the area. There's something, you know, you're not I'm I'm unfamiliar with. I'm I'm the new guy there. No matter how many times I've hunted turkeys, I ain't hunted them there. Right. And um you you still gotta be open to being wrong on a lot of stuff, no matter how long you've been doing it or how good you think you are, you still gotta be that's that's the first thing that comes to my mind. Like, I could be wrong. You know, I could be inaccurate, you know. And um, and that I think that I don't I don't know that was the case, but I wind up seeing one I'm driving, and there's you know, it's I mean it's pretty country up there, it's open, and um and I see a a dot from a long way away. I'm in my truck here, and I can't hunt this spot without giving my eyeball monoculars and look, and it's uh I mean it's a turkey walking across this long, almost like a power line, I think of a power line on server, it was just very, very, very wide. And it's just at the very top of a foothill looking thing, and it you know had big hardwoods on both sides, and I mean it was really pretty. I mean, I'd put it on a postcard. Right. You know, it's just we ain't got that around here, so I'm already in awe. But um, he's walking across this kind of like high-level ish, you know, 18-inch grass, maybe. Umstrutting by himself. This was about 10 30, I think. Must have been 10 30 in the the second morning. Because um it wasn't raining. And um sun was out, I do remember that, and he he was strutting, he looked real tall, he looked, you know, kind of confident, and was gobbling. I could see his neck stick out through the binocular stuff, and I'm like, and he wants I wanted to just stay in there. I'm like, I ain't got nothing else to do. I was just watching this turkey, right? See what happens. Um couldn't hunt this very, couldn't really hunt anywhere near it at the time. I I never even tried to ask somebody, but but what I was doing, I was like, okay, they're fired, they're doing what turkeys should be doing. I'm hunting places that don't have turkeys.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:That's what it is. It's not like the weather's got them down or whatever. Like, if I I don't know it has tracks, I saw one gobbler track, but I I looked a lot of places and didn't see tracks that I thought would have tracks. So I mean that just gave me enough that one turkey that I couldn't hunt gave me then enough enough info to say, hey, they're doing it. You're just in a bad spot right now. You know, you're missing out on turkeys that are fired up thinking that you know, being a little too cautious. Right. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Not wanting to call until I see a sign and stuff. It took a long time to see that sign, you know. Right. So I was and after that, you know, before that, even I was calling, maybe I'm botching it every time. Maybe this is a very popular spot and people have been hunting it left and right. Like I said, it just rained. I'm going, I don't have much to go off of.
SPEAKER_01:Right. Not much old time.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, I can I can't find it because it just rained over all of it, probably. And um yeah, so I left and went somewhere else and wound up getting in them. Yeah. So sometimes that's all it that's all it takes.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but I mean it's just as important as it's finding, figuring out what the turkeys are doing. Yeah. You know, that that is a huge thing that you it's a lot of times overlooked. And I forget about it a lot myself. And I'm like, huh, well, that one's trutting. That's weird. Still didn't find a turkey where I'm at, you know. Because he ain't there.
SPEAKER_00:And there ain't there probably any turkeys in here. Yeah. Might have been yesterday, but he got shot. And you don't know that, you know. Yeah, I mean, who knows? So, I mean, and I've I've had to I've had to learn with that because I'm a stubborn dude, if y'all didn't know that. Um, and I I've I have in fact hunted the same turkey 83 times. Yeah. And um I've I have learned to it ain't it ain't gonna it ain't gonna happen today, probably, and I'm like it hunting tomorrow, but there's probably some better spots. And a lot of times, very I mean, there is a couple times I regret leaving them. I don't like leaving goblin turkeys, obviously, but if I if I'm confident enough to say I'm I ain't I'm I'm waiting, I'm not wasting time, but I'm I'm making this very hard by trying to hunt this. And more times than not, that involves property lines or a weather front coming. I'm trying to force something into something that's not happening. Like he doesn't want to be on this side of the fence. Right. He wants to be on the I would too if I was a turkey. You know, that guy's got more than this unmanaged public land has, you know, like I'm already at a disadvantage. I I need to go find a spot where it's at least even. Um and a lot if I'm trying to find them, I'll get on high ground. I'll um like you said, I I am fair, I I treat every situation like there's a turkey near me. Uh if I'm walking through loud stuff, I try to walk like a turkey, scratch here and there. Um and and and every year I I try to like study up on how turkeys really scratch. It's not like you don't just go to town on it. Right. There's something like a chch ch you know, kind of a little cadence they have there.
SPEAKER_01:Um and you can even walking, you can make yourself sound like a turkey walking versus a deer walking or a human walking.
SPEAKER_00:And then what I do there is I'll walk a few steps and don't get too cerebral with it. You know, you'll wind up not getting to the top. Right. You know, you still your objective is to get to the a point for some reason or another. So don't take it slow. I mean, I I I mean, I I still walk in the shadows and stuff like that. I've learned what shadows matter. Right. So that's kind of help speed it up a little bit. Right. But um something I do, I I try to do is is walk a little bit. Like, I'm not I don't know how many paces I take. You know, I'm breaking it down into that, but I'll stop every now and then and for about 15 to 20 seconds of silence. A lot of times the turkey gobbling that. Oh, yeah. If he's near, because that's what turkeys do. I mean, they're they're walking there, pecking around, they stop, and you see them like they get a half strut and they kind of almost their tail fan will kind of come up like that, and it'll kind of go back down, and then they'll just hammer pow you know down into something. They're they're listening is what they're doing. It's kind of like a deer's ear sticking straight up, and they kind of just start doing this. Right. When a turkey's walking and stuff and he's just pecking around and doing whatever, I'm talking out of strut by himself or whatever, and he kind of like he'll he'll stop and he'll just listen, like, let me make sure, and then he'll hear like a you know, something walking a ridge over, and he'll pow at that just see. Yeah, if it'll get a response out of it. And it's it, you know, I I think he's kind of do the same thing as they they walk and they stop and listen, and he hears if he's standing still, and a lot of times he'll stand still if you don't respond to him. Yeah, you might not have heard him because you're walking real loud. But if you'll stop and he hears it stop, I think he gobbles at it. Gobbles at you stopping. Not that you call and not at anything. He gobbles at you stopping, 'cause that's what a turkey usually does is they stop and listen and he'll gobble at that stoppage. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:He'll be wrong. I I feel like I've been in those shoes before. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. A hundred percent. Um I don't know. And like a deer will do the same thing, you know, they'll stop and and listen and uh I mean I've seen a buck A mature buck, he'll stand there and look for twenty minutes and not move a muscle other than his ears, you know. Turkeys will do the same thing, you know, and they'll stand in one spot until they hear uh I mean they're like, I know I heard what sounded kind of like a turkey over there.
SPEAKER_00:That's I mean, I think that's animal nature, and that's sometimes you gotta be a little bit more like turkeys. And that's like I'm not I have no reason to move if I think I heard a turkey, and that's what I'm trying to do is hear a turkey.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:If someone says, like, you know, might have heard a turkey, I'm gonna stay and like let's see if we hear him. You know, if we don't, we we walk we're just walking to nothing. You know, we're walking, I try to hear one, so might as well not mess it up.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, just check at least.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah, for real. But um, but yeah, so getting back kind of into the which there isn't a real concrete topic, but it's just kind of wherever the rabbit holes take us. Um, like I said, a lot of times you'll either come, you know, immediately or you're gonna not kill him. You know, more times than not, but obviously you can always work him. There's different situations and stuff. Um But but what I do try to do is like I said, I use that living period to find them with my eyes if I if that's a option around here, it's not really an option. That's probably when I would I would leave and try somewhere else and try to get there 1 30, 2 o'clock or whatever. You know. I mean, I killed one at 12.01 p.m. that was hotter than a freaking firecracker at 12.01 p.m. I'm not saying that doesn't happen this past year. But um what I and I I usually treat to so so the I don't like saying that like there here's a key to success because that's never always true. Um but not messing it up I think is sometimes the best case scenario. Yeah. And sometimes that's not what folks want to be the best case scenario. They want a dead turkey, and that's why they probably don't care to know those metal turkeys as folks who do understand that concept is that not messing it up is still a win as long as you're learning from him. If you go in there and you're just trying to like hopefully kill him, you're probably not gonna learn what he's doing, what the situation is or anything like that. Um and a lot of times you learn a lot by not influencing his behavior, not making him just fired up for no reason. If he's not coming, he's not coming, probably. But you can you can kind of get around him, get do whatever, and hunt him the next morning, and a lot of times, you know, you you you know if if there's a lot of hens in the area, that's plus. If you know that um you'll you'll find stuff along the way that's good to have, whether or not there's acres all in this hollow, there's the beans that are filled with acres or something. Um, you know, or they're not, or there's crap. I was thinking about already in my mind in the morning I want to try to get on top of this or whatever, but ain't a way I'm crossing that. That's got water up 20 feet of water, you know, and I can't do that save you a lot right there, just just just bumping around and finding that and um omitting stuff is what I'm just as important as you know right. That's kind of what I'm getting at is like is is is crossing things off more than anything.
SPEAKER_01:More than creating a new checklist. Right.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah, I'm trying to think out a couple of little tidbits here. Let's see here. Yeah, I mean, I wrote down a couple like just off the top of my head, just instances. Um, and there were different situations where I hunted a turkey the first time. Did not we're you know, me and Walker Davidson went up to Michigan a couple years ago. Man's born a couple years ago now. Yeah but um five or six. Yeah, met him and went off trying to find some turkeys and wound up finding some at probably I don't know, we probably found them at 9 30, 10 o'clock. I didn't meet him until after daylight. You know, I didn't even get there. I drove through the night and it broke day before I was even in the st I think I was still in Ohio before it, you know, it was breaking day. And we had no idea. Um wound up finding some, got the okay to go hunt 'em. And hunted it just like he was gobbling. And they were not. And we just it was two by themselves taking all this into account, the the the imaginaries, the intangibles that, you know, kind of go into every situation, you know, what are they doing, which whether they're walking, you know, what's the what's the feeling of the air practically, and and um it was good and and we acted just like got exactly took a long way to get there, you know, took the the the long route, I mean, didn't you know, didn't want to mess it up. We could hunt the next morning if we needed to, not trying to force nothing, got on, kind of got um between a uh a field and then uh a pretty hollow. And we came in from the bottom and worked our way up to try to, you know, have a little bit of an advantage to make them come up. If needed, we caught in the open to pull them into the bottom. If they weren't in the bottom, they never gobbled. So it was hard to hard to gauge that, but you know, kind of where they would have been. That was an hour ago now, they might not still be there. Sometimes they are, sometimes they're not. So you're kind of just flirting with fire and just really timing it right. Just like, I don't know, man. You know, it we've been sitting here for a little while, just just scratching, maybe purring, clucking a little bit, see if we can get something, you know, let him know we're here. I think he can hear us, and then and then yeah, I'd say we've been there 30 minutes tops. So an hour and a half after we actually saw where they're where their feet were. Okay, yeah. Nothing and they could still be there. They might not, they might be across the road by now. I don't know. Went the other way. Might be on the wrong, wrong way completely. We're calling to air. But try to time it to where called down in this bottom. I think it's like the sun had come out. I'm like, surely they've moved out of that field by now. You know, they're probably burning up. Right. So I think they're done there, so I'm gonna call down in there, you know, and just see if I can just park something and hit that joker hammered right there. He'd been standing there strutting for who knows. I kind of like you look down there and you see his white head like already there. I'm like, man, I wonder how long he's been standing down. It was just so dark in there you couldn't see. But it was bright where we were sitting, but we were treating it so that joker could be right above my shoulder right now in that field, looking down into this hollow, and I'm not gonna know it because that eyes are facing down in the hollow. I was facing the hollow, I still couldn't see him, but he he got right there, and I mean, luckily my gun was already kind of like quartered that way, and I think he kind of came around. I think they had to go under a fallen log, maybe, and they did that, and I was able to kind of really get on there. I think I missed the first shot actually, um, regardless, because it kind of kind of rattled me there. Yeah, but um got on a second shot, but I mean that that just happens, and then um but treating it like there's a turkey watching you, and it like literally it was, yeah, you know, and there's no telling how many times if I'd have moved to like, hey Walker, you think, you know, you think I should throw this call down in here? Or if you're hunting with somebody who doesn't align with that mindset, you know, and they're you don't know it, but they're back there on the stuff, you know, stuff like that. You're like, man, I don't know what happened to turkeys and me neither, dude. Yeah. Hey, did you get that snap I didn't? You know, kind of like, you know, well, that's probably why. And you'll never know they left. They ain't gonna put at you. They ain't gonna let you know. If they don't, if they know that you don't know that they are there, they're not gonna say, hey, I'm over here. Right. You know, but they they start putting stuff, it's usually like a surprise. Yeah, you know, it's not like they're too close for comfort. Right. If if something starts getting a little fishy and they don't think you know about them, they ain't gonna, you know, they might put once, but uh he's gonna probably put a lot of cobbler probably putting like once, but um I don't know, but yeah, not messing it up and then then kind of getting in there the next morning with the an upper hand is the best. That's what I would I would probably rather do. Yeah. Um A, because you get to home on the morning, your chances of calling him into being a hen is is the best then than when he's looking at one. Sometimes you're looking at one in the morning, you ain't gonna do it. Right. Um and I like to get close. Close to him, see, you know. Yeah. Close as you can. Yep.
SPEAKER_01:So do you have anything you can throw in there? That's about it for me too.
SPEAKER_00:Trying to think, um, actually, I mean, you're you do. I we might have already talked about it. Um but the last turkey you killed, not this past season, but the year before. And the black dirt kind of stuff. Oh yeah. Treating that, I mean, it we took that long way. Yeah, that was like a four or five hour. We found out about him during by what? Day two. No, I'm just saying about eleven o'clock. Oh yeah. I mean, we'd hunted this area, had no idea one was over here. Right. I think we're gonna get in our truck, like we can we can hunt this area that is adjacent to public land, so we can park on the public land. Listen over here, it's not that great. Right. But there we did see some over here on this guy's place who owns it like a strip, and you know, we're trying to get away from you know the public if we can. We think we'd already shot one over there, so we're trying to stay on this side and right.
SPEAKER_01:And we had we had tried to work this turkey from the open area or something. From the private we did, and and and struggled. It was very dumb. We we knew there was a slim point one percent chance it was gonna work. But um, yeah, just treating it like that turkey could see us the whole time was a big thing. We made a what a two-mile loop, it felt like you know, to get in the woods through some rough stuff, crawling hands and knees. Y'all see us. A lot of folks think we were hunting like burnt pines. No. The dirt was was black as black, you know, very black. Um, but yeah, I mean, that was why we were wading through stuff. Yeah. I mean, it wasn't.
SPEAKER_00:But there was no other way to do it. There wasn't if we wanted if we wanted to kill that turkey, that's the only way. Because he's safe there. Yeah, he was 100% safe.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, he was I mean, he could see for 200 yards.
SPEAKER_00:It's kind of like putting your back against the one, you know, one wall there is, and you see everything and you know for sure unless there's a little gap in this little wall here.
SPEAKER_01:And we knew or what what are you saying? We also knew we might get there and he'd be gone.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, because we had to and that's another thing is when you when you're spoiled and can see, I I consider being able to see further than 100 yards is spoiled. So if I'm hunting a place where I'm being spoiled, you know, you kind of really use that site as a crudge. You're like, I only keep my eye on that turkey. You know, and I this when we me and Walker were hunting, it was you know, you had to sit there and kind of in the back of your mind go like, we kind of look whoever's watching this from above probably could be laughing at us hunting air right now because that turkey ain't even close. You know, he left before we even got a hold of the farmer, you kind of deal. Yeah. So you you want to keep your eyes on him makes sense, and I mean, you know, re it's all it is is reassurance, which it kind of boils down to lack of confidence in what you do know. Um, so just kind of being like, I trust my gut, I'm I'm gonna do it. And if I'm wrong, I'm okay with that. You know, this is the info I got at the time. This decision I'm gonna make, and I think that turkey is gonna be in that corner. That if if all if all the stuff I've learned in the past proves to be semi-true, he should be in that tall stuff. And we're gonna try to get right here and hope he's still hope he's there and however long it takes us to get there. I have no not rushing it. We ain't we're waiting on the wind to blow because we're moving through some open, open woods that it if he steps in those woods at all, he can see 100 yards. Oh yeah. I mean it's flooded, it's it's usually flooded stuff, you can tell. I mean, it's very bare on the bottom. Um as you're very shaded out. Very, yeah. I mean, you could you could see a w if you if you crouch down, you could see the field from a long way away. Yeah. But luckily there's like silhouettes and stuff.
SPEAKER_01:A little bit of a grass kind of as a buffer. So he if he was in the field, he couldn't see great in the woods.
SPEAKER_00:If you had that grass between you, if you if you could use that corner as a little pivot point, you were already. Right. And that's what we tried to do.
SPEAKER_01:Yep. Kind of.
SPEAKER_00:And I and luckily, you know, I mean we had to we had to just like literally just inch worm out there and see if we could finally see just is he left or is he right? Or have we bumped him an hour ago? We have no idea. Right. And finally, I think, you know, he never he didn't gobble or drum or nothing that we're couldn't hear him gobble. I saw him gobble a time or two. I'm saying the first time we s were able to see him. A hen walked in front of us. I remember that.
SPEAKER_01:Once we popped out, a hen was like at 20 yards walking directly at him, and I was like, Well, she's gonna blow our chances.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I'm thinking like now we at least know which direction he is.
SPEAKER_01:I didn't know if he was following her or she was walking to him at that point, you know, and I'm sitting there thinking, Lord, you know, what if he's here, you know, we're about to really go like we just do this safety off. That hen just popped up at 20 yards, perfect. I mean, we really drew the X walked to it, you know. That wasn't the case. She walked clean walk past him.
SPEAKER_00:And so I'm thinking I'm hanging back. I'm trying not to mess it up. It's hard enough to use one person, so I'm I'm literally just laying down practically. I'm trying to keep an eye behind you. Like I can just kind of kick you if he comes out behind you. That's the only value I'm bringing to this.
SPEAKER_01:That was my big concern was if we did call, he'd drop back in the woods and come up behind me, and I can't shoot behind me because you're there. That's what I'm saying. Like I can at least tell you who he is. Right. But anyways, he was about to 150 to my left, and I'm like, that dirt was so muffling. Yes. You I mean, I'm you should be able to hear a turkey at 100 yards all day in open terrain. And I was I was like, he just you know, his head stuck out twice, three times, and then he tried I I watched him do it again at about 60 and could not hear it one time. And it ain't windy. No, it's just that dense or or whatever you want to say. I don't know. I don't know. It it messed with my head. I was like, does the turkey that absorbing either that or that turkey just had lost his vocal cords? Like, I mean, I was like, I literally like this doesn't make sense. You know, like I I'm sitting not seeing this and not able to hear that. But I mean I shot him like 27 yards, really. Um he he hugged the fence line and or field edge with a fence.
SPEAKER_00:But but I I mean the moral of that story is like we were able to we met that's the turkey you met that day and killed that day, and I don't know if there'd have been a you weren't staying. You were you were supposed to leave early the next morning. We had to make our start making our way down that night. So that's the last that is uh what I deem as a bumper kill mentality. Yeah. And that's um a lot of good turkey hunters have that mentality year-round. Yeah. And that's you you can take it the wrong way, the whole like the term killers and stuff like that. And like there, I mean there's there's there's stages where you become one and you want to just kill everything and and don't care how, and there's some who use that as a as a as a as a good term, as like you know, they're able to to kill in a lot of circumstances, they're able to, you know, sift through the the choices and the you know, make good decisions and stuff like that, do it ethically and everything too, and still, and still succeed a lot in their objective with just killing turkeys, you know. Regardless, but a lot of folks have the I'm going to either scare this turkey or I'm going to take him with me home. Yeah. But I'm about to do one or the other, and a lot of times their chances are just 50-50 from the get-go. All right. The chances of shooting are probably 70, you know, at least. Um, they have no intentions on coming back. They have no intentions on hunting twice. They they can't for some reason. They gotta go to work tomorrow, they gotta go somewhere else, they gotta wedding tomorrow, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And they wind up killing him that afternoon or that midday or late morning because they're like, all right, screw it, I'm gonna go. I think he's gonna do this. We're gonna try it. And I'm gonna sit here, I'm gonna try to get over here, I'm gonna try to call him up here as soon as he gets there. If he'll just let me, if he'll gobble one time right here and confirm that I think he's gonna do it, I'm I think he might. If we sit on top of this roll right here with this tree in front of us, I think we can call him around him at least one time.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Get one chance, and sometimes it works, and you look like a genius, you know.
SPEAKER_01:And sometimes you miss him and look feel real bad about it. Did you do that? Oh, everybody's done that. Oh. Yeah. No, I'm just I'm just saying it happens. Oh, yeah. You throw the kitchen sink or you give it that Hail Mary, like either it's gonna happen or not, and then it happens, and then you miss them, and oh, you really feel dumb. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I'm just saying, like, or you get too close or something, you're just like, you know, that's when folks will just fire off at one. You know, that's what I mean. Like you're you're gonna shoot at him or whatever, and you're gonna mess it up for the next person, pretty much, is all you're doing. Yeah. Um I try not to do that. I mean, I'm not saying I'm saying the the mentality of doing that. Correct. I see what you're saying. Not actually doing that. Yeah, don't do that. Please don't do that. Because I'm normally the guy that finds him after. Right, yeah. Um I'm saying as a as a personality, uh the folks I know, that's what they do. They're they're either prepared for the shot or I'm prepared for the shot, but they're gonna shoot at him. They're they're gonna bump him as they do it, or they're gonna kill him as they do it. Yeah. Um, regardless. They ain't sitting down, that's for sure. They're they're going at that turkey's gobble almost every time, acting like a turkey. And if I can get, and they they position a tree between them or something, and we'll we'll get like, okay, I got this, you know, and they'll call two times and make him stick his head up and shoot him, you know, kind of like that. That's what I'm saying, more so. Or, you know, or he's gonna see them run away and then they're gonna shoot at him running away, kind of deal. But it's gonna happen. Something something big is gonna happen.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_00:And they look like they, you know, are very, very good turkey hunters, but they just have a an an objective and another. And it's not always bad, a bad thing. You know, a lot of times if it's the last day of stuff, folks will folks will get a little more like, all right, now or never. That's kind of what we did. It was now or never. I do not want to do this. This is uh gonna suck. Oh, it's it was gonna suck. You know, this is a long way. Um but yeah, so I mean it's when you narrow it down to like if you want to go drinking, try try to do the the hard stuff and the long stuff first. Yeah. And and and not mess it up. And even if you don't, you gotta I I think moral story is you gotta better try the second morning if you don't mess it up. As long as you allow yourself a second chance.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, if you have a second morning. Last day. We understand.
SPEAKER_00:Well, no, I mean, and there's something some some folks do it every day. That's what I'm saying. Like the the folks who have that mentality regardless. Oh yeah. And then they go out of the, I mean, they just they're confident in what they're what they're gonna do. And a lot of times that's what it boils down to. We'll have a whole I do want to have a whole podcast on confidence one day. Yeah. Because that is I mean, that's 25% of it.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I think confidence in everything from shot to to calling to location to like just what I was saying, like I was semi-confident there was turkeys in the area. But my objective on the latter half of the morning was like, I need to find out if there really is, because I might be wrong, you know. Right. And and just being okay with saying, even with confidence, that I think I am wrong. But I'm gonna stick to that and I'm gonna go somewhere else. I'm not gonna sit here and wonder wishy-washy and hang on to that one track I saw. Right, you know.
SPEAKER_01:It ta it takes me a minute to to let go of a spot. To leave a spot I did see some sign, it's tough for me. It's not and I've been working on it, but like I've I have noticed that it's hard for me to confidently walk away after not hearing something or seeing any more sign or stuff like that.
SPEAKER_00:I c I can do that a little better.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And it's just I just hadn't, you know. It normally takes me a little longer than it takes you to find some turkey. I've you've done it more than me, you know, and I just it's hard for me to leave once I get right. Hey, I finally found something, you know, and then I'm like, must stay here for I better. You kill all the corners.
SPEAKER_00:You'll kill a turkey that I don't kill because of that.
SPEAKER_01:Right. You know? Right. But you know, I probably could have killed three in between, you know, if I would have just moved around more. Sometimes you do, and sometimes you don't. So you never know.
SPEAKER_00:But anyway, um, that was our ramblings for today. We I mean we could we could we could do this all day. I'm glad we're talking about turkey hunting and the cold months of the year and stuff. Um I don't have much else to fill y'all in on. We appreciate you listening, and we obviously if you can like and follow and subscribe and stuff like that on Apple and Spotify and leave us a review, that would be appreciated. Last year we started dishing out some free stuff for reviews. Yeah. You remember that? We started reading a couple of them. So might bring that back. So if you would leave us a review, we'll be sending uh sending a couple little little things out there here and there, sparingly, unplanned and unscheduled, but we'll get those to you and we'll say starting next week, I say. I ain't got much uh much other plans to tell y'all besides we better get in here and when I say it's a lot of orders we gotta fill, we're gonna fill up a trailer with them and and get them going. And and I think y'all are gonna like all of the new stuff. The the the the little changes we made to the really just the aesthetics of it to make it all tying together as a as a real line of apparel and stuff. It's not just a bunch of random projects. It looks look like we know what we're doing a little more, I guess, this year, and then um other cool stuff on the way. So y'all stay tuned. As always, we appreciate y'all listening to the Spring Legion podcast. We will see you next week.
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