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
Drumming Turkeys: A Series of Old Hunting Stories
On this episode, hosts Hunter Farrior and Chase Farrior are talking about a few good drumming turkeys from the back corners of their minds. From a high school before‑class bird that taught Chase his first lesson in throwing soft yelps over a terrain roll, to the heaviest Alabama gobbler we’ve ever carried—whose drum hit harder than his gobble—this one is packed with practical wisdom you can use the next time the woods go quiet.
We unpack how to recognize real drumming by cadence, separate it from log trucks and wind‑flexed roots, and move only when the rhythm gives you a beat to steal ground. You’ll hear how cemetery high points and creek‑bottom bowls shape sound, why cedar walls look right but hunt wrong, and what to do when hens drift by within arm’s reach and your gun is tangled in branches. We also revisit low‑tech scouting—reading fresh tracks in mud and using water holes like analog trail cameras—to confirm travel without burning a spot.
Close calls drive the best lessons: wing drags at five yards without a shot window, half‑strut toms that never fan but drum non‑stop, and the discipline to hold your call when you can already hear the drum. If you’ve ever asked when to move, when to call, and how to set up for a shot lane instead of a pretty view, these stories give you a blueprint. Subscribe, share with a hunting buddy who lives for tough birds, and drop your best “heard him before I saw him” story in a review—we might read it on the show next week.
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Alright, y'all. Welcome back to another episode of the Spring Legend Podcast. Coming what is this week? Uh week four, or not week four, fourth episode of the season. Uh, week three technically, because we had a double episode in the uh the the first week of the debut, the season debut, I guess. Yeah. Um, me host Hunter Farrier, and again today with my brother and co-host Chase Farrier. I think we're going to talk a little bit of the turkey stories today. The past couple um past couple of episodes have been a little bit of the tactics y side, so to speak. And we um we like to mix in a couple stories just for the the entertainment side of stuff, and and there's some stuff that we uh we haven't told yet, and there's some stuff that we might have told like a year ago, and then there's some stuff that it's worthy of telling again if we have told it. We'll put it that way. Um just different spins on different different stories and stuff. If we have told it, y'all forgive us. Uh, we've recorded a lot of these. But I do believe uh I've got a couple in my my memory bank that I definitely haven't, and I don't know if Jason's heard them or not, but um surely y'all have it if if that's the case. But the only thing uh we were trying to brainstorm a couple um subjects here, and I was kind of wondering about some drumming stories. And um, I've got a couple in mind. I was trying to think of some kind of common themes that could go along with the story or not, but uh we're gonna dive into those. I don't know if Jason's gonna have about 30 seconds to uh think of one if he hasn't yet, because he found out about the same time y'all did on what the topic was gonna be. But uh before we before we dive into it, wanted to um honor a promise we gave last week, which was gonna be a little bit of a giveaway thing for a review of the week. We we did this last year, uh pretty at random. We we'd sift through either Spotify or Apple podcast reviews and pick one and and send some lucky fella or some lucky lady a um little little uh prize package, I guess. Nothing huge. But um some some weeks were kind of big. We'd send like, you know, some pants and gaiters and jackets and stuff like that. This week uh we're gonna send uh uh one of the breathable green leaf hats and uh decal to our buddy, what is his name? Dave Lee Wyne. He uh he wrote on this was an Apple podcast, said what a great podcast. It's like you're in the room with the fellas talking turkey, can't beat it, and we appreciate that. And I that's very rewarding to hear because that's exactly what we hope it hope it's like. We hope it's like sitting around campfire or on your tailgate of your truck uh talking turkey. So I've sat on many of tailgates and talked turkey with many of folks, and a lot of times it's it's some run-on rabbit hole stories, just like we kind of dive into here, and there is no really objective to the end of it. Some guy sitting here talking, and the other guy's thinks of something else and starts talking of that, and that story's gone. Never finish that story, you know, because he thought of another one now, too. And we're going, well, let me tell you about this story, and let me tell you about that one and this turkey, and what this turkey did. Well, I had him one like that, and he didn't do that. Come to think of it, so did I, you know. And that's um, that's how they always play out, and that seems, you know, seems to be the case here too. So we appreciate y'all who who do subscribe and who do follow along on the on the podcast apps, and um, and particularly those who do leave us a positive review. It definitely propels us in the whole little algorithmic cloud or whatever happens. I I'm not I don't know the details, but I like to think it does, at least. I don't I don't think it hurts us by having a couple good reviews if you do enjoy the show. Helps us get in front of the ears and eyes of other folks who do enjoy turkey hunting as much as we do. So Oh yeah, y'all go check out the stuff springlegion.com.
SPEAKER_01:Bingo.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's all I'm saying about that. Um I think we we pumped it up a little bit too much past couple weeks because uh y'all put us to work. And I ain't I'm not gonna I'm not gonna ask you to go go buy stuff online for a little while. Because we just we just now got to breathe again. Right. Not complaining, but no, I'm not complaining, but I'm not gonna sit here and just pump the pump the gas to hey y'all go check those out. Cause um yeah, I'll leave that up to y'all whether or not y'all do or not. Right. Um so diving straight into it this week. Do you have any drum and turkey stories?
SPEAKER_01:I was I was thinking for a few minutes, which I didn't have very long, but um most of my drum and stories are if I'm hunting a turkey and have lost him is whenever I go off that. Maybe not necessarily found one because of drumming or worked one strictly off of drumming. Like I feel like what you your story is gonna dive into a little bit more more than likely. Um which I know you have one or two of those in the bank. I don't know if that's the one you're gonna tell or not. Yeah. So um one that was standing out to me was from from back in high school, honestly. I mean, this is I was 17, maybe.
SPEAKER_00:This is the kind of stories I want to get into. Kind of dig right. Definitely didn't have a podcast thing. I'm thinking of the same kind of realm of I I would love to if I had a photo album or something I could sift through and and I remember that turkey. I forgot all about it, you know. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um and it was before school one day. This was I I do remember that. Um but it was on that little block where you killed 82 and one, same yeah, same strip. Um had hunted this turkey two or three days, and he had whooped my tail, gone the other way, several different things. So I said, you know, I'm I'm skipping school completely if I have to to hunt this turkey. And uh he flew down, I saw him fly down, landed 80, 100 yards, open woods, flat ground, he hung up. Yeah. And he worked back and forth across a little four-with path we had back there, and um it was pines on one side and hardwoods on the other. And um Turkey ended up getting in the pines, and I kind of intended on him to pop back out in the road because he was he was just at gun range. Um so the way he had been working back and forth across it, I assumed that he would be in gun range the next time he crossed it. You know what I'm saying? And um didn't he shut up for a while, didn't hear nothing. And I mean, this is fifteen minutes or so or more, you know, and I'm like, all right, he's moved on about his life somewhere that I can't see him. And it's not a not a wide strip of pines. I mean, you you can almost see the other side of it. And um I've lost him at this point, and sure enough, and I'm like, oh god, I don't know where that's at. And d it he drummed about four times, thankfully, and he was right off my l left shoulder behind me. He'd looped all the way around somehow without me seeing him on that left side. And of course, I had a sapling to the left. Could not swing that direction, um, could not do much of anything at that point. And um he sat there for every bit of thirty minutes or more in that in the same two steps, you know, and gave me f about four drums. Which on the about the second one I could cut my eyes enough to see a glimpse of, you know, I could see a corner uh a piece of him out of the corner of my eye. And I I remember just sitting there thinking, like, what do I do now? You know, I've I've gotta figure something out because this ain't gonna be it. And he's he's at like thirty yards. I mean twenty to thirty yards at this point. Just needing me to I mean, he can't see the hen. He's convinced he should be able to, which he shouldn't have been able to. But it took this is kind of before I knew known how to call to a drumming turkey, I guess you'd say. Treat him like a gobble or whatever you want to do. Um it's kind of where I learned this. Um in between a drum or he drummed instantly and I yelped, you know, right then back over my right shoulder as best I could. You know, very, very soft, which there was a roll about 80 yards from me. And I just was like, all I can hope is to throw it over that roll. You know, that's a far roll to throw it over, but I'll do my best. And um he ended up pushing back into the road at twenty yards all the way around, and you know, and that was that's about all I remember that story, you know. Come check it out. That was twelve, thirteen years ago at this point. Yes, I don't remember that much. And um I think that was one of the one of the first one or first one or first three that I killed along. Yeah. And I I know I do know that. It was one of the first few. Um and I remember pulling up to to school with him. And we had uh I was in uh whatever time I rolled in, which is about 10 o'clock probably at that point. I remember I um backed my truck up to the classroom I was supposed to be in in Spanish, and walked in and told the Spanish teacher, I'm like, hey, um, I'm gonna just pop this window open real quick. I'm gonna be out here in the parking lot. She's like, What are you what are you talking about? I'm like, look, kill a turkey. I gotta skin it real quick. Won't take me 15 minutes, but I'm outside. And we wear uniforms, I'm in full bottom land. And she's like, You can't you can't be doing this. I could have skinned it at the camp, but could have done it. But not nearly as cool, but I got here on time. Well, if you could imagine that turned into the whole uh every guy in the class was sitting over there at that window talking to me about telling the story outside. I can tell the story outside to the in the parking lot. I can't tell it in the in the school, I guess. And um I sat there and skipped that turkey and with all my buddies, you know, leaning out the window talking to me, and it was it was it was fun. I do remember that one. A lot. And it it was just kind of one of those quick, you know, if I wouldn't have heard him drum, yeah. I was about to stand up and think he had gone on about his business. Right, you know, and I learned something that day. You know, that was in the early years of learning how to call a turkey by myself.
SPEAKER_00:That's um versus with you or with that or anybody like that. And that's that's that don't come very quickly to a uh, you know, kind of a Nas turkey hunter coming into it and in in those years, especially, you know, it's kind of something to hang your hat on. Like, I mean, or if it like if you if you kill a turkey off drumming, they kind of that was kind of a difficult one, usually. Right. Um sometimes this is a saving grace if if you think, you know, I've lost him and they they'll shut up. That's what they're supposed to do. Is they especially down here in the the the pines and stuff of Mississippi and stuff, you go on gobbles are are are awesome, but they just don't gobble all the time like they do in other places now that I've hunted other places and and you you gotta go off drumming and if you're in a bunch of pine straw, it's hard to hear anything because that's a big cushion, you know, and you can't hear footsteps in pine straw either.
SPEAKER_01:That's how he got around me.
SPEAKER_00:You know, that's I mean I didn't hear him crack one twig the whole way. Because they didn't want to crack, you know. Yeah. And then and that's you know, that's why like I mean a lot of uh folks when I do talk to them, if they're not from here, they're they're kind of like some ghost turkeys around here. I'm like, yeah, well it's really just they're walking on pine straw, and they it seems like it. It can be a whole deck on flock of them, and you're not gonna hear a single one, and they're 30 yards from you the whole time, and all of a sudden they were on your left and now they're on your right. Right. And I'll now you look up and he's in front of you looking at you, and you're like, okay, you know, it's just it's just so many curveballs at once, it's hard to hard to handle them. But um, but yeah, and training your ears to hear drumma drumming is one thing, knowing what you're listening for. And um, and I remember very vividly sitting, I think I was with Breck. I'd taken him, I don't know how long ago it was. I don't know if it was like a youth weekend or something like that, but but um I remember being with him when he first heard drumming and knew that was drumming. I I don't I think he either asked what it was, he said, What is that? You know, and I'm like, that's drumming. And he was like, Oh, that makes sense. Whatever I thought drumming was was not drumming. Yeah, but that is that's drumming, you know. So he'd been hearing something, thinking it was drumming, but it wasn't really drumming. Kind of, you know, along the lines I'd love to know what that was.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_00:But um, but then I mean I remember him, you know, him going, like, okay, now I'm really nervous because that means he's close, right? I'm like, yeah, that means he's really close. Yeah. Um, because his last guy was like 120 yards, but now that drumming was not 120 yards. Right. Um that and then um and and and and and knowing how to respond to it, which is I mean, you know, especially at a younger age in high school or something like that, knowing to call right after a drum like that, a lot of times that's what happens. And and I want to say we hit on it in the last episode of kind of following the jakes. Right. You know, cat if if if a dr if they're drumming and it's too far away, you can at least usually if they're with a big group, I'm talking first seven days of the season down here, is about the only chance you're gonna get that. But if they are still kind of in a group and it's everybody's kind of roosting separately, got a big community right after roost in the bottom of some sort or something like that. You can and if there's jagging the dog, you know, right after it. Um and I've I've seen a lot of of hens that were unvocable before, haven't heard them at all. Real hens I'm talking, and and and I'm going back and forth with a turkey, and and I can I can hear her yelping every now and then, and then as he gets closer, I hear her yelping at his drums. Right. You know, and it he she's doing the same things from a distance. They're wild animals, they can hear it way before we can hear it. Oh, yeah. And um, it's a frequency, and I'm sure they're trained to hear different things by you know the uh the creator, and and that's why he, you know, made their ears wire the way they are and stuff like that. But now I was thinking of a couple of different stories that I'm I don't think I've told on the podcast. If I have, I don't think it would have been this one. Um we we we are I know for a fact we've told one about the loudest turkey, loudest drum turkey we've ever planted, and that was in Alabama a couple years ago. And that was a that was a horse of a turkey. I mean, that was man, and it was the way he acted was like a like a very experienced turkey.
SPEAKER_01:He yeah, he was he was not shy on experience.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it took us a couple days and it took a a whole afternoon one time, and then I brought Chase back with me. He did not want to go because he knew that it was gonna be a a long one, and it it was pretty long, it wasn't terribly long, just because I had an idea of where the what the turkey did the day before. He was in the exact same spot.
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:Gobbled one time, and I brought we brought nothing but Chase's wingbone. I was like, I ain't using none of the calls he used yesterday because he he's got my card, you know, because I threw threw every call at him just to try. Didn't expect to hunt him the next day. And um and and he gobbled once at Chase's wingbone from 200 yards. I'm like, he's there. You know, I feel felt like it would be. And sure enough he was, we get down there, and all you could do is of course drumming. And they get loud and it get far away, and it I mean it was loud. Yeah. And then he log truck in your drive through. I mean, battle you. And then he would gobble, and I know it was the same turkey. Right. And it was I I'm telling you less less loud than the drum was. Right. I'm just I don't know what makes a turkey's drum loud or not loud, but he had it. And um also have white feet.
SPEAKER_01:That was an odd one. That was by far the heaviest turkey I've ever put in my hand. He was, I mean, if I don't know what he weighed, but it It felt like 35 pounds.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I mean, no joke. I mean, I was also drained of every ounce of energy I had. I was too. I about passed out. I think I did about pass out right after we we shot him, but yeah, you did lose a little bit of sight for a moment. And you were like, which way was he? I mean, I was so dangham dehydrated, malnourished, everything you can think of.
SPEAKER_01:Well shoot, I dang near passed out in the truck on the way over there too.
SPEAKER_00:I know it.
SPEAKER_01:I I made you go get me a Gatorade. Yeah. I was like, I'm not move, I'm not getting in the woods, definitely not until I get uh some electrolytes in me. Yeah, because I am I am out. I'm I had been out since about I could not drive away knowing that he's probably there.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. After the day before. At least go find out. That's what we talk about all the time is just the chance to know. If he wouldn't have gobbled, if he wouldn't have done nothing, I would have felt way better. Or if it'd have been somewhere else, I'd have felt way better. If someone would have shot him and sent me a picture of it, might have felt really good. I could just go home and not have to think about him. But when you don't know, that's what drives you insane. But no, I mean uh the another one I was thinking of, but I didn't kill this one. This was I don't know if it was the same year, if it would have been a different year, um was I was I was halfway scouting as a new piece. I was um still in the south-ish, um, trying to find one. And I'm I I think I might have listened here the evening before. Didn't hear one. Kind of came back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I came in right at I mean fly up time, and I was booking it down this road. I'm going all over the place and ain't managed at all. You know, one of the side roads of the side roads on the Peace Public that's very untaken care of and stuff, you know, not as not that popular. And I pull up and there's a and this when I was kind of I think I I don't remember the the weather of that week or anything like that, but I was kind of just looking in ruts and stuff and trying to find and what I was doing was looking for tadpoles. Seeing if I could if there was a bunch of tadpoles there and there was no turkey tracks, I had to keep going. If there was some tadpoles there and a lot of turkey tracks, I had a feeling they came to that little gully, you know, um at some point in that day, and then I'd come back, my plan was to come back and see if there's any more. Kind of like a very old timey trail cam. You know, I'd kind of look at it and evaluate it, like, all right, there's nothing here. If a turkey walks by and sees them, they're gonna step in this mud, and I'm gonna see tracks when it next time I come back by, and I know a turkey's been here in the next last, you know, a lot of times that's around a a r uh a dirt road of some kind, you know, this holding water. Um not not concrete evidence there. I don't know. That's just something I was trying out that time. And, you know, does let you know if Turkey's been there. I mean, if you went by one earth and there was no turkeys there, no turkey tracks there, and you you go check that little mud hole again, and there's turkey tracks there. He'd been there that 24 hours, you know, something at some point. Um, but I was doing that, and I think I was on the phone with Gary.
SPEAKER_01:And this is the day you got stuck so bad. No. Jesus Christ. No, you were also on the phone with Gary.
SPEAKER_00:The Gary was coming down that night, and I did the same thing, except that was 11 o'clock at night. Yeah. And I opened the gate. And I should not have done that because there was a very good reason that gate was closed, and that was because the conditions were not drivable. No, no person should be down that road, and I thought somebody was being smart and close the gate on a where a turkey would have been. So I was gonna try to get down there, you know, ride it, you know, fly out time, see if I could hear one, but all right, now and I'm gonna I'm gonna shut the gate back too. You know, yeah. I'm on your team, just not not on your team.
SPEAKER_01:We're on the same.
SPEAKER_00:I know how early to be here now. Yeah. Um, not the case, no, like the like the department shut that gate trying to help folks like me out, who is I guess uh stupid, you know, is the only way to put it. So that one's on me. Definitely couldn't call somebody for help. No. They're really gonna laugh at me if they're like, oh, so you know I'm not coming to pull you out. I mean, I tore my truck up. Oh yeah. And it I mean it was it was well after eleven o'clock before I got out of there. I had to put the bumper back on the next day. Yeah, or two days later. It was bad. Yeah. Because I got to the other end and that gate was lock locked and I had to come back through everything. That's why I was so late because everything I just barely made through, I'm like, Thank God I can see a you know, cars going. Fast and I got down there and there wasn't I mean I was gonna go through the woods. I didn't care at that point, and there was no way. I'm like, well, here we go again. You know, took two hours to go to the mile again. Um, but no, this was this was a different different time. Um perfectly accessible road, just kind of bumpy is all I'm getting at.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_00:Um, but I'm sitting there and I'm on the phone, he's on my truck, you know, and I got the door open, hopped out, was gonna, and that's what I was doing, was going to look, and it's right on you know, right off the road, and it's a little knoll. Um it's kind of like if you hunted there, you knew that water was holding there. If not, you didn't. Right. Kind of deal. You couldn't see it from the road or anything like that. It was a big bank. And so I was just gonna kind of like hop up there. I think I was wearing Crocs, you know, and was like, hold on just a second, and walked up there, and as soon as I was about to get off the you know, the dirt part or whatever, I heard I'm like, ain't no way. Right, you know. But I'm gonna stop just in case. And I just kind of standing there, just kind of like flopping my hands. And I mean right there. I'm like, that joker is where I was about to pop up at at one yard. Right. I mean he's he's probably ten yards away, just on the right over the thing, and I can't you know, I ain't gonna go invest or nothing. I'm like my my truck's dinging up behind me. Yeah. And so I didn't know what to do. So I'm like, I run down there and I wind up kind of telling Gary, hey, hold on, hold on just a second. And you know, I just kind of get all my stuff on. Kind of like let him get away, you know. And and then and then kind of come back down the road and kind of came back up and see if I could hear him. And and by then I could I could tell he was which way he was moving. There's a turkey drumming. Yeah. He was moving right along that bank, and I'm like, we're just gonna get these trees and go down it and stuff, and I try to get, you know, into the into the the wooded part or whatever as much as I could to kind of my only option there is to go 150 yards to the left or right and go down 300, come back. You know, it's gonna take a while. And I think I tried to do that and wasn't able to get in front of him. He went, I had to really bank on him doing one or the other, and he did the other, whatever it was, never really. But it was a turkey, and he gobbled once or twice, about an hour and a half, and then that's when I knew, hey, you know, I picked wrong. You know, that's the best I could do without, you know, yelping at him right there at the road and then being in a real bind when he comes and picks up over at it. So he's true. There ain't nowhere I can go, yeah. Yeah. Um I can't like just sit in sit in the deck and road and hunt him. But now and then another one, and this one and that one was funny because I did stay long enough to listen to I wound up roosting him, kind of. You know, I I I don't think I moved my truck at all. I I mean I I made a good try at him. This was at like one o'clock. Got back to it. No. Okay. I thought you said. No, no, no. No, no. Now now uh I I stayed hunting him until four. Okay. Came back to the truck or whatever, just you know, lost that one, lost that battle. Whatever. I might get to hunt that turkey again, but that little bout with him, I took an L along kind of deal. And then um so I go I I go wind up um Wind up staying long enough to to uh to hear a fly up. He gobbled good right before fly up, and I knew kind of the tree he was in and everything, and yeah, I didn't even move my truck and I I get in there early the next morning and I'm in there and I'm like, I'm I'm underneath this tree, and then I I bump these hens out, and I'm like, okay. I mean they get they take off and they go across the the road I've been driven, you know, and flew over it, and I'm like, oh we we good now, you know. Now I'm I I just bumped all the hens out. And I'm sitting there and it's I'm just sitting there all giddy, and all of a sudden I hear, yup, yop, yup, yup. Man, I thought I bumped all the hens out, you know. And I'm like, okay. And I hear a lot of hens all of a sudden, I'm like, okay, maybe there's more hens in here. And he gobbles on the other side of the road, I'd bump the gobblers out. And um, so I just sat there with a bunch of hens and no gobbler, and he was just hammering across the road. That was not the hens that flew, that was a gobbler that flew. So that one's still alive as far as I know. Yeah. That was uh an eventful one. But another one I did wind up killing was um kind of based off drumming. I I know we I think the first one or two episodes we we had this year was was about a a drum and turkey and um up north. Um yeah, I think we already told that one. But this one I I don't believe I've ever told maybe even to you either. Was um this was probably three years ago, and I'd been not through the ringer, but I I'm hunting a a a place far off, but I'm I'm familiar with. And this I want to say this particular place might have played into my my Peggy's and Cemeteries little chapter I had there. Was um if you can't find a turkey, go to a cemetery and listen or find someone named Peggy and ask if you can hunt the place and you'll find one there. Because they're always at people's named Peggy's houses. Yeah. And they're always in the round cemeteries. I don't know. I don't know the rules. I didn't make them up. I just that's what I call it as I see it. Um Peggy must have been a popular name back when folks were buying up really good hardwoods or when up what was going on with the timber market in that area. I do not know, but I don't I ain't lying to you. But no, the same thing goes for cemeteries. I don't know if it's something about where they have to put them, you know, for runoff stuff and whatnot. Um it's always on a high point. You can always hear real far from them. Yep. And I always see turkeys around them if I'm just, you know, cruising along, going to work or something. But so anyway, I'm kind of I'm kind of I ain't quite in the ring, but I ain't really hit on much in about a day and a half, and I and I've driven a long way, and I I was very faithful in that drive. Right. So I'm like, all right, this kind of sucks. Uh you know, I I've heard some, but it's not nearly as many as I left. And I'm like, some folks might have found out about this place or something, and you know, everything goes through your mind when that happens. And you're like, man, I don't, you know. I left, I left one here. I was being good, being a good, you know, Samaritan there, a good conservationist, and like, well, I'm gonna shoot my second tag somewhere else. I ain't gonna go after one of these two, and you get there, and those two ain't there no more, and you're like, well, daggone it, but that wasn't the case. They were somewhere there, and I just they just weren't gobbling that morning or whatnot, and and I'm up here at the cemetery and I'm I'm trying to um trying to find one, and I hear one hammer down in the creek bottom, like you know, I was in there an hour ago um and kind of you know, fumble around, backtrack a long way, come back around, come back down into that creek bottom, and he ain't, you know, he ain't there no more. And then I think it was hard to figure out where he was at. I'm trying to think of how I knew where he was at. Oh, I do know where he was at. Because I was coming back up. This was like a I think an ag field on your right. If I'm headed, if I'm looking at it, I'm looking, I'm standing in the cemetery looking down, it's ag field on the right, creek bottom's on the other side of it, and kind of runs to the left. And there's a small, baby little bitty ag field to the left. You know, it's kind of on the other side of it. And um and so I'm kind of in them, in that creek bottom, and it's pretty. Should be a turkey in it. And um didn't think I bumped him coming out of there or nothing like that, but I'm coming back up the other side of it and whatnot, and I I top a daggum hill and two redheads are running the other way. I'm like, yeah, that's about right. That only happens when you ain't when you're in the ringer. You know, that don't happen when you're on a hide note. It only k yeah, that's a kicky while you're down situation right there. And they kick me good. So I'm I'm I ain't got nothing better to do, so I'm gonna stay and hunt. I don't they don't I haven't caught in a long time. So that that for all they know, it there's a big difference in bumping turkeys as you're hunting them and calling at them and just kind of walking up on one and it running off.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_00:I don't I don't worry too much about that. It's when I'm acting like a turkey and he comes and sees me, it's gonna be very hard to convince him you're a turkey again. Yeah. But if you just kind of walking through the woods and rowing off, I don't hang it up after that. I'm I'm I'm usually all right. I don't call for a little while, let him, you know, rearrange his thoughts or whatever. I uh if I can get away and get away from that spot and call, you know, you might have a little dent in it, but I don't think it it really hinders you too terribly bad as long as they don't connect the dots that that's you calling. Um this was kind of the case, so I'm getting up there and I call a couple more times. At the you know, after a long good while and I don't hear nothing, so I'm like, okay, whatever, you know, I'm gonna kinda ease my way back much carefully, but you know, much more carefully now. And a bunch of cedars, I remember that, very thick, and I'm kind of getting to it and I don't hear a gobble. I think I just yeah, I hear I hear I hear one drumming and it would have been from a a good ways away. It's kind of a bowl in there too, between where I'm at and where that cemetery would have started. I don't know how many yards, a decent amount. And there's I'm like, uh, that wouldn't make a little sense, you know, if they get in that bowl, because I th I think it was windy that day, so that was why, you know, the creek bottom is where I started, because I I I do know for a fact I was in that creek bottom one time a year prior on a very windy day, and there was turkeys up in there. And I could not hear them. And I like the whole time I'm like, dude, where did these turkeys go? Because I heard them there before. Right. And they were, I mean, this is very, very almost like a damn canyon running through there. The whole bottom is uh yeah. I mean, I'm like, this makes a lot of sense. I mean, there's like scratching galore. And then I could kind of I think I wound up hearing one, you know, it was it was on in the morning way down in there. I'm like, there ain't no way I'd have heard that from up there.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_00:Um, so that was kind of the back of my mind. So that's probably why I started off in there. And um and yeah, so I'm I'm coming up and and I hear I hear what things I think might be drumming up in that bowl. And I just see I don't see it. I just be still, you know, and see if I can hear it again. Um I called a few steps ago. I ain't gonna really just hammer at it again. I think I I do yelp back at it. Nothing. But I can I can kind of clarify that it is drumming. And I think like a lot of times whenever I'm listening for drum it, I'm listening for the the how long it takes for the next drum. The the cadence. Yes, yeah, the the uh the the rhythm to it is like a 19 second, 70 seconds or something like that kind of. It's very consistent, you know, usually depending on what the turkey's doing. Um it ain't gonna be thom dom, you know, it's not gonna be back to back like that. And if it's just one drum, it could be. But Right.
SPEAKER_01:Well that's what I was about to say. It it depends on how many turkeys are in there, too, because I have heard it tum, tong, tong. Yeah, three turkeys all drummed at each other, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Could be, yeah. Um, but yeah, that's another thing is um if I hear one, I I'm I kind of sit still for about 30 seconds, and you you should hear one in the next 30 seconds. Yeah. Um and and if you're listening for it, a lot of times it's easier to hear. Other than, you know, if you're listening for a goblin, one's drumming and you you mark it off as no, I didn't hear nothing. You didn't hear what you were listening for, but if you were listening for drumming as well, you would have heard what you're listening for, kind of deal.
SPEAKER_01:And a lot of times if you hear the dom tom, it's a log truck. Yeah, or something like that. FYI.
SPEAKER_00:And they're good at that too. They are good at that. You know, as usual, a log truck. And I I mean there's a lot of theories on like the the the not real drumming that sounds like drumming. Yeah. It's always right before wind blows and stuff like that. A lot of folks think it's air under the ground.
SPEAKER_01:I was about to say, I know for a fact some of the like when me and Mason used to hunt down on the Big Black River, it was the trees moving the ground. I I I I think that's the only thing I can think of. And you may have been the one who pointed that out to me. I don't know. Somebody pointed that out to me and they were like, that's the trees moving. Yeah, like they hear it year round.
SPEAKER_00:A suction, you know, a tree moves, it pulls the root up, and it just like you know, I I don't I don't know that I'm not a tree guy.
SPEAKER_01:I s yeah, somebody pointed that out and it it made sense because it was like every time that wind blew it, boom.
SPEAKER_00:It's always right before that wind blew when it died, and it'd get it'd be reversed.
SPEAKER_01:It wouldn't be it'd be oh next, you know, it'd be it'd go down almost.
SPEAKER_00:It made sense to whenever we were looking at it that day. Everything makes sense when you don't know what's going on, though. You know, so I don't know. Um sounds like one of my off-the-wall theories, so it's probably I feel like that's something you said, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But I do remember it was down there hunting with Mason in his heels and them. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So you know, those river turkeys, they that's part of every time we're down there, seals will always hear drumming a lot of my night. And every other time will he be right, and you gotta honor it because I'm like, I don't think so. But last time you were right, so I gotta at least, you know, respect it and you know, hold off and make sure. And a lot of times it would be. Yeah. Um but but no, so I'm sitting there and and this joker he's drumming, he's drumming, he's drumming, and I'm I'm calling, you know, trying to get something fired up, and I do remember being windy now. And I think I'm trying I'm standing up and I'm trying to get where I can see, and I hear a hen close on the other side of this, you know, seizure tree right here. And she's you know, y'all, go, y'all, yep. I'm like, okay, here we go, you know, get ready, and I go to get my gun up, and there ain't zero window. I mean nothing I can shoot through. I mean this this I mean it's like a wall. I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier. Why why freeze here with a wall like a cinder block wall between you and the drumming? I did, and that was stupid, but I did. And then so my my only instinct is to hit the deck and try to get underneath them. So I was gonna try to get under them under them and just kind of come up once it was just you know, thin it out a little bit. Right. Come back up in there, and if y'all ain't ever tried to do that, it's about impossible. Yeah. Because them seizure limbs don't move, and you're gonna shake the whole daggone county trying to do that, and it's very loud, it's gonna hang on everything. I mean, there is zero leniency to those limbs. Yeah. They don't bend like an oak tree's limb, you know, or a pine or anything. They do they're stone cold, they're not budging. They might break and it's gonna sound like a dang elk fighting, but it ain't gonna just give you a little bit of leeway there. So I'm kind of stuck up in there. My only option is to just shimmy as far as I can underneath and maybe pop up, you know, on the bottom before it, because I might, in my mind, they're they're headed to where I just called two minutes ago. Right. I ain't made it six yards ahead of them, but at least I'm in front of it, maybe. Um, not quite over the roll end of that bowl yet, but they'll have to come up to the top of that bowl. And I've if my calculating is calculating, I should be able to shoot that once I get on the other side of the cedar wall. Well, I get underneath and all of a sudden I see a hen straight in front of me walking. I'm like, I ain't gonna make it in time, but not only that, I don't think I'm gonna make it up, period. If he is right there, I'm just gonna grab my best bet is to grab him. I ain't getting a gun up. I can get my head up, I'm looking at him sideways. Um, don't see a collar's feet, by the way. I just see that one hen, then another hen comes in, and they're they're talking a little bit. I need his drumming loud. I mean, and I'm trying to, I'm, I'm, I mean, my gun is in all kinds of different situations. Um and and and I'm I'm facing this way, face this way, and this hen comes in, and she she's I guess I guess she's passed. And I think a new hen comes in and she kind of flares. She's like, what the heck? Like, that I don't know what that is, but that ground just moved. I mean, very close to me, you know, kind of just threw her wings up and like that was wild. Didn't really freak out. Kind of looked around, nobody else is freaking out. Nothing really happened after that. So she went to pe pecking them, I'm sure. And I'm trying to like shimmy back out. And as I'm shimmying back out, I'm coursing this drum as best I can, and it's going high to my left, and I'm like, oh, here we go.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You know, because it's wide open behind me. And and I'm trying to get get out of there. And as I'm kind of getting out, I think I want I don't know if my gun, my gun's not, you know, my gun's just in my hand. As I'm, you know how you crawl your gun. And I can't remember the little maneuver I did, but as I'm I I'm I'm trying to get out, and I kind of pause for a second, like, I better just freeze and listen. I drew your drums, he's at my six. You know, I'm like, that was in the open. That wasn't in the you know, in the woods on the top anymore. He's he is behind me in the open behind me. Right. Place I was walking earlier and bumped him. He came back kind of deal. Yeah. And I'm like, okay, here we go. Just really banking on that being right, you know, pinning it in your head, and you're like, I'm like, I doubt I get another one because he's probably about to see me. But I kind of moved the gun to my left hand and and and cross over my legs and then sit up and twist at the same time. And it's just like whoom, you know, and my bee's on him.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And he is gone. I'm like, okay. But the other one he was with stopped putting, and I'm like, Okay. You still can dodge out that one. So the first one was smart enough to get out of dodge, but the second one had to make sure I saw him. I'm like, huh. No, that's when I did the maneuver. The first one did see me, and I hadn't game all the way around yet, and I'm like trying to just get the gun underneath, and the other one just stops and like starts putting at me. I'm like, oh yeah, that gun's turned around backwards, by the way. Yeah. And all I had to do was just twist. And when I twist, he he kind of looked, you know, like he popped the ground popped up with a gun. You know, it was too late then. Um shot him. As soon as I shot him, uh, LaMmower fired up in the cemetery. I'm like, so I don't know if somebody just came and dropped the trailer and bumped him into there or whatever. I felt like I'd caught him up or not. But I remember like having to take like a long way trying not to walk by that person. I'm like, that's gonna be awkward, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Sorry for scaring the fire.
SPEAKER_00:I hope I don't shoot nobody. I didn't, you know, I like it wasn't behind the turkeys or whatever, but it wasn't 70 yards to the right, you know. I'm like, oh I don't know, and I don't know nobody up there. I always get kind of weird. I'm like, they're gonna be, you know, someone who hates hunting and stuff and have you know, have a fit, some carrying up there or whatever. So I tried to avoid that. But it was easy to avoid it. You went down that creek bottom and hung out and kind of breathed for a minute because I was in the pretzel there for a good while. Um but now I'm I don't, you know. I'm trying to think more drums door. You got anything else as far as that? I mean I've I've I've I mean I've hunted them. Trying to think, you know, maybe I've I've killed some of my footsteps before. Yeah, I've killed them on footsteps. I have you ever been close enough to hear their wings? Yeah, I've I've heard them strut without drumming before, which is weird. A lot of times they'll drum and not be strutting. Yeah you know.
SPEAKER_01:I uh there w the there was one I killed with uh Taylor one time.
SPEAKER_00:Really?
SPEAKER_01:That was a lot of footstep listening. Yeah and and he gobbled one time. And I think I videoed this one. This was like the first week I got a video camera or something. And I left the camera behind me and slipped up and um I stopped at like thirty yards up there in front of my camera and called and called and called, just praying for a gobble because I had open woods behind me and I knew I couldn't call him into those woods in the range, and I had to get close enough to the transition line that he would come to, you know, to look into the open woods. And there was blow a blowdown up there and I was trying to inch my way closer to it, and and I sat there and you know, wailed on it, and he finally did gobble. But that that told me I've got a wall between me and him, and I shot over, you know, and and he heard my footsteps, I guess, and or crawling or whatever. I was scratching as I was crawling and all this stuff, and popped up in the middle of this blowdown. I mean, I like kind of like you did. I crawled under limbs and then just popped up in the middle, and I'm in a V of I mean, I'm like in a ground blind practically. And I'm sitting there just, you know, and I think I yelped two or three more times and I don't you know I'm like I'm I was pushing the line here, you know. I knew I was about to screw something up or or kill him. I wasn't I was that was risking it, you know, really hard. There and um you know, I I can hear out there eighty eighty-five yards and then dragging and then you know and I heard I heard his wings dragging and you know, course in his footsteps and he was further to the right than I had thought. And sure enough, he you know, he pops out from the right walking left 35 yards and came out of a just a thicket of wall, you know, or a wall of thicket right there on the transition line of the two properties and um rolled right around that transition line and that was all she wrote.
SPEAKER_00:I've um the the closest I've ever been to a uh a turkey happened to have engine three-quarter spurs, and I I I couldn't see him then I thank God I wasn't looking down at him. But I was, I I I I timed it right to to look up. I'd caught a turkey, came down, was doing the same thing, was trying to get through some thick stuff, and I'm looking over him, and I'm like, that gummit, he was right here. And I'm this is a field kind of deal, field situation with a thicket on one side, and I'm I've worked him down. I can't remember the the full deal or whatever, but I I I I booked it through a creek, like wading through the creek to get in front of him. Called called down there and kind of came back up or something. I came back up and just happened to just, you know, right there on him. And um and he was he was strutting there five yards maybe. Really? Couldn't shoot him. I mean, that was there was no way to, you know, but it was really freaking cool because he did not know I existed. And and I'm looking out there, I'm like, dude, what that sounds like and he it's almost like I couldn't even hear the drum, and it was so close. Yeah, I mean it was nothing to echo off of, I guess. You know, it was just kind of odd, but I could hear the and I'm like, dude, that's gotta be a wing dragon, you know. I can see the hens, you know, out here, and I'm like, that joker's gotta be with him. And I looked down and I I mean, I see his tail fan. I could have grabbed it. I promise you I could have grabbed it if I wanted to. So I let him straight. He did it, and I let him, and I'm glad I did this, let him, I mean, I know he didn't get it, he don't know I'm here. Right. And my gun's like hanging down. I ain't even like there's too many vibes between my shoulder and my wrist for it to even come up. Right. So I didn't even think about trying to maneuver nothing. So I'm I'm stone cold, frozen, you know, face masks up and everything. And I'm like, he has no clue. Yeah. And it was really cool. I mean, he he busted a couple loops right there. And I was my first I was like, let him get on out there at 30 yards, and I might be able to get this thing up, but he didn't. He just stayed within about 10 yards and he was just, you know, I could see him like flicking bugs off of him and stuff. I could see him blink. I mean, he's right there. Thank God I didn't look at his feet though, because I'd have been I'd have I'd have found a way to keep that gun up then. I just he's back down and came back and called him down to shoot him. Um I mean it helped knowing what that he was hugging the hugging the line there and not gonna be out there so I know which way to face in the thick stuff, you know, however many yards down the way. But yeah, yeah, he has some hooves on. That's I think that was the biggest turkey spurs I've ever killed, probably. I don't know. I don't know of many if that if they weren't. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Those were those you could tell when you pick those up.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, but that was that was showing them to me. That was really cool just getting to see him do that. And like that don't happen often. Um yeah, I mean I I may have heard the the when he's dragging a couple times. And but uh but going back to like sometimes they do drum and not be strutting. Right. Because I I I was home with Peyton, I took care of my wife uh hunting, we were in Kentucky, and this turkey come in and and and we had fooled with him down at the bottom of the mountain, kind of got about halfway up, and he of course either footsteps or I don't think I'd called yet, but he knew that turkey I've been gobbling at. I hear something walking where it c where it last was, and I was walking up the mountain, so he kind of come strailing it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And he hammers one good time right there, and I'm like, and she knows enough, like that turkey sounded a little different. Like that same turkey, he's just in a different spot for the first time in three hours. He's he's coming, he's coming. I told you this was gonna happen. Right, you know. Um of course she's just like has to agree with everything. He's like, Yeah, but it does happen. Has no idea what I'm talking about. Like, I guarantee you, as soon as we move, he's coming right to where we were. That's exactly what happened. So we just luckily got to give him this little dip, like a like a trench-looking looking thing in the um what a tarantula looking trench looking thing. Okay, well, okay. It was, I mean, just like a not a ditch because it's on the side of a mountain, but it's like where a rock might have been and fell off. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:I just I thought you said tarantula. No, no, no, no, I'm like, you're gonna have to explain that. A trench looking thing. There we go.
SPEAKER_00:About, you know, three, three feet wide. I mean, enough to like hunker in, you know, kind of get ground level and look down. We're probably 30 yards up from the base part, probably made it 35. Um, and it is very loud walking. So she I can surely she said she could hear his footsteps too. But he sat down there pretty much where our butts were sitting, and was sitting there drumming in half strut. And she thought it was a rock. And I'm like, Do you hear him drum? She's like, Yeah, I can't find him. I'm like, what do you mean you can't find him? Yeah. You know, he was about 45 at this time. So like I didn't really want her to shoot. She's shooting 20 gauge and everything. I'm like, eh, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Let him keep going a little bit.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, he he's going, he's going, he might do this for a while, but you know, as long as you it's almost good you don't know if that's the turkey. Because, you know, as long as you're not freaking out right now, because your gun ain't pointed at the right rock, first off. But, you know, he he winds up walking towards the direction her gun was pointed. And um, she's left she means she's she's right-handed, and he was walking from right to left. So it only got better from there. He's gonna get closer and more to the left. Um, so that was good, and he did, and then she was able to oh, oh, yeah. I'm like, yeah, because he wasn't strutting, but she thought, you know, I'm sure. Surely she's looking for a strutting turkey, and it was just a stone cold, just half strut, you know, blob of black down there. Yeah. Pretty close, but he wasn't popping his band up and stuff like you know you would expect one to be, and he was just you know, over and over and over again, communicating.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_00:He's trying to tell that hey, I'm right here, you know, do something, but I sure said about to just bust a yelp out of the they're going side of a mountain over there where he could look right at me. Um and that you know, that's another thing is you know, being able to hear the drumming and stuff. If you can hear drumming, that probably don't need to call.
SPEAKER_01:I agree.
SPEAKER_00:He's probably close enough to see where you would be and you get a little prop, and think you can see as good of a turkey, and they're mind you cannot.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So if you can hear some drumming, I you you better know he's mm doing something before you call. You better have eyes on him before you call. Right, and you better hope he, you know, and I don't call if he's looking. If I can see him, usually I ain't calling, unless I know for a fact he can't pinpoint it. I'm talking like Meg Gobble, I'll bust a two-note yelp or something like that, or if he's scratching or you know, strutting and turning around the other way, or he's running after trying to run a hen up or something, I'll c I might call very quickly to where he he can't pinpoint it. But if he's sitting there drumming and sticking his head up, he's looking for you. And if you call, he's gonna pinpoint the daggum leafs under your butt.
SPEAKER_01:You know, I think now that you said that I I think that turkey I talked about first in this a minute ago from in high school, I think that is when I did call. So he strutted, he turned his butt to me one time. And I just three notes, you know, real quick, real soft, trying to throw it as hard as I can to the right. I don't know. And he that's whenever he started working, he said, okay. Yeah. And he rolled right over. Took him a few minutes, but he did. Yeah. But I do remember like I was like thinking to myself, like, hey, I'm I'm just we're looking eye to eye, you know. I'm staring at he's staring at me, I'm staring at him, and I can't call right now. He can see me. And at this point I'm on the side of that tree. Not yeah, definitely. I mean, I'm silhouette silhouetteable or whatever you say. You know, he can see he's directly to my side at this point. He can see me a lot easier than than if he was in front of me. But yeah, I think that was what I ended up doing. I and I was kind of like, that worked. You know, I kind of thought to myself, like, I figured something out today. Yeah. You know, kind of thing. That's how you learn. One of the cool that that hunt taught me three or four different things, you know, that day, and and I was very tickled with that hunt.
SPEAKER_00:Heck yeah. Well, good deal. Well, that'll that'll do. I don't want to dive in too many more because we we hit on several you know, instances there. We coming up on time, we're trying to play it safe with the new the way we're trying to do this with the cameras and and stuff like that to to hopefully have a little bit of a YouTube deal going on. Um if I can figure out how to how to run everything. Uh we're we're this is an experiment with different audio channels today, so hopefully y'all are hearing this. Yeah, yeah. I'm how to mess some stuff up and didn't get it put back in the right place. But um, but yeah, I'm I'm I'm very appreciative y'all are able to l not able to, y'all are willing to listen to turkey hunt stories in the months of the colder months, I guess, of the year. And and as the days get a little bit shorter for a little while longer, they're gonna start getting longer, and that's when it's kind of then the whole my whole first step is when I take Christmas decorations down, I'm like, okay, now it's gonna be long now, kind of deal.
SPEAKER_01:You know, and that's starting to starting to hear the light now.
SPEAKER_00:Right, exactly. You can't see it yet, but you can hear it. You know you're getting close, I guess. Um, so it won't be terribly long now. I ain't going quite say it yet. But regardless, thank y'all. Appreciate the reviews and whatnot. And um, we'll see you next week. Thanks again for listening to the Spring Legion Podcast.
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